User:Judson

12 editsJoined 27 September 2022

Just an Xrd Ram player that dabbles in other Guilty Gear games as well.

Using Set Swords in Neutral

Using sword sets in neutral requires a bit of risk/reward analysis and determining how much risk you are willing to take, as well as learning what tools different characters have for dealing with deployed swords. For example, Chipp and Millia's high mobility means that they likely will not be where the sword finally deploys. A good Potemkin player can flick a deployed sword, sending a projectile back at you.

Conversely, there are times when a deployed sword in neutral can be quite useful. If a Jam is being greedy and goes for card charge at full screen, a quick 6H can sometimes hit them before they finish their animation. Similarly, if a Leo is waiting for your approach and decides to do his projectile, a 6H can punish if you are quick enough. Even in cases where the 6H is not fast enough to get the counter hit, doing 6H still forces the opponent to make a decision. Do they want to try to block, avoid, or counter attack. Counter attack could be against the familiar or Ram to try to stop the attack. The option your opponent goes for affects which options you have for follow up.

Additionally, once one or both swords are deployed, they can become something your opponent has to be mindful of. If you are a Ram player who deploys swords in neutral regularly, you will become used to tracking their positions. Your opponent might not be as adept at it. Knowing where your swords are and if they will need to teleport or not is important for using set swords in neutral.

The Importance of Timing

6S/6H when they do not need to teleport both have start up timings of roughly 30 frames. 2S/2H without teleport take roughly 30 frames longer with start ups of approximately 60 frames. If they do need to teleport, the start ups increase 30 frames. These timings are important and they allow for a few timing tricks. One is that 2S>6H or 2H>6S can be timed so that both swords come out in very quick succession. 2S>2H can be useful against opponents who are good at jabbing the S sword before the attack happens and are used to a delay between swords coming out. The H sword comes out faster than they expect and they get counter hit.

Another important timing is 2S/2H with teleport. These moves have roughly 90 frames of start up which makes their uses limited in neutral. However, if you start with a teleporting 2S or 2H and manage to avoid being hit by either dodging or applying your own pressure for those 90 frames, it is possible your opponent has forgotten entirely about the incoming attack and will not be prepared for it.

The Importance of of Spacing

Whether a familiar needs to teleport or not is a 30 frame difference in start up, so it is important to learn the ranges of each attack. 6H does not need to be directly over the opponent but it needs to be close to avoid teleporting, while 2H has a much wider sweep so it can be farther away before it needs to teleport. It is important to know if you are in the 30 frame 6H/60 frame 2H range, the 60 frame 6H/60 frame 2H range, or the 60 frame 6H/90 frame 2H range. The S sword, on the other hand, does not have a noticeable difference in the teleport range between 2S and 6S so that one is simpler with regards to whether it will teleport or not.

In addition to the start up timings, knowing the positioning is important for a fun S sword trick. It is possible for the S sword to be behind the opponent, off screen, but still be in range to not teleport. If it does not need to teleport, it will attack from off screen and do so much faster than the opponent will likely expect, if they are assuming it needs to teleport before attacking.

The Importance of Variety

It is important to be mindful of the order you deploy swords, whether you are doing the 2 or 6 versions, and how your opponent deals with them. While all four moves are projectiles and therefore you are not going to get any high/low mix ups from them, making your opponent uncertain of which sword1 you are going to activate first is a way of keeping some of them on their toes (unless they have a move like Venom's Carcass Raid (H) which can strike through both positions with one move). Alternatively, you can try to condition your opponent with a couple 6S>6H attacks and see if they are good at poking the S sword. You can sometimes get a counter hit if you switch to 6H>6S and they try to poke the inactive S sword and the H sword hits them.

Whether you go for conditioning or trying to be unpredictable, it is important to remember the different sword moves and their uses.

1While Ram has audio cues that indicate if she is deploying or activating her S sword or H sword, most non-Ram players are not likely to be paying that much attention to notice. A fair number of Ram players might also not notice.


My Thoughts on Ram's Xrd Design

My thoughts on why I like Ram's design and playstyle and how they fit together. At the start of Xrd, Ram starts out as a being that views everything in stark black and white contrast. Things have purpose or do not have purpose. Once a thing's purpose is done, the thing no longer has value. Her whole existence is to be a cog in Mother's machinations.

Everything is split between right and wrong. There is very little grey in her worldview. In traditional Guilty Gear style, this is conveyed also through very unsubtle design choices. Her familiars, Venus and Belpha, are black and white. On their foreheads are written "What is right when all that is left is wrong", doing fun word play with two different binary opposites, right/left and right/wrong. When they merge in to Lucifero, the writing changes to "No rights are left for you".

On her left shoulder and all buttons on her left side, are the words "Far east of somewhere there you remain" and on her right shoulder and all buttons on her right side are the words "Near west of wherever here I reign". Which again have opposite word parings: Far/Near, East/West, There/Here...

And then once you get past all of that superficial stuff, you get to her moves. Almost every character has the standard gatling of P>K>S>H which is a natural flow through their normals. Not Ram though. She splits them into two distinct categories with opposite purposes and functions.

Her P and K chain together in interesting ways and provide some simple mixups. They are fast, short, and generally not too minus, and provide some good blockstring pressure, but they also provide exactly 0 meter.

Her S and H on the other hand are big normals with big damage, big hitstun, huge amount of meter gain, but also big recovery. So her four main buttons are kind of split into two different categories that do not really interact all that well.

Of course, then her swords have a duality to them. Keep them on her or deploy them. Another split where there are two different mutually exclusive states to choose from. Each with advantages and disadvantages. Keep good poke that gives amazing meter, or try to control the screen and force opponents to act in response to set swords as well as remember where they are.

And once swords are set there are two more paths of two to consider that affects things. Does the sword need to teleport before the move or not? That is a difference of 30 frames of start up. Do you want to do quick slash with 6 or a large sweep with 2? that is also a difference of 30 frames of startup.

A lot of her kit is about picking one of two paths which branch into another one of two paths, and then possible a third or even fourth option of two paths (depending on how granular you want to get with the PK combos).