How best to punish whiffs?

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

Still getting into the flow of things SF-wise, after a long hiatus from fighting games. I think whiff punishing is an aspect of my game I can really work on.

I hate it when my opponent makes a mistake that I KNOW I should be able to capitalize on, but I have to settle for something lame like just throwing or sweeping him or something. I want to be able to bust out the big damage, but my grasp of combos is still lacking ATM.

More than that, though, is the fact that I think I get way too greedy with wanting to punish whiffs. I always think I should be able to land the biggest combo possible, but in reality our fingers slip, we misjudge distance, have off days etc.

So some questions :

  1. Does distance play a big part in punishing a whiff? If the opponent is too far away, maybe I should settle for just a good clean hit instead? Or not go for the punish and just put out a fireball or move to a better location.

  2. My number one thing to work one…punishing missed DPs and the like. Do I hit them on the way down? After they have landed? Or it is character dependent? I can never figure this one out.

  3. When your opponent whiffs a big move, do you go for the Crush Counter? Or do CCs only occur when you hit them out with a move with a CC move?

Still learning a lot about the game here, apologies for n00b questions.

2
  1. yes. Experiment in training mode. Ex: if up close with ryu, s hk cc x s mp x cr hp, hp dp will net the biggest meterless, vtrigger-less damage. But if slightly farther away, s hk, s lk, l or m tatsu is your next highest damage meterless, v trigger-less option. Sometimes it’s also more advantageous to go for less damage and more corner carry depending on where you are. You gotta make that call based on health for both players, area you guys are at on the stage, time remaining, and what meters you both have at that time.

  1. Again training mode is your friend. Character dependent. Karin has tricky timing after her ex dp. Ken’s dp is fast and easy to cc. Ken’s ex dp is floaty and slow on the way down. Get in the reps in training mode. Make it muscle memory. Can’t stress that enough

  2. Not everything is a crush counter-able. Each character has a set number of available crush counters. Those exact moves only crush counter at particular situations, ex: after a whiffed/blocked dp, hitting while they tried hitting a certain button…

3

  1. Distance in whiff punishing is pretty much everything.

  2. You hit them on the way down, but not too soon or you’ll CC them in the air which will make you get a smaller punish.

  3. CC doesn’t occur on whiff (except for invincible moves like DPs) but if you hit the opponent during the startup frames of his move. If you use your CC button on whiff all you’ll get is a normal hit.

4

Wait for the 4 frame patch hitting on the 20th.

5

I really hope the 4 frame patch is true

6

Thanks for the tips!

What is this 4 frame patch?

7

Lag is getting reduced to 4 frames instead of 6 (supposedly technically 6.5) as Xian was told by a Capcom employee. Barring that information is accurate should make whiff punishing either especially if they fix up the hit boxes a bit as well.

8

Hmm, so I should hold off on serious practicing until after this patch hits? This is the Dec 20 one right?

9

Yup 20th. You can still practice, but the practice will be more natural after this supposed lag reduction.