His air short is like a terrible version of Dee Jay’s knee shot.
Fast startup and some decent active frames (9).
It nets me counter hits quick often.
I would like to ask the Paul board a question
What buffs do you think that Paul needs to receive in order to be a “decent” character
I think just a slight buff to his movement and dashes
and giving Ex Shedder enough Invincibility to be a viable anti Air would actually be enough to get the job done
Okay, so this post is going to be a bit equal parts general strategy and team synergy, but bear with me :D.
Started playing SFxT with a lot of Marduk, moving back and forth who I wanted to be my point character. Eventually settled on Julia who is a whole bunch of fun with party crasher cancels and full screen mid set ups for lots of damage. However, I was always super interested in Paul, but I never really found a proper way to utilize him. Paul/Marduk just seemed like a bad time for me >.<, so I was trying Julia/Paul for a long while. Thing is, their goals just didn’t seem to match up very well. Julia just didn’t really have good opportunities to bring Paul in for solid offense that she couldn’t do herself. So I was kind of back to a sort of limbo with Paul’s status.
Flash-forward to now, and I’m really digging Abel/Paul. Never was a big Abel player in SF4 (Hakan mainly,) but I was always interested in him. This team seems to work really well though, and I feel like there’s a bunch of stuff that I’ll continue to figure out with the team. More importantly though, I feel like it truly makes Paul shine and really makes me see how decent Paul can be.
Essentially, Abel spaces and uses step kick and footsies to do decent damage and get Paul into really solid positions. Paul can also set decent scenarios for Abel to get back in for pressure. Meter can be used for more damaging combos, but I mostly use it (at least when playing Abel) for tagging off the first hit of cl.HP. Sets up Paul for f.HP xxSmasher/df.HK mix ups very well. You can also do jump in cross ups or nj.HP set ups or just go for st.LP/cl.MP for a +5 advantage into whatever you like. If I have no meter with Abel, I usually transition from step kick into cr.LK x2, chain into launch for a decent damage Paul combo or just build meter with a BnB Abel combo. You can also launch directly off of step kick > cl.HP but it’s riskier if you don’t have the meter just in case.
Honestly it helps me realize a lot of Paul’s strengths. Just like Rolento, st.LP pressure is amazing. If they get impatient, you can confirm with like max 4 jabs into cr.MK xx Raze, cr.MK xx Smasher for around 300 damage. Once they realize how good Paul’s jab is, you can use the hesitation to go into f.HP xx Smasher, or df.HK, P.
Normally, the df.HK, P wouldn’t seem worth it, but it actually allows for a pretty solid Oki situation. After df.HK, P… stagger a bit, then HP mortar. If they quick wake up, you get a meaty mortar for at least +3 (usually more.) If they don’t do anything, they have to choose to roll or not and either way they get set up for a pretty nasty mix up game. Especially considering that between Paul’s j.MK and j.HK, he has a fairly confusing jump-in game. If they roll it just depends on where you walk whether a meaty cl.MP will cross up or not.
Couple other small things.
-If you tag cancel a smasher on hit, Abel will come in and run ALL the way up to the opponent, pretty much negating any chasing you have to do as Paul.
-You can also cr.LK x2, then walk up for cl.HP as Abel and tag cancel it.
-Tag cancel mortar punch to get back in as Abel.
Just some food for thought. Still learning the team and Paul though.
paul’s s.lp is indeed his best tool (cl.mp is also very decent). just a side note: you can hk raze after a smasher to safely close the distance to your opponent and build some meter on top.
I think it’s too early to clearly state what he needs, but nothing wrong with discussing things.^^ some stuff is obviously wrong, the most aching to me are his walk speed, which is far from any logic as he doesn’t do that much damage, nor has he a command grab / instant dive kick overhead thing or crazy combo potencial and his a2a game. this actually hurts me the most. j.mp needs to be 4 frames faster (5 frame startup then), or change j.lp to a j.mp animation (like cody’s j.lp). in generall he could use less frames on startup for many of his moves. shredder need to have half of the startup to be of any usage, ex version needs 5 frames and 6 invin frames or that special is doomed to be a waste of command slots. this would also give him a better anti air game. morta could be faster as the risk/reward is very bad (slowmo recovery frames, on hit only 90 damage). wouldn’t mind a chargable phoenix smasher with armor, can’t see what’s wrong about that seeing marduk, zangief and hugo having them, while being prolly faster then paul >_>
ah yeah, and do something about mp and hp sway, they are just like shredder. too slow and non rewarding to be of any use currently. I’d like to have hp sway a wall bounce on counter hit and mp sway replaced with a “forward sway” [in tekken he has something like this as well), would yield some nifty pressure.
Quick question: in between rounds, characters can do a cut-scene/pose. Paul seems to have, one of which is screaming his own name at the top of lungs…
I managed to destroy a Ryu/Ken player with Paul in the 1st round and he had the mic on. He was going ballistic when Paul started screaming, so I was hoping there is a button or input so Paul does that pose every time?
I’m guessing probably not: and winning with Paul can be hard enough already, but I think I’m sticking with him!
If I remember correctly you could force a win pose in tekken depdening on the button pressed. dunno for SFxT tho. you could give it a try.
I dunno, playing paul feels just so rewarding. I love his combos and corner pressure. c.hp xx mp morta looks so boss.
I’d wish I could use cl.mp, c.hp more often, but it requires very close distance so I usually stick with cl.mp, c.mp.
I always play Paul in non serious matches and I agree with you guys that he feels rewarding
but I still feel like I am playing half of a character He just does not have all the tools that other characters have.
Heihachi in particular is like paul but better in every single way.
I just hate it because Paul is my favorite character It’s a shame capcom did this to him
Don’t know either. At least they could have given him a sway or step, like Kazuya, Jin and Hwoarang.
Now I have to time the Mountain Raze to keep it safe, especially against Guile and Chun Li, since they recover so fast. But it’s nice to viciously knee them in the face 
And Paul feels rewarding too! It sucks when you have to continually chase people around the screen, but it feels double sweet when you get that KO, especially with the Super! Osu!
Funny, I said the exact same thing to a friend: “Paul is a bad Heihachi” x)
And I also hate capcom for what they did to paul. not only due to the fact that he is weaksauce but about his looks as well. It’s hard to see how they dumb down a character that you play for over 16 years.
I don’t mind the goofiness too much, but they did go overboard with Paul and Law. They were a couple with nice comedy value, but they look like total mooks right now… oh well, the worse it feels when people lose to Paul 
~_~
Dos eyebrows
I dunno, he’s easily my favorite character both in terms of style and gameplay =)
I would like them to fix the hitbox on standing short. If they make the hitbox at the tip of his foot, and speed it up by a frame it would be much more useful as a poke.
Also, make his moving forward speed faster. He back off fast with his sway anyways.
Something that I thought was kinda cool: If you chain from any blocked medium attack to a far standing heavy punch, there is a 1 or 2 frame gap between the two hits, 3 frame jabs get stuffed. One might think this is horrible because someone can mash a reversal during your blocked chain, but far standing heavy punch crumples on standing counter hit, so there’s potential for a nice followup there if they’re pressing buttons. I’m not sure how you could really make them want to mash buttons at that point, though. You could stand jab pressure for a bit and go for a st.mp/cr.mk chained into fs.hp canceled into EX sway, if the st.hp crumples the EX sway combos, and you can follow with J.HK, F+MP, st.hp xx smasher for 434 damage. If they block the EX Sway, you’re left at +2. Seems like a nice little setup to bring out if you think your opponent might fall for it, especially if they aren’t accustomed to the properties of EX Sway.
Another option after Deathfist is to jump forward and immediately land and DP+HP. This will put you right on top of the opponent. Typically, opponent’s don;t roll forward after a Deathfist except when time is running down and you are in the lead. This forces them to get up into a -3 scenario. If they like to wakeup and reverse, simply DP+MP or LP to make them whiff. Solid mixup in Paul’s favor.
His walk speed is the least of my concerns. His primary issue is getting out of pressure strings, and this is because he has no true reversal. Alpha Counter is good and all, but we already know they are far harder to perform on light attacks than heavy attacks, and this is where he has the most problems. Shredder doesn’t actually reverse and Raze is meant for combos and alternative enders which trade damage for better positioning and advantage.
What Paul really needs, more than anything, is for his Sway options to work properly. There is simply not enough invulnerability on his Sway variants. 5F strike invuln on LP, 3F on MP/HP, and 4F on EX is simply not enough. LP Sway should be 7-10F STRIKE invuln (both high and low), while MP/HP should retain their low invuln frames but be 100% throw invuln (including SPDs). EX Sway should be Paul’s Messiah Kick. Basically, completely throw and strike invuln on the way back starting from the first frame. In addition, MP Sway should not only move forward more on the return, but also give enough advantage on hit to connect a c.MP on hit. HP Sway should knock upwards. While it should not allow Paul any combo abilities himself, it should knock the opponent high enough so that on a tag cancel, the opponent can come in comboing. These options alone would make pressuring Paul (especially with repeated LP’s) require more thought.
Secondly, the recovery frames on his forward dash need to be reduced. This is why he is so slow in moving forward… AND why his Deathfist dash cancels are so slow (and obvious)… thus, making his pressure more obvious than say, Ryu’s tremendous dash cancel options. If Paul’s walk speed was any faster, his LP pressure would be ridiculous (and it’s already quite good). Remember, +5 on block, +9 on hit - that is amazing (and one of his most under appreciated and overlooked tools). However, if his dash recovered around 5-7F quicker, not only would his forward momentum gain a very respectable boost, but his mixups in-close would also gain considerable ground.
These are two simple data changes that would have a tremendous effect on Paul’s viability. Any changes beyond that and Paul starts getting into “too good” territory (assuming the above changes were made). It’s really just about Sway not actually avoiding anything in cases where it should, thus making it a relatively useless move, and his forward momentum AND dash cancels suffering because of the recovery of his dash.
As most Paul players know, his air to air options aren’t anything to write home about (especially the jump MP like you mentioned), but that’s actually fine with me. I have taught myself to only use j.LK (which is quite awesome), and nj.HP/HK. While I would love better “everything”, I think looking at the the tiny changes that could make the biggest impact is the way to go.
That being said, the odds of Capcom changing anything for SFxT are quite low (so I hear), but there is always a possibility. We can always just hack it on PC =D.
This is an interesting trick. One option you might want to try after the CH far HP is DP+MP (or DP+HP, both will typically hit), then c.HP > Deathfist. You can also c.MP, c.MK > Deathfist midscreen. In corner, DP+MP, c.MP, c.MP, c.HP > Deathfist. You don’t want to use DP+HP here as you will go behind them and pop them out of the corner.
The EX sway is a really nice option for the reasons you mentioned (Over 400 dmg with the combo!).
I do hp morta on wakeup as well, but it can be easily avoided by a mediocre backdash, leaving him vulnerable for any followup.
played 8 hours straight offline today again against multiply ppl, as soon as they get to know paul and how they can easily avoid nearly all his mixup it’s a pain in the ass to actually score damage. even worse when they realize that paul has no defense apart from cross cancel and start to s.lp and crossup all day long. I love how they say “paul is good enough with dat damage” when I spend 3 meter for a ex sway, j.hk, f.mp, s.hp xx super ~_~
i hate capcom ._.
Ditto on the usefulness of sway. I’m really fine with most of his other options, but there’s really no reason to use mp or hp sway. Even lp sway is super limited in its invincibility. Yes, it seems quicker and longer than his backdash, but still has less invulnerability. Even my ex sways will get stuffed so much.
Mp sway can’t even combo on CH, and seems like it should obviously be a mid. Honestly I feel like all versions of sway should be a command dash, then give him the different follow ups out of it. You could throw a low option in there too.
I would be surprised if they don’t offer any continued support for tweaks and balancing though. I mean they’re already planning for infinite fixes. But personally I feel like Paul is a lot more solid than people give him credit for. His jab pressure is awesome (and yields more damage than rolento’s), and completely allows him to mix in his command low and overheads pretty well.
Also, even though his A2As suck, I feel like his cr.HP is actually a lot more versatile than people think. Ive been getting more and more opponents who are practically directly on top of me with it. It can catch a bunch of different jump in angles with the right timing.
I really wish he was able to get sweep off of raze though
guys, any ideas how do i deal with rufus’s dive kick pressure?