Top strikers in '01?

[evo7_31]

As above - which are the 'best' strikers in '01?

I'm finally getting down to play this game after skipping from '98 to '02, and I'm impressed with the way this game is so balanced (with the 'ratio system' something like CVS).

Any other tips on this game are welcome too!!

 

[Takumaji]

It's almost impossible to say which is the best KoF2k1 striker... every one of them does one specific attack but the results vary depending on your position and that of your opponent, the timing of your striker call, etc. For example, if you hit your opponent with a special and call out Iori at the right time, he will come out and throw one of his projectiles which juggles and can linked to a combo.

If you call him one tick too early, the projectile won't juggle, but you can still continue with a low-hitting move or command attack. If you call him one tick too late and attack your opp. at the same time Iori's projectile hits, your opp. will be frozen and covered in blue flames for a short while. Any follow-ups won't combo but you could call out another striker and continue from there. In a couple of advanced striker combos involving Iori as the main striker and two others, this is a common setup, so it's not a timing bug but a feature.

IMO, wether or not a striker call leads to useful results depends on the match situation, not the striker itself. You can do crazy things with all of them provided you know when and where to use them.

 

[evo7_31]

Hmm.. looks like the strikers are pretty balanced then? No 'must-use' strikers in any situation.

Maybe I should rephrase it to, most versatile strikers in '01? I was messing around with a few just now, and I guess I'm not that good at calling them yet since I thought they were pretty useless!! saving the stocks for a DM or SDM seems more useful ATM, but yea i'm still learning the game.

 

[Takumaji]

Depends on what you call useful. Deflecting a (S)DM projectile at the very last moment by calling out Athena with her energy shield is quite nice, but since combos involving one or more strikers do only limited damage, most ppl use strikers in defensive situations or to help setting up a DM combo without having to super-cancel (here, the striker action is the super-cancel). If you want more damage, you have to combo into a DM or use a two-/three striker combo, but this is almost impossible in a competitive situation.

Since a striker call eats one power stock, I only use strikers in sure-fire/win-win situations, otherwise I stick to CD-counters, escape-rolls and the occasional DM.

Easy-to-use strikers are Goro, Athena, Robert, Takuma, Iori, Xiangfei and specially Seth and Joe, both of them can be used efficiently without having to worry about your relative position to one of the corners too much.

I started a thread with more 2k1 striker combos a while ago, check it out here.

 

[Shito]

Easy-to-use strikers are Goro, Athena, Robert, Takuma, Iori, Xiangfei and specially Seth and Joe, both of them can be used efficiently without having to worry about your relative position to one of the corners too much.
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Whoa, that seems a bit ofa KOF2000 strain, huh Tak?

 

[Takumaji]

Whoa, that seems a bit ofa KOF2000 strain, huh Tak?

Not really, Seth and Joe are damn annoying as strikers in 2k1 as well.

Specially Seth and his sure-fire juggle... except for the slow startup, it's one of the easiest striker attacks in the game.

Have played a bit of 2k lately, but KoF-wise, my current lineup still is 2k1-97 (replacing 98 for a while)-95, with 2k2 as a momentary top-runner since I've managed to tune in my friend to the game by simply refusing to play anything else when they're here...

 

[Takumaji]

Ah yeah, about the balance of 2k1's striker system, it's not as bad as in 2k but it still has it's share of cheapness. Eolith un-fucked it a lil' by lowering the damage of striker attacks and follow-ups which combo, and specially by deleting the extra striker power stocks system, but you just have to watch some vids to see that there's still some of the cheese left...

IMO, forcing ppl to sacrifice power stocks instead of giving them lotsa free striker bombs was a wise decision.

 

[Shito]

Not really, Seth and Joe are damn annoying as strikers in 2k1 as well.

Specially Seth and his sure-fire juggle... except for the slow startup, it's one of the easiest striker attacks in the game.

Buddy, I was not to tell you wrong, just something like 'heh, those who were cheap strikers in 2000, still are damn strong in 2001'

I know you know your stuff.

 

[Takumaji]

Yep, the two are still cheap in 2k1. Seth belongs to the all-purpose striker category and can be used in almost any match situation, while strikers like Lin, Xiangfei or Goro need a bit of planning but still are easy to use.

However, the fact that you have to spend a power stock for a striker makes the whole system itself less cheesy than it was in 99 and 2k. In 99, the strikers were harder to use effectively because of various restrictions that were deleted in 2k, and that's still a feature I hate in it because it can get annoying to play against guys who constantly build up their bombs and always go on a striker spamming streak if you tap into one of their damn corner-traps.

There are some really weird glitches in 2k1's striker system, tho. You can call out a striker in two ways by pressing BC while you're standing far, then your chara will show his striker call stance, or you do it after certain moves during a combo which helps to make your combo longer. In this case, the striker stance will be skipped and the striker action takes place immediately, similar to the Quick Max Mode Activation in KoF2k2. All characters have at least one command move or special that is striker-enabled.

However, some characters have two or more moves (mostly multi-hit attacks) that can be followed up with striker calls, so with a bit of practise, you could set up some semi-infinites by chaining two striker-enabled moves and calling out your strikers in a frequency that normally would be impossible according to the basic 2k1 striker rules. I've seen and tried some very cheap 1-player 3-strikers (ratio-3) shit, thank god most of it is limited to showing off in Practice Mode.

Anyway, this ratio-based striker system makes 2k1 deep as hell... I play it every week since release but still find out new ways to use and combine strikers, the possibilities are endless...

 

[Shito]

Anyway, this ratio-based striker system makes 2k1 deep as hell... I play it every week since release but still find out new ways to use and combine strikers, the possibilities are endless...

I definitely agree with you. Not only KOF2001 sports the very best character selection in the series, but is also has the best system.

The total integration of ratio system, lenght of super/striker bar, number of stock it TOTALLY AWESOME.

Also, while I'm not much of a striker user, truth is the striker system has finally trimmed nicely here, after the not-very-useful '99 system and the way-too-much-abusable-and-annoying 2000 system.

KOF2001 is my overall fav in the whole series. Too bad BGs and musics are ass. Sound FX and voices are top notch though.

And bosses uber-cool as well!

Not to talk about the art... best in the series again, like 'portrayits with style and attitude', finally trying to get some glympses of the character personalities in their portrays.

KOF2001 is a gem.

 

[lone_REBEL]

Strikers by Classification

Well guys, if you are good at juggle combos then Mary and King are your best strikers.
If you want to break the opponents attack then Ryo Sakazaki should be your choice. If you want to lengthen land combos (non juggled opponents) then Joe Higashi is your striker. If you are a grabber and only want the opponent to start defending so that you may grab them then go for Mai Shiranui