When exactly are you invulnerable during a special?

Can someone explain to me how invulnerability during sp1 and sp2 works?

I've tested it using shuri's untouchable against nimrod and apoc, and it seems i cannot interrupt their specials, hit them, or apply my shocks during their sp animations.

On the other hand, i used nimrod in the BRBZ sidequest, and i was fighting cyclops. He got the "special miss" feature in the middle of my sp2, and he immediately ran forward and attacked in the middle of my special. It seemed like he both cut my special short and did damage to me. I don't have video, and i can't retest it, so i could be wrong about it.

But it got me thinking. Is there any clear rule on when/whether a champ is immune to hits during their special?

Comments

jdschw

An interesting detail in the cyclops case was that i had already connected with the first 2 hits of nimrod's sp2. So cyclops was "special dazed". But when he got the untouchable passive, he instantly recovered, mid-special.

Furrymoosen

I would be shocked if he actually made contact during your special, but that is how that node works. "Special daze" really only applies to things like evade. Once the node switched to the special miss, the only way you were still going to make contact would've been with a miss counter.

Think of each hit of the special as a separate action. You made contact with the first 2 hits which continued the special, but when the third hit missed it essentially ended the special on the AI side, allowing them to break free of the daze and start attacking you. Contact can't be made while the special is being thrown, but it can look like contact is being made because the AI can just repeatedly swing into you because you aren't going to land any hits to interrupt them. Since the AI has evolved in its learning, I am guessing it was smart enough to continue it's combo immediately after your special ended, giving you no opportunity recover and smacking you in the face.
If your special really was interrupted (which is unlikely), that would be a bug. When a special is being thrown, the other side can only dex/evade, block, get hit, or swing at nothing.

jdschw

Ah, interesting analysis. Thank you for that.