Rank A = Sol & Ky
Rank B = Jam, Faust, Potemkin, Baiken, Testament, Chipp
Rank C = Almost everyone else
Rank D = Robo-Ky & Order Sol

Of course, since the game’s still relatively new, any number of things could be different already. I, too, would not be surprised if Eddie and Slayer were to come back to upper-mid at least, but if recent vids are any indication I doubt ABA’s going any higher.

Ruin/Xenotiger/Sirlin

Way to go, boss.

He is insane in XX (Bite Loop can almost kill instantly) and still a great source of tension and damage in #R. It’s out in Slash, but the bite can still serve as a combo starter.

So great damage, great prioity, greate okizeme, great abare/random damage off hits…. And in Slash, tons of mind games. He’s pretty much good for the most straight forward reasons.

Ultimately, the best characters are probably the ones that can avoid the stun game entirely. What I mean is that certain hits called “critical stuns” allow the victim to reversal out of. Some characters (like Gen Fu) build their game around baiting these reversals to keep the enemy stunned over and over. But some characters start with a single hit that doens’t cause critical stun, then launch, then do a damaging juggle combo, and they never had to enter into the tricky guessing games where they might lose. (Yeah, I know there was a guessing game on the very first hit, but I mean they didn’t have to enter into repeated guessing games throughout the combo). If you have a really damaging combo that can’t be reversed, you are probably a pretty good character in DOA4.

Again, don’t listen to me on this. I’m not an expert at the game.

–Sirlin

Second question: Are there any tournaments of this kind in the Boston area? I’ve been looking for a local tournament that has either DOA4 or Soul Caliber 2, but so far my searches have been fruitless.