Hong Kong will be getting AE on Saturday… at least the main SF4 place… that i rarely go to (simply because it’s not in my way… and i still haven’t dominated everyone in the "intermediate arcade… but i played there around a month ago… did much better than before… but it’s obvious the competition level is higher and i don’t need to rush into that now)
anyways… I WON’T be going on saturday… simply because… I’m too busy with personal stuff and i know every single HK player will be going there this Saturday… and I really don’t feel like waiting 2 hours to play 2 games…
however… I will be going during Monday lunch time… when i expect much less people… hopefully will have a more comprehensive report by then.
hop is laregely ineffective vs top level play unless vs a downed opponent so im’ not too fussed! better slide interests me, most people don’t fear the slide since its so punishable on block, if its improved it will slow their offense as they will focus fish for it whereas currently there’s no need to.
all i know is… T SRAI uses hop a lot… i think there’s a time and place for everything… with hop effectiveness you kinda need some conditioning to make it work.
a bit off topic… last night was playing against this guile player… he kept focusing my ex rainbow ball… and land an ultra after that… after a few times of that… i’ve adapted… instead of not using it at all i decided to use it as a reversal… and smacked him for trying to focus it everytime… later on he kinda got scared of focusing then it made my ex rainbow effective again as a spacing tool and as an offense tool… (despite what others say… i still use it as an attack sometimes depending on opponent)
i can upload vids where i land hops vs decent players, but equally i can upload vids where it gets stopped dead by players slightly better than that. i played bush80 last night , he uses chun, he cr.lp’d me out of everyhop /ball bs trick i threw at him. That matchup is such a grind.
also your guile opponent is stupid . yes i focus the old ex rainbow reversal (smexy millz uses this vs me cos i’m stupid) but usually only once or twice in the first game before i remember to actually not FA reversal rainbow cos its easy to see coming.
I use the reversal ex rainbow to break focus too. If I use it to escape and see them charging focus ill hit them with it next time. People have a habit of focusing every time they see the rainbow roll, I know I do. Its funny how long you can get away with it in long sets against even decent players.
Guile player yeah he’s a bit dumb for getting smacked by rainbow so much he was scared of it. I felt towards the end he didn’t know I he should focus or not but if he’s only blocking he’s scared of cross up or fient it was dumb but very amusing to me lol…
As for hop… All I said was there’s a time and place for it and against certain players works better than others… Doesn’t mean you must use it against everyone… But to comletely shut it out you’re just losing your options
Noone I knows uses focus against rainbow balls because I’m the only Blanka player here and I never use that move.
[edit] Actually I lie. I use mp rainbow after a f.throw because you can go for a mixup. either do lp.elect, tick/empty throw, or jump over for a cross up mk. then the next time do hp rainbow which puts you out of range of reversal, neutral jump and throws.
These are comments on Blanka in AE. One of the posts at the bottom is insinuating that they think Blanka’s cr.LK and cr.MK got faster and it’s easy to combo into U1 now. Also, this person thinks cr.MP and cr.HP startup got quicker.
Still, take this with a grain of salt, and could someone with better Japanese skills take a look?
LAU-HK: you can use ex rainbowball to close distance between you and your opponent, if you encounter a player that likes to focus Rainbow ball watch his movements after the focus, if he dashes forward or back, and try to land barely in front or behind him.
Depending on your proximity you can cr. lk electricity, jab electricity, cr roundhouse, or hop at your opponent. It can also be used to bait out attacks…
MULLAH: hop is still effective at high level play, it just needs to be used in the right situations…
honestly blocked hp ball didn’t look too bad. i thought it’d be blocked u1 close, but it’s not. i can see it being punished by a few new things tho. we shall see
Illusion Spark for starters. I also see Metsu Hado, Ultra Demon, Flying Giga Buster, Rolling Thunder, and Flaming Tatsu as new potential Ultra punishes on blocked strong/fierce balls.
