Nice video. I’m gonna hit the lab and work on this stuff. I just started maining 'Sim and have had only limited success. I’m hoping this video will help me level him up quicker.
Also, where can I find links to the different Dhalsim themes in the video? Most of them are pretty awesome.
What are the best punish combos to do? I was thinking of picking Sim up just for fun but all I really know is s.mk xx yoga blast (which has a really weird timing to it btw…).
Having a lot of fun except against fucking Adon, can Yoga tower evade his jaguar tooth? I didnt test that.
b.HP xx Medium Yoga Flame for 7+ frame punishes.
db.MP, b.MP xx Light Yoga Flame for 5 frame punishes, have to be really close or else the yoga flame misses. It’s a good punish for a defended neckbreaker from Ibuki. db.MP to b.MP is a 1 frame link tho but it’s the most damaging option. For an easier 2 frame link you can do 2 db.MPs instead, or db.MP, b.MK but it’ll usually push the enemy too far for yoga flame to hit.
About Adon, yeah the matchup sux… Some tips:
If he jumps, be ready for an Aerial Jaguar Kick, you can focus it and punish.
Gounded Jaguar Kicks can’t be focused, if you have amazing reactions you can LK slide under it and punish tho.
Yoga Tower can evade Jaguar Tooth but you won’t be able to punish it in time, it’s better to s.HK or b.HK it (b.HK will beat even the EX one if timed right)
Knee <3
Yoga Knee ftw! Beats a lot of stuff you think it doesn’t, like Jaguar Tooth, Turn Punch and Chicken Wing
The surprising thing is just how good of a ground to ground button knee is. 6f start, 5f active, snappy recovery, safe on block, insane priority everywhere.
Yup, we have a better knee than a crouching jab basically
Well i have gotten quite familiar with all of his normals now. managing to actually keep people at half screen/fullscreen for entire rounds now (unless theyre fucking Yun, Yang, Cammy, etc lol). liking the U1 teleport shenanigans a lot, and landing the fireball > teleport > j.hp > s.mk xx yoga flame (xx super if I have it).
I kind of feel like Sim is very good but the skill ceiling is just much higher than with most characters, that and he really has some terrible matchups in AE2012. I hope they will revert his damage back to how it was in Super, thats probably the most important change in general I could think of.
Anyway, Im going to be sticking with this character until Ultra drops. Gen has been fun for the past 4 years but he’s getting a little stale at higher levels (acquire super > c.mk hands = profit) and he’s not nearly as challenging to play as people seem to think he is.
EDIT: though my win percentage of 80% is going to go down…a lot. Havent won much yet, one mistake and its over. If im cornered its pretty much gg.
You’ll notice that there are 2 people in SFIV: the ones who know how to play against Dhalsim (you win almost never) and the ones that have no idea how to play against him (easy wins that makes you fell Dhalsim is OP).
There’s usually nothing in the middle, you either win pretty easilly, or you’ll have a hell of a time winning.
So uh, I have some questions. Haven’t looked through all the pages to know if they have been answered already.
1- When, if ever, should I use:
a) cr.LP? I don’t see the point in using cr.LP over cr.MP.
b) st.LP? I just don’t see any use at all for st.LP. What am I missing?
c) MK and HK versions of Yoga Blast.
d) MP and HP versions of Yoga Fire.
2-In which situations should I use each version of super? I normally use the LP version to finish BnBs and the HP version after an U1, but I never use MP version.
Thank you.
a) When you are cornedred against Ryu, it’s nice to crouch tech with cr.LP (plink cr.LP~cr.LK) because it will trade with EX Tatsu if he doest it (and then you won’t eat a full Ultra). cr.LP also seems to beat Balrog’s cr.LP during blockstrings, you can use it sparingly.
b) Against dive kicks (even Cammy’s). It also serves as a -4 frame punish. If you have a bar and are willing to spend it, you can s.LP xx EX Yoga Flame
c) Worthless. If you hit with HK Yoga Blast you can juggle with anything after it, but it has a 30 frame startup so this buff on HK Blast was basically a troll from Capcom
d) It’s usefull because it moves on different speeds. HP Yoga Fire also knocks down.
For super, I basically use LP in combos and sure punishes (so you recover faster) and HP in anti airs (for extended invincibility). MP is basically “useless”.
a) It’s normally used to poke at distance, after a st.lk. I don’t like it very much. It can be used as a finisher because it’s the longest crouched limb.
b) st.lp xx Flame EX is perfect to punish Bison EX stomp at maximum distance (if you don’t have super)
d) Also MP knoks down. MP/HP fire are very useful in Zangief matchup. Just mix them with LP version.
I see alot of dhalsims go for Yoga flame meaties after they score a knockdown in the corner from a throw or whatever. Can anyone explain why? What does meaty yoga flame lead to? What version flame to use? Whats the flowchart after they block one flame? I assume theres some sort of flowchart after they block one. Can you set up frametraps, or is it just for pure chip damage/frame advantage?
Wow everyone needs to watch the Fchamp vs Tokido Canada Cup match. Ridiculous dhalsim play.
Heavy Yoga Flame on block leaves you at +2, so you can throw or try to frame-trap (mainly with b.MK or the LK slide and cancel those normals into another flame, usually the medium one)
Thanks.
Just see where the limbs cover. mk and hk are pretty much far-range AAs more meant for keeping the opponent grounded than anything to be used on reaction.
Sim’s main grounded AA’s are knee, chop and EX upblast (half circle back + KK). The knee is just straight godlike, but useless if someone is coming directly from above or trying to cross you up. If it looks like the opponent is going to land front, knee. Costs no meter, does good damage, has 6 active frames and fast startup, and a godlike hitbox. I wish Akuma’s st.hp was that good 
EX Upblast is great for those more vertical jumps the knee is bad with. You need a bit of distance to AA with though, so it may not be the wisest at the absolute last second. Just before that, though, and it’s great.
The backchop is the all-around workhorse. It doesn’t have the godlike disjoint of knee or ex upblast, but it covers basically every angle (including, briefly, in front of you). It’s the goto if you’re being attacked vertically or crossed up.
For air-to-air purposes, j.mp is pretty good. It basically denies the whole airspace in front of you, but you obviously need a bit of a read because you also need to jump. A late sniper (j.hp) is situationally very good as well.
Yoga Tower is useful like, everything ever (Including actually winning against Seth). The lower part of Dhalsim literally has no hitbox, it’s completely invincible, and there’s no collision detection there either so you can just dodge low-to-the-ground hitboxes willy-nilly. Using the Tower is pretty read-heavy, but if you suspect the opponent is going to do something that’s very punishable on whiff, try a Tower. A lot of moves that aren’t that unsafe on block actually have huge recovery to them, so if you can get them to whiff, well…
Not that much. Sometimes Yoga Flame can be used as a trap (say, doing it on wakeup because it has like a million active frames and breaks armor, or if you think the opponent is going to focus dash through your fireball, you throw out a flame instead. Slow-startup moves like Flame and Akuma’s red fireballs are occasionally useful for mixing your rhythm up even when your input rhythm stays natural and predictable). As mentioned already, EX Blast is a great AA, but the non-EX ones are pretty damn useless as far as I know.
For more you’ll have to consult an actual Dhalsim main, I just mess around with him sometimes and mainly play shotos.
Anyone got any tips vs T Hawk? I feel the damage ratio is just so skewed in T Hawks favour he has a lot of room for error whereas Sim cant make one mistake.
Sorry for the double post but I recently read the most up to date Dhalsim changes for USF4 and I’m really scared for him.
Losing hard knockdown off of upblast and the ability to cancel yoga fire into Ultra are HUGE nerfs for him. It just weakens his trap based playstyle and anti air gameplan tenfold. Super damage on limbs and double hit st.mk are hardly a good trade off. Really dissapointed in these changes.
Sim needs absolutely no nerfs going into Ultra. None whatsoever.
My changes would be:
Keep sim as he is now plus add all these things:
Two hit st.mk
super damage back
3 frame back short back
More damage on all far reaching pokes
Make cr.lk slide not as negative on block or make it cancellable into yoga flame from all ranges.
Sim has the issue of being a ridiculously polarized character, though. Buff him too much, and many matches are likely to become pretty horrible.