It's a good move as Noel doesn't have much to escape pressure. If Arcsys thought it was an issue I'm sure they would have nerfed it. As it is now there are plenty of ways to beat it. Using air attacks and adjusting based on distance after you've seen it. Or using low attacks to stuff it. I've already had opponents adapt in these ways to it.
I've never argued that Noel is an imbalanced character. In fact, I've stated many times that she's a character with an abundance of flaws and is therefore actually likely on the lower end of the characters in the game.
I have, however, said that she's got some poor design, and that poor design originates from the way that her drive moves allow her to act like a moron at midscreen and get away with it. The specific example I cited for this is her anti-air that is safe on block, beats ground normals that don't hit low, and can punish attempts to punish it. Hell, you can follow it up with another anti-air, which is another property more or less unique to Noel.
As for not having much to escape pressure, Noel has the best CA in the game and above average meter gain. She also has 4D, which beats a lot of overheads. She does fine. Most of the zoners and Taokaka are much worse off than she is under pressure.
I'm talking about being able to get combo's off of things of off longer moves like 5B and the mid-screen wallbounce from d.5B. I don't really understand what you're trying to say here.
Noel has really, really weak safe pressure and weak poking abilities. She's an aggressive character but lacks the mobility or the zoning to really win on fundamentals alone. So, to compensate, they gave her moves with bizarre properties (like 4D) and a lot of damage off of basically any hit. She has a weak neutral game; it's not as weak as it used to be, but it's still weak. So they've given her damage instead.
Well if they can already do 214D then you've failed to punish the 4D. In that case assuming you are still standing for some reason if they do 214D you can just jab like I said before or block. Drive pressure you block or interrupt if able. I'm still not seeing a problem here.
That is absolutely not true. Because 214D beats most standing normals, you generally have to block and punish it, not punish it outright. Yes, if Noel is being really dumb about it you can beat it by using a low-hitting normal midscreen, but Noel is full of answers for this that reward her immensely (like 3C) so this is generally a non-viable option against decent players. Most characters with a head invulnerable anti-air are at a rather large disadvantage when they're blocked on the ground. This is not the case for Noel, as Noel can use 4D as a springboard for pressure.
The crossup option is strong because attempting to jab out of it loses to all of Noel's other safe options, of which there are many. Inputting a backwards DP has the same problem, with the added caveat that if it comes out, you will likely be CH'd. If you spam out the crossup every time it will stop working, but if you mix it up by not crossing up sometimes and going into unidirectional pressure it is a very effective option that is difficult to react to. A safe anti-air with range is a very powerful thing. A safe anti-air with range, punish punishes, and the ability to beat mid hitting attacks is character defining. If you can't see that as a Noel player then you are simply using the move incorrectly.
By hitting low? If so I don't see why that's worth mentioning since every character can do that.
Noel has a command grab that only works on standing opponents. The reason I mention it is that it forces opponents to react to her overhead because Noel can simply throw in the command grab to beat anyone that tries to pre-empt it by standing up. The logical result of this is that players will have a tendency to block low against Noel drive pressure, which makes her overhead that much more viable.
...Having said that, the overhead is kind of slow and is one of the easiest in the game to react to, which contributes to her just not being all that great in spite of some very strange move design choices.
People have a problem with Noel because once you learn to hitconfirm with her, you can get by very far with just a little bit of guesswork. Her neutral game is not complex and her pressure game is entirely without nuance. Incidentally, this is why she wasn't very effective in top level play in CSEX.
Updated for new page:
WHEEL OF FATE-TURNERS A.K.A. GAF'S OFFICIAL LIST OF LOSERS
Code:
GAF PSN MAIN
Fugu Fygu Litchi
Hao Chi hao-chi Definitely Litchi
Qistoptier Qistoptier Mu or Makoto?
Prototype-03 Prototype-03 Rachel
RoeBear Roe-Bear Clover family
FluxWaveZ FluxWaveZ Mu [citation needed]
CJ_Iwakura CJ_Iwakura Tsubaki
Rhapsody Rhapzody_ Rachel
SolarKnight SolarKnightR Mu
VanillaCakeIsBurning Mondos123 Guessing Noel
Master Milk Platinum_Milk Platinum Platinum
ApolloJoh ApolloJoe400 Litchi, also plays Ragna
Keasar Keasar Tager
Kincaido Kincaido Izayoi and Jin
3Kaze T2_Kaze Relius
Ken ??? Bullet
Karsius Onem1c Hakumen/Izayoi
Lyte Edge lyteedge2 Tager
Dremark Dremark Carl
Naite Nthenorm Azrael
Kumubou RottenSashimi Jin
Toddhunter Toddhunter Valkenhyn
want me to toss that into the OP somewhere?
hopefully picking up my copy today from the post office D: !!!!
That'd be great.
