If you don’t need the range of cr.MK, use cr.HP into HK pinwheel for the most damage you can get without meter or a fireball store.
And actually, MK pinwheel does have a couple uses. You can combo from lights into it, like far.LK into MK pinwheel. You can also use it instead of HK pinwheel if the opponent is in the corner and it gives you enough time to dash under and be on the other side for a little mixup.
at the point he’s at, trying to add in nuances like c.lk and far.lk cancelling into mk.pinwheel but not hk.pinwheel is a bit much. sure, mk.pinwheel has some uses, but it’s a bit beyond the scope of a beginners guide imo.
Maybe the fact that one of Juri’s easiest hit confirm combos is cr.lk x2-3 -> MK pinwheel would make it important enough to mention alongside the anti-air cr.MP -> dash under mixup that you brought up?? That’s a nice basic hit confirm combo that everyone should learn early on.
Here’s another question I have, after getting my face mashed in by a few shoto players. When should I attempt to use the counter special? Every time I try it, say during fireball wars, I end up getting punished ridiculously hard.
Make them think that you don’t even know about it, and then do it when a BnB will win you the round. On the subject of fireball wars… jump forward when you think they will throw one. If they do, dive kick them with the follow ups to push them to the corner. Don’t do it all the time, just enough to make them worry about it.
Use her Forward counter in fireball wars VERY sparingly. Only use it at a range where Juri will end up behind them. This is something you use to catch them off guard, it’s not a very viable tactic. They can hit you out of it very easily.
Backwards counter in fireball wars is a lot more useful. You can use it to be lame, set the pace, or make the opponent feel more comfortable throwing fireballs. It is also useful if you want to destroy a fireball while you have a medium fireball store and cant use focus attack. Be careful not to corner yourself. You can use Up counter to absorb multi-hitting fireballs. You can also divekick out of an Up counter.
At about 3 quarters screen position, Juri can divekick most shoto fireballs on reaction. You don’t need to guess. It’s something to practice. However, this doesn’t mean you have to try to divekick every fireball. Juri excels in zoning versus shotos. Use a combination of her fireball store, fireballs, and some counters to nullify their fireballs. Try to see if they follow a pattern, or get too comfortable throwing fireballs; this will make it easier to react with divekick. This can also make them frustrated, and want to jump or tatsu to get close to you. That’s when you use your many Anti-Airs.
Resist the urge to jump. Only do it if you really think it will work. There is nothing wrong with walking forward and blocking fireballs.
One thing I’ll have to add to my training routine is using the store to destroy a fireball. It rarely works for me at this point, so I’ll have to get comfy with it.
Yeah, I still eat more fireballs than I would like to admit online. If they mix up their speeds, it can be rough if there is any lag. Raise to absorb fireballs is still too good to not use, even if you eat a few. Just keep in mind that you might miss when you are at low health…
I feel that to learn basic fundamentals, I think that you should learn to focus on learning a character that forces you to learn the most important basic skills to win (IE good use of normals, anti-airing, footsies, NOT MASHING THE HOLY HELL OUT OF SHORYUKEN). I respectfully disagree with learning Ryu or Juri and I think you should learn Cody or Guy since they are the best characters to learn the most important skills of the game. Once you get the knockdown with them, it’s right back to playing footsies, all over again. If you play Ryu as a beginner, you’ll just fall victim to just throw fireballs full-screen only for your opponent to jump over it, FADC it, Zonk Knuckle it (if he/she is cody), HK Dive kick over it (if he/she is juri), etc. You will not learn how to to poke and whiff punish aggressively with Ryu since Ryu doesn’t exactly have to. Overall, while Ryu is a good pick on paper, I don’t fully agree in the long run. I’d say pick Cody/Guy, Play him for a while, and when you are 101% comfortable with where you are in terms of skill proceed to a character like Juri.
Check out Juicebox Abel’s stream and youtube channel as well. He’s a fantastic source of knowledge. Also, take a look at Airdash academy; it’s a really good spot to learn more about fighting games in general and how concepts from games like Guilty Gear and Tekken can translate to Street Fighter and vice versa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQQCan5oo90 ( Juicebox’s lesson on footsies)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWfk3tOJjaQ (Pilot episode of Airdash academy)
Good luck, practice a lot, and don’t be afraid to become an online warrior.
I disagree with Juicebox, people who learn the game with guy will do fullscreen slides 24/7 or jump elbow lol
And they will keep doing that until they realize that it doesn’t work. To win with Guy, it requires good footsies and fundamentals, esp. good use of normals.
After you get acquainted with her normals, and other basics, character match ups become too important because after you pass a certain level (on line at least) you are gonna be seeing repeats of the same characters (Ex. Ryus, Akumas, Cammys, Giefs, Sagats, etc etc) and learning what you can and cannot do against said people is key.
i can’t Agree and LOL at the same time
I got your back.
After a period of inactivity (going through surgery, and some subsequent complications, having to study a lot more, and GFWL being buggy and weird for me), I’m back in action. Managed to transfer SF onto Steam, so the training routine is continuing until I don’t have to think about which buttons do which attacks against real opponents. A huge problem I ran into is panicking whenever I fight someone. It messes with my execution and my judgment. I usually end up just desperately trying to run away/do a specific attack/throw, and I get shredded. I guess it comes with experience, getting used to the pace and the variety of options I have available at a given time.
Try playing arcade mode more. It won’t help with jitters, but it can help with learning your character. Once you get comfortable with her again, then try some real people. Maybe getting a warm and fuzzy with her buttons would help you stay calm. Aside from that, I guess the only other advice I can offer is to just fight through it and hope that eventually it’s not an issue anymore.
Oh really ? People will keep dashpunching until they realize that it won’t work. To win with Balrog, it requires good footsies and fundamentals, esp. good use of normals.
Oh really ? People will keep scissorkicking until they realize that it won’t work. To win with Bison, it requires good footsies and fundamentals, esp. good use of normals.
Oh really ? People will keep doing the fullscreen Izunas until they realize that it won’t work. To win with Vega, it requires good footsies and fundamentals, esp. good use of normals.
Oh really ? People will keep chucking the kunais until they realize that it won’t work. To win with Ibuki, it requires good footsies and fundamentals, esp. good use of normals.
You get the idea.
To win with any character against a “decent” opponent you need to have good footsies and fundamentals.
If someone isn’t even trying to think and adapt he won’t improve, no matter which character.
Ryu is still one of the better characters for a beginner.
Juri teaches similiar things like that.
BTT:
I posted a thing about Juris Fuhajin in another thread like 2 weeks ago but I guess it went under with the other posts.
If you want to have a quick guide on how to use the fireball maybe give this repost a try.
I consider Juri to be a zoning / rushdown hybrid type of character. As I already said she is a jack of all trades but a master of none. Most of the time you will find yourself trying to zone though and if the situation allows it you can try to be offensive like after forward or backthrows / senpusha / store knockdowns etc or if you have your opponent cornered.
Mastering her fireball is probably really important. Storing at the right ranges and reacting to your own fireballs.
Heres just a small example:
You stored a fireball and you threw it. It’s on screen and your opponent can do a few things.
If hes blocking or neutral/backjumping it you can store another fireball on reaction. Which means you store the moment you see the blue blockthing appear. If he tries to jump into your store you’re able to antiair.
If he jumps forward you can easily antiair and cancel your antiair into a store and take notes of what hes doing upon landing. If he is backdashing or focus forwarddashing you can try to shoot ex fireballs after you antiaired him next time in order to blow it up. If he is close enough you can also dash under him and start your offense there (crossup cl.MP) etc.
Focus forward dash usually loses to store unless he spaced his dash right which can be pretty hard. This “flowchart” is of course characterspecific and you have to adapt all the time. Sometimes you need to use your fireball as an extended poke at close range and sometimes you need to go on offense which means you maybe have to burn 2 bars to keep the momentum going.
Against Balrog you can shoot fireballs and once he starts turnpunching through them you can react with Ultra 2. If Dudley tries to get through fireballs with his Duck move you can react to it with cr.MK xx Senpusha.
If you happen to antiair with j.MP you can cl.HP xx store or LK pinwheel you can safejump your opponent. Once your opponent hits the ground (the exact moment if not a few frames earlier, the timing is strict) you can safejump him and of course after safejump you can apply basic pressure with frametraps or instant overheads. Due to the constant adapting and the risks she has to take with stores sometimes and also her lack of an invincible antiair makes her fireballgame the one with the highest skill ceilig imo. Next to Sagat maybe. You can craft your own strategies against some characters and be kinda creative, at least midscreen.
Also: don’t jump, don’t use ex divekicks or divekicks unless you want to punish something on reaction (e.g. cr.MK xx hadoken or fullscreen fireballs). She also can’t rushdown too well. You have mostly 2 chances to frametrap your opponent. After that you can’t get in again without taking huge risks or you have to burn 2 bars to keep the momentum going.
Even if this all might sound indepth it still is just a broad explanation of her zoning in general with a few examples.
Almost every matchup has to be played differently and on top of that you also have to adjust to your opponents habits.
You have to adapt all the time. Depending on your opponents position, meter, tools and habits he has you might need to play footsies at certain ranges where you normally would throw fireballs and vice versa against others. The hardest skill to learn imo is to switch between both playstyles and figuring out when to use what tool to really get the most out of her, but it seems like it will be easier in USF4 due to her buffs.
Once you understand how to use your fireball and how to react to your opponents reactions you might stop feeling kinda uncomfortable because you know what to look out for.
I seem to be having trouble with Guile and Sagat. The main problem is that their fireball game is difficult for me to beat. I know Juri has a few tools for it, but I just can’t seem to beat their speeds. My counter doesn’t come out, or they punish me, and I still can’t get the timing of the store to destroy a fireball, especially when there’s a bit of lag. Occasionally, what saves me in those cases in a low EX fireball. What should I do there?
Don’t be afraid to just block fireballs. You do have to practice absorbing fireballs with store, but it’s hard to do against HP booms / tiger shots. I usually try to store both LK and MK fireballs then toss an MK to nullify an oncoming fireball, followed by LK. Also keep in mind that the more meter Guile has, the more likely he is to throw an EX fireball (because seriously, what else is he going to do with meter??). Just block it. If you try to react to it, you’ll get hit. Save your EX fireballs for when you’re close enough for them to make contact with your opponent. If you’re far enough away you can also just neutral jump. Play it slow.