IGN's 12 Days of DOA continues with a breakdown of Jann Lee. The article can be found here.
It goes in depth to talk about some nice items like the Dragon Gunner having guaranteed follow-ups and unsafe attacks becoming safe if canceled into the new Dragon Stance.
It goes in depth to talk about some nice items like the Dragon Gunner having guaranteed follow-ups and unsafe attacks becoming safe if canceled into the new Dragon Stance.
Jann Lee was one of the best characters in the Japanese and European versions of DOA3 (known as DOA 3.1 and 3.2). In Dead or Alive 4, he was average at best and struggled to keep up with the better characters in the game. Dead or Alive 5 returns Jann Lee to his rightful place near the top of the DOA food chain.
First and foremost, his Dragon Gunner throw is one of the few offensive holds in the game for a non-grappler character. Not only does it guarantee multiple follow-up attacks that cannot be countered, but it’s very difficult to see coming. Mix this up with his Forward, Forward, Kick (66K) and you have a very, very dangerous offensive game. The animation of the kick is similar enough to the animation of the Dragon Gunner throw to make it difficult to tell the two attacks apart. Not to mention the kick is safe when blocked and the throw goes through attacks.
When used next to a wall, the kick will slam the opponent into the wall, allowing Jann Lee to follow with a guaranteed combo. Meanwhile, the Dragon Gunner throw guarantees the kick as a follow-up, which offers the same wall hit into a combo. This works in open space as well, although without the wall hit. Sticking with Jann Lee’s wall game, one of his wall throws allows him to cancel into Dragon stance, then initiate a wall combo.
Jann Lee’s new Dragon stance is also a formidable tool. He can cancel multiple attacks into the Dragon stance, then perform one of four attacks while in the stance: a high punch, two mid punches and a kick. The high punch and kick are very fast attacks, with the punch being safe when blocked. In fact, some of his attacks that are normally unsafe when blocked, become safe thanks to the Dragon stance cancel. In some cases, an opponent can’t even interrupt because Jann Lee’s faster attacks from Dragon stance.
If all of this weren’t enough, Jann Lee has two Critical Burst attacks. One is from his normal stance, while the other is from his Dragon stance. Both are mid punches, but it’s very difficult to counter them because he has high and mid kick launchers to mix up with. While Jann Lee cannot get a Critical Burst stun until at least the fourth attack of a combo, the way his combos flow (with various Dragon stance cancels), it rarely feels like you’re Bursting on the fourth hit. In fact, there are many occasions in which you don’t even realize Jann Lee has reached the maximum stun threshold needed for a Burst.
Speaking of the stun game, Jann Lee has two sit-down stuns a limbo stun, and a faint stun, none of which can be countered out of. One of Lee’s sit-down stuns has limited applications because it can only be used while his back is facing an opponent. However, the other sit-down stun and the faint and limbo stuns are extremely useful, especially when used alongside the Dragon stance cancels, Dragon Gunner throw, and Jann Lee’s normally strong mix-up game.
All of this is in addition to almost all of his DOA4 attacks and mix-ups. When you add everything up, Jann Lee is one of the best characters in the game and easily a top tier character. Fighting against Jann Lee is a true test of your reaction time and your ability to slow escape his stuns. If you can’t slow escape well, Jann Lee will get stun after stun and waste no time in using an unholdable stun into a Critical Burst to seal the deal. His high damage potential doesn’t make this fight any easier either.
Stay tuned to doa.ign.com as we wrap up our 12 Days of DOA5 series with three days of match videos. We can assure you that at least a few of these match videos will feature Jann Lee acting like a top tier character. It’s also very likely we’ll see a few Jann Lee players at the upcoming “I’m a Fighter” World Championship: Round 2 this weekend. If you can’t make it out to San Mateo, CA, tune in to our live broadcast.
