Darkstalkers 3/Anakaris/Strategy

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Strategy

Anakaris's Game relies on either runaway, or rushdown. He has no inbetween. Between runaway and rushdown, Anakaris has weak means of building meter, and is mediocre at best at zoning.

As far as building meter goes, I (gbursine) use repeated j.D+rk's, with no rotation between special moves(which builds the most meter when wiffed). From afar, Anakaris has no real effective [and quick] special move which aids him in building meter efficiently and safely. But from the beginning, you should be rushing down, or pressuring in some form. Anakaris building meter means the opponent is likely building meter twice as fast, which is in Anak's disadvantage in the longrun.


Almost ALL of anakaris's moves suffer from significant frame disadvantage. As such, should you decide to zone, should you hit, you may STILL be at a disadvantage.

As far as AA's go, you have from the following options:

  • s.mp
  • c.mp
  • Snake hands(b, f+p)
  • s.fierce(preemptive)
  • s.F+mk(or s.B+mk)
  • c.fierce

c.mp, s.fierce, c.fierce & s.F+mk should all have c.mk or c.rk doubletapped after them as a reflexive habit.

Snake hands is a reliable AA should it hit. Majority of the time, Anakaris nets a clean hit for decent damage. The Snake Hands travels in a row, aligned with the middle of the screen. As such, small (and medium sized) crouching characters can completely avoid blockstun, and retaliate if close enough. The same case goes for characters during a jump high enough to avoid the snake hands(which means you mis-timed, or mis-anticipated your opponent's actions).

I recommend that you use the jab or strong version of Snake hands. For two reasons mainly:
-The stronger versions of Snake hands contains more hits, thus longer blockstun, and more chances for your opponent to push you away(which isn't what you want when on the offense)
-Anakaris recovers significantly longer. This becomes a liablility depending on how the opponent is hit(they can recover faster than Anakaris in some cases), or if they are in blockstun.

Rushdown

The basic premise of all forms of rushdown lies in conditioning and confusion. Anakaris is capable in excelling in both areas. While the goal of confusion is self explanatory, conditioning is the process of making an opponent respond to an expected action. Once the opponent is conditioned, changing the pattern more often than not, causes an opening in the opponent's defence.
Anakaris has two primary methods of conditioning:

  • lp.rushdown (handshakes)
  • trijumps.


His handshake rushdown focuses on corralling the enemy, and conditioning them to block low attacks(provided you throw the c.lk's into the fray). For the handshake rushdown, learning to link Anak's c.lk into s.lp [while not necessary] allows for hit confirming into a knockdown. If the opponent's got your [(s/d.lp)/(c.lk)] pressure down, mix a trijump or throw into the fray.


Because Anak has no normal throw, his ES command throw must be used. Anakaris's ES hands has startup significant enough for an opponent to retaliate. To minimize retaliation, always buffer off of a s.lp or c.lk into ES hands. There is a "sweet spot" range, where buffering into ES hands is close enough for anakaris to grab the enemy quickly, while being far enough for mashing opponents to wiff in the hole between the normal and the throw.


Unless the opponent is in the corner, scoring a knockdown is not wholely advantageous. A knockdown midscreen allows for three wakeup options, as opposed to the two that a knockdown in the corner provide. Unless you float(s.UP), anakaris isnt fast enough to react and maintain an offense. With this being the case, it is more advantageous to pass on knockdowns when landing a hit midscreen. Corralling the opponent towards the corner leads to more opportunities for damage.


Of course, this isn't saying you should never pass on continuing a combo. Depending on your opponent's ability to block and predict, netting damage midscreen may be better.



Anakaris excels when his opponent is cornered. He can condition the opponent to block high with his tri-jumps, or condition with continuous pressure from handshakes. Once the opponent gets knocked down, Anak is provided with a myriad of choices for wakeup. Anakaris's wakeup game, consisting of meaty hi-low mixup, is where he nets a good majority of his damage. Anak's trijumps have a large enough hitbox for players to jump back after a knockdown, time a trijump trijump straight down, and cover both the corner, and the wakeup position near the corner, should the opponent decide to move while knocked down.

A meaty trijump into c.lk alone does for fair mixup. As the match progresses, changing the pattern into two or 3 trijumps before the c.lk(this utilizes the conditioning in rushdown).



Baiting & disarming

Against some characters(dp ones primarily), you'll spend time toward baiting dp's(uppercuts), or disarming them(or both). Baiting an opponent to dp is generally accomplished by doing something that looks punishable, or alludes to being punishable, and then making the opponent wiff a dp to leave you safe, and in position to retaliate.


Disarming an opponent is a result of, but not limited to, baiting. It is a specific type of conditioning, where your opponent [mentally] eliminates an option for counterattack against an offensive move(in this case, wakeup mixups). In addition to baiting, taking an opposite strategy, and using high priority moves that will consistently beat out the opponent is a viable option in disarming the opponent from attempting to counterattack. This allows for more suceptible forms of mixup to be used(as well as a good ES hand for good measure).


Anakaris Quirks

Circle Mailorder: ah, I also tried Anakaris. but I think he's probably too weird for me to learn right now gbursine: ya Circle Mailorder: he can't tech hit, but I guess he doesn't need to for that backdash screen change thing gbursine: don't learn anak gbursine: till much later gbursine: naw gbursine: he needs it gbursine: lol Circle Mailorder: : / Circle Mailorder: eheh gbursine: he gets locked down beginning of a match by some characters gbursine: lol gbursine: and has barely any options gbursine: w/ out meter or momentum Circle Mailorder: >.< then he's just a low-tier hero, played only for bragging rights? gbursine: yes and no gbursine: tiers are so close gbursine: he can still beat the shit of of the upper tiers Circle Mailorder: haha gbursine: ya gbursine: his rushdown is beastly Circle Mailorder: wow, I wouldn't have guessed that gbursine: ya gbursine: i think if he had just pushblock gbursine: he'd be upper mid easily Circle Mailorder: hmm, I see.. gbursine: ya gbursine: he has no AA defense gbursine: and has no way of keeping pple off him when he wants Circle Mailorder: the backdash screen switch isn't fast enough? gbursine: nope gbursine: its got a small yet significant amount of startup Circle Mailorder: ah...



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