General/Other - Ethereal Ethereal Variation General Discussion

[GTDoffen]

Trying to optimize her damage from a hitconfirm F23 in neutral, while still being practical. Here is the combo I like the most so far.

21U4 as ender grants us 30 hit advantage, and hard-knockdown. Plenty for F12 oki-pressure.

 

[TAS_DASH]

So i've been using ethereal from day one, so I do believe it is stronger, however if your confirm game is good I would only use ex fade incombo for 2 reasons because the damage increase is minimal.
1. To end a round
2. to give f4 a confirm and eliminate its YOLO factor

I'm not by any means saying it's a bad patch or worthless. The setups are where it's at. The plus advantage is scary at times and it does give her a pressure game that the other 2 variations lack. The back 2,2, 1+3 is an ethereal buff considering no one uses it in other variations or will begin to use it. It allows you to choose a side for an ender for the ethereal oki. She can now use 2,1,u4 or the 2,2, 1+3 and have good advantage to fade forward or back, grab, jump over, meaty armor breaking f1, meaty d4, and sometimes sneak in a f3. That's my recommendation for this new Mileena.

Now just 2 orders of business left. A faster down 3 is needed (drop it 2 frames and the advantage for balance reasons.) She needs a decent poke with some range. f3 to reduce it's start up by about 10 frames. She won't be top tier and will still struggle with frame traps, but it will give her a viable shot.

Edit:: If there are not going to give us a faster f3, give us stand 3 as an overhead. Just to make people respect the word defense against Mileena.

 

[MajinBerserker]

Trying to optimize her damage from a hitconfirm F23 in neutral, while still being practical. Here is the combo I like the most so far.

21U4 as ender grants us 30 hit advantage, and hard-knockdown. Plenty for F12 oki-pressure.

Nice vid man. The B22 buff adds to her overall oki in Ethereal. But otherwise I agree with using 21u4 to end combos. The advantage is amazing.
Plus, now there is better damage along with the hit advantage, so I'd interchange 21u4 with B221+3. Like Dash said.

 

[Sami]

Did they fix her being able to be thrown when holding down 2 to stay invisible/invincible?

 

[1man3letters]

Did they fix her being able to be thrown when holding down 2 to stay invisible/invincible?

nope, sadly not

 

[GTDoffen]

Nice vid man. The B22 buff adds to her overall oki in Ethereal. But otherwise I agree with using 21u4 to end combos. The advantage is amazing.
Plus, now there is better damage along with the hit advantage, so I'd interchange 21u4 with B221+3. Like Dash said.

I interchange B22 1+3 and 21U4 as enders depending on stage position. They give the same damage. B22 1+3 as ender also demands tigher execution if you want to stuff wakeups, you have less frames to do so since you have to run.

I am playing around with post options after 21U4 ender, and you can use fade towards to cross-up to reverse inputs or make the wake-up wiff. Even if they do not wake-up, you are at frame advantage.

 

[TheGabStandard]

Trying to optimize her damage from a hitconfirm F23 in neutral, while still being practical. Here is the combo I like the most so far.

21U4 as ender grants us 30 hit advantage, and hard-knockdown. Plenty for F12 oki-pressure.

This the combo I mainly use with the only difference being that i don't run cancel. There is enough time to actually walk and do your ender since B34 xx sai launches the opponent higher than the previous patch

 

[ZeroEffect]

So i've been using ethereal from day one, so I do believe it is stronger, however if your confirm game is good I would only use ex fade incombo for 2 reasons because the damage increase is minimal.
1. To end a round
2. to give f4 a confirm and eliminate its YOLO factor

Edit:: If there are not going to give us a faster f3, give us stand 3 as an overhead. Just to make people respect the word defense against Mileena.

Yeah... So Piercing is now the only variation with no safe confirm for F4.
I always supported the stand 3 overhead. It is something I don't expect to change though.

Block low and D3 when you see teleport seems to counter all these

yes she can ex roll but would be burning 2 bars just to get in

How? It looks like you're in too much blockstun to get the D3 out at all. Kung Lao spin was getting stuffed by slow stuff

 

[MajinBerserker]

This the combo I mainly use with the only difference being that i don't run cancel. There is enough time to actually walk and do your ender since B34 xx sai launches the opponent higher than the previous patch

I was hitting B221+3 consistently, after little practice time last night, after a B34-air sai in my combos. You are correct- you can walk slightly forward for the B22 to connect. With the new hit advantage, I'm seeing better Ethereal damage because ending in B22... is a solid option now.
For 21U4 to be your ender, a slight run cancel is still required.

 

[dotunderscore]

How? It looks like you're in too much blockstun to get the D3 out at all. Kung Lao spin was getting stuffed by slow stuff

Have you tried it? I wasn't really feeling pressured at all. I was doing starters into in-place ex fade and forward ex fade

Also a lot of those combos push them out of throw range unless you are in the corner

 

[TheGabStandard]

I was hitting B221+3 consistently, after little practice time last night, after a B34-air sai in my combos. You are correct- you can walk slightly forward for the B22 to connect. With the new hit advantage, I'm seeing better Ethereal damage because ending in B22... is a solid option now.
For 21U4 to be your ender, a slight run cancel is still required.

You can still walk for a 21U4 ender but the timing is a little stricter. Walk a furrther step or two and let the body fall or longer until....about level with Mileena's chest and 21U4 should hit

 

[Endding]

yoooo

Been meaning to check in for awhile now, how you guys going?

Also, can Ethereal now compete with the cast and or Piercing / Ravenous?

 

[1man3letters]

Yeah... So Piercing is now the only variation with no safe confirm for F4.

f4~high pounce isnt safe though. some characters can punish high pounce on block and those who cant can interrupt it.

 

[Sultani]

Block low and D3 when you see teleport seems to counter all these

yes she can ex roll but would be burning 2 bars just to get in

Yeah. Played a couple times against chance's Mileena last night in some terrible lag. You just have to pay attention to Mileena's meter when you're blocking her strings. EX roll when you're crouch blocking is still way more of a threat than this is. You can still just crouch block everything otherwise. Block string low and then stand up is a viable defense for this unless she EX rolls. Online, reacting correctly to EX roll just to have your character not stand up in time and getting hit anyway isn't specific to these setups.

Effectively, this is what it gives her. From the strings that have low hits in them, cancelling into an overhead EX roll or doing the low hit has always been a 50/50, With strings like 21 (or F12B4), now she can do 2 EX roll, or 21 (50/50 on hit 2) into EX fade and then either 2 EX roll or 21 again.

So, it gives her two 50/50s in the same block string for the cost of two meter bars. Kinda reminds me of playing kaz in SFxT.

I lost both matches against chance, but it really isn't as scary as it sounds.

Also, F14 EX fade 1, F12 roll NJP B22 1+3 is an easy safe confirm from F14.

 

[Johnny San]

Using Ex-Fade as a whiff punisher with roll is too good.

 

[ZeroEffect]

Have you tried it? I wasn't really feeling pressured at all. I was doing starters into in-place ex fade and forward ex fade

Also a lot of those combos push them out of throw range unless you are in the corner

Haven't tried it yet. I saw Chance's video and the blockstun looked like it jailed. If it doesn't, then I stand corrected.

f4~high pounce isnt safe though. some characters can punish high pounce on block and those who cant can interrupt it.

Oh it's interruptable? Shit, F4 is garbage then, lol.

 

[projectzero00]

Check out this beauty:

 

[Blonde_Huntress]

Did they fix her being able to be thrown when holding down 2 to stay invisible/invincible?

I'm REALLY hoping that gets patched. To me, that defeats a potentially big purpose of the move.

Also, can Ethereal now compete with the cast and or Piercing / Ravenous?

I think it can now. I was playing around with it last night for about an hour in training. Played some friends shortly thereafter, and they were ready to pull their hair out in frustration at points. ;P

 

[ZeroEffect]

Check out this beauty:

Crazy. That 47% one at the end was probably the best use of the 3 bars...
but goddamn did those combos look cool!

 

[JDE]

Hmm maybe we should make a meter managing thread so that we can work on strengthening this variation even more?

Also, my combos in this variation gets past 30%, but I feel like they're very basic than some that were posted . Right now, I'm more focused on her neutral game than combos, though. I'm thinking about using this variation as my main focus from her now instead of Piercing because of how fun it is. Plus, I can easily go back to it.

 

[TheGabStandard]

That combo video was pretty cool, has giving me a few ideas for combos with just one bar and see what damage can be done

 

[TakeAChance]

Ethereal gives her safety. That's why I am currently enjoying it. She always has meter, she can zone VERY effectively in this varation and if she has a bar gets up for free.

She can't do that in piercing or Ravenous.

She does not have to hang her self with her F4 low starter, and only ever has to commit to ex roll to be unsafe. It's really really nice lol.

 

[FacelessMan]

Hey everyone I made this video, just like 10 mins after the newest patch, would love to talk ethereal tech I really like this variation it's so much fun

 

[FacelessMan]

Trying to optimize her damage from a hitconfirm F23 in neutral, while still being practical. Here is the combo I like the most so far.

21U4 as ender grants us 30 hit advantage, and hard-knockdown. Plenty for F12 oki-pressure.

Love this I was only getting ~32-34% without the point plank knockdown thanks!

 

[Blonde_Huntress]

Played around a little bit more with Ethereal tonight. I feel like it's alot easier to get 50/50's going with this variation because of fade options.

Still need some more practice in it though--it's odd, but going to this from Ravenous takes a little getting used to! I truly do miss command throws and the overall damage potential from not even using bar, but Ethereal makes up for it with pure utility and safety.

I adore EX Fade--I just wish regular fade was just a *little* better. I'd be just fine if they'd take away the ability to grab during invisibility.