pai evo strategies

ive played evo for some while and im no expert and usually get my butt kicked on a regular basis by the experts but i dont go down without a fight or beat them and usually beat most players
Here is wot ive found out so far from pais new moves and my strategies.
+ new crescent kick which is quite fast and makes pai go into back stance.
after good extra damage as the tends to leave pai open due to lag but the punch makes it more effective as pai has less lag after the punch and can quickle follow up with , or block.
+ new punch that forces oppnents to crouch which u can then follow up with a low throw or a
. However, the stagger is easy to get out of and the punch is soooooo slooooooowww. But good for hitting crouching opponents with.
quite quick low kick and suprises oppnent but doesnt offer any stagger and cant follow up with an attack that quickly. If u hold she goes into her back stance.
is no more boo hoo, why oh why did they remove that attack as its hard to extend most of pais combos .
+ and + are now replaced with grapples similiar to her reversals when pressing . So able to set up opponent for with a or + but i do miss these throws as they did shyt loads of damage. Least there making pai a more kung fu looking fighter and not just a carboncopy of her papi.
is now more of a strike then a poke however is real slow but does alot of damage.
+ is pretty cool throw as pai kicks em in the leg forcing them to crouch which u follow up with a low throw or wotever. recomended over her + as its quicker cus its a throw and opponent stays crouched longer and the cant stagger out of it.
whenever u hit + or she can now go into her low stance and usually opponents dont expect it so u can follow up with a + or a . usually catches opponent of guard but still slow.
new back stance moves are:-
+ which is a feeble palm hit like that chick outta tekken and real slow she stays in her back position and usually u can cheap the CPU by constantly doing this
is by far the best move as its the fastest and hits opponent to the air for a juggle but not all the time.
+ is great to but still slow but great fast sweep.
+ is the same as the cresent kick but shes faces forward then does it and goes back into her back stance.
is that low punch thingie i think she had this move in VF4 but can folow up with any punch combo after.
new rising attacks are pretty good
crouch then press shes does a quick punch which suprises opponent but slow lag makes it hard to follow up with anything else.
as before crouch, then rise and press. Pai cartwheels to safety and can stagger opponent also great for players that liek to play pressure games and attack low as pai can kick out of distance and it hits low too. make sure u do a as it usually works for me.
also when rising press + and pai does a palm strike upwards and goes into back stance.
nearly done 2 new low throws,
++ is her best throw as it does loads of damage, pai climbs onto her opponents shoulder and spin kicks thereface, true hong kong action star moment. The other is ++, pai jumps behinf her opponent kicking them behind her as she jumps, forsing them to stagger. Real useless as pai kicks them to far to actually do anything and by the time u turn to face them u have to run to them and there probably staggeredout.
Tahts about it, u my strategies for pai users though im not that great, is to hit low as much as u can as her sweeps are so quick and when an opponent misses hit + as its so fast.

Main strategie is to go out and then attack in. Such as her is great to use when opponent s miss high or mid attackes but most of the real good players like to play pressure games and constantly hit low followed by throws and low hitting or mid body hitting attacks. other moves to use are her new + which is faster and forces pai into back stance so use it when opponent misses with a lagging attack. if they block players usually instinctively follow up with an attack so counter them with a and as most players are aware of her now and block low but the flip hits low sometimes and do the flip after a short delay as they might attempt to hit u after the 3.
Common attack i do is to hit low followed by a +
+ throw as u dont need to press down as your crouchin already or use a standard + or use her new rising attacks. is rocemended after
. Cant really think of anythingelse i ahve other strategies but cant really think of any.

 

Very nice guide u done there, ill try some of those next time i go to play to win. Why o why did they have to take pai's DDt out and replace it with what looks exactly like a one of her reversals. That throw done so much damage but i guess it's not like pai to be doing all these kung fu kicks then suddenly a wrestling move. Also i been tring to figure out what this move pai does, she sort of hits them on the head and puts them in a false crouch then u can do throw on them i remember u doing that to me.

 

its the + move but advise not to use it as its to friggen slow and opponents tend to see it and block high, good for hitting low crouchers, advise u do the + throw instead as they crouch longer and tehy cant stagger out of the throw. But its a predictable move and most people know your gonna follow up with a low throw so mix up with a double swan kick. ALso use the kick after both her new grapple throws++ or do a low . Try to mix her moves up cus pai has a good ground game and there alot faster then they were in VF4. A tactic i use sometimes is to hit with a crescent kick+ then instantly press ++ and into a low]. Basically go in and out back and crouch dash alot to dodge moves then go back in with a quick attack.

dunno if im making sense but say if u crouch dash either back or forward, u can go into a without holding down as the dash substitues for that. or back dash then go into her rising kick or go into her flip kick opponents dont expect the kick and both hit low so all players that crouch alot tend to get hit by it.
Also pai is great for poking. U should generally use fast quick moves and leave the slow attacks. Focus with her
, great poke cus its fast has no lag and good for stopping standing throws.
whenever there about to hit u with a high attack as it usually cancels the opponents move.
um cant think of anythign else /versus/images/icons/confused.gif just pressure your opponent to death and go low quite alot as most players suck at blocking low even the masters.
Also try to master her reversals (inashis) as there one of her strongest weapons. Wot u got to remember is that most players tend to use mid body blows so focus alot on +, or if your opponent has a really good high hitting offense then focus on + or juct focus into your opponents playing style, if they like to hit high or mid alot go either way.
personally i tend to leave the inashis with the as opponents alwasy tend to get out of the stagger and are prepared for your attack. Also they stagger to far. By the time you reach them there probably out and blocking or countering your move.

 

There's an old thread in Junky's Jungle that goes over many, if not more, of the changes made to Pai in Evo. You can find it here.

Another amount of Pai Evo discussion, particularly of her movelist, can be found here.

Hope this helps,

 

i think thats about all the changes to her new moves, also pai goes into her low stance alot quicker so i guess its kinda improved still gets her face kicked in.

 

I've seen several Daioh videos of Pai players and it seems like no one uses her stances. In Version C I could never get them to work because it was just too slow, Bokutai at least. With the new ways she can go into stance it seems like it would be easier and be able to create a lot of mind games. But since I don't see them used, it makes me think they are still too slow. Is this true? I think she would be a really fun character if the stances could be used competitively. The method to get into those stances are really cool, like my favorite character of all time Lei Wulong. I dislike how Lei Fei's stances are done. Also, this sort of seems the case with Lau, with his stance not being used- although I haven't seen very much of him. But his mind games wouldn't seem as good seing that just about everyone of his moves are high or mid. Well, I guess I'll find out for myself in 4 days, but I'm just really curious

 

Pai's stances are retarded because they revolve around setting up guessing games (and pretty lame guessing games at that) rather than around setting up hits for big damage. Lei has float starters, super safe approach pokes, moves that cause heavy stagger, etc from stance. Kage's got moves that crumple the crap out of you for 80 pt combos. Shun gets throws and pretty decent float combos, even lau gets something that guard staggers. Pai's stance options don't do these things really... except the knee I guess, which causes heavy stagger on interrupt.

Feel free to jump in llan if you're a stance fan.

I can't think of any stance attack that is better than something pai could be doing without a stance anyway.

 

Bokutai and Sway Step

I am a stance fan. Not a huge stance user, but I do think they have their moments. And for the most part, the stances are what can make your Pai *look neat* during matches.

<font color="white">Bokutai</font>
The bokutai stance is actually quite good and best if entered through the low-blue fist, I think. It's not a bad mind game between the quick sweep and the knee. However, any smart playre should just block standing and concede to eating the sweep. Getting hit with the knee is bad. On MC it will float for a typical combo (anything in the > + > + varieties). On normal hit, it will cause a nasty stagger. I'm not sure if it's guaranteed but Pai's will float even the CPU at the highest arcades in Quest mode (known for insane struggling abilities). So, there's more damage. Blocking the knee, however, puts Pai at -13...bad bad bad. It's definitely a risk to go for the knee, but if you can fit it in as your bokutai stance sneaks under the high (or mid) attacks of a rushing opponent, then the rewards are worth the risk.

<font color="white">Sway Step </font>
The other of Pai's stances is not as useful as bokutai, imo. It does however still have some uses. You can be quite confusing with the options and it can put your opponent on the defensive as they let Pai run through her numerous animations of punches, sweeps, hops, etc. The windmill punches are not useful at all - you can get to hit *sometimes* as a down-to-the-wire crazy variant for the win. But not often. It's fluff.
The only really useful move out of Sway Step is her Turn-towards hopping crescent (+). It comes out pretty quick (no stats on 1/60, but I'd say it's 15 frames or so), mid-level, and will hop over low attacks. If it hits, normal or MC, it will float high enough for a combo of choice. The best part is that on block, it's not throw counterable - Pai's at somewhere in the range of -6. Not bad. The canned punches (+) followup is pretty common to throw in as well. They also will leave Pai in the -6 range on block but will leave her at +3 or 4 on normal hit and +6 or so on MC - and if you float with +, the punches recover well enough that they don't interfere with a float combo. What I'll usually do is + > > + and it works, I think, with everyone on MC.

The stance itself, +++, can do well in avoiding attacks and this is your key strategy if you want the TT-crescent to hit for a float. Something that I think is a great oki tactic is to hop over a downed opponent and ++,+ as I land. The idea here is have your Sway Step just barely avoid their rising attack as Pai's TT-crescent swoops in for a meaty float. Good damage and huge style. My kind of Pai. It's this kind of jumpy fancy animation that makes people want to play Pai, imo.

And lastly, if you're feeling a bit machi, you can abuse the Sway Step to move away from your opponent. +++, ++, ++...can be really irritating. It avoids a lot of shit and constantly moves away from your opponent. It's a cheesy tactic, but I admit that I use it from time to time, mostly as a good way to gain some distance and change the pace of the match.

Aight - those are my Pai stance thoughts and usages. Are they useful to incorporate into your Pai? I think so. Do you need them to win? Hell no. In fact, they probably lower your winning chances as you're putting yourself at risk with only a *chance* at worthwhile damage. They're the style of Pai's game. Now, it's harnessing that style with the rest of Pai's mainstay of quick deadly game that has been my goal for a long while now. I'm getting there. /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

<font color="yellow">.cheers.</font>

 

Re: Bokutai and Sway Step

That's some good info. I have a question about the Bokutai stance. I understand the moves and risks while in the stance, but my main problem is getting to that stance. In version C against a human, fighting toe to toe, that stance was just about non usable. The isn't that great to start with and then after the it was super easy to get hit before I got a move off-it seemed too slow or obvious what I was doing. What my main question was, is it actually possible to get into that stance against a competent human opponent. Those new methods to get into Bokutai seem like they will help a lot getting to the stance. But is it still slow and obvious? I don't see many people use it in videos I saw.

 

Re: Bokutai and Sway Step

The addition of entering Bokutai from the low-bluefist really improved the usefulness of the stance. Getting + against a human is not an issue. And this is the best way to get into it. +, as you know, is not that useful. Just as an fyi - you can get into Bokutai from Sway Step as well. Why anyone would want to is beyond me, but it is another option.

Your only viable way into Bokutai is really through the low-bluefist.

Oh, one last thing I failed to mention in my previous post. When you're in Bokutai, you don't have to sweep or knee. It's not a 2 option only stance. You can punch () straight out of it. This is good in that it's fast and can catch your opponent off guard. It's quite useful and will help you trying to fit Bokutai into your play. Mixing up + with +, has an real off-beat flow to it. Something to try.

<font color="yellow">.cheers.</font>