For the last year I’ve played Blanka >95%. I just got a stick and am deciding to switch mains for Super.
With Blanka (on a pad) I win over half of my g1 matches.
Now that I’m trying other characters I now realize I have NO execution skills. I can’t link much of anything. I can’t FADC anything. Every scrub Ryu on earth can dp FADC into Ultra…and I hit it about 1 out of 100 attempts in training mode.
I can’t tell you how utterly demoralizing it is.
Anyone else dealt with this? I could really use some direction/hope. :sad:
Why switch? Blanka looks like a beast in Super. No pun intended. Anyway I had the same problem a few months ago. Honda was my main in HDR but he didnt have the same feel in 4 so i switched to Blanka. After making it to G1 with him I switched to Ken for a break and realized the same thing. I had no technique with command characters and my gameplay was way off. I got my ass handed to me in any fight for months but once I got used to it my skill built back up and I was able to build on what I already knew. It just took practice. My advice is to go into training and do it slowly until you can get it. I still go do all of the normal combo challenges with Ryu once a week or so just to keep it up since I switched to Seth. I know its frustrating as hell when you cant get it but after you learn it youll wonder how it was ever so difficult.
going from pad blanka to stick ANYTHING is going to be hard. keep in mind that blanka is an extremely easy character when it comes to execution. i’ve just recently switched to stick too but i have no problems with blanka. non charge characters, srk motions and qcfx2 motions are giving me hell on a stick, but stick takes a long time to learn. how good is your execution with others on a pad?
i primarily use pad… but i can use a stick if needed… im just lazy about practicing with a stick… i have better precision with my jumps with a pad only becasue im used to it. but elec comes out more quickly with piano method on stick as opposed to pressing punch 5 times… ultras are no prob with stick… i just wanted to make sure i could play with stick incase i ever go to another arcade or if i ever go to japan and get owned… heheh… but ultimately my opinion is, use what u feel more comfortable with… as long as ur having fun… whether its beasting or gettin beasted…
this. play around with the stick, spend time in training mode and trials and youll get to the fadcs in notime. something that helped my transition from pad to stick was switching the buttons and stick to better ones (sanwa). i got the normal sf4 fightstick, and the buttons were always jamming :S
i agree that you should use what you’re comfortable with, but as a former blanka pad player, i can tell you that getting a stick was really worth it. things that are a pain on the pad come out effortlessly on a stick after you get used to it.
I had never used anyone besides blanka. I had some 2000 matches with blanka, and and probably <10. Since I never used anyone with combos I never had to learn the timing of links, or FADC anything. This is why I said that I have no execution skills…pad or stick. I’m ok with blanka on a stick…but he’s somewhat of a dead end, and doesn’t help me improve.
A while back I switched from Blanka to Balrog. He’s a pretty easy character to work with so I didn’t have too much trouble. Might be a good character for you to mess around with as a next step.
Strongly considering switching back though. There’ s just something about Jimmy that’s calling to me.
I won’t abandon blanka completely, as I"ve invested so much time in, but I’m not going to continue to main someone who has to earn his hits one a time, when most others earn them 3 at a time. Because ball is so punishable on block and hit…I just don’t want a character whose dependant on the other guy being bad (just not knowing the 20 ways he can ultra me off every move I have).
I know what you mean, I have been playing blanka pretty much all the way through SF4 and now I have been trying other non charge characters, I just get demolished, so I’ve given up and gone back to Blanka haha
I get rusty if I don’t play for a day or play other characters. Wanted to try out vega, bison, and honda. Doesn’t help when my stick acts up. It gets this weird problem with down+right not staying down right or not registering at all. It keeps wanting to switch to dead right. Gonna replace the gate, and try a octo-gate as well. ANyone else have problems with their TE stick? I’ve used the crap out of mine.
I can understand your frustration. I have a bit of a bizarre suggestions, should you be willing to put in the time and effort.
I had issues with SSFIV, mostly because (already lower mid-tier) Gouken got nerfed, but that’s probably a good thing, as it has me playing Blanka as my primary main now. (He’s FUN to play as.) Anyway, recommendation for improving your execution and finding a new character (or deciding if you really want a new main) would be the following:
Decide how many characters you want to try out (For me, I wanted to do C to Shining C, so I did it was all 35 characters)
Go through at least 20 trials with a character on your list, then jump in to Arcade mode, with fight request on. (I did this with Hardest, so that I could also get all the red titles)
Use arcade mode to practice BnBs and basic execution with the character you’re using, and use online fights to try to get a feel for playing other people with the character.
After you’ve ranked the character up to C, you probably have a basic idea on how you feel about that character, so move on to the next one on your list, starting with cranking out 20 trials to re-familiarize yourself with the character’s basics.
It’s a lot of time to invest, but it helps you get familiar with each character’s strengths and weaknesses, and forcing yourself to play at least half-way decently with a range of characters will get you very used to playing on a stick…after which you can decide which character(s) you felt most comfortable and interested in, and work on improving your execution with that specific character.
As for direction and hope: Baby steps, baby steps. Getting comfortable with a stick isn’t going to happen overnight, but the benefits are definitely there, and you should see signs of improvement pretty consistently as you get used to the stick and the character(s).
For me, stick is much better for charge charactors, but for command, the pad is better. I think its because of the square gate vs octo. I am too cheap to buy two sticks (one with square and the other with octo). I can to all the SRK movements on square gate, but it just feels awkward.
Practice c short x2 links or his double knee into standing jab into ball, or his c.forward into standing jab. The list goes on. I learned all of these links clean and it has improved my rog and bison 1 frame links.
Controller sucks for Blanka! The pcb in my stick went out and I tried a controller again. That was just frustrating, so I just quit playing until I get my new stick.