Yeah, I don’t think I have it in me at this point to pull of ultra setups like that. I’d rather focus on the vortex and knockdowns, that would be utilizing Akuma’s full potential anyway, no? I was just curious about JR’s play because it seems like he might perform even better if he went for more knockdowns and sweep mix-ups.
Are you referring to Akuma’s super vs Akuma’s U1? Neither beats the other straight up. At a far distance super wins, point blank Ultra wins due to invincibility frames.
You shouldn’t throw this combo out hoping it hits. Save the signature combo for punishes and hit confirms. Poke opponents in open ground with cr.MK hadouken all day. Fuck the damage, Ryu does no different.
When it comes to getting a punish in footsies, sweeping a whiff is as effective as most of the damage you can do from a low forward. To add to my answer above for knowledge though; you can do cr.MK to EX hadouken which does an okay amount and gives you a knockdown of it’s own to pressure off. When you get more comfortable with Akuma you can teach yourself to do cr.MK hadouken FADC extensions to proper combos if you have something clear to hit with the cr.MK. If you’re doing it on anticipation the FADC would still allow you to close the difference and continue offence on block.
I use jab jab strong constantly and don’t see the reach as much of an issue. The cr.MP will whiff if it’s coming off crouch jabs from the tip of their reach but then how often are you using them at the edge of their range?
The longer you use Akuma the more comfortable you will become with judging the ranges on his stuff and adjusting your combo options appropriately. The majority of the time I want to link from jabs, they are in range for the cr.MP; when they are at a range where it will probably whiff I do cr.MK to hadouken instead and I know it’s not the end of the world if I miss the link. If I get DPd out of my cr.MK (does not happen often) then I note my opponent as a potential reversal masher and make following adjustments to wait for them and to apply baits.
Also since the LK tatsu whiffs from jab hit confirms if they are crouching (or get pushed out of tatsu range by cr.MP) I often combo off jabs with cr.MP to EX hadouken as my most frequent basic combo. It doesn’t do the damage of the LK tatsu HP Shoryu combo but again it still gives the knockdown to work with and doesn’t get punished if they were crouching when it hit or if I missed the link. You can also do a croucher combo with EX tatsu instead but while it does more damage than EX hadouken, I don’t like it coz you can’t do much with the knockdown.
I have an answer in the works for this but I can’t give it right away.
Wow thanks for going into so much detail, i’ve got to say the people on this particular forum are much more helpful and less snobbish than those on the Abel forum.
I think i’m much better suited to playing Akuma than Abel, I’ve only been playing him 3 days and i’m already beating B ranked players. I’ve got his hit confirms down pretty good, although not perfect, and i’m loving his vortex. Thanks for all the help guys.
The vortex is so easy to troll people with, I played an Abel earlier and I hardly let him get back on his feet. After two air tatsu crossups, he’d catch on but by that time i’d have switched to a normal aerial hk combo. I’ve noticed it doesn’t really matter that Akuma has low health because once they’re on the ground they can’t touch you anyway, lol.
DF grab is amazing vs Abel (beats ex rolls, ex tornado throws, ex falling sky and of course plain blocking), it really was broken in vanilla SF4 where you could even option select it lol, add some DF palm with an option selected sweep (which covers wakeup jumps and backdashes) and I would really hate to be in Able’s shoes on wakeup :P.
Some characters are great to vortex such as Abel, but there are some characters like Bison that are way more difficult to vortex (he has so many escape options that you have to guess which option select to use to shut them down), plus you gotta be extra careful vs characters with very good reversals, Akuma’s health disadvantage really shows when someone makes the right guess vs some of the vortex options, one right guess vs some characters is all they need to win, i.e playing vs Ryu with 2 bars and ultra , after you forward throw him, you can beat his reversal Shoryukens after 2 dashes with cross up tatsu, but if the Ryu player knew it’s coming, they’ll delay the shoryuken to get an auto-corrected non-reversal SRK FADC into ultra, which could very well be game over for Akuma.
So regarding the block string suggestions:
To be honest I do not vary my block strings much from the cr.LP, cr.LP, cr.MP staple. But I’ll try to pass on what I know.
cr.LK, cr.LK, cr.LP - cr.LP, cr.LK, cr.LP - cr.LK, cr.LP, cr.LK - cr.LP, cr.LK, cr.MP etc etc all have subtley different frame gaps from each other when not chained that when mixed up can sometimes catch out opponents buffering crouch techs that they think would be auto-guarded. I’m not a fan of the 3 light attack string myself because of the limitations that come from the pushback.
Pushback is a vital factor in block strings and it should be noted that shorts push the opponent back less than jabs. Used correctly, the right pushback can space you so that your opponents subsequent crouch tech or counter poke will unexpectedly (to them) be out of range and allow you to punish; but it is generally something to be minimised as much as possible. It’s kinda like a time limit on how long you can sustain your offense.
Tokido likes to use cr.LK into standing LK followed by either cr.LP or cr.MP as a frame trap. The standing LK is +2 on block, +5 on hit like crouch jab or crouch strong are. Both cr.LP and cr.MP can be linked if the LKs hit. I’m guessing the reason he does them is because of the reduced pushback.
There’s a multitude of options Akuma can use between hits in a string in order to mix things up with the opponent, but I don’t know if the linear strings really vary themselves that much. Another thing he can start a string with is cr.MP, cr.MP. There is a frame gap there where a slight delay can make it a good frame trap; again the pushback is pretty heavy.
Generally you should try to step forward and probe with another hit if the opponent allows you the time so that you don’t lose ground between you and them; and not go straight to a block string ender (if possible) when one frame trap fails.
One of the things I occassionlly do to end a block string when it breaks down is cr.MK to HP Shaku fireball to chip them. It has a decent frame situation on block that helps gives me a little more freedom with what I do next in the open ground game. Obviously this is a high risk thing to use and should be based on the opponent and how they are reacting as there are a large number of potential counters.
Standing roundhouse is also good to finish block strings in matches where it cannot be ducked since it gets you straight back on them and pushes them across the stage while you’re at it.
The real purpose of the block string is to counter your opponents attempts to defend your throws, attacks, overheads and other mix-ups when in close. So it’s not really about putting together a ‘good block string’ and just doing it when you get close to take your chip/hope it hits.
Some people defend by hitting{mashing} jabs to rob the frames from you and stop you walking forward for delay traps or throws, some hit{mash} crouch tech to stop your throws while also achieving what the jab does at a less effective rate, some mash standing tech/throw to defend your throws and throw you outta your delay/frame traps; others try to snyc up with the timing of your block string and safely buffer OS techs into the anticipated blockstuns. They can do these buffers with either early or late timing and it’s up to you figured out how to frame trap them accordingly.
I find the jabbers/standing techers/crouching techers {the mashers} most frustrating because you have to find a trap that is tight enough to stop their quick shit beating yours, but also not so tight that auto block saves their ass from the trap.
Stand techers can throw you if you are using frame traps for delayed plays, but standing loses to low attacks so if they like to stand tech then you need to add timed lows into your string to punish them when they stand to tech/throw. The low you use would depend on the pushback. A low short lets you hit-confirm or just continue stringing when you’re close; a cr.MK is at further range but will basicly push them back even further. Stand techs also lose to moves with throw invulnerability and can also be made to whiff by some tactics where the throw will lag enough to be punished.
There’s a legit reason to stand tech because unlike a crouch tech, every frame of the stand tech window when you input will defend throws. It’s possible to switch up the timing of your throw where you can throw them successfully even though they are crouch teching.
Jabs and crouch techs are frame trappable with cr.MP and will get you a counter hit if timed successfully. On counter hit cr.MP you have a link to a free cr.MK - EX fireball (knockdown), sweep (better knockdown) or double roundhouse (fat combo). Timing the frame trap right depends on when they are hitting their buttons. If you think they’ll delay and they instead do it straight away, then they’ll hit you and you’ll lose the momentum; if you time it for straight away and they delay at all, they’ll auto block and get pushed back.
[You have to do all of this while taking care not to get reversed by a dragon punch or some other reversal, which makes the job more difficult. If you pause to keep yourself protected from a reversal, the jab mashers win; if you commit to stop the jab mashers and techers, the reversal mashers win.]
A popular trap for those who have early timing on crouch tech, stand tech or jab that’s close to the frame gaps is to let their block stun come to an end and then blank SRK or EX tatsu them straight after. It beats all of them and does good damage if your timing is true; if you’re a bit early then it costs you your meter. Blocked EX tatsu is safe but basicly the end of your pressure. SRK is free if you’re right, expensive if you’re wrong; however you can dash cancel in if you so choose and not lose the distance on them when it’s blocked.
Going back to Shaku, another thing about it is that it combos off a counter hit crouch fierce. So a better way to use it is to do a crouch jab and then a cr.HP as a frame trap into the Shaku. They get combo’d and knocked down (275 damage in vanilla) if the trap works and you get a decent chip and a useful position if it doesn’t. It traps around early-to-medium crouch tech timing, try it out in training.
One blockstring tactic that can be quite useful against certain kinds of opponents is going into a short demon flip instead of your frame trap or throw attempt. It’s pretty effective when not expected since if they are focusing on sticking something out or delay teching then you can either flip throw them as they decide at the last moment to block having been caught off-guard (or throw them on their recovery if you flipped over a stand tech attempt of theirs) or use the dive kick to get back in with a chip and start another offensive wave. It can be quite deadly if the opponent respects your offense.
When the opponent gets pushed out by a bad frame trap towards the edge of low forward range, it gets into no mans land territory. It’s where players often jostle for position. You still have a slight movement advantage due to Akumas walk speed and the fleeting frame advantage of your last normal, but you’re at a point where they can just jump or backdash away if they don’t fancy it. They can poke you for trying to move in again, and you can whiff punish them for trying to poke. You can just cr.MK to fireball, take your chip, push them out and be done with it. Depends on the flow of the round.
Sometimes when I notice a pattern in their action at this space I will charge a focus here to catch the normal or just release if they do nothing and I get to dash in again.
Another thing that’s good at this point is jumping back in with a quick jab air fireball. In a similar fashion to the demon flip cancel above; if they stick something out they’ve often missed their chance to AA this (though it’s not that easy to AA to begin with) and while it rarely gives you a proper combo if it hits, it gets you back in.
When you’re familiar enough with Akuma and are able to start using TK air fireballs; the TK EX air fireball is a fantastic option at both the close ranges and that little bit further out. Essentially it’s much like Cammy or Rufus quickly dive kicking straight back in when they end up outside the jab tick range. In close; it rapes stand tech and slightly delayed crouch tech and often catches most of the stuff they are sticking out at the time. When it does get blocked, you’re right back in there regardless.
is c.lp -> cs.hp some sort of frame trap? I get an awesome amount of counterhits from it.
I have the exact same thing. Ill look up the framedata on it.
cr.lp is +2 on block, and cs.hp has 4 frame startup. So assuming they immediatly do a crouch tech after you cr.lp , it IS a frametrap right? By the time their cr.lk would come out, your cs.hp would already have started 2 frames.
I’m not well versed in frame data analysis, but it seems to be a good trap for crouch-teching like you said. I think it can get SRK-mashed though.
It is a frame trap. A crappy one, since (assuming you aren’t guessing if its gonna hit) it has long ass recovery if you don’t special cancel it. You should always prefer c.lp, c.mp as a frametrap that leads to some kind of combo.
Yeah it can be SRK mashed, but everything that is NOT a cr.lp/cr.lk cancel can. I think spidey is right too. You can make this a so-so blockstring/frametrap by cancelling it into hadouken, but cr.mp is way better to use for frametraps. A small advantage however is that a hadouken after cs.hp is actually non SRK mashable, but it is possible to mash SRK’s during the cancel between cr.mp and hadouken.
Yeah, well c.lp, s.fp is only used as a hit confirm. You see them blocking? finish with hadoken. See them got hit? lk tatsu etc. Crouching? fp/ex srk.
So I’m running through some combos here for practice and I noticed some weird damage differences.
The combo I’m playing with is cs.fierce xx gohado FADC cs.fierce xx short tatsu, fierce goshoryu.
The highest I got with it was ~ 400 but sometimes it’ll register down at like ~ 300. Any explanation why this would be happening?
You either missed your combo after hado fadc so s.fp, lk tatsu, fp srk would be ~300 or you dropped Ryu’s health so that guts (or whatever its called in sf) kick in and reduce his dmg taken.
Guts was what it was. The dummy was on autoblock so it ruled out dropped combos. I tested the combo on abel with full health netting 370 damage and again with ~50% health netting ~344 damage. So I guess I dipped him down to nothing from practice and noticed that the combo’s damage had been reduced. Thanks, spidey.
I did Super nearly point blank and beat it out. Maybe I got lucky
Im making another “Why I Love The Raging Demon” video, it’ll be in there
I need some suggestions on music tho
New Akuma here. What should I do in a situation where me and the opponent are crouching and not doing anything? I tried doing demon flips but I get anti-aired and knocked out of overhead attempts. Also, how can I get in to attack the opponent without taking significant damage? I don’t jump much, but it’s really difficult not to since I’m not great at footsies 
Get better at footsies. Use more fireballs. Random demon flips are worse than random jumps if your opponent has decent reactions.
Why do people prefer to FADC a shoryuken into a shaku if just doing an EX shoryuken does more damage?
About the super and ultra1 thing, I’m pretty sure it’s simply whoever does the demon second wins.