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Nightwolf General Discussion Thread

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
Haven’t played in awhile. But I’m hearing Nightwolf is a bit better now. Which variation is the go to now? V3? I wanna start playing again. My Nightwolf was coming along very nicely before I took a break, wanna get back into it honestly.
 

Slymind

Noob
Haven’t played in awhile. But I’m hearing Nightwolf is a bit better now. Which variation is the go to now? V3? I wanna start playing again. My Nightwolf was coming along very nicely before I took a break, wanna get back into it honestly.
It seems Shaman is the what is hot right now, but after the last patch, i think NW has 3 viable variations, however, some people think that there isn't much of a reason to use Matoka over Shaman anymore, aside from a slightly higher damage output. They gotta buff Spirit of Kiba somehow.
 

Evil Canadian

G O K U
Premium Supporter
It seems Shaman is the what is hot right now, but after the last patch, i think NW has 3 viable variations, however, some people think that there isn't much of a reason to use Matoka over Shaman anymore, aside from a slightly higher damage output. They gotta buff Spirit of Kiba somehow.
kiba suckssssssssssssssssss

midscreen v3 now has higher practical damage than v1 in combos too, its only the corner combos that v1 has an advantage. And of course the classic routes are mad strict to boot so is kinda like fuck thatttt.

That said v1 still has uses, rhino charge gets to punish tons of stuff from ranges most moves can't and punish a lot of moves that are safe vs most of the cast.
 

variable

Noob
what increased v3 damage? apologies, just checked recent patch notes and I am not sure what did it but maybe it was a previous patch.
 

Evil Canadian

G O K U
Premium Supporter
what increased v3 damage? apologies, just checked recent patch notes and I am not sure what did it but maybe it was a previous patch.
Just efffective combo route midscreen for v3 is higher than it is for v1 by a bit
v1 has better corner damage than v3 by a bit(or a fair bit if you wanna do the very strict one)

v3 generally speaking is a better pick now as it has much stronger neutral what with the mid hitting lightning arrow, and spirit tracks raw at the right distance around 3/4ths to midscreen is effectively unpunishable by the large majority of the cast.
 

DixieFlatline78

Everyone Has A Path
Does he get high damage KB conversions in V3? I tested stuff in training for a little bit and couldn't get much more than 30%
 

variable

Noob
I don't think that's what shimmy means hehe, but yeah when I saw king gambler playing nightwolf a lot and f2 dodging pokes that's when I picked up the character.

Thanks for the info, thread, definitely gonna investigate shaman.
 

Evil Canadian

G O K U
Premium Supporter
I don't think that's what shimmy means hehe, but yeah when I saw king gambler playing nightwolf a lot and f2 dodging pokes that's when I picked up the character.
Shimmy is literally moving away from an incoming move
dont twist it with the bastardized version people use for MK11(auto shimmy), that's what it means for literally every other fighting game.

ed
like whats shown, that's actually what an auto shimmy should be called, cause the move is automatically doing the shimmy for you. Not strike hi mid/throw stuff like people call it in mk11.
 

variable

Noob
thanks it always made more sense to mean what you're saying, but the 'auto shimmy' being used to mean 'a string that baits out a throw tech' on these boards, in tournament casts, on reddit, all threw me off lol.
 

Slymind

Noob
I might be wrong, but i really think that if the made 222 special cancelable, would help AG a lot, 221+2 being a real grab was a very good change, but there isn't much of a payoff if you cancel 22 into another special move in case they let go of block, but 222 pops, which would allow the cmd grab to actually connect.
 

WA-Finest

>>WILL SLIDE IN NEUTRAL<<
I might be wrong, but i really think that if the made 222 special cancelable, would help AG a lot, 221+2 being a real grab was a very good change, but there isn't much of a payoff if you cancel 22 into another special move in case they let go of block, but 222 pops, which would allow the cmd grab to actually connect.
I don't think it's necessary, 222 is just your safe option for low damage and good oki, or you can BF4 amplify for more damage on a read.
 

WA-Finest

>>WILL SLIDE IN NEUTRAL<<
Are any Nightwolf kings out there hit confirming 11 by the way? I'm still struggling with it but I bet it makes ancestral gift into a monster.
 

Evil Canadian

G O K U
Premium Supporter
Are any Nightwolf kings out there hit confirming 11 by the way? I'm still struggling with it but I bet it makes ancestral gift into a monster.
11 is totally hitconfirmable, however the thing is if the opponent knows whats up they can just hit a button right after 11.
there is a gap in 112 that you can stick a 7f normal inbetween for full punish
if you just do 11 you just lost your turn anyways
if they take the hit on the final bit of the string, its only 5% and its -1 on hit (and you can't hitconfirm the single last hit if they block the first 2) so its not really a big guessing game.

Of course this predicates your enemy knows whats up to begin with and if not then you get to 112 all day long on block, but if they do sometimes your only recourse is to do 11 into d1 to steal a turn back.

Far as will he-won't he hitconfirm strings 31 is a lot better for it. 31 is 100% safe, 312 is 100% safe and basically resets to neutral in a favourable position for you since its right in f12 range and you only -1 or 2 or some shit. Basic idea is you keep stealing turns after doing 31 and every now and then you stick out the 2 if they wanna challenge by hitting a button back, and you also get a KB to boot. The string is basically visually imperceptible if you gonna do the followup or not so they just kinda have to guess.
 

Saboteur-6

Filthy Casual
So are people using V2 at all now or is it V3 or bust? Also can anyone recommend / link a player that uses NW at a competitive level?
 

Evil Canadian

G O K U
Premium Supporter
So are people using V2 at all now or is it V3 or bust? Also can anyone recommend / link a player that uses NW at a competitive level?
v2 is basically, whats the point?
if you wanna grapple Kotal or Geras are so, so, so much better at it, to the point where its laughable.

as for people using nightwolf... nobody I know of other than a few people trying v3 now offhand, but they don't know optimal stuff cause I keep seeing everyone losing damage when they don't have to.
 

Zviko

Noob
That is proper nightwolf play, it's not trolling lol
he lives and dies off that d3
I guess that's true in this case but he's still trolling a lot. Like he ducks a grab or D2 and instead of full combo punish he will still go for a grab and literally wins games only by doing that. It's funny af.
 

SparkySanders

Unga bunga dude
I guess that's true in this case but he's still trolling a lot. Like he ducks a grab or D2 and instead of full combo punish he will still go for a grab and literally wins games only by doing that. It's funny af.
his onlygrabs streams have me bustin a gut, that mans a creative genius
 

variable

Noob
foxy is very funny but his sheeva and nightwolf are both basically him trolling. he is even using smurfs now to ensure he doesn't have to really play them lol.

imo best nightwolf is KingGambler. he is very consistent (just had an injury and hasn't come back to full form but he's still great) and plays v1 and v3 depending on matchup (I believe it's based on whether they have something that shoulder can punish often, for KL that would be like scorpion's spear ime, they use it too close you can shoulder on block. apologies if I'm mistaken... and also v1 can convert out of the air for combos obviously, probably good against certain players and matchups)
 

WA-Finest

>>WILL SLIDE IN NEUTRAL<<
Speaking of that BF4 how are yall getting the KB on it since there's a gap that you can just S1 punish making the amplify irrelevant. Oki and spacing only?