Brand new player, with questions!

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
1

Hi! I am brand new to street fighter and after a week of trying to decide what character to play, I finally landed on poison. I am in the process of just learning the game in general, but there were a few things about poison specifically I would appreciate help with.

  1. Combos: My execution is pretty terrible. Due to that fact, I have tried to devote myself to just learning two general combos and trying to hit those as consistently as I can. Currently, I have 1 hitconfirm/blockstring combo I use and 1 combo for punishes.
    cr.lp cr.lp st.mk xx WOL/Fireball (WOL on hit, Fireball on block)
    and
    basic cr.hp or hp into WOL for punishing stuff
    I just learned how to plink yesterday and it has definitely helped with hitting links, admittedly though shifting my hands down to the kicks and consciously hitting the plink quickly has been hard for me lol. Anything wrong with these combos and is there any combos you think I should next try and work into my arsenal?

  2. General strategy: To my knowledge poison is first and foremost a zoner(correct me if I am wrong!) and I generally play her as such. I pretty much just try and zone and try and avoid bad fireballs, because jumping seems to be so common place online. I pretty much only use cr.hp for anti airs, are there any other normals I should be using to AA, and in what situations should I try and go air to air and with what normals?

  3. LMT and Poison’s DP: I am not really sure how to incorporate LMT into my game. I don’t really understand frame data yet, but to my knowledge it is safe(or pretty safe?) From watching my replays it seems I almost never use it, and even less so the ex version. I just kind of throw it out randomly in neutral situations. Also, if it lands I almost always use the kick follow up simply because I am not sure what else to do. I know it is comboable afterwards but in what situations I am not sure. Should I just be finishing it for the knockdown? Any tips for how or when to use LMT would be awesome. It seems the general consensus is that Poison’s DP is not great, should I ever try to anti air with this? If you know useful situations for it lemme know!

  4. Pressuring/wake up: Frankly, I have no idea how to pressure people. I almost always try and play lame and zone because it’s what I am comfortable with, but I do get the occasional knockdown off a sweep or a combo. I pretty much do one of 3 things. I either try and bait out a reversal(not the highest level of play where I am at lol), cross up with jmp.lk and hit confirm into my combo/throw, or I throw a meaty fierce fireball because someone told me thats a good idea. My question mainly has to do with the last option, I don’t really have any knowledge or method to what I am doing with the meaty fireball. Basically I just kind of throw it and then follow with a low mk and hope something lands. Any easy setups or thoughts on what I should be doing here would be great.

  5. Using meter/red focus/ultras: In general I only really use my meter for ex Fireballs when I catch people focusing alot, or people are throwing stuff with armor. Are there any red focus combos I should know to go into things like ultra 1/damages, or should I just use 1 meter to combo into something like ex Rekkas to land the ultra. Any matchups or uses for ultra 2?

  6. Matchup stuff: I have been getting blown up by the superjump/divekick characters. A lot of this is probably just not knowing how to block a lot of their stuff/inexperience, but yun and c.viper have been really tough for me. If either of them gets in I just am not sure how to deal with the pressure, not sure how to stuff dive kicks from yun, and I can block vipers stuff for a little while but it seems sooner or later I get hit and thats when the pain starts. Tips or things that could help me out here?

Sorry! I know this is a huge wall of text and you don’t have to answer all the questions(and feel free to correct me if anything I wrote is wrong or doesn’t make sense) any help at this point is really valuable. Also, any tips you might have for a new poison player or things you think I should know are definitely welcome!

2

don’t play this character unless you want to age like 10-20 years from the amount of stress/anger you’ll deal with trying to win with this character.

3

Unfortunately, this is true.

4

Yea, I kind of went in understanding that she isn’t the greatest. However, with my personality I don’t think I would even put the work in unless I like the character aesthetically.

5

Poison is a linear but solid character, so she’s perfect for new players. However, like Velius said, you won’t be winning many matches with her. In addition, don’t be surprised if you receive a lot of hate mail for using her since she’s transsexual (comments like “F4GGiT” are common).

Anyways, I’ll try to answer some of your questions.

  1. Combos: You don’t need flashy combos with Poison since she’s a linear character.

  2. General strategy: Poison is a jack of all trades type and master of none. So, you can play her as a zoner, but she doesn’t excel at it. Also, you’ll find yourself jumping at your opponent when using your fireballs because she doesn’t have a buffer like every other character in the game.

  3. LMT and DP: Never throw moves out randomly. Always have a plan. Also, Poison’s DP is complete garbage.

6

Alright well I appreciate the help anyway, I likely play her for awhile to learn the game and re evaluate character choice later. Thanks

7

There is one upside. Poison will make you a bunch better player fundamentally. You’ll learn spacing, you’ll learn when you have to take risks or play a spacing game, you’ll learn to not jump in recklessly, when to use your anti airs or go to air to air, and you’ll be forced to adapt to your opponents However, you’ll pretty always be playing at a disadvantage when everyone can out damage you and has more ways to open you up.

Expect to feel like you played really smart but all of a sudden you lose for making the “correct” decision.

8

There are nothing wrong with basic combo, but Poison at mid to high level really needs more execution. The lack of buffer is an issue, but the fact that her high/low mix up is -really good- when you can link it into c.lp and into s.mk and into everything else, really powerful. That combo is basically like Ruffus’s s.lk > s.hp. Knowing that one combo basically differs you from a low/mid tier player to a high tier player. It is the different between having a mix up or having no mix up.

If you want to go far, but don’t want to learn this combo, I suggest just ditch this character.

cr.hp is pretty much the best Anti-air she has. In certain situation s.hk or when your opponent is directly above you, close standing hk. EX DP also works very well. Poison has decent air to air like hk and hp, even mp has application, but she really doesn’t have a one size fit all move for AA.

The light version is -fairly- safe, but really you shouldn’t be throwing it out. If it is blocked, just leave it at the first rekka. I personally just go for mix damage on character with invincible move, but if they don’t, mix up is not a bad idea especially if you can hit confirm from a jab into ultra.

It is actually fine as AA. If it trade, you can sometime connect Love storm off it! Try experiment with it. Hit box isn’t the best and it come out in 5 frames I believe. So, pretty slow, but still usable.

She has one of the best high low mix up in the game -if- you can hit the link. If she can’t, she is relatively harmless since she has no good cross up. Meaty fireball is decent, continue zoning isn’t a bad idea really.

Remember her forward throw is one of the most damaging normal throw in the game, so using it often is not a bad idea. Forward throw + Meaty fireball chip damage adds up.

This should be part of your meta game. Her ex fireball is -really fast- and very hard to punish. So just throw it out, and if they block the same one, feel free to throw another! Establish your fireball present early in the match is great for you. Once they realize they are constantly in danger of lots of fireball, you can reduce their options greatly.

Poison over all doesn’t need a lot of EX bar, she has decent backdash. So feel free to use them for offense /zoning more.

Any combo off red focus, she can combo otherway to do similar damage. Plus she doesn’t have a very good mix up game off knock down compare to any natural state. So I would recommend simply get the damage with as little bar and efficiency as possible. Save the bar for clip / zoning. Remember she can connects ex fireball / ultra 1 off fireball your opponent land on in the air.

Not really, it is not that ultra 2 is bad, it is more that Ultra 1 is amazing. You might find some application for ultra 2, but to give up trading into ultra 1, punishing any natural jump, connecting off any jab…? Ultra 1 is amazing. I wouldn’t give it up for just a little more damage that is really only usable on whiff punish.

Poison doesn’t have any fast start up AA, or any button that works as tech / aa. So this is a bit of a problem for her. Beside staying in the optimal distant so they can’t just jump on you, there are no real way to stop Dive kick. Best way to counter them is to zone them from that optimal distant to jump in.

Her overhead can also works as a poor man dive kick pressure escape. It has interesting hit box that can AA in certain situation, plus you take very little damage and get to reset from the dive kick pressure in a way your opponent might not be able to react properly due to her doing a little airborne hop. It is one extra tool to add to your defend to avoid being predictable.

9

To the last point, yes poison is weak against divekick characters. You can’t effectively stop them from divekicking, so you have to try to stop them from jumping. This means you can’t just sit around and see what they do most of the time - you have to actively stuff their jumps - s.hp and HP AE are great for this.

The anti-air ID01 described is very accurate. But against divekick characters, s.mp is very useful. There’s a range they will jump and either divekick down and miss you (trying to bait AA), or divekick forward and hit you. s.mp swats them right out of the air at this range. It does trade unfavorably, but it lands them in the exact range you want them - where you can put on c.mk/AE pressure and continue to stuff jumps.