VF5FS El Blaze Start Guide #2

Hello, my name is Shironuko. I'm a Patroklos user on a mission to rescue my sister from the clutches of evil. Along the way I was tricked by the likes of Nightmare, dear mother, but in the name of justice I'm doing quite well now thank you (lol). Oh, I also use El Blaze and would like to share some thoughts with you.

Blaze's Characteristics, Strengths and Weaknesses(top)

Blaze has great moves at all levels (high, mid and low), and though the words 'awesome firepower' don't really fit he does have a range of circular attacks and user-friendly moves. Blaze has all the moves you need to punish, making him a great choice for people new to the game. As for his throw game, he has throws that do decent damage, catch throws and crouch throws so you'll never be needy for offensive options.

His weaknesses are his lack of reach due to his small size, and the high damage he can take as a super lightweight. And that's it. That is to say, there aren't any greater weaknesses than those.

As Blaze you should always be asking yourself, 'How can I get in close to my opponent, stick to them and keep the pressure on?' You really have to think of Blaze as a close-range specialist.

Basic Skills(top)

Elbow class(top)

- Whenever you guard your opponent's attack, hit this. If you get a counterhit with this, you should follow-up with so practice your hitchecking. Also, if your is guarded and you think they'll counterattack with their own , your follow-up mid will hit them. If your follow-up is guarded however, you'll be super-punishable at -17f and run the risk of losing half your health bar against strong opponents so be careful about overusing it.

Upper class(top)

- Blaze's 'Volcano Upper'. This will put you in a backturned position. Leaves with a great nitaku opportunity on normal hit, and can lead to combos on counterhit. On normal hit, your nitaku choices are BT and BT (which has a throw follow-up on hit). If you think the opponent will abare go for , if you think they'll guard go for . I'll write the combos on counterhit later.

Knee class(top)

- When you guard against big moves like low sweeps, use this move to punish. This move is useful as a reverse-nitaku move too, other than that I don't really use it that much.

Circulars(top)

- A high half-circular and mid full-circular attack. After this move, inputting will put you into RD (Rocket Discharge; Blaze's special run). I'll write more on this later.

Throws(top)

You really only need 3 throws in Blaze's game:

1. - Throws the opponent forward. Use this to ringout the opponent when you've got them in the right position.
2. - Throws the opponent behind you. Use this to ringout the opponent when you've got them in the right position.
3. - Same as above.

Other Moves(top)

- An excellent move, this is a fast elbow class (14f) whiff punisher that gives combo chances on normal hit. Use this to hit them after you crouch under an attack but remember it hits high so you shouldn't use this as a nitaku move.

- Another great punisher that leads to combos on normal hit and also crushes lows attacks. Executes slowly so again, don't use this in your nitaku setups. Use this when you suspect a low attack is coming or as a reverse-nitaku against throw attempts.

- A catch throw, so the opponent can't escape it. Use this when at advantage, and when the opponent locks up hit them with this. It's rather slow though so if the opponent catches on to what you're doing they'll swat you like a fly, lol.

Use the aboves and you'll be able to slaughter your opponents. I'm sure some of you are saying things like 'I wanna spit that poison mist' and 'I wanna do that front rolling thing to freak out my opponents' but let me tell you this:

Being a super-lightweight, the damage Blaze eats can be ridiculously high. Like, ridiculously high. Shenanigans can get you destroyed in as little as 10 seconds! For those of you who want to try that kind of stuff out anyway, I'll write a section on that shortly.

Combos(top)

These are the bare basics. Get these down first, the aim for the moment is to pull these off without dropping them.

1. Combos
   Notes
2. (CH), BT,
   for all characters
3. , , ,
   for all characters except Wolf and Jeffry, against Taka omit
4. , ,
   for Wolf and Jeffry
5. , ,
   for all characters
6. , ,
   for all characters

Rocket Discharge (RD)(top)

This is Blaze's special run, and can be entered after certain moves or with /. There are moves Blaze can perform from this run, but for starters stick with these two:

RD - A mid attack with a or follow-up. You can combo off the , so to begin with get used to just using that.

1. Combos
   Notes
2. RD,
   for all characters

RD - A catch throw. The only way an opponent can beat this is by crouching or by abare.

So now you can apply a nitaku game out of RD with these moves, use them well!

Never use to suddenly charge at your opponent. For the time being just use () to go to RD. Enter (), and if the attack hits follow up with the above choices for nitaku pressure. If your () is guarded, cancel out of RD with .

Remember: Shenanigans can get you destroyed in as little as 10 seconds!

Basic Strategy(top)

1. Whenever you guard an opponent's attack, hit .
2. Perfect the combos listed above.
3. When you're at advantage; if you think the opponent will abare use , if they guard throw them, and if they evade use .

Do that and you should be able to rank up quite quickly.

From the Author(top)

It's easy to become stressed-out playing as Blaze, but he has all the tools he needs and his flashy style can be quite exhilarating!

Not a lot of people main Blaze but I'd like to welcome everyone who is willing to give him a try! The next top Blaze player may be you!!!

Shironuko

Additional Q&A(top)

Additional posts- These can be found after the main post (edited)

No. 81

No.82

Source: Shironuko's VF5FS Beginner's Blog post
Author: Shironuko
Translator: Modelah