Kano: "Hello baby, did you miss me?"
Been a long time Helena enthusiasts. Welcome back to the Helena Kill Blog, The Greatest Show on Earth. Back for ONE TIME ONLY to talk about DOA5U Helena and her changes. Let me start out by saying thank you to Team Ninja for sending me an early copy of the game. Is Helena still capable of getting the job done? Well lets go over some of her changes:
Pseudo Force Tech:
Also famously known as "The White Girl Blender." For those that don't know, Pseudo Force Techs were a way for Helena to completely eliminate Wake Up Kicks in DOA5. You achieve this by ending all your juggles with the Handslaps. After Handslaps, you finish off with BKO 6P, which will either tech the opponent up if they stay on the ground, or the move will whiff if the opponent techs themselves. Either way, the wake up kick is completely out of the picture. Pseudo Force Tech... GONE! BKO 6P doesn't tech opponents off the ground anymore. Near a wall, Handslaps will slam opponent into the wall now. Her wall game was deadly in the previous version of the game because Handslaps didn't wall splat and you can really keep the pressure going. All that is gone now. The Blender is situational now because you can still catch people in the original scenario if they tech up before BKO 6P, but if they stay on the ground, BKO 6P won't FT... Moving on.
66P:
This move, and any string that ends with this move, is -9 now... This WAS her stable get in attack...
6P+KP:
6P+K has a punch follow up now. The last punch also Bounds opponents. (This is a new mechanic for DOA5U that ground bounces) You can combo off of it into 66KP(P).
236PKP:
Still a good juggle ender, but when used on a grounded opponent, it has this new ground roll animation that was added into DOA5U. You can combo into 66KP(P).
P+KP:
You can no longer delay this string... At least it still has amazing crush properties from what I can see.
BT 7P:
This move was made into a Critical Burst. She now has a Critical Burst in all her stances now. They are all mid punches.
214P+K:
New move. Kinda looks 236P+K, except it is a single hit that leads into BKO Stance. Sit Down Stun in middle of stun threshold, -10 on block...
66F+K:
New move. This move actually seems like it has potential. Goes into BKO Stance, uncounterable stun, and hold resistant. -16 on block...
F+K:
OMG,YOU CAN GO INTO BKO STANCE FROM THIS ATTACK BY HOLDING DOWN THE 2 DIRECTION! This is one of the things I suggested to Team Ninja a while back. Glad to see it in the game. It's also -1 on block when you go into BKO Stance from it. (Not bad) However, F+K by itself is only +2 now...
236P+K:
Another thing I suggested to Team Ninja was that this move should be at least +1 on block, annnnd the move is +1 on block now. I can really work this into my game now. (considering this is her only stance transition that is advantage on block)
New Stance Transitions:
Which brings me to my next subject. Helena gained a couple of Back-turned Stance transitions from some old moves. (6P4, 8PP4, 3PP4) The problem with this is that, on block, they range from -6 to -8.
CONCLUSION:
This is what I mainly found so far with her in DOA5U. The way Helena and the game plays, she might still be viable, but they really dumped all over her in this version. Most of the mixups are still there. (Except for The White Girl Blender) I think she still suffers from the same problems as before with her stance transitions still being high negative on block. She still is kinda slow compared to the other characters. Her wall game suffered a lot. All and all, she got nerfed.
One last thing, she has a taunt buff. HAHAHA
