Zhou Yu - Dynasty Warriors 5 Xtreme Legends - Chaos Mode

Dynasty Warriors 5 Xtreme Legends
Zhou Yu
Chaos Mode

Custom Audio:
Dynasty Warriors 7 -- Secret Strategy
Dynasty Warriors 4 -- Cry for Wind
Dynasty Warriors 7 -- Thousand Suns

[General Comments]

Hahahaha Mission kill Zhen Ji and Xu Shu together - SUCCESS.
Doing this was a bit hard in all my attempted recordings

Seriously....so sorry against Zhang Liao. I DO get bored in the middle of recordings sometimes lol. I'm also rarely sober when I'm playing this game ;)

[Maximization Setup]

Medium Weapon
Attack
Musou
Speed
Fill
Defense

Ice Orb
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
True Way of Musou
Way of Musou

[Maximization Comments]
Zhou Yu is an advanced character
maximization seems to be a competition between Heavy weapon and Medium weapon
consider Heavy weapon -- Musou filling method tends to be limited to abusing JC, although normal attacks can be fitted in against small crowd situations. True Musou then becomes strong enough to KO Generics in one Musou
consider Medium weapon -- Musou filling becomes much faster and more versatile with a combination of JC and normal attacks and C6 depending on the many crowd scenarios. But Musou offense then becomes too weak to KO Generics quickly with one Musou.
Both choices are good. Main deciding factor? Although a True Musou isn't enough to KO a Generic with a Medium weapon, keep in mind that this simply means Zhou Yu needs some preceding attacks. Fortunately, it is often not too hard or risky to pull of his full normal attack string before executing a Musou for a fast offense. His normal attacks cover quite some good reach and range, and his JC is instrumental in isolating officers to enable these preceding attacks consistently.
Equip the Ice Orb for a chance at killing Playable Officers quickly
Best to attempt Ice with C4-1 (first strike of C4). This strike is elemental, has fast execution and wide horizontal reach, and it keeps officers stationary. C3 and C5 will give the similar outcomes, but both charge attacks are less applicable than C4-1.
C6 freezing is not recommended as failure leads to launching the officer away.
Musou filling gameplay with Zhou Yu is intricate
Typically fastest to Musou filling with C6
but typically very specific crowd size will allow for C6 to fill Musou (large crowds, but with a narrow front line) (but keep in mind that I am using Zhou Yu's 4th weapon which doesn't have a Fill bonus)
The best way to Musou fill with Zhou Yu typically starts with partial Musou fill with JC -- and one JC is typically optimal to achieve enough partially filled Musou
After JC scatters crowds the rest of his Musou can either be filled using normal attacks or C6
Normal attacks should be used when crowds are too thin for C6 to fill Musou (don't want to finish C6 without a filled Musou, unless full scattering of the crowd can be controlled)
his first three Normals can often be abused in small crowds, because of fast recovery and wide reach.
when using C6, try to ensure scattering the entire crowd, with no threats behind, to minimize wasted Musous for defense
using a JC to greet most occasions is useful not only for partially filling a Musou, but also isolating officers to make it safe enough to execute preceding normal attacks to a True Musou for a fast offense
Isolating officers with JC is also useful because his Musou range is quite limited -- quite hard to consistently juggle an officer in a massive crowd setting
leads to a challenging transitional phase between Musou filing and initial offense against officer before executing Musou -- C6 is the typical go-to move, but you typically want to scatter the crowd and not the officer which rarely happens. It is also difficult to the rest of his Musou with his full normal attack string and deal this damage against an officer at the same time.
analyzing Zhou Yu's overall offensive speed is thus, a complex case by case analysis.
it should be easy to attempt C4-1 against Playable officers for a chance of freezing.
Running Attack is a very useful move for easy Musou filling in massive crowds, although this usually leads straight into a Musou which isn't enough to KO Generics.
the Running Attack + True Musou offense may be a consideration vs Playable Officers, for a Fast Fill and 2-Musou-KO approach.

[Tier List Comments]
Zhou Yu is a mid-low tier character
variable Musou filling speed
variable Offense
on average should be equivalent to the Slow Fill Fast Offense type of character (Sima Yi, or possibly Pang Tong)
not bad in melee confusion
very good against archers
very good against mounted officers
good against multiple officers (should be slightly slower offense)
performance relies heavily on crowd sizes, with optimum performance vs moderate crowd sizes