Asin: Mugen

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GC Eternity: Mugen
*Click link or video above to view*

GC Season V: Mugen
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Videos playable in 720px HD.

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Lime's & Asin's skill trees are very restrictive thanks to the ridiculously diverse branching and is almost impossible to review all the augments without expensive research (yes SP resets). Thus I'll write about why I've decided to settle for my current setup(s).

Asin is relative to Jin, that they are both martial artists with different styles. The only thing Asin lacks is melee-range weaponry, which he makes up for with a lot of combat agility, Asin is largely a technical character which requires some in-depth knowledge of his styles that at the same time, demand fast fingers to effectively put to use.

His playstyle shares similarities with Rufus, for his relentless attack style- and Edel, for her technical mobility. These are both evident in the way he fights, shuffling back and forth out of harms way and his mobility options from his Nimble stances.

On a special post for Asin (and Lime), I'll explain the pros and cons in combat between using Disciple's & Mugen's skill tree.

Dodge:

• Type: Aerial Maneuver
• Asin's a pretty much elusive character on his own, but his only vulnerable moments are when he uses his techniques, which nullifies most of his evasive actions.
• Especially for a Mugen, the styles often leave Asin open to attack be it before or after the stances. Because of the already complex controls required for a highly technical Mugen to function, Dodge can also become rather confusing to use for the less dexterous player.

Notes:

• Keep your movements fluid, not fancy. There is little to no point in wasting movement when you can simply step-dash your way around.
• Use Nimble stances wisely, while they're wholly effective and give potential benefit, their positioning effects can land you on the wrong side into an attack. This is especially true for Serpent Style.
• Platforming is Asin's best friend, especially when dealing with a boss.

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Skill Tree Setup: Shared

The 5 Shared skills:

Razor Air Kick (29 MP)

• Type: Close-In, One Shot, Pierce, Impact
• Range: Short
• Damage: Burst
• Animation: Short
• Asin takes a somersault leap into the air and dives forward with a high-speed kick, knocking back his enemies with it.
• An extremely versatile skill capable of many uses, and the kick is able to pass enemy bodies. So it doubles up as an evasive maneuver as well. But this sometimes won't work on extra-large bodies, like Drawl.
• Also if your timing is perfect, using Razor Air Kick after launching enemies up with his critical attack will result in higher damage with aerial bonus.
• Asin can perform a back attack RAK using 2 methods.
• One, anticipate an enemy counter attack headed towards you, time the skill, and deliver a blow to the back just as it goes past you.
• Two, use Serpent Style and hotkey RAK from behind, the skill delay should hold them in place.

Hanuman (63 MP)

• Type: Close-In, Linear
• Range: Mid
• Damage: Multi
• Animation: Long
• Like Jin's Hanuman technique, Asin performs his own extended version of Hanuman with continuous revolving kicks then landing with a firm blow for greater damage.
• Due to Hanuman's aggressive close-in, he can sometimes skip past enemies that rush towards him or using a forward-moving counterattack.

Bamboo Swallows (96 MP)

• Type: Splash
• Range: Mid
• Damage: Multi
• Animation: Long
• Asin weaves his attacks around a mini bamboo forest, bouncing his enemies around as he takes them out inside.
• Bamboo Swallows can hit enemies up to 2 platforms high.

 

Infinite Hand (29 MP)

• Type: Close-In
• Range: Short
• Damage: Multi
• Animation: Long
• Asin approaches his enemy with continuous punching blows, then knocking them down with a focused energy fist.

Fire Drop (56 MP)

• Type: Impact, Splash
• Range: Short
• Damage: Multi
• Animation: Long
• Asin throws an high-impact punch to the enemy, launching them into the air and reappears from above them with a "fiery" water fist to the ground. Enemies take stacked damage from the water explosion.
• Asin teleports above to the first and closest enemy he makes contact with the initial punch.
• During the execution of the 2nd phase, you can hold in either direction to shift his attack point slightly as he executes the kick, allowing some accuracy adjustment if necessary.

The Passives:

Flowing Double Kick
Pressing "Up" causes Asin to evade and reappear behind his enemy in mid-air; following up with "Z" while in mid-air strikes his enemy with a double kick. Your target must be of a certain height for this kick to connect properly.

Basic Combo: Additional Hits
Extends the basic combo with 3 additional hits.

Coursing Steps
Pressing "Back" twice allows Asin to shuffle back and keep his distance from a counterattacking enemy. Pressing "Z" before his steps end will result in a returning blow to his enemy, closing back the distance he created. Take not that Coursing Steps has no invincibility frames. If Asin cannot retreat far enough to avoid an attack, he will take the hit. It doesn't protect him from "Jump" attacks either.

Increased MP Recovery Rate Grade 1 & 2
Increases Asin's passive MP regen speed.

Strengthened Body (6 MP)
Grants Asin Hyper Armor for 10 seconds, allowing him to take enemy blows without flinching or stun. Asin is also immune to status affliction except Curse, and enemy "Jump" attack have no effect (Asin takes no damage when he lands)

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Skill Tree Setup: Actives
This portion can get especially messy because of all the augment types combined. Let me know if you prefer the Rin/Rufus style of writing here.

Row 1:

Chaotic Storm (Skill) (29 MP)

• Type: Splash, Damage-Stack
• Range: Short
• Damage: Burst
• Animation: Short
• Asin spins in one spot, creating a water shield that not only repels enemies around him, but also places a ticking "water bomb" on each enemy contacted. After 2-3 seconds, each enemy with the "bomb" on them takes relatively high damage. The bomb damage will stack if enemies get bunched up when the water bombs go off.
• The water shield will deal no damage.
• Chaotic Storm acts as the first Secret Gate which increases Asin's base stats. As such it will cost 8 SP to acquire as there is a skill gained as well.

Dragon Style (Not stated in skill tree, Press "X" to activate)
The first of the Nimble moves, Dragon Style is used anytime in mid-combo before the critical hit. Asin places his body in an open and ready stance to jab an elbow thrust in.

• This style is very useful when augmented with HP/MP recovery. It can simply be used after throwing the first combo punch and has no knockdown on the follow up blow, thus can be used repeated to abuse a lone enemy for recovering HP and MP until it dies.

Serpent Style
The second of the Nimble moves, Serpent Style is used after a dash attack, which let's Asin appear on his opponent's rear and ready himself in a low crouch for a vertical kick.

• Also the second for common used styles, it has the ability to pass extra-large enemy bodies which means it can universally counter-evade any enemy in existence. (Except Basilisk and Partusay of course)
• The vertical kick, counts as a knockdown blow while throwing them into the air. It makes an excellent precursor for Bamboo Swallows with aerial bonus damage.
• There is a second kick after the first vertical kick - which is a drop kick in the air that bounces enemies off the ground. Simply press "Z" twice in succession.
• The positioning of Serpent Style is excellent for setting up a back-hit Razor Air Kick, Hanuman and Infinite Hand. But in the case of the latter two, the enemy must remain on the ground for them to work.
• Using a dash attack in the air will count towards using Serpent Style too.

Crane Style
The third of the Nimble moves, Crane Style is used in the air after a jump attack, where Asin will spin once and prepare for a dive kick.

• Coincidentally the third most used style, the dive kick is excellent in removing an enemy that blocks your way up a platform with the knockback, although it will send you diving down as well. This is because Asin's jump attack merely bounces the enemy up and not backwards, causing the obstruction on a platform to remain.

Row 2:

(Right to Left!)

Tigress Style
The fourth and last of the Nimble moves, Tigress Style is used after a double or critical attack, causing Asin to crouch in a low stance and jab forward with an elbow thrust, similar to Dragon Style.

• Tigress Style is excellent as a precursor for performing a Crescent Sweep. The close-in rush by Crescent Sweep catches an enemy in mid-air perfectly dealing extra damage even after kicking them away with a critical hit.
• Unlike Dragon Style's elbow jab, if the enemy remains close enough after the critical hit (which again, is a kick that launches them away), the jab from Tigress Style will cause Asin to teleport to his enemy in mid-air and connect the elbow jab, canceling their flight and dropping them down instead.

Awakened Shooting Star (Skill) (63 MP)

• Type: Splash
• Range: Short
• Damage: Multi
• Animation: Long
• Asin rises into the air and with his foot, drives a water bomb onto the ground below him and dealing splash damage with a kick into the water.
• The skill's double delay freezes enemies long enough that they cannot escape the oncoming assault.
• If Asin's drop kick catches anything in mid-air around him, it will bring them down towards the water explosion and cause them to take full effects of the bomb.
• Awakened Shooting Star acts as the second Secret Gate which increases Asin's base stats. As such it will cost 8 SP to acquire as there is a skill gained as well.

Crescent Sweep
An assault technique that executes a crescent kick to enemies in mid-air. It is usable after entering any Nimble stance.

• Unfortunately, this kick only works with Tigress Style as mentioned in the specific situation for using it. 
• Avoid using Crescent Sweep with Serpent Style, as it causes Asin to kick in reverse, and it may throw him back into the path of an attack he was trying to avoid.
• However, there is one compulsory condition to make it work with other styles-
• The enemy must be of a sufficient size to block or stop Asin's body from moving too far with Crescent Sweep, as the cause of Asin missing with other styles is the rush-in for the kick.
• The true obvious cause is of course, game physics. Things do not work the same in PvP and dungeons. And this is why my dungeon guides exists.

Over the Crescent
A retreat technique that executes a back flip to safety during any Nimble stance. If you press "Z" during this move, Asin will execute his dive kick that derives from Crane Style. Over the Crescent is perfectly compatible with any stance.


Row 3:

Shuju Bomb (Technique) (6 MP)

• Type: Projectile
• Range: Short
• Damage: Burst
• Asin's kick sprouts a gush of water in front of him and kicks it once to create a water projectile that knocks an enemy down.
• The first kick counts as an attack if enemies get close enough.

King's Wrath (Skill) (96 MP)

• Type: AoE: Large
• Range: Vertical
• Damage: Multi
• Animation: Short
• Asin grasps water in his hands and smashes them both to ground, creating a total quintet of water geysers around him in both directions. The geysers will hit anything up to 3 platforms high.
• This is Asin's only true AoE move which is most effective for hitting large areas.
• King's Wrath acts as the third and final Secret Gate which increases Asin's base stats. As such it will cost 8 SP to acquire as there is a skill gained as well.

Dash in Nimble Style
Allows Asin to dash away during a Nimble stance. Using this executes a dash akin to a rocket dash, which moves slightly upwards. If used in Crane Style however, the dash heads downwards. This technique can be used in both directions.


Element Circulation
When Asin's HP falls below 50%, this allows Asin to recover 10% of his HP by sacrificing 2 blocks of MP. Simply press "X" twice during idle to activate. For those still with 3 bars of MP,  this will mean using up ~66% of your MP.


Row 4:

(Again, Right to Left!)

Water Puddle (Technique) (6 MP)

• Type: Def Down
• Range: Short
• Damage: Nil
• Places a gushing water puddle on the floor, which cuts enemy defense by 30% when they are on the puddle. The puddle lasts for 5-6 seconds.
• Once the enemy leaves the puddle's range, the effect is immediately lost.
• Here's another catch: If the enemy gets thrown into the air, the effect is also momentarily lost until he lands on the puddle again. (Silly eh?)

Cloud Walk (Technique) (6 MP)

Allows Asin to phase through his enemies for 10 seconds. Has a cooldown of 8 seconds which enables re-usability once expired.

This also presents a minor issue during offense as Asin will slowly move pass enemy bodies if his attacks advance him too far. Nothing detrimental of note however.

Specials Enhancement
An automatic augment that improves 3 different techniques.

• Water Puddle: Extends it's duration up to 9-10 seconds.
• Shuju Bomb: The projectile now pierces through enemies.
• Cloud Walk: Adds SuperArmor to the Cloud Walk effect.

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Skill Tree Setup: Aura

HP & MP Recovery
If a stance attack connects (the follow up attack after a stance), Asin can-

• Recover 1% of his total HP. or
• Recover a small % of MP (about 5%)
• The number of enemies hit do not matter nor provide additional recovery at once.

Teleport
Any attack that touches Asin during his effected stances will teleport him behind his enemy.

*The exact positions of teleporting for each stance is still untested by myself. But generally, it will be slightly above and behind his enemies.


Counter
Asin counter attacks his enemies when he receives a hit to himself, taking no damage in the process. Asin will adopt a Dragon Style stance and deliver a high damage hit to both sides. The enemy must be close enough to take the hit from Asin. Otherwise Asin simply nulls the attack done to him. Now for some really interesting facts-

• A projectile attack will trigger Counter but deals no damage to the shooter since Asin cannot reach it- unless it's next to him.
• A multi-hit or beam attack can be completely nullified by the counter, and Asin remains impervious to the rest of the attack.
• Counter is capable of erasing projectiles, single, multi-hit and even pierce-through types, irregardless of their lethality.

With good news, bad news often follows ( ￣っ￣)   

• Some multi-hit & beam attacks cannot be nullified at all - eg. Aranya's Electric Eye

• Countering multiple projectiles is 100% guaranteed - The tempo is the problem.
• This was tested on two subjects - The original Drawl, and the Dark version in Kounat's Collapse. Dark Drawl's special projectile attack can be nulled because there's enough time for Asin to re-perform counter. Drawl's Flame Squall leaves you no chance beyond the first flamewave because it comes too fast.

• One-Hit KO attacks cannot be countered - eg. Yamini's Death Sentence.

Bottom Line: It is best that you test out what works with Counter and what doesn't. Because of such inconsistencies, writing an exact list would be pointless and next to forever (ﾉ￣Д￣)ﾉ彡┻┻


And last but not least,

4th Skill Special

Eastern Rain Liquid Jade

• Type: Close-In, Splash, Impact
• Range: Mid
• Damage: Multi - Burst
• Animation: Long
• Asin coalesces falling rain water into a condensed sphere which causes a maelstrom to pull in nearby enemies, then detonating it forcefully along with his enemies being blown away.
• This one skill causes massive damage to any enemy caught inside the area of attack, and ricochets any surviving enemies like a bullet off the screen.

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