By the way.
After playing SC5 Nightmare in the latest version, all I can say is this: He is sick!
I did not have much time to test him beyond getting impressions as I spent the majority of my time there talking to the Namco reps, but I am super impressed with what I saw.
We discovered that you can now go into quick step from FC. This is extremely significant for baiting.
I one-shot Shen Yuan today with Nightmare's CE fully charge on counter hit. All I can say is that the CE is God-like in its current form. Wow, its amazing.
A+B is crazy, I think the damage threshold is around 40 damage
2B+K BE is amazing, the ground quake is almost undefendable and it gives you a significant amount of positive frames on block. So the trick will be to hit him in the sweet spot between the quake stun and guard break.
New combo: 33B BE 4BB is a combo. Should be around 120-130 damage.
The old 1B is now 44B. It seems to hit grounded and seems to be a good mid range step killer.
The timing for cancelling your step with agA seems to have been made smaller, I will have to practice it. If not this is a nerf which will be felt by a lot of us. We will have to use other methods to whiff punish then.
CH 6K 1A seems to be a tech trap. I think you can get much more than 1A with it.
I tried to test to see whether you could go into CE from a GS transition i.e. 33B6 transition into GS etc. I found that i could not do so, but it could be due to poor input (not got the hang of the inputs yet and the TV was extremely laggy). However, you can buffer CE from all standing moves. I caught some people with Keev's 1K NH, CE bait trap today.
Nightmare's ground damage is crazy. That's all i can say. Almost no one else has that amount of damage on grounded opponents. This could be a whole new style of play for Nightmare.
1B seems a lot faster and is a very good whiff punisher at max range. 3AA is also extremely good whiff punisher, but it seems to be negative on block. Whether it is unsafe is unknown however.
Nightmare's throws are great. B+G has a new arc on its flight and does not throw your opponent as far away as before. This may lead to potential set-ups, mark my words. However sadly, I think Lau throws have to be timed more carefully from A+G in particular.
GS B actually looks pretty safe. The recovery was very quick and will be interesting to know how safe this move is/was.
3B has clean hit property.
Also, am I the only one who is happy that 66B+K is back? It seems to do 2 hits on grounded instead of one like before.
Overall, I'm pretty damn impressed with Nightmare. He seems a lot safer, his step is simply amazing and the change of inputs have greatly benefited him. 2A is a good low, WR A is a good step killer and seems to be safe on block.
Nightmare's 2P costume is utterly badass. He wears a hood over his mask which was broken off in the video from SCR.