Athena Asamiya (XI)

[J]-[UN]

I keep forgetting to mention this (though no big deal since no one uses athena anyway)

Her LDM hitbox when flying upwards covers the entire vertical area the phoenix is in...meaning you can jump directly over an opponent , launch the LDM and even though it looks as though nothing is touching, he'll get hit by the 'flying up' part of the LDM. Makes for pretty gay crossup games.

[-Defuser-]

I keep forgetting to mention this (though no big deal since no one uses athena anyway)

Her LDM hitbox when flying upwards covers the entire vertical area the phoenix is in...meaning you can jump directly over an opponent , launch the LDM and even though it looks as though nothing is touching, he'll get hit by the 'flying up' part of the LDM. Makes for pretty gay crossup games.

But only the Diving part cause big damage and it doesn't hit when LDM is use on a air opponent .So it's a waste to LDM in a crossup unless your opponent has a bit of life left

[J]-[UN]

I'm saying you can launch the LDM in the air when the opponent is on the ground and he'll get hit even if no part of athena or the phoenix is touching him, as long as he is roughly underneath the area where the wings spread out....which also means the diving part will hit.

[Blastrezz]

I think Athena has some things going for her.
She's not nearly as powerful as in 2k2 but still I think she has fun changes to her
I don't think she will turn out to be a tourney winner but still, hehe.

Notices:

- Athena definately has to be played as leader. Don't start arguing that there are better leaders than her: YES there are. I'm just saying if you want to play her for fun at least use her as leader.

- ....as a result her LDM is da bomb. You have to battery up stocks and then spend them with the MASSIVE damage her LDM does.

- can combo LDM after c.B x2 (!) which is nice.

- with good timing you can do the LDM after the command grab but I think the latter is pretty crap. Sad that they didn't make it comboable after at least one normal.

- LDM after standalone f+B (2) is possible without any problems.

- LDM does MASSIVE damage. If you are playing Athena work on all possible setups for this. If you are thinking about a long combo with QS to Athena then go for it. QS-in Athena and do j.B, c.B xx LDM. The LDM scales VERY WELL meaning the damage throughput it excellent.

- when doing jump-in combos you can directly go for the f+B after landing. For ex. j.D, f+B (2) (launches then!!) -> whatever. Damage is pretty low if not going for LDM but can do qcb+C. Hits. Just do late.

- I find air teleports more confusing for myself than anything else. I think I wouldn't use it. But I guess there is a hidden use for it which I haven't found out, yet. What's been said above about doing it after f+B makes sense. I will try that out.

- I think ground teleport still has a little invulnerability.

- standing far C and crouch C still seem excellent.

- ahhh btw. n.C seems worse this KoF around. Should maybe get used to n.D because then you can reliably do a BnB like n.D, f+B (2) xx dp+C

That's if for now.

I think she could be fun in medium serious casual battles

Will definately try her out more.

--Blast

[Iie-Kyo]

- ....as a result her LDM is da bomb. You have to battery up stocks and then spend them with the MASSIVE damage her LDM does.

This is the problem Athena has - she used to be pretty good at building bar and using it back in 2k2, but in XI she seems to charge bar pretty slow, which is the reason why a lot of people probably dislike her for leader because she doesn't have the bar charging capabilities to back it up. Of course, you'll usually come in with some bar, but we gotta be realistic - shit happens and Athena may end up having to clutch for your entire team, if and when such a case happens, you'll be sorely pressed to charge bar to abuse her leader. And to make her useful, you HAVE to make her leader, which means less bar available for other solid characters (that are within the "casual" realm of play) that are great with or without their LDM available (Terry comes to mind).

Oh yeah, her old close D, far C combo is still in XI.

[J]-[UN]

Random fwd B, run forward, psychoSword C version, cancel into SCB does decent dmg ^^

Her normals actually have pretty decent priority, and her air grab is still quite good (can even grab duck or gato occasionally) but its no where near as brainless to use as it was in 2k2 (you actually need to time it now instead of simply jumping and pressing fwd D).

Btw...I'm wondering if the SCB actually does any hits once you've cancelled it via ABCD....yesterday I was playing with a friend, i did the SCB, it didn't hit so I immediately cancelled it and jumped back, at the same time his Yuri tried to attack with a jumpD, ended up landing in the spot where the balls were still sorta spinning around and...didn't end up getting hit @_@

Maybe the cancel animation for SCB all this while has been just a con

[Slapper Joe]

Speaking of, something I noticed a couple of weeks ago:

Corner SCB(hit), DC to Phoenix Infinity. The crystal bit will follow Athena up and actually does hit a second time during the infinity for another chunk of damage.

[Blastrezz]

As for the Shining Crystal Bit issue:

maybe it corresponds to the punch button pressed if the spheres still hit or not?

At least what's for sure is that somewhen last days I fought CPU Athena and she tried SCB. I didn't get hit at first and she didn't cancel to the follow-up. I tried it, rushed in and the spheres hit me. Later she tried the SCB again and I rushed in very late when the spheres still were there but at the very end of the SCB. I could run right through the spheres and combo her.....

This has to be clarified, I think but I don't have a partner to test with, unfortunately

--Blast

[Lead Tester]

I think she was improved in every way... but LDM does insane Damage.

[L1r]

I think the deal with the SCB goes a little like this:
Athena performs SCB, crystals appear... on top IIRC and move to the ground, then up again, repeating this 3 times IIRC, the *third* time they go up just before Athena stops and the balls spin around her and disappear, you can jump-in and attack, I believe that's how it works, that or something similar. The thing is, yuo have a window right after the attack finished but before the balls stop spinning or so. If anyone could confirm...

[alexis]

j.D, f+B, SCB XX LDM works very nicely in the corner, but you have to do SCB as soon as Athena lands, so the sphere hits while it's on the bottom.

Athena's LDM scales wonderfully. If done at the end of a miltuple hit combo, it will STILL do massive damage.

This is an example. It's almost too much damage for being the 30th hit in a combo...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADpuAtnRCHM

[hanzo_wong]

thought you guys should know....

j D. s C, f B(1 hit), qcb B, LDM.... it actually combos without DCing.. a friend of mine tried it in the arcade...Go figure!!

[Slapper Joe]

I've been putting Athena on point a lot lately. Why? Because you sure as hell don't want her being the last one to pop in. Anyways.

Some characters can cancel their air E's into specials, Athena can, but she can cancel her air A too, which makes it a neat move. Hop A, qcb+B works pretty well in general as a hit, chip or as a pretty instant overhead. Instant hop A, qcb+B>qcb*2+K>LDM works and isn't a bad way to waste all that meter if Athena is stuck with it. At least she has a legit high-low option into LDM

SCB is strange, just try and do it as late as possible and it will usually win, earlier doesn't work well.

E can be cancelled anywhere in the animation, so in addition to being one of her better attacks it isn't a bad prelude to a fireball (like Kensou, except worse.....)

You can cancel the air teleport into LDM, and can get some pretty tight crossups with it.