Uses for Jaina's standing A

I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I basically never find a situation where I would prefer Jaina’s sA to her fA.

fA starts just as fast (11 frames), has way better range, way better hitbox, leads to the same amount of damage, is throw invincible and can even anti air at certain ranges.

On the other hand, her sA has so little hit advantage that at some ranges the combo sAxxB will whiff, losing the point of damage and even leaving space for a smashed reversal to hit back.

Personally the only time I ever use her sA is by hitconfirming it as an OTG combo ender after a very late fA, which I’m not even sure was intended.

My suggestion would be to either make it faster and/or add hit advantage, or even better, give it the animation from her attack card in Yomi. With this last suggestion she could use the normal to fake Bs and bait jumps, and it would not only synergize with her kit, but also help in the Geiger MU (her worst) to bait Supers.

Now, I understand that she doesn’t really need a buff, but with a game with so few moves it would be best not to have any useless ones.

That said, if some of you guys actually know a good use for the move, then forget I said anything.

Standing A is a lot safer on block then forward a. That’s about it though.

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That’s not a bad point, but because of her playstyle it’s very rarely relevant.

I found that because how slow everyone of her normals is, I’d most the time just block or throw a C put up close.

At footsies range though, her fA is once again better as it loses a lot of recovery, even becoming plus on block around max range.

I think maybe using neutral A instead of C on occasion would probably be a good idea. Dragonheart takes a piece of life away from you and only does one damage, plus is super unsafe on block. Whereas nA is safe on block, doesn’t hurt you and can be canceled into B for 2 damage. You should avoid using C unless you’re countering a move your opponent is throwing out, since it’s so risky. I’ve seen lots of Jaina’s lose matches they were otherwise doing great in because they drained their bars with liberal uses of their dragonheart attacks.

Well, when I say I use C of course I mean when I belive my opponent won’t block it.

Anyway, her sA is I feel too slow to throw up close. Even if I had to use a normal up close it would still be fA for his hitbox and combo reliability. As I said in the OP, sAxxB whiff a lot.

I think it’s useful for chipping away at the opponent, particularly Geiger as he can’t Flash Gear you through A, B. Also, while it may be an edge case, A, C is guaranteed chip damage. Also since it has less pushback than her other A moves it’s good for getting hits/chip in from JC.

What do you mean chip?

You take chip damage when you block specials, which is indicated by your health blocks flashing red. I think it takes three ‘chips’ to break a health block.

Yeah, but what does it have to do with sA?

A C is guaranteed chip damage on block, like he said

Oh, I didn’t read correctly.

It’s true, kind of a borderline case, but true.

ForeverKing just found a use for the move.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTr1oY1oCKc

That setup’s so sexy!

That said, her jump A would probably work better.

This move is used all the time in real games by good Jainas, shrug.

Alright, but for what?

Divekick, A, B for block damage. A, B to beat a yomi counter for 2 damage or at least block damage if they blocked, as opposed to no block damage and being at -6 if they blocked f+A.

I don’t have time to test it right now, but doesn’t AxxB leave a gap for reversal unless up close? If so, considering that Jaina’s divekick pushes back, it’s kind of risky to use. Also I don’t think that a very close divekick jails in A (or fA for that matters) either, but again I can’t test it atm.

The Yomi Counter point though makes sense, I usually go for an insta divekick in these situations, but maybe offline it’s reactable.

Pretty rare to get hit by a reversal there. In some rare case where you do, now you can bait their reversal next time by not doing B. I’ve had to do that about never though. So it boils down to getting block damage and being at a good spacing as opposed to…neither of those things if you forward+A in that situation.

“Instant” divekick hits on about frame 21 so it is hilariously infeasible as a thing to beat yomi counter when you’re standing close (like twice as slow as A). Like I said, I use this move routinely as Jaina so I don’t really see a problem.

The gaps are actually the reason I suggested what I did, but I can try to better space it for block damage. Let’s see what happens.

There is a gap, but it’s not as bad as it seems.

The gap can be covered by JC. From my testing, Geiger can’t seem to get Flash Gear to connect at the space where the gap would exist. Against a Jaina, you’d just take 1 damage each (granted she’s not on her last bar of health). And I haven’t tested it yet, but I think you can hold the arrow and hit Valerie if she attempts to use C to get through.

EDIT: The holding arrow thing doesn’t work against Valerie, but it’s a very specific range where Valerie’s C will actually punish you. If you’re spaced enough you can C her out if she tries to C in.

Also, if you don’t cancel, you can get yourself a little bit of breathing room, or quickly fire off a JC, if the opponent blocks expecting the B.

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The A on block into jC seems quite risky, even if he expects the B.

Everything else makes sense though, it’s worth some lab time.