Depending on the hero you're playing you could potentially stuff her soft feint mix ups with a fast zone by attempting to zone parry on light timing. The main draw back to her soft feint mix up is that it comes from the same side every time. I would practice moving your guard up top whenever you recognize a heavy animation to premptively block. I wouldn't attempt parrying it until you're comfortable at recognizing the heavy attack animation and get a general idea of when the player is attempting to use it.Originally Posted by hihimetsisi Go to original post
Try to get used to swapping guard on indicator just to block. His heavies mid chain are noticeably slower. As are lights from the same direction. I wouldn't try to parry them until you've gotten used to seeing his mid combo animations. The problem people usually have with his mid chain is just continually messing up with late switching on top of trying to dodge or parry. Just try focusing on your guard swapping for the time being while getting used to his animations.Originally Posted by BreezyStarfish1 Go to original post
Depends on your main and the level of playing.
Currently for me is :4vs 4,hardcore lawbros, BP, Jorg, in that order, honored mention to the orochies that can deflect everything, some very high level kensei and surprisingly the few skilled Highlanders that don't play any other char.
Duel : BP, Warden, hito, in High level they are mandatory.
I main pk, she is among the weakest heroes , just train like Raime told you.
I main pk too.
It is also a viable strategy to keep out of her range, she is a short range hero, so doing back+attack moves will stop her from advancing. Her mobility is also very weak, she has some of the weakest dodge attacks (at least when it comes to recoveries and being telegraphed), you get a guardbreak for dodging them. Her health is obviously lower than yours, you will outtrade her. And when you see a heavy attack from the left or right, try to guess if it will be a dagger cancel or not (most pks make it pretty obvious when will they use dagger cancel, maybe even try to imagine if you would use it in that situation). Once you expect it, parrying it is very easy, I will suggest you to try it (competent peacekeepers will let their heavies fly to mix this up).
Hitokiri's main weakness against pk is her own very strong kick mixup. Missing either the kick or sweep nets the pk a guardbreak, and hers is the second most damaging one. It doesn't worth the risk, I mainly just use her very strong chargable heavies to take on peacekeepers.
Hito's zone isn't fast enough to try and beat her soft feint mix up games so I wouldn't advise it. The main thing to be aware of when fighting pk as Hito is your kick nets a GB on reaction if the person dodges it and for pk in particular this nets her a triple stab for her highest non OOS damage punish. Plus it procs bleed for her which gives her enhanced lights. If you're not comfortable in your ability to feint your kick for parrying you can try to go for the sweep instead. Just don't over use that. Additionally even though hito's ability to trade was nerfed it's still a very viable way to deal with people who over commit to mix ups. If you start to get used to her heavy animation you can let a raw heavy fly. Additionally you can let a fully charged heavy fly. Be aware that Hito's uncharged heavy feints are weird. So you basically have to input heavy and then feint almost at the same time.Originally Posted by hihimetsisi Go to original post
Basically there is an important aspect to combat called "spacing." This involves you back walking far enough to force the opponent to move forward at you. But not far back enough that you cant actually reach your opponent. Hitokiri's fully charged heavies when committed to have really far range. Meaning if the PK attempts to dash GB or dash heavy to close the gap it's not a very favorable thing for her. Her only move that has semi decent range is her zone. but it pales in comparison. From a personal stand point though I wouldn't bother trying to space PK at least with Hitokiri. Hito is better played and much more of a pain to deal with when she's trading with her opponents.Originally Posted by hihimetsisi Go to original post
Originally Posted by Knight_Raime Go to original post
Against higher level peacekeepers, spacing as hitokiri might indeed not work, I mainly suggested this because some are very impatient, especially beginners, and will definetely try to close the gap with something that is not advised in duels (mainly the dodge attack, which is an easy reaction dodge guardbreak). It is not that bad on higher levels though, especially against her heavy mixups: her side heavies have low range, lower than her dagger cancel, which means blocking top and backwalking sometimes negates the whole mixup (though I think it is not possible if too close during the startup, or the opponent is stuck in a hitstun). Impatient peacekeepers might also eat some lights and heavies as they advance on Hitokiri, but the main use of this is wating out the bleed's clear off. Spacing is really one of the worst weaknesses pk has, I hope one day they will make her dodge attacks chain, and the forward one gets a choosable direction.
The main issue with spacing in regards to Hitokiri is she lacks decent forward momentum with her basic attacks. The only real range she has is on her charged heavies. And I don't want to undersell those. That combined with their ability to easily target swap mid charge makes them a substantial threat externally when someone is ganking with her. This is also quite nice in a team fight. In this case her range is more beneficial for these situations and not actual spacing scenarios. usually a hero good at spacing has decent reach already. Heros like Nobushi or Shaolin. But Warden is another one due to how his chargable bash is in conjunction with his dash heavy. You've got heros like Valk and highlander who are "alright" with spacing. But those are almost entirely defensive in their applications. Thus they're better used as an escape rather than to turn the situation into offense for the hero.Originally Posted by Goat_of_Vermund Go to original post
Ramble aside I do agree her side heavies are super poor in range and hitbox. Should be looked into especially considering how dependent she is on heavies as a secondary threat. I found it quite hard to hit people with her side heavies on TG when people default dodged after a light. As far as giving her a multi direction dash attack ala Shaman i'd disagree. I think it should definitely allow her to chain. But i'm unsure how to make that happen considering pk's default input for light after a heavy is always her bleed stab. it would have to be a heavy heavy chain probably.