Yeah. A beginner recently told me: 'nice spamming.'
I usualy see if they pass the Prep~BB~BB~BB... test.
And my bad Fendante; completely unintentional typo...
Prep is great on hit, but in general, attacking at a disadvantage is a bad plan no matter what; and we all recognize prep is risky on block.
Against raph, if one is hit by an entry move, attacking is never a good option, the risk reward situation is considreably improved by just blocking the followup.
The ability to re-enter Prep/counter/evade seems to suggest using the threat of Prep to force a reaction (even on block). This worked in 4 as you could BB/SEA B repeatedly until they tried to: evade/counter (SEA and Prep A) or they froze up (SEB and VE). Comparing Prep to other stances is not clear cut, as Prep doesn't force the same type of mixup as say Mist, Prep requires the opponent to become overwhelmed by the options; which we lack to a degree; instead of the opponent guessing to block your 50/50, as with many mixup stances, you have to guess the opponents actions in trying to escape.
From my limited mitsu play, most Mist transistions are not to far off from the original move frame wise, unlike the large disparity between raph prep and no prep, where bad prep moves are bad non prep, and vice versa.
I assume prep is not supposed to be a combo extender, but at this point its hard to use it as anything else.
Anyway, if Imay add my two cents: I humbly think we'd profit more if we'd keep our thoughts to the specifics.
Good idea.
By lackluster I don't mean the moves are bad per se, but considering what we supposedly excel in compared to other characters (verticals), they could be more powerful while still keeping us in mid tier:
3B - Less damage than in 4. Still a decent poke, with good range and pushback, but not tooastounding.
1A - Negative on block and hit, 10 dmg, i20. Its tracking makes it pretty much a vertical move (meaning we should get some kind of a buff). Raph doesn't have good lows, but this move seems too weak.
Prep A+B - Slow, linear and unsafe. Compare to Nightmare 2A+B (or even our old 2A+B). Moves from stance tend to be more powerful or quicker than standard moves due to the natural restriction.While it does evade and has the best voice clip in the game, the risk reward is fairly low, as it can be easily blocked and stepped for a punish. Essentially, this move suffers the same issues as the old Prep~A+B.
44B - In 4 this move was amazing, it tracked, "TJ" and was safe. Now, it does not track, is slow, and is unsafe (-16). Mistu's, by comparison, is safer (<-12), more damaging, rings out, and can cancel into stance. It could be argued that it has less range, but raph is supposed to have greater range at the cost of horizontals. I'm not sure of the hitbox issue that was mentioned, but I have been grabebd out of this move a couple of times.
Prep K - If it could beat out non vert TC attacks from block it would very helpfull. As it stands people should not be getting hit by this.
Firstly, underlying all of this is that fact that we supposedly have increased range (clearly not damage though) on our verticals at the cost of our horizontals (and damage), not at the cost of safety and other factors. Secondly, the damage is higher across the board in 5.
Is it just me or does our SA like to write essays?