RM Jonnitti
Hot Dog
Hey everyone, jonnitti here. Some of you may have seen me on Jaxel's stream at the break, especially from second week when i frauded it out to winner's finals lol. But anyways, I have been playing Deathstroke since the game first dropped and always played strictly him. I wanted to make double sure that post patch it was worth dropping a character that i feel fit my playstyle so well. After labbing it up a bit I came to the conclusion that Deathstroke is still one of the better characters in the game.
I'd like to preface that i don't think I'm a very good player. I think I have the mind to be a decent player but overall, i have dogshit reactions and yomi. I also lack matchup experience and I'm not the greatest at blocking mixups, but I understand the character well enough to have a strong opinion on him.
Here is my reasoning.
1. His zoning game is still really good - lets face it, his guns are still really useful. you just have to mix in high guns with low guns now that low guns are a lot more negative on block. high guns i always think of as the "stop moving" button since it will catch the startup of both dashes and jumps. also the assault riffle i think is very under rated. the assault riffle kind of covers both air air and ground at the same time. since it stays out there longer, it can catch people on their way down if the end up jumping. and as we all know, getting hit by any guns in the air causes a lot of pushback. blocking the grenade on the MB version gives pushback. i personally like to use it to push characters out of the range where they can punish low guns. i also feel that even in matches where low guns are punishable, guns are still really effectives (with the exception of the flash). you have to make them want to do shit. be content with chilling out and waiting for them to do the first move and remember high guns do stop people form moving if you can read them going for dashes. and if you're reactions aren't dogshit like mine you can react to jumps and airguns or if your excution isnt dogshit like mine you can iAG then on their way down. and also remember that any character that can punish your guns from 3/4 distance on can also have their shit punished by high guns at least. flash and batgirl for example get a 323 punish. killer frost slide you're going to have to hold that but icebergs you can get high guns. against characters that will inevitably get in (like batman), just take your chip where you can and when they get to a range that is scary (usually outside of the range that they can punish low guns) try to make a read on how they approach you. you're options are they jump at you (jb3) they dash up and push buttons (block, jb3, MB B/F3 all work in some of these situations), they wait to see what you do or they do some character specific stuff (slides, batman trait, command grab). also keep in mind all guns can't be wagered if they aren't combo'd into.
2. His meter isn't really needed for combos - and it's fucking awesome. you can still do a lot of damage without meter and you can save your meter to use MB B3s and MB F3s and use it in zoning or for push blocking.
3. Da F3 of da godz - honestly this move is pretty cheap. it's +10 like a lot of F3s but what makes this one different from everyone else's is that it moves him forward, so he doesn't have to dash in for a mixup after its blocked. there he has access to b2 (i13) and b1u2 (i16) for a low overhead mixup, ji3 to try to catch a backdash, do another one (why not?), do nothing, grab, the list goes on. thats pretty fucking plus. also it anti airs which is awesome and since it launches you can juggle ji2 123 to set up the flying ninja vortex that was posted in here before.
4. His pressure can be pretty annoying to deal with - f23 (i7) is +9. also his ji3 on block gives him the ability to go for the low/overhead mixup i discussed before, just be careful using it since d2s are a lot better (when i go for the ballsier jump ins i usually go for ji1 since it has a weird hitbox, i wouldn't recommend doing it a lot but it beats out some d2s, food for thought). it can get to the point wher eint he corner you can kind of just throw around b1u2, f23, f3, b22 xx spin and throw. that can get pretty tough to deal with sometimes.
5. He has great mobility - and honestly because of that, i think hes one of the best zoners (i dont think his actual zoning is the best but i feel like as an overall character hes better than most of them). he has the ability to move around the stage better than the rest of them. he's able to create distance with backdashes relatively well and while jumping back, he has good answers in jb3 and air guns. his jump arc is really nice (you used to be able to jump out of f23 breath when it was +1 and jb3 if you delayed the 3as long as you blocked breath standing). most of the zoners in the cast have goofy jump arcs, walk even slower and have shittier dashes. this makes him much harder to deal with because it lets him transition into a pressure game easier if the player wants to switch styles.
6. He can switch form zoning to pressure easily - like i said before his mobility makes it easy to switch from a pressure style to a zoning style and vice versa, but more importantly, his combo enders let him do that even more so. ending with sword spin in the corner can open up more optoins because you are at advantage and your opponent can't wake up. ending with 123 or landing b222 sets up flying ninja vortext. pizza cutter ender gives you the option to back up, go ham or get guaranteed chip on character it works on (pretty much batgirl, superman with super, the flash and shit like that).
7. He is the king of interactables - this is really where Deathstroke shines. this is also where everything comes full circle. I have found things with related to interactables that make him stronger in all of wht i discussed before.
I'd like to preface that i don't think I'm a very good player. I think I have the mind to be a decent player but overall, i have dogshit reactions and yomi. I also lack matchup experience and I'm not the greatest at blocking mixups, but I understand the character well enough to have a strong opinion on him.
Here is my reasoning.
1. His zoning game is still really good - lets face it, his guns are still really useful. you just have to mix in high guns with low guns now that low guns are a lot more negative on block. high guns i always think of as the "stop moving" button since it will catch the startup of both dashes and jumps. also the assault riffle i think is very under rated. the assault riffle kind of covers both air air and ground at the same time. since it stays out there longer, it can catch people on their way down if the end up jumping. and as we all know, getting hit by any guns in the air causes a lot of pushback. blocking the grenade on the MB version gives pushback. i personally like to use it to push characters out of the range where they can punish low guns. i also feel that even in matches where low guns are punishable, guns are still really effectives (with the exception of the flash). you have to make them want to do shit. be content with chilling out and waiting for them to do the first move and remember high guns do stop people form moving if you can read them going for dashes. and if you're reactions aren't dogshit like mine you can react to jumps and airguns or if your excution isnt dogshit like mine you can iAG then on their way down. and also remember that any character that can punish your guns from 3/4 distance on can also have their shit punished by high guns at least. flash and batgirl for example get a 323 punish. killer frost slide you're going to have to hold that but icebergs you can get high guns. against characters that will inevitably get in (like batman), just take your chip where you can and when they get to a range that is scary (usually outside of the range that they can punish low guns) try to make a read on how they approach you. you're options are they jump at you (jb3) they dash up and push buttons (block, jb3, MB B/F3 all work in some of these situations), they wait to see what you do or they do some character specific stuff (slides, batman trait, command grab). also keep in mind all guns can't be wagered if they aren't combo'd into.
2. His meter isn't really needed for combos - and it's fucking awesome. you can still do a lot of damage without meter and you can save your meter to use MB B3s and MB F3s and use it in zoning or for push blocking.
3. Da F3 of da godz - honestly this move is pretty cheap. it's +10 like a lot of F3s but what makes this one different from everyone else's is that it moves him forward, so he doesn't have to dash in for a mixup after its blocked. there he has access to b2 (i13) and b1u2 (i16) for a low overhead mixup, ji3 to try to catch a backdash, do another one (why not?), do nothing, grab, the list goes on. thats pretty fucking plus. also it anti airs which is awesome and since it launches you can juggle ji2 123 to set up the flying ninja vortex that was posted in here before.
4. His pressure can be pretty annoying to deal with - f23 (i7) is +9. also his ji3 on block gives him the ability to go for the low/overhead mixup i discussed before, just be careful using it since d2s are a lot better (when i go for the ballsier jump ins i usually go for ji1 since it has a weird hitbox, i wouldn't recommend doing it a lot but it beats out some d2s, food for thought). it can get to the point wher eint he corner you can kind of just throw around b1u2, f23, f3, b22 xx spin and throw. that can get pretty tough to deal with sometimes.
5. He has great mobility - and honestly because of that, i think hes one of the best zoners (i dont think his actual zoning is the best but i feel like as an overall character hes better than most of them). he has the ability to move around the stage better than the rest of them. he's able to create distance with backdashes relatively well and while jumping back, he has good answers in jb3 and air guns. his jump arc is really nice (you used to be able to jump out of f23 breath when it was +1 and jb3 if you delayed the 3as long as you blocked breath standing). most of the zoners in the cast have goofy jump arcs, walk even slower and have shittier dashes. this makes him much harder to deal with because it lets him transition into a pressure game easier if the player wants to switch styles.
6. He can switch form zoning to pressure easily - like i said before his mobility makes it easy to switch from a pressure style to a zoning style and vice versa, but more importantly, his combo enders let him do that even more so. ending with sword spin in the corner can open up more optoins because you are at advantage and your opponent can't wake up. ending with 123 or landing b222 sets up flying ninja vortext. pizza cutter ender gives you the option to back up, go ham or get guaranteed chip on character it works on (pretty much batgirl, superman with super, the flash and shit like that).
7. He is the king of interactables - this is really where Deathstroke shines. this is also where everything comes full circle. I have found things with related to interactables that make him stronger in all of wht i discussed before.
- point 1. he can shoot people out of interactables and as a gadget character, the bombs comber a very nice area that at leasts stops people from moving. also since all interactables give hard knockdowns you can dash away or go for guaranteed chip
- point 2. since his meter isn't used for combos, you can use them to MB interactables.
- point 3. interactables all give hard knocdowns so you can start playign with crossup F3. not really that big of a deal but you can consider it
- point 4. interactables can play in with pressure because they all give hard knowdowns. and hard knockdowns are obviously really important with starting pressure
- point 5. this is where him as a gadget character really shines. he can get out of corners really easily on some stages, he can blow up things and jump away. most of where power characters get their huge damage interactabls (which i believe all the over zoners that i can think of are power characters), deathstroke trades that for being able to get the fuck out of places and creat distance. i approve of that.
- point 6. theres goofy setup with corner interactables that i found. if you land crossup f3 go for a corner interactable. you will jump away and you will get a really long hard knockdown and be full screen away. a really interesting way to change from pressure to zoning.
. against both these characters i like to sit back and do nothing and wait for the m to do something before i start shooting.
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