We should have threads for this, so I’m making the DeGrey one.
Feel free to discuss anything and everything DeGrey!
His moves? What’s good? What’s not so good? What should you use more? What should you use less?
His gameplan? His strategy? Neutral game? Pressure? Setups? Defensive play?
His matchups? How does he win? How do you beat him?
I’ll start with some combos. Maximize damage on every chance!
> - Denotes followup
xx - Cancel
CH - Combo starts from a counter hit
A starters
B starters
C starters
Anti-Air combos
Just a heads-up: Officially, it’s spelled DeGrey (with an e).
That said, thanks for making this list!
That it is, fixed.
I’m not a DeGrey player, but here are some notes on various moves:
Counter-Point Step followups all have very important properties. First off, the A followup is +10 on block. This is crazy. It’s definitely not your opponent’s turn to push buttons here.
Second off, the B followup, Pilebunker, has two important traits: It’s throw invulnerable, and it also breaks armor. (This means it’s very good against Rook, since he can’t C throw through it.)
The C followup is, as the move list says, invincible. It beats a LOT of things, but not everything. For example, Geiger can react to it with a Flash Gear. You can use it to go through projectiles depending on spacing and timing, but this is tricky business. It’s easy to come up short, or get blocked, etc. if you do it slightly wrong.
If you let them block the B or C followup, expect to take at LEAST two damage. Also, you can be tricky by doing empty Counter-Point Step and then throwing.
Ok so let’s talk about Pilebunker combos for a second. Obviously, there’s the iconic counter hit Pilebunker -> Pilebunker combo. (Does not work in the corner.) On regular hit in the corner, you can follow with neutral A, but do NOT do the second hit of neutral A, because that will whiff.
DeGrey’s ground super doesn’t work on projectiles. He has various answers to projectiles, but this isn’t one.
DeGrey’s air super does 3 damage on counter hit. As far as I know, this is ONLY when you hit your opponent’s startup; it’s very hard to use this as a reaction for 3 damage. You’ll probably have to predict.
Air B -> B is unsafe. I believe you can make the first hit safe if you space/time it right, but the second hit is, as far as I know, always unsafe. Also, obviously, air B massively changes your momentum; this is really important for avoiding projectiles etc.
Neutral A -> A is +3 on block, and neutral A on its own is a massive +5(!). This means it’s not really your opponent’s turn to push buttons.
Forward A is throw invulnerable. Its tall arc also means it’s good at hitting people in the air. If you get an air hit, you can follow with Pilebunker. Forward A is also +1 on block, so your main fear is being interrupted.
Ghost eats other projectiles; it just goes straight through them and keeps going. This is a MASSIVE boon against projectile characters like Grave, Geiger etc. When you have ghost off cooldown, they should be afraid to throw their projectiles. If you threw ghost first, ghost should catch them, but even if you threw second you can probably make them block.
DeGrey’s air B is actually safe against most of the cast if you do it as soon as you jump. It’s positive against short characters (+10 vs Setsuki), and negative vs DeGrey, Midori, and Rook. So the only way to punish it on block is Rook super.
Of course, many characters can beat it on reaction (13f startup, plus some travel time), and you definitely shouldn’t do two hits.
I believe a long-range B+B that hits with the tip of the second B can be safe, although a lot of people have options for punishing it on the way in.
Also, if you B+B over their head and don’t connect at all, you’ll land quickly and can probably throw before they do anything.
An addendum to my move notes: Both DeGrey’s B -> B and B -> C can be made safe if they’re spaced exactly right. They’ll be less minus than if your opponent blocked them deep. (You’ll also be further away.) If you can learn to do this (and to set it up), then you have much lower-risk ways to fish for Pilebunker hits, or to try to oppress them with invincible B -> C.
I just had the pleasure of showing Fantasy Strike to a fighting game novice. We were unlucky to realize that the free weekend did not let us find each other for personal games, but tried out some public matches anyway.
I regret to say I did not get to trying a matchup against DeGrey, but apparently my friend did. Unfortunately, those matchups were what caused him to quit playing for the afternoon. He lost each match, but he said with each of the others he could see the dynamics of what was going on, and felt he had a chance if only he were responding correctly. DeGrey was the only character for which he felt that there was just a direct way opponents could cut him off with his ghost move, and then always have an opening for their attack.
First question would be: What would be the general counter to his ghost move? I know things like grab moves are supposed to be counterable by jumping, but it didn’t even seem to him like the ghost can be blocked. Secondly, if there is a counter, I don’t suppose anyone else has concerns about “jump in and play” style of fun if it requires a forum conversation to reveal it? Usually things like jumping over fireballs seem pretty straightforward based on common understanding of physics.
The ghost can definitely be blocked! She’s effectively a projectile. It’s easy to not realize that’s how she works, though, given that she appears to “grab” the opponent on hit.
OK. I can’t really elaborate on his experiences at all, but it sounds like he attempted to block it and it wasn’t working for him.
What’s the point of his bA ground pound? It doesn’t seem to have much more range or speed than nA or utility as fA.
-The ghost command grab will hit from where she’s at. You can do neat combos and setups if you take this into consideration
-CH b.A, Ghost Grab juggles. You can do Dandy step xx B afterwards for a hard knockdown
-air ghost is OP, do that shit crossup on their wakeup
ch bA will launch, you can get fA xx BB for 4 damage. Heard you can get 5 from nA if you get it close enough to the corner, which will also restand giving you a hit/throw mixup.
Edit: Made a quick video to show it off: DeGrey CH bA to KO combo - YouTube
That’s legit if you can corner a character, you can kill.
When would out throw out a bA? Does DeGrey have a plus on block move, then throw the bA out to get the counter hit? That would only be against characters that don’t have a invulnerable reversal.
Noticed something, not sure if it’s intentional
Grey’s Special 1 puts distance between two players at first, which lets Grey escape from some up close moves but not others. For instance, It will escape a normal attack, but won’t escape a throw from Rook. Is Rook’s throw range just significantly larger than others?
New to the genre, so I don’t have all the terminology and notation down so please forgive mistakes.
Every reversal is punishable on block or reactable or punishable, though. Block against characters like Geiger, Jaina and Grave, jump against Midori and Rook, and go ham if they have nothing and no super. Eventually your opponent will tire of you blocking and punishing their reversals and either start blocking, going for Yomi Counters or try A buttons to gain the advantage themselves. Once they’re going for buttons, try going into bA once you’re plus instead of blocking.
You can block ghost, but the punishment for not doing it can be pretty severe. It feels like only Rook gets easier high damage punishment off a bad move by the opponent. So for a new player DeGrey can be really oppressive. I think only a decent Valerie feels worse to play against for a new player (because you eat 4+ damage in moments if you don’t know what to do and her air hitboxes are wonky as hell).
I second the question of “what is the ground pound even for”. Yeah you can get a lancher on counterhit, etc., but you can get that off faster moves too.
Also am I wrong or is DeGrey the character with the least crossup options?
This guy needs an antiair, nothing crazy but you get jumped on free.
100% agree on that.
