Long time viewer, first time poster. Hope I don’t mess anything up.
So regarding eagle’s instinct, when used all normal attacks will be followed up by a peck attack. What is this used for exactly? I don’t see any major or tide turning factor in using instinct. When you look at other characters, instinct grants the player some sort of comeback potential, be it greatly enhancing moves, gaining health or adding a whole new feature to be used in combination with the character’s arsenal. However, I don’t see this comeback potential gained by popping instinct with Eagle. All it does really is allow for a split-second read and a refill of the KV gauge. I will go into further detail on why it doesn’t seem that useful down below.
I play a really aggressive, in-your-face style of play with eagle and the reason I use instinct is on wake up for a read or to extend a combo. While in a combo, instinct can allow for some flashy eagle attack to bird peck to eagle attack sequences, however this is not practical. If you want damage, this combo won’t lead to anything rewarding. This isn’t even good for manual mixup reasons since his heavies are out of the question and lights are to short of a range so the only hits you’ll be landing with this are most likely going to be mediums. You can use the arrow->shadow slide combo but that leaves the risk of a combo break. It at times can also be inconsistent and just go completely over the opponent. It just seems useless to use this in a combo and I’d rather avoiding using manuals while in instinct.
Maybe it’s supposed to help with pressure…but to be honest Eagle doesn’t really need more “help” with that. A good Eagle can easily make any of his moves safe with an eagle assist but the peck move at times can leave the bird inactive for a short time. This short time can mean the difference between covering your offensive attempt or leaving yourself wide open. I don’t believe it helps in that aspect either.
I can’t even seem to imagine how this would help zoning/hit and run Eagles. It’s all for close range really.
Defense…what defense?! It does nothing in that regard.
I rarely meet another serious eagle player, so everything I learn usually is self-taught in practice.
So in conclusion, I believe that Eagle is amazing character with an almost useless instinct. What do you guys think? Do you agree or disagree? Am I misunderstanding this? Are there any ways that you have been able to use this effectively?
Thanks for your time reading this and for any feedback!
That was quick haha. I didn’t really pay much attention to the stream since I was to busy experimenting with him at the time. I just wonder what exactly you can do with it besides flashy impractical combos.
Thanks btw.
Secondly, with your general thought that his instinct is useless? Eh, I can certainly get why that feeling is there. For me, i’d compare Eagle’s instinct to Gargos’ only in the sense that they are not designed to perform with a comeback potential. Aside from that, they’re worlds different.
I feel like if i didn’t play my main Kim, i would want no part of Eagle’s instinct in the corner or up close. And he has tools to coerce you into both positions. You combine that with once Eagle gets rolling being difficult to shut down and being pretty evasive if he wants to be, it makes sense his instinct isn’t quite as dominating as other members of the cast. Least to me it does.
All in all though, i think his instinct and potential are under explored. Especially after 3.9 hits.
You did say something interesting though that i’d like to ask you about…
I’d agree with that comparision, yet I feel Gargos is still more affected by his instinct since it gives him both offensive and defensive abilities not available while not in instinct. Eagle is not really changed.
That quote was, I feel more of a personal thing as when I first started with eagle I would try to justify his instinct by always doing triple manuals when giving the chance. It’s all muscle memory by now and I sometimes find myself dropping combos trying to do double manuals. It’s just a habit I need to let go of. Besides I think it would make more sense if that was only applied to double manuals. There’s no reason in doing them
Eagle to me is a diamond in the rough. If a great player would give him the chance he would be incredible! I just don’t see that potential in his instinct.
Also Eagle’s Instinct to me does not help him whatsoever in the corner with pressure. It rather hurts it at times. He already has all the tools he needs without instinct to corner pressure
Hmm, I’m trying to think of setups or layered pressures Eagle is capable of doing but instinct hampers it, and I’m not coming up with much.
Every character has access to instinct, and over time, each character’s meta has evolved to pretty unique ways and times they are popping instinct. For example, Gargos will usually be very advantaged popping instinct on a heavy Reckoning attempt because of a number of reasons. Rash will make a blocked reversal S. Big Bad Boot safe with an instinct pop and mix up opportunity. Some characters like Maya, Eyedol, Kim, etc will pop it the instant it’s available because of the benefits it offers or can punish you with that screen freeze.
Eagle is still young, but I get the feeling you’re looking for a concrete answer on how to best utilize instinct. Me theorizing here but maybe it’s just ALL about pressure. Eagle can suffocate you, like you said, easily without instinct. but combine that with 15 seconds of pecks, wingspan, scattershots, skyfalls and screeches? Along with a player’s imagination? He retains his poor defense, yeah, but it’s hard to imagine someone not getting opened up.
I did see something interesting the other day while playing an Eagle. While in instinct, they actually backed off a bit and used the bird to zone. They’d whiff normals to have the bird do peck but then use the quick recovery to call screech or bird bomb or his command jump on my attempt to move in or punish. Made me take that to the lab to figure it out a bit more.
So, some time has passed and I’d like to ask again. Has anyone found a real use for Eagle’s instinct? I’ve still only been using it for double manuals, the screen freeze, and trying some unreliable pressure. I feel like there must be some potential for a ground-breaking technique or setup, but I just can’t find anything
After every normal, if the bird is active, it does a peck as a follow-up attack. It is both unreliable and at times can mess up assists since it causes a one second cooldown. I know it’s supposed to be underwhelming but still, there must be something.
Ok…so I’ve been working a little bit with Eagle’s instinct and I’ve found some uses for it, mostly for tricky combos. While previously using instinct, I felt like I was missing something to make it better. Now I realize was that I wasn’t incorporating my arrows, which surprisingly have enough hit stun to continue combos. Here are some examples (P.S. these clips weren’t edited there are sorta long)
Corner combos are great for this instinct, a mix of manuals making it hard to break. You can convert any manual to a slide after seeing a lockout. Timing is pretty tricky and can be difficult online.
Be careful when doing doing it close range. As you can see in this clip, performing a manual close point black can cause the bird to whiff, causing a drop.
Be mindful of your range, being too close can cause the bird to whiff and being too far causes normals to whiff. Use either a advancing arrow or a standing arrow depending how far you are. If you feel unsure, just perform fwd. MP.
Check out some of Amenty’s Eagle stuff, I’ve seen mixup stuff but he has a metric ton of wtf combo’s… Like there were almost no break windows… Granted he was playing against and teaching Chanchula as Jago, but still that type of stuff wouldn’t be character specific once started. Eagle’s offense is probably the best in the game, he was flying all over the screen, left rights, fake cross ups, fake jump ins like a DBZ fight. Was ridiculous to see… Lot of 1 frame mixups too with those dirty arrow rains in the corner. That’s just nasty
IMO instead of unreliable pecking attacks, the bird in Instinct should gain access to some kind of pecking command grab like Quan Chi’s pet in MKX, or hover for few seconds over enemy pecking him every few seconds, similarly how Maya’s daggers hover over enemy.
I’ve seen it and I agree he has many great things going. I use some of his setups already like arrow rain to slide whiff in the corner. We still need too have that mirror.
I really wish they had something like this instead. At least make me want to pop instinct. Sometimes I think eagle got cheated out of a good instinct. Either way, we’ll have to make due with what we have.
Yea, feel the same. In most situations I don’t even care when I get Instinct as Eagle. Even Instinct 0 frame freeze feels useless as he does not have reliable reversal. I don’t need frame freeze to mash out down+3k
