I’m really confused right now. Am I the only one who thinks Abel got alot slower?? All of the normal poke links from vanilla dont seem to connect anymore. Something just feels really different and not in a good way. Is there a list out there or confirmation of all the Abel changes/nerfs? :\
Couple of things I got to note against Ryu…
Tatsumaki avoids Breathless cleanly.
If Abel misses the Breathless and goes full-screen away from Ryu, Ryu CANNOT retaliate with Shinkuu Hadouken. Abel is actually too low for it to hit!
yeah SSF4 does feel different, Abel seems lighter and moves doesnt feel like they have an impact effect like vanilla… must be some slight changes to the physics of the game now…
but over all love Abel even more with the U2! been getting alot of players online with it… must be they are not used to it as its a grab move :P…
but they will catch on later 
dp 
Yeah, Ryu is one of the characters that avoids random U2. There are a number of characters that do. I haven’t tested it all, but I was just running it through my head last night. Again, Breathless doesn’t grab for 8 frames, so anyone with a traveling armor breaking move that is either active, or off the ground in less than 8 frames can avoid Breathless on reaction every single time.
So that would be Ryu, Ken, Adon, Dan, Abel, etc.
There are also characters that can teleport on reaction. There are characters that can escape on reaction (Ryu Instant Air Hurricane… Viper/Ibuki Super Jump in a lot of situations, T. Hawk jump -> Dive over your head, etc.).
Then, obviously, most characters’ Ultras will beat Breathless clean.
While all of this is important, none of this means that you can’t use Breathless in these matches. It just means you can’t set up that silly guessing game the occurs when you just do it. To me, that’s not even a big deal, because in my eyes, Breathless shines as a defensive tool, and it’s only a bonus that you can just fuck some characters completely with it.
i’m at work right now so i can’t test it but…
when would I want to FS as opposed to my normal AA’s? i’m assuming crossups and far/telegraphed jump ins. what about neutral jump? that’d would be sweep if it caught neutral jumps.
I got in several practice matches with a good Dudley last night and EX FS works very well against Dud’s jump roundhouse (Its the elbow drop). That move was exceptionally hard for me to AA cleanly with Able at varying ranges, c.FP seemed to work the best if timed right but it beat or traded in his favor with c.MK and s.MP. However it lost every time to EX FS.
Did you also try s.mk, c.mk, normal FS?
I’m not an Abel main but a Chun main, after facing an Abel with U2 I have to say you pretty much wanna always use this ultra over U1 unless your opponent can change their jump trajectory. It completely stops FA and Jumps.
If you play Chun, and you jump, you’re fucking up anyway. Jump on any good Abel when he has U1… you’re still getting fucked up.
Same with FA. U1 eats up FA better than U2 does.
Just so you guys know… if someone is charging focus while you’re down and on wake up you random ultra (and they hit level 3) you will lose.
Just did it to my friend in an abel mirror hahaha
Focus charge
Ultra
CRASHHHH (U2 stuffed)
Im not sure if its worth mentioning but i managed to AA cr.HP thawk’s dive thingy (i still dont know most of the moves of the new chars fml), launched him up for juggle.
another thing, my bad if its old news because before ssf4 i mostly play at the arcades, but a cr.hp will completely whiff after a FA crumple against Dan…
against claw, a CH cr.lp f.mk dash st.hp : the st.hp will whiff.
With the Dan thing, it whiffs if it’s not level 3 - otherwise I think you can just wait a little bit before you cr.hp and it works (similar to Fuerte)
Breathless is 1+7
Did some U2 testing with my friend who plays Ken. U2 can beat out safe jumps (can’t mash out DP afterwards), but if it’s just a regular jump-in on wakeup, he can DP out of it. I also tried some canceling shenanigans. Recovery isn’t that great. You can bait out moves, but you have to be at a certain distance or else you’ll eat something. I guess the times you would cancel it would be if Ryu did like a EX tatsu. Otherwise just hold it/let go cause it’s best to just gtfo.
I still prefer U1 in the Balrog/Boxer matchup.
Yup.
s.mk - Worked on prediction only. A few times the Dud player got lazy and I used this to hit him on his way up. Once he got any move out though this was loosing clean
c.mk - This “worked” depending on how you look at it since usually it traded getting Dud off me but dmg was in his favor. It did win clean like twice but I could not tell why cause each time was different spacing
FS - Usually this lost, the spacing is such that Dud is hitting Able in the head during the FS which is where is he vulnerable. If Dud jumped from way too far out then yeah it worked but not really practical. I mean these jumps are brain dead stupid
Also not AA info but our far s.mp crushes all of Duds pokes at range. It was crazy the early matches were him bullying me with pokes to get knockdown and I was trying to feel out the footsie game. As soon as I started playing with s.mp things changed. Anywhere near Dud I could do this two or three times in a row and stuff everything he would try. Which then caused him to back up to a range where s.lk shut him down as well. I will say, though I know HAV hates this and so do I, I think EX TT may have some real use here. Dud seems to want to bully people with up close pokes to land one of his mix ups though they are not all true block strings. There are several gaps but 4 frame pokes cant interrupt. EX TT worked wonders here stopping the pressure and getting the KD.
HAV: Since U2 seems to help shut Cammy down do you think it does the same to Rufus? This is the one major match up not in my area and is basically a free win for the Rufus players in Nashville who occasionally come up for tourneys. I would love for U2 to shut down dive pressure but I am worried that it would just be a guess.
Rufus’ dive kick can cross you up. So… it won’t shut it down as much as it would against Cammy.
why do you prefer u1 in the rog matchup? i play rog and i find it to be pretty dam strong. Although since it’s new to me maybe i don’t understand my optoins against it.
People are going to figure out U2 fast, it’s not that hard to avoid it cause you can jump out on reaction. I played a friend of mine last night who is a pretty tough player and he pressures often and well but could react to U2 no problem. Unless they’re literally doing a move or are in serious negative frames they’ll, avoid it. People here are overhyping it so badly.
Even good players eventually jump out of Abel’s mixups. That’s when it’s HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2.0 TIME BABY.