Question - Thunder God Maintaining pressure with Raiden

[Shawnzzy]

I know I took forever to reply to this, but I've been taking a bit of a break from the game because my salt levels were reaching critical mass, mainly because of this exact issue. I have been having trouble maintaining pressure against characters that seem to be plus long than me, leading to them generally disrespecting me. I have some new tricks I use with TG that work in some match ups and I have been playing displacer more because the EXtele is great for making people afraid of me.

In TG I fight to maintain neutral using my b32 string to maintain space while adding df2 to the end to help with the recovery. The option to start an exdf2 after the first one catches a lot of people pressing buttons and makes them respect you a bit more in my experience. If they read it you are in big trouble so use sparingly. All of this is pretty standard, but the reason for this neutral is I want to try to counter poke to plus then start pressure. d4 is godlike for this.
My stamina mid screen is researved for pressure. I will use it if I have the bar to extend my combos, but mainly I am using my stamina to stay up on pressure.
My strings
21lrc214 (has a gap but punishes non armored reversals in many cases) you can also shift the focus by doing 214lrc214. This catches some people.
11lrc
b11lrc
f12lrc
The follow up depends on the situation, but I either Njp, continue to a finished string (usually lightning) with df2 to end -6 ( you can use db2 for -0 in some cases for a counter poke situation), grab in the case of strings like b11lrc.

I hope the new patch brings some options to our boy Raiden. He has been playing a lot of defense in the current meta.

DELAYED EXSHOCK4LyF!

 

[BigMilk]

this only works on 10 frame or slower armored moves, just a fyi to anybody that doesnt know

Just to add, you can do f12~ex teleport(slight delay) to beat 6 frame reversals but it's more of a hard read

 

[ganondeurf]

About Thunder God pressure, you also have pressure with NJP : when you hit with it, you're positive on block (between +5 and +8 around). Why between those frames ? Because of the height of your NJP's hit. If you hit the head, you will be +5, if lower around +8. If you understood what I just said, then you will notice that a blockstring is present in this phase. Exactly you can do NJP and f12b2, no armor will go out (but you must touch lower than the head). Of course, you need a good conditionning to put this NJP, all of it depends on that.
Also, wherever you hit, you can do b1, it's a frame trap and no jump can avoid that to my memory. BUT its weakness are armors, be careful.
Also, you can try to do a second NJP if the 1st one was at close range, still weak against armor

What you can also do to maintain pressure is to condition your opponent to respect f12b2, df2. Why ? Because if you can cancel this string with df2, you can do it with anything else, such as LRC. However it's also very weak against pokes and jumps, that's why you need to condition your opponent with the df2 cancel, to slow its reaction about ball cancel. With LRC, you can do again f12b2 or b11 or even a grab. I don't trust jump in with this character but you may also do that. You can do the same with b32 btw.
Tips : f12b2 LRC f12b2 df2 = 1 bar and 1/8 meter
f12b2 LRC grab = 14.25% dmg around

Also, the grab is a great weapon because of its negative frames on hit. You immediately spot wake up moves or wake up delay to perform meaty. When you see it's a delayed wake up, you can go f12b2 or even b32. I don't talk about 50/50 because you don't know if it's full wake up delay or half of it (yes, there are different types of delay...)

You can also try "tickthrows". F2 and 3 are +2f on block, you can else go b11 or grab. How to put safely F2 and 3 safely ? When you expect a delayed wake up, you can spam F2, except if you face a pro which has a very good timing because armoring in a wake delay between two F2 moves is pretty hard. Else, you can put F2 and 3 behind the following strings :
- f12 (you've got 17f, so be careful about that timing)
- 21 (you've got 22f, plenty of time)
- b11 (you've got 17f also)
What do I mean about x frames advantages on hit ? It means you can start a move x frames before your opponent can input moves. So, if you've 17f advantage, you can do a move at 6f, no armor can be launched from your opponent because he has to wait 11f more. When you decipher the frame data, take into account that you need at least 2 frames differences between your move and your frame advantages, else the timing isn't impossible but really strict.
Instead of doing the grab, you can also finish the string. I heard somewhere that 34 can do corner combo .
Nota bene : those strings are also safe setups for 50/50

Trick them with b34 LRC, you need the same conditionning than with f12b2 though.

Also, in corner you can condition with the lightning ball on hit, opponent can do nothing if you do f12b2 immediately after the lightning ball. Be careful with the timing though, if you fail you can be low croutched poke.

Also, you can try to put a db1 ex db1 (static ball) on your opponent when he's laying down. You can then break armor AND also go for 50/50.

Use all your string that are higher than -3f on block, so you can armor just after. This conditionning will allow you to get free after a string safe and continue the pressure without doing anything. You can for example do a grab just after them (heard f4 became -4f on block and near +0 at max range )

And also you can do some stupid air pressure by just jumping. Saying to your opponent "hey, I've got a good neutral jump" : it avoids people to pressure you by running, Kung Lao excepted with his ji2 (for now).

Also, stupid setup : bf3 b32, it's a break armor against every move slower than 9f, you can hit Sub-Zero's slide but timing is hard. Unsafe if wake up delay.

Pressure is here, but you need an incredible brain to put this working. Maybe we would need to study psychology to put this character higher.

By the way, anyone noticed that b1 and 3 moves loose range when you don't use your frame advantages ?
For examples :
- NJP and immediately b11 => hit
NJP, wait a long time, b11 => b1 whiff
- 21 and immediately 3 => hit
21, wait a long time, 3 => whif
That may explain why Raiden has some whiffing issues in this code