As the title reads, im in need of help with my Adon. Im hoping someone who plays on pc or ps3 can help me. I have my bnb combos and my setups down but i still feel like im missing something and i dont know what it is but it causes me to lose in game. I know I should be posting this in the matchup thread but i think it would be more visible to everyone. If you are interested in helping me please pm me or reply to my thread and i will add you on psn or pc
what are you losing out on? you need to identify the problem first before you can work on it. I think most of the problem adon players have can be work on by improving on fundamental or increasing matchup knowledge.
Basically for adon, I think his game plan is quite simplified when compared to some of the other characters. These are the things which I think adon player should focus on (correct me if i’m wrong).
1st) you need to control that horizontal space on the screen. Adon has a much easier time doing so mainly because he have so many tools to take that space such as jk, st.hk, st.hp and iajk mk or hk. U need to be able to utilise these moves on the go to use adon to his maximum effectiveness. Once you are able to control the horizontal space on the screen, you are forcing your opponent to commit to more risk to get in on you or be chip to death by jk or iajk ( of course this are not safe on grappler but you still have st.hk and st.hp to deal with them) which leads us to our 2nd point.
2nd) once you let your opponent know that you have that horizontal space under your control, your opponent will the need to take more risk to come in on you such as jumping in which is a stupid idea as adon have several anti air mainly hk or ex rj, st.mk and st.hp( even st.hk can anti air from certain angle). Note that this is make even better if you have ultra II as any anti air with 1 hit of hk.rj will always nets you the full ultra II.
Now that you have both horizontal space and vertical space under your control, you have to learn to deal with pressure. To me, I think the most important part with dealing pressure is to know the matchup and what the other character can do.
Hmmm let me give you an example of a match by taking our all time fav charc: ryu as a living example. The thing that you will need to learn is his safejump option as he has 1 of the most idiot proof safe option of all times, frwd throw into frwd jump hk. It’s such a simple safe jump setup BUT it will always beat adon rj. Imagine that you do not know such thing, you will easily be punish by ryu full combo even if you miss once. Another thing is often when people see ryu or any character starting to move close to their own character, they will start to mash crouch tech. Again, this is not a wise choice as ryu can simply punish you with a dp fadc ultra 1 and there goes all your effort of trying to control the match with method 1) and 2).
So by the example that I have given, I strongly believe matchup knowledge is 1 of the most important thing in sf aspect as it helps you break down what is safe and what is not which will also determines what you can do in which suitation and what you can’t do.
So after writing all this, I hope i’m able to help step up on your game. I’m still in the process of learning myself too. So if other people have something which I may have overlook or left out please kindly correct me, thanks
Ps. Sorry for writing such a long post
Well to be honest my problem is i don’t have patience. I tend to jump in alot to get a bnb combo but i get too thirsty wth it. Ill try out your gameplan but i want to ask what are your thoughts on going for a jump in or for a bnb combo. Do not be afraid to write another long post haha
For me I think jumping in for a bnb combo depends on the suitation. As mention in the footsie handbook by maj, jumping for a bnb combo is generally just not worth it. I will break it down into 2 suitation when I think is advisable to jump and when is not.
As mention earlier, jumping in just for a bnb combo is generally not worh it. You may ask why, actually the reason is simple. Imagine you are in the suitation with ryu who has ultra 1 stock, jumping in for a combo will net you ard 200+ for a basic bnb combo BUT what if the ryu anti air is on point? All he need to do in that suitation is a lp dp and that will cost you ard 300+ of your life which is simply just not worth it even if his lp dp trade with whatever you may throw at him and damage him a little in the process but don’t forget he can follow up with ultra 1 therefore the risk-reward is not in your favour here and this is just 1 of the many example out there.
So you may ask if jumping is so unsafe then should I totally forget about jumping? My answer to you is no. You must remember this, jumping is a tool and it’s totally up to you on how you wanna utilise your tool. 1 of the example of when you should jump is after a safe jump setup after a hard knockdown. This is different from jumping bindly into your opponent, this time round you are baiting something from your opponent and waiting to punish him. As mention, this is a safejump setup so if your opponent tried to dp he has already fallen into your trap and you can punish him as you like.1 of the safejump setup which I can give you for adon is after a back throw, walk back a little and do a jumping mk( the mk may cross up or not depending on the timing).
Another suitation which I think you should jump is when you are trying to mixup your opponent. In the midst of battle, sometimes reaction speed will be affected. Therefore although people know that they should always anti air but they fail to do it cause their mind is being caught up on trying to avoid another suitation. I’ll give you 1 of such example. Remember I told you that you could jump after a backthrow? Let’s assume you did and your opponent did nothing. In this suitation you have several option but the general ones are normally pressuring him into a block string or tick throw him. In this suitation if your opponent is not a masher, his mind will be thinking of 2 option: should he be teching throw or simply blocking( Remember throw beats blocking). Because your opponent mind is being so occupied by this 2 option, this will open up another option for you. You can crossup him and put him into another such suitation and if he fail to block your crossup, congrats you have a free combo opportunity.
Always remember, sf4 is all about mind games and options( even footsie is based on mind games). The more mind games you manage to put your opponent into, the more he needs to think and the more he needs to think the more option you have open yourself up to( but this is all dependant, if your opponent is more experienced than you normally he will beat you in this area as he has seen more suitation than you ever have)
Last point, adon is a footsie character with so many footsie tools such as jk, hk and hp so play him as 1 ^^
Tl:Dr : Jumping blindly into your opponent is never a good option UNLESS you are doing it through a setup which is being proven OR you are sure your opponent can’t react in time for an anti air such as after some mind games.
So far this has helped alot. Although i didnt really understand what u meant by putting the ryu player in another crossup situation when he is either thinking about blocking or techinh
hmmm let me rephrase my sentence so that’s it’s clearer to see the whole picture.
Imagine this suitation which you have just back throw, walk back abit and decided to xu your opponent. As mention, this is a safe jump setup and if you opponent knows what you are doing he will be able to block your xu. So now with both of you on the ground, you have 2 options: 1) to maintain your pressure by doing block string with light attack 2) to tick throw your opponent after cr.lp and cr.lk. As this is normally what people will do in this type of suitation, your opponent will know the options that you have so he will focus on whether he should remain blocking or teching. Ok now, imagine this what if you decided to go for the 3rd option which is to xu him again? If you manage to keep your opponent so focus on the 2 options, often he will not be able to aa you in time. This is what I mean by another opportunity to jump in on your opponent because your opponent is so focus on the 2 options that he have, he will not be able to aa you in time thus making your jump in less risky.
Remember like I told you, sf is all about mind games. So it’s totally up to your creativeness on how you wanna mix up your opponent
Ok i see what u mean now. Thanks so much u were a great help. If u dnt mind wud u like to add me on psn or whatever u play on?