And the Best LAU Combo is?

All jokes aside, what is the best Lau combo? That is taking in consideration speed, damage, ease of movement, and likelihood of doing it in competition?

 

Depends on which situations are common for you and how likely YOU are doing it in competition.

Some people practice some of them down to a reflex and it's scary as hell.

However, I'm talking about VF3 Lau.... With VF4, you won't know for awhile, perhaps...

Sorry, I won't list many combos here or anything, but I'm gonna mention some goals of combos like I posted before. And then I'll mention some situational factors.

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Goals
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1. Extend or Maximize Damage
Simply put, a combo that does massive damage. Lau has so many of these and some of them are just so easy.

2. Extend or Maximize Range
Lau has a lot of these as well. Many of the range maximizing combos do only like 5 points less than maybe a damage maximized combo, but what does life matter if the Lau player has enough control and knowledge to just ring you out with a nicely setup combo.

3. Extend or Maximize Time
As scary as it is, Lau has some combos that can be used purely for wasting time (and probably combined with doing decent to great damage or pushing you way out of range). Don't know if I've seen more than 5 combos of any character that waste more time than some throws, though.

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Situational Factors
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1. Poke Combos
Simple enough, combos that serve whatever function but can come out of a simple poke. MC Sidekick for example. Simple 1-2-3 combos. And sometimes they can be the scariest type... a poke that comes out with a combo that comes close to maximizing any of the three goals.

2. Flowchart Combos
Combos that maintain advantage and keep the opponent on the floor. Commonly referred to as "strings," but this is specifically designed for added damage and more setups and mindgames, while preserving the attacking right for yourself (though zoning and defense are given options still).

3. Okizeme Combos
Can we say uf+P(MC)-->bb+P, d+PPPd+K anyone? Anyways, these are combos designed to nail an opponent who is getting up from being floored.

4. Abusive Combos
Combos that are purely goal oriented (aiming at maximizing at least one of the three goals above). These combos may or may not require additional setup.

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Other Thoughts
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I know this didn't tell you the "best Lau combos" but I figure it would at least give you an idea of the additional uses of combos. It is my perspective that the "rank" of a combo is something that always changes because it really just depends on what you can setup in a match and what your goals for winning the match are.

-Chanchai

 

Chanchai, I think he was asking for a strong bread and butter combo for most situations.

For a combo that is very very reliable, do
b,b+P, d+P,P,P,d+K (turnaway upknife, turn-towards downknife, P,P, sweep)
the d+P must be done immediately after b,b+P for it to work well.

For a combo that is very strong and will work on most characters:

upknife, superknife, m-upknife-PPP-sweep.

That's D/F+P, D/F+P+K, then crouch dash into an immediate D/F+P, then P,P,P,d+K.

If your opponent got floated high, try ending in PPPK instead of PPPd+K. PPPK does more damage.

 

Some guaranteed combos for Lau in VF4:

1. f+p+k(MC), downknife/upknife(close up?) combo

2. b,b+p, d+p.....50% damage, does not hit OTB

3. d/f+p+k, (hold forward)p, p, p, k/d+k

4. upknife, p/superknife, upknife combo

5. u+p(MC?), (hold forward)p, p, p, d+k

6. d/f, d/f+p(MC), p....

 

i wanna bring up this post cause i don't want to create a new post;

is lau's upknife,superknife-->bb+Pd+PPPd+K still doable in VF4?

and what about his E to lau's backside, K+G-->bb+Pd+PPPd+K combo; does it still work, and if it does, can it be QR/TR'd?

 

Had a situation where I was totally stumped, so I just thought that I'll ask here.
I was charging Lau's P+K, and then suddenly, I was d/f+P+K+Ged by Vanessa in DS. So out of curiousity, is that a confirmed situation ? or a total fluke ?

Then my next question is, can I low throw/catch throw the opposing Lau with Jeffrey, Wolf, Aoi, or Pai ?

 

Lau does sort of crouch during the animation, so I can believe it. I can also believe it's interruptable by throws. For lau to be officially crouching is something Sega would program in there on purpose. There are other moves where there's a definite crouching animation midway through, but the character is just considered standing.

Vanessa's low throw doesn't whiff like other low throws, so this maybe confirms that hers is a low catch throw and not a normal low throw.
I'm curious to see if others can low throw lau in this situation. If no, I guess it just reenforces the idea that catch throws can interrupt attacks while normal throws can't.

 

I think the f+P+K can be low-catched too in right stance

 

hey

I thought Lau has this super strong hop attack which can chain b,f+p under certain conditions (MC?) I forgot which hop attack it is but it is really useful.

 

Oh...you talking about Lau's hop kick(u+k) hah? I think you need to MC before you can link b,f+p, and it has a slightly worse recovery compared to u/f+p.

I think overall Lau has powered down a lot in VF4c, other than his f+k+g, f+p+k, and f+p,p, almost all of his more powerful moves have been powered down e.g. b+k+g, TT d+k, throws, etc...most of his moves don't track anymore and its even possible to interrupt his b,b+p string midway in Ver.C! Argh!!! /versus/images/icons/crazy.gif

Anyway, I don't think I wanna play Lau anymore, seems that everybody is playing him nowadays, don't like to fight the same character.
So, when will you be free for some VFing? /versus/images/icons/smile.gif

 

I rememer you interrupting and floating my Lau when he finished his b,b+P, and was going into d+P by doing a mod. knife. The horror... the float after that was just plain scary... *shudders*

Now, I'm looking for the best follow up to Lau's trusty old hopping knife. d/f+P,P,P,d+K just doesn't seem to cut it against the heavier weight classes. /versus/images/icons/frown.gif A variant that someone else was doing is P,b+P,P, but doesn't seem to hit most of the time... /versus/images/icons/frown.gif Suggestions ?

 

u need to look at ur stance....

 

Now, I'm looking for the best follow up to Lau's trusty old hopping knife. d/f+P,P,P,d+K just doesn't seem to cut it against the heavier weight classes. A variant that someone else was doing is P,b+P,P, but doesn't seem to hit most of the time... Suggestions ?

Close stance: uf+P (leg flop) ~ d+P ~ DF+PP+K
Open stance: uf+P (leg flop) ~ Pb+PP

These also work after standing palm (leg flop), but you have to reverse open and close stance because the standing palm changes your stance.

 

since we are on the subject of lau's combos, can i ask what are lau's staple wall combos(if he has any, i most certainly believe he does); also, his guarenteed followups to his ST throw(i realize the palm isn't guarenteed), and i brought up the question of the reliability of his UpKn,SuperKn-->bb+Pd+PPPd+K VF3 combo; could someone please answer that too?

 

how is the palm(b,f+P?) not guaranteed after ST???

 

Steven told me that as long as you don't struggle after the ST, the palm may fail to connect.

 

wrong dude.... Littlewild tried this on me long time ago when i used lau vs him. Whether u struggle or not, it's a matter of timing.

When opponent don't struggle, u have to delay the palm by a bit otherwise u whiff. If u don't believe me u can ask steven to let me palm him until he is satisfied /sighz...

 

Uh.... I said "may fail". Its a guessing game for the thrown opponent.

 

ermm sorry then but how can it be a guessing game when i do palm and it hits 99% of the time? Cos a couple of pple tried to do no struggle and struggle randomly. Doesn't seem to matter to me...

 

Dunno. According to him, HK players seem to be able to escape it once in a while. BTW, it is verB.