First of all I am not insulting the intelligence or you other others by saying you can't count. What I am saying here is that you guys do not play Ash, therefore lack the character knowledge of knowing when he does try for it and messes it up. Simply put I'm telling you guys that if you haven't tried it, you shouldn't say it's as hard as I think it is. If you tell me about a character you play and I don't how difficult a combo is, I will take your word for it.
Yes and no. There are combos that I found real hard, and then we other ppl tried it they found it easy. For the most part I do have a better understanding of Chin's combo and which ones I find hard, but it doesn't means everyone finds it hard too. Having said that, I
will give you the benefit of the doubt and believe you it's a challenging combo, but I did want to make that clarification.
I also do know how many times he's successfully stunned me, and again, it's enough make me feel it's worth engaging in this long civilized (thank you) debate we've been having--apparently others feel the same way I do too. I pointed out this in my last post, ("Just how many times do you have to get hit by something "overpowered/broken", no matter difficult, before it's necessary to change it?" If you get hit by it enough it's clearly feasible in a real match, and hence practical enough for an debate IMO.)
In regards to you and RJ getting hit by it a lot, I never said you guys didn't. I said he gets it off 20-30% of the time and that does not equate to you two getting hit by it a lot. What I did mean is that overall against all opponents, he'll get the combo off that often. It could be that when it did happen, he was in practice mode before playing you two, or just had better than normal execution.
Once again, see the last post. We get hit by it enough to feel that this is necessary to discuss this.
Ok well let's just ignore the fact that it's a stun combo and take it as a 100% combo instead. It requires 2 meter and 60% drive gauge, as opposed to other characters who need 4 meter and 100% drive gauge. Yes there's an advantage, of 2 meter and 40% drive, but it does still require some saving and use of meter. As for the point about them gaining meter while doing the combo, we'll attribute that to saying that the requirements of the 100% combo is lower.
So we should compare the difference of damage of what Ash can do with 2 meter and 60% drive gauge versus other characters what damage other characters can do with the same resource. I think most characters can output about 50-60% damage with that, with a difference of an additional 40-50% Ash can do.
So is 40-50% damage justify the difficulty? That's debatable depending on how difficult a person thinks it is. Many games have BnB mid damage combos and higher damaging combos which scales with difficulty to do so - that's normal. I think in this case it's borderline since I do play Ash and know the difficult of not just being able to do it, but doing it in a real match.
I think, that's just it, the lower starting point is a HUGE difference. The main difference is it's almost impossible, on a normal timer, to build 4/5 stocks + 100% drive in the first round (with the majority of the characters requiring 5 stocks+HD) whereas it's definitely plausible to build 2 meters 60% drive the first round. The starting points are hugely different to the point where an aggressive player who builds up meter more, could essentially do two stun combos on players 1 and 3 of an opponent in an extreme case,
particularly Takuma. Most of the 4/5stock full HD combos are seen on the 5th round more times than not; the stun combos, however, can be execute at a much earlier point in a match.
Remember the difference between a 99% combo and an 100% combo
is not just 1%. A 100% combo leaves NO chance for a combo; a 99% combo could leave the opponent with a chance to comeback no matter how slim. I think if someone wants to save up 5 rounds just to get a 5 stock +HD 100% off of someone, it's justified coz they have to sacrifice a lot more during the other 4. The stun combo requires a lot less sacrifice for the same amount of damage (and once again a positive gain in Takuma's case), the principle of the stun combo is in itself, ridiculous. Make them require 5 stock+HD, or 4 stock +HD to stun someone and it's still unfair since you build meter during the combo. 2 stocks and some drive is a little over-doing it if you ask my humble opinion.
You guys do go to the arcade more often now since it's down in OC now. So there's easy access to try it out. I would go as far as making a wager of $50 to anyone besides John (maybe Reynald) wouldn't be able to do the first 10 inputs of the combo 7/10 times in practice mode (not against a backward opponent) within the next month or two. The whole combo has 30+ inputs, but for this I'd only require the first 10 hits which is up to ABCD.
Edit: Do you remember when we saw the Kim corner step infinite? It looked easy, but when we tried it, it was insanely hard. Ash's combo isn't at that difficulty, but it is indeed a lot harder than it looks.
I thought we're not arguing difficulty anymore, I already said I can't debate that till try it myself. The real debate is whether or not it should still be there in the first place.
As for living closer is really moot if my availability isn't as flexible as yours as other people.
Let's say you're right, and it's deathly impossible to do. Yet I've gotten hit by it, say 10 times in the last few weeks. It still doesn't change the fact that it's a 100% combo that requires 2 stocks and 60% drive to start (or 2 drives but 30% stock for Takauma). Since you're gaining meter back Takuma's really a negative 1 stock 2 drive combo (I don't remember how much drive he gains back). That's clearly an unfair advantage that he has.
With the same token Ash's stun combo that I listed (I'm unfamiliar with the variation John and you use) takes 60% drive and 2 stock; the whole combo requires 5 stocks, but you gain 3 stocks back.
To put thing is perspective, let's say I have a special like O.Shermie's HSDM lightning, that requires 2 stocks and 60% drive to do, and let's say we use your 30% success rate, if it did 100% damage if it connects, even with a 30% success rate, would it be fair? Remember, 2 stocks and 60% drive requirement only.