Wake up water shield - gimmick or super strong?

[Paul the Octopus]

Given that Aquaman players seem to generally all use wake up trident rush/scoop on me, I had not noticed how strong of a wakeup water shield was until recently.

However, then I watched @EMPEROR_KNICKS video about Darkseid, and he pointed out that wake up water shield gets Aquaman out of basically all of Darkseid's knockdown demon shenanigans for free.

After taking wake up water shield into the lab, it seems like it allows him to get up against GL for free too. The water shield absorbs all the ambiguous jump ins and also seems impossible to meaty consistently. While it has no start up invincibility (according to the Gunframe app), it only has 1 frame of startup where it can be stuffed by a meaty. In addition, the wake up system in Injustice 2 allows you to input wake ups at different timing, so the Aquaman can decide when that 1 frame of stuffable vulnerability appears.

You also can't really bait this out and whiff punish, unlike most other wake ups because water shield has so little recovery. He is vulnerable for a short period of time after it ends, but you can't react to him varying the timing, and you just have to guess.

At least this is what I have found. Am I missing something, and actually this is just a gimmick? If not, isn't this one of the best wake ups in the game?

 

[Paul the Octopus]

If anyone has a chance to test blowing up Aquaman's wake up water shield - please keep in mind that the training dummy will do it at the same exact timing each time, so you can't test it this way.

In reality, you can vary the timing to throw off meaties and that works really well given the 1 frame startup. I can't seem to find a meaty that catches all wake up timings.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

It's neither a gimmick nor super strong imo, it's a good option that Aquaman's opponents need to be aware of though.

 

[Paul the Octopus]

It's neither a gimmick nor super strong imo, it's a good option that Aquaman's opponents need to be aware of though.

How is it not super strong? Possible I'm biased because of the character I play but this nullifies most of GL's strong mixups on knockdown and allows him to get up for a free unless I go for a hard read with poor risk/reward. I can no longer do ambiguous j3 setups, ambiguous cross up f3 setups, etc., and have to go for a risky meaty that will fail he changes his wake up timing. This is match up changing for GL imo.

What oki do you go for against an Aquaman who does this a lot?

 

[@MylesWright_]

I can see it, but this is just the way oki works in the game. You have to read the wake-up attack along with it's timing and just commit

 

[ATP2014]

I also want to know what to do about this wakeup. If Aquaman has bar (which they always do) it's essentially a free wakeup right? Even if you choose to wait it out, they can cancel Water Shield, which still allows them to get up for free.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

U can't cross him up either because of the dd input, and if they respect that you can just wake up mb trident rush

 

[Tweedy]

yeah it's good

 

[Kooron Nation]

Aquaman has the best wake ups free.
"BRO JUST NEUTRAL JUMP HIM ON KNOCKDOWN"
Water Shield MB back to full screen.
"JUST MEATY THE WATERSHIELD SCRUB"
Wake up trident rush, mb for 20% and b12 check.
Can't even grab him out of it, it's dumb

 

[Tweedy]

Aquaman has the best wake ups free.
"BRO JUST NEUTRAL JUMP HIM ON KNOCKDOWN"
Water Shield MB back to full screen.
"JUST MEATY THE WATERSHIELD SCRUB"
Wake up trident rush, mb for 20% and b12 check.
Can't even grab him out of it, it's dumb

I think it's easier to meaty trident rush than shield.

 

[Paul the Octopus]

I can see it, but this is just the way oki works in the game. You have to read the wake-up attack along with it's timing and just commit

This is a lot better than the typical wake up though. The difference is the 1 frame startup and very low recovery, which also be varied depending on how long he holds the water shield.

Here I have to guess:
- Which wake up he does (he could also do trident rush or scoop, while many other characters only have one viable option)
- What timing he inputs the wake up (early and late water shield have to be meatied differently due to the one frame startup ... for other characters you can cover multiple timings with the same setup)
- How long he holds it

It's also safe on block for no meter (plus if he MBs).

Lot more guesses for much worse risk / reward compared to mixing up other characters. Aquaman really does NOT need this imo. It's not inherently broken but it's attached to the wrong character.

 

[Redk9]

How do you beat water shield in general anyways?

 

[Paul the Octopus]

How do you beat water shield in general anyways?

There is a narrow window of recovery frames after it ends, so if you manage to guess exactly how long he will hold it, you can sneak in a punish, but it's very difficult.

 

[Kooron Nation]

I think it's easier to meaty trident rush than shield.

I always trade with it, can you fully stuff it for a combo?

 

[Tweedy]

I always trade with it, can you fully stuff it for a combo?

Yeah but it's easier for some than others.

 

[@MylesWright_]

In general Injustice 2 just has extremely strong defence. It is harder to mix someone up on knockdown then it is to escape; the best characters atm are not heavily reliant on oki for a reason

 

[Paul the Octopus]

In general Injustice 2 just has extremely strong defence. It is harder to mix someone up on knockdown then it is to escape; the best characters atm are not heavily reliant on oki for a reason

Defense is indeed strong overall but there is still dispersion, with some characters having insane defense and some having merely good defense.

There are a number of characters where GL can do a setup that covers all viable wakeups, back dash, and delayed wake up, or at least 2 of the 3. Aquaman would be one of them without water shield (neutral jump 3 into delayed b1 would catch all of them, cannot even be d2 if done correctly). Although it's not broken, I really think this is a tool Aquaman doesn't need.