Alex’s damage is pretty much the same as before. Only his super and EX chop got nerfed by 10 points, and these moves are usually done in combos…so that 10 point nerf becomes only a 8 to 5 point nerf after scaling.
Meanwhile, st.hk got 10 points MORE damage…and since it’s usually a combo starter and a counter hit, that 10 points is rarely scaled
There are some situations where he can’t get as much damage as before, but some situations where he can now get more. Seriously, f+HP linking to st.mp even on normal hit is a big deal. We have a new mid screen max punish thanks to it.
Also, his forward throw didn’t receive a damage nerf like many character’s received.
Fishing CC roundhouses are often -4.
Ken’s st.HK, Karin’s st.HK, Juri’s st.HK, Laura st.HK, Mika’s st.hk, Rashid’s st.HK, Necalli st.HK…sense a pattern here? Alex’s does more damage that theirs, too.
I’m trying to wrap my head around why Capcom didn’t give EX stomp auto tracking. Like why would you want to use a ex move that allows you to start a mix up and purposely whiff it? Like what is the logic behind ex stomp having manual tracking?
That’s a super long range poke. It’s supposed to be done from a distance. That’s it’s entire purpose.
Do you want a crush counter that works up close? He has a good one that’s +3 on block.
Bait anti-airs.
I use whiffed stomps to bait DPs all the time. Sometimes, though, lk stomp still moves him too far forward, and I get clipped by the later part of the DP. That’s where EX stomp would work well.
No, I’m just saying it doesn’t function like a Karin, Ken, etc st.hk. It’s in it’s own little bubble compared to the ones you can throw multiple times at deceiving ranges.
It’s much easier to space Chop now that Chun’s st.lk is 5f, as she was the only character who could consistently punish it. Just don’t do it after a single point blank poke, or against Balrog I think as he can get you after st.mp cr.lp I think. Having a safe move that can be comboed into a without a CH for no resources isn’t that common. Rashid, Juri, Laura, Bison, and Ibuki have them, and of those Ibuki needs resources and Juri’s is iffy.
But yes, I do wish that EX Stomp/Headcrush had EX FBA styled tracking; tracks if you don’t press anything but can be controlled otherwise.
Dumbfounded at what Capcom wanted Alex to do in Season 2. I just for the life of me cannot see what gameplan they had in mind, seems they deliberately made him bad for no apparent reason.
Ground control? But you nerfed all of his poke tools, no buffs to anything that controls the ground, walk speed still a big ass tank(never change m’boy), st.lp AA gone means deep jumps are a bigger threat
Mix-ups? Oki got nerfed
Everything he does in S2 he did better in S1 lmfao, the only thing that was improved was damage access with the f.hp > st.mp link, that’s fucking it.
There’s basically ONE change that I’d like to see made to Alex: Frame 1 armor (instead of f3) on ex elbow. That would make him less free to attack on wakeup and improve his overall game. It would be riskier to get near Alex on wakeup when he had a bar, thus returning the game to neutral more often. Between ex elbow with armor on frame 1 (still getting white damage, you see), ex knee with upwards invincibility while going up, ex stomp with projectile invincibility and ex headbutt with throw invincibility, then we would have a more complete arsenal to deal with a variety of situations, albeit always needing to spend a bar. That’s alright, though. We’re almost there, but “almost” does not win matches.
And yes, Ryu, Necalli and Dhalsim still can jab to AA pretty much anytime. We have to space it perfectly, usually walking backwards…
I don’t want that the most, unless it’s a universal change to all armoured moves
There’s too much I’d prefer changed with his normals and his Knee first. Knee NEEDS some form of earlier invincibility. It’s garbage as an AA and he needs it for deep jumps now.
I totally agree with basically all suggestions, but don’t have an opinion on #7. That change would make st. mp combo onto itself without a counter hit, and maybe that can make him a little bit OP (not that we haven’t seen something like that on other characters, though). I think comboing st.mp into st.mp on CH is good enough, and you can get it normally on a combo from f.HP, so I think that’s kinda covered.
What I would definitely like to see would be: a) better upwards coverage on st.lp, so it works sufficiently well like current Ryu’s or Necalli’s (which were also “nerfed” but kept functionality); and b) some kind of frame 1 escape option, my preferred being ex elbow ARMOR (not necessarily invincibility, for the sake of balance: you hit it, you get away; you get blocked, you’re screwed, like other ex escape options).
I think the most needed changes are definitely #2 (getting cr.mp stuffed by other characters’ cr.hk is just RIDICULOUS) and #9. Why does Alex have 1000 HP while all the other big guys have at least 1025? To me, that’s the most symbolic feature of the developers wanting Alex to be worse than other characters.
The reason I think st.mp should combo into itself is because right now Alex’s pressure feels very much it’s supposed to work like Ryu’s. Basic option between button -> button or button - > throw, but without any mid-mid combos your options are only heavy -> mid which is weak to V-reversal, or risky 3 frame traps from light -> flash chop (punishable). All of Alex’s rewarding stuff has either huge gaps or is just not scary at all.
One of the main things I see when Gunfight, Coolkid or Spawn play that they struggle with is consistently dealing with the opponent’s defensive options between just jumping away, pressing a 3 frame button during pressure or backdashing out. It’s a rare circumstance where someone will be forced to just block against Alex because it’s just not that bad to get hit by him, discounting f.hp and counterhits. Making st.mp scarier by itself is absolutely necessary for everything else that Alex has to start working consistently.
Nice idea but will probably never come to fruition, grappler characters don’t seem to have heavy emphasis on combos in this game. Best most of them get is a max damage heavy > medium link
Zangief gets knockdowns from lights without meter (cr.lk, cr.lp lariat, cr.lk -> cr.lp is a 2 frame gap on block), Mika has knockdown confirms from lights without meter (st.lp, st.lk, st.mp -> butt, st.lp -> st.lk is a 2 frame gap on block) and Laura puts herself back into your face and at advantage from lights, without meter. I don’t need to tell anyone how ridiculous her pressure and confirms from mediums and lights are. The best Alex has from lights is cr.lk, cr.lp (which is a 4!! frame gap on block) into EX slash, meterless Alex just a confirm into lp chop which yeah, it’s +2, but you’re not getting much in the way of continuation from it because you end up creating space between you and your opponent.
It’s been said before but Alex is too dependent on f.hp to get anything started. It needs to be more scary to get tagged with anything that’s not an 11 frame normal with the effective range of Alex’s armpit to convince people to just sit still.
I wonder if making his cr.mp cancelable would be op? Cr.mp reminds me a lot of hakan’s cr.mp poke. Eventually they made it able to cancel into specials. You are absolutely correct, Alex is way too dependent on f.mp.