Will I need this?

[AMillionHP]

236,236,.... and 236,8_2,... Exactly how essential are these for DECENT Sophie players(and i strongly emphasize decent because i probably wont ever have the required time to be actually GOOD at this game at all)? 236,236,... i can actually get to work on practice sometimes, which means i'll eventually be able to use it in a match at some point. 236,8_2,... on the other hand, tch forget about it. Can not make it work. I spent about 20 min. non stop, still no luck. Most of those moves that require ridiculous, quick timing are off limits to me, another off topic example being Algol's 341236,... just impossible to get the quarter-circle in after the hit. So, back to Sophie, just give it to me straight, am i doomed or what??

 

[LunarAura]

You're not doomed. 8/2 off 236 or 236236 is just a cool tool to use if you're expecting a vertical attack because you'll quickly evade it to the side and possibly land A,A or B,A,B, 236236B. Here's a true story of what I did to a friend at the "seesaw" stage.

Round starts. 2368 B,A,B, 236236B juggle. 236236B into 236236B:4. Dead
Round 2 starts. 2368 ~99B, B+K juggle. Ring out death.
Round 3 starts. Friend is down 2 rounds and panics. A+B parry party

Much fun to be had with 236 8/2 and it makes for a great round starter in my experience!

Edit: Thanks, Suirad. Got my notations backwards.

 

[Suirad]

Anyway in response to the question at hand: while you're giving up most of your tech catching and and some of your step killing game in 236236AA and the amazing distance closer that 236236 itself is, you can compensate for them somewhat. If you duck before you 236 you get the super low crouch that 236236 gives and you can just stand closer before doing it, you can beat step with other horizontals like AA and 4A and so on. Sophi is pretty potent in general so I wouldn't worry about it overmuch. As for 236 2_8 I'm not good enough to use it for anything and I think I play her Ok.

/edit/anytime lunar

 

[AMillionHP]

Ok. Thanks for the help.