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Baraka General Discussion

Zoidberg747

My blades will find your heart
Man Baraka isn’t very popular lol. I think Bone Picker is being slept on. The lunging command grab is amazing and opens up easy 50/50 mind games.
Bone picker is fine but Marauder is still just so much better. The lunge mind games are fun but 1 marauder combo does about as much as 2 or 3 lunge mixups. And if you guess wrong the enemy can full combo you for trying to lunge.

I like Bone Picker, and I think it is still probably tournament viable, but if you want to get the most out of the character you have to go with Marauder imo.

I'd like the variation more if they didn't pair blood lunge up with the literally worst possible special they could have chosen. In order to get any midscreen combo damage he really needs chopchop if he doesn't have gutted. Sure, he still has his KBs off of 122 and f44, but since your opponent never has a reason to break away they can just save their meter for your KBs.

The variation would be so much better off if they gave it leg kebab for the 50/50 mixups and hit advantage into blood lunge mixups. Or, even baraka barrage, since df1 also gives enough hit advantage for a lunge/f4 mixup. I'd even take one of the flag moves over spines, just because then I'd still have chopchop.
Spines gives a lot of conversions and corner combos that he would not have with chop chop. Being able to convert off of spines is invaluable because it gives more ways to end in lunge to set up oki and mixups. If he had chop chop in this variation he would legit have no corner combos. And unless leg kabab launches then you are pretty much killing Bone Picker's corner game by taking out spines.

I personally think Bone Picker is balanced and tournament viable by itself, and spines is a big part of that. Having an anti air and crossover defense tool that you can combo off of, a safe meterless special to cancel into, a great gtfo move at neutral range, and actual corner combos is super important. Don't get me wrong, Marauder is just straight up better but Bone Picker isn't bad.
 

Snake Sound 222

Tonight, Tarkata feasts
I'd like the variation more if they didn't pair blood lunge up with the literally worst possible special they could have chosen. In order to get any midscreen combo damage he really needs chopchop if he doesn't have gutted. Sure, he still has his KBs off of 122 and f44, but since your opponent never has a reason to break away they can just save their meter for your KBs.

The variation would be so much better off if they gave it leg kebab for the 50/50 mixups and hit advantage into blood lunge mixups. Or, even baraka barrage, since df1 also gives enough hit advantage for a lunge/f4 mixup. I'd even take one of the flag moves over spines, just because then I'd still have chopchop.
Or Spine Burst could be df3. That way you could have Spines and Chop Chop at the same time. Not sure if that would end up being OP though.
 
I honestly think Bone Picker is good as is. It is really hard to combo defensive players in this game and this really solves this. Sure you don’t get gutted damage but I find against high level players, I’m not able to open them up anyways. Using ex Blade Spark at mid-range with Blood Lunge, I’m finding really good success.
 
Spines gives a lot of conversions and corner combos that he would not have with chop chop. Being able to convert off of spines is invaluable because it gives more ways to end in lunge to set up oki and mixups. If he had chop chop in this variation he would legit have no corner combos. And unless leg kabab launches then you are pretty much killing Bone Picker's corner game by taking out spines.

I personally think Bone Picker is balanced and tournament viable by itself, and spines is a big part of that. Having an anti air and crossover defense tool that you can combo off of, a safe meterless special to cancel into, a great gtfo move at neutral range, and actual corner combos is super important. Don't get me wrong, Marauder is just straight up better but Bone Picker isn't bad.
I'd take significantly higher damage midscreen combos over slightly higher corner combos any day, considering the variation has poor corner carry anyways since blood lunge plants the opponent right into the ground. Plus, he doesn't need a safe special to cancel into because all of his string enders are just as safe (or safer), and I don't feel he needs a better AA move either.

What Leg Kebab does is put your opponent into a +19 restand off of 50/50s with b312 and 122, which then puts them directly into another 50/50 between blood lunge and f4xxKebab, the latter of which repeats the situation once again. Meanwhile, kebab is only -7 on block. It's a much more potent combination of moves.
 

Zoidberg747

My blades will find your heart
I'd take significantly higher damage midscreen combos over slightly higher corner combos any day, considering the variation has poor corner carry anyways since blood lunge plants the opponent right into the ground. Plus, he doesn't need a safe special to cancel into because all of his string enders are just as safe (or safer), and I don't feel he needs a better AA move either.

What Leg Kebab does is put your opponent into a +19 restand off of 50/50s with b312 and 122, which then puts them directly into another 50/50 between blood lunge and f4xxKebab, the latter of which repeats the situation once again. Meanwhile, kebab is only -7 on block. It's a much more potent combination of moves.
Well sure but that sounds broken af, so i'm not surprised it isn't in a tourney variation. He doesn't need a vortex.

It isn't just slightly higher corner combos, it is any corner combos at all. Without spines he has zero launching capability outside KB D2 or KB 122. Midscreen combos might do more damage with chop chop but when you end with lunge it puts you at the perfect distance for lunge mixups, it probably wouldn't with chop chop. Agree to disagree I guess.
 

ShadyHeart

Relationship with Sonya ended
Idk if anyone else has noticed this but the AI can actually break away out of chop chop sometimes, which leaves you punishable. The AI is bound to the same limitations as us, so somehow chop chop is broken and exploitable unless the AI can actually cheat.
 

Wallach

Noob
Idk if anyone else has noticed this but the AI can actually break away out of chop chop sometimes, which leaves you punishable. The AI is bound to the same limitations as us, so somehow chop chop is broken and exploitable unless the AI can actually cheat.
From what I have seen, it is possible to hit the very first hit of Chop Chop on an aerial opponent on the really high end of its hitbox, and that strike pops them up slightly just out of reach of the second hit. So what will happen is they'll float past the second hit and fall into the third and remaining hits of Chop Chop. The AI is fast enough to react to that and hit Breakaway in the tiny spot where they are dropping around that second hit. I don't think a human could time it on purpose reliably, but mashing Breakaway in a case where you think Baraka might end a combo with Chop Chop and hit that timing could happen. Thing is, if a human is going to Breakaway they're probably going to do it before the Chop Chop (whatever thing launched them before then in the first place), so I'm not sure it is ever going to matter outside of AI shenanigans.
 

ShadyHeart

Relationship with Sonya ended
From what I have seen, it is possible to hit the very first hit of Chop Chop on an aerial opponent on the really high end of its hitbox, and that strike pops them up slightly just out of reach of the second hit. So what will happen is they'll float past the second hit and fall into the third and remaining hits of Chop Chop. The AI is fast enough to react to that and hit Breakaway in the tiny spot where they are dropping around that second hit. I don't think a human could time it on purpose reliably, but mashing Breakaway in a case where you think Baraka might end a combo with Chop Chop and hit that timing could happen. Thing is, if a human is going to Breakaway they're probably going to do it before the Chop Chop (whatever thing launched them before then in the first place), so I'm not sure it is ever going to matter outside of AI shenanigans.
They do it to me from 112/B32 chop chop grounded. I haven't payed enough attention to notice if I was whiffing part of the string or started with a jip, but they were definitely grounded.
 

Wallach

Noob
They do it to me from 112/B32 chop chop grounded. I haven't payed enough attention to notice if I was whiffing part of the string or started with a jip, but they were definitely grounded.
Really... that is interesting, I've never seen it grounded myself. I'll see if I can do a bit of testing tonight and find out if manual inputs are capable of it.
 

ShadyHeart

Relationship with Sonya ended
I have the most overpowered boss killing augment. Gives 3% damage buff for the rest of the round on every hit. An 18 hit combo (easy with his combo extender ability) gives 54% damage increase all by itself, and it never fades unless you enter a new round or mercy. By the end of the round combos do well over 1k.
 

SaSSolino

Soul Stealing Loyalist
Alright so I just found out that Blood Lounge ticks everywhere and that Leg Kabob, besides giving you 50/50s, also restands.

I created cancer.
 

Wallach

Noob
So I did test out Chop Chop a little and while it is technically possible to mash Breakaway and have it come out when getting hit by Chop Chop, it's ridiculously hard for a human to do. Hard enough that after trying for a while I still couldn't get it reliably enough to tell whether it would actually result in a punish if the Baraka stopped mashing. This is pretty much an AI only issue.
 

xSkeletonSmasherx69

NOBODY CAN TRULY DEFEAT ME
Are there any strings that you can throw out and then follow up to beat a poke to blow someone up for throwing out pokes too much? Like 11 then f4 or something?
 

Snake Sound 222

Tonight, Tarkata feasts
I have the most overpowered boss killing augment. Gives 3% damage buff for the rest of the round on every hit. An 18 hit combo (easy with his combo extender ability) gives 54% damage increase all by itself, and it never fades unless you enter a new round or mercy. By the end of the round combos do well over 1k.
What's that augment called? I have one that increases the damage of my Fatal Blow by 0.30% based on how much health I have left, but not one that buffs damage on all of my hits.
 

Zoidberg747

My blades will find your heart
Are there any strings that you can throw out and then follow up to beat a poke to blow someone up for throwing out pokes too much? Like 11 then f4 or something?
112, b2, and 4 are plus. 112 has pushback though. If they don't have a 6f d1 then you should be able to beat them with your poke. If they mash pokes though I would use sweep, D4, or DF1 to stay out of their poke range and hip them out that way.
 

xSkeletonSmasherx69

NOBODY CAN TRULY DEFEAT ME
112, b2, and 4 are plus. 112 has pushback though. If they don't have a 6f d1 then you should be able to beat them with your poke. If they mash pokes though I would use sweep, D4, or DF1 to stay out of their poke range and hip them out that way.
An example is that Jax's F4 puts him at around +4 on block or something crazy like that. So if you block it and you try to d1 right after it he can get a full combo off of you trying to D1. What I was thinking is does Baraka have anything like that?
 

Wallach

Noob
112, b2, and 4 are plus. 112 has pushback though. If they don't have a 6f d1 then you should be able to beat them with your poke. If they mash pokes though I would use sweep, D4, or DF1 to stay out of their poke range and hip them out that way.
B2 definitely isn't plus, it's only active 3 frames so -3 at best (and given how far it moves for only being 3a you'll almost always just be -5).

F4 can be spaced to be up to +2, and while that isn't easy to do either you should at least sometimes challenge here on block with a D3 to enforce pressure. Otherwise your best plus frames come off of 4 (which is at least +4) but is unfortunately a high so not that reliable for pressure.
 

The Ultimate

aka CommandThrower
What's that augment called? I have one that increases the damage of my Fatal Blow by 0.30% based on how much health I have left, but not one that buffs damage on all of my hits.
There are two that I've found. One is called "Punctured Armor", and that one increases your damage by 3.00% for each hit in a combo. The second one is called "Ultraviolence", and that one increases your damage by 9.00% for each hit in a combo. Make sure to have Chop Chop equipped and watch enemy AI health bars melt.
 

Pterodactyl

Plus on block.
Alright so I just found out that Blood Lounge ticks everywhere and that Leg Kabob, besides giving you 50/50s, also restands.

I created cancer.
I take it you didn’t play much of the beta.

That’s the set up half of the good Baraka players used back then.
 

ShadyHeart

Relationship with Sonya ended
There are two that I've found. One is called "Punctured Armor", and that one increases your damage by 3.00% for each hit in a combo. The second one is called "Ultraviolence", and that one increases your damage by 9.00% for each hit in a combo. Make sure to have Chop Chop equipped and watch enemy AI health bars melt.
That sounds different. Mine gives a damage bonus for the whole round instead of just the combo, with the tradeoff of a damage penalty at round start.
 

Pterodactyl

Plus on block.
I did, but every Baraka I fought was playing Gutted.
That’s surprising but I believe you.

Yeah though, a lot of people realized you don’t really need combos when you can just be mixing and ticking the absolute hell out of someone. Your opponent is put into a perpetual state of being opened the fuck up and placed perfectly in oki range after every combo or grab