Before I get into this I want to give a little back ground for my perspective. I have been playing Elena for about 8 months. I grind xbl in conjunction with playing people at our wonderful Arcade Ufo in Austin. I am the #1 Elena on xbl which I advertise only to show that I put in work with the character not that I am a good player. (Which is true. Points don’t translate to tourney wins.) I have played against a lot of people who complain about their block strings dropping bc Elena’s hurt box it too low to the ground. I personally think that it looks very similar to blankas but a bit skinnier. Also imho given her lack of reversal options, extremely unsafe normals and special attacks, I feel that a slightly different hurt box shouldn’t play that much of a factor in winning if you know the match up. In the case of dive kick characters (her worst match ups) it’s actually at a disadvantage for her because it makes blocked dive kicks more positive bc she is so low to the ground and much likelier to cross up randomly given that she is so skinny.
In summation I think she yields no real advantages over characters do to her hurt box if the player knows the match up. If her hurt box does get “normalized” I hope that she gets some more positive moves on block to make her more viable against people with 3 frame reversal tools. Also I hope capcom casts the same adjustments to poison and decapre as well.
I’ve been grinding with Elena for a whole myself I’ve figured out MU because the one we have hasn’t been updated at all, and I’ve learned a lot of stuff. IMHO I have to say Elena is up there in tiers. I see everyone play her as a footies character when elena is actually a mix up high stun character. Godofperfection plays her so different he/she shows the damage and stun she can dish out and I took the time to learn the hard hitting combos I find it hard to believe no one else does. And the only dive kick character I have trouble with is Rufus I believe she beats yang yun cammy and Seth just for the fact they have low life and stun and can be killed in two or three hard hitting combos.
SN I’m coming for that #1 spot and hey how’s the scene is San Antonio?
I agree that she is very much a rush down character because of all the reasons you mentioned. She reminds me of Dudley in the sense that once you get a bar it’s time to get that damage, and you get that reversal. I have to disagree about the dive kick chars though. I’m biased in assuming she loses to yun bc I have played hsien Chang so much and he’s a monster. Rufus is her worst match up imho, but cammy with one meter forces a completely different neutral game bc your normals can’t match that ex strike. Also her dive kick set ups become crazy ambiguous against Elena on wake up if the cammy knows how to read delayed wake up properly. Evil ryu in nuetral is a night mare as dive kick bodies normally timed normal anti airs as well. And as much as you want to rush Seth down he has way more tools to do the same to you and he has the unique option to command grab OR dp any blocked lynx tail or ex mallet smash. Don’t get me wrong though she can do more damage than all those clowns (e. Ryu excluded) but I think they all have advantage in the neutral and can enforce their will much better because I’m sure you are beginning to realize that if your oppent understands the match up elenas mix up can get dodged or blown up very easily. Which why I also think she is just outside of top ten as far as tiers bc the top few have good advantages over her. I’ll have to check out godofperfection I more or less just bite off what ever sako and gamerbee do.
San Antonio has a great scene in fact after losing to Ricky Ortiz I lost to a Ken from there at absolute battle. There are two very good Elena s there and they know the match up there lol. Ultra Arcade hosts a lot of cool events and the fgc there is full of awesome personalities.
All of his Dankukyakus whiff unless they’re spaced to only let the last hit touch, but not LK version. LK version never hits her while she’s crouching so it’s kinda strange you would say that.
Even in the corner? that must have been where I felt it worked. Possibly not though. I just naturally stand tech a lot so cr. Mp to lk Dan kick bops me lol.
You I just labbed it with lk Dan kick. You can’t do it in a string but cr. Lk or or. Lp with make it cross up Which is neat. And from range if Elena is mashing jab it counter hits easily some times as a cross up. That’s what I remember I remember getting counter hit cross up. But it totally whiffs every time on block. Sorry Dan…