VF5 REVO El Blaze Changes

Note: El Blaze has also been made slightly heavier. Should save a little HP when we get blown up.

Link: https://www.virtuafighter.jp/vfes/ps4/ver2/

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Shadow Strike -
Crouching hit increased from +6 to +7

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Rising Backspin Kick -
Now works on minor counter meaning you can punish moves at -13 with this string.
- If your back is to a wall this can wall hit/wall splat depending on distance.
Example

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Back Knuckle -
Changed the effect of hits in the air to make it easier to incorporate into air combos.
- This seems to be barely noticeable for me possibly as character weights have also been increased.

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Short Upper -
Changed the effect of hits in the air to make it easier to incorporate into air combos.
- Again, this seems to lift a little more in the air than before. There's possibly room for this in combos.

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Combination Blow - ~
You can transition to Tiger Step with or . Works on Hit, guard or whiff.

Normal Hit: Was -2 → Now -1
Counter Hit: Was +3 → Now +6

- Very cool extra option instead of just the knee ender. Feels easy to defend against from early testing though. Tiger step is quite slow. Frame improvements always good. Possibly more useful in oki.

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Toe Kick -
Changed the effect of hits in the air to make it easier to incorporate into air combos.
- Similar to others, I feel like this maybe just hits a little higher in the air. May help with generally heavier opponents for combo enders.

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Shadow Slash -
You can transition to Tiger Step with or . Works on Hit, guard or whiff.

Normal Hit: Was -2 → Now +3

- Again, it's nice to have options. Feels easy to defend against from early testing though. Tiger step is quite slow. Frame improvements always good. Possibly more useful in oki.

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Hook -
You can transition to Tiger Step with or . Works on Hit, guard or whiff.

Normal Hit: Was -1 → Now +3
This now combos on side hit.

- Again, it's nice to have options. Feels easy to defend against from early testing though. Tiger step is quite slow. Frame improvements always good. Possibly more useful in oki. Side hit of the kick guarantees the punch for some okay side pressure from a low.

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Quick Sobat -
This move has become linear.

- An actual nerfed move. You can now step this in any direction.

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Death Scythe Slash -
"Reduced overall stiffness."

- I think this means a quicker recovery after using it. In REVO I can land jabs on the CPU after they block it but not in FS when they're set to guard.

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Volcano Upper -
Total recovery time extended by 2 frames.

- Struggling to see or feel this. Maybe need to play about more.

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Jumping Hammer Knuckle -
Disadvantage when blocked changed from -9 to -10.

- Make sure you're breaking a throw as everyone will get an attempt now.

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Low Drop Kick -
Disadvantage when blocked changed from -22 to -18.

- Still hurts. Note that the other low dropkicks from Rocket Discharge and on descending from a jump haven't changed and remain -16.

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Poison Mist - , / Backturned
Advantage on guard or hit changed from +10 to +14.

- Great to see! The knockback it gives still makes it a bit tricky to combo things but and , seem very easy to do.

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Shooting Star Press - Tiger Step (on hit)
Damage increased from 40 to 45.

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Quick Backspin Kick - Tiger Step
The hit effect has been changed so that the distance increases when guarded.

- Pushback is very noticeable compared to before. No change to frame data.

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Just Face Lock - Tiger Step (combo throw)
Damage increased from 22 to 27.

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Jumping Elbow - (or )
Returning from vanilla. Jumping Mid, normal hit launcher. Great range.

exe: 35
NH: 18 Damage + Launch
CH: 27 Damage + Launch
On Guard: -5
Linear

- Interesting choice to keep flying body press on .

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Sunrise Knee - Rocket Discharge
Damage increased from 18 to 21.

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Screw Leg Lariat - Rocket Discharge ,
Damage changed from 35 to 25.
Hit effect changed so that the enemy does not get knocked down on hit. You are +2 instead (+6 into Rocket Discharge).
+7 on counter hit (+11 into Rocket Discharge).

- A very important note here though. If the second hit makes them hit the wall they will be in backturned stagger.

If the second hit counterhits, deja vu throw from Rocket Discharge can only be beaten by doing a low attack. You cannot crouch in time and you cannot throw him. If they do something which turns them backturn frame 1 you will just do a backturn throw to them.

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Deja Vu - Rocket Discharge (Hotdog!)
Damage changed from 55 to 60, and small wall splats toward Blaze's stomach.

- Yes. It wall splats. Yes, you can combo from it.

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Spell Rana - Rocket Discharge
Damage changed from 60 to 65.

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Jumping Body Press - While Ascending (jumping) /
Recovers faster.

- Doesn't make much difference that I'm aware of at this point.

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Shouda Upper ((Descending) P)
Disadvantage on block changed from -7 to -10.

- Throw attempt guaranteed. Many jumping attacks across the cast got this.

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Gillottina con Hero - Backturned (on hit)
Damage increased from 32 to 42.

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Meteor Impact - Backturned
Advantage on block is +1. Was -3 before.

- A nice buff on a fun move.

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Head Scissors -
Damage changed from 60 to 65.

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High Speed Huracanrana -
Damage increased from 45 to 50.

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Swing DDT - Wall behind opponent
Damage increased from 65 to 70.

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Tope Invertida - Wall behind opponent
Damage increased from 65 to 70.

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Flying Head Scissors - Half wall behind opponent
Damage increased from 60 to 70.

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Stinging Leap - Opponent right side or
Damage increased from 55 to 65.

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Strike Back - Opponent left side or
Damage increased from 55 to 65.

 

It's guaranteed on minor counter now. They gave Blaze a very powerful 13f punish and if you use it to go under a high you can just let it rip.

 

That is great news!

 

Great buffs for Blaze!!

 

I know a little japanese, looking through a JP fighting game wiki (https://kakuge.com/wiki/pages/硬直) it looks like 硬直 is getting translated to "stiffness" in all these notes, seems to just be their term for recovery frames.

 

Tidied things up and left some notes.

Let me know if you guys spot anything else!

 

Does it make sense to group new Tiger Step moves and merge redundant comments into one,
something like

 

Yeah!

I can reformat for readability. I just used the order on their list. Good shout.

 

Funny how now that Blaze has 46PPK as a punish he can do more damage on Taka from that than from the high effort 2_6P+K punishes.

46PPK, P, 1fk 6PK works always except on a sidehit from the side that turns Taka's head towards you and 46PPK, 6PK just always works.

You can also still do it with 9G~P or 8G~P, it's still his "ascending P" while jumping

9P does not launch Taka on NH, only CH or rCH. 9P, 2P+K, dash P, 1fk 6P+K works.
The move causes a very far reaching float on other characters and quite a bit away from the wall you can do 9P W, 9P+KK high bound into a combo. I would've expected them to change this move to also function as a high bound due to how it looks but it's not.

I'm not feeling any kind of change on 4K air hits. 4KP, 6PK ender works on Taka still and you still can't get a wall hit on Wolf & Jeffry after 8P+K, P, 4KPP (booo). I don't know what they supposedly did to it?

Since you can now high bound Taka from cr.s that means CH 46P+K, 9P+KK works.
CH 46P+K, 9P+KK, RD 9K+G, P, 1fk 6PK for 79
CH 46P+K, 9P+KK, 4KP, 6PK for 86

SEGA not changing 1P+K to be a cr.s or cr.v instead of the awkward spinning launch, booo
1K+G not launching on rCH, booo
3P+K people's elbow down attack still whiffing over enemies rolling on the ground, booo

Overall damage buffs are nice / 46PPK is great / 8P+K nerf is somewhat understandable / the hotdog buff out of nowhere is funny.

Still, I don't know, I feel like a lot of the changes don't do or affect anything.
9P is a funny move but it doesn't seem like it's going to be particularly useful. Maybe something will surface later but the air hit property changes don't seem matter. The tiger step strings are easily launched on reaction although I expect them to catch people for a while at the beginning. I can't help but feel these changes missed the mark but perhaps it's just me.

 

I had the same thoughts on 9P being a heavy bound as well. Also sad it doesn't function as so. I think it would underperfrom 9P+K,K anyway.

The tiger step one baffles be to be honest. I've been watching some JP players hoping they'll show me something with it, maybe some weird oki set up at the end of a combo or something but I just haven't seen it.

I've had the same experience as you. Testing against it in open play it's super easy to just launch him on reaction if you see the step.

Even if Blaze lands the attack going into it on CH on side you can STILL launch it on reaction.

I can imagine getting some people who aren't familiar with it at first but anyone who has had some experience against it will just blow you up for trying to use it.

I think just using offensive move might be better entirely if you want to gain an advantage off your opponent respecting the knee from 3PPK or similar.

If they want something in this spot and would like to add things then, thematically I think a quick repositioning roll would be better on these rather than tiger step. Would have to be quick recovery and roll to up or down but still close to the opponent. 9 or 3. Getting locked into tiger step is so limiting.

 

I think they could just let Blaze act faster from Tiger step to the point where on NH you could interrupt 2P with TS P.
None of the strings leading into TS are exactly prime pokes and all of them have a high as a second hit so I'd think managing to land that high on a grounded opponent would be a good enough reason to allow him to run TS mix-up.
If that's too good then make TS K faster than TS P and allow that to beat 2P on NH.

The idea behind it is good IMO but the execution is lacking.

 

I've tried the mid combo Tiger Step.

Most times I get hit out of it with 2P.

I've used it successfully from time to time though I feel it's usually against players who are less experienced at dealing with Blaze. If opponent fails the knowledge check then you can try to cheese away.

Same with Demon Tail and Shadow Spin Kick on block. If your opponent isn't used to Blaze you can RD even on block to keep the pressure on.

If they are used to Blaze you are gonna get punished more often than not.

 

For what it's worth, Blaze's new 9P is a double handed move under the hood meaning it beats all sabakis and reversals. Aoi can't punish it after using her unique ability to reverse double hands.

I tried it a little against Tenchi and CH 9P, 6P+KP, (P), 2P+K, KKK works although it matches 8P+K damage. The jab in brackets only works when starting from open stance.

If she uses back movement 9P chases it down very effectively and gives you 9P, 6P+KP, KKK as a back combo.

For completeness sake on NH vs her you get either 9P, P, 2P+K, KKK or 9P, 6P+KP, P, KKK for 71 or 70 damage both stances.

Did anyone ever end up finding any new combo routes for Blaze in the new version?

 

I've noticed it also might have a small niche in bouncing people over low walls. I'm not super experienced with Blaze but it seems like one of his only options for that outside of I guess 4KPP?

 

Have we found a single combo that benefits from this? The only thing I can think of where it'd come up would be side wall stun stuff but the 4PKP part of it was never unreliable on anyone, was it?

I've been racking my brain for a couple of days to figure out where in the game this makes any difference. The 4K and 3P float changes are somewhat niche but I've found use cases for both but 4P? Nada.

 

I think there is a combo on Lau that includes 4P.

I've seen it a couple of times when Vipism did it. Alhough, i'm not sure if it's "real" comobo, or just an improvisation.

I'll provide a link some time.

The comobo might be something like
2PK, 4P, P, KKK

But I'm speaking of memory, so likely it's wrong.

 

The combo is e.g. here
https://youtu.be/rwKwNPidQfY?t=10535

 

Extra sober and good damage, alright. I gotta check if it's stance dependent.

 

Awesome.

Looks like open only 72 pts.

In closed vs lau you can do 6, 2P+K, KKK for 75 so it's maybe the best damage option in open.

Vs Jean in open you can do:

4p, p, 2p+k, KKK for 82!

Seems like a decent route for big body characters. Notice it drops on wolf so will have to check like Jacky/Akira.

 

From 4KPP last hit you can do

dash in 4P, P, 2P+K, KKK vs jean also. Tested both stances 76 damage