Best Normals in the Game

Classic Fighting Games Capcom VS SNK 2
1

Kind of feel like seeing everybody’s opinions on which normals they think are the best. I’ll try to come up with an organized system to make discussion easier so that it’s not just a giant mess of people spewing out different normals. This list is by no means a tier list, cause those are rather biased, but more of a collection of knowledge that will hopefully get added to.

Punches:
s.lp - Rolento is definitely top 3 because we all know how powerful it is in terms of his footsies and mix-up. Can be linked I believe (+5/5) and they have mad priority and reach. Really makes Rolento, Rolento, especially combined with that throw range.

c.lp’s - bison and chun both hold 2 frame c.lp’s that are extremely good for counter-hits. Not really much to base best c.lp’s off of cause they’re kind of generic

c.mp - kyo’s crouching strong I believe was said to have invincibility on its tip and it can link into itself so definitely a good strong. Cammy’s crouching strong are also very good as they have good reach and work very well in her rushdown game. Chun is a given as is Claw’s.

s.mp - Yama’s s.mp I think is one of the best in the game in terms of AA. It has loads of priority and comes out fairly fast. Not many other things come to mind in terms of standing strongs others than Yama’s. Chun is another given. You can punish somebody who breath wrongs with it.

s.fp - Cammy’s close standing fierce is probably top spot for fierce. Linkable into nearly everything, loads of priority and extremely fast (3 frames). People say that this normal is what makes Cammy high tier. Sagat’s standing fierce is also very good for its reach and ability to cancel into high tiger cannon. Sakura’s standing fierce is nearly unbeatable as a global AA. Other honorable mentions are Terry (2 hit meaty bufferable into specials and supers), Dictator (very high priority AA), Mai (another high priority AA), Honda (karate chop of doom that acts as an AA and corner trap), Hibiki (good AA, just don’t whiff it or get it JD’d) and Haoh’s (highest damage fierce in the game but slow and uncancellable).

c.fp - I remember Buk mentioning this one. Top crouching fierce belongs possibly to Dhalsim because it comes out in 5 frames and is only recovering for 12. That means it whiffs as fast as most strongs. It also has lots of priority, can’t be punished on JD and can super cancel. Other good c.fp’s belong to Sagat (obvious), Sakura (AA that almost never loses), Dictator (AA), Hibiki (controls space like crazy), Blanka (cheap sob) and Athena (tons of priority, speed, and it makes her incredibly difficult to hit).

Kicks:

c.lk - Kind of repetitive. Nothing comes to mind as being amazing.

s.lk - Sagat’s s.lk’s have stupid reach and I believe buk said something about if he could have any normal in the game put on Iori or something like that, he’d choose Sagat’s s.lk. There’s a lot of other useful s.lk’s with Dictator and Geese’s coming to mind.

c.mk - Sagat’s is up there for its reach and comboability. Nothing else really comes to mind except Cammy’s.

s.mk - Maki and Sagat’s standing forwards are both really good and so is Cammy’s for its reach.

s.hk - Best standing roundhouse probably belongs to Sakura and Yamazaki. Both are vital for their footsies and another contender for good roundhouses is Cammy because of its speed, reach and comboability. Rock’s another honorable mention because of its high priority and ability to act as a nearly global AA (cept crossup) and Vega’s is also amazing as an AA.

c.hk - A lot of good ones in this category. Good ones belong to Joe, Blanka, Eagle, Bison, Chun and Iori.

If there’s any normals I missed, put it up and give a reason why. For some reason, I just really enjoy learning about this game. Sometimes, even more than actually playing it so if something’s good to know, share it.

2

My thoughts on some moves:

-s.LP - Sagat should be on the list even though some characters can crouch it. 2-frame start-up, links into itself and into Tiger Uppercut. I like Iori’s s.LP too, 2-frame start-up, cannot be crouched, can be used as Grab set-up, can be comboed into Rekka/Super. Mai’s far s.LP has pretty good range and it combos into lvl 3 super.

-c.LP - Hibiki’s c.LP has really good range and is cancelable into specials/supers.

-s.MP - for me Chun’s far s.MP is hands down the best MP in the game, great damage potential and set-ups afterwards. Rolento’s s.MP is a really good AA. Kyo’s far s.MP has good range and can be comboed into Rekka, but it can be crouched but some characters. Cammy’s far s.MP has good range (more range than her far s.HP), cancelable into specials/super, frame advantage, but some characters can crouch it. Hibiki’s s.MP is really good IMO.

-c.MP - honestly I don’t like Kyo’s c.MP, the range isn’t that great IMO. Hibiki’s c.MP is good.

-c.HP - what I like about Dhalsim’s close c.HP is that depending on the character you’re fighting against you can do 2 close c.HPs xx Super, looks really cool. Zagief’s c.HP, I hate that move, great range & damage, good meaty.

-c.LK - Iori’s is a good one, good range, cancelable into Rekka/Super. Other ones worth mentioning are Kyo’s (leads to combo into Rekka/Super), Rock’s (leads to combo into Super, can be mixed up with Grab) and Blanka’s (great range and cancelable into specials/supers). Chun’s c.LK is good in low jump grooves.

-s.MK - Kyo’s close s.MK is a good AA, Eagle’s s.MK is a decent whiff punisher.

-c.MK - Kyo’s c.MK is really good (has more range than all his other normals). Eagle’s and Vega’s c.MK are good pokes. Ken’s c.MK is a good whiff punisher if he has a lvl 3 Super ready. Guile’s c.MK is another one worth mentioning.

-s.HK - I’d say best one is P/K-Cammy’s far s.HK; parry/JD > far s.HK xx lvl 3 Super is too good. A-Sakura’s ability to activate > far s.HK x [dp+HP]xN puts her second IMO. Other s.HKs such as Iori’s, Kyo’s, Yamazaki’s, Ken’s, etc, are good but not as dangerous as Cammy/Sakura’s.

-c.HK - best ones are probably A-Bison’s & A-Vega’s (activate, c.HK, big combo).

3

The thing about c.lk is, is it really the short that’s good or just the specials that the character has, that are able to land off shorts? I mean, almost every single crouching short in the game is cancellable, and most are rapid fire. Joe, Sagat, Iori, Kyo, Ken, etc.'s c.lk x 2 or 3 all lead to big damage but I don’t think their shorts differ by much. Sagat and Blanka’s c.lk’s I will say are better cuz of their range but they are also difficult to time cuz they’re links.

I completely forgot about guile’s c.mk for some reason and I’m not really a fan of Kyo’s c.mk since it can’t be canceled into specials. Still good, but just seems like it’s outclassed by other crouching forwards. Half the time, I just like using the df.hk command normal instead of c.mk.

4

Iori’s c.LK combos into Rekka even from maximum distance. Rekka combo does good damage, knocks down, and sets up a cross up roll (into another c.LK or Grab, both of which reset the same situation again).

5

Iori’s c.lk is amazing.

Blanka’s lk, while slow, isn’t bad either.

6

Uh C.MK with Bison? isnt listed?

7

The point of the thread is to name normals in case somebody before missed it. Bison’s c.mk is probably top 3 best in the game now that I think about it. Pretty sure it’s JD safe, gives advantage and is bufferable.

If you remember something, just put it up. Don’t just assume we forgot.

The thing I dislike about Blanka’s c.lk is it’s a 1 frame link with itself I believe and comes out in 4 frames instead of the usual 3. Open to counter hits kinda.

8

my thoughts:

standing lp - rolento, iori, nakoruru

c.lp - rolento, chun li, m.bison, hoahmaru

standing mp - chun li’s hands down. after hers, theres a lot of good ones like cammy, bison, kyo, vega, blanka but can be ducked by the smaller characters. rolentos is pretty good and so is guiles for anti air. naks is really good too. i guess hibikis is not too bad for poking. not too sure though

c.mp - easily vegas. theres a lot of good ones after that like kyo, iori, vice, guile, sim (db+mp), bison, chun, nak and probably some more i didnt mention.

standing hp - cammys by far (both versions), hit confirmable and gives +10 frame advantage. sakura’s close hp, sagats far hp, e honda’s hp both close and far, guiles backhand, hibikis far hp for anti air, eagle’s far hp?

c. hp - for poking: sagats (who didnt see it coming), blankas, sims d/b+hp, rolentos

for anti airs: tons of characters

standing lk - sagats easily, then kims far lk, rock and geese close lk, vegas standing lks arent bad either.

c.lk - lot of good ones

standing mk - sagat, rolento, maki. guiles sobats, kim’s for anti air (i think it beats out more stuff than kyos)

c.mk - vega, bison, blanka, guile, cammy, shotos, kim, sagat, rock, benimaru

standing hk - cammys is #1, then sakura, yamazaki, kens (mainly the close hk), kyo (both close and far) guile, yuri

c.hk - vega, rolento, kyo, yamazaki, rock, mai, kim, iori, eagle, geese (fast but unsafe) chun li

9

close lp: iori (2 frame, chainable, not crouchable, +8)
far lp: rolento (range, advantage)
close mp: athena (+9)
far mp: chun (range, advantage, cancellable)
close hp: cammy (duh)
far hp: sagat (all purpose punisher, super cancellable)

close lk: geese (2 frame, 500 damage, +7)
far lk: sagat (crazy range, spammable)
close mk: mai / ken (anti crossups)
far mk: sagat (crazy range)
close hk: chun (jump cancellable into juggle)
far hk: cammy (speed, range, anti air at most angles, super cancellable) / geese (propels him forward, huge hitbox, sets up JD/parry/RC/random CC)

crouch lp: hibiki (crazy range, mostly safe to spam, cancellable) / bison (2 frame, chainable)
crouch lk: nakoruru (+7, rare for a low short), iori (really long range, cancellable, but 4 frames)
crouch mp: vega (crazy range) / chun (hits low, very low hitbox, cancellable)
crouch mk: sagat (range, speed, cancellable)
crouch hp: sagat (range, can be meaty, cancellable)
crouch hk: vega (best whiff punisher in the game)

jump lp: rolento (air to air)
jump mp: rolento (3 hitter, also stuffs most normal move antiairs)
jump hp: geese / chun (2 hitters, good for low jumps), kim (weird hitbox that evades tons of crap)
jump lk: chun (huge crossup, beats tons of stuff)
jump mk: rolento (biggest crossup in the game) / eagle (beats a ton of stuff, instant overhead on every char even in normal jump)
jump hk: hibiki (strange hitting angle opens up tons of options, also beats most anti airs) / chun (2 hitter, sets up a mixup afterwards)

pretty tough choosing just one move for certain categories (jumping rh especially). in the cases where i did pick two moves, both moves do something significantly different

when doing stuff like this, i generally try to think in terms of “if i give this move to any character, would that character greatly benefit?”. giving any character vega’s slide obviously makes them better. giving every character something like ryu standing roundhouse… maybe not (most characters have a decent anti air game to begin with)

i’m not saying my thought process is the correct one (somebody mentioned that iori’s rekkas combo off of max range low short, which certainly makes that low short really deadly in relative terms), its just way less complicated in my mind to just remove all other factors. otherwise, you get possible arguments like (extreme case) “bison can combo into 90% life off of his 2 frame jab, so obviously his jab is the best” (yes i know bigger damage combos exist, just an example)

10

wow i just realized how there are only a few s.mk’s worth mentioning. hella barren ass normal

11

j. hp yamazaki - air dp, never seen it beat clean

st. hk > sak / yama > cammy

12

Of course it’s about the specials/supers the character has, what the hell else would you do with a c.lk? Control space??? What are you looking for in a c.lk, anyway? By your logic, c.RH is the best cuz it does the most damage. Why bother with anybody’s c.lk if you’re gonna disregard its relationship to the character performing it, when you can play CvS2 like Street Fighter 2 when you were 9 years old, whoring Fierce and Roundhouse the whole time.

13

Wow, you’re going off on a huge tangent. I’m trying to compare normals here, not just a normals’ comboability into big damage. Crouching shorts by design are similar. Half the cast has rapid fire shorts that come out in 3 frames and their damage is all the same. Just because Iori’s c.lk’s lead to rekkas or supers, doesn’t mean it’s the short that’s good. It’s the rekka that’s good.

Did nobody mention Blanka’s j.hp yet cause I don’t think I’ve ever seen it beat clean before.

14

cammys rh is cancellable into super and is also an anti air at most angles against most characters. sakuras and yamazakis may be slightly better as a poke, cammys is amazing all around

15

:mad:

16

cammys is very unsafe against jd. you cant hit confrim into super either, you have to guess. you can use sak and yamas as an anti air as long as you hit with the tip.

17

you dont need to hitconfirm or guess, its used to punished whiffed normals all day and when you have meter you can blast the super while sak/yama dont get that.

18

^^ that. its a big deal

cammys standing rh is an anti air from pretty much every angle against most chars. sak and yamas being used as anti air is pretty unlikely

like, for example if somebody jumps back in the corner, you can have 100% confidence in cammy rh anti air. you’re not gonna do yama and sak roundhouses in the same situation

19

If you try to use s.rh when they’re above u and trying to make you whiff a cannon spike, doesn’t the close s.rh come out which is like a guarantee hit?

It’s pretty nice seeing a thread go somewhere since this board is really slow now :.

20

Um…Cammy’s far rh is hit confirmable if you’re buffering…like you probably should be if you’re fishing for supers in the first place.