Good thread. I used to be a Ken main. I reached gold with him and thought I was good lol. When I picked up Balrog I lost all my LP and almost went back down to ultra bronze.
I basically relearned the whole game. Charge characters are really different from regular characters, it’s crazy. I hate losing to Ken now lol, people are usually so random with him.
gold with any character is no easy feat. Ken is super solid though. I dropped him aswell because Balrog is a character I click with so much. Had knowledge of him in sf4 but committed fully in SFV. Most fun I’ve ever had.
Slowly been climbing to gold, but I’ve hit a wall so to speak. I’ve been floating around in super silver now for a while. Been trying to figure out what im doing wrong, and it gets a little frustrating at times being stuck for so long. I just watched smugs stream. He went from unranked to gold in a few hours lol. Anyway might as well ask the thread for help again since you guys helped me reach silver in the first place. I don’t have time to upload some replays atm, but I will later, or you can watch me get bodied on cfn.
In general I’ve found that folks still have a hard time reacting to v trigger rush punch, overhead mixup… make sure you are using that until they won’t let you anymore. Also use properly spaced lp rush punches to get in at times. Most people panic when rog gets in, use st mk in range ect ect.
Hard to give solid advice without seeing what is holding you back atm though.
Here are some of my recent matches. Any input is welcome. I realize i’m playing an ultra gold for a few matches,but he’s a training partner continues to be unbeatable for me lol.
https://youtu.be/0ZRdiOkXq_c
https://youtu.be/2C_ItJ6PBdY
https://youtu.be/7eWJDBuPOSc
https://youtu.be/s0QLZNXWpss
https://youtu.be/Oe-HfDUTYnc
I am having trouble doing MP Straight cancel into v-skill at mid range for the mixup. Is there a trick to inputting the dash punch and v-skill so that you can hit that ridiculously short cancel window consistently? Like some sort plinking method?
Honestly, when I’m wanting to do the dash cancel for a quick in, I find the Medium dash low to be the most reliable in cancelling.
It’s also the one PR Balrog mentioned on his stream as what he typically uses for that purpose.
dash low or mp/ hp dash straight is generally easier to cancel into vskill from. It has to do with the execution of the punch itself where dash low in general will not activate the attack until a certain distance has been covered. This is the same with mp/ hp dash straight. Lp dash straight is the exception as the distance covered is much lower before the punch comes out therefore you have very little time to press vksill.
So as stwall and PRrog has said, it’s better to use other buttons to cancel into vskill, it’s very hard for an opponent to actually tell which one you used anyway.
Hey guys,
im currently maining ken but balrog just seems so fun to play…
I find CC cr.fierce, hk screw, ex dash, vskill punch, ex dash just suuuuper rewarding to land and want to learn the character right now.
I’ve got no problem with charge (mained bison for years, sf4 to usf4) but I dont really understand rog in this one…
What I think I’ve figured out:
hitconfirms are almost exclusively his lk,mk,hk TC and st.hk into vskill TC.
Is that correct?
poking game seems to revolve around st.mk - m dash straight whiff punishing and single buttons such as st.hp over lows, cr.mk as a longer range low as well as the occasional vskill punch…?
Anti airs… basically just st.mp and cr.hp right? Even though I like using normals for anti airs, cant lp/ex screw be used for that? Or is it unreliable…?
Any tips/ corrections are appreciated. Im probably trying him out for real today (not just fooling around with combos in training… man his combos are a joy)
Hit confirming options without charge are dependent upon his TCS of course, but you have enough time after a st.mk to charge for a rush punch if you link into jab, so it isn’t like you can’t do walk up pressure with his specials. Balrog hit confirm game is linear until you start counter hit confirming, then he gets some stronger meterless ender options. I’ll throw some options out below for anyone interested.
Cr.lk, cr.lp xx m.dash straight
Instead of your LK/MK/HK confirm, do cr.lk > st.lk confirm target combo. Keeps you +1 if it’s blocked.
St.mk > cr.lp xx m.dash straight, if st.mk is blocked do a stutter step st.mk or immediate st.hk looking for CC.
St.hk > st.mk xx h.dash straight or do a follow up st.hk after the first one. If st.mk counter hits you can do cr.mk target combo IIRC.
St.mk(counter-hit) > st.mk TC xx V-skill ender
Cr.mk(counter-hit) > cr.lp xx. m.dash straight
St.mp(counter-hit) > cr.lp xx m.dash straight
Cr.mp(counter-hit) > st.lk TC
One last thing about his combo game is his ender options, you have two options primarily - dash straight and dash low. Dash straight does slightly more damage, dash low knocks them down and you get follow up pressure. Speaks for itself, choose what you need. Use bar for EX dash straight when you need it, big damage boost and knocks down for a meaty.
Balrog’s poking game is quite heavy on commitment, as per every iteration of Balrog rush punch poking is still possible yet not incredibly strong. Counter poking is Balrog’s forté. St.mk xx h.dash straight/h.dash low is a good counter poke option, and cr.mp xx m.dash straight/l.dash low can play a strong counter poke game at closer ranges. You’ll be using a lot of cr.mk trying to catch stray limbs because if you successfully catch someone that stomp TC leaves Balrog in such a good position to start his close pressure. Don’t use V-Skill punch to poke, it’s -4 all the time. Use it to react to fireballs and if you just want to poke use l.dash straight because it’s pushback and active frames make it safe when spaced.
About anti-airs, st.mp is your go-to anti-air but it has a deadzone against close jump-ins that are very deep, around Balrog’s head area. Cr.hp covers that deadzone. Simple enough to adjust to. Don’t use screw smashes to anti-air, ever. It sucks unless it’s EX against a far jump-in, I’ve tried. Their hurtboxes aren’t made to be anti-airs.
Tried to cover what you asked about but if I missed anything just ask again and I’ll try my best.
any quick tips against the sim matchup?
Walk forward, make him mis-space any of his stretch normals and then EX dash him for his troubles. EX dash his fireball, st.mp/st.lp whenever he teleports just to be sure. Don’t fall for any online Sim gimmicks like cr.lk > throw. You can kinda cakewalk Dhalsim if he’s just an average player.
another nab question.
when i am in vtrigger, how do i extend the hold forward punches with a ex version?
how i am supposed to charge for the ex when i press forward for the vtrigger extension punches?
do i have to get the charge during the vskill break?
i hope you guys understand what i mean…
The V-Trigger extensions? They’re easy, charge timing goes like this
Dash straight(you’re holding forward here for more punches) - dash upper(start holding back as soon as you see the upper come out) xx v-skill > P > EX straight, follow it up with two kicks after both of the straights come out.
ah ok, i see where i made the mistake.
i assigned a button to the vskill and there the kick version comes out.
will give it a try.
thx
Thanks for this. I have seen people do those combos but had no clue how to actually do them. I was practicing this yesterday and the timing is pretty strict on the v-skill or else it whiffs. I guess Rog isn’t quite braindead easy anymore 
struggle with the timing right now too. wiff all the time…welp, more lab time for me then.
are there any good videos out there for these kind of combos with input display on?
It’s funny how I can do it in training probably like 50% or 75% of the time now, but when I am in the heat of a real battle, I am running at 0% right now. Like I don’t even get the V-Skill to even come out half the time lol.
at least you can do it in trainingsmode.
just practice it more in the vs cpu mode…lag/input delay is a problem online so when its already offline so strict with the timing online might be a bigger issue.
any word about if they tweaked it in the new version?