I’m looking to officially pick up Dhalsim and run him with Zangief. Has anyone paired them together or know of their synergy?
And where’s a good source for Dhalsim information? Or does this sub-forum pretty much contain all the Dhalsim info? I noticed there’s not much activity here compared to some other characters, but I pretty much expected that.
i am also new to sim and like the ssf4ae sim forum this forum is worthless.
sim is great in this game but you have to figure it out alone i guess
I could jot down a few thoughts I guess:
There seem to be something weird about sim’s air teleport. If you do it from full screen, it seems to not cross up the opponent at times (even if you do the ppp tele). I did tele on my friend a lot of times, and he simply tried to jab me out of it, and the jab came out like I had crossed up, but I was on the other side of the opponent.
I think storing counterhits with the charge move is smart, and then go for short slide which often hit, and with counterhit can go into back short->magic series )This works without counterhit too, but it’s easier with ch)
I love how drills are easy to hitconfirm into a chain into launcher.
Dhalsim is a very straight forward character in this game, compared to a lot of other characters in the cast. That is probably the reason why there isn’t a lot of activity here. I’m sure new tech will be found, but sim isn’t a gold mine when it comes to that stuff, I am sure! Sim do play a lot like sf4; zone ppl out with limbs, anti air with back mp, and incorporate his new stuff from sfxt (chains, drill/mummy hit stun, juggle after ch anti air etc etc)
I like Law/Sim alot. Law has alot of juggles and Sim can pretty much come in at anytime to do some damage and have a meaty setup with yoga flame. Might make them my main team.
With anti-air its a lot more… strict than SF4, but Sim does possess some of the best AA abilities in this game compared to the rest of the cast. Jumping is a lot safer in this game so zoning out isn’t always as viable as in sf4. You will get the brunt end of a lot of trades which can move you to corners and get players in your face. Playing offensive with sim is key (when appropriate!) and can be very entertaining though, especially with drills/launcher mixups. You can do a lot of creative stuff with teleports/tag-ins, especially with Law ^. I think the same sorta tech can be discovered with a partner like Raven
I’m actually running Sim/Raven. Confirming a chain into Raven leads to some pretty good damage, which is an area that Sim isn’t too great at. And, like Sim, Raven has situational Anti-Airs which is fine by me. Raven is also a fairly versatile character in zoning or rushdown.
I do feel that Dhalsim is that much better with meter that running him second would not be a mistake. Yoga Inferno is exceptional at punishing unsafe chains/strings. Yoga Volcano is fairly good at beating a lot of jump ins for 250 damage (EX Blast is still good too, just no untechable knockdown like in AE2012). One of Sim’s only safe tag cancels up close is off of EX Yoga Flame. I personally believe he can be run on point or as an anchor depending on the matchup.
Given that stages are longer, throws are a bit nerfed, there is no focus attack system and that Sim got a few more tools to use; I actually think Sim is going to do pretty well in this game. Seems like some people are sleeping on him.
I do have one question. When people tag-cancel into Sim, are you guys sacrificing a little damage (around 10-20) by not ending in HP flame and instead ending in HK slide? This obviously doesn’t allow the opponent to quick rise, which could be important in the corner making them not want to roll as well. I don’t think this will be too important for him but it could help with some setups.
I usually end in the Flame and I’ve been using MP or LP flame just to MAKE SURE it hits because HP will whiff sometimes, maybe it’s just me canceling it late. The scaling from my combo is already at max so the difference between the heavier versions of flame is literally in the low single digits. In the corner you can end with up flame during a juggle for more damage but, again the damage is so low at that point in the combo it’s not especially worth it if it risks dropping. It is in the double digits though!
Just want to say that unless there’s a better corner Bnb, my current one does 410 if anyone is interested.
J.:f::hp:, cr.:hp: xx :hp: Flame, st.:lk:, cr.:hp: xx :lk: Blast (or whatever it’s called). EDIT - If anyone has anything better or midscreen combos it would be much appreciated, I’m completely new to Sim in this game. I used him for a little bit in SSF4 but not too long.
j.hp->c.hp xx hp flame -> c.mp->c.hp xx lp blast?
The Sabin kumite from cross assault:
[media=youtube]E1dIQIc1K-Y[/media]
He didn’t know much about the game at the time of recording but, still some good stuff to check out.
One thing I noticed that I thought was just me is it’s really hard to AA shoto jump tatsu because your first reaction is to use stand RH but, it just doesn’t work at all. It ends up hitting behind you. Same thing happens to Sabin vs Hornett.
so is drill a free punish for the opponent? everytime i teleport and land it i can’t do shit afterwards, except get thrown.
depends on where you’re hitting it, just like any dive kick. supposedly it’s +12 on hit but, I have no idea where they measure that hit height from. stand short is going to be your best move after a drill because it’s 3 frames.
you can use cr. :mp: instead of st.:lk:, for a little more damage.
I wrote the same thing in the message below his;)
Also, while I am here, I won a team tournament in Norway and got 4th in singles. Teamed with a good Hugo player, and I am thinking of picking up Hugo as a second now. Dhalsim need that damage Hugo can offer as a partner! In singles I was using Dhalsim/Hwoarang, and I got beat by a Rufus/Raven team and a Guile/Hugo team (Actually the guy I teamed with, and whom I have been talking about earlier in this thread). They got 2nd and 3rd in the tournament.
Rufus is sooo hard for Dhalsim in this game! Knee is your go to anti air from far to mid range, even though with the divekick, of course it’s not a sure bet. During divekick pressure I found that standing mp is the best poke to press if you expect another divekick. crouch tech+mp doesn’t seem to be an effective OS in this game. It seems pretty easy to block the ex messiah follow up by blocking low and then high in succession, but the short slide is no longer a good option as it was in sf4: rufus’s low option will beat it clean. Also if rufus for some reason needs to tag in his other character and does this as a tag cancel during ex messiah to stay safe, alpha counter as you see the opponent coming running in. If you time it right, you will catch them both, and you can tag cancel your alpha counter for more damage and a happy birthday!
I also saw infiltration do something interesting with Rolento, that we might be able to use as sim players: He did his sweep slide and tag canceled it when the opponent blocked the tip. By doing this, the tagged in character actually ended up some distance away from the opponent, and he was more safe. This might not work with sim’s slides, I don’t know. All I know is that tag canceling from sim’s limbs, will make your incoming character run all the way close to the opponent, even if you hit him from full screen. Now that I think about it though, there might be something I have been missing: I saw a video on how to avoid making your taged in character run too far, when you are wall bouncing the opponent, by jabbing. By jabbing, the taged in character would stop in his tracks, canceling his run. If you can do a standing fierce->tag cancel with dhalsim, and immediately throw out a poke to avoid your incoming character running all the way to the opponent to get punished, that might be really interesting.
I have picked up sim for the past few days to pair with my hugo for some matches where i think that nina/hugo isn’t great.
I have to say i really like the synergy. first off, when you use chain tags into hugo, the damage is pretty stellar.
but one of the biggest benefits is that neither character relies to heavily on meter. because of that you can pretty much zone out as well as u can with dhalsim and as time runs out or your life runs low, safely tag into hugo. THen, u can can do qcb+mp+mk to do that cross assault thing. This is good because hugo has a lot of life and if he hasn’t been in all game, that life will be shared with dhalsim effectively putting each of your characters at half life or maybe even more! a lot of people aren’t prepared for that. Additionally the cross assault thing is crazy because you have infinite meter during this period and if you can mixup your opponent with a well timed teleport you can easily rack up solid damage with j FP, s lk, s mk super or whatever iteration you like. FOR FREE.
A friend of mine was using that strategy on his online matchups and it is quite amusing 
I’m not entirely sold on dhalsim as i think pressure can really give him fits. I’ll probably continue to main nina/hugo but i’m definitely gonna be putting some time into Sim. he has some really fundamental tools that remind me of why i liked him in ssf4.
You address some interesting ideas, that I have been thinking about myself, but I don’t have the game, or an xbox to test stuff with, so I can’t come to a conclusion:
You say that cross assult with Hugo is good, because Hugo has a lot of stamina. Does cross assault divide actual stamina (Hugo 1200 stamina ->600 to dhalsim if he had none) or does it divide stamina in percentage of the life bar (Hugo has 100% stamina -> 50% of dhalsim’s stamina bar is filled up if he had none). If it divides stamina based on percentage of the life bar, it will actually be bad use of Hugo’s stamina.
Also, my next question is about the actually deciding of a match: We all know that what decides who has won a match when there is a time out, is the remaining stamina on the combined characters on each team. Is this decided by actual stamina left, or percentage of the stamina bar left: If both teams has 50% stamina left on all of their characters, but one team is Gief/Hugo and the other team is Akuma/Dhalsim, will it be a draw or will Gief/Hugo win? If it decided by percentage of the stamina bar, what you say about cross assault, wouldn’t actually matter when it comes to loosing/winning a match, if I am not mistaken, but you avoid Dhalsim getting killed of course.
Also, do you really have infinite meter in cross assault, or refillable meter like in Pandora mode?
Good info so far on Sim. Didn’t know that the tag will bring your partner up close if you do a full screen limb and tag in. I think there could be something there if that’s the case.
This game is the first time since A-Groove Sim that I have liked using this character this much.
For the health question above, my understanding is that the cross assualt 50% thing is for the lifebar itself and does not take in to consideration the various health %'s that the characters have throughout the cast. There’s probably an easier way to say that, and trying to type it so it makes sense isn’t working for me, but I hope you know what I mean.
You can definitely cancel an incoming characters run. I wrote about this in the SFxT general discussion about a week ago. Basically, you can only run cancel when the incoming character reaches the outgoing character. I feel this is really important for Sim as he doesn’t have too many reliable ways of safely tagging out. Sniper -> tag cancel -> run cancel appears pretty safe but I haven’t thoroughly tested it. This will also be effective for characters that have high push back attacks as you can run cancel sooner/further away from the opponent.
I run Sim on point with either Ogre, Heihachi, Kuma, Guile or Radar. Sim is my main but the partner I pick will depend on who I’m playing against. After reading this thread I’ll pick up Hugo as well as I spend about 60 seconds with Sim per round and hit crossarts often. Kuma is great for trolling and damage but I’m having trouble with antiair so Hugo will be an interesting team.
My tips and learnings as follows…
Overall
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[]Sim requires good control and a lot of patience. You will have to learn to be comfortable blocking.
[]Decent reading ability is required, you won’t be able to just mash buttons and hope something hits.
[]Execution-wise, he is not a highly technical character. You can do well with Sim with average execution.
[]He is not strong with combos and has bad tag-combos.
[]He is an excellent zoner but has poor a rush down.
[]If your total life bars relative to your opponents is within 10-20%, Sim is still OK. Don’t expect to be able to catch-up on 400+ damage on a now turtling opponent.
[*]Pick a partner that will complement your style. If you usually end up being behind, pick someone that can rush down. If you end up in front and just need someone to hold out, pick Radar or Guile.
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Strategy
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[]I run Sim on point to control the pace of the match. When you stop your opponents initial rush-down, their mind usually stops thinking about rush-down and thinks about how to get in. Only good players (and potentially good players) will recover from that mindset.
[]Time is your friend, do not rush with Sim. In 9 out of 10 games, I will make the first hit and push forward with a life lead. I don’t need to rush down, just walk slowly, poke, readjust if necessary. They can sit in the corner for 90 seconds if they want, they will lose unless they attack (meet my limbs and b.strong). Primary strategy should always be to shift the onus of attack onto your opponent and then wear them out (both life and mentally).
[*]If you are losing significantly in a round by the 30-40 second mark, you will need to land either a super, cross-art, launcher into tag combo or just tag your partner. At this point I will give up on the round and build super if I can’t land good damage. By this point in the round, I expect my opponent to turtle and just accept it for what it is.
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Meter/Super
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[]Flame super is 3 frames (-1 for reversal). Punish.
[]Blast super is not very good damage, but very demoralising to your opponent. He just lost a quarter life and STILL isn’t in on Sim. He will want to tag very soon. I follow up with jab yoga fire and IAT, escape or snipe (with or without tag).
[]Build meter with pokes to bring on your damage partner. Conserve meter when you can, you are vulnerable without it.
[]Meter wins games. Build meter where you can, don’t waste it with ex-fire or flame unless you have another good reason. Counterhit is 140 damage for one bar (guaranteed hit when used appropriately), flame super is 250 for two bars (but 3 frames, and guaranteed on opponent recovery or gamble on frame trap).
[]Watch your opponents meter. 2-3 bars means you cannot backward teleport against a lot of the cast.
[]In cross assault mode, I’m usually teamed with a Heihachi player. He will hp xx cross.assault, then continue combo. I will teleport to the other side and chain short forward fierce (ending in headbutt) twice and then super. Hei will also do the same minus the super. We only do this for kicks, not in serious games.
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AA/mid-range
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[]AA normals, only with b.strong and b.short (hitbox is good). B.rh will often trade. To use B.strong, opponent must be in front of Sim, not above. If opponent is above, slide and b.short into combo (exceptions are anyone that has a dirty crossover hitbox like Heihachi, Radar, Juri, etc.) or dive kick. Dive kicks are very difficult to get right, for me it’s worth it to wait it out and just block. If they are in dive kick range, I’ve failed to zone.
[]AA meter, Ex-blast will trade if you are late. Blast super and crossarts are both good. Only counterhit aa if you could have hit with b.strong.
[]Charged counterhit b.strong knocks down, but I never use it.
[]Pre-emptive AA includes jf.strong, f.foward, f.rh, j/jb.fierce. Jf.strong sometimes juggles. F.rh also juggles. Good players will counter your post-AA attack so if you are expecting that, now is a safe time to fireball (or try your luck with IAT)
[]Poke with f.strong and cf.strong/cf.jab. Only use f.fierce at the tip or if you are confident opponent will not jump.
[]Slide to get forward, then snipe retreat. Mix-up with cf.strong.
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IAT
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[]IAT offense is great for noobs and average players, do not use it on good players except when punishing. One exception is when your opponent counterpicks with a character they aren’t as familiar with, go nuts)
[]IAT shenanigans combined with drills, pokes, slides to escape, same as above.
[]IAT meaty on a roll can work well.
[]IAT any raw tags, free damage.
[]Do not back-teleport when defending except when in corner and opponent crosses you so you can teleport full screen, lest you eat super.
[]IAT when rushing opponent down can be very tricky. If the opponent is 100% in the corner, you will not get behind them. This confuses players that block instead of jab. If they are slightly in front, you will go behind.
[]Any player that doesn’t jab IATs, abuse it with front/back teleport.
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Close-range
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[]Get very good at blocking. You can b.short with noobs and average players in blockstrings but good players will frame trap and combo/tag you for 400. Keep blocking, escape and restart poking. Compliment this with b.strong AA.
[]Get very good with mid-range poking. This means no fireball or fierce anything.
[]B.short xx B.forward is not safe if you are too close. Link a few b.shorts to create distance first.
[]B.short xx b.forward xx b.rh is also generally not safe.
[]Slide xx flame, slide xx fireball and slide xx teleport. Watch for mashed reversals, bait and punish. When using slide/b.short pressure, release joystick to neutral instead of rolling (to back) to prevent yoga blast. Slide xx jab.flame usually combos if the slide hits. Also use slide xx strong.flame for frame traps. If you whiff flame, its a free punish. Don’t miss.
[]If you are stuck in the corner, you can try jump, teleport optional, light drill out to center of the stage. Some players will expect this. Also be warned if you cross over during the jump, the teleport will still take you backwards.
[]Learn your drill distances/heights! At slide distance, I will occasionally instant jb.short drill to hit at opponents shins, b.short launch combo. By instant I mean half a body in height.
[]Super if required.
[]Most players will not throw in this game, they prefer the 400 damage tag combo. If you are having trouble blocking, stop teching (use the gem if you want).
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Tag
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[]Snipe tag is very confusing for your opponent unless he is in the top percentile for reaction speed. I’ll use this with Ogre for a reasonably safe tag and c.short c.strong c.strong combo (Snipe is j.hp). It’s only safe because its unexpected, frame wise you are -ve.
[]If I have to tag, I’m failing in defending. I’ll launch for tag damage and to let Sim recover and tag Sim back in when I can.
[]When I play team mode with a partner, I instruct them to tag on f.fierce or snipe, otherwise I will launch them in.
[]If you have no meter and are dying, just tag. Better to lose half life on your partner than just lose the round outright. Just don’t waste meter unnecessarily. You might also draw your opponents meter.
[]When Sim is tagged in, I usually use b.short xx short.blast or b.short, b.forward, jab.flame. The former does more damage but is more prone to miss (especially online). The latter allows me to hit confirm, good for corner or extra long distance juggles.
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Gems
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[]I use partner special/damage gem for Sim’s partner as I launch a lot. For Sim, I’ll also use a life gem (+80/5 seconds), reversal +10% special and +20% damage -10% mvment. I don’t want Sim to deal a lot of damage early, I want the damage boost late as the opponent is worn down and getting hit more often. The life gem has helped me win a significant amount of rounds via time-out, or just surviving a massive combo.
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We should start a match-up thread, I play distinctively different against different chars.
Pandora trick somewhere above does not work. Two problems:
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[]Sim comes in a fair way behind, you would need to be in the corner for this to be reliable.
[]Only way to super on entry with pandora is to already have meter. It at the same speed as “refill” in training mode so that means not enough time to do two.
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So only ways I can see this working in game is for your opponent on their last 200hp to jump at you in the corner with your partner on pandora health, trigger pandora and super blast with Sim for the win OR wall bounce pandora into sim super flame for about 400 damage. The latter works for Rufus, Hugo, Ryu (only tried these ones) and opponent must be away from corner to give more air time.
After it lands (or misses!), you still have time to slide xx super, b.short > slide xx super for chip 2 more times depending on if they roll/teleport. Each blocked super is 70 damage minus scaling.