Raiden Match Footage

[UnshavenRaven]

Been playing a ton of truth n light. Cant seem to find much tech for it online. But I have some clips and ideas.

Reddit - Dive into anything

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Reddit - Dive into anything

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Nice work man! Solid work on those video clips.

 

[Trustful_Whale]

In regards to the Truth and Light specials, I did fire them out a lot, but sometimes it's not always noticeable to someone who isn't familiar with the T & L kit.

This is a really bizarre thing to say. We all know what T&L does and what its moves look like. I even specifically pointed out moments where you use them, unsafely.

I should have probably clarified a little more when I stated "staggers". I was referring to constantly pressuring and staggering an opponent's rhythm with the Amped Bubble spark shot that shoots out whenever an opponent tries to move or attack while near it. Even though it doesn't do much damage on its own, it works to "scare" my opponent into fearing pressing buttons, which allows me to dictate the pace and fire out slower attacks fairly safely; so if he ignores the bubble and charges forward to attack, he'll get staggered with the spark shot, and I usually follow up close with an overhead or low string mixup, or a throw. If he plays the patient game and waits for the bubble to go away, I run up close and starts pressuring with pokes and strings (or a throw), and he still gets hit with an extra chip damage anyway.

Using your own definition of staggers makes things unclear. What you're describing is a reliance on a gimmick because the opponent doesn't understand they can literally walk into the bubble and block it, and the hitstun/blockstun of which is almost negligible anyways.
Using buttons in an unusual rhythm is valid, but everything you're doing could have just been a 33% punish instead in the other variations.

In the video @rainuS posted you place a bubble and back throw the opponent into it, interrupting your throw and even knocking yourself down while the enemy Raiden remains standing with advantage, all for 80 damage and a bar spent. I just don't see tactics like this being worth it at all, much like the variation itself.

I applaud your efforts, and everyone else putting time into T&L, but the reality is it needs tweaks in order to actually accomplish its own gameplan properly.
Jo Push itself needs a redesign; I see no reason for this move to be 2-slots especially after the v3 patch.

It’s the worst variation that Raiden has and it doesn’t really solve the issues he has in his core kit. The 2 moves he gets directly conflict with each other and are contradictory to his game plan. Sure there’s SOME stuff that works, but you use so many resources for so little gain...

This. It's literally incomplete right now. I legit don't understand what they were thinking with this variation.

 

[Mandolore1123]

So the TW player here kind of gets mopped. He does a lot of “cool” movement with his teleports. However, he sacrifices guaranteed damage for little more than gimmicks, putting himself at minus frames every time, so even though his opponent doesn’t know how to punish him and lets him get away with a lot, he ultimately loses because when he inevitably does something stupid he gets punished for big damage. The only match he wins is when he actually plays patiently and baits jumps then punishes with storm cell or J3 fly.
In the first match alone he does 3 air flys for mobility or on read to punish the super jump or something, but later on he gets full combo punished for every air fly he does.

 

[MKF30]

Of course he got mopped he faced upgraded jacqui lol. Mismatch for poor Raiden, which characters don't get mopped by that V?

 

[Nevan_PTF]

You can get mopped playing as any character in the game if you don't play how you should, which this was the case. Also I think Raijin does better vs Upgraded.

 

[Mandolore1123]

You can get mopped playing as any character in the game if you don't play how you should, which this was the case. Also I think Raijin does better vs Upgraded.

If you scroll back a few pages you can find a match I posted of Kombat VS Deoxys. Raijin VS Upgraded is pretty good in Raijin’s favour. This guy sacrifices so much for gimmicks and accomplished nothing. The one game he decided to start sitting back and playing patiently he won.

 

[Nevan_PTF]

I agree! He went alot for a TP -> B2, dropping guaranteed damage : \

Yep, Match 5 he played differently and it made a difference on the outcome.

 

[Nevan_PTF]

Apologies for the double post, but found these Raijin matches and liked them a lot. Took some notes on the Jade match up as well, he faces a ED and a Jaded.

 

[Trustful_Whale]

Time stamped a depressing example of how shitty U2s are. The man flawless blocks Shang in the air and it still whiffs, in the corner.

 

[MKF30]

FB's in general are bad in this game imo. From the insane timing of FB counters to waste of meter, drains a bar from each? To me that seems like a ripoff but this is a gameplay mechanic that can only be altered by NRS. I personally hope they ditch it all together in MK 12. Just bring back parries similar to MK A or give every character a parry move. Just my opinion on that. His U2 sucks too, I was getting crossed over other day the guy jumped at me I U2 and it whiffs somehow and I still get kicked lol.

You can get mopped playing as any character in the game if you don't play how you should, which this was the case. Also I think Raijin does better vs Upgraded.

True but most characters get mopped vs upgraded jacqui lol every day I read posts about how much people hate facing that variation on here. Hopefully they'll nerf her in the future and buff Raiden.

 

[Trustful_Whale]

I think Flawless Block is a great mechanic, especially in a game with such severe chip damage and no other way of reducing it outside of Raiden. It's just the wakeup/fblock attacks are super inconsistent. It's fully unacceptable to me to have U2s designed for anti air yet so many of them can be neutral jumped. Makes little sense at the moment.

 

[Mandolore1123]

Flawless block is great. Just fix the actual attacks. It rewards: Good execution (something ppl seem to complain a lot about); good knowledge of frame data and strings (MU knowledge); knowledge of opponent’s tendencies. It is a critical mechanic that is used so often in high level matches and it opens up another layer of mind games after staggers and strings. I think they should keep mechanics like these that encourage educated decision-making and resource-management.

 

[Mandolore1123]

And let’s move this discussion to the general thread perhaps

 

[MKF30]

To each his own, the fb is essentially a tighter MK a parry just with insanely harder timing, execution. That game you could also parry in between gap strings it was just easier but if you parried too much you get punished if you delayed counter attacking.

The tutorial mode gives good practice with the execution in this game as well as practice but when its so precise even most competitive players rarely use it, feels useless. I do wish it didnt cost meter given how tough it is to get out consistently. Not the fb naked but the fb counters.

Will be posting a few matches later. Just been a busy few weeks and day with joker trailers, crisis and all this week.

 

[Mandolore1123]

To each his own, the fb is essentially a tighter MK a parry just with insanely harder timing, execution. That game you could also parry in between gap strings it was just easier but if you parried too much you get punished if you delayed counter attacking.

The tutorial mode gives good practice with the execution in this game as well as practice but when its so precise even most competitive players rarely use it, feels useless. I do wish it didnt cost meter given how tough it is to get out consistently. Not the fb naked but the fb counters.

Will be posting a few matches later. Just been a busy few weeks and day with joker trailers, crisis and all this week.

Most competitive players do it all the time. Look up any match with Honeybee or Biohazard or DJT or Foxy. The option select that’s existed for the better part of half a year is very prominent in high level play.
The reversal costs meter because you are punishing moves that are normally safe, you gain a lot (combo damage, oki, etc). Even if you don’t do the reversal you leave opponents close to you at a definite frame disadvantage And that’s for free.

 

[MKF30]

Most competitive players do it all the time. Look up any match with Honeybee or Biohazard or DJT or Foxy. The option select that’s existed for the better part of half a year is very prominent in high level play.
The reversal costs meter because you are punishing moves that are normally safe, you gain a lot (combo damage, oki, etc). Even if you don’t do the reversal you leave opponents close to you at a definite frame disadvantage And that’s for free.

Yeah but they're just a few put of the tons of competitive and tourney players. Sonic, dragon etc dont do it much if at all from the matches I've seen. Not knocking the few who can do it consistently more power to them i just think alot of people dont want to bother with the precision or dont want to waste meter when you can use it for other things like amped moves, wake ups, BAs etc etc

 

[Nevan_PTF]

I will post my matches as well, even though they won't be high level (LOL) but will look forward to your guys critique =)

 

[Mandolore1123]

Raiden TW VS Sindel Splitting Hairs at the last set.
TW can really abuse his mobility and superior zoning to keep Sindel at bay, seem to be a very good way to deal with her since she has no projectile of her own to contest. Seems we can’t F4 after her F43 since she can easily backdash and Whiff punish

I think that given the recent patch, this play style of TW should be a good example that Raiden mains can do, since we have the only TP in game that only costs 1 bar for a far variant

 

[MKF30]

I play Raiden similar with the zoning lol, he can be annoying if you can be patient with TW I mean. I thought I was the only one who used his superman for mobility haha. I see I'm not that's good, a lot of characters can't do much if he uses it wisely.

Here's some matches I've played some are a month old or so others a few weeks.
NOTE: Some of these are against cheaters, lag switchers or generally toxic players or both so you will hear me ranting in some of them. And yes I really sound like that lol. People always ask me lol.

The Switch matches are a bit older from like a month to two months ago so I uploaded them a bit out of sync.

Anyway feel free to give constructive feedback. I'm not the most aggressive Raiden player. Enjoy, these are all from Kombat League.
Xbox Kombat League Ranked

Switch matches

I'll upload more in the future. Again, apologies for the cursing, ranting etc but some of these players I played are just toxic cheaters and I have little patience for that lol.

 

[Mandolore1123]

I play Raiden similar with the zoning lol, he can be annoying if you can be patient with TW I mean. I thought I was the only one who used his superman for mobility haha. I see I'm not that's good, a lot of characters can't do much if he uses it wisely.

Here's some matches I've played some are a month old or so others a few weeks.
NOTE: Some of these are against cheaters, lag switchers or generally toxic players or both so you will hear me ranting in some of them. And yes I really sound like that lol. People always ask me lol.

The Switch matches are a bit older from like a month to two months ago so I uploaded them a bit out of sync.

Anyway feel free to give constructive feedback. I'm not the most aggressive Raiden player. Enjoy, these are all from Kombat League.
Xbox Kombat League Ranked

Switch matches

I'll upload more in the future. Again, apologies for the cursing, ranting etc but some of these players I played are just toxic cheaters and I have little patience for that lol.

You seem to do a great many things on wake up except block. You do U3, roll and even jump and get away with it because you opponents don’t meaty you well enough. Don’t get these bad habits because you’ll get blown up easily. Evident when you get hit by a few F4s by Kung Lao on wake up, these can easily lead into full combo and big damage.

You also like to mash out of plus frames, you get away with it too sometimes because the opponent doesn’t enforce them properly. But you will eat more damage as evident when you ate KBs for trying to poke out of a D1 on hit against scorpion.

You don’t really play footsies and mostly only zone so I can’t and won’t comment on that.

You don’t punish optimally. You go for stray hits when you should be going into full combo damage. Examples include using D2(14%) to punish Lao’s TP instead of D1, B12~DB2 AMP, J3~BF3 which does almost double damage (27%) and is far more consistent. You roll past enemy attacks but you only do F32, when you should be hit confirming B12 into full combo.

Don’t do so many air flys. Characters like Kollector can punish you with bola. You are free to abuse it on characters who can’t really do much to punish, but most characters can at least catch you on the other side with a projectile, so you are losing life and letting them move in on you. Characters like Upgraded Jacqui can full combo punish every time due to super jump. (Refer to the video I posted: Upgraded VS TW) In conjunction, you make full screen BF3 reads that don’t always work out for you, and in essence you give yourself up to your opponent and making them block one of your most unsafe moves. Reads are fine, but use sparingly and with caution. BF3 is not a fast move like Jade’s nitro kick.

You aren’t hit confirming 24 off your JI2 and doing DB2 on block after a string, which is the cardinal sin of any TW player unless you’re so sure that the opponent will press after your string. You were lucky because you either read right and they got caught or they couldn’t punish you anyway because they don’t know how to deal with storm cell. However bad habits like this must go.

You tend to do pokes in succession instead of going into your mid/throw game, or even jailing into highs that can be hit confirmed. Beware that it is easy to lose advantage if the opponent blocks. Though you tend to mash pokes on block anyway. Try to establish the DB2 mix off pokes because it jails. It’s unsafe but grants good reward.

 

[MKF30]

You seem to do a great many things on wake up except block. You do U3, roll and even jump and get away with it because you opponents don’t meaty you well enough. Don’t get these bad habits because you’ll get blown up easily. Evident when you get hit by a few F4s by Kung Lao on wake up, these can easily lead into full combo and big damage.

You also like to mash out of plus frames, you get away with it too sometimes because the opponent doesn’t enforce them properly. But you will eat more damage as evident when you ate KBs for trying to poke out of a D1 on hit against scorpion.

You don’t really play footsies and mostly only zone so I can’t and won’t comment on that.

You don’t punish optimally. You go for stray hits when you should be going into full combo damage. Examples include using D2(14%) to punish Lao’s TP instead of D1, B12~DB2 AMP, J3~BF3 which does almost double damage (27%) and is far more consistent. You roll past enemy attacks but you only do F32, when you should be hit confirming B12 into full combo.

Don’t do so many air flys. Characters like Kollector can punish you with bola. You are free to abuse it on characters who can’t really do much to punish, but most characters can at least catch you on the other side with a projectile, so you are losing life and letting them move in on you. Characters like Upgraded Jacqui can full combo punish every time due to super jump. (Refer to the video I posted: Upgraded VS TW) In conjunction, you make full screen BF3 reads that don’t always work out for you, and in essence you give yourself up to your opponent and making them block one of your most unsafe moves. Reads are fine, but use sparingly and with caution. BF3 is not a fast move like Jade’s nitro kick.

You aren’t hit confirming 24 off your JI2 and doing DB2 on block after a string, which is the cardinal sin of any TW player unless you’re so sure that the opponent will press after your string. You were lucky because you either read right and they got caught or they couldn’t punish you anyway because they don’t know how to deal with storm cell. However bad habits like this must go.

You tend to do pokes in succession instead of going into your mid/throw game, or even jailing into highs that can be hit confirmed. Beware that it is easy to lose advantage if the opponent blocks. Though you tend to mash pokes on block anyway. Try to establish the DB2 mix off pokes because it jails. It’s unsafe but grants good reward.

Sometimes mashing out safer, faster attacks is the way to go and I know sometimes certain moves can be riskier than others but I tend to know what I can get away with depending on the player I'm facing. I have blocked on WU but I've found whenever I do, people will throw as that's what people do if you block too much and forces me to throw tech.

I sometimes play footsies but I am a more zoning, defensive player that looks for that opportunity to strike while being patient as you can see lol

Sometimes I don't always like going for combos and rather knockdown and get more space with Raiden to reset and zone again so if you see me going for F32 that would be why, it depends on my mood sometimes I play a go for jip and counter combo game, other times I prefer to play keep away and zone.

Yes you're right about supermans that's why I was saying earlier a lot of characters cant punish or do much about his superman for eluding purposes except a few. Like I would not recommend doing it often against Scorp as he can teleport punish or spear you, kollector's bola, Noob's teleport etc but alot of the cast he can get away with it without much risk thankfully. Obviously there's some exceptions.

If you're talking about me not finishing the combo on a jip 24, I do that on purpose sometimes because I know the opponent will block so I stop and go for a throw, it's a tactic that's worked for me when I mix it up with doing the full string. He can also mix it up though with his jip 224~SC or jip 2B3~SC

There's really no way to play so long as you're successful remember, like I don't always have to go for combos the KL punish I know about but with online lag always playing a factor with diff connections I don't risk it and it's not that much more damage for me tbh, I'd rather get reset since I know how most KL players think example if I'm far I can just zone him out as Raiden's lighting strikes and blasts have faster start up than KL's start up with his teleport. If he jumps, he gets hit. If he tries teleport, he gets hit. Raiden has the edge over KL full screen. I've played enough KL's to know this by now lol.

Oh believe me not so much in those vids but I had more(that got deleted due to the update patch) where I d3 into SC and it works a lot, if the player is smart they know they can block the first few hits and duck punish the last hit since SC's last hit is a high but not everyone knows this so that is why I immediately D3 after they block it, it's his only option to counter quickly in that situation where he can potentially and still stuff you out going in to punish. You're right about Jade potentially being able to punish him with a kick, however I too am a Jade player and I know the distance with it. I will only do it if I'm near her superman escape I'll just call it because unless she's using V3 with her teleport she can't get close to me nor counter me quickly enough in that situations.

Of course I'm always trying to re-evaluate my matches and see what I could do better when I rewatch them. It's just sometimes based off my foe I use what works and don't mess around you know what I mean? Everyone is different, every player has different weaknesses and strengths so you have to capitalize on that if you want to win. One player may see me going for B12 and punish me yet may be weaker against D3 after SC into throws, some throw tech a lot so I won't throw them as much etc, etc

My philosophy which has always worked well for me in FG that I compete in general is do what works, what wins not necessarily how some others feel how you should play a character, not to say I'm not open to your feedback, just saying I don't believe in that whole "you must play this character this way" if someone wins a lot with whichever character or has success whatever, that's all that matters really. Like Ermac for example in MK 9 I was known as one of the best if not the best Ermac player online in that game on Xbox in my prime, I used him in a way nobody else did. I used his levitation cancels that most didn't even bother with into tactics that were sneaky yet effective, at the end of his fireball frames he could buffer into the TK push which not many Ermac's did from safe distance etc, etc anyway you get the point lol.

You should post some vids of your own, I know you're more of the critical type and I appreciate the feedback would just be interesting to see your gameplay as well. I'd like to think I do more things right than wrong with TW Raiden though overall but am always working on my game. The Jacqui part you mentioned though I will never pick TW Raiden as that's a bad match up for him, Raijin is a different story but his other two don't fair well against Jacqui. But anyway, you should post some Raiden matches of your own I'm very curious to see how you play. But appreciate the feedback, I know sometimes I take risks but sometimes you have to just to change things up. Oh and Happy Chinese New Year to you little buddy.

 

[Trustful_Whale]

Thanks for posting matches, but what's with the hand cam? You know your Xbox can record direct footage, right?

Also, I know you already said sorry but I really would like to watch fights without a salty commentary discussing an alleged cheater without any visible evidence of such, etc.
Commentary is fine but it really sours the video when it's so negative, especially over something we can't even see.

Scorpion spear hitting people on jump is annoying, but clearly the way they want the hitboxes to interact so I guess just get out of the habit of jumping on wake up against Scorpion since they will throw that oki spear. Duck it and move in.

I didn't know that tip about viewing replays from other people's profiles to see the screen names, that's strange and interesting.

Sometimes mashing out safer, faster attacks is the way to go

Not on block it isn't, not in this game.


I'll be back later with a more in depth analysis of your games, but so far I agree with a lot of Mandalore's take.




P.S. that Kollector impression was actually pretty legit.

 

[Marlow]

@MKF30 cool stuff, thanks for posting.

You didn't seem to use F4 or F2 much, just wondering if you've considered trying to incorporate those into your offense more? I know you like to zone, but I don't think Raiden really has the projectiles to win zoning wars against too many people. Playing at a range where you can dance in and out of F2, F4, B31, and B12 range to whiff punish or pressure could really open up your offense. It's a good range to try and bait your opponent into doing something foolish. And that way you'll be able to start whiff punishing and hit confirming into Storm Cell combos for better damage and screen position.

 

[MKF30]

@MKF30 cool stuff, thanks for posting.

You didn't seem to use F4 or F2 much, just wondering if you've considered trying to incorporate those into your offense more? I know you like to zone, but I don't think Raiden really has the projectiles to win zoning wars against too many people. Playing at a range where you can dance in and out of F2, F4, B31, and B12 range to whiff punish or pressure could really open up your offense. It's a good range to try and bait your opponent into doing something foolish. And that way you'll be able to start whiff punishing and hit confirming into Storm Cell combos for better damage and screen position.

Yeah I use them here and there, in these matches some of them are older as well like from a few months back(the switch ones namely) but now I use the F4 more especially to punish, I tend to forget other options I have and F21, B12 etc. You're right he's not the best at zoning but not the worst, imo it's character dependent, depends on who he's facing as to how much he can zone or not you know? That and I just don't like being near certain characters like KL once he gets going you're in the air for days lol know what I mean? I do incorporate those other strings more now but thanks for the feedback!

Thanks for posting matches, but what's with the hand cam? You know your Xbox can record direct footage, right?

Also, I know you already said sorry but I really would like to watch fights without a salty commentary discussing an alleged cheater without any visible evidence of such, etc.
Commentary is fine but it really sours the video when it's so negative, especially over something we can't even see.

Scorpion spear hitting people on jump is annoying, but clearly the way they want the hitboxes to interact so I guess just get out of the habit of jumping on wake up against Scorpion since they will throw that oki spear. Duck it and move in.

I didn't know that tip about viewing replays from other people's profiles to see the screen names, that's strange and interesting.


Not on block it isn't, not in this game.


I'll be back later with a more in depth analysis of your games, but so far I agree with a lot of Mandalore's take.




P.S. that Kollector impression was actually pretty legit.

Oh thanks, yeah that's my side gig though haven't had anything in a while. I did noob in one other video lol. Oh I didn't upload that one I don't think because I used Jade more than Raiden but in another vid I did noob haha.

Yeah, lol that's why I warned everyone. You can mute me or just lower the volume, I don't always rant I just have no patience for cheaters who counterpick me no less with better characters. It really annoys me not going to lie lol. But I will try to rant less in future vids, my older vids I never did but I think this game brings out the worst me me and people in general. lol I know I tend to be negative and brooding, you noticed eh? Yeah this is the first game of MK history where scorp's spear literally snags you out of the air with a crazy hitbox where as past games you could jump over it with ease, and his recovery is faster too I've noticed. MK 9, MK X or earlier games etc if he missed that was bad news for him mid or close screen lol This game though....yeah not so much. I also swear sometimes I block and still get hit with moves in this game, but this could be my controller as it's old. Like I hit the button and it doesn't always register to block but everything else is fine it's weird lol.

Yeah IDK why they did that lol with the in game DVR hiding people's GT's but if you view it on another's profile you can see the GT's. This don't make much sense to me but whatever they did the same thing in I2 and MK X. It's weird, yeah the DVR built into Xbox you're right however I have noticed something weird. I tried doing that other day as I remembered I had the option to direct upload to youtube, twitter etc but wasn't giving me the option the option to share upload was blocked, I have no idea why. I'm thinking something to do with an update Xbox did...so yeah lol I have to use the HD hand cam, sorry about that.

How did you know it was a handy cam btw? lol It's from sony! lol

 

[Mandolore1123]

Sometimes mashing out safer, faster attacks is the way to go

Mashing out pokes after getting massive hit advantage on D3 is the absolute worst way to continue pressure. Consult Whale’s post on jailing. Those are far superior options you should be using in order to get more hit advantage. At the very minimum you should be going into F3 which has more hit advantage than D3 and can jail into Raiden’s offense, instead of doing for D3 again which doesn’t do much and when you get blocked your opponent can easily poke back. Not to say F3 doesn’t render to vulnerable to poking, but when you compare the 2 moves:
F3: jails from D3, +15 on hit, -6 on block
D3: jails from D3, +11, -3 on block
we should choose the one with the better hit advantage to confirm into after we get our turn.

I have blocked on WU but I've found whenever I do, people will throw as that's what people do if you block too much and forces me to throw tech.

I haven’t seen you block in those videos you posted but whatever. Yes blocking opens you up to throws, but you should also be mixing it up with delayed WU, which can make those throws whiff and you can full combo punish. It is also about the riskeward of doing so.
BLOCKING ON WU:
Risk: eat throw 14% into knockdown and guess again
Reward: at minimum take turn back if they do something that’s safe; at most full combo punish into your OKI and positioning if they do something unsafe.
Not telling you that blocking is the best. However you should be noticing that your opponent wasn’t really going for throws and was trying to meaty you with strings. In that case jumping was extremely high risk because you can easily eat full combos back into knockdown where you have to guess again. Mix up your options on wake up to stay unpredictable, regardless of your perception of your opponent. If you open your tendencies up like a book then even the weakest player will catch on and destroy you.

I sometimes play footsies but I am a more zoning, defensive player that looks for that opportunity to strike while being patient as you can see lol

You didn’t show it in the videos so I can’t and won’t comment. I already said that

Sometimes I don't always like going for combos and rather knockdown and get more space with Raiden to reset and zone again so if you see me going for F32 that would be why, it depends on my mood sometimes I play a go for jip and counter combo game, other times I prefer to play keep away and zone.

If you want to zone and stay away, BF3 is your best knockdown midscreen. It pushes the opponent to the corner (Gives you more space to back up and zone) AND every time you are guaranteed a free far lightning strike check (good for zoning). F32 grants more hit advantage yes, but in the process of doing air BF3 to position yourself you have effectively wasted those 44 frames (BF3 in the air is 18 startup and 44 recovery, so 62 frames in total) and end up at -18 at full screen, enough for any character who knows this to throw out a full screen move to check you as you land. Given the knock down you get from F32 you should be using those frames to pressure or re-position using something that’s safer, but in that case doing a full combo into BF3 ender both does more damage and gives you better positioning anyway.

If you're talking about me not finishing the combo on a jip 24, I do that on purpose sometimes because I know the opponent will block so I stop and go for a throw, it's a tactic that's worked for me when I mix it up with doing the full string. He can also mix it up though with his jip 224~SC or jip 2B3~SC

No I’m not talking about you stopping the combo. I’m talking about you not hit-confirming and just doing yolo DB2 on block which is a death sentence. You catch your opponents because they let go of block. When they did actually block the whole thing they didn’t duck the last hit of DB2 so they couldn’t punish. Always always hit confirm and don’t do yolo stuff. It may work sometimes but patient players can wait for that and punish you big time because you are essentially killing yourself for them.

There's really no way to play so long as you're successful remember, like I don't always have to go for combos the KL punish I know about but with online lag always playing a factor with diff connections I don't risk it and it's not that much more damage for me tbh, I'd rather get reset since I know how most KL players think example if I'm far I can just zone him out as Raiden's lighting strikes and blasts have faster start up than KL's start up with his teleport. If he jumps, he gets hit. If he tries teleport, he gets hit. Raiden has the edge over KL full screen. I've played enough KL's to know this by now lol.

Like I said. The reason you go for combos isn’t just about the damage, but the positioning and OKI it grants you, which BF3 grants much better than D2. Sure if you complain about lag then you can default to worse options but in the end you’re hurting yourself. D2 doesn’t push them full screen so you will have to reposition after your knock down in order to gain a safe distance to zone. It’s true that as long as it works then it’s fine, but there are better options out there that work just as well.

You're right about Jade potentially being able to punish him with a kick, however I too am a Jade player and I know the distance with it. I will only do it if I'm near her superman escape I'll just call it because unless she's using V3 with her teleport she can't get close to me nor counter me quickly enough in that situations.

I never said anything about Jade punishing you. I said that making reads from full screen with a move that starts up in 21 frames (reactable even without factoring in travel time) is not good. Unlike characters like Johnny and Jade or Liu their kicks start up very quickly at an unreactable speed and travel across the screen quickly, so it will be easier for them to make reads like yours and get results. BF3 is too slow and risky for that. Not saying you can’t use it, just use it sparingly.

My philosophy which has always worked well for me in FG that I compete in general is do what works, what wins not necessarily how some others feel how you should play a character, not to say I'm not open to your feedback, just saying I don't believe in that whole "you must play this character this way" if someone wins a lot with whichever character or has success whatever, that's all that matters really.

True. However you must realise that in certain situations there are definitively better options to use in comparison to what you were doing. I’m just pointing that out to you. You may choose not to use them but I notice that sometimes your options go against the current game plan of what you’re doing in the match. Things like doing F32 and then repositioning with air BF3 is counter-intuitive when doing B12~BF3 both does more damage, gives you better positioning and gives you a free projectile check. Again, you don’t have to do it, but that’s my feedback.