KING JAIMY
Well-Known Member
I'll just give some advice/pointers:I'm really bad and new to DOA5 so take everything with a grain of salt, but really I've tried to main Honoka and I'm not having much luck. I mained Helena before so I find her lack of decent low-mid mixups frustrating in comparison, only 6K2K and 9PPKP are any good, so basically block standing her is enough other than 6T, but it's not big damage and guessing can get you so much. I have huge problems to get out of pressure when attacked, 6P is her best tool but fails a lot, her high crush 214 P+K is almost useless imho, only 1K helps, 2p works sometimes but seems unreliable, maybe I'm biased with the amazing Helena's 1pp that can get you out of pressure easily, and for some reason it seems that whatever I throw can be countered easily at any range.
As an Helena player I don't like the options they have given her, I wish that on BKH you had 6K or sweep instead of neutral K, which is really short range and forces knee stance (I don't remember the name right now sorry). It's a pity because pp2k is great but her options on BKH leave a lot to be desired.
So you have to work incredibly hard to get damage and stuns, yet her damage is nothing extraordinary, and she has lots of tools but I find it hard to take advantage of them.
When you first use her she seems like a candy shop of great moves from other chars, however after some time I think I can't see the proper way to play her, I'm about 50 hours on PS4 mostly with her, I think I've tried most of her ols but at this point I can't see how to make her work.
If you're looking for lows, 1P is a good one. It tracks, crushes mids (!) and gives a good stun on Counter Hit, however it is near useless on Normal Hit.
As for her stun game, you can try to bait counter hits for example by delaying the last punch of 3PPP. Or go with moves that stun on normal hit (8P or 3K) to begin your deadly stun game. I usually open people up with CH 6K (i12) and extend with 6H+K Dragon Stance K. That's puts them in CB state and give a good amount of frame advantage. Also, a lot of people tend to hold mid punch after 8P so I'd say 8P~P is a good stun opener/extender. That being said, you don't need to really play the stun game. Honoka has excellent stun-launch damage which gives a good amount of damage.
I'd say 214P+K is not completely useless. It's pretty good after 6T. On block it gives +1; follow up with BKO P or BKO 4P to get a quick counter hit
I'd say Honoka is a great characters against mashers. If they don't respect her speed (i9 jab, i11 mid) and +8 after 6T, that's a lot of counter hits for you. On defensive opponents however, it's very hard to get in with her. Like you said, her lows are beyond terrible and she's very unsafe which makes it hard to get the stun sometimes.
Also, are you from the Netherlands by any means (judging from your name FreeStepDutch)? If you are, we can take this to a conversation and talk in Dutch with each other about Honoka.