I’ve had rounds as Elena where I feel like she’s unstoppable, but also had rounds where I feel useless… If your opponent is blocking your mallet smashes effectively, she becomes really weak. lynx tail isn’t good enough, except EX to ultra.
What should I be doing in that case?
If you win with elena then yea you did that yourself another problem is her inputs are soooo specific that you need to not make a tiny mistake i tried to EX RH a Ryu to win with little damge left and got a EX DP and lost, i got real salty when looking at the video i had moved my stick in a Half circle motion but because i moved a little back when inputting it, i got a DP.
Rhino horn is her armor breaking moving, but only the EX version comes out fast. The range seems nice but IDK. Maybe one is better of doing spinning scythe instead in that same situation since you’re more safe on block.
if you have a minute try to combo (with elena) vs. crouching elena in training mode, jesus.
Yeah, I ran into that in an Elena mirror match, if you are talking about a lot of her psuedo-rekka moves just dropping out or not connecting all the hits and being left vulnerable.
Small correction on this combo: HP mallet smash, cr.mp xx M spin scythe extension (282 dmg, 354 stun)
I got 312 dmg, 404 stun when I did it.
corrected, thank you.
You can end the m spin scythe in the corner with HK Dp but it seems character specific and the timing is specific, the way the opponents fly out of the spin scythe is a little random.
I love how every one of Elena’s attacks are vulnerable to grapples ON HIT.
(double post)
Ah, shit that’s too bad. I managed to get it to work on DBJoseph’s Sakura more than a couple of times so I thought it was pretty guaranteed. I can see it trading on other characters though. You DO have to consider how awkwardly high and far the move does go though, so you can still unexpectedly tag someone with it. If you DO connect, even after getting hit out of a couple of attempts yourself, they are going to take ludicrous damage.
I’m not arguing, just throwing it out there. I definitely need to test how effective it is in a more matches. I feel like it could give Honda problems.
The move is highly telegraphed though, and all are punishable on block except the lk version if spaced correctly. Once people learn the elena matchup(unlikely considering everyone is dropping her) then it will be easy as hell to punish. All you have to do is crouch.
I was talking about using the move as an anti-air. On the ground, yea its worthless, unless you have amazing reactions to use the non-ex versions to break focus.
Seems like the Elena thread of Elena players are the only group of people who think she isn’t good. Everyone else is saying she’s really strong. ultra David and James Chen really boosting her and now after spending some lab time with her I’m thinking that maybe we’re looking in the wrong areas in terms of maximizing her effectiveness. I mean, it’s not like she can’t put the hurt on someone both on terms of dmg output or stun very quickly, I feel that with enough dedication to mastering her(this means getting all her 1 framers down) she will be very solid in the hands of a good player. Play the neutral game well and abuse her s.hk and both command OH’s. I honestly feel that both her command OH’s and s.hk are a much stronger option than EX mallet smash in the long term. Both OH’s are safer and the slower one leads into more damage provided you get the link down.
Yeah, her st.HK is good. I disagree about the command OH, they’re good tools to pop your opponent every now and then but they honestly will only get you an extra 100-150 damage in 3 rounds if you space them out well enough to where they aren’t predictable.
Biggest problem I’m seeing right now is that she has no anti-pressure tools. They all trade most times IF they get the hit at all. All she has is EX Scratch Wheel, which might have been fine in a game where normal whiffs build meter but that don’t work here.
I’d like to know what UltraChen thinks is good about Elena. I tried waiting for them to talk about her before but when they got to Elena in the character list they said, “Eh, let’s skip over the new characters for now.” and I just wasn’t going to sit there and wait for them to go through the whole damn alphabet just to get back to her.
Also, about the combo with f+MP, I assume it’s supposed to be something like f+MP, cr.LP, cr.MP xx something, right? I can’t ever get the cr.MP to connect, the opponent always gets pushed out to far by the f+MP and cr.LP push back.
use f+mp as a meaty or wakeup option then go into c.lp, whatever. Like Dudley’s Dart shot you have to be close to the opponent for the c.lp to connect. f + mk can just be abused during wakeup, neutral, and especially if you have the opponent in the corner. In the corner what can the opponent really do vs Elena vs f + mk/c.lk/c.hk/s.hk pressure? You’re too far away for them to really try and retaliate to anything you do, they have to take risks with reversals or play it patient, block and get out through openings, both options are something you would want.
Honestly, I’m really beginning to change my outlook on her. Yes, her specials are pretty worthless outside of combos, yes her stun is 50 points lower than it should be, yes shes very helpless when you’re on the other side of pressure, but her neutral game, corner pressure, and wakeup options seem to more than make up for it. Elena just seems like someone that needs to be grinded out to do well with, where you make the most of her opportunities that are presented to you. Her execution requirements to make the most of that pressure are extremely high, but they more than make up for it due to the huge stun/dmg output she can dish out from overheads and frame traps. Right now it seems like shes ass because she’s day 2 atm, she’s definitely not a character that can tear shit up when you first pick her up, unless you have excellent fundamentals like Justin Wong.
Jwong plays Elena how she should be played. I know he can make any character seem amazing, but I think it goes beyond him, it’s just the way you’re supposed to play the character.
Show me vids of Jwong playing, I never seem to catch him.
Also, anyone know any tips for the Guile matchup? I remember that matchup being so free at the loktests and I said “All they need to do is make Elena’s slide useless and this matchup will be 9-1 for Guile instead of Elena” and maybe I shouldn’t have told the Capcom guys that cuz they listened.
Jesus. Every. Single. Match. I believe in Elena less and less.
I think Elena is really strong once we get a grasp on her a little more. I have some games where I just get destroyed but for the most part I feel like its just holes in my game I gotta clean up. Shes got great tools. If you land some CH with s.hk and b.hk you get some nice damage. EX MS seems to be better to use as a whiff punishing tool into a combo for added damage rather than just always trying to fish for it in block strings. I also think there is some tech to be found with all her wonky hit boxes. I’m excited to see where this character heads. Get in the lab people! haha
Just hit up YouTube and you’ll find matches of him playing her.
Well he’s playing at WNF right now. He’s played two different matches so far. You can still catch him there or wait till the video gets uploaded. I’d definitely use the WNF matches as a much better reference for proper Elena play vs his UFGT outing. She isn’t really supposed to be doing up close pressure, which explains why her normals for the most part are all negative on block. People say she doesn’t play like 3S Elena, but in a sense you’re still supposed to play her more like a 3S character than a SFIV character, meaning, ideally 1 - 2 hit maximum attack strings before going into something like any of her various overheads, Lynx Tail(this stops it from whiffing and actually makes it useful again) or her command normals. I think someone said in this thread that shes more similar to 3S chun, which would actually be a great way of explaining how you should generally try to execute your gameplan.