To be honest unless you’re against a character who has a lunging attack that goes into a catch grab lp balls feel safeish to build a wall with, and his balls do hit a lot of things that no sell traditional balls all day (Examples off the top of my head, Bison V-Skill, Hurricane Kicks, Nash V-Skill, any move that’s meant to go over fireballs).
As for medium balls, they serve the purpose of letting you get in when canceled into ex.command dash and they can still catch a lot of things that will go through other character’s fireball games.
I’d even go as far as saying Fang has possibly the best fireball in the game imo, it’s just that as you say he gets let down on damage (both on single hits and combo ability) and dealing with pressure (damn that throw option select looks brutal for FANG to deal with).
On the plus side, getting in with him feels really easy with his balls into ex.command dash (or ex.balls into normal command dash), he has decent pokes, his pressure shenanigans when he scores a knockdown are tricky and zoning wise, no-one in SFV can do it forever but it feels like Dhalsim is the only character who does it better than Fang.
Yes I don’t expect him to be one of these characters who come out as top tier a few months down the line but calling him SFV’s Dan feels like hyperbole, he’s honestly not quite that terrible.
Salt clouding my judgement. I just wish there was a little more wiggle room in his frame data and moves to allow for some more tricky stuff. Everything I make in the lab that seems sick just seems to lose to mashing of grab or jab. I might just be looking at everything through to much of a SF4 lense. Not sure yet.
I’m pretty sure there’s some sort of R.Mika unblockable setup on FANG with the use of V-trigger and Command Grab on a hard knockdown against FANG.
Cr. HK (counterhit) > cancel into V-trigger > meaty Command Grab + V-Trigger release from far wall at the same time. If FANG tries to block, eats Command Grab. Backdash, eats Nedeshko. Jump, eat Nedeshko. Any Command Dash, eat Command Grab.
what im interested in testing is how viable doing a string into whiff m/h.ryobenda is. if the gap is short enough it should technically be a frame trap. then the next step is testing advantage on hit. if it works out that can be useful to restart your pressure or build grey life.
Are yall following your jump-ins with s.hk or do you use s.lp->s.mk to confirm? You lose a bit of damage with the s.lp but the link doesn’t require you to hit your jump-in insanely deep like s.hk followup does and it’s also a bit easier to react to the confirm (granted j.hk already makes this pretty easy with it’s animation length).
it does have to be deep and I consider it to be unreliable; better when you can setup properly like from stun, VT’s, or oki game(throw balls, slide, and st.hk)
Like what arcade owner said, that is a good combo to do.
You can also do cr. mp to be on the safer side, st.mp as well. I also like to do lp–>mk(or st.lk)XX light cloud as its pretty solid and safe move to space yourself out.
Yeah this is the reason I suggested s.lp, so you can use this string as a followup if they block (the lp-> mk is a 3 frame trap but thanks to the priority system should beat all jabs).
But derp, I didn’t even think to use s.HP after a jump-in for some reason, thank you both for pointing that out. Much more reliable than s.HK even if it does a tad less damage.
I think I’ll have to spend some time practicing the j.HK hit confirm, since linking into a s.HP that leaves you -2 at point blank on block seems pretty bad for FANG.
you can also cancel into lk cloud after st.hp if the j.hk didnt hit. I never press any normal after a st hp its almost like frame trapping yourself! Unfortunately yes sweeps are definitely a move you should be very careful throwing out unless its protected by poison balls that are about to hit or hk/ex cloud
I noticed WORLDCOMBO (top JP FANG atm) usually does cr.mk after j.hk. Afterwhich he would either poke for a CH combo or just LP fireball/ MP or HP Trap to re-establish pressure.
He’s pretty worth watching because I think that’s the fewest amount of command dashes I’ve seen a top FANG ever use, really shows how to actually zone and establish a defense presence with the character. Againt Nuki it looks like cr.hp can hit Chun TK Legs, but idk how good that is.
Anyone else notice the CA dropping in the corner? I’ve had it happen to me a few times now and I don’t know if it’s a bug or a late cancel forcing it to happen or what.
It’s likely a late cancel. At very least, I tested it out in training and when I got the timing to cancel it later on in my lunge, it’d knock them the other way. If there’s other factors (I used to think character model/size was the biggest culprit) I’m not aware of them, but now I just cancel ASAP and I haven’t had a problem since.
its almost like frame trapping yourself! Unfortunately yes 
sweeps are definitely a move you should be very careful throwing out unless its protected by poison balls that are about to hit or hk/ex cloud