The mechanic I like the LEAST in Melty Blood.... 

Coming from a UNI player, I think MD is fine, and actually notably weaker than CS as a reversal. The main reason is that MD does *not* completely freeze the game. I'm not sure what the exact count is, but it has a few frames of invul were the defender cannot act. If you did nothing, the defender is actually -2. If you meatied with an A normal you can whiff cancel it into shield, normals or specials. If you meatied with a deep jump in you can do literally anything. Throws are actually a great option in this situation, as they'll beat both shields and most moon skills. Not saying the defender doesn't have any good options, but the aggressor also has decent options, including simply MDing back. None of this is the case in UNI. CS completely freezes the screen, and only certain specials are whiff cancealable. 90% of the time, if you meatied on someones CS, they had their pick of reversal options and there wasn't much you could do about it. In fact, Wagner and Eltnums 623Cs are 3f, so they can actually punish any safe jump after CS. Even if your character has no good reversals (like mine) there really isn't any downside to using it. Worst case scenario you get a free blue shield instead of just normal blocking. All that said, I understand that it's annoying that MD (and shield) is a constant concern. I kinda wish Lumina had something like GRD break and/or Vorpal strip in UNI.

I don't know if this was mentioned, but empowered moon drive skills aren't throw invincible, and they are a pretty hard counter to them, as throw will beat most moon skill options if they MD and you aren't doing anything in front of them. This counterplay can be beaten with throw tech and backdash among other options, but it at least expands that mind game beyond just "oh no I mashed into Moon Skill now I have to guess/react to the freeze"

I heard him say “if I played Uni more” and I was like “that makes sense”. Cause when I first played uni dealing with chain shift(uni moon drive) was hard. But like after a long time you realize yeah its strong af, but its similar to burst and you just have to learn to respect it when they have it.

Garuda impact

I haven't even been using moon drive cause I'm stupid lmao

Important note that wasn't fully clear in the video is that moon drive makes all moon skills done for the duration have clash frames, not only after the flash. Combined with the fact that it lasts a pretty significant amount of time if no moon skills are used, it can make pressuring the person that activated pretty spooky for the better part of a round until it's over. It's also worth noting that the activated moon drive moon skills drain more meter for each clash effect that happens, effectively causing the mode to end sooner.

I think my biggest issue is the small window makes it especially hard to distinguish between them shielding you or a clash and you have to instantly recognize and respond to that

Moon Drive: *exists* LordKnight: And I took that personally.

Tysm for these informative vids, i watched them all and it’s really helped me get a handle on the game

I’m hyped to see Lord Knight in tournaments to cheer him on

"Some people will just pick moon drive no matter what as a 'fuck you I just want to get back into it' sort of thing." There was no need to call me out like that.

Lord Jiyuna was talking about this pre release

What do you think about counter Moon Drive? Is it possible in that aerial mixup situation?

From what I’ve seen and tested charged multi hitting normals tend to go through the clash frames of moon..one for example is akiha 5[C]

Does pressing the dash macro button (a+b) activate forward moving dash and if you press a + dash macro does jab come out or dash?

All my homies love WARC.

I like moon drive as a counterpart to unib chain shift/guilty gear rc. i don't like it as yet another defensive option. using moon drive to convert grabs or stray hits is fun. but the fact that you can whiff something and they say haha jk planned all along with moon drive is wild the fact that the best way to counter that is to counter activate your own just reminds me of a similar gimmick in golden fantasia. in golden fantastia you can activate meta world using stock points, each player can build up to 5. when a player activates meta world, they gain access to their character's special passive and a few specials exclusive to when they're in meta. the opposing player can then cancel out their meta by activating it themself. and you can keep doing it until the stocks are done. cool in theory, but if you watch high level footage of that game its almost always optimal to just force your opponent to drain their stocks down to their last. so you'd just have someone rush to hit 5 stocks before the other person could, then basically just back and forth. it kind of makes the rest of the gimmick pointless because the outcome ends up being the same every time

I use moon drive early and tend to burn it all quickly so I can start rebuilding it. Usually end up with 2 activations per round. The clash frames are silly and shielding is the only real counter. Enjoy.

I think 50% to use MD is too much for how strong it's, maybe it should be 100% moon only, so it can make resource management harder

If you can react to the sound of the clash or the animation, can we do BC~8/7D? If it was a shield you'll self eject, and if it was a moon skill clash, you'll either shield it or jump over it (for low ones like Shiki's 4BC). For meterless, we could try delay tap shield after the clash or shield. If you hit a shield you beat A follow-up, and get normal hit by B follow-up. If it was a moon skill clash, you will shield subsequent hits. Fairly strict timing to cover both. Just a thought. I haven't tested versus all of the moon skills and I'm not sure if it's realistic to do on reaction.

i use moon drive like a roman cancel and i find it strangely effective, for example on shiki i will end a combo with a j.236 c and then when the foot kicks them down i use MD and continue comboing. it might not be optimal but it catches people off guard and i tend to get sick clips out of it lmao

Love using moon skill to escape ill use all my air options then moon drive to get another jump or dash

Im not a pro but i like the craziness of moon drive it could be nerfed alittle but making it once a round which ive heard somee people say doesnt sound good its a lame and lazy fix maybe make it so it has a window where it can be pinished (outside of combos) if baited and only change to shield is make the crazy follow ups cost more but leave the basic launcher the same and also make mids not be shielded by low shield.

Hey man, your mic is a little hot on this one and was popping a bit, especially at the start of the video. Might want 2 keep an eye on the levels for the next one. Keep up the great work, I'm learning a lot!

To me moon meter is like V meter from sfv, that works in favor of both players and not as a bs comeback mechanic.

But isn’t the shown situations toward the end of the second half all reactable, such that the player can just hold their Moon Drive? Yes, you get the mix and it’s safe from Moon Drive but I don’t think it really denies them the Drive itself.

Quite a few JP players saying the same thing. How'd you feel if it was only once per match?

Can someone explain tech trap? I have been trying for hours, i'm only able to punish forward tech both with/without cross up. But back and vertical tech, they just block 100% of the time. Is it a bug?

i play Hisui and Kohaku and neither of them have true invincible reversals aside from 236B+C. Moon Drive Moon Spoon on Hisui is absolute godsend for stealing a turn. Although it's minus on block you can do Moon Spoon twice in a row to catch mash on the first one. I find it really fun and unique as a reversal option and i like it a lot. i havent had too much trouble dealing with people moon driving on wakeup since i just respect it as a wakeup option like it's a reversal dp and let my opponent take the turn they just spent resources to have. I do find clashing to be kind of annoying since it's not clear what my options are but i usually try to mash 2A and hope for the best since doing nothing after a clash just gets you hit. Hisui Moon spoon is just the most wack clashing move in the game tho so im a system mechanic abuser lmao.

Had to watch it twice but I understand now what you are talking about

I dont even play this game and never will, but I do enjoy your explanations on fighting game mechanics lol

What I have a problem with so far is accidentally getting the auto combo, it should just be put on A or 6A, completely agree that crouch shield shouldn't beat mids it's so annyoing and where is spot dodge? Also being used to kohaku from previous melty I don't see why 2B and 5C automatically do their 2nd hit and it sucks not being able to do 6C 236A 236B anymore.

I've been enjoying MD and it's various applications it's a really interesting mechanic that can diversify play and give characters some options they don't really have, Examples that comes to mind are Vlov's abysmally slow buttons and lack of defensive options, Miyako extending pressure, the obviously strong clash frame bullying and additional mobility Seems like a healthy mechanic along with Shield, that both take getting used to since they have such large implementations on how the match plays through TL;DR I like the shield and MD mechanics i think they only add to the game

I feel like moondrive slowdown is very long, interesting

this is defiantly not talked about as much as shield but it is pretty crazy too ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q8imHfj-xi4.html moon gauge fills up super fast so moon drive ends up being something that you have to look for way more then you think

One thing that was neglected to mention. If you clash against a moonskill, the first hit will pause the game much like a Guard does and you can immediately cancel into guard if you react fast enough to punish the rest of their moon skill. This is galaxy brain reactions and I dont expect everyone to do it but its definitely OS'able.

Bro lord knight gives us PHDS in these games lmao 😭

don't show jiyuna this

I want to play this game to get a better feel of it but the implementation of this moon drive thing feels sloppy and too distracting while I play.

I'd like if it wasn't always invincible when you used it so it wasn't always a true reversal. Maybe at 75% and 100%

I don't think I've seen people use moondrive as a reversal ever. I've seen plenty of cancels to it, but I can't think of a case where opponent defensively mding

At least it ain't Garuda

I hate moon drive.

imo Drive should cost 100%, every defensive mechanic in this game has at least a risk involved in using it, except Moon Drive. So nerfing it to cost ALL of the gauge is fair enough for how powerful it is (even tho nerfing it would nerf my ass cause Im carried by this mechanic LOL)

JIYUNA WAS RIGHT

Before I even watch the video if it's not shield it's cap