It seems to me like Kuma is a sort of unfinished character. If only he could somehow go into Hunting Stance during a combo or after a string, it would be so much better. As it is it’s always risky to do it unless they are knocked down.
So far I mainly use it to stuff roll attempts, because the break-dance attack causes one hell of an ambiguous hit as they are rolling away depending on which side you pick. I also use a f.mp a lot during after my pressure strings. That way they know not to jump, it moves Kuma forward a bit, it pretty safe, and I get to start up pressure again.
The f.hp attack, I haven’t really found much use for it yet. Seems a bit risky if they backdash or jump, as it doesn’t seem to hit in the air at all.
F+mp is less safe on block then f+hp by alot. F+hp also hits low
F+mp has full air crush
There are some combos that can use hunting stance but they usually aren’t worth it damage wise they just look flash.
Hunting stance is almost entirely used for getting lose to an opponent as it has many ways to avoid things like jump ins fireballs and such but you have to be set in the stance first.
its best up close things honestly are its normals all of them are pretty amazing.
I do like that idea for beating rolls but usually with Kuma I just stand at max range of f+hp which covers both directions if they roll.
He can go into Hunting stance after his Back Heavy punch (First hit). You can’t combo after it but you can go for his Forward heavy for a low mixup. Kinda useless though
And you can use his F.Hp as a meaty attack for shenanigans.
I was hoping they game him move moves for footies, or even making him cancel his moves faster when you go into hunting stance.
It’s actually better than I thought. Unfortunately, you can’t cancel hunting stance into his rolling circus, but it makes for a cool tick grab. Or you can frame trap with his S.L (in hunting stance) for more shenanigans.
Since hunting stance is jump cancelable maybe you can do rolling circus as hcb,f,uf and get it to come out by canceling jump cancel into rolling circus…
Haven’t seen anybody else mention this, but if you equip the auto-block gem, Kuma will block in hunting stance; after blocking, the then instantly exits the stance. I don’t play Kuma myself, but my friends and I just found this out messing around in training mode tonight. It works for all of the characters with stances that you normally can’t block in, actually.
I use it mostly after megaton, l follow up knockdown. I usually HBS and dash in and use the lmh combo or breakn. Once they start blocking you can use the throw.
Has anyone messed with HBS d+pp? I’m not entirely sure what all it goes thru, but I know most lows hit him. Also, for anyone unaware, you can use FB while in HBS. It jumsp over lows, so this may be a good bait to get them to go low.
d+pp is good for covering ground, in that you can duck under a projectile and dash for free, or duck and cancel into b+mp since the beginning of it is projectile invulnerable. As far as dodging attacks, I haven’t tried to apply it in that way yet.
I’ve been starting to use hunting stance more as a defensive tool. When I’m just outside of f+HP range I’ll go into it, and he has pretty solid options to deal with everything. For jumpin he has f+mp and b+HP. Dash and walk in footsies he can use his normals and b+HP or FB to jump over lows. Projectiles he can d+pp under then dash (thanks shira!), b+HP, or b+MP. You can always backdash out of pressure too, though it’s a little slow. Cancel out with kicks and jump back are also good options, if not a little slow.
But basically breakin makes them wary to push buttons, then you can start to mix up a bit.
IMO Kuma has one of the absolute best corner mixups in the game. Break’n can cross up rolls if you predict them, making them wary to roll because they don’t know what side you’re on. Grab range in HBS is farther than normal, so you can grab them but they can’t grab you. HBS F+hp is safe (except for some very select cases) on block and threatens them with a low hit. Normal B+hp first hit is safe as all hell and confirmable into the other three hits, and hits high, making them wary of high hits. If it gets blocked, you just switch to bear stance and jab, jab, jab, jab, until they don’t know what to do. Then the WHOLE PROCESS STARTS AGAIN.
Kuma is so good. He’s crazy good. People are going to sleep on him and get completely blown up. And even once they learn the matchup, they will still get blown up. None of these are gimmicks. He’s full of good stuff.
Edit: Also, break’n beats Messiah Kick. All of them. Kuma FTW.
His HBS game feels very incomplete IMO - compared to how powerful it was in Tag, T4, T5 days. It’s almost like the game dev’s started working on his HBS options then just gave up or ran out of time Many of the options in SF X Tekken make you a sitting duck.
I mainly use HBS while I’m on opposite side of screen. It is an awesome keep away tool while you have a health lead. mp charge to make them hesitate to walk in… break n’ bear away from them to make space. As long as you have good reactions, they’re not gonna get back in on you (stuff the jump-ins with f. mp or frolicking bear and you’re good).
For HBS wake-up shens, I found mp charge, frolicking bear and break’n to be most useful. If the opp. has a bar, back off of HBS shens (unless you like eating a mashed out EX as your opponent gets up).
d+pp (kuma lays down flat from HBS) should only be used from opposite side of screen. I’ve avoided all fireballs with this. Don’t even think about using this if you’re not on opposite side of screen.
Why would you use breakn to move out when you have backdash? Same for wakeup. HBS on top of them then use backlash to bait a SRK reversal or just breakn armor thru it.
I quite like the wakeup shenanigans of rolling back after a knockdown and then rolling back in looking for either the throw followup or just empty rolling into block and punishing unsafe stuff like wakeup SRKs. The forward roll is invulnerable to everything but throws, so just do it, says I as throws are so short ranged in this game no-one throws on wake-up.
I’ve been using Hunting stance midrange for better mobility and for mixing the opponent up on wakeup. Dashing in with throw is great with Kuma in HBS, but I also love the little animation haha. So yeah after a knockdown I mixup with overhead, throw, HBS strings…or HBS back into overhead…then back into HBS etc. It’s really good lockdown!
Many of the options in SF X Tekken make you a sitting duck.