Let's Talk Queen Nai

[jasonfails]

So let's get this straight, I am not whining that she is "Stupid OP" or anything I am just looking for any advice on how to play against her. I know she has weaknesses, all characters do, it's just what are they? I have come within a small amount of ELO from gold on several occasions but everytime I breach 1400 I get slaughtered by a slew of Queen Nai's which is the only character I do not have a positive win rate against. I just can't figure out how to counter her or how to punish her attacks. I honestly have issues just trying to distuinguish what attack is being charged up, they all look so similar and come out so quickly. It also doesn't help that she has one of the highest, if not the highest armor stat in the game, and then gets Katars which have some of the best priority in the game... I dunno I just have a hard time fighting her for whatever reason. Anyways I've gone on enough of a tangent and I'd rather not turn this into a full blown rant as that's all this forum is anyways, so if you have any tips on how to fight her I'd appreciate them (and I'm sure there are other people that would appreciate them as well).

TL;DR:
Are any Queen Nai Main's willing to divulge their secrets so I can have a fighting chance against the only character I can't seem to ever beat?

Not sure if it is important or not but I thought I'd mention I main Brynn.

[Zethros]

I just recently picked her up and beforehand i never really had that much trouble with her.
Her strengths are:
- Big...meaty...damage
- Powerful Zoner
- Long/large range
Her weaknesses are:
- Slow movement speed
- "Slow" attack speed (its VERY subtle)
- Slow (it's relative) siginture attacks
- Her Spear attacks do not fend off people who are right on top of her

When she gets her spear, get up in her face. You have an axe so you should be doing that anyway - that accursed thing is oppressive. None of her spear sigs cover her when you are on top of her and spear is generally weaker against this kind of approach. She excels when she has the spacing and freedom to zone you with her long-ranged attacks. You eradicate that strength by getting up in her face. Come from the air, dodge the neutral sig, do the air down light, sweeps the ground, she gets hit, follow up with juggles (grounded down light), ♥♥♥♥ her up.

When she gets her katars, the script flips. She now wants to get up in your face. Her ace up the sleeve, as you've figured out by now, is her Neutral Sig with the katars - it kills early. Downside is that it leaves her open. She cannot move, attack, dodge, nothing, until she falls down roughly half the distance she flys up. Her head is also vulnerable during the climax of this attack (check out her hitboxes in Training Mode sometime). If you are above her at this point, you have an advantage, even if you are unarmed. All of her sigs have fairly larger start-up frames than most so when she is under heavy oppression, she will have trouble getting those out and will have to rely on spacing and catching you off gaurd.

General rule for fighting katars: zone. They are fast but short-ranged. They need to get in your face to do big meaty damages. So either using your big ass cleaver or your suggestively large rod, you will smack the living daylights out of her from a range. Note that this requires you to know the range of your attacks, i must stress this. Be sure to make good use of that dodge button and go side-to-side to position yourself properly for counter attacks when she dives in on you. As long as you're not careless, you shouldn't be running into her Neutral Sig, when she inevitably blows it in hopes of a lucky finish. Also keep a huge eye out for when you are above her for that attack - stay out of the air unless you are deliberatly trying to bait it.


Hope this grab-bag, mish-mash of tips helps you smack that queen's booty.

Edit: Forgot to mention: You are Brynn. She is a very fundamentalist character. As such, you don't wanna be relying on your sigs, unless you are looking to finish her off or go for a wide-open easy punish. Byrnn has a lot of mobiliy (movespeed, jump height, recovery distance) so you can move around the map way faster than Nai can, allowing you to dance around her if you play right.

[ei]

As a Nai main I can happily tell you that match up is in your favor. However, there is hope. Thanks to Nai's combination of slow attack speed and natural bulk most players use the same combo repeatedly. The reason why its so effective is because if Nai hits you once and you hit Nai once then Nai is still at an advantage. Now that you understand the standard Nai mentality it will be much easier to read your opponent's moves. The next step is while you are playing against Nai make sure to avoid getting hit at all cost. Nai is a character which doesn't allow for multiple approaches due to lack of speed, so by dodging Nai's attempts to approach you are exploiting Nai's critical flaw. Nai's signatures are not as good in a 1v1 because of the slow start up. Only use your quick attacks unless you are punishing a bad approach. That is all you really need to know to beat Nai. Nai is such a basic character just don't let the player get in your head and remeber what I said.

[jasonfails]

Originally posted by Zethros:

I just recently picked her up and beforehand i never really had that much trouble with her.
Her strengths are:
- Big...meaty...damage
- Powerful Zoner
- Long/large range
Her weaknesses are:
- Slow movement speed
- "Slow" attack speed (its VERY subtle)
- Slow (it's relative) siginture attacks
- Her Spear attacks do not fend off people who are right on top of her

When she gets her spear, get up in her face. You have an axe so you should be doing that anyway - that accursed thing is oppressive. None of her spear sigs cover her when you are on top of her and spear is generally weaker against this kind of approach. She excels when she has the spacing and freedom to zone you with her long-ranged attacks. You eradicate that strength by getting up in her face. Come from the air, dodge the neutral sig, do the air down light, sweeps the ground, she gets hit, follow up with juggles (grounded down light), ♥♥♥♥ her up.

When she gets her katars, the script flips. She now wants to get up in your face. Her ace up the sleeve, as you've figured out by now, is her Neutral Sig with the katars - it kills early. Downside is that it leaves her open. She cannot move, attack, dodge, nothing, until she falls down roughly half the distance she flys up. Her head is also vulnerable during the climax of this attack (check out her hitboxes in Training Mode sometime). If you are above her at this point, you have an advantage, even if you are unarmed. All of her sigs have fairly larger start-up frames than most so when she is under heavy oppression, she will have trouble getting those out and will have to rely on spacing and catching you off gaurd.

General rule for fighting katars: zone. They are fast but short-ranged. They need to get in your face to do big meaty damages. So either using your big ass cleaver or your suggestively large rod, you will smack the living daylights out of her from a range. Note that this requires you to know the range of your attacks, i must stress this. Be sure to make good use of that dodge button and go side-to-side to position yourself properly for counter attacks when she dives in on you. As long as you're not careless, you shouldn't be running into her Neutral Sig, when she inevitably blows it in hopes of a lucky finish. Also keep a huge eye out for when you are above her for that attack - stay out of the air unless you are deliberatly trying to bait it.


Hope this grab-bag, mish-mash of tips helps you smack that queen's booty.

Edit: Forgot to mention: You are Brynn. She is a very fundamentalist character. As such, you don't wanna be relying on your sigs, unless you are looking to finish her off or go for a wide-open easy punish. Byrnn has a lot of mobiliy (movespeed, jump height, recovery distance) so you can move around the map way faster than Nai can, allowing you to dance around her if you play right.

Thanks for the advice! I will keep try to keep these in mind when I try to fight her and hopefully do a little with the match up :D

[jasonfails]

Originally posted by ositepu:

As a Nai main I can happily tell you that match up is in your favor. However, there is hope. Thanks to Nai's combination of slow attack speed and natural bulk most players use the same combo repeatedly. The reason why its so effective is because if Nai hits you once and you hit Nai once then Nai is still at an advantage. Now that you understand the standard Nai mentality it will be much easier to read your opponent's moves. The next step is while you are playing against Nai make sure to avoid getting hit at all cost. Nai is a character which doesn't allow for multiple approaches due to lack of speed, so by dodging Nai's attempts to approach you are exploiting Nai's critical flaw. Nai's signatures are not as good in a 1v1 because of the slow start up. Only use your quick attacks unless you are punishing a bad approach. That is all you really need to know to beat Nai. Nai is such a basic character just don't let the player get in your head and remeber what I said.

Thanks for the advice! I kind of figured I was disadvantaged in the match-up which is why I struggled so much haha. I'll keep this in mind when fighting her!

[nianmoose]

There seems to be some missconseption about dexterity it effects light attack recovery time not attack speed.

[Voic]

No man you've got it all wrong, lances are the only thing that need to be nerfed, ONLY lances, ALL the time.

[Emma Frost's Malewife]

Yse her spear...WIN

[Ripperino]

I main Queen Nai and she isn't really OP. She has weaknesses espicially with the spear cause the moment her combo misses she becomes very vulnerable and her signature moves are good for zoning however, the hit box is very misleading cause you go under alot of her attacks. If you can play Asuri or even Lucien to her you are quite favorable unless the Nai knows how to use the Kataras correctly. Also, not alot of Nai players use her Kataras efficiently and you can use that weakness against them by getting up close and personal