I’ve always thought that fortitude gems are the best, perhaps even broken. A basic fortitude gem absorbs 100 damage once activated. Lets compare that to a basic attack or defense gem which grants 10% more attack or defense. You would have to do over 1000 dmg within the time limit for these gems to add more than 100 extra damage or damage absorption. But all you need to take is 100 damage for the fortitude gem to be used to its full effect (it will absorb that entire 100 dmg). So basically a fortitude gem requires you take only 100 damage to give the equivalent benefit that an attack or defense gem would require 1000 points to accomplish. So it’s 10 times as effective.
Edit: Meter gems are also really useful. My favorite meter gems are the ones that activate when you come in off a boost combo because you have the benefit of the gem being active during the middle of a combo, which is when it counts the most.
Yes thats what i used earlier on. But i soon came to realize that i was never in a situation where"damn i could have gotten out of that if i had 300 extra life." If im losing its because the other person is better than me(Most of the time) and they can ride that life lead and momentum to take that extra life away. Maybe if i had characters that had nice tag out options then i would consider it but. It just doesnt fit my playstyle. Also can you really compare immense power gems to fortitude? They do different things lol doubt there’d be a gem “add 100 damage to this combo”. But you were 100% right about iron wall those gems are ass. Plus i use my gems at the same time. Im my mind id like to have 30% more power and 40% more meter gain than 100 health. Also i think fortitude messes with my head a little. It’s like im more careless with them… I hate that. Its like me having power and little health is enough incentive for me to play more carefully and make better decisions. But hey thats just me(besides Ninas thick as hell in this game, she can take a few hits!)
what are ninas best / most practical / safe hit confirms, pokes and approaches. I really want to pick up nina, but she seems like there a lot of options to her, and im relatively new to the game…the tekken characters at least.
also, what is her best hit confirm combo / punish combo (meterless)
Approaches: Good footsie tools are ivory cutter because of nice range AND OH AND two hits for tag cancels, st.hp reaches far but very negative on block unless you are at max range, left right combo comes out in 3 frames AND special cancelable on second hit so thats your go to punish for the safer(But not completely safe) moves the opponent throws out.Ex geyser cannon has full body invincibility but -6 on block. You’d be taking a risk but the the reward is well worth it.
Most damaging: j.hp,cr.hp xx geyser cr.hp xx skullsplitter , cr.hp xx skullsplitter launcher or ivory cutter
Most practical (Easy execution): J.hp, cr.hp xx geyser, cr.hp geyser, cr.hp xx lp blonde bomb
Hit confirms: blonde to high kick (last hit special cancelable into rolling dash mixups/unblockables or if it hits the grab combos)
St.mp, st.mp, cr.mp xx geyser etc
Hmu on PSN if you ever wanna play a somewhat experienced Nina player
so flash kick combos arent really relevant anymore ? I used to play cross tekken when it launched and messed with nina a bit but stopped playing until now. are any of her target combos safe on block? what are her best pressure tools ? any frametraps ?
also:
thoughts on cammy as a partner for nina ? I feel like cammy has a better neutral game and I keep her on point, switch in to nina for damage, switch back, etc
Only thing i can think of when flash kicks come in handy is for a really damaging abc combo but not so much anything else. Reason is because the last hit hits high and and whiffs on crouchers so it’ll be loads - on block and the hits before that aren’t so great either.
None of her target combos are that safe really. Shes not really too reliant on frame traps. I can only think of st.lp, left right combo xx watever, and st.mp ,st.mp , cr.mp xx watever.
Her strong suits are mixups and damage. LOTS o’ damage.
Her ggod pressure tools would be a a target combo blonde to high kick and cancel that last hit into a rolling dash and make them guess again. But the rapid fire jabbin people will get you so. Use the frame traps instead there.
I see…what mixups does she have off of her command dash ? just throw or hit ? also, are any of her specials safe / relatively safe on block ? I guess Ill just watch a bunch of videos to get accustomed to her.
Cammy has essentially ALL of Ninas weaknesses covered so yeah that’d be a good team. Try asking a guy named Rean about that team because thats his main (I think) and he’d prolly give better advice/ matchup knowledge than me.
From what I’ve can tell (and how I’ve been playing her since I got the game last week), she’s pretty footsie heavy. She doesn’t have a lot of true hit confirms. Your best bet to start a match is just poking and counter poking. st.mk and cr.hp are decent anti-airs (cr.hp and LK Geyser Cannon get better in a month) and you have plenty of solid ground pokes with st.lk, st.mk, cr.lk and cr.mk with st.lp up close for your one-two confirm. I often end up opening a round if I’m playing well with a c.mk xx HK Geyser on a whiff punish a bit in front of me. That leads into…well, here’s my BnB at the moment, (opener) xx HK Geyser, HP Skull Splitter, cr.mp xx HK Geyser, Ivory Cutter. Let’s me start my oki and by the next touch I’ll have my meter for switch cancels.
When inside that range, Ivory Cutter is nice to have for an OH switch cancel. Of course if you catch a Counter Hit or them backdashing, you get a Bound which is extra damage.
I think playing safe with Nina is a good way to go. Any mistake by the opponent can get punished for solid damage and oki options. Make them feel it every time they mess up.
yes, i play cammy/nina and it works out quite nicely. cammy has great AA and get-in tools, nina has solid pokes and high damage.
nina is not that fast (walkspeed is 80/60) so its quite hard to deal with get-aways like dhalsim for instance, cammy covers that greatly because as always, she is fast rushdown character (walkspeed is 98/92 which is second best in the game)
I see…then I guess im playing nina wrong…basically what im doing with her is playing her like shes a counter hit machine…im playing patient until I get in, then I just go crazy and I dont really know what strings are safe / what strings to go to honestly. Im just not exactly sure what im supposed to be looking for / trying to do. Like I said, im not really sure what hit confirms I should be going for, and my options on hit / my next mixup or pressure string on block. Im so used to playing traditional street fighter lol
fish with lp-mp close range, it gives you enough time to cancel into mk.geyser on hit confirm.
mid range mk is your best button.
playing patiently with nina doesnt work when your opponent does the same, nina has trouble getting in. all specials are minus on block and punishable, most of the strings too + you need to watch for string spacing.
j.mp is her crossup so use this too, its pretty ambiguous.
surprise skullsplitter works too, but again watch for spacing or you’ll be heavily punished.
thanks for the input. regarding cammy / nina combos, what are you using ? I dont know what Nina’s optimal combo coming in from a boost combo is so ive just been doing cr.hp xx hk geyser > ivory cutter > tag cancel / oki game.
any other input you (or anyone else) could give me regarding playing nina at a high level? I am a pretty good SF player overall and have a firm knowledge of fighting game fundementals and I have good execution ability, all Im really missing is Nina specific stuff I guess. for example, is her meterless combo off of st.lp > st.mp something like this:
starter > mk/hk geyser, cr.hp xx hp skull splitter > Ivory Cutter ?
also, whatever happened to combos into her command dash throw thing? are those not really viable anymore due to higher damage output combos ?
really, anything yall could tell me about nina would be great, and id appreciate it a lot
after tag cancel:
if you want to super - cr.hp-geyser-super.
if you arent consistent with cr.hp after tag (for example in corner when you have to run a lot after tag in), do cr.mk.
st.lp or st.mp before cr.hp adds a bit of scaling but its impossible to fail so that works too, however you’ll be unable to do super.
usually cr.hp-hk.geyser-ivory cutter is the way to go.
combos into arm breaker arent worth it usually, they build way less meter. unless you go for a reset, its better to stick with normal combos.
ivory cutter is a free raw tag for you, no need to spend meter ever. nina does so much damage on her own that tag canceling after a long combo to bring another character is a waste of meter. only do it if you want to stay in their face.
Her cr.mp can be very deceptive as a poke and hit confirm. I think the hit box is the tippy tip of her fingers lol. I pressure with with st. lp+mp string and st.mp, then catch most off guard with ivory cutter or regular throw. i usually go for skull splitter combos instead of geysers. And the only reason I use flash kick string is to meet my power gems conditions.
I’ve been trying out Cammy/Nina as well and it seems to be a fairly solid team, though I’m finding it a little hard to fight off defensive teams (Vega, Guile, Gief on a lifelead etc). Have you found any particular synergy between the two or tricky resets on a tag-in?
So, even though I’ve been playing Nina since Day one, I don’t know anything about her. I don’t know frame data, I just know what works from experience. Do we have safe jump set ups yet? I need some frame data at the least. Maybe I should just go to training mode one of these days.