Taki is absolute trash

[Muscarine]

I'm currently around the top 20 or so with 50 hours on Taki, and it pains me to say i'm gonna drop SC6 until hopefully they come up with a balance patch.

I've always been a Taki player, granted i didn't play SC5, her iteration in this game is a joke to the point i wonder if she was designed by people who actually considered the rest of the cast when they decided to tweak her timings, frames, and to gut so many of her essential moves out.

Let me put this in a list :

- Worst range in the game
- Absolutely 0 means for ground harrasment when the entire cast can combo 50% hp out of a single drop by just pressing a couple verticals.
- Air follow up is so weak, her pathetic chip damage on guard is actually more rewarding
- Telegraphs, telegraphs everywhere, especially funny when you're supposed to use your kit to close the gap
- Laughable damage on everything except a couple extremely situational moves you'll use once every 50 games
- Instant massive damage drop off on combos, don't bother following up you will put yourself in an extremely disadvantageous position for 5 more damage
- Counter intuitive frame perfect moves with laughable range & damage, A:6
- + Block on nothing, terrible neutral initiative, A:6 is the fastest move in the game but you will never be at range to counter hit with it
- Most of your moves push the opponent away, meaning you have to close the gap again. If they don't then the opponent is on the ground, at which point you have the option to do meaningless additional damage, or let them get up and hope the mind game works (protip : it doesn't past sappling level)
- No mixups whatsoever. Ok i'm lying she has a couple pathetic high low mixups which are absolutely not threatening at all, when it's done she loses her turn.
- Not a single low attack on possession. pos K can hit the ground, but it's a high. That's it. How to counter Taki : guard up, that's it you won.
- Pathetic sidestep tracking. And i don't mean tracking the opponent when they do. No, i mean you will sidestep and enemy attack, and miss your punish, just like that, ending up showing your back with 0 means to take the initiative back.
- Pathetic recovery, about as slow as Nightmare (rushdown, am i right)
- Not a single grab to ring out. Only way to ring out with a pseudo grab is stalker grab. More on this.
- Not a single decent way to stand up except flipping a coin. Always terribly susceptible to ground follow ups. Yes there's BK, no you won't land it except on Talim and other Taki.
- Stalker grab is stupidly timing demanding, for a pathetic amount of additional damage when every other character can simply mash verticals for 50% of your health bar on air combo.
- Stalker grab on cannon is a joke, the timing is off compared to other stalker grabs, for some unknown reason the game refuses to buffer inputs on this combo, and you have to guess if it's gonna hit otherwise you simply jump in the exact right position so your butt can get spanked.
- Always start the round out of range of literally every single attack except the funny 4AB which is an invitation to get her face pounded
- Worst Soul Burst in the entire game, couple new follow ups you just have to guard a bit longer, couple more damage, same exact telegraphed moves
- One of the slowest CE startup in the game. At least the CE has iframe. Expect to get screwed by tracking a lot though, second phase is interruptible, and of course it comes with the lowest damage in the game.
- Extremely easy to counter with RE, extremely susceptible to any CE punish.
- Bread and Butter pos A startup loses you frame advantage on guard (LOL)
- Many vertical attacks got gifted with extremely generous hitboxes especially at close range, meaning you sidestep but nope, get trashed.
- Funnily enough, Taki's verticals are the only exception to that rule. Every single of her verticals are so easy to sidestep there's 0 risk involved. By the way, pos A can be sidestepped. I guess they forgot it's an horizontal. And if by any chance you didn't sidestep correctly don't worry you just have to guard up, or let her miss on her own like she does 50% of the time.
- pos BK can be countered by a low hit. You heard it right. That move where she teleports in the air above you ? High, mid, low, doesn't matter, just press a button and you land a counter hit.
- 66B lethal hit is impossible to land, requires you hug your opponent's pixels, makes complete sens for a forward attack (with laughable range).
- 0 chip damage threat, a single Nightmare hit will do more chip damage than Taki in an entire round.
- Her rolls. FFS her rolls. Could they make it slower if they tried ? Startup is so bad it's not even useful to dodge high horizontals. Won't dodge any verticals. How to use them ? Flip a coin, that's about it.
- Speaking of rolls, stalker B's GI is so short it might as well be removed so that there's less chance my opponent starts lagging because the game had to display an extra vfx.
- The list goes on but i'm tired at this point

Did you plan on maining Taki ? Forget entirely about it. She's gone.
She doesn't come with anything justifying top entry. She's at the lowest, lowest tier.
Playing her is an exercise in frustration where you put 10x the risk and effort for half the rewards of any other character.

[NhatNM]

I was disappointed when see she was lost 2 things from SC2:
- B-A-K. This's good attack, open way for attacker. Now it's slow and can't hold K (for make stun to enemy)
- Can't cancel while doing PO. This thing is need for multi attacks non-stop (something like attack-PO-cancel-attack)

[vinyl]

Yea, Taki's pressure is bad when all I hear against her is MITS MITS MITS MITS MITS MITS MITS MITS MITS where god forbid if I miss time the impact time on this machine gun of a character I suddenly get juggled across the entire stage, and before I can even recover shes back in a stance. Taki isn't a trash character. Every character in this game is viable, some just rely on gimicks like Taki and Sieg/Nightmare. I'd say if Taki gets any form of early pressure, coming back is effectively impossible unless you get an extremely good read/reaction. I main Tira and I think shes garbage due to not having any form of potent Ring Out material, soul charge doesnt have ANY guranteed combos unless the enemy lets go of G, and Jolly Tira having possibly the weakest CE in the game. Yet here I am, top 5 and still sticking with it because I understand the game is skill based, and I just need to improve on what my character CAN do instead of worrying what she can't do. If you can't stick to a character because they arent the very best, you picked the character for the wrong reasons.

[Fyk0]

Originally posted by Twitch.tv/8wayfunz:

I main Tira and I think shes garbage due to not having any form of potent Ring Out material

She can consistently ring out at edges in either form with downforward B or basic throw. I love using throw to ring out opponents.

[Darkness]

Agree, and her bomb isnt unblockable now, ans even able to be blocked by standing guard.

So no more air grab possible.
Also if its a lethal hit, it ♥♥♥♥♥ up ur timing, i mean, what the heck？

[ComradePB]

Originally posted by Twitch.tv/8wayfunz:

Taki isn't a trash character. Every character in this game is viable, some just rely on gimicks like Taki and Sieg/Nightmare...I main Tira and I think shes garbage due to not having any form of potent Ring Out material, soul charge doesnt have ANY guranteed combos unless the enemy lets go of G, and Jolly Tira having possibly the weakest CE in the game. Yet here I am, top 5 and still sticking with it because I understand the game is skill based, and I just need to improve on what my character CAN do instead of worrying what she can't do. If you can't stick to a character because they arent the very best, you picked the character for the wrong reasons.

True the game is skill based and God knows skill is needed if you want any chance of surviving/ranking-up online but that's not the point here.

Taki's gimmick is supposed to be quick attacks that put pressure on the opponent at close range made even more dangerous by her chip damage from using possesion stance, or any other attacks that use the blade on her hip like A 6. To compensate, she has a much smaller range that makes close-up/rushdown fighting a necessity.

The skills needed to play Taki effectively should be how well you are able to get close to your opponent and stay there, the place where her attacks would (ideally) be their most effective.

Meanwhile, the opponent's ability to beat a Taki should be based on how well they can keep her back and, as with any other match, read what she's doing and what she's likely to do next.

The problem is that Taki's attacks are not nearly as effective as they could be because her gimmick is not very effective and that makes the opponent's job way easier when defending. The moment they see that purple aura all they need to do is put up standing guard, be wary of a grab, and wait for a move that puts Taki in negative frames to punish. That strategy wins out against all her possession moves.

Having a gimmick is fine. Learning to use it to the best of your ability to get the drop on opponents is great. But that gimmick needs to work and as things are now, I can't wholeheartedly say that it does. No amount of skill on my part can fix a lack of options that I have to throw off my opponent when using something that is essential to the character, I can't use tools that aren't there.

I plan to stick with Taki because you're right: at the end of the day she is viable. But I feel like she hasn't been balanced properly and for the sake of everyone who loves playing as the character, I hope there are some changes made in the future.

[xXSetsu]

Ok changed my mind... Taki is indeed trash.
She has no speed advantage at all to make up for her low range.
There is a reason nobody plays taki / talim

Posession in general is an invitation to any CE.
Her kicks get matched by kicks pretty much all other characters.
She has only 1 GB attack without SC which got nerfed so hard. (44B is really not good at all)
Just look at Maxi he has multiple GB attacks in his strings!

Taki really needs some forwad moving attacks to create more pressure.
Or finally give her a Posession cancel or a Possession low attack.
It's just awful how u are at such a big disadvantage after blocking string because you are way out of range....

[Grantorino]

That's project soul telling you to froget about your waifu and play a male character

[ComradePB]

Originally posted by 「Vigorous」:

That's project soul telling you to froget about your waifu and play a male character

I refuse

[xXSetsu]

Originally posted by ComradePB:

Originally posted by 「Vigorous」:

That's project soul telling you to froget about your waifu and play a male character

I refuse

Same, stay strong for Taki!!!!!!!!

Maybe some day we will have faster kicks than Sieg and Ivy :D

[Apollyon]

♥♥♥♥ that. It's kinda hilarious that Taki players always want her to be OP and ♥♥♥♥. I remember dreading to face that ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Natsu char on SC5. Oh, how the tables have turned! Deal with it, scrub. But knowing people like you, you'll probably just jump to Nightmare and keep ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ safely.

[ComradePB]

Originally posted by Oberon Omega:

♥♥♥♥ that. It's kinda hilarious that Taki players always want her to be OP and ♥♥♥♥. I remember dreading to face that ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Natsu char on SC5. Oh, how the tables have turned! Deal with it, scrub. But knowing people like you, you'll probably just jump to Nightmare and keep ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ safely.

At the bare minimum she probably needs:

1) At least one low attack from possession stance or a cancel so that possession can be a part of the mind games instead of being beaten by standing guard all the time.

2) For her frames to be tweaked a bit so that her most basic moves don't constantly lose out to characters who are supposed to be slower attackers, to have plus guard on some of her attacks, and so other moves don't utterly fail in their intended purpose (why bother using the sideways roll when your opponent will just land the vertical on you anyway?).

3) For the tracking on her attacks to be fixed because in a fighting game the idea is to actually be able to hit something.

That's not even accounting for the many other issues raised by the list above like push back on her attacks and damage scaling.

That's OP to you? Cause from where I'm sitting those seem like some pretty basic balancing tweaks.

[Fyk0]

Looking at ladder rank 50 Taki seems to be 4th highest compared to other rank 50 characters, so in general Taki players are higher ranked than most others. Looks like to me she is performing so well she doesn't need any buffs.

[Crueler]

I started as Taki and switched to Seong Mina. It's just a world difference in terms of Damage and ease of use.

Just high block taki all day.

[ComradePB]

Originally posted by Crueler:

Just high block taki all day.

Seriously

[Zelph]

Originally posted by Crueler:

I started as Taki and switched to Seong Mina. It's just a world difference in terms of Damage and ease of use.

Just high block taki all day.

If blocking high wins you the match, you are playing a bad taki. Stop playing bad players.