King of Fighters XIII > Athena Asamiya
Dealing with Athena
DoctaMario:
I've been playing a little while (since May) and while I've been able to figure out strats and weaknesses against some of the characters I have trouble against, I can't say the same about Athena.
I play Ralf, King, and Robert, and I've yet to find a good way to deal with an even halfway decent Athena player. Her fireballs are good, recovery is excellent and she seems to to have tools to deal with any situation. You try to play keep away and she can zone you out. You try to zone her, she sends all your projectiles back at you and if you try to roll her dp is quick and has little recovery. I Find when I get close she uses that levitation thing or some of the other stuff she has. She doesn't seem to have any weaknesses that I can suss out. Help!
sammy5m1th:
Guess I'll take a stab at this first.
With King I don't think you should be losing the fireball war too badly, if at all. The reflector is well and good but King's light fireball doesn't travel full screen and is slow, so if you use that one and Athena reflects it, it will likely die out before it gets back to you. If you time it well you could probably rush in behind it and punish her with a tornado kick/jump in/whatever too. So be sure to mix up those two fireballs, or even jump Athena's fireball and then toss one out before you land while staying out of DP range. You can also use King's air fireball to alter her trajectory, so if Athena gets into a predictable rhythm on her fireball/DP trap keep that in mind.
If you're going to roll a fireball don't do it too close to her, just use the roll to get to a better position/avoid chip damage, which is pretty much the case with every light fireball in the game actually. If you roll it and land on top of her she can toss out a throw or command grab which will always catch regular rolls so don't use it when you'll land within range of a punish.
Her command grab (the thing where she tosses you up into the air) is invincible but it also has some pretty terrible recovery so if you can identify when the Athena player will use it and you jump, you'll get a full punish.
Her DP, like most of the cast, is pretty weak against cross ups since it lunges so far forward (especially good for Robert since his command cross up has some pretty great reach). It's great in the fireball/DP trap area, but if you are close enough to be able to cross her up, its pretty risky. Crystal bit (the glowing sparkle super) hits on both sides but is pretty risky to pull out on a whim unless the Athena player is constantly buffering the input or Athena's opponent is being predictable with their attacks.
Her normals tend to have pretty stubby reach or very specific uses/counters, except for j.CD, which is a pretty solid move. On the ground Her only far reaching moves are far s.D (slow), c.C/c.D (extremely punishable if hopped) and I guess s.A/s.B (both get beaten pretty handily by low profile moves like slides), so in poking range your characters should be pretty well off (Ralf and King I know have some far reaching normals, not sure on Robert). It is worth noting that at range Athena's far D can beat out low pokes and King's CD can be swept by Athena's crouch D as well so keep that in mind. If the reason you feel you're losing up close is solely due to her command grab or DP, you should assess what your habits are and figure out when you're getting hit with those moves since both are very punishable if Athena misses.
Hopefully some of the other Athena players will post their opinions, wouldn't mind having some thoughts on Athena vs King myself. My local King player gives me all kinds of trouble (not helped by the fact that he's also a straight up better player than me, but whatever).
Tikok:
I have no experience fighting her, but I am a Athena main. So, I'll write my point of view as a Athena player.
Defying Athena in a fireball war is silly IMO, even if you are King. It's true that your fireball will die out before reaching you, but when Athena reflects fireballs, she builds meter, and you don't. The recovery is also so fast that it's extremely hard to punish. The longer the fireball war will last, the more advantage the Athena player will be at.
To me to beat Athena you need to seal off her fireball game with a threatening anti fireball move. Then, once you knocked her down, you want to attack her in an angle that will make her DP whiff , and not give her enough time to do her s.D.
Look out for gaps in her blockstrings if she uses fireballs during them, score a knockdown with your anti fireball move , and rush her down.
Be careful though, Athena's defensive options are numerous when she has meter. She has a hit invincible ex teleport, a 3f dm that must be perfectly safe jumped, and an invincible command grab.
DoctaMario:
Thanks guys. I'll keep these things in mind when fighting her. I could never see the point in trying to win a fireball fight with her, even with King. The only thing I seem to be able to do to get around a lot of that is an EX Venom Strike or EX Fireball with Robert for a knockdown. If I'm playing as Ralf, forget it. :P I never seem to be able to get close enough to cross her up, but i'll have to try that tack next time.
Her recovery is really what gives me trouble. If she didn't recover so quick from her fireballs, it'd be pretty easy to just get in and punish.
Crimson_King15:
Imo ralf doesn't have any issues with Athena.
Qcb+a beats/neutralizes her projectiles whike building you meter and preventing her from gaining hers at a distance ralf should make Athena come to him for her damage, jet punch and even gattling gun are easy money AA's against her since her jump arch is so huge, bareback vulcan punishes nearly every special and even can even reversal catch a fireball if she tries to use a normal then throw a fireball in a block string (depending on the normal), ralf out classes her in normals and in her face ralf is a terror. You have so many options you can make her life a living hell.
You have an instant overhesd,
an amazing jump cd which is cancelable, a jump a which can be used to set up tick throws or jump canceled, qcf+c provides you with tons of block stun so you can lock her down then do high/low mix ups off of it, close st c, close st d, far st c and d to keep her in check when it comes to footsies, cr d which is cancel able and has better start up and range than Athena's sweep, after you have your opponent rattled to where they push buttons just to get you away you can dash up qcf+AC and bust up any reversals or carelessly thrown normals.
Ralf's whole game in this match up is to keep Athena guessing what option he is going to use after he puts her in block stun and once you get a hit pile the damage on as thick as possible. Ralf has all the tools to get close to Athena and then once he is there he can just drive ride her into the ground.
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