3s New Player FAQ // Directions -- START HERE

cr. fierce
short tackle
fierce aegis
rh. tackle

When should I be inputting Aegis? Directly after I let go of holding forward from the tackle or as the opponent is being launched into the air? How fast do I need to input it?

And for some, frustrating, annoying reason, I can only get Aegis to come out when I’m facing left. I can get it to come out as soon as I hit with the tackle while facing left, but when I’m facing right, I can barely get it out at all.

not sure what you mean by letting go of holding forward, but a common method is to charge d/b for the tackle, then hcf+K (for the tackle), qcf+P (for aegis). just make sure you hit K or P at the right times during the motion, so everything coincides properly and you get the moves you want.

btw, we play the exact same games. and i have maxima in the second spot, too.

By “letting go of holding forward”, I meant after executing the tackle. It’s hard to explain.

I’ll test out your method in a little bit, I appreciate your reply.

My KOF team is outdated, I use Benimaru/Maxima/K’ now. Too bad we can’t play together in that!

You are a genius. I’m getting the hang of it.
Thank you.

EDIT - 1 minute after I post that:

What is guard jump an os? Speaking of option selects I only know like three and the only one I use is Chun’s sggk. The other ones I know are crouch tech and this weird thing with Chun where you supposed to input a parry when some one jumps in then crouch guard. What are essential ones to know?

I’m thinking about trying to main a new character besides Chun Li. My picks are between Yun, Yang, Alex, or Dudley. Could somebody give me some general pros and cons for each character?

Yun - Assuming Genei-Jin is picked, he has one of if not the best ways to open people up. Constant rushdown and mixup game with divekicks and command grab. Not very good when it comes to range, though he makes up for it in overwhelming, in-your-face death. No good reversal.

Yang - Great confirms and free chip damage. Very fast and mobile with divekicks and teleport. Also has a decent command grab. Heavily reliant on meter for damage. No good reversal.

Alex - Great damage and fairly good footsies. Has a hard time with zoners and doesn’t have a long range poke to confirm into super. Also has no good reversal.

Dudley - Great, diverse set of normals. Amazing rushdown and mixup. Gets in and keeps the pressure. Both super art I & III have a 1-frame start-up. Also actually has a decent reversal (albeit with meter). Very reliant on momentum and may have a tough time getting in.

These are just some quick notes, but you should get the basic idea.

Yun:

  • Geneijin. This gives Yun leeway to be able to get in and either land a fat combo, or land Zenpo Tenshin and combo from there to build back some meter post-Geneijin.
  • Zenpo Tenshin. You’ll be able to land this well when up close since the opponent will try to block whatever you might do. Karacancel-able
  • Dive Kicks themselves are great for both closing the gap and as a mixup itself. His air game in general is very good.
  • He takes damage very poorly.
  • Without Geneijin, Yun is nowhere near as strong. When you’re out of meter, you’ll likely find yourself running back and building meter. During this time the opponent will have the opportunity to attack you.
  • His air game is great, but be weary of anti-air. Ken in particular can own him in both anti-air and air-to-air situations.

Yang:

  • Zenpo Tenshin. You’ll be able to land this well when up close since the opponent will try to block whatever you might do. Kara-cancel-able
  • Slashes and EX Slashes do impressive stun damage, and they’re very easy to combo into.
  • Yang doesn’t rely on Supers all that much, so using the Super bar as EX battery is fine too.
  • His rushdown game is very scary with the combination of Slashes and Zenpo Tenshin. When he has momentum, he’s very hard to stop.
  • His “teleport” helps him close in after a Slash combo, again adding to his ground game.
  • He takes damage very poorly.
  • He doesn’t particularly have a useful high-damage Super(…SA3 may be an exception, but it gets complicated), so you’ll have to keep at it to get damage in.
  • His air game isn’t as great as Yun’s. He can still fly around, but not as much.
  • Ken will give him a hard time since his ground and air games are both better.

Alex:

  • His combos are very easy to pull off.
  • He is like Yang in that he relies on momentum, but he is VERY scary when on that momentum.
  • He does very good damage and stun off of simple close range mixups, especially in the corner.
  • He has decent tools to be able to get in properly, such as EX Elbow Slash and in some cases the Stomp.
  • He has a very wide hitbox, which can be troublesome in poking situations.
  • He needs to be able to get in close to get that damage in, but he will have a lot of trouble against opponents with good pokes.
  • His defensive options aren’t too great, so learning how to parry/red parry will be needed.
  • All three of his SAs aren’t that great. SA2 is about the best option he has, but it doesn’t really vacuum the opponent so the last grab could whiff if too far.

Dudley:

  • His pokes are very fast, and some of his most important ones are cancellable. This is especially handy when it comes to footsies.
  • He has the tools to play both mid and close range. His pokes hit hard and come out fast, while up close he has an incredible high and low mixup game.
  • He has a good jumpin mixup game, partially due to his low jump. His HP and HK jumpins do a lot of damage and hitstun, giving him ample time to follow up with a combo or Super. HK in particular can hit pretty high and still give him time to follow up with Super.
  • Backswing Blow is a great throw counter, and can cancel into Super. EX BSB is safe on block.
  • His Command dash is great since it covers a lot of distance, and you can do a Super immediately after. You can cancel a poke into command dash->Super.
  • His hitbox is kind of weird in that it’s fatter than it actually should be.
  • He may have some trouble against projectiles, even when considering it can duck under fireballs. Characters like Ryu and even Remy can zone him out pretty well.
  • His EX Jet Upper isn’t exactly the best wakeup option, since it can get thrown out of. It’s best to refrain from using regular Jet Uppers outside of combos.
  • His pokes are great, but he’ll tend to have trouble against Chun and Ken since theirs are superior.

Weird question, but does it matter which buttons you start with when using the piano technique?
I always start from HP, then MP, LP.

I mean, you never know…

no, it does not matter on the order. as long as you hit each strength of the button and let go of each one before hitting the next.

What are some pro’s and con’s of Q, Oro and Twelve… if there are any pro’s for Q and Twelve.

Q - Get to learn defense fast. 3 Defensive boosts off each successive Taunt to create the highest Health in the game. When you get cornered, nobody can take your corner away from you with silly jump over crossups. He shakes the screen, in just general you picked him, he has a presence, to do some things nobody else can fun stuff that aren’t in other 2D games.

Oro - You get to be very mobile, tricky, and make them try to hit you out of unorthodox spacing. Long juggle combos are possible. Lv 2 Supers where he finally uses both hands. Unblockable setups with SA2.

“Tweleve” - X.C.O.P.Y. gives a fighting chance by becoming someone with better options all around, plus a damage bonus. People may not know the matchup, of run poke, stay out of the way, be annoying? Players can handicap themselves with such a character, Valle used to be a 12 in tournament early rounds IIRC. Rumored the throw is better than others, seems like 12 players hit it more often then they should, but he needs that throw maybe more than other characters.

Edit- As 1st to answer I was overzealous and projected kind of why I ever chose any of these 3 guys. Check out the thorough stuff below.

WTF-AKUMA-HAX covered some valid points but also has a couple misunderstandings. XCOPY is widely considered a useless super

(Pro’s and con’s divided by ‘/’ )

Q - Very good kara throw. Powerful supers / Bad footsies. Weak anti air. Very few offensive options or strong punishes. Huge hitbox for juggling

Oro - Decent footsies. Very mobile. Long stun bar and high stamina. UB loops and high damage tengu stone combos. Small hitbox / All big damage comes from cl.mp which only works point blank. Cannot throw forward. Cannot beat Chun

12 - More midair options than all other characters. Very unorthodox playstyle that many people don’t have exp against. Strong AA game / Low stamina and stun. Weak footsies. No big damage outside supers. Need to stock EX meter

Q:

  • Taunt once and you get a good stamina boost. Taunt three times and you get a 30+% defense boost, more than anyone else in the game. In fact, you can only taunt twice and get more defense than all but one other character(Hugo, with 3-4 taunts).
  • His Karathrow(b.MP) is tied with Chun-Li for longest range in the game.
  • His SA1 Super has very good reach and decent invulnerability startup. You can punish blocked Shoto sweeps from max range, and Super through fireballs.
  • His SA2 has much quicker startup, and is one of the few Supers in the game where you can get full damage on an airborne opponent. You can either juggle the opponent with a Dash Punch after or two free taunts.
  • He has very poor close range defensive options. This is Q’s worst weakness, especially since characters like Makoto and Alex can kill him once up close.
  • His pokes aren’t terrible and have many uses, but they are slower than most other characters’ pokes. Footsies are going to be difficult.
  • He doesn’t have a reliable anti-air.
  • A lot of his moves have pretty slow startup, including specials and even Supers, so punishes are going to be very difficult.
  • He is the easiest character to juggle in the entire game. Things that shouldn’t work on anyone else, works on him. This is Q’s second worst weakness, especially against characters like Urien.
  • You need a lot of patience in order to be good with Q, and I highly recommend playing another character first and familiarizing yourself with the rest of the cast. It’ll save you a lot of headaches and frustration. This is coming from a dedicated Q main for years. ;(

Oro:

  • He has great mobility. He can fly very well, especially with his handy double jump. His dashes, both front and back, are incredibly fast. He can even outrun Geneijin!
  • Oro is very, VERY small. This comes in handy when it comes to ducking/dashing under jump-ins and crossups. He can actually front dash under fireballs!
  • His pokes are good enough that he can stand his ground and play footsies. His HK also does a lot of stun.
  • He has a deceptively large amount of stun(tied with Alex, Dudley, Q and Hugo).
  • SA2 is great for corner high/low mixup options, keeping the opponent away, and also for Unblockables.
  • SA3 is great in two ways: one for a high-damage juggle guaranteeing up to 50% damage in EX mode, and to chip away at a cornered opponent’s health with a series of block strings while SA3 is activated. You’re 95% guaranteed at least some damage.
  • Oro’s best juggles come from cl.MP, which you can mainly get from a parry or punishment situations. Outside of this though, Oro doesn’t have too much in terms of damage options.
  • His footsies are good, but not that great against better characters like Chun and Ken. Which reminds me…
  • …if you play against Chun, …well, good luck bro.

Twelve:

  • Very good in the air. Only character in the game to have an air dash.
  • His close range pokes are deceptively fast and good at annoying the opponent.
  • His throw is actually very fast, probably the fastest in the whole game.
  • He can actually walk under fireballs. His SA1 makes him duck extremely low: Corkscrew Blow will completely whiff on Twelve after he does SA1.
  • He is a very good hit-and-run character with quick close-range pokes and good air options. EX DRA is for the most part safe on block and he recovers moderately quick after.
  • XCOPY gives him an offense/defense boost, and is actually useful for some matchups.
  • His stamina is pretty bad.
  • Hit-and-run tactics are pretty much all he has. He has very little offensive options.
  • He has a good air game, but his air-to-air game isn’t too great and he will fall really bad to anti-air moves like SRKs.
  • All three of his Supers aren’t good, and you’ll be spending most of your time using EX moves to keep with your hit-and-away shenanigans. This is really bad for Twelve, since that pretty much means he will have virtually no chances of landing big damage combos.
  • Ken ruins Twelve so hard it’s not funny. Air EX Tatsu will beat Twelve’s air game, and the ground game is also completely in Ken’s favor.
  • Twelve in general takes a lot of patience to play, even moreso than Q. A lot of time and effort is devoted to just chipping away damage and running the clock. A very thankless character and not popular to play against.
    ± …I still say he’s still better than Sean, though.

hey, you’re the dude who sent me hate mail after our Chun mirror! I suggest playing Alex, stomping people to death is infinitely more fun than being angry.

This is a makoto question for you since you’re an OG of 3s. Is the best way to play makoto “random”? Cause I like her but im having trouble keeping my offense up when I score a knockdown or Post hayate.

mm, sort of!

She is probably the most offensive oriented character in the game. It’s good if your opponent sees your mixup as random, but you definitely need more reasoning behind your decision making than just doing things randomly. Tominaga is a good example of this because of the blatant 100% stun combo threat mind game he has. He will use karakusa setups, but instead of doing karakusa, he does raw SA2 instead to catch his opponent as they jump away. He uses peoples fear of the 100% stun combo to setup an SA2 without karakusa. You have to apply this logic to all your mixup situations.

eg. Post hayate

If you expect…

block low - karakusa, ex oroshi, IA ex tsurugi, mp oroshi x sa1?
block high - karakusa, c.lk x hayate (sa1?), c.fp
jump back - db.rh, j.rh/j.fp, early tsurugi
dash back - c.mp x hayate, dashup throw/karakusa
parry - karakusa, throw, parry bait normal x sa1/2

It’s hard to develop, but just got to get in the habit of remembering how they defend certain situations and use the best counter. The more creative the better.

Do I know you?

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/1241/xblc.png

pretty mild as far as grumpy mail goes but you also grumped at me on the mic and called me a coward as I recall. then ducked me in ranked for the rest of the morning! BM yo

Could someone do one of those pros/cons-posts for Urien and Makoto as well? I’m considering trying to pick one of them up when my exams are done because they both seem perteh awzum, although I’m being held back by the fact that I suck at charge moves and that I can’t reliably dash in this game.

…and speaking of that, is there anything more to dashing in 3S than just double-tapping the stick? This is probably the stupidest question in this entire thread, but I can’t seem to do it reliably, when I have no problems with doing it in other games. Is it just a question of timing?