BlazBlue 2v2 Tournament Clinic Aftermath

First of all, thanks to everyone who made their way up here instead of going straight home and the handful of veterans also came up to spare a few tips or two to the newcomers. I expected it to become more of a console session than a 'clinic', but it, in the end, accomplished what it's supposed to do. Oh yes, thanks to Jonda and Vx especially for dropping by and generating hype. Wouldn't be the same without you guys.

It was a little messy, a little squeezy, but we couldn't ask for more. Even though we allocated a timing for everyone to be in the room, even though some 'illegally' remained, we are happy just because everyone is gracious enough to let the others have a chance to play. Shoutouts to Mizzet and Icecube, I can FINALLY talk to you all in a better, quieter and 'happier' environment...


It was only 3 hours, but it sure was tiring, possibly due to our lack of sleep. All the questions flying towards us were constructive and generally hard to answer in a short period of time. Questions like "How to use Tager to fight XXX?" or "How to get XXX into corner with Jin?" requires lots of matchup experiences and are too general to give a short answer. BUT most of the questions asked are good questions. I was actually afraid of people throwing annoying questions to me like "How to get Litchi's pole to hit the 2nd time in XXX combo?" but thankfully there wasn't.

A lot of you guys are generally good, just needs more experience so that you guys can get your combos and hit-confirms down. Also generally, everyone needs to mash less and block more. This applies to everyone I see in the clinic. Too many times you guys get counter-hit for no good reason.

Also, I'm happy to know that there are actually people who read the guides posted on this site. Jae and I came up with this site, and were worried about the potential traffic heading to it. I was honestly surprised when some of you guys went 'Oh he's Zio, he made the Hakumen guide on the WEBSITE'. This gives us incentive to continuously post more stuff here, to ultimately make a the one website for Singapore Blazblue players to drop by.


So thanks to all the participants for making me hogging my X360 all the way to Iluma worth it. I hope you guys had an enjoyable time, although I have no idea what's going on downstairs. If you guys have any complaints I hope you guys wrote it in the Limited Edition Feedback Form. STOP LYING TO THE FEEDBACK FORM OMG. Otherwise, forget it, bear no grudges and wait for the next event.

Please do visit the forums. Stop lurking now that you know us. We won't bite, much less eat you. More posts means more organizing needed means we might actually have our character sub-forums. Again, thanks for coming to the tournament AND not forgetting Arcadia for making all these very possible. Your immense and willing contribution for the community will not be forgotten.

Faylar

Yay new mouse!

Since the day I bought and dragged my new com home 8 friggin' months ago at IT Fair at Expo, I have actually been playing games on a ball mouse. It has a model name: SAGM002, and after a bit of Googling, I found out that it's by this company called Sysgration. Not to say it's a bad mouse aside from its horribly sticky scroller though.

I hadn't really felt the need of a new mouse. The days when I played Bad Company 2 on it frequently, I mostly felt like I died because I deserve it instead of the mouse. Hey, maybe it's just BC2. Maybe if I played Modern Warfare 2, I'll think otherwise. Regardless, I can get headshots, turn 180 degrees quickly and still felt that I played pretty decently.

Then came Starcraft 2. Played at least a 100 games using the same ball mouse. At first it didn't matter, but when I slowly improved and fighting getting opponents, losing because you can't fire off an EMP where and when you want it to seriously bugs the hell out of me. What do you mean that I spent 15 mins to build up my army, expecting to collide into yours and LOSE because my mouse REFUSE to move to the right spot (there were 4 buddy-buddy templars groups together at the back).


These occurrence happened more frequently as I play. Suddenly while I'm working on codes, I realized that I was having difficulty SCROLLING to find a line of codes. Suddenly, I realized that I'm having problems HIGHLIGHTING a small amount text for replacing. Suddenly, I realized that the ball movement noises irked the hell out of me.

So I just decided to by a new friggin' mouse! So I shopped at Funan Challenger last Monday for a new mouse. I saw the selections and realized that I only know two brands of mouses thanks to being elitist/gamer: Logitech and Razer. The rest of the mouse are either too mobile-friendly (for laptops, ie they are really small and don't have the wire length), wireless (usually heavy, irritating to maintain and of course, lag), or suspicious (everything that's not Razer/Logitech, and as such making this long sentence irrelevant anyway).

I eyed at all the strange new Razer mouses. I wanted one that felt like good old Copperhead or Diamondback. Then I looked at the cheap $50 Abyssus. It looked incredibly suited for my needs but my elitist self just went "It's a cheap mouse!". Undecided and dejected, and convincing myself that TechDrome probably sells for cheaper, I headed to Sim Lim.

So I don't really know mouse stats that much. I called YH to ask if laser or infra-red actually means anything. The reason I was asking was because Abyssus is $50 infra-red 3500DPI and Copperhead is $90 laser 2000DPI, which didn't really make much sense to me other than 'laser is probably more expensive to produce, so actually Copperhead is extremely not worth it now since DPI is lesser and it costs more'.

I asked around the staff in the end. God I love TechDrome guys; they seem to know every shit there is to know in their store. I just told him "Actually, I'm looking for a mouse to upgrade from my BALL mouse" and they were like "Wuuuuuuuut??!" and started asking if I play FPS and stuff. I just said "No, I just want to play SC2 semi-seriously and the ball mouse almost killed me last game".



So this jolly big plump spectacled guy pointed at the $50 Abyssus and started throwing all kinds of information, most of which I don't really need to know in all due seriousness but my elitist self would just get high listening to. He could've just stopped at "Abyssus is good enough for RTS", but he went to add info like "Korean SC2 players are sponsored these in their tournaments", which should've made me go "Are you sure?" but instead I went "OMG IT'S MINE WHERE MY ATM CARD?!?".

So I picked it, he tried to tempt me into buying a SC2 mousepad which my elitist side actually lost (not a huge fan of SC2 story anyway, mostly a fan of it's mechanics). The friendly uncle gives me a good discount, which makes me wish (once again) that TechDrome should never fall.

I went home, coiled up the ball mouse that is SAGM002 and plugged in my brand new Abyssus. Wow, I suddenly felt POWER. All of a sudden, I felt I can accomplish anything and I can play any game. I didn't felt like this when I was using Copperhead. It's probably because I was using a ball mouse for so long and jumping to a 3500dpi Razer is such a huge huge huge step. I guess subconsciously, I really really missed using an actually good mouse.

And also, it's good having a glowing, stylish mouse on my computer again. Anyway, it's a great mouse, definitely more than you need as an RTS player. If you are looking for a good gaming mouse and don't need the extra buttons everywhere (gosh are people THAT lazy?), Abyssus is definately good bang for buck.

Random update yet again!

Wow, it's so long since a random update (aka rant on IRL). It's been a month? Yeah sounds about right. Last rant was about how ironic my posts are? Really feels like ages ago. Oh look! 7 sentences about the same topic and getting nowhere! Might as well add one more!

It hasn't been the busiest of months. Well it actually is a little busy but I'm happy I got it all more or less covered. Digipen stuff is finally kicking in. 2 more weeks to hell! Am I looking forward? Hmm, why not! They just sent me this class registration thingy. Apparently I'm to take 4 semesters per year instead of the 3 that I thought. 4 semesters. Is that even possible? Anyway, I'm getting the matriculation card sometime this afternoon, maybe get a proper mouse for my com.


Speaking of mouses, I'm still using a ball mouse. Maybe that's why I'm doing quite good in Bad Company 2 and playing a little badly at Starcraft 2. At least when the ball gets stuck, I get the headshots I want because there is no movement once I got it right. Starcraft 2...well, I can't select the right units some times under high APM conditions (during fighters, harass, whatever).

Well I'm still stuck in Silver League. I'm finally getting some great win streaks now so hopefully I won't be there long. I have to admit that I just realized that I'm biting more than I can chew in SC2, going for advanced strats like 1/1/1 raven against Silver League players, when 2 racks fast ghost accomplishes so much more. Lesson is to learn 1 basic strategy, learn it good, learn it almost perfectly, and THEN switch to another strategy once you get used to it. Yeah, I realized that after like a hundred mindless games of not knowing what's going on.

Anyways, aside that lemme try to recap what happened this month. Sunday DND was mostly on hold due to...complications? Yeah I guess I can say that. Nothing serious, mostly schedule clashes. Hmm what else; Starcraft 2's release, random game testing sessions with GAMBIT, Friday arcading is still on, Digipen orientation done (worse orientation ever), THE Project is doing fine, had a couple of lunch/dinner/supper outings, NDP appreciation dinner...well I guess that covers everything. Nothing much to elaborate about.


So there isn't much to rant about, aside from the orientation, but then again I hated those kind of orientations. I'm amazed I even went for it but I shan't elaborate about it. It's just the same old ice breaker after ice breaker between a bunch of people, 80% of which we will never ever see until the day we graduate.

I really do hope I still have time to update this blog with content once school starts. It's really fun just ranting and typing out random articles during my free time. Reviews might start to get slow due to lack of play time, but more game specific articles might surface. I dunno. Time will tell I guess.

4E DND: "Fighters: Stick to 'em like glue!"

OVERVIEW

If you are new to DND, you'd think that fighters are a boring bunch. Those that played previous installments of DND know better. Fighters, probably since the day Gary Gygax gave birth to DND, have been one of the most versatile and open class in the game, and the same goes for 4E.

There are so many ways to build the Fighter. They are a great class to multiclass or hybrid into, they have so many viable builds with Martial Power 1 and 2 entering the game and if you are into roleplaying, they are one of the easier classes to form a background with. There are indeed many different styles to build your Fighter towards and they are all very strong, but that is because all fighters share the same root. And because the root is solid, the branches become solid as well.

So here, we'll not go through the branches and styles of play. That's up to you to read up, discover and explore. No, here, we are simply looking at what makes ALL Fighters one of the most solid, easy to play and reliable Defenders in the game. We are simply going to take a look at the 'root'.

If you are unsure of what to expect of Defenders, you can take a quick overview at this post.



THE CLASS

Fighters are one of the most sticky defenders, if not THE most sticky defender in 4E DND. Having one in your party really makes life easier for everyone. It's also an easy, yet versatile class, so playing a Fighter can be pretty fun both for newbies and veterans alike.

So here we are going to cover the key points of the Fighter and what makes him such a lovable meat shield.

Stickiness - As mentioned above, Fighters are incredibly sticky one-to-one thanks to his Combat Challenge and Combat Superiority abilities.

According to Combat Challenge, if the target of the Mark shifts or hits anyone that is not you as a target, you make a basic attack as an IMMEDIATE INTERRUPT. This means that it is a PREVENTIVE move.

On top of that, Combat Superiority states that if you hit an opponent during his Move Action via an Opportunity Attack, he doesn't get to move and would have used up his Move Action.

With these two abilities, it means that if a target tries to move OR shift, he would get hit anyways. And fighter's DPS isn't something you'd want to deal with. And soon you'd realize that the target might as well try to hit you anyways as the safest and most logical option.

With good Wisdom modifier to boost the Combat Superiority ability, Fighters seemingly 'roots' everyone within his threatening range, allowing your party to happily do whatever they want.

Durability - Well, Fighters don't really have anything that makes them especially durable. Compared to other defenders, he's pretty average and simple. He comes with proficiency in Scale Armor and having a solid amount of Hit Points and Surges. He has what it takes to be a meat shield, no doubt, but he doesn't have anything special.

Damage - I mentioned before in the Defender Overview post that damage is important as a Defender because having a painful Opportunity Attack gives all mobs second thoughts before they make their move.

Fighters have great damage, if not the best damage, amongst all Defenders. Not only that, they also have one of the better To-Hit compared to other Defenders. Just by looking at their Player's Handbook 1 At-Will Powers should give you an idea about their damage:

Cleave - Does damage to 2 opponents at once.
Reaping Strike - Does damage even though it misses.
Sure Strike - A lot higher To-hit

Fighters' Powers most revolves around dealing damage, with a handful that buffs himself or helps his allies. In fact, they are quite comparable to Strikers in terms of damage output.

Battlefield Control - Aside from their incredibly sticky mark, fighters have more tool to help n battlefield control. Some of the Fighter's Power have the push/knockdown/slowed effect as well as allowing him or his allies to shift. This makes him a mini-Warlord/Controller.

Just look at the Player's Handbook 1 At-Will 'Tide of Iron'. It allows the Fighter to push a target smaller or one size larger (this is very important) 1 square away AND allows you to shift into the space he occupied. This opens up tons of options for the fighter. He can shift in to get into better position for his Stickiness and he can push and knock the target into another object making him fall prone. The fact that he can push one size larger creatures (you know, those that occupy 4 squares) makes it even more valuable.

But that is only an At-Will. If you look at his Encounters, Dailies and Utilities, you'd realize that Fighters not only do good damage, but is also able to manage the battlefield much like a Warlord (to a lesser extent) is also able to knock opponents down here and there.


WEAKNESSES new!
Thanks to Lester for pointing this out. Fighters DO have some weaknesses after all.

Fighters don't have any variety of weapon type damage. Paladins have radiant, Wardens have lightning and frost, Swordmage got...everything? So Fighters don't really take advantage or inflict any vulnerability status on the enemy.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Fighters are good damage dealers, incredibly sticky, extremely versatile and has pretty good control over the battlefield. They can help their allies and themselves shift into a good position and knock enemies around.

They are fun to build and use as a newbie and as a veteran alike. It's pretty hard to screw up building a Fighter, even with it being versatile. Definitely worth a look and try. If you are afraid to end up building a screwed up Defender for your party, Fighter is definitely for you.

last update 22/8/10

Review: "Theme Hospital"

I just had the sudden urge to play good old Bullfrog games. Come to think of it, I loved most of the popular Bullfrog game out there: Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate Wars...

So I dug up my Theme Hospital. It's a real pain to get it fully working on Windows 7, and eventually I give up and played with a minor graphical glitch. Well, it's either that or no sound. Why can't it all be so simple, Microsoft?

The game itself isn't that easy. I don't remember completing the game at all. There are a ton of elements in the game, and most of them are quite invisible. However, despite that, it's still a great game to play.

A cheesy but cute way of showing levels

So let's have a brief overview of the game. There are three parts to your hospital: Rooms, Staff and Miscellaneous Items. Rooms are the places your staff works and hang around, as well as patients to use. Miscellaneous Items cover from radiators to benches to vending machines.

First we take a look at Rooms. There are 3 kinds of rooms in the game: Diagnosis, Curing and Others. Diagnosis rooms are places where doctors try to figure out the exact sickness of the patient. Examples are X-ray scan, Cardiogram and incredibly good but expensive Scanner (feels alike to MRI scanner).

Curing rooms are rooms where you literally cure the patients. Example room that relate to real life are the simple Pharmacy, Psychiatrist and Operating Theater.

Other rooms are just rooms for general purpose like Staff Rooms, Toilets and Lecture Rooms.

Hiring your staff takes some time to think

Next we look at Staffs. This is divided into 4 different kinds of staff. The most important and complicated is the doctor. Doctors come with 3 levels of experience: Juniors, Doctor and Consultant. Consultant have the best success rate when it comes to identifying illnesses and they can lecture other doctors in the lecture room.

Doctors can also come with specializations. Certain rooms require a specialized Doctor to use. There are three specializations: Psychiatrist, Surgeon and Researcher. Furthermore, a consultant with a specialization is able to teach Junior doctors their specialization over time.

Nurses are required to run pharmacy, wards and the Fracture Clinic (a curing room). To that extent, they are rather important and are generally cheap. You don't really need many of them to run the hospital, thankfully.

Then we have Receptionists, who simply just handle...reception? You would usually forget about them though since they don't really complain about their pay or spend their time resting in staff rooms.

Finally we have the Handyman. I had a ton of problems with these guys as they are always asking for pay increase. These guys water your plants, fix your machines and cleans up the entire hospital. To that extent, they are very important.

Make sure your rooms and items are easily accessible!

Lastly we'll look at Miscellaneous Items. Benches are for your patients to sit down. If they spend their time standing while waiting, they will get impatient and are prone to leaving your hospital due to frustration. So benches are incredibly important to your hospital.

Also there are Radiators which you place to keep your place warm. I have no idea how it affects your staff or patients directly, but having a radiator in each room seems to make less people angry. Finally we have the vending machine, which also helps keep patients happy while they wait.

Need a loan? Borrow from the bank!

So with all that, I have went through the overall mechanics and items of the game. It's very easy to pickup and learn from your mistakes when you start getting the hang of it. The trick is that there are many many elements to the game (some not listed here like Loans, Earthquakes and Epidemics) and you must really keep track of everything if you wish to advance to the next level.

The only real problem is that there are too many invisible variables. How cold is cold? Doctor experience bars are hard to gauge. Why do my patients start vomiting? Where do mouse holes come from? Why are my Handyman angry?

Otherwise, this game is quite balanced and fun to play. I hope everyone who loves simulation games at least give this game a shot. It's probably one of those 'accident' games, where developers throw in their ideas and try to see if it's good. It so happens that it actually is a good game.

BBCS: Jin Kisaragi Guide by Faylar

*This guide is made by me and can only be used on Round1.sg Forums or BlazBlueSG website. If you wish to use this guide on your site, please email me for my permission.*

Introduction
Jin is the most versatile in the game. He has a multitude of options and tools to tackle lots of different situations in the game. His strength is actually his weakness, however. He is neither as solid as Ragna or Hakumen, nor as fast as Taokaka or Noel. He doesn't have the keep-away mobility of Lambda or the zoning abilities of Litchi. Worse of all, he doesn't have the damage unless you managed to corner or counter hit the opponent. In other words, he is a jack-of-all-trades.

General Strategy
Jin has the fastest and easiest ways to bring the opponent to the corner. His greatest damage and options will be avaliable to him once he corners the opponent. As a Jin player, most of your gameplay should revolve around trying to corner the opponent by abusing the weakness of your opponent.

Jin does not have a general method to deal with all characters, aside from trying to push them to the corner. Although it's important to learn character matchups, it is more so for Jin since you need to know which tools are good and which are not against each member of the cast. Jin’s tools are rather situational so it’s good to learn their strengths and weaknesses before you use them.

With 5 guard primers, Jin can last a good amount of time when being pressured. Use that to your advantage.


Character Matchups
Jin is very versatile. I don't really find him having problems with most of the cast. Here's a list of my thoughts. Note that’s it’s based on my experience and is prone to be subjective.

Very Easy: Rachel

Quite alright: Noel, Tsubaki

Not so bad: Carl, Arakune, Lambda, Tager, Hakumen, Litchi, Ragna

Quite bad: Taokaka, Bang

Jin’s Drive
Jin’s Drive is called Frostbite. All Jin’s D attacks and throws have this property. When you land them the first time during a combo, the opponent will be encased in ice, opening more combo options for you. Subsequent D attacks during a combo, however, will not freeze the opponent.

You might notice that Jin has 4 separate dividers for his Heat Gauge, unlike other characters which have only 2. When Jin executes a D version of his Specials, he will spend 25% heat. A D version of any of his specials does not follow the same Frostbite rules as his normals and throws. All his D Specials will freeze the opponent regardless of whether he had been once frozen or not during a combo.

To compensate for Jin’s overuse of his Heat Guage, he gains them back significantly faster than most characters.

Jin's Normals
5A -Jin slaps with his backhand. This is Jin's fastest normal. It hits quite high so it doesn't hit crouching opponents. Link it to 5C if you manage to catch the opponent in the air with this move.

5B -Jin sticks his foot out and vacuums the opponent in with a second hit. The vacuum effect is very good as a lockdown tool and it opens opportunities for pressure. The 2nd hit has pretty bad proration on it though, so if you can combo without the 2nd hit, by all means.

5C – Jin slashes with his sword. This is Jin's most useful normal. It actually has two hitboxes. This first one covers slightly above Jin's full hitbox, making it a generally viable anti-air for catching certain characters right above your head. The second one hits horizontally in front of him. This move is also jump cancelable on block, giving you more options to play with.

5D – An ice wolf appears from Jin’s hands. This move has very slow startup, only allowing you to combo 5C to it only if it counter hits. Furthermore, you can no longer chain it to any of Jin’s Specials except for Drive Specials and Distortions. Due to its startup and recovery, this move is one of Jin’s most unsafe moves. This move is dash cancelable.

2A - Jin pokes you with his scabbard. This move is your bread and butter mashable A normal. It can be used sometimes to anti air due to Jin’s rather low crouching hit box. It also has good range.

2B - Jin swipes you with his hand. This is Jin's fastest low attack (he only has 2), although it’s a bit slow. Still, we can't complain; at least he has a low and you can combo into it from 5B. This is also the move you use to lift downed opponents with.

It has really bad proration so try not to use it unless you really need to. If you do, try to keep your combo short and sweet.

2C - Jin slashes vertically, and really high up. This Jin's main fatal counter move. Although it has a slow startup, you must give it credit for having a great hitbox. Opponents must also barrier or instant block to block this move in the air. If you wish to use it for its fatal counter properties, make doubly sure that it will hit in time. For everything else, 5C will do just fine.

This move actually reduces Jin's hitbox significantly so it is actually a viable slow anti-air option. A well aimed 2C will force some air attacks to whiff, giving you the fatal counter hit.

2D - Jin summons a giant icy sword at the front, vacuuming the opponent in. One of the few moves buffed from CT. Jin's new and improved 2D is now faster, allowing it to be a pretty good block string from 5C if you manage to get the distance right. The reward is a +5 on block or even better, a hit. Either way, you win.

It has potentially many uses like using it to catch backdashes or tech rolls. It still is unsafe on whiff, just not as bad as it used to be. Note that it is considered a projectile.

6A - Jin spins his katana and bonks you with the hilt! Your one and only overhead. This move is extremely unsafe on block since you can only special cancel it only on hit. Still, at least it's faster than Hazama's and Tsubaki's.

6B - Jin jumps and kicks his opponent. His move is mainly used to punish people who try to throw or mash low attacks at you. It rather safe on block too.
This move is linkable able even from 6C and it can be special cancel-able to any of Jin’s air specials. Note that Jin doesn’t instantly jump off the ground at the start.

6C - Jin steps forward in faith and swipes upwards with his sword. This move is your standard follow up from a 5C counter hit. Canceling it to 236A makes it relatively safe. 6C can be very good against certain characters that relies a lot of jumping, or doesn’t have good damage from upfront. However, it takes time to get used to it as in anti-air.

6D - Jin creates a wall of ice. It's really slow, but it is relatively fine against most characters if you do it within 5C distance. It hits really high up, so cornered opponents who loves to jump might have some trouble escaping.
If you do manage to land it, it's free pressure game reset for you with its +12 on block on top of removing one of the opponent’s guard primers.

3C - Jin break-dances and sweeps. Jin’s sweep is potentially very good. It goes under things like Bang's 5A on startup. It's on a 10 frame startup so it's as fast as 5C. Remember that it's special cancel-able anytime during its recovery.

j.A - Jin pokes with his scabbard. It's a rather decent fast poke in the air and it's better than it looks. Use it to stuff instant air dashes against you when you expect it.

j.B - Jin swipes around him with his cloth. This is the move that everyone complains about Jin. It serves as everything: good range, good hitbox around him, good priority, meaty, good everything! It is also his move flexible air attack as it can link into any of his jumping moves.

This move actually has multiple hitboxes. It hits above Jin first, before hitting below him.

j.C - Jin stretches and reaches out with his sword horizontally. This is a little situational, but otherwise a really good poke. It’s a great move to use when you want to zone in the air.

The great thing about this move other than its reach is its recovery and its startup. You can jump, execute j.C and recover fast enough to do a double jump. This, coupled with his air projectiles, it makes Jin very flexible in zoning people in the air. Also, it’s starts up as fast as j.B.

j.2C - Jin spins to strikes above and below him. This move is fantastic lockdown both for aerial and grounded opponents, especially on jumpy, slow and fat characters like Arakune. It strikes really higher than it looks, so it can be a great tool to bring people down to ground level. The bad thing is that it can be a bit slow.

You can also link this move into j.C even on block, so it's not really a dead end for you when your opponent blocks it.

j.D - Jin stops and freezes everything around him. It’s mainly used as an air combo ender with its freezing properties. This move can also be used as a cross-up maneuver, since it hits both in front and behind him.

Jin's Throws
6B+C - Jin's forward throw. Not very combo-friendly unless you land it at the corner. You'd really rather use back throw in most situations.

4B+C - Jin's back throw. This throw is much more powerful compared to its forward variation as you can pull of a 3.5k combo into a D ice car, pushing them into the corner.

jB+C - Jin's air throw. Like his back throw, you can combo into a 3.5k combo that ends with D ice car.

Jin's Specials
Hishouken
(Ground Versions)
236A - Jin throws an ice sword horizontally. The recovery is pretty bad.

236B - Jin throws an ice sword horizontally that moves really fast. You can try to catch some characters off guard with this, but otherwise, the recovery is worse than 236A.

236C - Jin takes his time to launch a really slow ice sword that accelerates to 236B's speed. This is mainly used after his 3C sweep for pressure options. It catches tech rolls so when done at the corner, it prevents opponents from roll teching past you.

236D - Jin launches a big ice sword. It lasts for 3 hits and gives you more than enough time to recover and pressure. It's essentially a very good move to use especially if you want to break guard as your main objective. The problem is its rather slow startup. This move costs 25% heat and breaks only one guard primer.

(Air Versions)
j236A - Jin shoots a rather slow ice sword 15 degrees downwards. It's comboable at counter hit at weird angles and positions. When done high enough, you can recover before you reach the ground.

j236B - Jin shoots a rather slow ice sword 45 degrees downwards. Same as j236A as far as its properties goes.

j236C - Jin shoots a rather slow ice sword in the air that travels horizontally. This is the move that's most likely to hit your opponent. Being a projectile that moves horizontally, it covers the most distance. Like 236A and B, when done high enough, you are able to recover before you reach the ground.

Watch out for counter hits when you do this move. When you happen to be on the ground when the projectile counter hits, you can combo into the 5C 6C juggle, or catch them with 2D if they are too far away.

j236D - Jin shoots out 3 ice swords, one moving in 236A/B/C's directions. Unlike the rest of his air projectiles, Jin doesn’t recover until he reaches the ground. When one of the swords hit, the opponent is immediately frozen, regardless of him being frozen in the combo or not.

One common trick is to do 5B 5C block string and immediately IAD and do a fast 236D for a left right mixup.

Musou Senshouzan
214A - Jin rides an ice car. It's unsafe except at certain distances since you recover faster.

214B - Jin rides an ice car, and upon impact, slashes the opponent. Like all ice car attacks, it's unsafe on block, even worse on IB. Never EVER use it during a block string unless you have something funny in mind in conjunction with rapid canceling. This move removes a guard primer on its second hit (the slash).

214C - Jin floats higher and rides a pretty big ice car, and upon impact, slashes the opponent and knocks them down. This version starts up slower so it might not link during some combos. It also travels the furthest distance, second only to its D version. This move removes a guard primer on its second hit (the slash).

214D - Jin rides an ice taxi, and upon impact, slashes the opponent and sends them flying across the screen. This is THE move for getting your opponents to the corner. It is also the fastest and furthest travelling ice car, allowing you to combo what even the B version cannot. It costs 25% heat and removes a guard primer on its second hit (the slash).

Sekkajin
mash C at least 5 times - Jin swings his sword wildly. The longer you mash C. the longer it lasts. It's usually used during combos, where you mash until the 8th hit, which floats the opponent from the ground with decent untechable time.

Fubuki
623A - Jin swings his sword in a swift strike 45 degrees above him. Opponents are forced to IB or barrier it, or eat it. It is 6 frames startup easily the fastest move he has next to 5A. On counter hit at the right height, you can link his 632146D super. At corner counter hit, it just means big damage coming his way.

Don't mash it though. The recovery is pretty horrid and people who see it coming might IB it and land fast enough to put you in the world of hurt. This move breaks a guard primer.

623B - Like 623A, only slower, much more untechable time on hit, flies opponent higher, as well as invulnerability from 6th frame onwards. The invulnerability lasts quite a while so it can be used to catch people off guard. Still very unsafe though and it is too slow to use as a reliable anti-air.

Despite all its quirky properties, this move is mostly used during a corner combo. This move breaks a guard primer.

623C - Jin's only real tensionless startup-invulnerable reversal move (a.k.a shoryuken). It starts up incredibly slow, so it's easy for opponents to throw a fast attack and still recover fast enough to block it. The rewards for landing it aren’t that great though. In most cases, it's better doing the D version. This move breaks a guard primer.

623[D]]D[ - Jin's fastest shoryuken move. This move scales very well and is an incredible combo starter at the corner. Landing it on an opponent near the corner can easily net you 5-6k damage.
When you execute this move, you can hold the D button and charge the 2nd hit, and release it whenever you want. If you charge it long enough, it will become unblockable.

Both hits must be instant blocked or barriered while in the air. This is the move that most people fighting Jin fear of getting hit by. This move costs 25% heat and removes a guard primer on its second hit.

Jin's Distortion Drives
Touga Hyoujin (632146C) - Jin cuts the air, summons a fast moving freezing wave towards the opponent. It flies across the screen, stopping anything in its path. If Rachel tries to blow animals at you, you will mercilessly kill them all and hit her in the process. This is THE move to use if you really want to punish something totally out of your reach.

On ground hit, the opponent will have left stunned for a long period of time, allowing you to run forward and 2D to catch them before they can tech out.

A few things to note: it does not have invulnerability frames, and also using it too close will only result in a few hits only. It also breaks a guard primer.

Hiyoku Getsumei (632146D) - Jin shoots an arrow towards the sky. This is Jin's only distortion with invulnerability frames. It might not hit on certain crouching characters. This distortion does a lot of small hits, so it's does okay damage even when prorated badly.

You can also use this to catch characters in the air while they are doing their specials, but make sure you hit them or you will suffer for nothing.

Yukikaze! (236236D) - Jin's version of Hakumen's counter distortion. A few differences though. Firstly it doesn't counter low attacks. Secondly, it doesn't last as long. Thirdly, you can't combo after it unless you RC.

Forthly, and finally some good news, if your opponent can jump away (because you catched a projectile or something perhaps), you are totally invulnerable until you sheath your sword. This move also gives fatal counter properties.

If you wish to learn or discuss more about Jin, please visit the thread at Round1.sg forums HERE

Writeup: "Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty"

Like I said before, I'm not going to do a review of Starcraft 2, or any RTS ever, as I don't even explore the full game (single player, play 2v2 or whatever...only played 1v1 ladders). But I figured that after getting this game, it wouldn't do me, this blog, or the game itself justice.

Blizzard really outdid themselves. I'd always thought RTS' were a pain to balance. When Warcraft 3 first arrived, Humans had so much trouble against Night Elves that it's not funny. It didn't really even out until later on, the point where I considered to change my main race because everyone online plays Night Elves.



But Starcraft 2. I looked at videos, I lost a hell lot of my first game, and discovered that it's quite near balanced. Granted, Terran is a little overpowered as compared to Zerg, but it's not like Zerg can never win Terran. When I look at my replays, I mostly won because I out-macro'ed the opponent and vice versa. I scouted, built the right things, and pushed when I'm 90% sure of what he has can't beat me. Last game, my opponent and I reacted fine to each other, just that I have no idea why he has 2k minerals and not building zerglings for my marines to shoot at instead of the mutalisks. Anyway, you get the point.

But yes, Blizzard has came very close to balancing Starcraft 2 ON RELEASE. All those delays to polish the game were well-spent. Well, Blizzard was always like that but balancing an RTS seriously isn't easy.

Not only that, Blizzard still managed to capture the FEEL of SC1, and implemented it into SC2. Again, no small feat (Shoutout to RyuriaL for teaching me SC1 in camp. I would've be so lost in SC2). Walling is still a Terran staple. Zergling rush is still possible and good. Protoss is a little different; no more Dragoon mashing with 6 Gateways.

Then we come to the changes from SC1 to SC2.

Terran gained Marauders and lost the medic (MediVec is Starport tier), so their ground units are now meatier and more solid. Ghosts are now more usable as a unit due to their damage against Light Armor and EMP. Reapers are harass units and every Terran's favorite nowadays.

Zergs are still very vespane reliant. Speedlings are still pretty much owning. Hydras are replaced by Roaches. One big change is the banelines, suicide units of the zerg. They are like scourges that walk on the ground. Banelings, when used right, can easily screw up any infantry push.

Protoss, I feel, is the race that suffered the most changes. You no longer have the big Dragoon to answer everything. Protoss now requires you to have a good mix of units. Protoss, however, still does proxying the best. That's why scouting is so important against Protoss. If you find their base rather empty, be prepared for a surprise.

Anywhere's, here's a vid of what a higher level play looks like:


So that's my short overview of Starcraft 2 on its release. My IGN is Faylar, character code 690. However, I'm on SEA version so you might not be able to add... Anyway, if you wish to have a friendly 1v1 with me, feel free to add and message me. I'm still very scrubby with APM at 50, constantly forgetting to put supplys, constantly forgetting to build more SCVs and constantly forgetting that I have a bunch of idle guys not doing anything after building their stuff.

I'm still losing mostly, especially to people who have obviously played beta (yes even in Silver League), but I'm still trying to improve. SC2 is a great game. Not really sure if it's really worth S$99 but I can tell you it's great fun out there, even thought my version is SEA editon (sorry guys from elsewhere).

[Touhou] Labyrinth of Touhou, Rumia Boss Fight 4F

It's been a while, but here it is again! No more captions this time though, since I don't have time nor dedication to do them anymore, not even for 4 mins lol. This is the 2nd 'hard' fight in Labyrinth of Touhou which is Rumia herself. And she wants to eat Reimu for some weird reason (because she's red and white she said).

Again, this is best viewed in HD and widescreen, so have fun watching it! You can watch from here too but I doubt you can actually see the words...

Anyway, video description:


This is the 2nd boss fight in Labyrinth of Touhou and a lot easier compared to Youmu. Rumia has around 30k hp, very very good MAG DEF and a few annoying attacks. Characters are level 14-16, which I think is a little low/just right.

Audio Track:
PHOENIX Project - 妖魔夜行

--- boss details ---
Rumia has 3 attacks:
1) Moonlight Ray - This spell shouldn't dent anyone good decent MND. Even my Patchy laughs at it.

2) Dark Side of the Moon - This move shouldn't hurt as long as you have your defenses up

3) Demarcation - This is the move you should look out for. It debuffs your entire party HEAVILY and does some damage. If you are not careful, suddenly her Dark Side of the Moon will start to hurt, and it gets worse as she casts more and more of it.

--- General Strategy ---
Some as the youmu fight, except that Marisa is pretty much out of the picture due to Rumia's high defenses against MAG. You can still use Patchy as she has a spell that bypasses defenses.

Anyway, Great Hakurei Barrier, slows and hastes makes this fight less painful as Rumia gets less turns to do her debuff as compared to your party.

Remilia, Patchy and even Chen will be doing most of the damage in this fight.

Anyway, the idea is to rush this fight. The longer the fight drags, the worse it gets and it will get to the point where rumia's attacks can nearly wipe the party and you can't keep up with heals/buffs.