Guarding

Guarding (also known as Blocking) is a maneuver that allows your character to prevent almost any attacks from damaging you.
== Description ==
By holding the appropriate button, your character will take a protective stance that can stop almost any attack from damaging your character (or, albeit rarely, dealing full damage).
=== Advantages ===
* Guarding can stop almost any attack.
* The startup animation is really fast, which allows you to instantly react to enemy attacks.
* There are certain abilities that allow your character to regain Heat while blocking attacks.
* The recovery animation is fast enough, to deal with any move an enemy may counter you with
* Blocking can also prevent combos.
* Some abilities allow you to put your guard up again immediately after having it broken.
=== Disadvantages ===
* Strong attacks are likely to break your guard.
* It usually protects you only from the direction you are facing (with exceptions like the resist guard from Beast Style).
* It usually cannot guard from low attacks such as sweeps.
* It cannot protect you from enemy grabs.
Some characters have their own unique abilities tied to their guard, such as Saejima's and Kiryu's ability to knock enemies back while blocking, Tanimura's Parry which can absorb an attack and leave the enemy open for a counterattack from behind, and Majima's Mad Dog of Shimano Style ability where he can cancel his guard into a sidestep at the cost of is Heat.
Category:Game Mechanics