obviously this setup is for a backrow Paul that is paired with a character that has a cross rush affinity. in my case it’s Guile.
obvious choices for the most part. the shield gem is imo the best universal gem in the game as it’ll pop DURING a 5hit+ combo, not afterwards, meaning its effect will almost always be consumed and does not get wasted because it gets activated off a random hit. that’s basically a flat out +100 health. at least for the moment, that’s the best you can get math-wise.
for a team consiting of two solo guys or a team that depends on switch cancels I use this:
again my beloved shield gem along with the 80 health regeneration gem. it’ll also never go to waste, making it another good choice of a gem that will most likely pop off every round, helping Paul to stay longer in the field. +10% damage doesn’t really worth it unless it has an condition that makes good use of it right away, which is not the case for any other gem but for the post tag gem. as cross rush will not be as commonly used in that team, it’d be a wasted slot. I also considered the use of the get hit by 4 normals: +100 shield gem instead of either the meter or healing gem. but this one can pop off rather randomly or don’t get consumed during a combo when both shield gems get activated (200 shield after a 4hit+ scaled combo). tho, it would still slim the effectivness of the oki after the knock down.
and hands down, I’d prolly use auto-tech gem against rufus, if gems would be allowed at a tournament :3
I personally like to use two fortitude gems (currently using hit by 2 specials and hit by 4 normals) and a life force gem (+80 vit over 5 seconds) for every character, seem like the best gems to me right now. I may consider Onslaught gems if I start using Cross Cancels more, but Paul doesn’t have a cross cancel that you can switch cancel and combo from unfortunately. I’ve tried speed gems on Paul a few times, they’re not horrible, they make it much harder to anti-air him and block crossups correctly, and strengthen stand jab pressure.
speed gems are bad. unless they give a huge increase they don’t matter much. 10% is just not worth it imo.
meter gems are actually the best as they give offensive AND defense but they are not equally good for all characters, depending on the meter gain on their normal pressure / zoning game.
you should def switch one for the 5hit+ shield gem. instead of the get hit by 2 specials for instance.
are yeah, I hope no one uses +10% defense or something like that… worst gems by far (in comparision).
I may switch a fortitude for the 5 hit one, but I find that a lot of the time my trouble with Paul is more so getting in on zoners than getting pressured/confirmed into big combos. There are plenty of matches where I just can’t seem to get in and I get hit by loads of cr.mk xx Hadoken/donkey kick or Anti-air specials or cancelable normals into small combos, I may not even get hit by a 5 hit combo at all, whereas I get hit by 4 normals and 2 specials 99% of the time my health becomes an issue. For the speed gems, they increase your jump speed (making it complete in less frames), don’t they? It really seems like they do, I know I have more trouble anti-airing (esp with Yoshi and Paul) someone with a speed gem activated and it seems like I get a lot more jump-in counter hits and people just blocking and giving me free jump-ins when I have a speed gem or two on. It’s really useful when they’re scared enough to block and let you jump-in on them so you can start mixing them up, and Paul’s j.hk has a great angle/downward range to hit early on in his jump arc which helps this. I’ll have to find a way to test if they do and build a gem setup around speed gems and see how it works.
there is only Damage Reduction (aka shield) and Defense.
why the launcher gem? imo the most useless gem in existence as it’s only active for 15 seconds while it ticks down while you’re tagged out, so you have to forcefully tag into paul again, making it a great risk AND you have to open up your opponent to finally get anything out of it… +paul does not really use cross rush that much. that’s like 4 reasons that this gem should never be picked. ever.
speed gems do increase jump speed. however, 10% is just so meager. paul has 35 jump frames, meaning roughtly a 3-4 less jump frames. rather neglectable imo. speed becomes good when it’s stacked, but with the current gems it isn’t worth it imo.
it should pop off against any player unless you get zoned to death, which shouldn’t happen. even sim, guile, sagat etc make use of cross rush and a generic cross rush has 4 hits+ alone. what makes this gem so good is its condition as it’ll most likely never go to waste but you’re in danger to let the other gems go to waste if they get activated while you’re in the offense or switch out while it’s active.
OMG. With Paul having the abillity to launch after a tag in, you can make such a sick setup:
First Char (e.g Guile):
+40% meter on tag
+40% meter when partner tags
(+80 Absorb on 5 hit+ combo)
once you launch and then hk shredder =>launcher back to the character he has +80% meter gain xD one combo and you have almost 2 bars full.
Not sure what to give paul in that instance tho.
+20% Damage on Super
+80 Absorb on 5 hit+ combo
+40% on partner launches (since if guile runs low health I don’t want to retag)