Truly, truly outrageous! - Poison Gem Thread

Classic Fighting Games Street Fighter x Tekken
1

work in progress

This will be a comprehensive guide in helping players select Gems for Poison. It should be noted that there are countless loadouts and combinations however, hopefully this guide will help you narrow down that list to suit your play style.

This guide will be broken down into multiple sections to make things easier to understand gems in general and what works best for Poison. Jamp, Zujira and other players will help build this guidewink~wink

Getting to know your Gems:

As you may know there are several different types of Boost Gems and they are all have different uses, even gems of the same type can be used in different ways, thats the beauty of the Gem system. To List them all, there are Power, Defense, Speed, Vitality and Cross Gauge Gems, lets start with Power Gems.

Immense Power:

There is currently only one type of Power Gem, the Immense Power type. This Gem increases the damage on all of your attacks by a set % for a set duration of time. Alot of players will Opt. out for this gem as has some of the easiest activation conditions and has the most direct effect on a match. Players will want to stack the effects of Immense Power Gems to increase the overall effectiveness of the Gem, as 10% damage increase is hardly noticeable but having 3 Immense Power lv.1 Gems activated for a 30% boost is far more significant. There are Immense Power lv.2 Gems as well, Though they take abit more effort to activate and have a overall shorter duration then the lv.1 versions, they pack a 20% damage boost so stacking this gem with similar activation condition Immense Power Gems will give you big boost in damage when your on a roll. The Immense Power Lv.3 is a Pandora Specific Gem and will only Activate once said condition has been met. This Gem is essential to any Pandora build, however it can easily be countered with the Iron Wall lv.3 Gem that activates when your opponent goes into Pandora Mode. All Sections will update with DLC gems in the future~

Defense Gems:

There are two types of Defense Gems, The Iron Wall Type and the Fortitude Type Gems. Iron Wall Gems Increase your defense by a set % for a set period of time. The Fortitude Gem soaks up a set amount of damage for a timed duration. Iron Wall Gems have easy activation, but they lack in effectiveness as a 10% damage reduction isn’t much when your eating 30% damage combos. Fortitude Gems on the other hand are mostly always useful and deduces the damage you take significantly as your reducing the damage by a set amount rather then a percentage. Iron Wall lv.2 when stacked with other Iron Wall Gems make more of a difference then their lv.1 counterparts alone making them a decent option for a defensive player. As previously mention the Iron Wall lv.3 is a Pandora specific gem but unlike other Pandora Gems, this gem activates against a Pandora user and raises your defense to help you survive their last attempt at victory.
There is a Fortitude Gem for Pandora users as well, but damage reduction should be the last thing on your mind when entering Pandora mode.

Speed Gems:

There is currently only one type of Speed Gem, the Divine Speed Gem. This Gem is rather unique as it does not increase damage increase or reduction but rather your characters overall movement speed. The Divine Speed Gem increases your walking, dashing, jumping and descending speeds. The Speed Gem does not increase the speed of normals, specials, or SuperArts, nor does it effect frame data of any sort regarding characters moves. Another Interesting feature of the Divine Speed Gems is your Cross Gauge will increase when you dash towards your opponent, making it a great gem for offensive players. Speed Gems have similar activation conditions to that of Immense Power Gems so they are easy to stack together with in creating Gem Combos(more on Gem Combos later). Divine Speed Lv.1 grants a small but noticeable increase in speed, most lv.1 speed gems are easy to activate and can help with controlling space early on in a match. Divine Speed lv.2 Gems are alttle harder to activate but are worth the trouble because of the noticeable difference in movement speed, this gem is great for characters who need to get in close to deal damage. The Divine Speed lv.3 Gem is another Pandora Exclusive Gem and its almost a must for Pandora builds that opt. for this instead of damage.

Vitality Gems:

There are two types of Vitality Gems, Harmonize and Life Force, however there is only one activation condition for both gems making them the smallest out of the Gem family. However this does not make them useless as the condition is a common occurrence in battle. The activation condition is getting hit by two special moves and this can stack with defensive minded gems or strategies. The Harmonize Gem will Increases your Vitality instantly by a set amount, once the condition was met. The Life Force Gem on the other hand slowly regenerates your Vitality(not just grey health) for a set duration once the condition was met. Using these Gems together along with another Defensive minded Gem may work for turtle playstyles or players needing to buy time for their point character to recover.

Cross Gauge Gems:

There are two types of C.Gauge Gems, the Onslaught Type and Proficiency Type. Onslaught Type Gems increase the amount of C.Gauge you obtain for the duration this gem is active, meaning that any method of meter gain is acceptable, this Gem will increase the amount you receive by a percentage. The Proficiency Type Gem reduces the amount of meter consumed for special actions. What this means is the Gem will reduce the amount of meter needed for EX specials, Switch Cancels, SuperArts, Ect. by a set %. However you still require to have the necessary amount of meter for the cost in order to preform the actions. Onslaught lv.1 Gems are relatively easy to activate and boost the amount of C.Gauge you gain by 20%. Onslaught lv.2 will be a staple Gem in most players “battery” loadout, because of the 40% increase of meter gain and unique activation condition, this Gem will get alot of usage. Proficiency lv.1 Gems give you a 10% discount on meter consumption and is decent for its easy activation conditions. Proficiency lv.3 is a Pandora Exclusive Gem and it gives a Whooping 40% Meter Reduction!, This is perfect for Characters who can do Loops with multiple EX moves and should be in every Pandora Build. C.Gauge Gems in general work well with Divine speed gems because of their similar effects on the C.Gauge itself and overlapping activation conditions, of course they can complement other gem types as well.

Conditions and PlayStyles:

This section will explain how certain conditions directly involve your general playstyle.

A common problem with most new players and some players in general is they do not know exactly what their playstyle is, they have a vague idea on what it is, or they have a dream on what it should be and not what it actually is currently, Gems can’t help a player who isn’t true to themselves…so to speak. The reason behind that is say your want to have a rushdown playstyle however naturally you play more defensive and don’t take calculated risk or have that mindset of mauling your opponent you wont optimize the effects of “rushdown” orientated Gems and vise versa.

Turtles/Defensive playstyles:

One of the most distinguished Playstyles there is and there are a ton of gems relating to this playstyle. The most noticeable are the Defense Gems, however looking more closely it’s the conditions they all have is what determines their effectiveness. The condition “Block X amount of times” is an obvious choice for a turtle because blocking is something they will to naturally. they are the kind of player waiting to capitalize on their opponents mistakes by waiting out through the pressure. While before i mentioned that the Iron Wall Gem Type wasn’t as effective as Fortitude, but with a turtle playstyle this is were this Gem shines. while still a 10% boost in defense is not much to boast about, its alot when the only damage your dealing is chip damage. In essence, the turtle playstyle is being rewarded for doing things they would do naturally, in this case it was blocking.

Fortitude Gem Type Gems help out this playstyle by soaking up chip damage and stray hits from either normals or special moves. This is especially useful when combined wither certain conditions like getting hit with 1 EX special move, reason why is because a large % of EX moves do more then just a singular hit, this will instantly soak up 100 points of damage you would have taken normally and keeps the defensive player in good shape. Vitality Gems work well with the same mindset so they are a honorable mention.

The last Condition thats worth mentioning for this particular playstyle is “perform X Cross Cancel(s)”, this Gem works well for players who are good at doing Cross Cancels at critical times in a match, this Gem is not limited to only defensive Gems but other types as well such as Immense Power for a decisive boost in power to change the flow of a match.

Rushdown/Offensive Playstyles:

Unorthodox/Other Playstyles:

Now that each playstyle has been explained, time to move on to the next section Gem Combos and explaining why they work.

work in progress

2

Gem Combos:

Gem Combos are the linking of 2 or more Gems effects or in other words the continuous activation of 2 or more Gems. While seems some what complex on the outside is really simple and easy to do once you understand it all, and gets better with the more Gems you have at your disposal.

There are two types of Gem Combos Stacking and Overlapping, you can actually combine the two together as well.

-Stacking: Stacking is what happens when you combine the same Attribute Gem with a similar activation condition. For a Example, you can stack the effects of a Iron Wall Gems by picking the selected Gems and there conditions.
-Iron Wall lv.2(block 10 times) 20% damage reduction
-EX Iron Wall lv.2(block 10 times) 20% damage reduction.
For a combined reduction of 40%, this is a strong Gem Combo for defensive minded players.

-Overlapping: Overlapping is when you combine Gems of different Attributes but with the same activation condition. For a Example, you can overlap the condition Connect with 5 normals with the following gems.
-Immense Power lv.1(connect with 5 normals)
-Divine Speed lv.1(connect with 5 normals)
-Proficiency lv.1(connect with 5 normals)
while the effects themselves are not strong at only 10% a piece, you get a wide range of effects for the same price of landing 5 normals, you can do this with stronger gems and harder to activate conditions for better results.

By combining both Stacking and Overlapping, you can create a really strong Gem Combo, however even while having a strong combo, if you can’t consistently activate those conditions then the Combo is almost useless. Be mindful of the conditions and see how they are implemented in your game.

3

Other uses of Gems:

Because there is not only one way to use gems, there are many other possible ways to use Gems, when your not using them in clever combos, you can strategically place gems in your loadout for certain events to happen and you get a boost when your need it, or even sometimes trigger these events yourself.

as people may have already noticed but a Popular Gem is the Onslaught lv.2 Gem that activates when your partner lands a launcher. This Gem is completely Optional meaning that you can go the whole battle without even activating it once, this its mostly due to the fact that it has such a specific activation condition. This is good because you can decide for yourself whether or not you should use the Gem. For a Example, if your Full on meter, you never need to use it, however if your low on meter you can trigger this gem by fishing for a launcher.

There are other activation conditions like this such as, “perform a reversal”, “connect with a launcher” , “Escape a throw”, “Go into Pandora state”, “Get X number of attacks blocked” and so on. These conditions are more likely to be triggered by you then your opponent so it decreases the random chance of a Gem activating during a round.

4

A little gem snippet I got from UltraDavid: the Reversal Onslaught gem is incredible. You can just block whatever attack - like a fireball - and then do a reversal Aeolus Edge to activate it and start building meter super fast.

5

yeah, but the DLC gems are really where its at if thats your thing…i forgot the condition but i seen something in there for 60% meter gain…i was like WHUT!!! freaking nuts…but its only for 10 seconds…like thats a long time…lolz

6

ok I’m not a fan of the chaos emeralds and all this nonsense, just do me a favor and quote this when you find a good setup to use so I can steal it ^^

much thanks!

7

im getting to that sooner or later hehe. i just want folks to kinda understand why you would pick a certain gem over another, them just because it works well together. anyways i use DLC Gems so if you got the CE you can greatly benefit from some of my setups.

8

I’m currently running this setup on Poison:

Meter gain+ - Have your attack blocked 4 times
Meter gain+ - Perform a reversal
Reduce damage by 100 - Get hit by a combo of 5 hits

This setup is aimed at maximizing Poison’s ability as a battery and giving her some extra survivability in case she gets hit - the gem should activate with any simple combo, even a cross rush into whatever xx special - while at the same time having as much control over the activations as possible. The first meter gem can be activated by simply zoning or playing footsies, whereas the second one I can activate any time I want by blocking anything and performing a reversal fireball.

9

thats a good set up, but Jamp you have any DLC gems yet? because you can do Gem Combo’s easier and without drawbacks too.

i was testing last night on a few dummy characters and against some of my buddies, 3 fortitude gems is just dumb, i mean sure you soak up about 330 damage 90% in a match but still…it doesnt seem that practical but still rather funny.

im running the same set up kinda in two different ways.

-EX Onslaught lv.2(connect with 4 special moves) 40% Gauge boost+10 Damage boost
-Immense Power lv.2(connect with 4 special moves) 20% Damage boost.

-Immense Power lv.1(connect with 3 special moves)10% boost
-Immense Power lv.2(connect with 4 special moves)20% boost
-Onslaught lv.2(connect with 4 special moves)40% boost

after the first successful rekka series i just need one more special move to get all my boost and its really strong. simple BnB combos were doing alot of damage and best of all it requires little effort, sure none of my gems are triggered by a special action like Launcher or w/e but It works because of poisons nature, even if i was Zoning in the start of a match with this set, i would have activated the gems plus have a hefty amount a meter before the gem activated…so even more meter. the truely nice thing about it is that having Poison in reserve helps this set out alot because if im full on meter, i wont have to worry about wasting the meter gem at all and i feel like i can bring her out if i need to build some. so right now shes running support for my team…cuz im learning alot still.

with 950 health Poison doesn’t truly~ need fortitude but i found this set to be funny.

-Fortitude lv.1(Get hit with 1 EX special) -100 damage
-Fortitude lv.1(Get hit with 2 special moves) -100 damage
-Fortitude lv.2(Get hit with 3 special moves) -130 damage

these Gems for the most part will always activate in a match, early on if anything else, the 5 hit combo gem is a good sub if you want it to activate later, same with the 10 hit gem too~

10

Since I have no DLC gems these are the two sets I am using. Let me know what people think.

"On point"
Connect with 3 special moves +20% gauge rate.
Get hit with EX special -100 damage
Get hit with 2 special moves -100 damage.

This effectively puts poison at 1150 health and lets her build up meter for my secondary character to use up. As has been mentioned around this forum, Poison is pretty self sufficient so the extra health lets her stay in that much longer.

When I have her in a secondary position. (only when teamed with Nina)
When in pandora. 30% damage
Hit with 2 Specials -100
Land a counter 10% move speed.

I took the pandora gem for the nina/pandora combo in the other thread. While situational its a fun combo to try and pull off. The hit with two specials helps mitigate your opponents damage if you are forced to raw tag. And the move speed helps with footsies and is incredibly easy to get the bonus. Plus that move speed effects her jumps and she has kind of a floaty jump with a weird arc (I think it actually helps us with our j.lk for example) so its nice to improve jumps.

11

I’m running
Fortitude lv.1 (get hit w/ 4 normals) (it’ll activate regardless)
Fortitude lv.1 (get hit w/ 2 special moves) (I play a relatively aggressive game, so fireballs/lockdown activates this one quickly)
Onslaught lv.1 (have 4 attacks blocked) OR another fortitude depending on the partner.

I just figure that since she doesn’t do much damage in short periods of time, I’d just go ahead and neglect attack gems. She’s pretty good at building meter even without onslaught (lockdown with s.mp>fireball at a distance, LMT pressure), so sometimes I just prefer to get that little extra to try and live longer. If I partner her with characters that eat meter (my Poison/Vega team) then I’ll go ahead and throw in the onslaught.

12

So is it general consensus that Immense Power gem setups aren’t as useful for Poison?

I run her as anchor with Onslaught Guile on point. My Poison is equipped with both Vitality gems and a Fortitude gem at the moment since she bleeds pretty hard.

In theory, it would seem to me that a damage boost on her already weak combo damage output wouldn’t really make a difference since I mostly use her as a mid-range zoner, or to get in on people trying to play long-range or keep-away tactics with EX LMT.

/Mango

13

Honestly it depends, and up to the player to decide what gems they want to use.

Generally if your going to use power gems on Poison…the Boost has to be “significant” meaning that small boost of 10% isn’t really going to cut it for a character who already does low damage. At the minim you want aim for 30% power boost with the minim amount of effort and not having it effect or change the way you play to activate said gems. Using standard gems will make this task harder but it can be done(once every gets the CE gems you’ll know what i mean).

Immense power lv.1 land 5 normals
Immense power lv.2 land 10 normals or Immense power lv. 1 when partner lands a launcher
Immense power lv.1 land 3 special moves

This build is pretty much the best you can do without spending meter. This Gem loadout can net you a 30-40% boost pretty quick…and you’ll notice the boost if you test it in training(which is something people don’t do >_>)

but honestly fortitude/Vitality gems are a safety net of sorts, you can afford to make more mistakes. However I think the optimal build right now for standard gems with Poison is this…and it’s pretty much the standard in most gems that run this mix.

Immense power lv.1 Partner lands launcher
Onslaught lv. 2 Partner lands launcher
Immense Power lv. 1/Onslaught lv.1 land 3 special moves.

If you need any specifics i’ll try to help, thats what im here for.

14

I’ll try out that last gem set that you mentioned in you post Rook. Tbh I haven’t really put much thought into gems so anything is better than nothing right now haha

/Mango

15

not many people do actually~ so it’s not surprising. It’s not something to put too much thought into(thats what guys like me are for right?) so i’ll do my best to try and help everyone out…though to some it may not seem like it…

16

I’ll most likely get involved in gems more when they release the rest of the set. I’m one of those guys that likes the aspect of doing research and shit as opposed to getting down 1f links in the lab all day.

/Mango

17

Lolz? really? then you and me are alike in that aspect~
Well next month their is going to be more Gems coming out(that 60 Gem update) so I’ll fiddle around with them and share some loadouts and Gem strategies here in this thread. Considering the new assist gems will come out too, i’ll see if the expert input gem is necessary for poison at all o_O because even if its like a passive 10% damage boost, it still mite not be worth it.

Edit: how did those gems work out for ya?

18

I actually kept getting bodied by a couple of local tourney Rufus players last night and switched to playing FullHouse Poker to reduce salt levels before trying that gem setup lol. I’ll definitely get on it tonight though with a sodium free system :wink:

/Mango

19

So what gems are best for Poison post patch? I’ve noticed alot of auto block lvl 1 and 2 online. Good thing she has a somewhat decent throw game and love me tender with follow up grab.

20

I haven’t really been playing to be honest…but if i had to say post patch, Onslaught Gems are still great on the character especially if you use her in a battery sort of setting, other then that i need to further test the new gems.