So here's the work I did on his normals, moves, and some other various notes while I was in the lab with Maxima.
Here's also the video companion I did explaining these as well (will link once uploaded):
https://youtu.be/VUBp8UcN2R4To talk about Maxima's neutral game we have to talk about Guard Points (sometimes referred to as Armor). Some normals, specials, and supers have GPs that will block a hit while performing that action. Maxima has several of these. It important to note that all of the grounded moves that have them will NOT block low hits or grounded fireballs. It seems in my testing so far it also only good for one hit, though I have seem other moves like Gang-il's Shakka Shuu absorb multiple hits, so I could be wrong about that point. I just have not seen evidence yet that Maxima's get more then one hit.
Any move that has a Guard Point I'll note with the abbreviation GP.
Normals
st.LP: +1 on block, cancels, and Anti Air
st.LK: -1 on block, poke
st.HP: unsafe, GP, Anti Air
st.HK: -4, GP, poke
cl.LP: +1 on block, cancels, use to tick / combo into Command Throw
cl.LK: -3 on block, cancels, not found any use
cl.HP: -2 on block, 2 hits, cancels either hit
cl.HK: -4 on block, cancels
cr.LP: Even on block, cancels
cr.LK: +1 on block
cr.HP: -2 on block, cancels
cr.HK: unsafe
CD: unsafe
j.CD: very plus on block, drop kick, the extension makes it great for anti-airs
j.LP: cross up, decent nj.Air to Air
j.LK: fj.Air to Air
j.HP: cross up, body splash, very large hit box so it can be very ambiguous (my favorite normal in the game so far, just lots of fun)
j.HK: cross up, downward angle jump
Throws:
Forward Throw - leaves you at full screen away, except when the opponent is already against the wall or close to it
Back Throw - Hard KD though that's just to cover Maxima's recovery from the throw, left at a little less then round start distance
Command Normals: df.HP - Up angled attack, can be used as an Anti Air and combo extender. Be aware there are certain ranges this will miss as a combo extender, you’ll need to learn these ranges so you don’t drop combos. It is however still fairly safe at around minus 2-3 on block. Suggestion would be at the ranges it would drop to use cr.HP instead with an empty cancel of the L.Vapor Cannon. Just make sure to confirm the cr.HP hit before completing the cancel.
Specials
M-4 Vapor Cannon - qcb+P - [110/110/117] - Power Punch
Heavy: GP
EX: Causes a wallbounce
Air M-4 Vapor Cannon - in air qcb+P - [110/100/134] - Power Punch in the air
EX: GP
M-19 Blitz Cannon - DP+K - [150/150/192] Flys up and catches the opponent and throws them back down. Works in essence like a DP.
- The distance traveled is the same for Light and Heavy, EX travels further
- EX is fully invincible, has an additional hit immediately on startup
Maxima Press - hcb+K (follow up qcb+P) [70/70/142 - 117/117/187 with the follow up]
Light: Command Throw, does not move, fully invincible on startup
Heavy: Dashes forward into a Command Throw, longer startup then Light
EX: Can be blocked, not a command throw, but starts up much faster than Heavy and still dashes.
Supers
Double Vapor Cannon - qcfx2+P [200 / 318] - Super version of the Vapor Cannon Attack
GP for both versions
Atomic Laser - qcfx2+K [177/330] - Beam Attack
MAX is invincible on startup
Climax
MX-III CIWS Launcher - hcbx2+PP - [470] - Dash attack when hit starts animation that confirms all damage
- GP
- Has a long reach on the start of it, but dashes forward if that doesn’t reach
- Still is vulnerable to lows and ground fireballs.
Side Notes about Max Mode canceling with Maxima
Maxima may not want to MAX Mode cancel for several reasons:
- Max Mode cancels do less damage than non-Max Mode combos that spend the same amount of bar with the exception of very specific corner combos.
- This is due to only EX Vapor Cannon being the only extender from a wall bounce. All other EX moves will end the combo and you can’t just chain EX Vapor Cannons.
- The only way to cancel into a super is using the wall bounce from EX Vapor Cannon or using the bounce to hit a normal Vapor Cannon and cancel from that as you cannot cancel a Super from an EX move directly.
- Low light confirms can cancel into Command Normal to provide combo paths to the high damage combos without a MAX Mode cancel. Furthermore if the low light hit confirm starts out far enough where the Command Normal would not connect, there is no cancelable normal that you can confirm into by using MAX Mode cancel to continue the combo.
- EX moves Maxima have in general are far better than their normal counterparts by a larger margin than I’ve seen then other characters I’ve dabbled with the lab so far
From this I’ve concluded that typically if you are going to MAX Mode you are going to raw activate it to gain access to his high powered tools rather than canceling into it to provide a higher powered combo.
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