^I’ll try against Cammy again tonight to get the exact timing written, but I was mashing kick ASAP.
For delays, I usually delay kick against CViper since I think she gets up late.
For dudley:
F. Throw>Dash once>HK DF kick, delay the kick as long as possible. It’ll stuff all of his wakeup options except counter (dunno the real name) and ex upper. Unfortunately, I dunno about his ultras. If he decides to focus, you could easily switch it up to a throw.
looks useless to me.
+1
2characters
huh?
It’s useless because you can stuff all non-ex dps by dudley with anything since they don’t have invuln. and no dudley that has a clue of what he is doing will ever do any dp on wakeup that isn’t EX. On top of that, it’s really not ambiguous AT ALL since anyone can see that you’re coming from the front AND it loses to his counter move. And to be honest, I don’t think you’re close enough and/or have the right timing for a df throw with that setups.
I just wanted to cut it short ----> completely useless
Dudley wakes up a frame slower after forward throw, so after that you can:
-x2 dashes, immediate j.hk (input the kick as late as possible otherwise it will whiff) will safejump his 4 frame EX Jet Upper and will beat his counter (for some reason that thing seems to lose to meaty jump-ins).
-x2 dashes immediate DF palm will also safejump his 4 frame EX Jet Upper
Pretty sure adding an OS sweep will beat all of his options except blocking.
Superlollo, i understood your message hehe.
I didn`t understand MooiRoy’s message.
Ok my contribution to this thread. Safe/Empty jump mix ups and Safe Palm/Flip mix ups.
I am writing this late at night so if something sounds funny let me know.
Safe jump
One of the most basic pressure tools, this is rather straight forward. After a knock down time your jump as late as possible so that your attack connects the first frame your foe stands up from a knockdown. Make sure you are almost to the ground when you attack hits. It takes some practice, but isn’t too hard to learn.
When you couple this with option selects like sweep this becomes a great way to train your opponent to block high on wake up which sets up your mix up game. Make sure when you perform this that you try to time it so your press the button for your air attack at the last moment possible.
This alone is not a mix up, but instead it is a tool to safely keep the pressure on and set up future mix ups. It also helps set up the cross up Tatsu since foes will be more reluctant to reversal.
Empty jump into Low
This is how you can create a mix up using the safe jump. After training your foe to block high this is one way to take advantage of that. The way you perform this mix up is to jump at your foe with the same timing as a safe jump. Instead of attacking in the air you do nothing till you hit the ground. Upon hitting the ground
cr.LK+LP, c.LP, (Finish hit confirm)
In addition if you change your input to
cr. LK+LP, .cr.HK, c.LP, (Finish hit confirm)
It adds in a OS Sweep to catch back dashes.
This catches players who are blocking high. If you set up your foe correctly, this set up is very difficult to react to. The counters to this are actually somewhat counter intuitive at times. Instead of using a reversal the other character has to grab or FA Back dash to get out.
You can actually do a reverse set up against Ryu and Ken. The empty jump is safe to even SRKs if performed properly. So if you condition Ryu and Ken not to reversal and to block low then you can sneak in a jumping attack once in a while for a large combo.
It takes a little practice and also should be carefully used against players who don’t learn.
Empty Jump into SRK
This is a response to grabs and other anti-low counters. In addition against several characters it beats their reversals clean. It is straight forward to do. The only catch is you need two bars to make it safe. You have plenty of time to hit confirm before canceling. It is advisable that you do not burn the bars without good reason.
Safe Palm
Exactly like the safe jump except you use a demon flip palm instead. The advantage of this is that it is armor breaking and also sets up for the demon flip grab. The knockdown from this move is both a blessing and a curse. It is great in that it sets up for further mix ups, but at the same time the safe jump produces more damage from one hit.
I personally try to use both Safe Palm and Safe Jump as it only furthers your options for mix ups.
Empty Palm into low.
While not as good as it’s empty jump counter part, this can be a good mix up once in a while. They key to this mix up is to time you demon flip with the same timing as a safe palm, but instead of pressing the palm button on time to hit your foe. You instead time it early so the palm whiffs.
The advantage of this over the empty jump is it looks like you are going to hit with an overhead, but instead go low. The major disadvantage; however, is that you have the 4 frames of recovery instead of the 2 frames so it is easier to counter if you foe sniffs it out.
Demon Flip Grab
I don’t need to go into much detail. After training someone to block the Safe palm, throw this in to make them think twice about just blocking. By keeping a balanced mix up you will start to find even your safe palm either starts hitting or you foe tries to reversal it.
Those are your basic empty/safe mix ups. IMO those are the most important techniques to learn because they open up Akuma’s remaining arsenal of mix ups.
Is there a technique, such as whiffing a normal, or something, that helps with the timing?
Yes there actually are. The normals you whiff are dependent on the knockdown. I honestly can’t tell you what they are because I don’t use them.
I personally don’t like using them because I feel they tip my hand. I will use them for hard to time set ups like unblockables, but for safe jumps I prefer not to.
Wat.
Why? Explain?
I started to find that many players caught on to the use of normals for timing purposes as a way to figure out what set up you are using in advance. Especially if there is only one set up off of a given normal.
For instance a player I know figured out if Akuma performs two dashes after a forward throw that means a cross up Tatsu is coming, a single dash usually mean a safe jump etc. While this doesn’t let them escape necessarily, it gives them more time to read your plan.
I am just a believer of hiding your plan until the last moment possible. I am not saying for other players not to use normals to time their attacks, just personally I don’t like using them for anything that is easy to time.
What? Tell that player if he keeps doing that then he is going to get hit by a j.hk because akuma can do a safe jump after 2 dashes after a forward throw on most characters. The technique that is really predictable is double forward kick after roundhouse, it is also really easy to beat.
Your hand is being tipped due to lack of mixup. If all you ever do is 2Xdash X-up tatsu then players will catch on to that tendancy. All setups need to be mixed up, so 2Xdash into jump HK or dive kick to keep the opponent from reading the setup.
Although I’ve been playing akuma for the longest time now, i still find it that i play like I’m on autopilot every time. Sometimes i tend to do the same 3 mixups over and over rather than trying for more tricky stuff but I guess thats just me.
I just gave a simple example I am not saying I have had trouble with it, but I know other players including top level players like Air watch for whiffed normals to sniff out potential set ups.
IMO I don’t like giving my foe any sort of information that I don’t need to and in the case of things like safe jumps or other techniques that are not difficult to time I prefer not to.
I am not condemning other players for doing so. I am just saying I will not be incorporating it into my style.
(off the top of my head) In the corner, after a f.grab, my friend likes to do the dash, dash, jump setup (ala Tokido): from there he can either do early j.LK for fake cross up or j.MK to cross up. If he knows I’m expecting that though, he will go for an empty jump short or even empty jump throw to keep me guessing.
EDIT: it does make sense for Viper though, since whiffing normals don’t give you enough time to go for a jump crossup attack.
And I simply gave the reason as to why watching whiffed normals can work (predictability) and what needs to be done to prevent that tactic from being successful.(mixup)
But doesn’t Akuma have more options than just x-up tatsu off the double-dash setup? Why would that “tip” your opponent as to what you’re about to do? At best, he’d be guessing on a probability equal to the amount of options you have off that setup. I can count three off the top of my head so he’d have a 33% chance of successfully guessing what you’re going to do.
That hardly seems like you’d be broadcasting your strategies… Then again, I don’t do tournaments so… 