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Baraka General Discussion

DixieFlatline78

Everyone Has A Path
Blood Lunge + Leg Kabob sounds like it could be pretty wild. I'm thinking I may end up going Gutted + Berserker Rush. Baraka has a lot of trouble maintaining momentum and I think the added corner carry will help tremendously
 
I messed around with the enhanced flag move (cant remember the name) and gutted and kind of liked it. Its basically marauder with more damage. I think blood lunge and kebob is definitely better tho
 
Currently tested the flag stuff in some sets, too slow to activate and hard to utilize against the zoners who are the characters Baraka may have more trouble against in general, but I am hoping that NRS looks at these and also looks at changing the numbered requirements for certain specials like making command grab a one slot move.

We have to wait and see what universal changes the game will have and buffs if any Baraka gets plus nerfs to the rest of the cast might end up getting.


I do think you're underselling command grab plus leg kebob. That variation is Doomsday in terms of safety and harassment. Also 21% restands into guesses are absurdly good.

Every time Baraka punishes you with 1,1,2 ex blade spark he gets 20% +8 restand. If the opponent tries to jump they can eat sweep, if they duck they eat sweep and then there's forward 4 which can lead to KB that's 20 something percent or forward 4, leg kebob. If they didn't block you have restanded them again and now you've done 30% damage plus bleed and they have to guess again. Once you condition them well with forward 4 and sweep you can start leaping on them and then they have to guess what you're doing and in most mix up scenarios you're totally safe if you play him correctly. Leg Kebob buffs up Baraka's forward 4 stagger too which allows him to go for throws or other options. There's too many variables to consider and it actually makes his staggers matter more.

Same thing with the application of Back 3,1,2 or Back 3,1, leg kebob. All options are safe on block and gapless. Baraka also has a million ticks off down 1, down 3, down 4, standing 1, 1,1, his back 3, his jump 1 and so forth.

Never have to deal with breakaway and constantly guessing with staggers that actually mean something. Command grab makes people want to press and then you press on me at the wrong time and you eat 20% and then you have to guess again and my correct guesses have the potential to loop you in the guess multiple times.

Does it make Baraka top tier? I'm not saying that. Does it mean Baraka has lots of stagger and mix options? Absolutely! We need to see how thing match up, but I absolutely love this combination and will be putting it to as much use as I can in concert with Jade and Erron.
Sorry man I forgot to get back to you, but I think this was a great write up of blood lunge plus leg kebob advantages. Being plus 8 after amp spark and making them guess is pretty good. I have a bad habit of just using blood lunge like a 50/50 mechanic and thats not really how it should be used. I will have to give this load out a solid try. I agree it could be a doomsday steamroll death by a thousand cuts type variation which would be cool.

I still hope Baraka gets some buffs tho :/
 

Espio

Kokomo
Lead Moderator
I have been messing with this variation too and I agree it makes the opponent literally have to guess. B3 tick, b31 kabob, b312 gives people problems
I always use the threat of command grab a lot because it's like a constant mind game in the back of their heads especially if you tag it onto different options.


I'm glad you're enjoying it, it was my beta loadout for Baraka and it is dope.

Sorry man I forgot to get back to you, but I think this was a great write up of blood lunge plus leg kebob advantages. Being plus 8 after amp spark and making them guess is pretty good. I have a bad habit of just using blood lunge like a 50/50 mechanic and thats not really how it should be used. I will have to give this load out a solid try. I agree it could be a doomsday steamroll death by a thousand cuts type variation which would be cool.

I still hope Baraka gets some buffs tho :/
Thanks, I get wanting a stronger Baraka for sure, but I'm always big on making whatever I like work to the best of my ability. I have footage I'll eventually post here of me using my custom Baraka against Noob and some others, his full tool kit is fun to me in concert with Blood Lunge and Leg Kebob, it's nice variety with how I built my Jade.

I think NRS decided to be safe with adding customs, but I think he could benefit from something. Baraka isn't the only one, Jade and Skarlet also didn't get much this patch go round other than customs and I think that was intentional instead of having to spend the next set of patches nerfing the mistakes and then we'd be mad lol.

I wanna see patch notes though so I can get a better picture cause flag stuff is perplexing. Granted, I feel content, but I also really don't know what to change about Baraka honestly.
 

Apex Kano

Kano Commando main MKX
I could of sworn Baraka didn't tick throw of his 1,1 and f2,1 into Blood Lunge??? Now with this Ultimate patch you can. I just tick thrown someone for the win by accident and I was even amazed! If you have not updated your game yet, GO DO IT NOW! I know I'm not crazy and he was unable to do this. Since he can now, this is a BIG BUFF!!!
 

Espio

Kokomo
Lead Moderator
I could of sworn Baraka didn't tick throw of his 1,1 and f2,1 into Blood Lunge??? Now with this Ultimate patch you can. I just tick thrown someone for the win by accident and I was even amazed! If you have not updated your game yet, GO DO IT NOW! I know I'm not crazy and he was unable to do this. Since he can now, this is a BIG BUFF!!!
He has always been able to tick into all of those things before Ultimate, ever since the game came out in fact.

No buffs occurred to ticks.



Blood Lunge + Leg Kabob sounds like it could be pretty wild. I'm thinking I may end up going Gutted + Berserker Rush. Baraka has a lot of trouble maintaining momentum and I think the added corner carry will help tremendously
Keep me posted on how this goes. Berzerker taking people to the corner quick is a really good tool for him especially against Cetrion and other characters that give him a hard time. The quicker the better.
 

The Ultimate

aka CommandThrower
Granted, I feel content, but I also really don't know what to change about Baraka honestly.
The only thing that I would really want is a change to Blood Lunge. Ideally, I’d want it to turn into a one slot move, since it’s still currently the only command throw in the game that’s a two slot move.

If it’s going to remain a two slot move, then I’d like to see it gain armor breaking properties, with the KB getting the secondary trigger of breaking armor to get the KB. Johnny Cage got Pissed Off as an armor breaker via the patch, so I’d hope for Baraka to get the same in a future patch.

I’d also like to see it gain a MB for additional damage—maybe Baraka just smashes the opponent’s face with a double hammerfist or falling headbutt. However, if Lunge just got armor breaking properties, I would be fine if the move never got a MB.
 

DixieFlatline78

Everyone Has A Path
Granted, I feel content, but I also really don't know what to change about Baraka honestly.
I personally want a movement buff. Just front loading the distance of his forward dash would do wonders for his ability to open people up when using Gutted. Based on how it is right now it's pretty clear he's not supposed to be in their face all the time. Which is a viable way for a character to be, just would like to get his ass in gear for certain matchups.

It seems like Blood Lunge really is the way to go, but I like having him as an explosive underdog character
 

Espio

Kokomo
Lead Moderator
So with the added hit advantage on pokes, I def think Extended Pokes will be very viable in footsies heavy matchups
Wanted to let this marinade for some weeks, how is this build working and what are you pairing it with?

I personally want a movement buff. Just front loading the distance of his forward dash would do wonders for his ability to open people up when using Gutted. Based on how it is right now it's pretty clear he's not supposed to be in their face all the time. Which is a viable way for a character to be, just would like to get his ass in gear for certain matchups.

It seems like Blood Lunge really is the way to go, but I like having him as an explosive underdog character
Baraka's movement is fine, he's just dealing with characters that cannot be contained and are problematic for everyone like even with Jade when Cetrion is jumping back and running she is hard to catch.

I think what really hurts is doing regular throws because they throw the opponent so far away. Baraka's counterparts like Rain, Mileena and Sheeva have really good forward dashes but they don't have forward 4 and sweep. so they're kind of stubby in many ways that Baraka isn't.

Granted I don't think Baraka would be too good with faster movement. I feel like I'm one of the only players who doesn't care for gutted. I feel like Baraka has a hard time opening up people without his mix ups. You could pair blade charge with gutted for the armor breaker so that's nice at least. Maybe it's just me cause I started with Bone Picker till Berzerker came out then combined them.

I think nerfing the regular throw damage also makes command grab more appealing as well and leaves you closer. I almost never use regular throws now unless it's a scenario to put the opponent back in the corner but even the jab staggers into command grab are better to me.
 

DixieFlatline78

Everyone Has A Path
I use Gutted mostly, so I've played Marauder essentially. It honestly helps against characters like Sub Zero and Johnny Cage but I'd usually rather have something more exciting. I also had talked about Berserker Rush with Gutted. I've messed with both that and Blade Charge, cant tell which is more useful. The ability to punish with Blade charge and side switch is super useful.

I agree that Blood Lunge + Whatever is probably the best way to do it but I've had issues making it work consistently.
 

Gooberking

FGC Cannon Fodder
I use Gutted mostly, so I've played Marauder essentially. It honestly helps against characters like Sub Zero and Johnny Cage but I'd usually rather have something more exciting. I also had talked about Berserker Rush with Gutted. I've messed with both that and Blade Charge, cant tell which is more useful. The ability to punish with Blade charge and side switch is super useful.

I agree that Blood Lunge + Whatever is probably the best way to do it but I've had issues making it work consistently.
Baraka has turned into my go to when I think I can't keep someone out and they want to try and make me guess all day. I'm a bad guesser and when I get it right I want all the damage I can get. Looking through the options I pretty much just homed in on Gutted and Blade Charge to keep it simple, and give me lots of routes to high damage.

With that in mind, I don't see the point of Baraka-Serker over Blade Charge, especially paired with Gutted.

They both have corner carry, but blade charge is faster, has a free side switch, armor break, and an armor break KB that hurts. The armor break with Gutted is about as viable as any armor break could ever be, so you can almost bank on getting it. Blade charge seems to do everything Serker does just as good or better, and does much more on top of that.

Does it have any real benefit? It's all mids, but it's still not safe, and its corner carry and knock down advantage don't see super different .
 

DixieFlatline78

Everyone Has A Path
Baraka has turned into my go to when I think I can't keep someone out and they want to try and make me guess all day. I'm a bad guesser and when I get it right I want all the damage I can get. Looking through the options I pretty much just homed in on Gutted and Blade Charge to keep it simple, and give me lots of routes to high damage.

With that in mind, I don't see the point of Baraka-Serker over Blade Charge, especially paired with Gutted.

They both have corner carry, but blade charge is faster, has a free side switch, armor break, and an armor break KB that hurts. The armor break with Gutted is about as viable as any armor break could ever be, so you can almost bank on getting it. Blade charge seems to do everything Serker does just as good or better, and does much more on top of that.

Does it have any real benefit? It's all mids, but it's still not safe, and its corner carry and knock down advantage don't see super different .
Baraka-serker gives you a much better knockdown situation. In the middle of the stage, 112 xx Gutted, F4, F21 xx Ender puts them in the corner. With Blade Charge, you end up full screen with 15 frames of advantage. With Baraka-serker you end up right next to them with 26 frames of advantage. Even if you don't get them in the corner, you still have enough time to dash up and attempt a meaty.

I distinctly remember Rooflemonger saying it was one of the worst specials in the game, saying Chop Chop makes it irrelevant. Nevermind that it was unbreakable damage with corner carry and oki. I was pretty miffed about that one.
 

Error404

Noob
Baraka-serker gives you a much better knockdown situation. In the middle of the stage, 112 xx Gutted, F4, F21 xx Ender puts them in the corner. With Blade Charge, you end up full screen with 15 frames of advantage. With Baraka-serker you end up right next to them with 26 frames of advantage. Even if you don't get them in the corner, you still have enough time to dash up and attempt a meaty.

I distinctly remember Rooflemonger saying it was one of the worst specials in the game, saying Chop Chop makes it irrelevant. Nevermind that it was unbreakable damage with corner carry and oki. I was pretty miffed about that one.
Yeah , I use it in both of my custom variations. Baraka with corner carry just becomes infinitely better.
 
Been fooling around with Banner Bash+Staked+Banner Charge lately.

Definitely just a troll variation but when it comes to buffing it to make it better?
I think all I would do is let you choose between bashing it like now or planting it normally with a new input (bd4? dd4?)
 

The Ultimate

aka CommandThrower
Been fooling around with Banner Bash+Staked+Banner Charge lately.

Definitely just a troll variation but when it comes to buffing it to make it better?
I think all I would do is let you choose between bashing it like now or planting it normally with a new input (bd4? dd4?)
It definitely needs a hell of a lot more buffs if a Flag variation is to be any good whatsoever, but that's definitely a start. My short list of buffs would be:


-Double the length of time(or more, perhaps) that the Flag is active once set down.

-Double, triple or even quadruple the interactable range of the flag.

-Make Banner Charge cancellable during the run(costs one defensive meter and destroys the flag).

-Turn Staked into a command throw.
 
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DixieFlatline78

Everyone Has A Path
Man I'm on the Blood Lunge hype train now. Not just for the mix but it really improves his mid screen presence. Baraka is so easy to keep out but being able to threaten a command grab from outside of their range is really useful. A few dash up Blood Lunges in the neutral can really make someone either freeze up or start flailing.

Even the lack of damage output isnt that bad, though I do miss the guaranteed 30-50% that Gutted brings
 

Zer0_h0ur

XBL tag: South of Zero
Man I'm on the Blood Lunge hype train now. Not just for the mix but it really improves his mid screen presence. Baraka is so easy to keep out but being able to threaten a command grab from outside of their range is really useful. A few dash up Blood Lunges in the neutral can really make someone either freeze up or start flailing.

Even the lack of damage output isnt that bad, though I do miss the guaranteed 30-50% that Gutted brings
I love it, but I struggled badly when I tried to use Baraka. Feel like every fight is uphill, kinda like when I use Term. I'm on the Make Blood Lunge One Slot team, because I feel it's definitely a 1 slot move now that this meta has been defined.
Blood lunge, ext pokes, and leg kabob/spine burst/armor break would be amazong.

Blood lunge + gutted would be too OP tho prob should disallow that combo LMAO
 
We don't speak of this string here
The pushback while weird for Baraka isn't even the bad part of it.
I don't like that the standing 2 part of it will always whiff after Gutted Amplified.

It's a high that can't be changed to a mid because it's a standing button.
And You can't extend the hitbox without altering the animation so that his blade is extended, Which NRS wouldn't bother doing.

So you're just saddled with it.