Low-risk, low-reward is not good enough in a game that has such huge momentum shifts IMO. Especially if your defense is as bad as FANG. The 10-20 seconds you have to devote to chipping away 5-10% of their healthbar with poison won’t amount to much once they get a read on you and CH combo for like 4x that amount. Yeah the poison damage is ‘extra’ but that ‘extra’ damage was basically borrowed from FANG’S other moves so it just feels like a hurdle to jump through
I’m not even convinced FANG has the longest/most reliable pressure capabilities. Rashid and Bison have meterless safe on block specials, Sim’s oki is arguably better than FANG’s and Sim’s v-trigger in the corner is scarier than any amount of purple stuff FANG can shit out. Doesn’t help that FANG has one of the worst supers for chip kills. Also doesn’t help that he can be thrown out of either of the moves that let him get in closer (coward crouch and slide), the former also being a crucial frame trapping tool. Well, you get the point.
That can be said for a lot of characters. It’s one of the reasons why a lot of folks feel that cashing in white life is going to be huge as the game evolves. And if anything Fang does excel at least at that due to poison.
For the times you can get a hard knockdown -or if they don’t tech- you can get mileage out of set play via ball or trap oki. Low/instant overhead is great to cash in white life or close out a round. I’m not a HUGE fan of instant overhead in the middle of a round because a lot of characters can punish fang before he lands so your mileage may vary. Then there’s walk back to bait techs and jabs, which in turn rolls back to frame traps when they catch on to that.
Mainly when you condition them to block or looking for purple. So for example if you’re spacing c.mp and able to plant an mk trap and they don’t challenge it chances are in the future when you c.mp you can crouch~k afterwards.
Frame traps and shimmy usually condition them to let you sneak stuff like that in.
I have this feeling that capcom was way too afraid to go nuts with this character. Im going to assume during the testing of this character a lot of the things we asked for probably made FANG a really cheap character. I always thought it was a bad idea to not put him in the beta. They could have gotten some proper feedback on how he should be tweaked just like the rest of the cast. This is the first time a character in Street Fighter has a DPS mechanic so they were probably afraid he would be too OP for his own good. Now we have to wait a whole year for them to properly balance him. I only hope when the time comes they keep their word and buff weak characters and not nerf them. I have a bad feeling once top players get good with FANG the fans are going to cry about him being too op or cheap and they might nerf him when he needs a proper buff.
But I think someone said it well that more than a buff he needs to be retooled. Mainly his V-skill/trigger maybe reversal. I think his V-Reversal should sneak a poison on them. That would be a great mechanic when escaping the corner.
i just throw it out in pressure. when you get people to respect your + frames they’re likely not to press anything. and when you get pushed out kinda far, it’s a useful way to sneak yourself back in. also if your spacing is right with dropping mine traps right in front the opponent you can just use it from behind that.
honestly, just experiment. see what works and what doesn’t and refine a strategy from there.
the big perk for poison is that grey life can’t be recovered while they’re poisoned. so technically, if you can keep reapplying it, whatever they lose as grey damage will never come back and ofc if they get touched it’s really gone. that’s what makes his VT useful because it’s auto poison which means all you have to worry about is piling on the chip/grey damage and look for an opening to cash in. situations like this is how fang opens people up. they don’t wanna block forever and bleed out.
in a few matches i’ve bled out like 30+% of an opponent’s health and brought them into range for 1 touch=death just from locking them down in VT.
even then,i still think his VT is garbage. poison should drain faster or stack or something. overall damage is just too high and zoning is far too weak in this game for fang to be taking his sweet ass time.
What’s the best thing to do, or the best block string after you block moves that are -1 or -2 (or similar) but leave the opponent advantageously near Fang? Stuff like Laura’s shoulder tackle for example. I’ve been trying to learn him and this is my weakness right now. Is it simply to go for cr.lp, cr.mp, lk poison cloud and hope for a counter hit? Should I mix it up with some Ex slides to get out of there or just keep my meter?
s.LP into c.MP is what I do most often (combos on counter hit), into…
LK Ryobenda to combo if they get hit by c.MP randomly/create distance
MK/HK Ryobenda to set up a trap if they’re not close enough for LK Ryobenda to hit
LP Sotoja if you confirm the s.LP is a counter hit.
LP Nishikyu every now and then to go for gimmicks (EX Dash cancel/continue pressure), although if they’re used to this they can punish you pretty easily.
That’s what I try to do when I block moves that are -2, like Laura’s elbow or some of Rashid’s moves, for example.
So I was on the right track, cool. I still think only being able to combo into his fireball from lights kinda sucks though (feels unnatural to me right now). I like being able to do cr.lp, lp blast with Bison for example. Maybe this is a buff Fang could get in the future.
EDIT - actually it’s st.lp, st.mp, poison cloud but you know what I meant lol.
What are you guys using to poke with at max range?
I love s.MP buffered into light Ryobenda (the ryobenda hits at max range except on counter for some reason) but I find outside of this range i’m generally zoning or haphazardly jumping in. Sotoja & df HP have nice range but I consistently get hit out of the start up or get jumped in on. Moves like Nash’s mk. Scythe is what I would like to shut down, and feel like the two latter moves along with jumping would need to be done preemptively to have any chance of beating it out.
Do you guys have any V-Trigger mix ups?
After thinking Fang’s V-trigger was complete ass and focusing more on reversals, I’ve come to realize it’s fantastic to use on block for free damage during your pressure. Similarly to Dhalsim if you V-trigger shortly after it becomes available there’s a good chance you can get two off in a round. With that being said the most general use I’m seeing of it (as with most other characters) is to hit check with sweep. I was wondering if any real oki set ups were possible with it. I’ve done simple things like V-trigger cancel then cancel the first hit of s.roundhouse into command dash mixups but it simply won’t work against decent players without a projectile on screen.
FANG’s long range pokes are relatively slow but yes, I do use st.mp. The problem is the starting frames I think 7 is too long and if you put it out their at the wrong time like when they jump, you won’t recover fast enough to block usually.
I tend to use it when my opponent is conditioned to dash in for counters and combos (Laura, Karin, Nash ect.) If they are not already jump happy. df.hp is good as kind of a check move. To see if they are blocking from long range. using it at Max range is ideal but you can’t get anything off of it, I throw it out a few times to see what they will do. usually it will provoke an unsafe move or a jump which im fishing for.
There are some V-Trigger mix ups out there, I hardly use it. I rely mostly on my V-Reversals. They get me out of a lot of situations if I use it right. The only one I like is cr.hk first hit xx V-Trigger. Even if they block, activating it in their face gets you instant poison and if you can maintain pressure in the corner you can just sit and watch their health melt away along with the white health. I think the best time to use V-Trigger is on the offensive because if you just blow it early while zoning, they will just stand back (if they are smart) or ignore it completely and rush you down and you have no V-Reversal during this time.
How does the reset work where they land on EX Cloud or EX fireball, and then you do a jumping normal or even coward crouch kick? Seems to just work randomly for me.