So I’ve not been on the forum in awhile and that goes the same for playing fighting games. I played Street Fighter X Tekken at release, and for a good while afterwards. However I’ve forgotten everything about this game and most fighting gamer jargon. I would appreciate if you guys could fill me in on what I should know to start myself up again in playing. I want to pick up King and Ken, perhaps you could help me get started with them and what the state of the game is. Specifically some combos to do after a launcher, I’m not sure if King can still do his knee combo to a great extent. Anyways looking forward to some help!
Nice avatar bruh. I can type done stuff out for you tomorrow, currently on phone. But that’s just King, not Ken.
Thanks man, I had this avatar when I was really into King (when I was playing). You seem like you know a lot about King, so I’m looking forward to seeing what you can show me. Also thanks for actually taking time help.
I can’t sleep so I’ll type some stuff out for you now man. Please keep in mind that I used to play King before 2013, I dropped this game a few months before 2013 hit but now I’m back into it. The thing is, I know what they changed about King, but I haven’t done anything of it myself since I’ve only gotten one or two King matches in since 2013. I was too busy playing new characters, since I pretty much like the entire cast. So anyway most things I’ll tell you will need confirmation, I can’t check anything now since me mashing the stick will wake up SWAG QUEEN YOLO but I’ll check it for you tomorrow afternoon.
Alright, where to start.
Here’s the changelog video to get you started:
[media=youtube]tm87rlvSIFw[/media]
You already played King, so I’m going to assume you know his moveset. I always found King a character which I couldn’t really define. You supposed to play him like a grappler, do you rush people down and get them down to 20% with one reset combo or do you simply abuse his (also a guessing game) defense?
Footsies and defense
Let’s talk his normals first. Most of them have seen a damage increase. His st HK is a good, far reaching poking tool, not to mention it deals 110 damage. The move also makes you airborne, dodging those pesky crMKs a lot of people like to throw out. His far standing HP has also seen a damage increase, together with his MK and MP. However I would refrain from using his HP as a poking tool since it comes out super slow plus his HK deals more damage and has more range anyway. His st MK now deals 70 damage up from 60, this move can also be used as an anti air tool for certain distances, it works almost identical to Deejay’s in SSFIV in that aspect.
Another good footsie tool he has is his cr MK. The move had decent range plus you can buffer a lk Convict kick, which is safe on block and leads to OK damage on hit. Plus, the damage you get when you DDT after a convict kick has been increased by 30. I believe there’s also a one frame link after a lk Convict kick which allows you to link a st LK after.
If you know your opponent has longer reaching pokes, faster pokes or whatever, get your spacing down right depending on the range of their pokes and use the shoulder tackle. The tackle has one hit of armor and when you counter hit someone with it you get a wall bounce. Very good move, but extremely unsafe on whiff and block, so use this sparingly. You can also use your Jaguar Step to get in close and avoid pokes since it has invincibility frames and you are airborne, but we’ll get into this move later.
His cl MP used to be his only somewhat reliable anti air tool. The move didn’t have a hurtbox above his chest(?) making it ten times better than his than cr HP. Luckily his cr HP has gotten a significant buff and we can now use this as a reliable anti air tool. The thing is. I think there’s more knockback on his crHP. When I used to anti air with his cl MP and I got off a counter hit I was able to react with a knee lift, cl HP xx Running Jaguar bomb, which resulted in big damage. Before 2013 hit you’d be switching his anti airs up between his cl MP, his air counter and his knee lift. His counter dealing 170 damage ( Now buffed to 220!) was a very strong anti air move, forcing people to empty jump at you. When you finally got into their head and they’d empty jump at you, you could then anti air with his knee lift, leading to even bigger damage. Ofcourse if you weren’t sure or you just wanted a solid AA you would just press MP and call it a day. .
Anyway, you should only use these moves if you can’t react on time, since the light version of his Running Jag Bomb is now invincible to air attacks, comes out twice as fast, deals 150 damage and gives you a hard knockdown setting up another mixup. Best AA option, but this eliminates the gamble that you force on to people when jumping at you, possibly losing big damage but also possibly saving your skin.
If you combine all of this you should have a pretty solid defense against the average player.
Offense
OK, now that’s out of the way we can move on to his offense, the fun part.
King has amazing offensive capabilities, but they all rely on knockdowns, mixups, resets and perfect reads. He can be very rewarding when it comes down to big damage, but mess up once and you’ll be the one eating a boot.
One thing to note is that when you get in and you start poking with cr LP is that you won’t trigger arm slams anymore. There was an issue which you have undoubtedly encountered where you would trigger a Reverse Arm Slam when spamming punches. This was because this move would trigger when inputting down, downback, instead of half circle backwards.
The main tools for his offense will be his rolling elbow move, his cr HP, Convict Kick, Jaguar steps, his grabs and his counters.
Rolling Elbow
His rolling elbow is executed with fw MP MP MP, the third hit hitting overhead and giving you enough hitstun to easily combo afer. This is the move you watch out for when facing King, you see him execute this move? You panic, you mash DP, you backdash, you upback, you do anything to get out and not deal with that bullshit.
The thing is, a good King will know what to do with a rolling elbow setup. The thing is, you do not have to use all three punches, you can cancel it after the first and second hit, too. Now like I said, I haven’t played him in 2013 a whole lot yet, but I noticed that Ryu was able to mash DP in between the first and second hit of the elbow rush. This is not in the changelog, so it might have been a shitty connection, but if this is the case then this move is now obsolete against half the cast.
Anyway, rolling elbows, first two hits hit high, third one hits overhead. Time for some mixups. The first time you fight someone and you use this move you can feel them up a bit. Use the elbow rush twice, hold back and do not execute the third and look at what he does. Does he remain down-backing, does he stand up, does he up-back, does he backdash? Look at what he does. Depending on what rank people you play their response will mostly vary between holding down back and up back. Lower ranks holding down back, because they don’t know what the hell is going on, I mean, who plays King amirite? And higher ranked playing holding up-back since it eliminated the majority of threats.
This is where your reads come into play
- Opponent holding down back
You can either Shining Wizard ( Low command grab) or hit overhead and continue the combo.
-Opponent anticipating the overhead
Use his st LK-HK Tekken chain, the first hit hits low, the second one hits high, you have enough hitstun to use a launcher on reaction. This is a very good tool even on block since it creates a gap in between you and your opponent, making you safe if you space it right. HOWEVER, in the two matches that I’ve used King in 2013 I noticed that instead of getting the low hitting LK I got the cl LK which is a high hitting knee. They probably adjusted the spacing for this move, so I don’t know if this still works! You could still always use a cr LK into a chain, a cr MK xx Convict kick or his Giant Swing (Command grab for standing opponents). Please keep in mind that the light version of his command grab deals more damage but has less range. Light dealing 280 and Heavy dealing 230 ( EX dealing 250 and having some invincibility on startup).
-Opponent backdashing
This is a fun one. You can either Jaguar step after them so you’re basically in the same situation again, or you could use your H Giant Swing which catches the backdash!
-Opponent up-backing
Probably the one you’ll encounter the most or atleast a shared number one with down-backing. The only thing you can do that will win you this situation is using your Running Jaguar Bomb, it’ll catch them.
-Opponent retaliating
Now this is also a tricky one, this can be very character specific. If for example your opponent is playing Ryu and you notice him DPing on wakeup every time, chances are he’ll be mashing DP during your combos, too. Anticipate this one with the Airborne counter(fw PP), since Ryu is airborne when he hits you with his DP you have to use the aerial one. However if you for example face Akuma and he is mashing DP, you will have to use the ground counter (fw KK) since he is still grounded when the first two hits of his DP hit you. But you know, you could also just block and knee lift them when they get back down for even more damage, but it’s not nearly as satisfying as making a godlike read.
Opponent had 3 frame short? Just block man.
Well this is getting longer than expected, anyway, onto his convict kick.
Convict kick and crHP
Your best friend, das boot.
We have all either done his ex convict kick loops ourselves, or we’ve been on the receiving end, let’s be honest. Thing is, it’s really fucking good. His ex convict kick will set you up for so much damage it’s insane. It will also bail you out of literally every failed offensive attempt and creating a new one in the process.
You hitconfirm with a string but it gets blocked, what do? EX convict kick, you’re now + in frames allowing you to start another offensive attempt. Mainly elbow rush, cr LK xx Jaguar Step or if you know it’s going to fail and you need a breather use the st LK-HK tekken chain.
You hit your opponent with the elbow rush overhead? Use a chain ending in cr HP which re-stands your opponent, hit him with an EX convict kick and use knees. ( Knees only hit standing opponents, that’s why you need to end your chain with cr HP).
Jaguar Step
Then there’s still one move left, my personal favorite, the ultimate gimmick: Jaguar Step.
This shit is hilarious and brutal at the same time. It can catch the most experienced players of guard since the options this move creates are limitless. A lot of King players write this move off when they start incorporating it in their gameplay since to them there’s only 3 options: Lariat, Elbow Drop and Sweep. Wrong, there’s more. You are forgetting you don’t have to press a button, an empty step might be the best step. What do you get out of an empty step you say? All the options you get after the second hit of his rolling elbow move, but with the advantage that your opponent won’t react or take half of the option into consideration because it’s not ‘traditional’. They expect a slow overhead which they can easily react to or a sweep, the Lariat they automatically discard since it hits high and is only used for punishing whiffed shoryukens. Empty step command grab low works wonders, empty step regular grab is AMAZING in 2013 ( Grabs remove red health and are 2 frames faster), empty step st LK-HK, empty step rolling elbow, empty step crossover jump, options are limitless.
Now when do you use this move? You can’t just throw it out, you’ll eat a full combo if your opponent is half decent. (The part where you’re airborne you’re also invincible to hits (You can still get AA grabbed, think Hugo back breaker)). What I like to do is the following: You get a knockdown after a Running Jag Bomb, you backdash and then Jaguar step. What does this do? If your opponent mashes SRK on wakeup you can block this, so it’s completely safe if timed right. Now here come the gimmicks, your opponent sees you step, he will most likely roll since you can’t punish the roll if you’re stepping obviously. You **SHOULD **use your Elbow Drop in this case. Why? The moment they see this they will jump in at you, thinking it’s a free combo. But if you time all of this just right, you will be safe the moment of impact and you can use your aerial counter for 220 free damage, setting you up in the exact same situation as before.
Well dude I’m sorry for the shitty formatting but it’s 02:30, can’t blame me. You can hit me up on XBL if you have any questions, going to be on till I have to go to work in an hour and a half.
Ofcourse if you have any questions please do ask. Since the most intricate combo is probably knee 2x, cl HP xx Jag Bomb you’ll just have to find some setups and gimmicks that work for you.
Thanks, that’s some great info. However I do have some questions. I was wanting to know what he should do when I tag him in from a launcher combo? Also I was looking for a good partner for him, I’m not sure if I’m looking for a rushdown character or not also. If you could give some more help, that would be awesome man.
The most common partners i have seen with king are cammy and ryu.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
Yo King/Ken is the same team I’ve been using for about two weeks. 
Were you that other King/Ken team I saw last week? I’m pretty new to the game, so I don’t have a wealth of optimized combos for you but here you go…
What you should know first is that King’s Knee Lift (up-toward MK) has had it’s Juggle Potential reduced by 1 in 2013 but its damage was increased some, too. This Means any combo pre-2013 should be done now with one less Knee Lift, as in the first combo I list.
After Ken’s Launcher/DP Switch Cancel in a Combo
Knee Lift to HP canceled into Running Jaguar Bomb
Comments: Do only one Knee Lift on incoming now. This requires better timing when coming in as King. You need to Knee Lift at a certain moment as King enters after Ken’s Launcher or it will whiff. This combo does not work reliably if the opponent is in the corner (King runs out too slowly) and does not work with characters that have low launchers (like Cammy 
my main just before I wanted to play King).
HP canceled into Running Jaguar Bomb
Comments: This can be done anywhere on the stage after Ken’s Launcher, so use it in the corner where Knee Lifts will whiff.
Knee Lift to HP canceled into King’s Super/Cross Art
Be wary, you need to delay the HP a bit (til when the enemy gets about at King’s chest level) or the Super will whiff.
After Ken’s Reversal DP on a (Jumping or Standing Opponent) into Switch Cancel
The same combos can be done, but now you get 1 extra Knee Lift. So, now you can do**:**
Knee Lift x2 to HP canceled into Running Jaguar Bomb
Knee Lift x2 to HP canceled into King’s Super/Cross Art
As for punish combos, try to experiment with Ken’s MK/HK Tatsumaki in Training Mode.
Example: Starting as Ken,** j.HK** to cr.MK canceled into HK Tatsu switch canceled into King’s** j.HK** to** Knee Lift x2** to HP canceled into Running Jaguar Bomb
@SWAG KING YOLO: yo thanks for the tips on King. I’ve been playing this game for about a month and some (yes I’ma newbie) and its hard to find good tips on how to pressure and play footsies, especially harder for King. So Thanks.
Yeah just entered training mode with Ken/King, 560 damage with the HK Tatsu tag cancel. Pretty good.
You can actually knee lift in the corner IIRC but the timing is even stricter than mid screen knee after launch. Also the cr.LP, Knee, HP xx Jag Bomb doesn’t work anymore since knees take up more juggle count now, the Jag Bomb will whiff.
So for some decent and guaranteed damage just st.HP xx Jag Bomb after a launcher.
I tried all of what you’ve shown, and is suprisingly easy to pull off, I feel like I’ve gotten to a great start with my team now! And of course I’m back into fighting. Thanks a lot guys, much appreciated.