As an overview, by this point everyone knows that May Lee has two stances and her gameplay pretty much compels her to constantly change in between them all the time in order to be effective, her normal stance has some long range and has bad air priority, but she has some defensive move and can do some pressure with her long hit count chains. Her hero stance has better priority in the air and in the ground while keeping her long range at the sacrifice of quick defensive moves and blocks and rolls. One pretty cool characteristic of May Lee is that the fact that she can cancel almost every move with her stance change means that constantly changing between Hero and Standard stances and vice versa will create a new offensive edge that would not be present if you only stick to her hero stance or to her normal one.....
... That pretty much means that you have to be smart, and know when to stick to a certain stance or when to constantly switch between the stances.... May Lee is actually super weak pretty much overall compared to the rest of the cast, as she lacks priority and strong defensive moves or an abusive, simple offensive gameplay; but unlike her no brainer top tier 2k1 form she is a complete blast to play and master, which is why many players take May Lee as a secondary character to use from time to time.
Command moves (Hero mode) :
(It's not a command move or anything, but is worth notice that her Hero stance
attack can't be blocked),Hero Uke
An autoguard with decent speed yet it's not immediate. If it successfully guard something you can cancel it with anything you want.
Sliding
Slides forward with a low kick, does not leave the enemy open for further attacks.
Special moves (Standard mode) :
Henshin
+ + Quick change to hero mode, does not charge bar and it can cancel many special moves and normal moves (some even before they come out)
Blazing Intercept
Counter for all heights and juggles the enemy if all hits do hit, it's not immediate, so be careful when timing it.
Lightning Needle
or Her main no stance move, a two hitting kick that has several follows up and is slightly different if you perform it with either the low kick or the strong one.
Spinning Edge
after Lightning NeedleAnother of her main standard stance moves; this move can be followed up with every other Lightning Needle Follow up. If the Needle was made with B, the Edge will leave the enemy standing, otherwise it will knock down the enemy (though you can still connect attacks in either case), this is super cancelable.
Approaching Beetle
after Spinning EdgeA knock down kick, can only be done after the Spinning Edge.
Into Sky
after Spinning Edge or Lightning NeedleA two hitting kick, the second hit juggles the enemy. Does not combo and it's pretty safe on block.
Dinosaur's Footprint
after Spinning Edge or Lightning NeedleMust be blocked low and juggles the enemy (though not very high). Does not combo.
Blazing Intercept
after Spinning Edge or Lightning NeedleIt's the same as the counter attack that can be done outside the kick chain.
Leaping Swordfish
after Spinning Edge or Lightning NeedleOverhead kick, pretty quick but with short range and does combo after either the Edge or the Needle.
Surprise Air
after Spinning Edge or Lightning NeedleA jumping kick with pretty long range. It's good for some opportunities where the enemy wants to run away from the Needle chain combo.
Surprise Air Finish
after Surprise AirIt's an overhead stomp and it's pretty safe on block if you delay it.
Special moves (Hero mode) :
Henshin
+ + Quick change to standard mode, does not charge bar and it can cancel many special moves and normal moves (some even before they come out)
Swinging Chop
Very different with A or C; the light one is very quick and can hit twice with counter and in certain circumstances. The strong one is slower, but has a lot of autoguard and leaves the enemy open if it hits. The strong one is super cancelable
May Lee Chop!
A jumping attack that whiffs easily some crouching or short sized enemies. Again the strong one and the light one have very big differences: The short one is super quick and does not raises May Lee a lot from the ground but leaves her pretty open if blocked; the strong one is slow, but raises May Lee a lot from the ground and leaves her with enough frame advantage to combo afterward (akin to a deep jump attack). These are super cancelable
Shinning Thunder Blow
May Lee lunges forward with a punch, depending on how far or late it's blocked it becomes safe or not. The weak one counter wires the enemy while traveling a short distance, and the strong one travels very far leaves the enemy standing (thus is is the more useful for super canceling from the two versions).
May Lee Break
Short range command throw.
Desperation moves (for both modes) :
Gauze Tail Tinkerbell
Slow Overhead with a small invincibility window at the beginning and that is very safe when blocked; wires the enemy (to exploit this, it's advisable to change to Hero as the recovery of the move is crap).
May Lee Dynamic
Air ,
(Hero)Air Ranbu move, it has many uses and can cancel every hero normal air attack except the jumping B.
Disposition Frog
+ Max Only move, a very high priority kick with a somewhat short range. When this move finishes you'll be in hero mode. This move was previously a tap only move and thus it could cancel normal moves that could not be canceled otherwise... Now is not a tapping move, but it can still interrupt normal moves that shouldn't be cancelable, though that feature isn't incredible useful with such a short range move.
May The End
+ (Hero)Much faster than her regular chops, Max Only move.
Key of Victory
+ Her Max 2 Move, the first attack is pretty much the same as May The End.
Combos
- cls
-> -> -> -> (hero change) -> -> Her main string combo, it's impossible to do at certain distances and the timing can be tricky to a beginner. Learn to get this 100% of the time.
- cls
-> -> -> -> (hero change) -> -> -> Super cancel variation of the above combo, it can whiff on some crouching enemies.
- cls
-> -> -> -> (hero) -> -> MAXMODE -> -> + Her most basic Max mode combo, kinda confusing due to the stern timing and long button tap, not really essential.
- cls
(1 hit) -> (hero change) -> cr -> -> jumping A strong 1 bar combo yet the timing can be tricky as well.
- cls
(1 hit) -> -> cr -> MAX MODE -> cr -> -> -> -> -> -> Corner combo, the second hook must land while the enemy is raising from the first hook, there are many variations that you can do.
She has many other combos that are only good for certain circumstances where you successfully landed a variation or caught the enemy off guard, such as.
- (hero mode) ->
-> -> Works from full screen distance (or more)
-
(whiff) -> -> -> air And some other combos that are mainly good as block strings, such as:
- cls
(1 hit) -> -> (first hit) -> -> cls (1 hit) -> -> ad nauseumA quick round down on what's new for May Lee to UM :
From memory.
- Her "spinning edge" ( K amidst her
K chains) works like 01 (with one button juggles ( D ) and with the other leaves the enemy standing ( B ) ).- Her DM Gauze Tail Tinkerbell (
) works like 2001 (it's an overhead with a small invincibility at start up, and also wires the enemy).- She no longer has a guard -> roll bug (she could be thrown from that in the original 02)
- She can no longer guard CD -> Hero.
- She can no longer roll while in Hero mode.
- Her Hero stance CD can no longer be canceled before the actual punch comes out (that was useful as hell, and it's gone
).- Supposedly her " hidden BC third stance " bug was removed (I haven't actually checked that one though).
- Supposedly, she has a ton of added frames that make her animation smoother than in vanilla 02
- Voice was completely redone by the same VA.
- She had some vs Kasumi bugs removed (they are actually shown within the combo vid posted down here)
5 seconds youtube search :