[FB] MS-06J Zaku II - Karate Zaku

[GreaseMnk]

Image of MS-06J Zaku II Ground Type, referred to as Karate Zaku or Doan Zaku lifting Earth above his head with his mighty hands.

 
Pilot: Cucuruz Doan

 
Series: Mobile Suit Gundam

 
JPWiki Page: http://www4.atwiki.jp/arcgundamexvsfuvo/?cmd=word&word=MS-06&type=normal&page=ザクII

Armor: 350
 
​

Move List

[A] Throw rock (Small) /3: Throws a small rock, falls at a certain range, only recharges when empty. (Also protects children.)

[AB] Throw rock (Large) /1: Throws a large rock, aims directly toward opponent, blocks projectiles and disappears after impact, recharges after one use. (Also protects children.)
 
[AC] Core Fighter Assist /2: Calls the Core Fighter to fire it's MG and has decent follow of the enemy, recharges after 2 uses. (Also protects children.)

[bC] Special Dash: Karate Zaku moves quickly to the right or left, avoiding projectiles or attacks, this can also cancel the previous move to chain into the next one, uses a little boost so it's used quite a lot. (Also protects children.)
 
[ABC] Doan Fist Penetrating Punch: Karate Zaku musters up all his strength into his powerful fist to melee punch the opponent, sending his enemy flying across the map. (Also saves children.)

Melee

Moveset:
 [5B] Standard punch or karate chop.
 [2B] Uppercut that sends the opponent flying in the air.
 [8B] Lunge attack, jumps toward the opponent and kicks them down.
 [boost Dash 8B] Shoulder Check, send the opponent flying back.
 [4B or 6B] Haymaker, dashes to the left or right and attacks with a haymaker.

Combos:
 5BBB - Standard 3-punch combo, pretty slow.
 5BB>BC>5BB>BC>AB - Two hits followed by two hits followed by a giant rock, takes a good chunk of health.
 2B>BC>2B>BC>2B - Triple Uppercut, this is the most useful combo Karate Zaku has since uppercut has pretty high priority and, because you're sidestepping, you're a little harder to hit for a teammate.

 2B>BC>2B>BC>4B or 6B - A double uppercut followed by a haymaker, pretty much a stronger version of Triple Uppercut.
 Boost Dash 8B>BC>8B>BC>8B - pushes the opponent back and follows up with a lunging attack twice.
 4B or 6B>BC>4B or 6B>BC>4B or 6B - Triple Haymaker, this move is actually really difficult to land, but it will get you the most damage.
 
Almost all of Karate Zakus combos are based around his Special dash BC, which will cancel the last move into the next one with the exception of AC, the combos I've listed here are gonna be the most used combos for him, and they are all based around timing, so practice, practice, practice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvgAL4wNLno

Perfect example of a follow through combo, as the opponent attacks with MG, Doan uses BC to avoid, followed by A to destroy the missile that the opponent only had time to fire because of the intervals between MG and Missile, an interval that matters not to Karate Zaku, a devastating combo.

 
Tips:
 Karate Zaku's BC is also very useful to avoid beams, head on attacks or to move out of the area quickly, it's almost like rainbow stepping, but like a man.
 Try not to leave only 1 small boulder in your ammo, always use all 3 or the meter won't refill.
 AC, like most assists, is useful to set up for combos, follow AC with A>BC>Combo for best results, select your combo based on how many times you hit you opponent.

If I missed anything, let me know, I'll add it to this post.

[donkey show]

AB also blocks beams if they connect with the rock. I've seen it nullify Unicorn's BR several times and show the shield block animation on the rock on impact, similar to GP02A's cc8b blocking projectiles. The rock will disappear after hit though.

[pastryfuntube]

Doan's Zaku is from the legendary episode 'Cucuruz Doan's Island', episode 15.  Due to the request of the director Yoshiyuki Tomino, the episode was never airred on its run on Cartoon Network, nor was it in the DVD releases.  Despite that, it's a fan favorite among many due to the episode's... unique animation...

 

 

 

[WindmanV3]

Eh....he feels a bit stale to me. 

I dunno, maybe I got a bit spoiled because everyone was hella hyping Doan Zaku wherever I went.

Still, gotta love the rocks. 

I'll watch some replays. Who knows? He might have all this crazy stuff that I (or we) don't even know about yet.

[akai_GO]

a) wow. I need to find and watch that episode. that...is a thing of beauty rofl

 

b) I...ugh, I just don't know...I almost never play 1k, but Zaku Pawnch is admittedly really enticing... XD

[allenpergallon]

Lmao that episode was...something alright. Abridged version all day.
 

Maybe it's because I just woke up, but this guy seems to have hella boost. Despite being all around slow, the distance he sends people with his combos and BC's speed are really appealing. Still not sure what to think of the rocks yet, but it's nice that AB has some shield properties and doesn't fall in an arc like a does.

 

EDIT: Lmao of course he would when you set the boost to 200% on accident...

[GreaseMnk]

Added a short description of moves to the OP.

 

I can assure you all, Karate Zaku is an amazing 1K unit, he's so fast with his BC!

[Mightfo]

Some information observed from nicovideos such as http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm23340946

BC acts as a brake as long as you're reasonably close to the ground.(he will actually teleport a small distance to the ground, lol) So a huge key to him is taking advantage of the fact that you have both a grounded brake and a normal boost hop, which is extremely rare. You can also step cancel BC for the grounded sidestep brake, just be careful about overheat ruining the brake quality of grounded sidesteps. You may also want to be careful about not boost cancelling too early after you BC, cause you may cancel before your brake actually finishes.

 

Because of how BC works, it seems that you can do quick cut resistant combos. One melee hit, BC to whatever direction, another melee hit, BC to whatever direction, then do 8b which will put you close to the ground after it hits and then you can BC once more to brake. This way you can do at least 180 damage in a quick, somewhat cut resistant melee combo and you even brake at the end.

Of course, going for the high damage stuff when the other enemy isnt able to cut you is ideal, but those situations are not the norm, so please learn to do quick, safe combos that do decent damage in addition to the heavy hitters.

 

Rocks and assist seem underwhelming in tracking etc.

 

6b/4b seem solid in speed/reach/curvearound, the rest seem underwhelming in speed.

 

 

 

 
[AC] Core Fighter Assist /2: Calls the Core Fighter to fire it's MG and has decent follow of the enemy, recharges after one use, can only be used when recharge meter is at 75% or above. (Also protects children.)

 

Are you sure it recharges after one use? It doesnt seem to in http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm23342384 Seems to only recharge after you've used both and then you cant use it again until it completely refills(which takes 10 seconds) and reloads both.

 

 

I will buy him tonight. I still suspect he's underpowered in some matchups but he is still an interesting/fun 1k.

[GreaseMnk]

Thanks Might, I updated the post, I don't know what I was thinking with the whole 75% stuff!

 

Also the rocks are pretty useless, the large one has a knockdown but that's about it, they're mainly used to scare people which doesn't really work.

[donkey show]

Nah, large rock doesn't have knockdown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2lkgcybd3k#t=178

 

It'd be super useful if it did, but at the very least it can save you from the occasional BR.

[GreaseMnk]

That's right, I kept doing a combo of A>BC>A>BC>AB and it would knock them down, but that's because it's the end of the combo chain, I guess I should have just tried using AB once, I hope I'm not falsifying info here! O.O

 

All the things they should have done for his moveset, they didn't like recharging rocks after just one use would've been nice, the core fighter needs better tracking and large rock should really have knockdown, he's very underpowered.

I played him for a while last night and I found you have to be aggressive as hell to play so your support guy isn't attacked and it would be terrible to be separated from the support because his rock throwing skill is very poor, but his melee hits real hard!

 

His combos are super easy, but you'll need a good support unit if you actually wanna play as him, I find that having a melee support is the best option so the support isn't trying to run back to shoot the target.

[Mightfo]

here is an early doan guide i made i guess

ROCKS

Rocks are important. I think you should primarily save AB for close range. What's nice about AB is stuffing vertical movement, so you can prevent people from boost hopping away and such. It is actually nice that AB doesnt knock down because you can combo it into melee.

A can be nice at closer ranges too, but JP info seems to indicate that it is nice in its own ways as a poke, you just need to use differently than a beam rifle. So yeah, primarily save AB for closer ranges and get used to the advantages and disadvantages of A as a ranged poke.

MOVEMENT

I'd love to sit here and tell you that you should take advantage of doan's fantastic turn speed and BC brake.
 Sadly, Doan zaku doesnt really feel done. While in theory using lots of boost and taking advantage of his nice turning mobility and then braking with BC is a great idea, the problem is terrain. Even if you dont hop or anything, you will find yourself too high up for BC brake to actually work due to terrain(hills etc) and then your advantage is pretty much gone.  

They should've made Doan's BC work like how most ground runners' boost dashes work in the air- move towards the ground so that you "reconnect" with it. So while it is nice, especially when chaining off melee stuff, it is just not reliable due to terrain except on very specific stages.(No, not side 7.) Plus, even if you boost hop and then wait till you almost alnd and then BC before you land, it seems to be always like "Fuck you you boost hopped you dont get grounded movement."

His boost gauge does seem a bit bigger than average, so take advantage of that. Yay boost hops, yay turning.

MELEE

While his damage is pretty good, other mechs(lagowe, gn-xiii, duel, etc) have high damage melee while also being more versatile. Although, during burst his melee damage is veryyy nice, especially with super.

Anyway, 2b is nice. Its a really nice ender because the enemy spins in the air for so long, you can go focus on the other enemy. It also has the best priority among your melee attacks and trades will be in your favor due to the launch. So use that when worried about enemy melee and you're too close to AB or whatever.

His super's armor and damage is nice, but the reach/speed doesnt really work the same as other ranbu supers, so do not really treat it like those. Confirm combos into it or use it for its armor while fully aware of the fact that you can just get stepped or whatever.

Most of his melee has below average reach, except cc8b and IIRC 2b. doan pls
2b 6b 8b is a nice combo. 246 damaeg,

ASSIST

Punish enemies after they've gotten far from you, control a vector, whatever. Pretty nice, and the thickness of fire helps it be useful.


TACTICS

Your primary job is to just hunt for opportunities like a normal melee mech does. Threaten the enemy so they wastefully fire or move improperly. Corner the enemy so that they're no longer able to run away and have to go left/right/forward. If an enemy runs away, consider focusing on their ally so that you can 2v1 them with your ally- or act like you're about to do such to make them stop running. Condition your enemy and bait them.

Again, use your melee presence to try to corner the enemy. Their runaway eventually leads to hard choice, so safely herd them into bad situations or scare them into doing risky fire/movement. Think of yourself of having a sphere of "run away from me because I do melee damage" and try to take advantaeg of that to herd your enemy.



TEAMMATES

IMO, the best teammates for doan are those who:
1)Have good firepower to help him get good situations and prevent the enemy from moving so freely.
2)Benefit from cornering the enemy pretty well
3)Have good self defense in some ways
4)Are pretty good at capitalizing off when zaku manages to hit an enemy with a rock but cant combo off it.

For most of these reasons, I would suggest Gottrlatan, X-Divider, Qubeley, Banshee, as having above-average compatibility with him.


OTHER STUFF

How high 8b goes depends on how far away you are from the enemy, like gyan 8b. It is kind of nice how it gives you a grounded state if you get low enoguh to the ground so after it hits/whiffs you can use bc to brake.

Having 20 more hp as a 1k is nice.


Doan is kind of underpowered and you should probably play another 1k with nice melee. Otherwise, take advantage of rocks, his great turning, and his bc.
Furthermore, SEED owns but Kira should've thrown rocks. They should replace I.W.S.P. with R.O.C.K., Rocks Only Combat Kit.

 

[Densuo]

Can I just say this guy hits like a ton of bricks? His rocks ain't bad and his core fighter assist lets him in too.

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