Your gonna wanna either go high with 5B or go low 2a. That’s Tao’s absolute best way to apply pressure. 5a ain’t bad, but it will prorate your combo to hell (same go’s for 2a) If your feeling brave, and you opponent is playing turtle, you might want to throw out a 6c. It’s safe on block (I think) and if you land it, you can go into Tao’s 4K combo. These are (2a, 5a, 5b, ect.) hit confirms. If you hit with 5B do 6a into A mashy nails into her BnB air combo. If you hit with 2a, 5B into the combo shown above. If the Rachel blocks correctly, again, these are hit confirms and therefor safe, so your gonna wanna mixup with high’s, low’s, D~B Cancels, ect.
6a isn’t half bad for mixups, as it’s Jump Cancel-able and special cancel-able, it’s also safe of block as far as I know
6b isn’t a terrible option in the corner for mixups, but remember use it VERY sparingly, if your opponent sees it coming they punish you with a CH combo.
Rachel is a pretty bad matchup for Tao mostly because of Rachel’s extensive/guard libra killing pressure strings. Tao really has no effective “Get the heck off me!” move, so to be honest, the only thing you can do when she’s mixing you up and killing the Guard Libra, is barrier guard, try and get some space, and use her D’s to get out of there. Also, once you get some space on Rachel, using 5D~BCancel is a great way to cross/mixup Rachel and re-apply pressure to her which will (if done right) eventually lead to her 20+ hit BnB combo’s
I know it’s a bit late but if you’re landing a 6a on her you should be starting a driveloop with 2d~6 and then bouncing her up from there. Other than that go for grabs and counter the electric chair with a 6c. You should try being more careful and start combos with 5b instead of 2a, hurts the damage overall too much especially when you do long strings. Gl
It’s been 2 months since you posted this and you probably already know, but whatever
When you land an air to air CH j.C vs Arakune or Tager, land and do a 2D (j.5D~6 j.C)x3 j.5D~6 j.A j.C 8d~6 8D~6 j.236bb j.236bbbb
This combo will knock them up into the air so high that they go off the screen, allowing you to do an invisible air throw (the !!'s still show though). The CH j.C can be left out and you can begin the combo from a lucky anti-air 2D.
It works on other characters too, but you cant get as many drive loops in, so they won’t go off the screen.
I am aware of that combo, but thanks for the advice!
How often do you guys use her Pounce DD? Seems like it’s been working here and there as a “counter” of sorts, and I tried different setups into it to test what made the damage worthwhile. Just wondered if anyone else uses it, or if most just stick with Berserker Barrage.
Meh.
It’s a good move to catch scrubs off guard, but the only real way to set it up is off of a taunt set up, which is good if you know how to do it because the taunt makes the super do loads of damage
Mostly though, your gonna wanna stick with BB as it’s a way easier to set up/has many applications/overall just a great move that does pretty good damage.
Figured I’d ask. I like throwing it out when people don’t truly expect it, and I’ve noticed that it works during pressure, but I do agree that BB is all around better/more practical.
BTW, your avatar is godlike.
I can’t get enough of those Kanye memes!
That’s the one on the tutorial Blu-Ray, right?
Heh, thanks man. I saw aberz’ av and asked him to make it for me, and he did. :tup:
Also, 6C -> Pounce makes me lol.
6C, Pounce, taunt, Pounce makes me lol harder. 
Can Rachel be drive looped? After linking from either 6C or 3C, I get off one drive and one j.c, then I completely miss on anything else. Same shit happens with Noel.
I’ve tried improvising with 6C/3C > 6D > j.c, 236b > 3D, but I’m sure there’s way more I can do.
The typical drive loop for Noel, Rachel, Ragna (sometimes) and Jin (sometimes) is 5b (Or whatever move links into 6a) 6a > Cat Spirit One (I think you can do this I think up to 4 times with Ragna, up to 3 with Noel, Rachel, and Jin. You can do it a ton of times in the corner, but after a while it begins to prorate [or whatever it’s called] the combo) 2d~9 > j.C > 2d~9 ect. ect. you get the picture.
So, the combo looks like this 5b > 6a (both hits) 236a (multiple hits) 2d~9 > j.C >2d~9 ect. ect.
You can also drive loop these characters with this combo:
6C > 236a (maximum of two hits) 5d~6 > j.C > 5d~6 ect. ect.
Remember, Tao has about 1 million variations to her BnB’s, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Also, I wouldn’t use 3c on Ragna, Noel, Jin, or Rachel unless your like right up in their grill, because the last hit of 3c will wiff and leave you open for a CH.
Oh yeah, forgot about that. 6C > Pounce is ok to finish someone off with but it’s great if you have 100% heat and know how to do the taunt combo
One thing to note, is that if it’s towards the end of a match and you have so little health that you’re gaining meter, doing the Pounce at about 94-96% meter is ok, because the time it takes to actually complete the super will give you the last little bit of meter, which works as a slight fake out.
What options does Tao have after a successful neutral grab?
Your pretty much gonna wanna use 4D~6>j.C>6D~6>J.C ect. ect.
Pretty sure that works on every character but don’t quote me on that.
IIRC you could also IAD into j.C > j.D~6…
Thanks. I don’t think those work on Rachel/Noel, the only drive loops I can catch on them are 9D loops.
As far as Tao addictions go, anyone besides me seem to CS.2 (j.236BBBB) a lot?
Also, are there any Rapid combos that are worth doing with Tao? Or is her meter best saved for Barrage/Pounce?
CS?
Crouching slash?
Wrong game lol
My main problem when I used to main Tao was 3C, it’s like Tao’s ice car, not really a move you wanna throw out randomly.
RC Combo’s?
I don’t know. I think any RC combo with Tao just wouldn’t be worth it as it would just prorate the damage to all hell, unless you did it off of backthrow>C mashy Nails.
If your lookin’ to really extend a combo, your best bet is J.2D~B combo’s, now those shits are nasty as fuck.
Haha, CS = Cat Spirit. (smartass )
After some toying around, the only thing I’ve found worth making into an RC combo is something like:
5B -> 3C -> 5D~6 -> J.C -> J.236BB xx RC -> 5B -> 5C -> 2D~6 -> J.C -> 8D~6 -> J.236BBBB
Problem is it does about as much damage as a normal drive loop combo. Oh well.