So this has happened to me a few times when playing one of my training partners. Whenever he would switch head he would then go straight into the approriate special move to either A) anti air me B) combo me C) punish for free.
Is his stance switch essentially a random instinct cancel?
Yes, the screen freeze acts like shadow moves or instinct activations.
That’s really powerful. They made it seem like random stance switching was a con but that’s definitely a pro.
It can be a con. because you’ll never really know when you get a switch. Because say for example you’re warrior pinning someone down then you whiff something or something gets blocked and you switch. I don’t think many people want to be in mage while right next to someone.
It seems like a strong pro to me. Not the switching, but the fact that you can anti-air DP someone for free a lot more easily than you otherwise could. And because even Mage has a reversal (even if a poor one), you can take appropriate action regardless of the stance.
Plus, you can actually instinct during the stance switch if you went from warrior -> mage and you REALLY want to DP someone.
Definitely seems good to me. Eyedol basically randomly freezes the screen 5 or more times per match, and if even one of those times leads to him getting a punish he otherwise wouldn’t have, that’s a huge deal long term.
That’s exactly what I’m talking about. It’s even worse because you as the attacker can have a perfect punish or even have the advantage via block pressure but if he stance changes that’s a free get of jail free card into either reseting the neutral or a full combo. I play a lot of Cinder so that’s where the frustration comes from presently.
He only stance switches after doing a special or normal that can trigger it though. It’s not like you could be pressuring him and he’ll randomly get it allowing him to blow through the opening in your string.
No, but let’s say you do Mage stomp on block, then he switches. You get to see if the opponent pressed a button or jumped or something. Not every time you change will be helpful to you, but the number is definitely higher than 0%.
A question: the stance switch only occurs after the move’s recovery ends, right? I mean, it doesn’t make unsafe specials safe, does it? =S
It doesn’t make them safe but it can ruin your opponents punish. I know I’ve been in a place to punish some of mage stance’s moves but since I wasn’t using shadow and didn’t get their instantly, they stance switched and punished me for punishing them. Therefore as the attacker I’m way more wary of punishing them even though it should theoretically be my turn for a few button presses
I’m pretty sure that Eyedol only switches after he has fully recovered, meaning that any punish should still hit him even if he is going to switch. If he switches and you tried to “punish” then it wasn’t really a punish.
I haven’t done tons of science to verify this, but it seems true by feel, and I would be really really surprised if it was coded any other way since it seems like the obvious choice.
Maybe not a true punish but a player punish. By that I mean in the heat of the battle where your opponent respects your offense. The screen freeze gives them that breather that can turn the tide again. It’s more of a mind game thing at that point I’ll admit.