Soooo satisfying.

Libertine - things are good. I'm back at school so I've sadly got minimal time to devote to VF5 .

I'm not sure if you can actually enter P 3K without having it come out with the circular roundhouse that is part of the canned combo. The guard input allows you to get the side kick in as fast as possible without hitting that canned combo (as far as I know).

As far as frames and hit or guard, what I suggested was less about the actual frames, and more about the yomi. If you can train your opponent to fear trying to attack when you've hit with a certain set of moves (eg, you PPK a lot, and they start to fear getting counter hit by the low kick), they start to defend more frequently, which opens up your offensive options. Because my connection usually seems laggy, this all comes with the caveat that I could just be cheating the frame advantage/disadvantage and getting by on lag alone. Still, no matter where I've played, I find that yomi is a massive tool, and the best way I've found to exploit this is to train my opponent into reacting the way I want them to. Once I've done that, I can start using things that aren't necessarily as "safe", but that will afford me much more in the way of mindgames and punishment.

Ultimately, if your opponent is getting to the point that they are interupting you entering into stances, you've got a problem either way, because they are predicting you and should be winning. At that point it's time to return to the drawing board and train them to block through to the end of your string once again.

Yah?

 

Oh, also worth mentioning is that while the piercing knee (SL K) gives you a crumple on almost every hit, the hunting kick (SR K) gives you a guaranteed clinch if it hits (counter or otherwise), and leaves you at advantage if it's blocked. If you can train yourself to hit the throw input (P+G) on impulse, the hunting kick becomes extremely deadly, especially since you can follow up with either 3K (and then throw input again for a clinch on counter-hit) or 1KK if it's blocked, further training your opponent that when they see a side kick come out, they should defend.