I like FANG because he’s absolutely not braindead unlike a lot of the cast with this simplified engine.
Like I said a few pg’s ago, he wasn’t part of the beta so I think there’s definitely lots of room for small changes to him to really round him out without putting him into ‘braindead’ territory or OP territory.
I think his frame-data is perfectly fine as it is now. I’d personally think a higher poison effect would be all he needs because his play-style should make opponents feel like they need to go on the offensive when in poison state thus leading right into FANG’s trap play-style. As it is now, FANG’s low damage output + low poison effect is a bit underwhelming especially for a character with the most limited defense in the entire roster.
In mirror-match purple poison colour should be different from Player 1 and Player 2 to avoid confusion. A-la Urien’s Aegis colour’s being different in mirror match in Third Strike.
I really don’t see him getting anything but buffed by the next year, so if you want to be that guy “who played this character before he was good” now’s probably a great time.
Footsies to long range. between cr.MK, cr.MP and its associated mixups, df.HP and sotoja, he is very very strong here. Add in v-skill and fang is a character designed for this range - more about zoning people out from their footsies ranges than anything. He is imo about winning ryu’s optimal range but with less flexibility than ryu.
Also I think the post about poison preventing white life restock is incorrect.
I hate online, so far been wining by actually doing nothing and anti airing alot. These people don’t seem to know what to do when they can’t jump at you it’s so odd
Sometimes people hand me free damage and they hand it to me so nicely that I miss out on it such as a completely obvious jump-in. I always assume that people are gonna play extremely smart and I prepare for that mentally. Then they just do a random DP in the neutral and I get so confused. Was it a missed input on a fireball or did they intentionally do that? I think too hard lol
Does FANG have any legitimate anti-airs? I’m seriously tempted to drop him now, as it feels like he simply does not work against competent players. I can’t force people to respect my space, and FANG doesn’t have the reversal options to deal with a blocked jump in. His god awful damage means you can play perfect for 60 seconds only to lose in 20. I really wanted to play him, but it’s gotten to the point where I just pick Rashid if I want to win, and I’m in Super Bronze; barely at that! I’ve tried every trick in the book, and am still less effective with him than my 5 minute Nash. I like the character, his range, his poison effects, and his intended game plan, but he just seems too lacking in basic tools to be viable.
/endrant
All of these anti-airs are great, but they need to be used for specific scenarios. When you combine them all, then you’ll see FANG has great AA options.
To expand, c.hk is timed semi early to hit clean and handles most mid to close range jump ins (done too late leads to trade, whiff or being beaten.
C.MK can be done quite a bit later. S.Mk feels a bit early to me but I haven’t messed with it as an AA much barring against Gief. Jab can be done super later and is very consistent.
There’s also slide if you read their jump and not sure of the spacing. If they jump from footsie range and you rh slide chances are you can get away with setting up Nishikyu shenanigans as they land.
No, those are god-awful:
-cr.HP has little to no horizontal hitbox, and doesn’t extend too far back either. It only seems to work if they intend to land directly behind you or on your head.
-st.LP does no damage and doesn’t have the best priority
-cr.MK doesn’t extend as far up as it should and loses to most jump ins in my experience
-st.MK has no priority, still loses or trades with jump ins; against your average j.HK, you’ll lose more health in the trade than your opponent and don’t get a good position off of it, and god help you if it isn’t a trade, because you definitely aren’t going to beat it
Hit the lab, there is a time and place for each of them and they are consistent.
To continue regarding c.hp:
If they are in footsie range and jump with an attack their hurtbox is extended enough to have c.hp hit clean. If they empty jump and land short of you it will most likely whiff(which is where his other aa’s shine)
Because c.hp needs to be timed a little early you have to consider each characters jump arc and speed into consideration.
And for c.mk the aa frames are early in the animation. Like everything it takes a little practice.
Man, I’m starting to lose faith in this character. I wanted to main him real bad ever since I saw his trailer, but it seems like you have to work harder for a win than the rest of the cast.
I’m going to stick with him, but most likely he’ll end up as a secondary character. He’s still fun to play.
I’ve had better success just being more aggressive. Granted his defense is still not that great, I make it a mission every game to not let myself get in the corner no matter what. Except against Zangief of course.
I really love F.A.N.G., befoire Street Fighter V I didn’t even try charge characters but I liked him enough to give it a try - which isn’t nearly as difficult as I thought. His gameplay is very varied, zoning but not as good as Dhalsim, good range normals but not as good as Birdie etc.
However I do agree that he’s on the weakest side of the roster, which could be explained by the fact he was never beta-balanced. I guess they were afraid the poison mechanic could be over-powered so they make it way too weak - 50 poison damage is pathetic, considering how difficult it is to keep the entire duration and how much his base damage was lowered to include poison. It takes a lot of effort and zero mistakes to win a match, while Cammy or Chun-Li can stun you with only two reads.
Some changes I hope will be implemented :
Increase poison damage from 6 per second to 10-12, and/or make poison stack up to 3 times.
Sotoja less unsafe on block (LP Sotoja is -11, it should be -4 like M. Bison Knee Press)
EX Nikankyaku throw invincible. Once F.A.N.G gets cornered he has zero escape against throw mix-ups.