I'm not sure if we're thinking of the same thing here, you said fwd+CD is like the focus attacks from SFIV, but wouldn't that just be a "blow off" move [I know what you mean now, because when it connects your opponent slowly falls to the ground, just like in SFIV]? What I have been practicing are the guard attacks where you press back+CD and you hear that "ping" sound and you see the little bluish white deflection thingy appear, and if you time it just right (before an attack hits you), you nail your opponent with your "blow off" move basically. I was thinking this felt like the focus attacks, just a little different, since you can't really absorb an attack and then recover. But you basically have the ability to deflect the attack altogether, so it's like just defending or parrying. I still don't know how the fuck to activate custom combos when my critical counter meter fills and everything starts flashing green. I thought you could do a standing C or D to start it. But I'm not clear on how you can do your combo then, the instruction manual is confusing and makes it seem like you can't press forward or backwards once it has started. Can you explain this to me? Since the games speed runs really fast normally (arcade mode, local vs.), I wonder if I will still be able to time the guard attacks as well once the patch fixes things in a few days (hopefully). If they don't improve the speed or get rid of the lag, that would suck.
I think you start you just have to use a standing C or D counter, and you can't press any direction. Guess it just happens, is there no certain way to activate it though?
They are like crumple attacks from IV. The b+CD shit is a parry, and its way to good, it shouldn't do any damage really. You really don't need to time it that well as it has the same problem as just defense to where its lenient.
Seriously, corner a opponent, do a jump in attack, link it to a sD, and immediately as its in its connection, press f+CD, you then launch that opponent from that second action and you can juggle a lot, even if its not a corner you can manage juggles. I was testing with shen and found a pretty dirty corner juggle using this method where I was able to connect more then one qcfB, sort of in the vein of how gato can juggle in MOTW. If that is used exactly correct I believe you can get some stupid launch time. I don't know the juggling limit to be entirely honest, in 3S, it was a 6 action system with major scaling, in this I need to do some more testing.
To activate custom combos or rush you literally got to mash that C in the middle of someones counter poke, like a way to test this is to go into practice mode with Leona, and put her action to 'attack light punch' she'll constantly mash her sWP, so you just gotta press C on her the minute she sticks it out. One good custom combo I've pieced together is stupid easy with Ryo. Right after C clash just C,C,C, dp, dp, dp, super, this does a fuck ton of damage and is only a minor CC compared to some shit raiden can do.. The problem with this system is that when both players get that meter, it gets to fucking random as you tend to see random mashing to get anything in sight.
Also to anyone who has this issue, one problem I am finding is that neutral offensive actions to stop air attacks don't seem as good, the way hyper jumping works is way to alien to this engine IMO. It shouldn't be possible to jump so high and far from the distance the game allows, it makes for really sloppy accuracy from others. Also, since the character sprites are to large for the screen, you don't see someone falling onto you as easily, so I am forming a game right now to see which pokes are solid anti airs other then dp/rising tackle/etc move.
Also, learn to cancel your dash backs to properly bait and space opponents, simply press back back then down immediately. Very useful thing.
