Question How should water shield be used?

[Immortal Kombat]

Imo the water shield should be used mainly to prevent all wakeups.
End your combos with 2 2 3 then water shield.
Its strange to me that i dont see other aquamans doing this.
Who wants to worry about wakeups? If they get cute you can always mb it.

 

[Zenrot]

Imo the water shield should be used mainly to prevent all wakeups.
End your combos with 2 2 3 then water shield.
Its strange to me that i dont see other aquamans doing this.
Who wants to worry about wakeups? If they get cute you can always mb it.

The problem with doing it like this is that it can theoretically put you at disadvantage. Who wants to worry about wake-ups yeah, but who wants to use a bar every time someone calls out your shield? If your opponent just mashes wake-up attacks sure, you can do this often. If you aren't sure you're better off just blocking.

 

[HGTV Soapboxfan]

Imo the water shield should be used mainly to prevent all wakeups.
End your combos with 2 2 3 then water shield.
Its strange to me that i dont see other aquamans doing this.
Who wants to worry about wakeups? If they get cute you can always mb it.

Aquaman has his fwd2 1+3 ender that is a much much much better oki setup.

 

[Ben Reed]

Water Shield is not a bad move, it's just highly situational. And in many of the situations where it will WORK (i.e. the guy suggesting to use it to bait wakeups), other options will work better (say you don't want Frost waking up with slide, instead of Water Shielding on her wakeup, just save a bar and time MB b3 to blow her slide up for big damage at only 1-bar cost...if you Water Shielded instead you could win, but the damage would be really shitty for the bar cost compared to an MB b3 bait...and you need all the damage you can get against Frost).

Aside from specific setups, the most practical use of it is mostly as a footsie fakeout, an invitation for the opponent to do something that probably won't hurt you even if you don't get a punish, and may give you valuable information about how impulsive or cautious your opponent is with certain moves or tactics. Throw it out there in a SAFE neutral situation and play with holding it down versus cancelling it immediately. See what your opponent does in reaction, and see if you can recreate that response with the same setup and PUNISH it the next time you see that reaction. Make the opponent THINK you're trying some sort of stupid Water Shield gimmick, and then punish their response with something basic.

Honestly the main problem with this move's practicality is not nearly so much the startup needed to gain armor as it is the recovery on drop. I had a lot of pipe dreams about using this move to go through advantageous moves like Doomsday shoulder and make them full combo punishable, but due to the LONG recovery if you don't drop Water Shield on the FIRST frame you're able, you typically CAN'T get a full combo punish from it; you HAVE to waste a bar on the inferior damage of the Water Shield MB (a poor prize in a matchup like Doomsday, not just because of the damage but because he'll be back in your face within 5 seconds of tech rolling anyway). Even the relatively rewarding Scorpion MB teleport punish with it is REALLY hard in practice; if you don't let go the INSTANT you absorb the 1st hit, you won't recover in time to punish.

I wonder if this move would be more useful if you were allowed to cancel into other specials (not Water Shield) during the armored frames. It would open up a lot more punishment options on successful absorb, but since Aquaman's only safe-ish special he could cancel into would be Trident Rush, he'd still have to limit his damage output if he didn't want to commit to the punishment risk of scoop or FTD. But I guess that idea might be a little too crazy for NRS' vision of the character.

 

[TRY_HARD]

Water Shield is not a bad move, it's just highly situational. And in many of the situations where it will WORK (i.e. the guy suggesting to use it to bait wakeups), other options will work better (say you don't want Frost waking up with slide, instead of Water Shielding on her wakeup, just save a bar and time MB b3 to blow her slide up for big damage at only 1-bar cost...if you Water Shielded instead you could win, but the damage would be really shitty for the bar cost compared to an MB b3 bait...and you need all the damage you can get against Frost).

Aside from specific setups, the most practical use of it is mostly as a footsie fakeout, an invitation for the opponent to do something that probably won't hurt you even if you don't get a punish, and may give you valuable information about how impulsive or cautious your opponent is with certain moves or tactics. Throw it out there in a SAFE neutral situation and play with holding it down versus cancelling it immediately. See what your opponent does in reaction, and see if you can recreate that response with the same setup and PUNISH it the next time you see that reaction. Make the opponent THINK you're trying some sort of stupid Water Shield gimmick, and then punish their response with something basic.

Honestly the main problem with this move's practicality is not nearly so much the startup needed to gain armor as it is the recovery on drop. I had a lot of pipe dreams about using this move to go through advantageous moves like Doomsday shoulder and make them full combo punishable, but due to the LONG recovery if you don't drop Water Shield on the FIRST frame you're able, you typically CAN'T get a full combo punish from it; you HAVE to waste a bar on the inferior damage of the Water Shield MB (a poor prize in a matchup like Doomsday, not just because of the damage but because he'll be back in your face within 5 seconds of tech rolling anyway). Even the relatively rewarding Scorpion MB teleport punish with it is REALLY hard in practice; if you don't let go the INSTANT you absorb the 1st hit, you won't recover in time to punish.

I wonder if this move would be more useful if you were allowed to cancel into other specials (not Water Shield) during the armored frames. It would open up a lot more punishment options on successful absorb, but since Aquaman's only safe-ish special he could cancel into would be Trident Rush, he'd still have to limit his damage output if he didn't want to commit to the punishment risk of scoop or FTD. But I guess that idea might be a little too crazy for NRS' vision of the character.

The last part would be amazing but realise youre asking for buffs for an already high tier character argubly one of the best so sadly something like that would never happen

And btw whoever said using 223 into watershield at the end of combos to blow up wake ups you realise you cant cancel after the 3 in 223 so most wake ups will stuff you before the armor activates and its been said beforefor many reasons f2 1+3 > 223 (unless corner position comes into play)

 

[Chuckychuck]

Can Water Shield absorb stage interact able objects?

 

[TRY_HARD]

Can Water Shield absorb stage interact able objects?

It wont absord it but you will armor through it unless a character with armor crushing abilties has that up (like supes or bane) and you take less damage from hits while in watershield

So its should be used like a MB b3

Though is has longer start up but it requires no meter and takes less damage so if you react fast enough or make a good read watersheid will work well vs interactables

 

[Chuckychuck]

It wont absord it but you will armor through it unless a character with armor crushing abilties has that up (like supes or bane) and you take less damage from hits while in watershield

So its should be used like a MB b3

Though is has longer start up but it requires no meter and takes less damage so if you react fast enough or make a good read watersheid will work well vs interactables

That's what I was thinking. Interactables are kinda big in this game and having a tool that allows you to evade/dodge or retain your ground vs them is good.