You have to understand a little bit the mechanics behind the FoF loop.
It is well known that the loop is possible since Flame of Flatine and IP are not impacted by HSD. While this is true, they are still affecting it, meaning that as more of them you do, the higher HSD will get, and eventually you won’t be able to connect IP after S (which is affected by the HSD).
Now, after given amount of hits (usually, some attacks, like hypers count like one etc…) you will not be able to connect S to sj.IP anymore, meaning you will have to end your combo (with ground). So eventually your goal is to hit exactly the last hit which will allow you to connect something after S. When you are not optimizing you hits (which ain’t that important) you will know that (randomly throwing number) that the last hit to connect S j.IP is 45. meaning that if you did you last rep at 42, you missed 3 hits. As you might see already, you need to vary your reps of the loop to get that golden number, and if we look at some number:
1 rep is j.S IP FoF IP -> 4 hits
2 reps is j.S IP FoF IP FoF IP -> 6hits
3 reps will be 8 hits.
So knowing this you can plan you reps to hit S whenever you want. Most of the time it is just not necessary, you can just do the easier version until you know you won’t make it anymore, and in the last rep go for you 3 reps (or 2 if it’s one of the harder characters…). As you can see, playing with reps is just managing your hits in the combos, as all the hits there do roughly the same damage.
About smaller characters, just carefully manage you height in the combo, specifically you can delay the S after the IP before the last loop to get them lower.
ah i see, thanks for the throughout explanation. if I am starting the loop though with strange in the corner or midscreen, and not from another character, should I be doing the 3x3 because the combo counter doesn’t go above 45 (if that is a hypothetical #, but the corner combo usually gets to around 35 hits once you do the last launch)?
@Gefen just found that you can go into FoF loops off Strange’s corner throws with the Acid Rain raw tag stuff. Be as close to the opponent as possible (to make sure Acid Rain hits) then SoV DHC Devil Trigger, Acid Rain, raw tag back into Strange for loops. ToDs everyone. Yay.
I’m still working on the normal raw tag setup to be able doing it in real matches. I think the key point (as mentioned before in Dante’s forums I think) is to get the Acid Rain out as soon as possible after the Shredder. And again, I believe that connecting S is much easier than connecting IP S.
I don’t do 3x3 since the 3rd rep is sometimes quite hard on some characters. On Mags I won’t even go more than 2 in last reps unless I see I’m staying at max distance for the loop.
is there any other variation of the midscreen FoF loop that is more consistent? After the mystic sword into jump loop into s.H~f.H x FoF, the dash into the f.H seems pretty strict to be consistent for me right now (though I just picked up strange a couple days ago). I can do the FoF loop in the corner pretty easily now, but that dash into the f.H seems impossible… I tried dashing right after the jump loop into s.H~f.H x FoF and it worked once for me but that is also hard to do. Any other tips besides just practice? also when you guys do s.M f.H do you only do it after u land confirmed c.jabs? Because the impact palm is pretty unsafe, what do you usually cancel into if it blocks? my muscle memory makes me cancel into grapes but it can be punished too. Any safe block strings you can do besides like c.jabs and s.M into like mystic sword? (although that is unsafe too). thanks in advance!
midscreen fof loop is only viable imo when it start from a setup that always put the dummy in the same height for Strange, in other words its only reliable in situations where you know exactly how the body will react and where it will be after of your confirm. Starting it from regular confirms can lead to drops. I only ever use it after of a THC with Okami shuffle just because i use an eye of agamotto to pick up, and the combo never should drop as long as i dont mess the execution cause i know exactly how the character dummy will react to every palm/flame and the height will always be the same.
My execution sucks, but even the people with the most gdlk execution will drop this stuff if the spacing is not perfect when you start it from a random confirm
Nope. I can get it all the time now, from ground confirms, Mystic Sword AA, SJ conversions with Jam Session. Just practice. It’s not that hard.
Also, lol at the unfly glitch with Strange. Impact Palm~Impact Palm looks so silly. Looks pretty cool in combos with XF2/3. Dunno how we’d use this in neutral, but I threw it in my incoming setup with Jam Session anyway. In the corner, call Dante, TK Fireball, Fly, 214S+H for an easy overhead when they land.
btw, do you guys know if vergil can do something similar to what he does off a swords dhc with zero’s rainbow? I can only combo if i go into devil trigger and do h tele j.HS, but I can’t seem to get anything without DT…
ref vid: [media=youtube]uQp307jv7Lo[/media]
well its just that my execution suck u.u specially under pressure. But i have seen plenty of players with good execution and tourney nerves dropping this stuff (Nemo for example)
another thing, I see some people do tk FoF after grapes, what is the benefit of this and what diff does it make compraed to just a normal FoF on the ground?
It’s not so much the execution than it is about knowing the visual cues for when to correct height and distance. Usually, you’ll want to keep them low enough so that they just sit on top of Impact Palm’s hitbox when you dash forward Palm into launcher, but not low enough such that they are level with Strange. It is probably safest that you do the really delayed Palms going up because those almost always will correct height and spacing for you. Otherwise, try to keep them low enough like I said so that you have a nice rhythm going. It’s fairly consistent that way. The timing for the dash forward Palm is also important, which dictates how your opponent will fall into Impact Palm’s hitbox-- early = right on top of it, meaning you’ll have to do the delayed Palm, slightly delayed = low Palm, like in the corner version.
Most of the conversions into FoF loop I could think of with my team. This shows why you should learn midscreen FoF, because it’s pretty much the most reliable way to transition into the corner version.
Anything you can do on stick, you can do on pad. Of course, there will be varying degrees of difficulty when performing inputs on either controller, but I’m sure it’s nothing completely impossible.
Strange/Storm/Doom is a good team. Storm/Strange/Doom might be a better order, however. Whirlwind doesn’t really do all that much for Strange except make his blockstrings safer because of the pushback. Bolts will let Storm rushdown better and use those good high-low mixups she has. Hidden Missiles is just an annoying assist that helps both characters out. If you ever get 2 meters and your Strange execution is on point, there’s your Vanilla DHC glitch back.
