Fei is a great character in AE2012, one of the best. I don’t think some of the nerfs were warranted but that’s just me. His rekka has received running nerfs in the last 3 editions now, so what point do you get to where people are happy? When they just kill the move off? I guess that’s it really. I have never had a problem facing Fei but then that’s because as a Fei mainer, the match up is well known to me.
Personally I don’t see the attraction with Fei now and I think I’ll probably main Sagat even though he too looks slightly worse. I’ll obviously give him a try out for a few weeks first though.
My gut feeling is that even though he has some nice new combo’s, he’s going to eat far too much damage going in before he can swing the match back. Characters with fast walk speed were always Fei’s little weakness and now I can’t see how he can compete with those characters who also have good ground games.
All your concerns regarding Fei are all completely knee-jerk and reactionary. He has more than one tool to play a ground game with. Many in fact. More than most.
I think boiling down his changes to ‘a few new combos’ and a Rekka nerf is short-sighted. The damage from his cr.MP is going to add up. He has consistently high damage from AAs with FK FADC MK Chickenwing, EX FK and his regular close normals. He can use Ultra 1 as a far AA now and net 285 damage consistently. His EX Tenshin faster startup gives him an unreactable command grab. There’s no way anyone is reacting to 10f startup. He still has jab xx Tenshin. He has consistent high damage on AAs and combos into Ultra, not to mention massive corner push on this as an added bonus, AND has time for a setup. He still has EX Rekka - hands down the best move in the game. He has higher damage when converting damage WITH EVERYTHING HE HAS now. He has a new, consistent frame trap with Toward+HK, which leads into a full combo on everyone.
Ryu can punish LP Rekka with sweep? Don’t use it then. Then you won’t get swept. Problem solved.
A lot of you need to understand that:
A) There’s more to a ground game/playing Fei than doing Rekkas.
B) Fei was too strong. Really. He was.
Don’t expect the game to save you. Develop your ground game and adapt.
I agree that maybe some of us are being “knee jerky” but really most of the points you mention Neville involve Fei being close to the opponent. As it is now we use rekka and his block strings to keep people locked down. Who jumps on Fei Long anyway?
I just don’t see how Fei can tackle - Balrog, Guile, Bison, Vega, Chun Li (Yes, Chun Li) then you’ve got the likes of Rose and Sagat who can take advantage of Fei’s nerfs, then you’ve got buffs to a scary looking Viper on top of characters like Akuma, Ryu, Ken who all seem to be capable of dealing with Fei’s game.
My main concern is yes, he’s got shit to play with, but he’s not got the walk speed or pressure to chase people down now (outside of EX rekka). Even his focus attack (which admittedly was too strong) has had a nerf along with his ambiguous cross ups. Sure maybe you can grind it out with Fei, but this damage you speak of doesn’t come from footsie situations, he can’t convert into bigger damage from midscreen (people might even fall out of rekka now) and as far as I can see he’s not got a reliable way of stopping people from just backing away the whole time whilst counter poking at anything he tries to do.
Starnab seems to be a bit down beat, Mago’s dropped him faster than a cheap hooker and I’ve not seen Fuudo. In fact I’ve not seen anybody play Fei Long in Ultra bar the odd random match where he’s getting his ass kicked by a pro. Like I said I’m willing to give it a shot, I just think he’s going to have too many matches where you are simply traversing from one side of the screen to the next whilst eating damage. The 3 hit Ultra after the CW doesn’t even work on everyone I’m assuming.
It’s not even about strength for me, I couldn’t care if he was a mid tier hero, I didn’t pick Fei Long so I could do a bunch of cr.mp and command grabs. You got fricken Yang 3 character spots away have buffs to everything Fei got nerfed. Just doesn’t make any sense.
Guys can someone tell me where it says that LP rekka is -5 because it doesn’t say that anywhere on the final patch notes. It says the second hit of LMH rekka has two less frames of hitstun.
Crouching light kick now has 4 frame startup instead of 3 frames. Can no longer be canceled into itself.
Crouching medium punch now does 65 damage instead of 55.
Light Rekkaken forward moving distance has been decreased.
The second hit of his Light, Medium and Heavy Rekkakens have two less frames of hit stun.
Shienkyaku (Flame Kick) no longer comes out by doing the back-forward-back motion.
Light, Medium and Heavy Shienkyaku (Flame Kick) -> FADC -> Forward dash is now -5 frames.
Light, Medium, Heavy and EX Tenshin (Flip Grab) now do 1 damage to their opponent.
EX Tenshin (Flip Grab) now has 10 frames startup instead of 12.
Non-animation Rekka Shingeki’s (Ultra 1’s) third hit now hits higher, allowing for combos against airborne opponents where the final hit will land.
• Crouching LK start-up increased by 1 frame (3F → 4F); can no longer be chain-cancelled into • Crouching LK; advantage on hit increased by 1 frame (+3F → +4F)
• Crouching MP damage increased by 10 (55 → 65)
• Close Stand HP recognition range increased
• 6+HK pushback on hit reduced
• Focus attack hitbox area reduced to his palm area
• L Rekkaken forward movement distance reduced
• L, M and H Rekkaken 2nd hit hit-stun reduced by 2F; each version now has one more frame of recovery
• MK flip kick hitbox expanded to hit on all opponents
• Shienkyaku no longer activates with 464+K input
• L, M and H Shienkyaku → EX Focus Cancel → Forward Dash is now -5 on block
• All versions of Tenshin now do 1 damage (0 → 1)
• EX Tenshin start-up reduced by 2 frames (12F → 10F)
• Rekkashingeki (UC1) non-cinematic 3rd hit floats the opponent higher, when used in air combos the last hit now connects
…and it won’t even matter if it’s deep because Sagat has one of the furthest Dp’s along with Guile. Ryu’s will whiff though as will most shoto’s, but they have other tools they can use.
I guess we will need to start using the second hit mindgame more instead of relying on it being safe on all occasions. Not against Sagat, sure, but that’s pretty fair condidering that match was heavily in our favour.
