I was able to combo c.MK > Fireball > RED Focus > U1. Though in the same situation I found c.MK Fireball FADC U2 was a better damage option for less bar.
s.HP > Red focus > U1 is the highest damage combo you can do if U1 has enough meter.
Hi guys, i played the latest ultra build last friday and i’ve found what it seems an undocumented buff (or maybe i’m too old and didnt see this around); Akuma’s FAR standing HP is now special cancellable and does combo with hadou for some nice frame traps opportunities (it is now an even greater tool against those chars that like to dive kick during block strings).
I will try to capture some footage this week to let you see it in action.
The smk is very usable during hit confirms, cause it triggers (i mean te close animation instead the far mk one) from more range then say the hp (A LOT MORE); it works for example on Balrog after lk,lp.
1st : “joined 3 years ago” , “posts:1” , wtf…
2nd : Interesting new cancel-able normal this far HP, indeed, wonder if it’ll combo after a FADC ball from a range where cl.Hp wouldn’t. But against dive kick the best you will get is an air reset, just like it already do.
You seem to mean that cl.mk got a range buff, if I remember correctly, I never saw cl.mk hit a Boxer stand or crouch after 2 cr.lights. I’ll need to recheck that though.
Damn, that is awesome. I loved that property in SFxT (despite loathing the game beyond measure) and it was something I was hoping might find it’s way into Ultra. Very cool (and surprising) to hear it’s actually implemented!
Here’s hoping it sticks - the trend lately has been to buff then take away by the sounds of things though I’m really hoping they are on the game’s final stretch.
If that is true that makes for some very interesting frame traps and counter poking.
A further true fireball string as well? 
Well what I am thinking is that s.HP is actually a good counter poke, but being a fierce normal you might be able to counter poke into EX Fireball to start your offense.
That’s one problem Akuma has right now is that the only whiff punish tool he has that leads into anything is sweep. Which isn’t a problem in AE 2012, but in USF4 that would be an issue. But if he got this buff it makes s.HP a rewarding counter poke.
far.HP xx U2, me crying…
Kim1234 says on twitter that he heard this change as well from the NWM build.
Damn Sol, that counter poke would probably be 350+ stun!
Just back from ECT (my 1st major)
- tied for 9th place
now for my observations of Ultra
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gonna b a little harder to win, at least until I get used to DWU
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MP, HP SRK 2nd hit FADC, and sweep demon cancel are indeed gone
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cl.mk xx tatsu hit on a crouching Guy
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DWU seemed to benefit me more and confuse the defender, also DWU is a HUGE momentum killer (I actually felt nervous jumping in)
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Rolento…the. most. boring. matchup. I have ever played
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also I got to ask Combofiend about fixing Akuma and Gouken’s themes. He was like “Huh…thats really weird”…way to be vague…is the request weird, or is having 3 ryu themes in the same game weird…capcom has taught u well peter
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Combofiend denied this, but I think we got a stun buff. I was taking a lot of hits in some matches and it seemed like it took a lot more to stun Akuma
Well Done man and cheers for your findings!
So crouching characters that cs.mk xx tatsu whiffs on:
Ryu, Akuma
And works on:
Poision, Bison, Guy
someone said that cl.mk xx tatsu didnt work on standing ryu in 2012, and i tested it and it hits
over 350 stun + a soft knockdown you can actually get a set up off of.
Man imagine this: cross up tatsu > fs.HP xx MK demon flip xx EX air fireball for continued pressure.
Redking, I hope to god you are right and you ain’t lying to me because a cancellable St.HP is one sick buff.
I’m going to break down why a St.HP buff would be really good and make Akuma back to the tier level where he belongs. Keep in mind the calculations are based on the assumption that nothing else has changed with St.HP another than it is now special cancellable.
Currently Akuma’s St.HP has 6 frame startup with 120 damage with 16 frames of recovery (only 3 more than cr.MK). It’s a really sexy poke honestly. Low very active at 3 active frames but it’s good. I hope they added one more active frame on that move I’d be so freaking happy. Anyway…
Currently we can already do counter hit St.HP into sweep. Other than that, we would only use this button for anti-air.
If we cancel St.HP into fireball (60) that is immediately 180 off a mid range poke. The only meter-less cancel close to that damage would be Cammy’s low forward into spiral arrow at 185 (65 low forward, 120 heavy spiral arrow). I honestly don’t know of a higher damaging meter-less cancel than that.
However let’s say we FADC that St.HP string into a cr.mk into tatsu and link heavy shoryuken. Calculating the damage using the current scaling (48+49+90) that’s 367 off of a far mid range poke with two meters. That’s excellent. However let’s get greedy and say we link a Cl.St fierce instead of the cr.mk (80+49+90) that is 407 two meters from a single 6f poke!!! We are already used to poking that far with sweep we would only have to change that to St.HP.
Let’s make it even more relevant and practical.
Our infamous frame trap. cr.MK into cr.HK.
Let’s replace that cr.HP with a St.HP and we get a counter hit St.HP with 150 damage. Cancel St.HP from there into fireball and that is
cr.MP(60) CH St.HP(150) xx fireball (48) is 258 off of that string alone.
Let’s FADC that new counter poke setup into our new further range Cl.St.Mk (because it will be very likely to connect and just in case its a crouching opponent) Cl.St.MK xx Lk tatsu link HP Shoryuken. (49+42+75). That is a 424 damage from what we are used to doing to get a knockdown. Solely off of two meters.
Another Combo I would think we can do theoretically would be St.HP xx Fireball Red Focus. We could get a crumple we can get Ultra 1 (Wrath of the Raging Demon) for really good damage I can assume (however I can’t calculate the damage because I’m missing some variables.)
Let’s get a bit crazier.
Now all of Akuma’s normals are Ultra cancellable (except cr.HK into USF4).
Let’s say if someone gets desperate and tries to focus ST.HP and our cancel into a fireball or tatsu won’t come out fast enough. (I’m sure the HK tatsu cancel will be quick enough at 4 frame start-up but just in case.) If St.HP was always hit with plinked with jab and we react to the focus with an Ultra cancel, with currently damage scaling it will be a max potential damage of 640 (Most likely 620 in terms of scaling) … That is insane.
Other great use of this ability will be while pressed in the corner trying to find an escape. Poke with ST.HP into HK demon flip and even on block it can be used for a max distance escape. It is much further than cr.mk so it will be really good to use.
we also got a further AND easier cancel into Ultra 2 due to the amount of hitstun.
All really strong options. I hope they don’t read these forum posts lol.
Yeah… That’s a buff worth noting.
I would love this buff more than anything so far because than all the damage we are used to getting off of sweep and the following knockdown setup, we can still get while playing good footies. I don’t know about you guys but I would be spamming ST.HP buffered into fireball at the mid range like current Oni players.
I think the new Akuma strategy will be to zone to about 40-50% (basically before the opponent gets ultra) into with strong grounded pokes of St.HP, St.HK, cr.HK and ground, air, and red fireballs until we gain two meters. Frame trap with St.MK and St.HP, burn the two meters and strip away about 30%-40% more and finish off the remaining a few percent with a setup of some kind whether it be a meaty beating the delayed wake-up or sweep into our usual ambitious 50/50 safe jump setup. This strategy wouldn’t have to involve setups or learning new demon flip shenanigans and make Akuma a much better character than the 2012 edition in my personal opinion.
I was currently debating whether if I was going to use Oni as a main with Akuma a secondary in USF4. All due to the damage we are use to getting sequentially will be voided with setups nerfed due to delayed wake-up and jump back fireball nerf makes zoning not as dependable. We wouldn’t be doing any significant damage in the mid range outside of St.HK and lose a lot of match-ups Akuma was winning solely due to damage output and setups in my personal opinion. I.E. Balrog, Vega, hell most charge characters except e honda. I wasn’t not surprised when I heard rumors that Chun Li beats Akuma now because outside of knockdowns and great fireball zoning, I personally don’t see Akuma hitting her often.).
However if we keep this buff I’m definitely sticking to my main Akuma. I was only going to switch to Oni so l say I’m a Gouki main because I love the character but I need my big damage lol and I damn sure wasn’t confident with Akuma before hearing the St.HP buff. I don’t think I’m a bad player, most certainly not the greatest but I have played Smug da beast at next level battle circuit and it went to last game, last round. So I’d like to say I know what I’m doing but honestly I’m still a scrub xD. I’m really hyped now. I can’t wait for USF4 if Akuma has that buff. So ready.
**ALSO VolcanicAkuma congrats on your top 16 performance on your break out tournament! Great job man! I’m Devon on the capcom-unity forum btw if you remember me. **
Well here is some of the uses I’m thinking of.
S.HP beats a lot of high hitting normals. Chun’s s.MP or Cody’s f.HK for instance. Right now unless it counter hits though, you just get the 120 and call it good. But now you can stick it out and buffer EX Fireball. If it hits it will do something like 240-270 depending on CH which is a huge amount of damage for a counter poke, BUT Akuma actually has a legit set up game off the EX Fireball knockdown and that won’t change in USF4.
So in a footsie situation you can basically call out someone’s poke for 25% of their life and a set up. That’s massive if it works!
Damn I wish I knew about this at the NWM. I would have loved to try this out!
No lies, the buff is in there and is a good one too; against dive chars (Rufus or Yun to be more precise) u dont use it only as an anti air but as an anti “take off” during pressure strings to prevent them to leave the ground; making it special cancellable (hadou+fdc bnb) is a good plus.
About the standing clmk what i was saying is that it triggers form further distance so u can effectively deal good damage (or setup okizeme) from almost every hitconfirm (once u get used to the new strings); which is another big buff.
About DW, i played some matches and even if i was focusing on other elements i could react to the “tech” a good amount of times, of course not timing safe jumps but timing at last a mixup or a move that let me keep the offensive momentum.
The demon flip helps alot in this, lots of times i could setup a df palm and switch to a df dkick if i saw a “tech”.
More research this week i hope, maybe some vids too.
About the “3 years 1 post”, well i didnt play this game as much as i wanted due to rl priorities, but i followed it alot, so no use to write stuff when u are just a stream monster 
Oh and obviously the far hp buff is HUGE during fdc combos; say after focus crumple, cmp, sthpxxxhadou, fdc, far hp xxx tatsu…
Yo, @WTHamad just confirmed it is cancellable!