Nightwolf insanely strong or what?

[BehindTheLight]

-Green Hatchet
-Shoulder Charge (really good move, fast, long range, ex version has armor)
-Can reflect projectiles (only character in game to do that)
-Command Grab
-Bow and Arrow projectile (ex hits high, low and mid)
-Unblockable Lightning Attack
-Sick High/Low up close rushdown game

Only thing he needs is an air throw........!

Seriously????

You can't zone him out because he will just reflect everything back to you and then when he gets close he has high/low mixups plus his green hatchet with shoulder charge.

Nasty..!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[RWDY Nori]

You seem shy. Don't hold back, tell us how you feel!

 

[Apocalypse]

His high low mix-ups aren't really that great in my opinion (and by "my opinion," I mean someone who has never used Nightwolf in a real match just commenting on the situation based on basic knowledge of his move set.)

 

[Sao87]

A lot of people don't know that nightwolf's shoulder rush can be crouched. Stick some crouching kicks over him on wake up/randomly and most of the average nightwolves crumble.

 

[Gemini Knight]

A lot of people don't know that nightwolf's shoulder rush can be crouched. Stick some crouching kicks over him on wake up/randomly and most of the average nightwolves crumble.

This.

If you know that they will do wake up shoulder, jump straight up, let the shoulder pass, and come down with neutral jump punch into combo. If you know that they will do wake up en shoulder, jump backwards and come down with jumpin punch into combo. Repeat until respected.

Hatchet is NW's basic launcher and nothing more. It sucks as an anti air, and it even gets stuffed by normals when trying to dash in with it.

If you don't throw projectiles at reactable ranges, then Reflect won't be a problem.

NW's projectile is meh at best. Can be used as a long distance anti air, but he really doesn't need it.

If you pay attention to NW as he starts the Lightning, you can jump it and punish NW a good percentage of the time. En lightning may be a little tricky, though.

NW doesn't have a sick up close rushdown game at all. There, I said it. At best he does what everyone else does, and that's mix up between attacks and throws. Making a mix up game with f+3,1 is starting to no longer work. Personally, I just do the whole f+312 and sometimes f+31~shoulder, cause I have better options if it gets blocked.

His command throw is the one move that people are sleeping on. Ending a combo with it gives you lots of time to get in the ideal position, however, his en command throw is his best anti air next to his fast uppercut, and if you can read your opponent well, it also works good when you are locked down and you want to stop their block string mixups. Then again, en shoulder has armor now, so you have two meter tools at your disposal.

Nightwolf is a good punisher type character and that's about it. He has all the tools to capitalize on the unsafe, but he has no rushdown or zone on his own. He can anti zone and with meter can anti everything else. The best strat for any matchup to fighting NW is to get in close, discourage him from using shoulder at random times and bait him on his wake up. Once you play a NW who don't try to spam shoulder and punishes you when you're unsafe, then that's when it's nasty.

 

[BehindTheLight]

Hatchet is NW's basic launcher and nothing more. It sucks as an anti air, and it even gets stuffed by normals when trying to dash in with it.

Are you sure about this? I play a friend of mine a lot who mains nightwolf and he catches me out of the air with the Hatchet a lot.

 

[Gemini Knight]

Are you sure about this? I play a friend of mine a lot who mains nightwolf and he catches me out of the air with the Hatchet a lot.

Jumping kicks stuff Hatchet.

 

[DOWNLOADED]

This.

If you know that they will do wake up shoulder, jump straight up, let the shoulder pass, and come down with neutral jump punch into combo. If you know that they will do wake up en shoulder, jump backwards and come down with jumpin punch into combo. Repeat until respected.

Hatchet is NW's basic launcher and nothing more. It sucks as an anti air, and it even gets stuffed by normals when trying to dash in with it.

If you don't throw projectiles at reactable ranges, then Reflect won't be a problem.

NW's projectile is meh at best. Can be used as a long distance anti air, but he really doesn't need it.

If you pay attention to NW as he starts the Lightning, you can jump it and punish NW a good percentage of the time. En lightning may be a little tricky, though.

NW doesn't have a sick up close rushdown game at all. There, I said it. At best he does what everyone else does, and that's mix up between attacks and throws. Making a mix up game with f+3,1 is starting to no longer work. Personally, I just do the whole f+312 and sometimes f+31~shoulder, cause I have better options if it gets blocked.

His command throw is the one move that people are sleeping on. Ending a combo with it gives you lots of time to get in the ideal position, however, his en command throw is his best anti air next to his fast uppercut, and if you can read your opponent well, it also works good when you are locked down and you want to stop their block string mixups. Then again, en shoulder has armor now, so you have two meter tools at your disposal.

Nightwolf is a good punisher type character and that's about it. He has all the tools to capitalize on the unsafe, but he has no rushdown or zone on his own. He can anti zone and with meter can anti everything else. The best strat for any matchup to fighting NW is to get in close, discourage him from using shoulder at random times and bait him on his wake up. Once you play a NW who don't try to spam shoulder and punishes you when you're unsafe, then that's when it's nasty.

So what your saying is that Nightwolf is overrated and his rushdown is average? No offense or anything.

 

[BehindTheLight]

Jumping kicks stuff Hatchet.

That makes sense I guess, I usually don't use jump kicks, I usually come in with punch.

 

[Gemini Knight]

So what your saying is that Nightwolf is overrated and his rushdown is average? No offense or anything.

It's all good. By rushdown, compared to Liu Kang, Cage, and Kabal, his rushdown is average, but at the same time, he doesn't need to have a good rushdown. He is more anti rushdown and punish type character. If he had a true high/mid/low mixup game, he would be worse than Kano, cause all but one of his specials are safe on block, so he'll build even more meter cause no one will want to do anything but block.

I used to main only Nightwolf in the beginning, and I will never make the mistake to call him overrated, however, not many people understand how NW truely functions.

 

[AK L0rdoftheFLY]

nightwolf is straight BEAST

he competes with EVERY character in this game at very close levels or higher. damage is unmatched (although breakable). punishing is amazing. f3...can I say more?

those who think otherwise need to work on there defense a bit

 

[GodsLonelyman]

In my opinion, Nightwolf is definitely a force to be reckoned with. He has all the tools necessary to ensure a hard time for ANY match-up in this game. An expert Nightwolf player can be quite unapproachable in my experience. With that said I believe he is fine the way he is, there are many ways to counter him and plenty of competent characters on the same level or higher.

 

[DOWNLOADED]

It's all good. By rushdown, compared to Liu Kang, Cage, and Kabal, his rushdown is average, but at the same time, he doesn't need to have a good rushdown. He is more anti rushdown and punish type character. If he had a true high/mid/low mixup game, he would be worse than Kano, cause all but one of his specials are safe on block, so he'll build even more meter cause no one will want to do anything but block.

I used to main only Nightwolf in the beginning, and I will never make the mistake to call him overrated, however, not many people understand how NW truely functions.

Thanks for the clarification and you are right about Cage and Kabal definitely been great rushdown characters. The only thing I know about Liu Kang is his safe 50/50 mixups.

 

[RWDY Nori]

I think because NW is so defensive oriented (he IMO does not have the rushdown tools of Raiden/Reptile/KL/Cage/Kabal/Liu Kang), people tend to sleep on him. You CAN play NW rushdown, as Daihuu and some others like to do but I feel it's harder. If people know NW, up close he's just above average. I think his zoning IMO is top tier, you have to ALWAYS look out for a combo of shoulder/lightning/arrow (arrow timed right kills jumping across the screen)

 

[Kakimori]

Nightwolf has much better rushdown than Reptile and Raiden, and is on par with Liu Kang and Kabal imo (nobody beats Cage for rushdown though). Almost all of his strings are 100% safe on block. His hatchet does NOT get stuffed by jump kicks, it has invincibility frames as long as it's on screen. If you're getting stuffed, it's because you're not doing it early enough. His zoning is amazing (arrows, EX arrow if they try to jump in, lightning on wakeup or block, reflect if they try to fight back). All around, he's incredible, but he's not as easy to learn at a high level as some other characters. I think as people play the game more, we'll start to see some incredible Nightwolf players come out of the woodwork and do well at tournaments.

 

[RWDY Nori]

Nightwolf has much better rushdown than Reptile and Raiden

No offense, but what? And yes, I'm sorry but hatchet does get stuffed quite often. I still feel NW can win a tournament, but to say his rushdown is better than Reptile AND Raidens, that's kind of.............far fetched. This is of course me basing my knowledge of playing a Raiden who got top 5 at Nationals and a Reptile who's getting 1st and 2nd in our scene also

 

[dope619]

i play nw rushdown but i cant play him in your face style like i play cage. he steps into his strings which im glad he does... because the startups are pretty slow.

 

[DaiHuu]

Gemini Knight hit the nail on the head completely. Though I play an aggressive Nightwolf, I play him like Steve from Tekken 6. Counter hit set ups that allow a juggle, which leads into either Fly's bnb, or my own, and safe pressure that causes the opponent to make a mistake to said counter hits.

I do not agree however on the hatchet being a bad anti air. It's only bad if it cannot get out, otherwise it's a good tool to use.

 

[AK L0rdoftheFLY]

one of the best tools nightwolf has is down 4. d4 on stand hit gives nightwolf massive frame adv. this allows for him to dash in and go f31 to mixup. Most people don't recognize the adv and try to counter or jump, but they cant and end up eating a combo.

This tactic also works on a lot of other characters but because of the priority of f3, nightwolf has better use of it.

i think his uppercut is a better anti air than his hatchet due to start up frames and due to hatchet not reaching as high towards the top of the screen, meaning if someone goes to jump in and i put out hatchet as they are at the top of their jump, it wiffs. however i love his hatchet i prob should use it more.

 

[DOWNLOADED]

one of the best tools nightwolf has is down 4. d4 on stand hit gives nightwolf massive frame adv. this allows for him to dash in and go f31 to mixup. Most people don't recognize the adv and try to counter or jump, but they cant and end up eating a combo.

This tactic also works on a lot of other characters but because of the priority of f3, nightwolf has better use of it.

i think his uppercut is a better anti air than his hatchet due to start up frames and due to hatchet not reaching as high towards the top of the screen, meaning if someone goes to jump in and i put out hatchet as they are at the top of their jump, it wiffs. however i love his hatchet i prob should use it more.

Thanks for sharing this. Now I have another way to go into mixups with NW. I would use uppercut if they are closing enough to crossup me after a string and a Hatchet when they are one character length away from me.

 

[Kakimori]

I say his rushdown is better than Reptile and Raiden's because while those two have good pressure games, they usually have to use their specials to get it started (Reptile likes to come in behind a slow forceball, and Raiden likes to teleport while you're doing something to get free hits). They both have great PRESSURE games, but I think their straight up rushdown is not as good. Reptile can't dash into you to keep the pressure on in some situations, because his dash is really bad, and if you're inside elbow dash range but outside jump range, his options are limited because of how punishable elbow dash is on block. One of Raiden's BnB strings is even interruptible midway through if you block it (after patch, afaik).

That being said, as a Reptile player I think my best option in this matchup would be to try to rush Nightwolf down, since Nightwolf destroys Reptile in a zoning game from full screen. So you'll probably see a lot of rushdown from Reptiles, because that's their best hope for winning the matchup, but I firmly believe Nightwolf has the tools to put a beating on Reptile up close.

 

[RWDY Nori]

I say his rushdown is better than Reptile and Raiden's because while those two have good pressure games, they usually have to use their specials to get it started (Reptile likes to come in behind a slow forceball, and Raiden likes to teleport while you're doing something to get free hits). They both have great PRESSURE games, but I think their straight up rushdown is not as good. Reptile can't dash into you to keep the pressure on in some situations, because his dash is really bad, and if you're inside elbow dash range but outside jump range, his options are limited because of how punishable elbow dash is on block. One of Raiden's BnB strings is even interruptible midway through if you block it (after patch, afaik).

That being said, as a Reptile player I think my best option in this matchup would be to try to rush Nightwolf down, since Nightwolf destroys Reptile in a zoning game from full screen. So you'll probably see a lot of rushdown from Reptiles, because that's their best hope for winning the matchup, but I firmly believe Nightwolf has the tools to put a beating on Reptile up close.

Reptile only needs to knock you down once and he's in your face. Elbow dash back and forth and not only is he crossing you up, he's building meter at a pretty stupid rate. He can pressure you w/his acid hand overhead ALL day. NW just does not have anything like this up close, though I really wish he did. And Raiden doesn't have to end his strings, that's what's stupid w/him. He can do B3, 2 teleport and start over for more annoying chip damage.

Overall, I'm not saying he's crap up close, but certainly not better rushdown tools than some of the other top tier cast IMO



lordofthefly: I also agree about his uppercut being a better anti air than hatchet

 

[Gemini Knight]

I do not agree however on the hatchet being a bad anti air. It's only bad if it cannot get out, otherwise it's a good tool to use.

Looking back at my post, that's what I should have instead of saying that it sucks. I was basing that on the many times that I know what my opponent would do and tried to intercept them with Hatchet. Sometimes it works but for me it mostly doesn't.

As for d4, I usually backdash afterwards to gain better position to react, especially when Kang and Cage wants to dash in with the rushdown, and that's one of the times that I look to also intercept with Hatchet.

 

[Gemini Knight]

Reptile only needs to knock you down once and he's in your face. Elbow dash back and forth and not only is he crossing you up, he's building meter at a pretty stupid rate. He can pressure you w/his acid hand overhead ALL day. NW just does not have anything like this up close, though I really wish he did. And Raiden doesn't have to end his strings, that's what's stupid w/him. He can do B3, 2 teleport and start over for more annoying chip damage.

Overall, I'm not saying he's crap up close, but certainly not better rushdown tools than some of the other top tier cast IMO

This.

NW's f+3 is fast, but if any of the string is blocked, he is stuck in an unfavorable possition and no longer has the advantage. That's why I just finish with f+312, cause on block I can check with shoulder, and once my opponent respects that then the mindgames begin, where I try to get out of the unfavorable range and protect myself when trying to get out.

When people get in close and start their offense on NW, NW has to get out of there, cause he more than likely doesn't have the advantage at that point. When locked down with pressure strings, en command throw and en shoulder are good tools to either get them off of you or get you away from them.