I thought cHK had a somewhat vertical hitbox that would catch the early frames of the jump.
cr.HK may have that vertical hitbox, but I havenāt tested it so I donāt know for sure. If youāre that close to an opponent though, you have better options imo.
cr.HK and db.HP are his AA.
Just saw the Gargos stream. His 2 buddies donāt disappear on combo breaks. They donāt even disappear on hit. Wtf?
Oh and on a side note: No changes to Kan-Ra.
I am gonna check out Gargos, he looks fun. I like crazy stuff happening on the screen
If you do the crouching LP early enough, you have time to get the projectile version of a meaty Light swarm on them.
Well you cant hit a sand trap, it curses the opponent, and it hits more frequently than either minion. The minions and Shadow sand trap are 2 different tools for two different characters.[quote=ālHagenl, post:164, topic:4439ā]
cr.HK and db.HP are his AA
[/quote]
have you forgotten anti-air clutch?
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I would not recommend anti-air clutch as his consistent anti air. Itās definitely a hard read move as opposed to reactionary.
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Shadow Sand traps donāt move, donāt absorb projectiles, donāt have special moves, donāt have overheads, donāt give you instinct meter, can not be thrown, die when you use certain moves and there is only 1 on the field.
I get what you are saying but I still think it is not tooo much for Ra to have at least a normal trap on the field when combo broken or maybe even after getting hit
@TheKeits I have 2 questions. Do Gargosā minions trigger the shadow trap strikes? Can spike strikes curse them?
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I missed watching combo breaker.
Does Sleep really play Ra as eventhubs claims or is it wrong like always in the past couple of month?
EDIT: Now itās correct. He didnāt play Ra
Sleep didnāt use Kan Ra, he will NOT use it in tournament unless he feels the opponent doesnāt really know the MU that well.
Having a pocket Kan Ra might be a viable option right now because NOBODY is using him (since we now have to work 3 times more to barely win), and enventually everybody will forget how to fight against him.
Just to clarify something.
Ras Really Bad MUs
Fulgore
Arbiter
Rash
These 3 are a huge headache for him, a decent player will destroy Kan Ra with any of these guys.
I still donāt get the changes to scarabsā¦ we got a shadow sand spike which is great, but we lost shadow scarabs which was a huge tool to control space, now its ā ā ā , and shadow sand spike gets destroyed by anything (its still stupid to lose it after you have been combo brokenā¦ at the very least we should get a normal sandtrapā¦ we used a bar to get it in the first place!!)
medium and strong scarabs dont have a reason to exist right nowā¦ too slow and no different effect not even on the damage department, theres no reason to use them for blockstrings.
Its like IG is afraid of giving something useful to Kan Ra and break the game. 
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You might as well throw Cinder in that list. He poses as much of a threat as Fulgore does imoā¦
Rash is almost braindead of a character, even when you have momentum, Rash can just almost do whatever he wants to interrupt you, i.e - zipline, Shadow Boot, etcā¦
I will agree, MP and HP versions of Scarabs arenāt worth it, on the ground. In the air, however, thatās a different story. In the corner, and with Shadow Sandtrap beneath the opponent, I abuse j.MK~qcb+P in different variants of timing and strength. Sure, itās not a ātrueā blockstring, and thereās characters that can deal with it if they time it right, but no one really does, except for a DP happy Jago player, or the Fulgore that pops instinct to follow up with a DP.
@F3Sleep Do you use Kan-Ra at all??? Not even for running through pools??? Iām curious.
I know heās ābadā, but I donāt think he is as bad as weāve made him out to be. Iām now in the camp that believes Kan is still viable, itās just the overall gameplan has to switch in order for it all to make sense.
Itās like turning the chessboard to see things from a different perspective. Things will start to make more sense the more we change how we actually play Kan-Ra.
Kan-Raās viable just his work/reward ratio went so high up that it probably isnāt worth it in a tournament setting. Online though definitely worth playing. Iāve gotten a few good wins in as a killer using gimicks and tricks.
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You say he is viable and than you give 2 reasons why he is NOT viable.
He is definitely not viable. He has a lot of 50/50 mixups but unlike many other characters 50/50 means you either hit your opponent or your opponent hits you, because his gimmicky mix-ups are just unsafe.
IMO if you play him like that you are playing him wrong. In S3 Ra can only play keep away and with shadow spike you have a very strong tool to do that. The problem is, that you need meter to stabilize your game and until than you fighting an uphill battle against everyone in the game. Once you manage to setup your defense you are a pain in the *** for some characters to get in to, but only than.
On the other hand Ra has some horrible matchups. Fulgore is a hard counter to Ra. He doesnāt care about about whatever Ra puts on the field. Cinder neither. Rash and Miraā¦ They force you to play that gimmicky 50/50 game where you have to guess right a billion times or you die.
EDIT: oh and spinal. Donāt even bother pressuring him on wake up. Teleports all day every dayā¦
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I just wonder if anyone who can make any changes from IG even reads these posts? I feel like it is just us Kan-Ra players that dont want to give up on him. Some developer feedback or interaction would be nice / appreciated
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I honestly believe Kan-Ra is still viable and even tournament worthy, Balsamic-SU showed that during the KSB tournament by finishing 3rd.
My approach to figuring out Kan since S3 has changed quite drastically, almost to the point where I can definitely tell Iām not still playing like itās S2 but Iām finding out different things almost every time I play.
For instance, letās discuss Scarabs. In S2, they served multiple purposes, from juggle extender, damage dealer, zone tool, etc. In S3 with the nerfs things change quite a bit-- a lot tbhā¦ However, I feel the reason Scarabs got nerfed is so that we as Kan-Ra players arenāt so reliant on them to get damage. We have to work to get the damage, and Scarabs is mainly a tool to help us get in, as opposed to a keep away tool. That isnāt to say Scarabs canāt be used as a keep away skill, it just doesnāt favor us the way it did during S2.
I also feel some players approach matchups either with the S2 mentality, or with the famous āS3 Iām so nerfed why botherā mentality. I donāt think we have much to worry about. Sure the matchups seem more difficult, but that might be because weāre not playing with a different mindset. Itās like trying to jump over Cinder to get more spacing, when he clearly is bound to meet you in the air. Rather than jump over or risk Sacrifice not working, just dash under (works better if you have Instinct) and get spacing.
Spinal can teleport all day, heās either going to get caught with a light Whirl, or it will auto-correct, and become light Clutch and catch him. It worked in S2, and still works in S3. Not a glitch btwā¦
The only real character I consistently have issues with is Fulgore, and thatās because of his pip-cancels which can make him safe, even if you have a guaranteed punish.
Either way, I feel like based on what we have, we can still make Kan-Ra a threat. Think about it, how often do people āexpectā Kan-Ra to zone??? That is the general consensus when it comes to non-Kan-Ra players actually fighting Kan-Ra. They expect us to jump back and Scarab, throw Shadow Scarab, sand trap, and stinger our way to victory. Kan can actually be ridiculously aggressive (as Balsamic-SU showcased). Iāve actually surprised a few people because of my level of aggressiveness with Kan-Ra. Kan-Raās aggressiveness is something that is āforcibly accentuatedā with the S3 nerfs. Heās not all 50/50s like every MK character. Heās not totally unsafe either. I think heās an even blend of offense and defense, like Dhalsim is now.
Speaking of Dhalsim, ever notice how much more aggressive Dhalsim players have been since SFV dropped? You have a few of those who still try to play him like itās SFIV and it doesnāt work totally. I honestly believe the ST players who used Dhalsim got it right. They were not overly aggressive or defensive. They often switched when necessary based on the matchup, and threw opponents as often as they could. This is how Kan-Ra should be utilized imo.
Show me how you play. Please guys, upload your match footage in the video thread. We can learn a lot from each other.
Did they change the whirl linkers? IIRC they used to have those rings that show their strength. Those rings are gone. They only appear if you do a whirl as an opener or recap.
This is very good because whirl linkers are great corner carriers. I feel stupid I didnāt know thatā¦
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I will work toward uploading more vids on my YouTube channel, and I may post a few here if I find something that I did that may help understand specific matchups or setups.
As for the whirl linkers, Iām not sure. I was under the impression it was the number of hits that determined the strength. I only use them as manuals like when I catch an opponent getting hit with scarabs, or on the ground I may use Whirl and manual into cr.LK. I think cr.MK works, too, but I donāt remember.
What 50/50s are you saying Kan-Ra has?
Why do you ask?
E.g. After a cr.LP flip out you either go for clutch or swarm. Itās not really a 50/50 because both options loose to a DP.