That’s definitely true, but I see it as more of a “third-option” kind of move to pull and not the #1 go-to-move. It shouldn’t be used too obviously that the opponent is extremely wary of it. For some jump-in situations, just the idea of RF hanging out there to catch attacks is enough to get the opponent to hesitate so you can dash cancel out of pressure.
Nowadays, when the opponent sees that you absorbed an attack with regular Focus, they don’t have to think twice about it and just blow through with their combo string/invincible move. With RF, they have to consider “Should I stop after this one attack and try to grab him?” It’s in that break that you are relieved of pressure and can dash out/release focus/continue holding, whatever your prerogative.
My impression was that it’s something new entirely. I agree it’s got to be something to promote offense though, so my hopes are for something not Alpha-related. Even if Air blocking promoted offense, it really is a weird mechanic IMO. Never really liked it and I think it’ll throw off the game completely.
Maybe an Air FOCUS? A single-hit attack that can absorb X number of attacks and causes lots of stun on the way down. The stun mechanic would reward a well played-offense and the absorption would stop DPs from being too powerful as defensive moves. Slightly different from Air Parrys in that you can’t do just any move following it, just a normal attack. And to spice it up, maybe give it to you at the cost of 25% Ultra meter instead of Super meter?
Agree with the Super stuff. That’s the one thing I missed from 3S/Alpha – being able to throw out Supers all day thanks to multiple bars. But yea, I’m not seeing DU being extra useful for many characters, just a handful at most. It’ll only affect match-ups in a minor way due to the damage reduction and you can still only pull it off 1-2x’s a match.
It’s going to be interesting for sure. I think it will be like everything else, difficult to deal with for a month until people start figuring out set ups.
It’s strange because whatever mechanic comes in it will no doubt just help the good characters get better and the bad characters get worse. Like you mentioned I can only see RF being a bad thing for characters like Dhalsim and Chun Li (RF legs will be crazy, RF limbs) meanwhile characters like Akuma and Cammy can probably make their offence even scarier. I’ve always been a fan of keeping strong things in the game as long as that strength is shared around, Sakura can keep her EX tatsu again as long as Guile get’s a decent Ultra or Bison get’s more damage etc but they are obviously just toning everything down, hopefully not making the game a snooze fest in the process (Fei is going to be even more boring to play than he is now).
I hope that the other change is not something like a team based scenario (SFxT) or anything too drastic, the game is still quite enjoyable even though it get’s so much shit and even the RF and double Ultra don’t really shake things up completely. These mechanics don’t really require you to play any different than you do now, you just have to be aware a little bit more.
A variable WU option or something as bad as SFxT rolls would destroy the game completely IMO. It’s a little bit scary what might happen.
– Yikes about the Double Ultra… 60%?? Fei’s U2 is now 282 damage and his U1 is 297. That really renders it worthless for him to use. That extra 50 damage from the CW > U1 is now closer to 30 damage. It doesn’t seem as game-changing as people originally thought. Even for grapplers, I’d say it’s a waste. It’s only going to be good for a limited class of characters.
I think they should really look into this again. If they’re going to give two Ultras, then why not actually give TWO ULTRAs? Make UW scale to 50% damage but cost 50% Ultra meter. They can make also just make it so 50% of the bar is dedicated to one Ultra, and the other 50% for the other Ultra.
– Red Focus causes lv1 Crumple??? Even if this is in-combo-only, this is a big change to damage/combo opportunities and even footsies. I’d like to see how it scales damage down though.
**Let me just blow your mind for a sec:
cr.MK xx lv1 Focus Crumple > Ultra 1 = ~450 damage with scaling?
Hit Confirm:
j.HK > cl.HK xx lv1 Focus Crumple > Ultra 1 = ~550 damage with scaling?
We all know Fei’s focus is insanely fast and long range, so this is definitely possible.**
–Delayed Wake-up: This is definitely a buff for Fei. His Oki game is mediocre with only an ambiguous jump-in/cross-up to play with and all, so it doesn’t hurt him that much. He’ll have a better time against Seth/Akuma/Viper/etc. with this mechanic. I think with this universal buff, I would mind a nerf to Rekkas even less.
So what are Fei’s bad matches? Cause I get different things from different people… and months later, I still drop Rekkas from left to right, haha. I was thinking of just changing the way I hold the stick, but that would feel awkward since I’ve always used wine glass.
People have their own bad matches as well. Generally you can look at anyone who walks fast whilst also having a good defense and assume they are going to give you a hard time because most players don’t have the level of patience or footsie’s to break that down.
Actual bad matches he wouldn’t have much, Akuma, Vega some people think Viper and maybe even Cody because he can punish rekka well. Difficult would be Bison, Chun, Balrog, Guile, Rose because you need zen like levels of patience to go up against these characters as they are able to toy with your space easily.
Luffy (Rose) has beat Mago everytime I’ve watched them.
Yeah I might test it tonight as I have a bit of time. I know it works on Chun Li, bitch!
EDIT: Ok I think this is floating around somewhere on the forum but I just went through the characters. Works on -
Yang Chun Yun Sim
**Gen ** Viper Bison
Gief
Makoto
Sim
Viper
Guile
Cody
Guy
Hakan
The characters in bold come with the added bonus of qualifying for the nasty reset involving cl.fierce xx CW (cross over resest) = Combo. So you can either frame trap this or on a corner focus crumple you could run that set up for large damage.
Very nasty. I might try that on a chun player that’s been giving me problems.
What’s good about saving for Super is that it lets you play a stronger footsies game with Fei’s cr.MK. What’s potentially bad about that though it the chance that you’ll now poke into a RFA yourself and give the opponent 500 damage to absorb. Having the cancel prevents that since it makes it a 2-step process. Also, with buffering a Super, you expose yourself to pokes and fireballs due to the need to hit DF and F. The RFA cancel lets you hold DB and turtle up a bit better.
On the offensive front, it’s just another way of doing a ton of damage, so why not? It opens up some possibilities including frame-traps on a canceled normal and potentially improves damage potential, though that remains to be seen in action.
You mean force-stand with cl.HP xx CW will cause a whiff for the first two kicks and hit on the last kick if the opponent is holding DB? I’ll have to try that out! I totally dismissed the list after AE 2012 came out, I’m glad that research wasn’t totally rendered useless from Super. Thanks for posting this.
Okay, anybody tried this ? I can do it with Cammy but no luck with Fei
Any characters of the above list can eat cross-up HK CW in the corner. The highlighted characters can be comboed from the front after a CH cl.HP (Although I know Cody also qualifies).
Yeah exactly. I’ve not really been using this either but it is dirty, safe and easy although you do lose positioning (but probably worth it in some cases). The other characters get hit by the first or mid kick. Ibuki did seem to work also (but I missed once so scratched it as sporadic). I’ve watched Gacket set the regular cross up with a blocked cr.jab XX CW (fly over) but it can be done on any KD or throw as long as they are backed in.
I did try some EX on some characters (not all) and Rufus was was the only one to work but didn’t qaulify for the frame trap.
confirmed changes for fei as of nov 2013:
*
LP Rekkaken has slightly reduced range
Crouching LK is now 4F start-up
Crouching MP damage increased
Tenshin has reduced recovery*
Hopefully someone there has managed to sneak a recording or two of Fei Long.
I’m curious to see how ‘slight’ the range has been reduced, if it’s anything like that early demo during EVO, things could be getting rough for him. Especially with some of these other changes other characters are currently sitting on in that build.
Just thinking out loud here, but I wonder if the range decrease could actually help with making the Rekka safer on block (assuming the frame data and pushback remain the same as in AE 2012)?
If the reduced Rekka range would help making the tip of Fei’s fist contact the opponent, then it could conceivably be safer on block.
Reduced recovery = increased advantage. That’s a good sign, though not sure how much of a change that is. I think +7 is plenty but if they made it +10 or +11 I wouldn’t complain.
cr.LK nerf is a big one for teching, but I think it’s necessary to put Fei on the defensive a bit more often. I’m not sad about that so much.
Rekka nerf may drop his status from a definite S class to more of an A class character – at least at first impression. We’ll have to see how short it is now to really tell. That Rekka spacing was important for corner lock-down since you could stay out of poking range and keep a strong lock on Jump-ins from that range. If you have to be much closer, it kind of puts you in a bad spot since you can be crossed over at a moment’s notice. I hope the push-back from this is better at least.
I think more important than Fei’s nerfs, we should be looking at every other character’s buffs. Blanka, Guile, Ken, Rose, and Dee Jay are looking sick.
Vega will be Fei’s toughest match by miles. Look at the Vega buffs.
I’ve been playing more Sagat of late and he’s getting some good buffs which is good. Fei not so much, there’s only so many times you can nerf a character and it’s one step too far this time.
Nerfs are fine but you have to give back, especially in light of all the buffs. Fei’s just going to feel like a shell of a character now. Tenshin change is completely pointless.
I wonder how much advantage the tension would give now. Basically all I can imagine it doing is either they want to make the link easier or give some sort of comeback mechanic if they were actually willing to give Fei tenshin into Ultra 1. But even if they do that they just make his gameplay less fun with a better option off of tenshin… I guess it all really depends on how drastic the current rekka range nerf is.
How can it get any easier though, you can’t drop it if you plink it’s like plus 7 or something stupid anyway. If it recovers faster on whiff, again no big deal, good players can whiff punish normals never mind specials.
Like you say Tenshin into Ultra might be possible but seriously, that shit is lame, super dumb. Maybe that’s the audience they are trying to attract though. It certainly seems like it looking at the nerfs.
