well, here it is, a GOOD dhalsim thread. since i usually like to learn a character by reading through old threads and finding useful stuff before asking questions, i’m gonna start off by posting all of the worthwhile strats for dhalsim i’ve read and then i’ll add links and random frame data and combos and all that fun stuff later. all of this is buktooth’s old stuff from his japan log/random tip of the day thread, so i’m taking no credit for ANY of the stuff in this post.
-Out of all of his characters, Iyo’s Dhalsim is the toughest to dissect. If I had to compare it to another character, I guess I would describe Iyo’s Dhalsim as Guile-lite. The air defense isn’t nearly as solid as Guile’s, but Dhalsim has an actual anti-air super and damaging super combos to punish rolls with. In short, while Guile keeps you out better, Dhalsim punishes you much harder for trying to get in. As far as the keeping out aspect is concerned, Iyo seems to mostly throw a ton of fakes and then some far low jabs and standing shorts; moves that are safe if rolled through or jumped over. He then feels you out for a bit; if you’re jumping or rolling he’ll punish it, and he’ll keep doing so until you stop. Once he’s confident that you’re going to stop trying to roll/jump, he’ll then start tossing fireballs at you. Like Guile, once Dhalsim safely gets a fireball out at full screen he’s at a huge advantage. You basically just have to block it, as Dhalsim can counter on reaction everything you do to attempt to avoid the fireball. If you decide to block the fireball, Iyo throws another one and sees how you deal with that. If you notice, Iyo very rarely throws out fierce or strong limbs, only if necessary to keep you at the desired full screen distance.
If his defense isn’t working/he has you in the corner/he needs to make a comeback, Iyo has a lot of attacking tricks with Dhalsim that are pretty slick. He has two that are really noticable: the first has you block something in the corner with frame advantage, which is pretty much any close Dhalsim move. He then will mix up either a punch throw (with b+fierce, which is important) or b+rh into yoga flame if you do anything to avoid the throw. If the rh into yoga flame hits, he gets a level 3 yoga inferno juggle for some crazy amount of damage. His other attack option is short slide into option select b+fierce headbutt or throw. If he gets the throw, great. If you do anything to avoid the throw, you risk getting hit by the 2 hit headbutt which is easily bufferable into super on reaction. His newest trick I’ve seen is against people jumping back in the corner: RC yoga flame as anti-air, then juggle level 2 up flame, cancel to regular up flame, then level 1 up flame. It does some sick amount of damage like 75% or something.
Dhalsim:
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I don’t remember the Dhalsim stuff too well, but I’ll give you guys the basic gist of it and you can experiment with it for yourselves.
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Dhalsim’s air defense is almost as tight as in A3, it just requires a lot more knowledge of what button to use at which angle and in which match-ups. I saw b+jab, b+strong, b+forward, b+roundhouse, and slides all being used in different situations. It does sound like a lot of work, but if you guys read Omni’s log, it should give you a pretty good idea of how good Dhalsim can be.
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This point is going to be irrelevant to 95% of CvS2 players out there, but Iori is a good counter to Dhalsim. It took me hella games to figure it out though.
Iori’s j.roundhouse trades with all of Dhalsim’s anti-airs in Iori’s favor if you have the right angle, which is interesting since I saw Dhalsim completely shut down Sagat’s, Chun’s, and even Blanka’s low jump! Anyway, once Iori gets in, RC rekkas in his face all day. Dhalsim’s jump is way too slow to get over it (the standard way to counter RC rekka), and his roll is slow enough that you have to do it fairly early to counter it. -
Apparently Dhalsim’s fireball has really good recovery. Sometimes I would be in the corner and Iyo would just throw non-stop jab fireballs at me. I’d roll through one (with Iori!) and still get punished for it. Weird. To get out I’d have to jump straight up (and hope he throws another fireball instead of roundhousing me out of the air) and then deal with whatever he did next. Kinda like a ST situation.
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Dhalsim’s low strong is a really good tool. It sets up throws that are REALLY hard to break for some reason, it has tons of links, and low strong, back roundhouse, fireball is a good, safe guard crush pattern.
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I’m not sure what Iyo knocks you down with, but he follows it up with a roll that results in a really deceiving cross-up (or was it a fake one? I don’t remember…). He then does low strong into whatever.
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A trick that seems to work everytime is to do a point blank short slide, then 2-hit close fierce into super. The point blank slide looks unsafe, but apparently it’s got enough frame advantage for the close fierce to beat out whatever they try to stick out. And since it hits twice, it Gives You Time To See Whether It Hit Or Not (inside joke) before you super.
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Tigerknee teleport is pretty good. He’ll teleport out of the corner with it, and you’ll reflexively run up to him and try to punish the teleport with a combo. He then comes down with a fierce and combos YOU.
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The distance game is pretty similar to Cole’s Dhalsim when he used to use him… jab fireball, watch for a reaction and punish it, throw another jab fireball. Very hard for some characters to get around. Low jump strong is a really effective keep-out tool, too.
Iori’s j.roundhouse trades with all of Dhalsim’s anti-airs in Iori’s favor if you have the right angle, which is interesting since I saw Dhalsim completely shut down Sagat’s, Chun’s, and even Blanka’s low jump! Anyway, once Iori gets in, RC rekkas in his face all day. Dhalsim’s jump is way too slow to get over it (the standard way to counter RC rekka), and his roll is slow enough that you have to do it fairly early to counter it.1/23/04:
I’m gonna expand on what Ratio1BeatDown said earlier on Dhalsim.
The short slide into option select b+fierce is one of the cooler Dhalsim tricks that I see Iyo doing. Basically, slide just a bit out of point blank range and hit b+fierce. If you get a throw, great. If you tech a throw, good enough. If you get a counter hit b+fierce, you can buffer it on reaction into a super since the headbutt is a 2 hit move. Very nice.
Most aspiring Dhalsim players try to use his long limbs too much and end up getting killed for it. Of course, you should use his range to your advantage… but mainly to counter something on reaction or in anticipation. Poking blindly from afar with limbs isn’t recommended.
Anyway, the point I was getting to was that Dhalsim’s short ranged moves are often overlooked. Almost every single one of them is really fast, has a ton of priority and offers a large frame advantage. Case in point being Dhalsim’s db+fierce: Lots of priority, very fast (5 frames), and lightning fast recovery… the whole entire move finishes in 21 frames, which is less than most medium strength moves. Less than Cammy’s infamous far fierce, even. The move also imparts a sizable +8 frame advantage! When hit up close (set ups on this another day), Dhalsim can link a low short slide into super really easily afterwards. DB+fierce, short slide into Yoga Inferno super does a very respectable 7800 damage in N-Groove… though buffering the super off the short slide is a little tricky. Buffering the Yoga Stream super off the slide is much easier, but does about 1000 less damage. A-Groove Sim can link a CC after the DB+fierce also, and all Sims can take advantage of the huge frame advantage for some nice pressure games afterwards.
From slightly farther out, continually spamming on the db+fierce makes a good wall strategy similar to Sirlin’s A2 Rose mashing on low strong. It beats most anything, is nearly impossible to punish and builds meter quickly. If your opponent tries to challenge it with a move and gets counter hit you can easily link a lv3 yoga stream super afterwards, if closer you can link a yoga inferno super.
anybody else who seriously plays dhalsim and has some good advice, please post.
peace