Umm maybe this might help you
http://www.eventhubs.com/guides/2008/jul/07/balrog-boxer-street-fighter-4-character-guide/
powerful? yes
practical? no
trade-offs? too many
counters? throws (startup) + most c.mp + sweeps.
id get it to lv3 or 4 tops if they’re real turtle and im playing zone.
Yes they get blocked most of the time, I just wanted to know how it was possible to get the final…I’m in the early stages of really diving into strategy with Boxer,
well me and 2 other fellow rog did an experiment after the frame data was released. seeing a lv10 doing like what, 540 damage?
on a default timer, we released tap at around 45 seconds from 99.
for an extra kick we charged both ppp and kkk so we had 2.
with 45 seconds remaining we unloaded it one after another (in beginner mode of course)
poor ryu got 2 shotted.
hilarity ensue.
TAP is pretty underrated, and in many situations it saved my ass.
situation 1.)
ryu at 20% im at a sliver of life at round 5 (where both players are pretty desperate)
i’ve been headbutting through fireballs until he jumped from the end of the screen to around 3/4 away. unreleased tap and caught him in the air and did an ultra which destroyed him. my friend cracked up at how he could not have foreseen that to work.
situation 2.)
a gief at 45% ish life, im at a sliver (sigh), and i’ve been backing off. i unloaded a tap that was semi meaty. on block he did a reflex sweep. i buffered a psychic ultra (expecting some form of counter after block tap - in which i know i have frame adv) and caught up to a sliver of life. i went up to him after to bait a 360 from a what appears to be a throw attempt by me and did a straight up jumping fierce. he took the bait and i made another huge comeback from TAP.
situation 3)
chun at around 30% im at a sliver (wtf) i unloaded a tap at midscreen, she blocked (its a chick), and i ex headbutt straight after for an ultra finish, she said she was countering with a sweep (chun’s favorite).
on top of everything, if your tap is a counter hit you can link a cr.lk xx headbutt given you have a charge buffered, likewise with ex-straights.
i remember where a ryu and i were both at a sliver, when he didnt quick stand, i move close to him seemingly wanting to throw. he whiffed his throw when i unloaded a tap in his face. reminds me of dudley’s DSB.
i really wanna know how many frames is that invincibility so i can make full use of tap in my games. its good i dont feel pressured at this situations i guess 
i always seem to amaze my friends at how i make insane comebacks from pretty seemingly hopeless situations. TAP this bitches lolol
For my limited experience with Balrog in IV (approx 46-4) at the few hour off arcade I rarely get to visit, TAP seemed to be useful for certain situations, but for the most part the benefits didn’t outweigh the loss for high numbers. Losing throw is painful, especially with Balrog’s ability to use it as decimating mix up. On every other SF I love it as having it stored still lets you throw with the punch buttons. I think it can be used, just be aware how much you lose when you lose throw and throw teching. It’s rather nice for when you’re being zoned though and they have answers to Headbutt and neutral jump FP.
This is slightly off topic, but has anybody noticed that the button settings for HD remix on the Hori EX 2 stick is a little weird? the fierce buttons are at the top of the stick, almost completely eliminating the use of them. Do people customize the buttons for tournaments and stuff? and if it’s like that for SF4, will there be a general button config for tourmanents?
you can alter your button configs I’m pretty sure.
Side note: I just had an discussion with some people a few days ago over what Balrog says when he loses. I thought it sounds like, “What you got?!” but I know I’m clearly wrong. One of the other guys said it was like, “Washuruga” or something. I need to win 5 bux so anyone know what it is? As long as it’s not “washuruga” i get a free big mac.
I know its pretty essential to have others worry about his “throw headbutts”, it seems he only hits a couple of times in this game…Is that true? I know you can toggle db to up forward to get out quicker, but it looked like his throw wasnt very long…Anybody know about this…I havent been lucky enough to get to play SFIV yet
I think it’s exactly the same no matter how much mashing is done on either side, though I’m not 100% sure on that.
AFAIK, this game doesn’t even have mashing throws. A lot of the multi-hit throws from older games just have a set amount of hits. I’ve never seen Balrog’s do any number other than 3. I think Jay Wang said you get more meter for it and it does more damage than his other throw.
Yeah its just 3 hits in SF4, but in past games yes it was anywhere from 3 to 9. Just last night I got someone in one of Geifs grabs in hd remix and took away 60% life with 9 hits.
A quick fact about Balrog, I have used this tactic in many casual games and tournaments with success. Balrogs Ultra eats 2 seconds off the clock before his animation begins to lunge forward with punches. So if you have a lead and time is ticking and you have that 1 pixel advantage and someone has got you corned and the timer hits 2 seconds just fire off the ultra for a time over win. Some ultras come out quicker than others. This scenario happens every now and then and trust me it can make a huge difference!
Valid point, thanks for that. I barely see people combo into ultra while on the ground, any reason why that is?
You can’t cancel into it like super other than the EX trick into Ultra, so a move needs to have ridiculous frame advantage to actually combo the thing, the main way that happens is launching someone in a juggle state then ultra, some characters need to FADC their launchity things, but Balrog can get it without using any super gauge!
Slightly off-topic: how does the system work in terms of teching moves? I’ve seen videos where somebody tech’s a fireball, they get hit and they appear to take more damage than if they hadn’t done the tech… what’s the deal?
[media=youtube]tgvWNeplKcA[/media]
about 44secs. in, Chun takes a shit load of damage. Is it that it just appears that way and that’s what her life would end up at if she had taken the previous hits without teching?
If by “teching” you mean “absorbing damage via focus/saving attack”, then yes. I had to watch it again and read the comments on Youtube to see that, but essentially she took all that damage because she “teched” two stand fierces (basically taking the damage from them anyway, but not the hitstun) and then got punched in the vagina for a full 35% from all three attacks.
That video does make me want to know something, though perhaps I’ll find it out when/if I finally get to play the game tomorrow: How easy is it for Balrog to get thrown out of his dashing punches?
Is it like a character specific thing or just something timing based? Because if it’s the latter, then I could see that hurting him immensely later on in the game’s life.
You take equal damage and then it comes back if you don’t get hit again.
Its usually better to just accept the chip unless you are desperate.
Forgive me for going off-topic somewhat, but I’m just wondering about how Balrog seems to be the popular character in SoCal right now, and why that is. Is Rog becoming a more powerful character as the game continues to get played more and more over the last few months or something to that extent?
Keep in mind, I have yet to play any SF4 whatsoever, so I have no idea about the game, but I just find the Rog craze interesting. Personally, I wanna play Sagat, but if Rog has become better over time and/or, he’s really fun to play, I might as well experiment with him after I get the game on 360.
Hmmm, I wonder. SoCal is pretty diverse in our character selection. We only have 1 Ken (Ed Ma) and like 2 Ryus (Valle, Pigadoken), and then the rest of the cast (though Sagat has become really popular recently due to Paul’s victory at Regionals).
Balrog kind of started with Ronstoppable and Combofiend. Once Gootecks picked him up, it really started to spread. I played Rog my first night last Nov, but I played him in Championship edition. I think Keno was a really early adopter also.
Thanks for this. Balrog has always been a favorite of mine.