DC
Smash Cadet
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2001
- Messages
- 55
S : LI, BA, RA
A : CA, HA
B : Rest
C : Rachel
Litchi:
Exceptional reach and space control with staff, so very good in tachimawari (general moving around zoning outside of set-plays). Her combos easily carry people to the corner, which you could say is her special ability. Exceptionally strong oki after this, can result in guard crush followed by more corner oki pressure. Great rush down ability. Her 6428C Distortion Drive comes out slower than before, but there is less time after the super flash, so it can be harder to block. You can't net as much damage off her invincible 623D with staff (Tsubame-gaeshi), but just the fact that she has a good meterless reversal is enough.
She has really good overheads and lows whether she has her staff or not, and her 632146D (with or without staff), and 41236D are all good for block pressure, so she has excellent guard crush potential.
Bang:
His average damage output is a little lower than Lichi, but he has various ways to quickly close on his opponent (air dash behind B or D shuriken, using his nails), and has a lot of variety in his offensive game. With his combination of lows, overheads and command grab, he can get around people's guard better than anyone in the game, and has many ways to cause trouble. His various D attacks with their guard points, and his invincible 236236D allow for some really strong abare that he can quickly turn into his own offensive pressure.
Plus he has his "ultimate weapon" - fuurinkazan. He always has the potential to comeback with this, whatever the situation. Between his combos in fuurinkazan, and his growth potential as people experiment with him, I don't see him falling down the tier list.
Ragna:
Good reach with his normals, and safe combos based around his new in-air 214C (Belial Edge) are his key points. He also has his great reversal (C Inferno Divider), which gives you back a great proportion of health, and since you will be able to RC it once you move into the nitty gritty of the fight, you could argue he has the best defence of any character.
Has great damage potential off his overhead Gauntlet Hades, and you can use it fairly risk free by RCing it. In some areas including his Blood Kain combos that regenerate his health, he has plenty of growth potential.
Hakumen:
With great reach on his j.C and 4C, he can zone and build meter whilst applying pressure! He can also guard crush quickly, and then deliver devastating combos. He has plenty of defensive moves that can lead to big damage on hit thanks to his drive, like j.D. Very hard to punish him for it it compared to how much damage he can do if it works. However, his counters do carry considerable risk if they don't work, and his lack of speed tells against characters who are good from far range. Now with his super high damage max damage combo off 6D, he is the character who is closest to the S rank characters.
Carl:
Behind Nirvana and her 412D projectile, his offensive pressure is very good. He has the best block pressure of any character if you can pin the opponent between Carl and Nirvana. His new gatling combos give him good guard break potential, so even though it isn't to quite the same extent as the first game, he can still suddenly do tons of damage. You can use resets after a guard break very successfully, as even if they manage to guard your follow up they're in trouble, and if they don't they are *really* in trouble. Very good when he has a life lead, Nirvana allows him to be very safe in tachimawari and avoid the opponent making a quick comeback. On the other hand, his low health and lack of speed mean he is in trouble if the opponent gets the early life lead on him
Arakune:
Lowest damage output in the game without landing curse, most dangerous and explosive damage output once he lands it. People are making good strides in coming up with non-curse combos to build curse meter quickly, so it's getting easier for him to create a chance to land it. His guard crush and curse combos are being improved on all the time, as well as his post-curse set play designed to refill his curse gauge. Nearly A-class, but he has a couple of bad matchups, so you can basically decide how good he is based on the player who is playing him.
Hazama:
Has good zoning and combos from his long range D attacks. Can build his gauge quickly, and has quick drive attacks that are great at interrupting your opponent, and do good damage. If you don't make any mistakes with him, he has excellent damage output and builds meter exceptionally well, but he doesn't have a lot of options from mid-range, and totally relies on his drive for defence, so he still has areas for concern.
Taokaka:
The absolute best character for quickly moving to close-range thanks to her dashing D attacks, she is great up close but not very good at making comebacks, so you have to go all-out early to keep your opponent off balance. Her taunt combos are pretty tough to get right, but improve her damage output so much that her tier placing will largely depend on if people perfect them or not. Her low health also means she can lose rounds pretty quickly.
Lamda:
Great ranged zoning with D attacks, and the best character in the game for removing guard primers through chip damage. Can guard crush from far away, and can catch characters who try to avoid her attacks. Also, her combos from 236C, and her low in-air 214D loops in the corner allow her great meterless damage output. She is moving up the tiers, but her bad matchups against Tao and Bang still really give her problems.
Jin:
236A/B/C (note: doesn't specify which strength), 2D, and j.C are great zoning tools, and lead to straightforward tachimawari. He can also use his gauge efficiently doing good damage using his D special moves. He has really good block pressure, and can fight any character without too many problems, but he lacks any real stand-out abilities. He doesn't have any real weaknesses, either, so you could say overall he has more potential to become stronger than weaker.
Noel:
She has strong counter attack ability thanks to her standing D that becomes invulnerable. This carries some risk, but has way more potential reward, so she can be aggressive with it. She has decent guard crush ability, and her combos including 22B/C are rapidly becoming more damaging. Her normals aren't as good as before, though, so she can be easily put on the back foot in tachimawari. It's not that she's weak per se, more that it's hard to find a *consistent* way to win with her.
Tager:
Very strong anti-air, and his new 22D move gives him more opportunities to take one opening and turn it into something serious than in the previous game. His 720 throw can now be activated by hammering C whilst turning the stick around, so it's easier to interrupt attack strings, and deal big damage. Once someone really gets their anti-Tager play sorted, it's very hard for him in tachimawari. You wouldn't necessarily want to meet him in a tourney because he *can* beat you if he just gets one chance, but characters like this still have to be low on a tier list.
Tsubaki:
At first it looked like she was going to be down there with Rachel on the tier list, but her unblockable fully-charged 22+D, her 2C anti-air, and her 623+A/B/C/D (note: doesn't specify which strength) for interrupting opponent's attacks are all strong, so she is rising a little in the rankings. Her lack of ranged normals really hurt her zoning game, and it can be hard to build her install gauge against some characters. She's an up-close character who lacks ways to get in, which is not ideal, but it's still possible that people could find good ways of getting up close, and then she would rise up the tiers.
Rachel:
236A/B/C, 214C, and her wind still give her good zoning allowing her to compete even in this sequel. She also has good guard crush ability in certain situations, and isn't bad in tachimawari. However, she has poor comeback ability, little health, and poor damage output, so if you're drawn into a fight she doesn't do too well. People are finding ways to improve her damage output a little, but it will be a while before she catches up to other characters. She does have some characters she does well against, though, so you couldn't say she's terrible.
Quick note from the tranlator : "the whole thing really read like he was trying to be as positive as possible about every character, not so much saying "this is bad... they should have had this" or anything like that. If I was just reading it from the point of view of an average fan with little specific knowledge (which I guess I am, I didn't play much CT), I would take him to be saying that Carl is a character you can be exceptionally good with as long as you are a very good player, and that Rachel is now a character you would have to play very solid and dry to win with, and are probably not going to enjoy playing several of her matchups."
A : CA, HA
B : Rest
C : Rachel
Litchi:
Exceptional reach and space control with staff, so very good in tachimawari (general moving around zoning outside of set-plays). Her combos easily carry people to the corner, which you could say is her special ability. Exceptionally strong oki after this, can result in guard crush followed by more corner oki pressure. Great rush down ability. Her 6428C Distortion Drive comes out slower than before, but there is less time after the super flash, so it can be harder to block. You can't net as much damage off her invincible 623D with staff (Tsubame-gaeshi), but just the fact that she has a good meterless reversal is enough.
She has really good overheads and lows whether she has her staff or not, and her 632146D (with or without staff), and 41236D are all good for block pressure, so she has excellent guard crush potential.
Bang:
His average damage output is a little lower than Lichi, but he has various ways to quickly close on his opponent (air dash behind B or D shuriken, using his nails), and has a lot of variety in his offensive game. With his combination of lows, overheads and command grab, he can get around people's guard better than anyone in the game, and has many ways to cause trouble. His various D attacks with their guard points, and his invincible 236236D allow for some really strong abare that he can quickly turn into his own offensive pressure.
Plus he has his "ultimate weapon" - fuurinkazan. He always has the potential to comeback with this, whatever the situation. Between his combos in fuurinkazan, and his growth potential as people experiment with him, I don't see him falling down the tier list.
Ragna:
Good reach with his normals, and safe combos based around his new in-air 214C (Belial Edge) are his key points. He also has his great reversal (C Inferno Divider), which gives you back a great proportion of health, and since you will be able to RC it once you move into the nitty gritty of the fight, you could argue he has the best defence of any character.
Has great damage potential off his overhead Gauntlet Hades, and you can use it fairly risk free by RCing it. In some areas including his Blood Kain combos that regenerate his health, he has plenty of growth potential.
Hakumen:
With great reach on his j.C and 4C, he can zone and build meter whilst applying pressure! He can also guard crush quickly, and then deliver devastating combos. He has plenty of defensive moves that can lead to big damage on hit thanks to his drive, like j.D. Very hard to punish him for it it compared to how much damage he can do if it works. However, his counters do carry considerable risk if they don't work, and his lack of speed tells against characters who are good from far range. Now with his super high damage max damage combo off 6D, he is the character who is closest to the S rank characters.
Carl:
Behind Nirvana and her 412D projectile, his offensive pressure is very good. He has the best block pressure of any character if you can pin the opponent between Carl and Nirvana. His new gatling combos give him good guard break potential, so even though it isn't to quite the same extent as the first game, he can still suddenly do tons of damage. You can use resets after a guard break very successfully, as even if they manage to guard your follow up they're in trouble, and if they don't they are *really* in trouble. Very good when he has a life lead, Nirvana allows him to be very safe in tachimawari and avoid the opponent making a quick comeback. On the other hand, his low health and lack of speed mean he is in trouble if the opponent gets the early life lead on him
Arakune:
Lowest damage output in the game without landing curse, most dangerous and explosive damage output once he lands it. People are making good strides in coming up with non-curse combos to build curse meter quickly, so it's getting easier for him to create a chance to land it. His guard crush and curse combos are being improved on all the time, as well as his post-curse set play designed to refill his curse gauge. Nearly A-class, but he has a couple of bad matchups, so you can basically decide how good he is based on the player who is playing him.
Hazama:
Has good zoning and combos from his long range D attacks. Can build his gauge quickly, and has quick drive attacks that are great at interrupting your opponent, and do good damage. If you don't make any mistakes with him, he has excellent damage output and builds meter exceptionally well, but he doesn't have a lot of options from mid-range, and totally relies on his drive for defence, so he still has areas for concern.
Taokaka:
The absolute best character for quickly moving to close-range thanks to her dashing D attacks, she is great up close but not very good at making comebacks, so you have to go all-out early to keep your opponent off balance. Her taunt combos are pretty tough to get right, but improve her damage output so much that her tier placing will largely depend on if people perfect them or not. Her low health also means she can lose rounds pretty quickly.
Lamda:
Great ranged zoning with D attacks, and the best character in the game for removing guard primers through chip damage. Can guard crush from far away, and can catch characters who try to avoid her attacks. Also, her combos from 236C, and her low in-air 214D loops in the corner allow her great meterless damage output. She is moving up the tiers, but her bad matchups against Tao and Bang still really give her problems.
Jin:
236A/B/C (note: doesn't specify which strength), 2D, and j.C are great zoning tools, and lead to straightforward tachimawari. He can also use his gauge efficiently doing good damage using his D special moves. He has really good block pressure, and can fight any character without too many problems, but he lacks any real stand-out abilities. He doesn't have any real weaknesses, either, so you could say overall he has more potential to become stronger than weaker.
Noel:
She has strong counter attack ability thanks to her standing D that becomes invulnerable. This carries some risk, but has way more potential reward, so she can be aggressive with it. She has decent guard crush ability, and her combos including 22B/C are rapidly becoming more damaging. Her normals aren't as good as before, though, so she can be easily put on the back foot in tachimawari. It's not that she's weak per se, more that it's hard to find a *consistent* way to win with her.
Tager:
Very strong anti-air, and his new 22D move gives him more opportunities to take one opening and turn it into something serious than in the previous game. His 720 throw can now be activated by hammering C whilst turning the stick around, so it's easier to interrupt attack strings, and deal big damage. Once someone really gets their anti-Tager play sorted, it's very hard for him in tachimawari. You wouldn't necessarily want to meet him in a tourney because he *can* beat you if he just gets one chance, but characters like this still have to be low on a tier list.
Tsubaki:
At first it looked like she was going to be down there with Rachel on the tier list, but her unblockable fully-charged 22+D, her 2C anti-air, and her 623+A/B/C/D (note: doesn't specify which strength) for interrupting opponent's attacks are all strong, so she is rising a little in the rankings. Her lack of ranged normals really hurt her zoning game, and it can be hard to build her install gauge against some characters. She's an up-close character who lacks ways to get in, which is not ideal, but it's still possible that people could find good ways of getting up close, and then she would rise up the tiers.
Rachel:
236A/B/C, 214C, and her wind still give her good zoning allowing her to compete even in this sequel. She also has good guard crush ability in certain situations, and isn't bad in tachimawari. However, she has poor comeback ability, little health, and poor damage output, so if you're drawn into a fight she doesn't do too well. People are finding ways to improve her damage output a little, but it will be a while before she catches up to other characters. She does have some characters she does well against, though, so you couldn't say she's terrible.
Quick note from the tranlator : "the whole thing really read like he was trying to be as positive as possible about every character, not so much saying "this is bad... they should have had this" or anything like that. If I was just reading it from the point of view of an average fan with little specific knowledge (which I guess I am, I didn't play much CT), I would take him to be saying that Carl is a character you can be exceptionally good with as long as you are a very good player, and that Rachel is now a character you would have to play very solid and dry to win with, and are probably not going to enjoy playing several of her matchups."
