I played Zafina for the first time since Tag 2 some three years ago and I expected a rough night. I don't have her combos down or her wall game and I'm not too sure about her frame data but I did notice something tonight. See, back in the Tag 2 days I was all about the spammy moves, snake edges, and big launchers; it was all high risk, high reward for me and that was probably why I never advanced beyond the fighter rank. Since then; I've been working a lot more on movement, poking and aggression based on frames and reads. Playing with Zafina tonight made me realize that all she has is spammy, risky moves and confusion going for her. Her stance options are a huge risk because if you get blocked in scarecrow; you usually don't have enough frames to cancel out of the stance and block safely. I know it seems too early to be judging a character that just came out but, as much as I like Zafina, I think she is tied with Gigas as the worst character in the game... Also, I thought she was going to have more Demon arm powers; besides the rage options all she has is the power crush "parry" and B 1: 1+2. Frankly, I would rather have her old B 1 because it was a mid counter hit launcher.

Last edited by paladin610 on Sep 17th, 2019 at 06:15

Is anyone having success with Zafina? I'm a revered ruler with my best characters (Nina/Anna) but I just got quadruple demoted to a vindicator with Zafina. I know its still early but Zafina seems to be pretty bad from a gameplay perspective. If I fight anyone who is patient, has good movement, and doesn't get confused by Zafina's mixups they tend to beat me effortlessly...

Last edited by paladin610 on Sep 11th, 2019 at 22:41

b+1+2 is -17 on block. can be punished by Ninas WS+1+2 which is i17

You are correct. I'll edit my original post

I was maining Zafina in T6 & TTT2 days and have dreamt of her to be included in T7, but I had given up counting on her appearance in the game and switched to Josie and Eddy as my mains. I was really happy that she made it eventually, but I was concerned about her strenght and changes to what she was in previous installments. Finally, after few days of labbing and fighting with some formidable players offline, I can share my first impressions.

First of all, she is still following the same gameplan as in previous games - evade and confuse your opponents.

Evasion
She really is a beast here - low profile stances (MNT & TRT) and her low pokes & feints will often leave your opponent hitting air. B+1+2 and d+3~MNT being the best examples here - I often see hopkicks whiff where they should low crush and mid hits going over MNT moves. Some people still think she can't block in MNT and end up surprised their hell-sweep or low poke gets blocked and punished. Moreover, her movement is one of the best in the game - backdash and backflip let her keep the distance, where she shines the most.

Confusion
Stance options and follow-ups for most of her strings often keep your opponents guessing and hesitating to punish. I understand that it's not really what makes a decent character, but it gives this specific feature to the way she should be played. If you learn to condition the other player, she can do really well. I 'd say, in the long run (once people will get familiar with the match-up) she will be a high risk-high reward character, but this time around she has two things that make her perform better in general - damage output and frames.

Damage
She has been given some new CH options she was missing in the past: ff+2, SCR df+4 and d+3, as well as MNT tailspin tools to let her combocombo with moves which previously did not give her such reward. B+1:1+2 ender is the most welcome addition to her arsenal raising her higher in damage tiers. So, knowing that she has to commit sometimes, at least you know you will be rewarded more than you were in T6/TTT2.

Frame data
It's still developing, but only looking on what we have so far, most of her moves have their frames better than in the past. Safe MNT launcher (MNT df+2), CH low poke with +frames on hit (D+3) being -13 only? There you go! Invisible low poke with decent range and insane evasive properties (b+1+2) which now lets you keep the offence up? Why not! Really, these little changes here and there sum up for a better neutral game than before. It's worth highlighting some new transitions for the stances: MNT 1,3; MNT 2,1,4~B; b+3~D and MNT d+1,4~d - all having their application.

I might be dazzled with the new Zafina, but being greatly aware of her weaknesses in previous Tekkens I am happy to see that she has been improved that much. But to be fair, I have to point out what I feel are her WEAK POINTS:
- Punishing: sadly, still no i15 launcher. Even though we have i14 df+3,4 hitting now for 49 dmg altogether and juggling bears, it still aches. No knockdown until 14 frames is bad too (gotta test if df+1,4 won't wallsplat up close). I would also appreciate some better low-crushing moves and hard kick to get more damage out of blocked long-staggered lows.
- CH game: no magic 4, no i12/i13 CH tool like King's/Steve's b+1s and no safe mid CH tools in general make it hard to counter the pressure applied by some characters. Single db+2 is not enough, I think.

There's still much to learn against some match-ups and see how she performs, although I am already able to say she is the best Zafina so far. I am waiting for some Koreans' matches and looking forward to what she might get in next patch/S4 (if be). Regardless of my subjective thoughts, I find a great pleasure in playing her again.

Not to mention that 1,3~B is only +1 on block?? That's so dumb. They really trying to make you use the transition into SCR which I guess isn't a problem for now, but when more people fight against her and figure out ways to deal with it, this is going to be a problem in the future I think.

"It's +1 ON HIT" is what you meant, I think. You can still go for 1,2 if want to have advantage in neutral. If you go for dmg or mix-up then 1,3 or 1,4 should be your choice.

After Maining Zafina, for several months now, I have to disagree with my first post and say that she's definitely above average and, arguably, a top 10 character (though not in the top 5.) I'm not used to Zafina being a good character since in Tekken 6 (her debut) she was one of the worst; while in Tag 2 she was slightly better but still terrible. She's still very risky, a bit slow, and generally bad on block but she's actually quite strong in this game and, more importantly, very fun to play. I'm so happy they brought her back.