Been playing Rog for almost 2 years and now I’ve been trying to find a second character, especially a non-charge one. Mucked around with Sakura, Ryu and Sagat, and I seem to like the last character the most.
What are you guys’ 2nd and/or 3rd characters?
I don’t have any 
I play on Keyboard so once in a blue moon where I just randomly decide to piss about with someone I don’t play, I tend to go Honda (Has to be a charge character or I can’t play). Other than those once off’s, Balrog all the way.
I’ve a feeling you’d like a tanky character that isn’t charge based, something along the lines of Rufus or Cody.
I play Cammy. She’s dumb. 
Instead of a second char why not try playing balrog in a different way then your doing now. I find that once you go Balrog everyone else is whack!
well…if you’re doing this for competitive play (e.g. bad matchups), find out which ones give you the MOST trouble both playing Balrog and as a player, and find one character who doesn’t have as hard a time as a character and fill in the player gaps. Once you do that, you may find it a bit easier to play as Balrog etc.
To answer you question: I’d suggest Ryu if you’re going for an entirely new 2nd. He’s a lot like Balrog conceptually, but in practice he’s very different as in his tools are really complex. I think the mental transition to another character who isn’t a charge character from Balrog to Ryu is easier than others. IF you were to go for a charge character, i’d suggest Dictator, IMO he’s really the only other charge character who I feel has tools who’s end game equal Balrog’s, just no come back factor what-so-ever.
I always felt like Guile would be a natural transition from Balrog as they can be played in a similar fashion. Having said that, I didn’t want to keep playing charge characters, so I switched to Sagat. Yes Ryu can be played like Rog, and he is my soft 3rd character, maybe I’ll look into both of them as options.
I’m tired of losing to Sims.
I dunno. I think Guile’s “character” is so unlike Rog because he’s the most defense oriented character. He’s SOOO defense oriented. I mean I thought Balrog players had issues holding down+back and not walking forward, but Guile almost has to walk himself into the corner. His character archetype is very unlike Balrog’s IMO, Dictator’s is closer i think.
And I didn’t mean play Rog like Ryu, i meant that he was average with about every tool in the game + a DP. Rog is alot like that, he’s an average character with a really good toolset. So you can play him in a variety of ways. If you switch to a character like Guile, over time as a player you get stuffed into the character archetype while as Balrog/Ryu i think, you can make their archetype fit your play style. Chun is also a good in between i think.
I see where you are coming from, though I do differ in terms of how to play Guile. I believe that he and Sagat can be played like Rog, in terms of offensive zoning. It is very possible that you can corner your opponent, stay at an effective distance and poke him to death with normals/plasma.
I had this same issue recently. In the past my 2nd was easily DeeJay, hes very fun and has good tools for some matches but he doesnt do well against rogs bad matches, and is imo the weakest charge character 
I would say pick a very strong character in the game, you will have more fun with it. I would say, obviously based off of your level of execution, Akuma, Seth, Adon, Cammy, or Ryu would all be great choices. Recently picked up Cammy and shes very fun. Its a good change of pace from zoning and strong defense to have such powerful mixups and all out offense. Plus her defense is good too, great anti air, cross ups, footsies, etc.
I went back and forth between alts for ages before settling on Yun.
The main reason I chose him was just liking how he played, but there are a number of other reasons. He has strong matchups against most of Rog’s bad/annoying matchups. He’s something different in that he has way more mixup and comeback potential, plus he has better wakeup options. Lastly, he has very different and overall more technical execution, which I was looking for in order to improve my execution.