[Xrd] May Gameplay Discussion

[RurouniLoneWolf]

I agree with Saber. The new beach ball and dolphin really exist more to give May more pluses or in my more personal opinion, make her more well rounded. They're good in neutral but like all summons, no one is going to give you an inch to get something out if you don't play a good footsies game to discourage them from approaching recklessly. So, May's other tools are still very important here. For pressure, it isn't always possible to end a combo with beach ball/dolphin oki, at least without spending meter on a YRC. They also don't really enhance May's ability to open people up too much. They're mostly good for greatly discouraging some of the opponent's defensive options and extending pressure in some cases from what I've seen.

I can't really comment too specifically on whether May can hit hard as she can in previous titles since I don't really know anything about her before Xrd. I could sort of see where people can get the idea that Xrd May can't hit hard because you usually only see the (short combo > dolphin oki) stuff. But then things like this happen and your eyes widen as you watch a large chunk of the opponent's health bar vanish, lol. Xrd May can do big damage but it usually requires her to do her staple air juggle+combo. From what I've seen, the only reliable ways to do this is to hit an airborne opponent with j.S low to the ground, Overhead Kiss, RC HS Horizontal Dolphin and maybe in the corner thanks to the wall stick from HS Horizontal Dolphin?

Unfortunately, these are all exceptional occurrences for their own reasons. Opponents hit by j.S won't always be airborne or get hit at the right height, at least without a CH. OVerhead Kiss requires conditioning to open people up with so it's more effective the less it's used. If the opponent has a burst, they can burst out of RC combos to get you to burn 50 meter without getting your intended rewards and of course, the opponent isn't always going to be in the corner.

 

This is all my opinion as a novice GG and May player though so *shrugs*

[Justice7541]

May's always been able to do big damage and also rack up a ton of dizzy.  Sorta looks like Xrd damage in general got toned down but I seem to recall being able to take off roughly that much in AC and +R with just a 5K starter.  Keep in mind that I-no is a pretty low-defense character.  So whether May does more damage or less compared to the average damage output of other characters I have no idea, but it's definitely less than in AC.  +R isn't really that comparable either since she got huge dizzy with multiple 6P hits in her corner combos.

[saber]

May's always been able to do big damage and also rack up a ton of dizzy.  Sorta looks like Xrd damage in general got toned down but I seem to recall being able to take off roughly that much in AC and +R with just a 5K starter.  Keep in mind that I-no is a pretty low-defense character.  So whether May does more damage or less compared to the average damage output of other characters I have no idea, but it's definitely less than in AC.  +R isn't really that comparable either since she got huge dizzy with multiple 6P hits in her corner combos.

May is good in Xrd, Ogawa and woshige has her as B. Kiisha has her as A tier right behind ky. So if anything she is mid to high tier.  She is still a power character just now she has more options and more ways to get in a keep pressure. Keeping pressure was a problem in +Rbut now with her added options she can keep pressure or use her new tools a deterants keeping people from rushing her down nearly as hard as they could in +R.  Also finally about the damage I have seen May still do big damage to most of the people,especially in the corner. So I would not worry about the dizzy or damage because it is still there at high levels, just not +R levels.

[Yukikaze]

Are there any HD vids with Mays win screen?

[RurouniLoneWolf]

Unfortunately, High Quality footage from Japan is hard to come by so finding one of May's win screen in particular would probably be difficult. You'd probably be better off waiting until the game releases next week and people here in NA start streaming/recording footage. 

[WT_Neptune]

So if you all had to sell me May as a main, what would you tell me? Why should I play her over the other GGers?

[BloodWolF]

I wouldn't tell you anything to push her on you. Mains should sell themselves to everyone individually. Everyone picks them for different reasons. If you're still on the fence, I'd tell you to try everyone and pick who you enjoy the game most with.

[WT_Neptune]

I wouldn't tell you anything to push her on you. Mains should sell themselves to everyone individually. Everyone picks them for different reasons. If you're still on the fence, I'd tell you to try everyone and pick who you enjoy the game most with.

 

But I mean, most characters have a unique gameplan or style. It is hard to see what May has going on there. I just need more info.

[BloodWolF]

She seems to have more emphasis on setups and space control this time than previous iterations. She has a good spacing game with decent pressure and mobility options with the dolphins. Expect to capitalize off of confirms and go into setup-based oki off of your knockdowns. She's pretty straight-forward, but her inputs may be a little tricky with the charge buffering and the dolphin jumps, I'm not sure yet. I only played her a little in the original loketest, so I don't remember much on the timing of things.

[Baf0]

So if you all had to sell me May as a main, what would you tell me? Why should I play her over the other GGers?

Could've just asked "what is May's character playstyle?"

 

Well, May is an all around-Power character with good pokes, and one of the best Air to Ground offense in the game. She controls space with tools like beach ball/dolphins.

She's also GG's charge character if you're looking for one.

Watch け だ こ Kedako to see how she plays.

[Kyle]

Hi Ooo. I'll be hitting this hard in a few weeks once the game drops!

 

Cheers

[RurouniLoneWolf]

Hello. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Xrd May once you put some time into the game.

 

Guess I'll take this opportunity to wish everyone getting the game tonight good luck. I won't be getting the game until NA release but I'll be around to bounce ideas off of, do general work on the wiki and provide emotional support...just not this weekend, because I'll be at NEC :P

[BloodWolF]

I'll be on it in a couple of hours, so we'll see how things go, lol. I look forward to working with everyone in the coming months.

 

よろしくお願いします。

[Kyle]

My biggest inquiry is her potential for a counter hit. How effective is her CH game? That is the conditioning tool which we abuse to setup her throw game in AC. In +R, the CH game was elevated by her ability to stun the opponent, thus,less throw oriented gameplay. .

Excited to watch footage & develop her advantages

[RurouniLoneWolf]

It's hard for me to say since so I'm so new to May that I've just been focusing on learning May in general. But from what I've noted so far, CHing mostly comes into play for making j.S, j.H and j.2H air hits easier to combo into her better air combo routes. It also feels like CH 6H is very painful but I haven't noted down enough instances of this to be sure.

 

Based on my observations, conditioning people to get hit by a throw or OHK really comes down to that Xrd May has so many options in pressure between Applause for the Dolphin oki, Beach ball oki and regular blockstrings that it's easy to forget she even has it if you're doing a good job of varying your pressure. Well, those are my thoughts anyway. I'll get a better understanding once I get to play the game myself and hear more from people who got the JP release.

 

Also, going to make a combo thread for you JP guys to start posting stuff. Just need to find a template to steal borrow from another forum.

[ChexGuy]

Huh. Apparently OHK is 632146+K instead of just 63214+K (from Mahouko's stream archives):

 

[BloodWolF]

Yeah. That got me too. lol.

[Kyle]

No more FD- OS shenanigans. No xhance of reversal negative edges either

[Frank The Tank]

Which hoop is being YRC'd for oki purposes post Ensenga?

[saber]

No more FD- OS shenanigans. No xhance of reversal negative edges either

Sadly yes but i do really like the new 2HS and the hoops and the fact you can use Arival of the Dolphin into regular dolphin for extended combos

[ChexGuy]

Which hoop is being YRC'd for oki purposes post Ensenga?

P and S versions are in front of May, K and HS versions are above. P and K are directly in front of/above May. I mostly see people using P and S for oki, depending on where they land.

[RurouniLoneWolf]

As ChexGuy said, usually the P/S version. Sometimes, people do K because they like the wall it creates in some instances. 

 

It's hard to say for sure since I lack personal experience but I think the YRC summon after Ensenga is mostly to allow May time to get better positioning for mixups and to do stuff like this

[DonnieRye]

Can anyone help me with May's 2nd to last trial?

 

I can't figure out how I'm supposed to summon and hold the dolphin button down and RC it with the dolphin still held down afterwards.

[ChexGuy]

They tell you to hold down P or K, right? Then they tell you to RC with "P+K+S"...Use P+S+H or K+S+H instead. Dunno why they made the RC input show the same button you're supposed to hold down :P

[DonnieRye]

They tell you to hold down P or K, right? Then they tell you to RC with "P+K+S"...Use P+S+H or K+S+H instead. Dunno why they made the RC input show the same button you're supposed to hold down :P

Alright thanks. That sounds like the solution to my problem.

Gonna take me a while to train my fingers to press those buttons though :P