Penguinator

The Rev 2.10 patch has been out on Steam for a while, and my thoughts on Axl changes are so far really positive. 2H lost its stagger, but in turn gained special cancel. Normal hit connects to Rensen at all ranges (as long as the second hit connects). On counterhit the second hit sometimes whiffs (especially on lightweights and jumpers), but that is a small price to pay for a fullscreen low poke that hitconfirms easily into meterless damage + knockdown. And while Rensen is obviously great on hit, it's also good on block, resulting in huge pushback, and the 6H/5D and other special moves can be used for a variety of legit options (as opposed to before where you only had a fifty-fifty between doing nothing for -4 or going for +20F startup overheads) . The startup is also now slower, but in ranges where you have to worry about that you should be using 2P in the first place, not to mention it makes frametraps with 3P > 2H and cS > 2H (possibly as late cancel) more effective. There are less gatlings into it than before, but its a fair tradeoff for 2H being so much stronger. 214P now combos on succesful counter, but recovers slightly slower on whiff. Unless you were using this move for taunting to distract the opponent, it's a huge buff, making the reward for a proper reaction or read way better. It's actually really good as an antiair in some situations; it was already good against really strong moves like Chipp jD or Ram sword jH, but now with the combo reward you might want to use it for any kind of antiair situations, though it still requires the opponent to make the first move and good execution to pull the command in time (ie. picking a right antiair for the correct situation is more relevant than before). 2363214H (ie. "Rensen-super") was modified to be punishable more easily (startup of second part was made slower, hitboxes modified) , so using it carelessly is now riskier. The hitbox modifications made it easier to connect more hits in some combos, but on the other hand harder in some combos; in long bomber loops into super finish it was easier to get 1-3 more than before even on light characters, but on Venom the very BnB-ish combo cS > 5H > 2D > 2363214H ´whiffs one hit (ie. the combo has 9 hits instead of the usual 10, though I'm not 100% if that's how it worked on Venom before as well). It might be more useful as a round finisher now, but without heavy labbing it's hard to tell the difference. Overall, these changes made Axl stronger. They weren't anything revolutionary that would turn around bad matchups into good, but were solid buffs for his existing strenghts. Combined with new Rev2 jump normals (which really helped his floaty air game), I think Axl has become much more complete as a character when compared to -Sign- 1.10 and Rev1 times. While there are still characters that you might want to pick for objectively stronger overall properties and toolset while being strong in the long range as well (ie. Johnny), his niche of "strong long range moves + unorthodox complementary tools" feels really fun to use now. Personally, at this point I would rather have fixes for small Axl problems and nerfs for the obvious S-tiers than any new big changes for Axl. The last missing piece that would truly feel great would be the holy Rashousen feint, but honestly the 2H changes were more than enough to satisfy me for now.

Jack-O is pretty versatile: she has an invuln reversal (2D), a variety of strong normals, command throws (regular and super), and the whole servant system which can be used for both okizeme and zoning. Ram and I-No aren't very versatile because their toolsets are designed for getting the knockdown and running mixups afterwards, former having midscreen combos that practically always carry to corner for sword setups and latter having the hoverdash that allows quick high-low mixups from any knockdown. Their only reliable reversals are supers, and I-No's isn't even throw invulnerable (unless you do the Burst version of it). Not being "versatile" doesn't mean the character isn't viable in tournament play, it just means the character is more polarized (eg. good mixup but no defensive options, big damage but bad mobility, etc.) compared to an orthodox character like Ky who has a good set of normals, good DP and projectiles, safe projectile okizeme for mixups, decent movement, decent damage, etc, but isn't particularly great at any single area (which means you need to adapt more to how the opponent plays).

I don't remember that being a problem for me, probably because I always do it with 1K (and play on keyboard) to charge for Rensen, which was a problem in previous versions since run > 2K > cS with Rensen charge turned into Raiei.

Now that the consumer version of Rev2 has been out or a while (even on Steam, the only avaible platform for me), I thought I'd share my own impressions so far. j.6K is a fantastic normal. It's great for meddling with jump-happy characters like Faust and Ram, and it gives better damage (connecting into Bomber) and positioning (the height after Bomber is lower than highjump j.H > j.D routes which makes the recovery quicker) from 6K combos that are too far for 2S (which is also a legit follow-up combo from low altitude 2S into j.S, j6P link). Not being able to airthrow OS with j.K might be a problem for some, but IMO it wasn't that great in the first place when compared to regular j.H (only 2F slower, more actives, and much bigger hitbox vertically). Haitaka is definitely better after the rehauling. The short startup and strong hitboxes make it actually useful in neutral, beating projectiles and even clashing with invuln stuff. Before Axl wasn't that strong in fullscreen range, but now he can force the opponent to act with limited options thanks to the unblockable and even on whiffed chain, the recovery is so fast you'll be safe most of the time. I feel the combos have become slightly harder after the hitbox adjusting (especally on thin hurtboxes like Leo), but being able to do all six hits for full damage AND restart the stance in time feels really satisfying, not to mention being able to actually combo from some counterhits like 5P and 6K(1). j.2S is a welcome addition, but I haven't used it enough to really know how to utilize it for its full potential. It's definitely great for preventing airthrow attempts (and converting the big counterhit into antiair BnBs after landing) and people running under jS, but its subpar gatlings prevent it from being that great, especially when it comes to being a jump-in or an instant overhead tool. Kairagi's second part air hitting is a pretty good thing. With 2D > Kairagi you can get almost as much damage + knockdown than from Rensen RRC combos with the added benefit of actual meter build. In corner, the 2D > Kairagi combos are now much easier to do since you can go into regular Bomber loops for pretty much optimal damage instead of having to link IAD j.H > j.D stuff with hard timing. In midscreen the ground tumble makes it harder to hit some hurtboxes (eg. c.S turns into f.S if you're too far, 3P > f.S whiffs on some characters, 6P whiffs over some characters etc), you can always play it safe with dash 5K if you don't care about the most optimal damage. So far the only clear nerf IMO is 6H being air blockable. While the possibility of air IB'ing it on reaction for a punish is something I'd only worry if I wanted to win at top level tournaments, the fact that it doesn't catch fuzzy jumpers makes it even harder for Axl to control the opponent with ground pressure. I guess this is another reason to start using 5D more since it has a big hitbox that catches jumpers, not to mention having overall better risk vs. /reward than 6H (normal/counter hit leads to a good combo, air counterhit leads to a good combo, on block it's pretty safe since it's -4 with big pushback, when interrupted with a CH you aren't floating right in front of the opponent for a huge air combo etc).

The fact that you will put a normal out when a throw fails is already enough since the normals and their commands are balanced for that purpose (ie. aside from Sol 5K, there aren't any ridiculously fast throw OS normals because 6Ps and 6Ks are either antiairs, overheads, or some sort of traveling kicks). Throws need to be done at practically point-blank range so they require several free frames for movement with either really fast walk speed (eg. Bedman, Jam) or dash FD break (all characters), which means they lose to both mashing and fuzzy jumps (and in situations where there's no time for normals, you can predict the throw and throw them back which results in either your succesful throw or a succesful throw tech). Mashing (which includes throw-mash since non-succesful throw puts out a normal) loses to frametraps, so instead of a SFIV situation where tech option selects are ridiculously strong, throws in GG are part of the natural and universal fighting game RPS cycle where block beats striking, throw beats blocking, and strike beats throws (GG has around 8F of throw invuln on wake-up). BB avoids teching being too strong with Throw Reject Miss mechanic, but in the end it leads to same results as GG: you were thrown because you were being too passive on defense (ie. holding down-back and barrier-tech instead of trying to mash or jump out). While having a throw command by itself wouldn't be that different, if throws were made to have longer startups, they would completely lose their meaning as a defensive option. IB + throw is one of the strongest defensive options in the entire game, and the fact that it's universal for every single character is what makes it a really great mechanic (eg. some characters have only 6F normals as their fastest punish options, so losing instant throws would really hurt them). Airthrows are the only valid antiair option in many situations, so making it weak would mean some characters would become much worse and overall lower the skill ceiling for top level play (eg. awesome stuff like Machaboo or Ogawa airthrowing people in the wildest situations would simply not exist). Having rolls would probably end up in the same result as BB: while there are various options for ground recovery, some characters simply have projectiles / setups that either beats all non-invulnerable options (quick rise, roll, not waking up) or creates a huge advantage on safe wake-up (neutral tech) which means in reality you have only two valid options. Changing Xrd in that way would require a huge amount of rebalancing (mostly thanks to all the YRC okizeme setups) and since characters with strong okizeme are designed to be what they are, they would most likely remain to be strong even after the changes so only the gap between strong and weak okizeme would get bigger. Burst Overdrives apply for the big, cinematic Overdrives that every character has only one of. In general they have long startups and big damage, which means they work well as reversals: Burst version even adds invulns to the ODs that originally didn't have any like Venom's Dark Angel or May's Great Yamada Attack. The other ODs characters have usually serve different purposes and would require a completely different approach to balancing. For example, Axl's Shark Strike has 5F startup, almost fullscreen range, but low overall damage and no invulns since it's designed for long-range combo extensions and punishes. Should a Burst version of it be invulnerable and do loads of damage? If not, then should it have some other additional effect? What happens with ODs like Sol's Dragon Install and Millia's Chroming Rose which aren't even traditional moves? Once again, this would only mean loads of work on balancing for a pretty trivial thing. As Ishiwatari has said in past interviews, one major theme of Xrd was to simplify things (eg. replacing move-specific tight FRC windows with all moves having lenient YRC windows) to make gameplay smoother. Adding complicated wake-up options, Force Breaks, and more Burst supers would be the opposite of that, and trying to balance it would be truckloads of more work for the developers that could be used for something much more interesting like new characters or completely new normal/special moves for existing characters (ie. what is already happening with Rev2).

Rev2 update for Steam version announced for 1st of June! http://www.arcsystemworks.jp/portal/post-4671/ Less than week after the console release, with the same price.

Millia has very oppressive 50/50 okizeme with the Tandem Top (aka "Disc"), but her pressure in neutral isn't that good. She has good normals and very high mobility (fast run speed & an extra airdash) while suffering from bad defense modifier (ie. takes more damage) and lack of meterless reversal, but they are ultimately just tools for getting the knockdown for Tandem Top / Secret Garden okizeme. Chipp has good okizeme with j.2K FD cancel and especially in corner with all the Wall Cling hijinks while also having better pressure than Millia with a great arrangement of tools (eg. DP, rekka, teleports, command grab, invisibility etc). He also has great mobility (fastest run speed & an extra jump) and very good normals, but he has the worst defense modifier in the game which makes winning with him consistently harder harder than many other characters. Jam has great pressure with her freestyle gatlings and jump-cancelable 2D, and after charging one card she gets really good mixups (including the ridiculous IAD DP crossup) on both pressure and knockdown. She also has good mobility (fast run speed, second fastest walk speed, though no extra jumps / airdashes), but since she requires charging a card for her best tools (including the invuln DP), she is much more reliant on momentum and solid gameplan than the previously mentioned two.

Rev2 ・SECOND LOCATION TEST CHANGES (translated by myself from official notes): All the changes from first location test are still there 6H - Is now blockable in air [ie. without FD] 2H - Counterhitable state reduced, cancel window reduced Raiei - Command changed to 623K Rashousen - Having up inputs [eg. 7, 8, 9] when executing the move makes the move not come out [this was mistranslated as Rashousen feint in a certain Google doc, but the Japanese wording is practically identical to Sol's command throw change] Haitaka - New changes: Command changed to 214H, stance cancel with H is not possible on hit Kairagi - Second hit hits an airborne opponent, the knockback effects have been overall changed The input changes are more (Raiei) or less (Rashousen) useful, but otherwise the new changes are nerfs, especially the fact that you can airblock 6H. It's hard to say how Kairagi will act now on airhits, but there's a high chance that old corner combos from 2D into wallstick are going to change and airhit in midscreen might be able to combo into something.

The Rev2 announcement stream said that a free tutorial mode will be added to the arcade version.

Translated stuff from relevant tweets by Kaon. https://twitter.com/Mr_kaon/status/822456384100790272 https://twitter.com/Mr_kaon/status/822457415283023872 https://twitter.com/Mr_kaon/status/822457665846579200 https://twitter.com/Mr_kaon/status/822458055220527106 Also, Shimonkin's tweet on gatlings etc. https://twitter.com/simo_niki/status/822280758555381760 In general these two players are saying the same stuff, but the information about new Haitaka is somewhat contradictory. I guess there's only so much you can get out of location test without wasting time on lining up again and again.

Rev2 ・FIRST LOCATION TEST CHANGES (translated by myself from official notes): New air normals: j.6K and j.2S [which seem to hit diagonally up and diagonally down, respectively] The cancel windows of 5P and 5H were extended Haitaka stance has been reworked: Startups, hitboxes and hurtboxes of stance attacks have been "changed drastically" When a stance attack is blocked, canceling into another attack is no longer possible After a certain time period of not doing any attacks in the stance, the next stance attack becomes unblockable [apparently around 3 seconds, indicated by "Yes!"] The new j.6K: The new j.2S: Impressions of new air normals and Haitaka by Kaon: j.6K: Two-hits, second hit vacuums Gatlings to j.6P and j.H [According to Shimonkin, gatlings from j.6P] Combos from 6K outside the 2S range; does better damage than the old j.6P route j.6K > j.6P > j.6K > Bomber is possible j.2S: One-hit move, no gatling routes into it Gatlings to j.6P and j.H Antiair 2S combos into j.2S > j.H > j.D > Bomber The range is good enough to hit crouching opponents even when done from a rising jump Can prevent opponent's airthrow attempts when you high in the air When doing an airbackdash, j.2S hits in cases where characters could slip under a j.S Haitaka: Follow-ups are possible on hit On block or whiff, there is almost no recovery Pressing H enters the stance cancel animation, so it shouldn't be pressed Entering the stance is really fast, seemingly twice as fast as previously Doing fastest Haitaka attack from 5P > 6K(1) is quick enough to force an airblock on opponent This leads to Axl canceling the stance (because of the block) and puts him at frame advantage

I transcribed few combos on the Wiki page from the Evernote with the table format. I encourage other people do the same since adding new entries is pretty easy by copy-pasting the empty rows and filling in the data between the " || "'s for correct columns. I do have to mention that I don't own any consoles so I can't test anythin out in CF; please fix any mistakes you notice in transcripts (eg. j.236A instead of j.214A) or notes (eg. knockdown info, the purpose of combo) and if you want to be of great help, fill out the Heat, Difficulty and Works on columns. Suggestions and feedback on the formatting are welcome too, for example: Heat Gain section could be replaced with Drill Level or Drill Gain since if the combo builds a significant amount of meter, it can be mentioned in the notes. I omitted the number of hits of a normal/special if it used the full amount (like 5B(3) and j.C(2) ---> 5B and j.C) to save space, but the original Evernote lists all hits (without brackets). One thing that could make the lists easier to read would be listing specials with their names (eg. Raibu, Gosei), but all the Zettou variations might make it more complex than it really needs to be.

Replace 4S with 5P and you've got Axl (with some differences like no self-chaining ground jabs, poor mobility and poor mixup). All the characters are designed for different playstyles and their tools are created and balanced for that purpose. Dizzy is still pretty new so she might get buffs (or nerfs if people unlock some secret potential in her), but otherwise you just have to live with what you got.

Slayer, Potemkin or Kum. Slayer doesn't have as much health the other two, but his Pilebunker combos (usually from counterhits) deal huge amounts of damage and stun. His movement is almost on the level of regular characters, but instead of run he has a teleport dash that goes through the opponent (and his backdash can be canceled into his special moves that retain the BD invincibility frames). Potemkin is a grappler, but in the corner his 6K loops and Trishula explodes the opponent. Potemkin has the best health in the game, but can not run or airdash, which is the reason he suffers in many, many matchups. Kum is about as big and healthy as Potemkin and her combos do lot of damage with few hits even in midscreen, but what makes her different is her regular movement (complete with an aerial special that changes her trajectory) and safe projectile okizeme that forces the opponent to guess few times.

Already posted about it on Axl forum, but it's "Sixth hit of Haitaka can not be stance canceled".