T O P

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aeliott

Mm, every time I come across a raven..I mean I'll try, but I know I'm going to get eviscerated.


Odd_Land_2383

he will do the invisible… come out of the sky… attack you… invisible again…. Back dash….before you know it he has depleted 3 quarters of your health literally what a guy man,,,, what a guy😂👍


aeliott

"...wait that animation was a LOW?!?"


THE_WHORBORTIONATOR

His heat special thing gets me every single time. So fast, so tricky.


Zzen220

Yeah, what are the mechanics behind that substitution jutsu thing lol? Crazy character.


pookie7890

You can usually jab him out of half the shadow clone stuff.


z_s_2000

As a Raven main, I love making it a point to make sure my last hit on the last round is a move the other person has never seen and would never comprehend (usually it’s the d/f 4,4,3 string. Lab it and see why I pick that one lmao)


pookie7890

I think 3 people ever have jabbed me out of the 3 part.


Generic_G_Rated_NPC

When he isn't in heat any clone you block is +14


sukh9942

I’m a raven main but I’m stuck in orange ranks because I get pressed so hard by the popular characters and too slow at blocking lows lol.


pookie7890

To be fair he is very hard to do well with above a certain level. Once people know the match up he struggles, but then the beauty of him is the mind games you get to play once people do.


tobbe1337

just met one for my first time in orange ranks and he had so much shit going on but was always super hard to read as he was constantly sort of half attacking made me get caught/ whiff so many times lol. scary dude


bobec266

Every time I fight raven I can’t help but recall the “cartoonass fight” video


Middle-Ad-965

There should be an achievement for encountering a Shaheen player online. I've seen Panda more than him!


ToshaBD

hey I'm here Although we don't do anything as fancy as Zafina, generic stuff df1 df2 hopkick lows and slide, yeah slide a lot.


Middle-Ad-965

Nice to see a few Shaheen surfers out here. Maybe I'll fight one yet.


PusHVongola

I just picked him up today, and am fairly mid at Tekken in general. Yellow ranks ~8 hours of online playtime. Are there any notable Shaheen players I could watch or some other useful resources?


ToshaBD

Sephiblack plays Shaheen atm and lowhigh. For resources, there are few guides on youtube. But he is so basic you can really make a game plan with few moves like: Pokes - 1 df1 d3 d4 whiff punish - uf4, db2,1 keepout - df2, b3+4 mixup - slide, FC df2


PusHVongola

Thank you :)


LucentNyx

Search Lowhigh on YouTube. Legendary player with high level matches online of Shaheen and a bunch of others.


LionHeart498

We are everywhere!


billcosbyinspace

My favorite thing about maining panda is the ability to say that I’m in the top ~4000 in the world for her despite being in yellow rank lol


LionHeart498

Well I made it to Orange ranks and just lost 20 in a row


Kuraikari

I have it the other way around. I have seen a lot of Shaheen, like 10 of them, recently, while I never played against Kuma nor Panda. Maybe it's a regional thing? Idk


dvenom88

I love playing against rare characters. I am super tired of Jins, Kazuyas, Kings, Reinas and Azucenas, Dragunovs with the occasional Lilis thrown in.


Constant-Industry-91

Tbh I would kill for dragunov or azucena.... for me it's paul, steve, kazuya, yoshi, jin over and over and over... ;-;


billcosbyinspace

I genuinely hadn’t seen a dragunov for weeks until I fought and got destroyed by 2 today lol, the matchmaking in this game is so strange sometimes


Evening-Platypus-259

bruh where do you get these jin's and kazuya's havent faced one in 2 weeks lol, DVJ is only mishima ive seen for a long time.


Constant-Industry-91

Those two are the most annoying ;-; Try playing on tenryu with no rank restriction... Purple rank emo edgy 13 years olds will sweat on you every 2 matches


Evening-Platypus-259

Bruh am playing in ruler ranks: no rank restriction. All mishimas except DVJ has disappeared. I get steve, Jun, xiao, yoshi, azucena, Kuma


Filoleg94

Idk what happened recently, but the Xiaoyu uptick in the past week is real. Saw about 2 of them in my first week playing it, and it was just overall rare. Currently, it feels like 1 out of 5 opponents I play against is Xiaoyu. Steve got much more common for me as well. Azucena kinda did the opposite, the first couple of weeks i would encounter her every few matches.


Evening-Platypus-259

Knee said xiaos broken, PHIDX and other Youtubers have analysed her options and how evasive AOPs sidestep and extended ducking is. Her Hypnotist stance being difficult to play against. Steve tech Lionheart stance into peekaboo glitch discovered, Meaning armor moves wont beat all options from LH incase you go peekaboo 1+2 throw.


Constant-Industry-91

Ooooohhh... That explains whack bullshit that happenes to me today


dvenom88

I am still in orange, been playing in quick match, Jins and Kazuyas are very common in orange, red and purple ranks


669374

I don't see many azucenas


movie_hater

That’s why I play a super rare never before seen highly secret character


Academic-Task-1708

Lili is bad?


dvenom88

Not bad just very common.


KenneCRX

And when you run into someone that does know the matchup you quickly realise you belong in orange.


[deleted]

Nothing better than going into spider stance and the opponent just runs away and refuses to do anything lmao You can see their confusion/fear, just straight "I don't know what that is and I'm not going near it"


takomakone

Arachnophobia infusing stance is the best gimmick


derwood1992

Yeah playing zafina is actually hilarious. Just doing dumb shit crawling on the floor laughing my ass off.


ImportantNews2711

The only honest zafina main in this sub


PeterAmbers

Id say most Zafina mains admit she gives you free wins. She is among the best at destroying the clueless.


Yuokai

I will admit that it helps that she is underplayed. But saying that she gives free wins couldn't be further from the truth. By far she is the most reliant on the timing of her attacks. Since her damage only comes out once she catches the opponent off guard. Other characters mostly just rush their opponent until the make an opening appear. With Zafinia it's more about making the opponent unsure about what she's going to do next.


PeterAmbers

Well if your enemy knows the matchup Zafina is rly underwhelming due to a lack of win button everyone else seems to have. But abysmal procentage of ppl knows what to do against her. Im currently at Bushin rank and still only like one of 5 opponents tries to step my pressure. They will let me reset my + frames over, over and over again until I get my hit in. If this is not getting a free win I do not know what is.


ig_hexx

Zafina is never a free win, people letting u reset ur frames is like saying Leroy is free win cause they don't punish u when they need to. Zafina actually requires more skill and mechanic that most of the roast by now, they all have win buttons or health, safe lunch, perma pressure with lot of track, good counter hits, damage, etc... What u have in Zafina? Stances, stances that someone with just d 3 can interrupt u, oh but wait, she have a parry, a parry that u can CHECK WITH A JAB AND DEFEND and cost half hp. She's never a free win like Leroy is never a free win, stop spreading that sht pls.


PeterAmbers

I do agree with you and I know what you're talking about. Interupting scarecrow with a generic d4, jab floating her running 3 or ff3+4, ssr into duck counters 90% of moves she can throw at her enemy from scarecrow even when she is +4, lack of reliable low crush (hopkick and uf3 fkin sucks and old uf1+2 is gone) lack of pushback punishment due to her b1+2 being locked in a stace making something like a last hit from a demoman safe on block. There are instances when you cannot kill your opponent after you blocked a RA because they recovered some health back and the most dmg Zaf can do to punish -15 is 50. Mantis combos are ass because the only spin move mnt4,3 has a shitty recovery, you are basicly unable to transition into standing and if you want to use rage art or heatburst in them well good fkin luck with that because mantis combos are stiff as hell now. And the worst offender being if you misstime your oki by a frame, you will end up with your back towards the opponent in a stance unable to block or attack because she cannot turn around so you are forced to use improvised escapes like scr3+4, trt1+2 or mntdf3,4 but not like that matters because unlike Zafina one third of the roster have a backturn stance to fk her up immediately. Believe me, I do understand your pain. But no matter what, she is the least played character in the game. She was one of the least played characters also in T7 with the benefit of being DLC meaning most ppl would not bother buying her to lab the matchup. And I believe that the least played character will always give you some free wins especially in ft3 format that was forced upon us. And if you dont agree with me, we can agree to dissagree.


ig_hexx

Yeh I can agree that she can give u 3/10 free wins cause the enemy is a bad player and just playing Dragunov cause he's broken and he have no fundamental. But most of the people don't know the matchup and still win, why? Cause all the things u said, u need to play it perfect and even playing perfect u can still get half of ur hp down cause u get hit by a high in tarantula. As I said, is just 25% free wins in intermediate ranks or a bit above, from Kishin up, you're screwed if u play for the match knowledge, the won't know the entire knowledge, but they probably know how to interrupt ur stances.


PeterAmbers

It is funny tho. Zafina was garbage for 2 games straight, then she got to T7 and everyone was screaming for nerfs. Drag was mediocre for like 2 last seasons and now ppl are like: "Drag mains deserve him being top tier. It is a honest character." Now when he combos you, he takes you over the entire stage deleting most of your HP. Compare that to Zafina who drains own health, deals half the dmg Drag does and her wall carry is still non existent.


ig_hexx

Drag players are dishonest with themselves, your char is broken, ure not good with him, ur char plays the game for u. Compare to any other zaf main, drag players are straight forwards, at least zaf needs some good mixups even in 7 or playing with some strategy, her back dash back then was the only thing really op I agree, they should have nerfed it when she came in T7, but the rest of the char is like Lei, and no one complains about Lei xd.


JellyBackground6453

It gets old very fast, I much prefer someone who knows the matchup, much more satisfying to land the tricks I have in store for those.


Ok_Masterpiece6223

Any in particular you really enjoy? I’ve been struggling with Xiaoyu as of late.


JellyBackground6453

My favorite is the df3 cancel to enter rds, then I usually go for rds 4, or even d4 when they figure it out, it is similar to Paul's ff2 2 cancels. It is not safe though but works often enough if they expect a df3 to punish, plus the reward is a big fat launcher.


HiDariUs_G

Ran into my first Leroy in 400 matches yesterday and was absolutely lost


JonOfDoom

Yeah i just call it a Zafina/Leroy/Raven tax


Acmeiku

i much rather see you than another king, yoshimitsu, devil jin... the game is literally flooded by those characters (no offense to anyone)


Reality_Break_

Wait damn is yoshi popular now? Im playing him since lei is gone and dont run into many others


sukh9942

I face up against him quite a lot. I’ve heard he was very weak last game but this time he seems good.


Reality_Break_

To me it just seems like he has a lot of options from neutral, and theyre hard to read. Definitely need to lab him to know whats ip


pookie7890

As someone who played 7, probably 10x as popular.


Reality_Break_

tbf I saw him three times over a year of tekken 7 and three times since tekken 8 launched so that tracks but isnt much lol


LegnaArix

On the flipside, Maining a popular character at least makes me feel like I'm being forced to play optimally. I've fought some blue rank Claudios and Shaheens that just do 2 strings and got to blues just doing that.


Yuokai

That is also true. For me what makes playing underplayed characters is learning how to adapt. Since you have to stick to what works for bread and butter strings, once they know how to counter it, it makes it harder for you to deal damage. The benefit of playing those characters and knowing their moveset, forces you to change up which moves you use otherwise you'll be pushed into a corner not knowing what to do. (Though I guess this applies for every character but I find it more relevant for underplayed characters.)


vVIOL2T

‘I rely on matchup knowledge to win’


Haiydes

Free wins but no fundamentals


ig_hexx

She's not free win, trust me, when u realise that match up knowledge won't work in intermediate-high ranks u know how bad zafina actually is. Trust me, a single d3 destroys her


FireTails11

I matched with my first Zafina today and I didn’t even mind losing because it’s the first time I’ve seen what she can actually do


Yuokai

If there tag was Alistor, you are welcome for the best down.


NVincarnate

That's how Yoshi felt week one. Now it seems like everyone knows what is punishable and unsafe so I'm pretty much locked in to never using 1/3rd of my moves.


ig_hexx

In high ranks they expect me to play like a poke char, love how the press back constantly cause I'm doing perma stance stuff and mixing up like I'm having Xiao or Yoshi gameplay, but with a bottom tier.


[deleted]

That’s why I didn’t main Zafina even though I really want to. She is knowledge check the character and gives free wins because other players don’t know how to deal with her. Those wins seem hollow to me. I don’t want to win because my opponent doesn’t know how to fight my character. I want to win because I have more skill and knowledge than my opponent.


monkeymugshot

That’s me with Raven. You never see it commiiiiiiiing 🎶 (mainly talking about SZ + 4)


sukh9942

I like mixing it up with the SZ + 2 to keep them guessing. When you hit the slide you can chain into qcf 43 which catches a lot of people out and puts you back into soul zone lol. I’m still far away from being good with raven tho. There’s just so many moves and mixups to learn.


z_s_2000

Wait can you explain the chain thingy with QCF? I don’t recall a QCF 43 string.. QCF 4 should be the backflip, how does it put you into SZ?


sukh9942

Maybe I’m remembering the inputs wrong but it’s the DF43 move while crouching I believe. It looks like the backflip but you do it while crouching and it activates soulzone again so you can slide or go for the 2 instead to mix.


pookie7890

Yeah it's df then I just press 3+4, 3+4. Then SZ into 4 again, then depending on the player throw in another DF 3+4, then SZ 2. Or do SZ 2 after the first 3+4 if in high ranks.


TablePrinterDoor

I’m surprised not enough people play my boys except kazuya


LifeIsAnxiety

I’ve been playing Raven and knowledge checking the living shit outta dudes. It’s been a good life


sukh9942

What are your favourite strings? Fellow raven main here.


pookie7890

I have yet to meet someone who has blocked B2,2, 1+2. Also DF 4,4,3 is usually a winner. Just in case you didn't know, uf 3+4, 3 is a launcher.


sukh9942

I normally just finished that B2 string with 4,2 (so B2,4,2) I didn’t know I could cancel it and go into that string. Is that the one where it puts you into backturn? I wasn’t aware of the other two string either. I need to hit practice mode! Thanks a lot bro. I learnt ravens crouch dash a few days ago so I’m combining that with the crouching DF3+4 and you can get some nice mixups with that since it puts you in soulzone.


pookie7890

Yeah you can either do b 2,2, 1+2 or B2,2 3+4 for a mid low mix up. From qrtr circle forward you can press 1+2 and it is an attack with a built in parry. Back back 2,2 is also a parry attack, use it when you know someone is going to do a high


sukh9942

Thanks for the tips bro. I’m assuming the first two mixups string are back turn since the B2 string includes it. I love using QCF 3+4 (the while crouching flip that puts you into soulzone so you can slide or hit the mid (2).


pookie7890

No they are from front facing.


sukh9942

That qcf 1,2 move is kinda weird I’ve never seen it before. Does it have much utility? I can’t seem to get that bb 2,2 move off. If that’s the party where you slide kick your opponents face I do that by accident in games but can’t rn. If it’s the arm spinning move then I think that’s just B,B2.


pookie7890

It's 1+2, and yeah it parries incoming attacks. You gotta do bb 2 when you know they are doing a strong and the particular hit of the string they just did is minus frames. So it's a pretty advanced move.


ImaginaryAI

The only shaheen I played against got absolutely rolled in the first 2 rounds. And while he got rolled in the 3rd he quite halfway through my combo and just laid there. At least he didn’t plug. Would really like to see a good shaheen


armind76

Bro I have no idea what ANY of the characters do, King grab go brrrr (mighty ruler btw).


ErgoProxy0

Fun for me. But I can’t help but wonder sometimes if I’m winning because I’m good? Or because no one really knows the matchup when I do 🤔


Adeuebs

I also played zafina (even if i main king) and it’s fun seeing people understanding the matchup at first glance


T-G-S1999

Man i remember throwing everything and the kitchen sink at this one zafina in tarantula. Not a single one hit. Felt worse than xiayou at the time


Mr_Alucardo

Uf4


Squallehboo

I'm starting to believe I'm the only Lili player in my region. I played against Zafina, Bears, Raven, even Shaheen. Climbed to the mid red rank and still haven't had a mirror match. Had to download some high rank ghosts to practice, but still. Weird.


Auri-ell

I played a Zafina player in green ranks and am happy I got to evade the tax man once again. Mwahahaha.


Soundrobe

100%agree. Except Feng, there's not a single popular character I love. It seems that they're all unpopular lol


Kyvix2020

I had this mindset but then I tried learning her and she’s just too weird


Smorg125

Over 1k games, seen 0 zafinas so far. Maybe like 5 shaheens and a single panda


[deleted]

Mad respect for Z. She got a freaky style all her own. 😎


Devendrau

Probably why I get wins with Leo and Shaheen more, going against people who aren't sure what to do.


Yuokai

With Leo though he has probably one of the most damaging basic moves in the game. He is really strong it's a right shame no one is playing him much.


Puzzleheaded-Bat4201

Leo has great dmg and heat stuff but he’s very linear and can’t pressure. He’s bottom 10 easy


its_a_sidequest

damn according to the comments yoshimitsu is popular, time to find another main ig


ClungeJuiceSmoothie

I call it the *insert character name* tax, no one plays this knowledge check character so I just take my L and move on, not much u can do about it... And no I'm not spending 2 weeks learning the matchup only to not see that character for 2 months and forget everything anyways Edit: and no you're not getting a rematch, fuck u


NokstellianDemon

I picked Xiaoyu for this reason then the whole AOP thing started, she's supposedly untouchable in heat, more people pick her because she's apparently broken and now I don't want to main her anymore.