Launching With PK's!

Launching With PK 101!

Basically, if the K part of the PK string CH's the opponent, you get a knockdown. Some characters can do a full combo when this happens and others can't do anything at all.

This can be a good abare strategy to use against opponents who often wait during their advantages. I believe this is strongest when you are at small disadvantage and your opponent is afraid of a string followup and will often wait during their disadvantage. People also develop this habit in order to deal with fuzzy guard and evade cancels.

PK Launch Tier List

S: Sorry, but Jean is PK launch God. He gets the most damage on PK launch in VF and has post PK mixups if you block PK. These mixups also either combo into knockdown or let him continue with a high damage combo anyways. He also has a lot of safe situations that allow for this tactic to be used.

- Jean (God of PK)

A: These characters do decent damage on PK launch, but they aren't Jean and they don't get mixups.

- Goh, El Blaze, Shun, Lion, Jeffry

B: These characters do less damage than A characters on PK launch.

- Akira, Brad

C: These characters can get a bit of additional damage sometimes.

- Aoi, Kage, Eileen, Jacky, Sarah

D: These characters can only get low kick attacks after PK launch.

- Wolf

F: Just no…

- Taka, Lei-Fei, Lau, Pai, Van DS, Van OS


*Random Tech Sidenote 2
- Abare throw is also a strong strategy against opponents who wait at advantage and is fairly safe as abare'ing with throw at small disadvantages will only allow for NH's.

I will often use both of these tactics (PK moreso) when I know my opponent is not going to react instantly to their advantage. The best thing to do in this situation is to continue attacking instead of letting them wait out your defensive techniques. If I can force my opponent to act instantly, defenses such as fuzzy guard and evade cancels will be more effective!

 

Sigh I wanna hear good news this year man

 

I'm a fan of this technique myself, Aoi gets a good with most characters while characters like Eileen suffer with ~ + (although the timing is strict). It's also a terror against walls although there are better alternatives against a wall.

Happy with her position on the list :3

 

yah blaze can do it but i've found it to be inconsistent with being able to float high enough for 6_p, 6pk to connect. like sometimes it will float high and other times it only floats like up to blaze's shoulder or whatever. if the opponent doesn't tech blaze can do green combos at any height like 2kpk6 for a rocket discharge mixup or 2kp, 6pk which makes most people go wtf just happened. i haven't messed with this for awhile though but i know it worked on alot of mid and lower weight characters.

one of my ghetto setups is 9p+k, bt p delay k wallsplat. i used to get ch p[k] for wallsplat alot randomly and was never ready to do a full wall combo until i sat in dojo one day to see what blaze could do.

ch p[k] is also funny for the half fence ring out.

edit: just went into dojo to mess with it for a bit. i was getting low floats from getting a regular k. you can't delay pk like you do other strings. have to be a bit faster. for blaze you know you're doing it right if the k reads 15f since the kick in pk and k look the same. vs. lion blaze can get 6_p, kkk to combo.

 

Are you really sure about the list?

Quick dojo check with Jacky;

works always, gives excellent oki,

other stuff depends on stance/weight, thus more unreliable but
IMO not worth the trouble

gives knockdown, yet again the choice between fall recovery or eating heavy pounce,

works better on Lightweight, FallRecovery required or opponent eats all 4 Hits

, : lightwight only, eat afterwards or fall recovery into oki pressure

Jacky is easily A Rank, less damage than Lion etc. but braindead easy works vs. all characters + heavy oki pressure + Jackys one-of-a-kind special Cancel

 

GT always has new tech up his sleeve.

 

With Blaze it's just the CH K that floats. If the P directly precedes it, K won't launch, even on CH. K by itself is just a poke.

 

ch p[k] launches. you'll know it's the pk if it comes out in 15 frames compared to a regular k which comes out in 14 frames. also the pk version will do 30 dmg as 1 hit on ch compared to 22 damage for k. you have to make sure pk doesn't combo for this to work. the k in pk needs to be 1 hit.

 

Which is what I was doing but I wasn't getting the Launch, but after Max Delay(?) I did get the launch and damage boost.

 

With Kage you can follow with up to middle weights.

 

Jeffry should be higher as he can do more than , as I outline in the combo section (after the move discussion): http://virtuafighter.com/threads/jeffry-101-a-guide-to-fs-jeffry.15708/page-2.

Also, he has , which gives an extended wall carry.

 

It's ok, she doesn't need it. She's got 3P+K anyways!

You're right! I knew this but it slipped my mind. I believe I need to add another tier to the list.

To test this I just set the CPU to attack after guarding and then just did P,K. I didn't test for very long but with Blaze I was getting at least just 6PK or KKK a lot of the time. I didn't test too long and made assumptions so I can very well be off on some of these.

No, I'm not : P. I figured people would correct me on some of these. 9K+G helps if it's guaranteed on most but in no way is Jacky's PK anywhere close to the characters in A.

I seem to have gotten Jeffrey the most wrong. Didn't try 2P, forgot about the followups etc.

I'll amend the tier list because he seemingly gets good damage and can also mixup off PK as well.

Jeffry still sucks though!

 

With El Blaze you should be able to get P, P, K and P,P,P,K after the float. If they didn't float high enough the K was delayed too long.

 

@Lucky_GT why does this work in the situations you described though? I know I don't have a play-style that this kinda things would work on quite so well, but I'm struggling to see why a player who likes to wait on their adv would choose to attack after they see you've pressed P then K?

 

When I use this, I just hit P,K instantly. I don't delay it because if I get NH or CH P then the K chains and I get +4 and some damage. It's all dependent on how long the opponent waited.

But anyways, why this is works is difficult to explain but I'm gonna try anyway!

Basically, your brain cannot recognize and react to the startup of P, during the startup of P. By the time your brain understands that you just blocked P you are already in the recovery frames of the attack. That means most of the important animation of this attack is "invisible" to your VF strategy as a whole. So, while you are blocking the active frames P, you may have hit a button. The startup of P is a relatively difficult animation to see, so that helps. I'm basically lengthening the window someone can use to lose. : P

Actually that was easier than I thought it was going to be!

To be honest, I would only bother making this a part of your strategy if you play Jean because the risk/reward is better. Jean is really SSS+ tier in his PK usage. Other characters have PPP strings that can help. For other characters it's good to be aware that if this happens, you may have additional damage.

 

Some of the stuff I found with Akira:
Against light weights:
2K+GP, 2P, doubleplam
Best guaranteed damage I found (around 80 iirc), but the timing for the 2K+G and 2P is chara specfic and maybe stance specific too.

2K+GPP
Less damage but easier as you don't have to have/remember the timing on 2P for each char/stance

DLC
seems to work on anyone any stance, so it seems like the go to option against char with hard timing for the combo above.


Double palm.
Just for the "hooaaaa !"

-Against midweights:

2K+GP, 2P, doubleplam
This one seems to be a "must be just teched". The timing of the 2K+G seems to be constant among midweights so in a way it is more reliable than for lightweight and only dependant on your opponent ability to do an exact TR. I think the 2P part may also be a just tech techable spot.

2K+GPP
Less damage but only one TRable spot

DLC:
need to test

Doublepalm:
hard and maybe stance dependant

Against HMW:
Not tested

Against HW (tested on Jeff):
Double palm= very hard and seems stance specific

DE: reliable damage (40 iirc) May require to 66...P to not whiff.

 

I just check with Sarah and she can get > on lightweight 74 dmg , and on mid weight > 71dmg close stance ( green combo on open stance, but need perfect tech )

 

http://virtuafighter.com/combos/index.php?ver=5fsa&chara=brad

I've listed Brad's counter hit combos in the first category. I could always make a combo, even if I could only get . The damage I could get ranged from 36 to 92.

 

Good stuff!

Nice! Will update the list.

EDIT : Good stuff for Akira as well. I made a tier list because...I felt like making a tier list!

 

GT, forgot to ask, but can you explain us in detail what Jean can do with PK launch ?