Ukyo Tachibana

IIRC Split Seal pushes off LESS, that's why you can end 2D xx Split Seal and be able to oki now without pushing your opponent too far off. But this doesn't explain why the 5HS whiffs, if the pushback is less, THIS should mean it should be easier to land 5HS as well, lol

So... I think they nerfed Ky 5HS for 1.1. Sure, they added a stagger to it (yay buff?) but I have reasons to believe that they made the hitbox for this a tad smaller. How I found out is in training mode, practicing combos as usual. My trusty reliable "uppercut punish" of 5S, 6K xx Split Seal, 5HS xx Stun Dipper hardly works now due to the fact that 5HS would randomly whiff. So I thought "Huh, that's strange, I've done this combo a million times in training mode - on Sol of all people, and now it's suddenly whiffing?" Then I went to the corner and tried to do a typical high damaging Ky combo: 5S, 6K xx Split Seal, 5HS xx DC Sacred Edge. Again, 5HS would whiff, and again, this is a combo I must've done over a million times and wanted to commit to memory so that I can confirm max damage combo every time I connected a hit and I had 50% meter. So then I thought, "maybe it's usually easier on crouching". Tried to do 6HS, (microdash) 5S, 6K xx Split Seal, 5HS xx DC Sacred Edge in the corner. Again, 5HS would whiff and THIS is definitely a combo I practiced many times to the point that I can confirm into this without thinking about it. Did further testing, and I found out that 5HS will ONLY connect in these combos if you have sufficient running momentum (about 2-3 seconds worth of dashing forward). But I've never had to worry about having running momentum in advance to even land these combos. I can only conclude for now that they made the hitbox on 5HS a tad smaller. Pretty important to know if you depend on 5HS for proper spacing/poking, and of course, combo confirms. If anyone else wants to test this for themselves, feel free. I wanna make sure I'm not losing it!

See, that's the problem I have with this. You're obviously not going to start this with 5K off bat to make it predictable enough to IB the 5K. You can be in the middle of a 6HS or CSE pressure and transition into this to mask your intentions within a fast paced speed of a match. The YRC freeze certainly helps, AND don't forget the fact that you still need one more frame to stand up and try to air throw (from a crouched position). It's not as easy as you make it sound but it is possible. If you're doing this in layers though and MORESO during a pressure filled tournament context, my money is on you not air throwing this at all. And if you do, mad props. You air threw me and you knocked me down - not any different from many other ways of getting knocked down.

I'm not too shabby with air throws myself, but if you manage to air throw a Ky player out of a 5K, 9D YRC, fall S/land 5K sequence (magic air throw considering), you'll get nothing but ultimate props from me!

In a vacuum, yes, you "can mash 5P" there. But Ky has other mixups and pressure he can use, that if you transition into this, I don't think the first thing your opponent thinks of is mash. It's a dangerous proposition to be mashing when Ky can mask his sequences in LAYERS. And this doesn't even factor in conditioning that you can put your opponent through, or the high levels of pressure your opponent would be in a TOURNAMENT setting. I'd say this mixup is better than what we give it credit for. This sequence was around in the old GGXX games when Ky had no landing recovery on his j.D and it was effective back then. IMO it's more effective now with the built in YRC freeze.

A legendary Dizzy player appears! What's going on, Anthony? Do you play Ky now? Haha

Most common dust combos for medium and heavy weight characters that most people use (myself included) is: 5D (homing dash) 5S, 6P, 5S, 2HS xx Greed Sever, 2HS xx HSVT, 5S xx Split Seal. About 135 damage. If you are dusting a light character, the combo remains the same except you at taking the 2HS xx Greed Sever part OUT of the combo. I don't do the double 6HS dust combos anymore because the 2nd 6HS whiffs on some characters (I think against Faust and Millia? Maybe some others). Haven't checked the rest of the dust combo variations but the most damaging one that I've seen yet was something Clayton / Final Showdown just posted on his Ky scraps video: 5D (homing dash) 6P, 5S, 5HS, (micro dash) 5S, f.5S, 3HS xx Greed Sever, HSVT, 2HS xx HSVT. Does about 151 damage. No split seal ender though - but very damaging if you already have RISC bar cranked up, or if you want a combo that will finish your opponent off. Works on most medium weight characters but seems a bit hard to do on Venom.

I can totally understand the 85% initial prorate on ground SE. That thing punished whiffed normals way too well when you YRC it (which then led to big damage into split seal knockdown) and it doesn't require much thought, but especially if you are already taking advantage of Ky frame traps / proper spacing to hang people with. Greer Sever having less pushback could be trouble - I occasionally throw this out at max range to induce abare but now it might be possible to punish.

Eh? I think blocking is the better option rather than jumping. Landing the mixup during DC CSE isn't guaranteed to land, while trying to jump creates at least two problems, and is the more riskier play.

Ending block strings into split seal may not be too bad. If you are close enough you may able to link 2D xx CSE then continue pressure when DC CSE activates. Sure, they may still be able to IB the 2D which may allow them to FD jump out, but there will still be a DC CSE on the ground and their only option is to block in that situation. You can probably opt to YRC the CSE too to mess up their timing of jumping out.

You can f.5S into 2S whiff cancel, which is a pretty good situation to YRC SE. 2S is a very good harrassment tool from max range in general so learn this range to control space!

I think I've come up with a simple tech that seems to be a good Dead Angle bait, if you have someone knocked down in the corner. Basically, on oki, do YRC CSE then IMMEDIATELY do Split Seal. So what ends up happening is you're putting a Durandal Call CSE right in their face. If they Dead Angle, even if you get hit by the Dead Angle, the DC CSE doesn't disappear and they'll still get hit by the last 2 or 3 hits of DC CSE once the invul frames from their Dead Angle wears off, putting them back in their disadvantageous situation again. If you choose to just block during this, you can still continue pressure afterwards! One thing to note is that this tech activates a minor "bug" from the older GG games that is still in Xrd. If the CSE and the Split Seal is blocked at the exact same time, the Split Seal will "inherit" the zero pushback attribute from the CSE. Which means - a lot of strings you do afterwards (even HS or D) won't push you off, until DC CSE ends - and you can even do tricky tick throw setups this way!

Really good games vs Sytha last night! You've got the best applications of YRC SE I've seen yet and if people want to learn these, you should post some of your match videos. Really liked your 6K link into YRC SE pressure, will try to incorporate that into my game as much as I can.

Super-stylish (Potemkin only) "Triple Split Seal" combo: Throw (in corner) RC, Greed Sever, 2HS (one hit) xx Split Seal, 2HS (two hits) xx Split Seal, 2HS (two hits) xx Split Seal. 116 Damage!

The first combo, you can substitute 5HS xx (DC) Sacred Edge (which may do more damage anyway) instead of doing 2D xx (DC) Sacred Edge. The knockdown isn't necessary in that combo because what you're trying to aim for is a wall stick, anyway. Plus against heavy characters, the 2D xx Sacred Edge might not connect. Best variation of this combo (as far as I've personally seen, close to the corner) is probably 5HS > 6K > 236D > 5HS xx (DC) Sacred Edge, micro dash 5S, 2HS (2 hits), HSVT. Substitute 5HS in the beginning for 5S if you can't get the timing down and the damage would still be relatively the same. You can basically transition into this combo if you land a meaty 6HS as an oki and you're near the corner.