Is Zangief's cr.lk > cr.lk link impractical now?

The cr.lk > cr.lk link played a major role for Zangief in Street Fighter IV. It prevented the opponent from trying to jump and escape from a block string. Also, it did more damage than cr.lp. All of the pro-Japanese Zangief-players that I have seen playing mastered the link and incorporated it into their game with a great emphasis.
Its timing was a bit hard, but with enough practice three cr.lk were possible to be linked together consistenly.
The problem is that, for some reason, the link is now a one-frame link instead of how it was a two-frame link. It is pretty tough to do a one-frame link three times in a row AND end it with a :dp: motion. How are you guys coping with that? Is that link impractical now? What is Zangief left with to prevent his opponent from escaping? Are the Japanese still going to try to master the link even though it’s a one-frame link? I’ve read that it is possible to p-link it to make it a two-frame link, but it requires pressing lk and lp (which are in a vertical position on a regular arcade-stick and not easy to press like a normal p-link).

It’s still easy to do, either from practice or SSF4 has buffering for normals I don’t know. End it with df,d,df motion, much easier to get the greenhand at the end of the combo that way. To answer your question I have coped with it by doing the same combo and it only took a slight delay in timing to make it work everytime, and I am not that active of an SF4 player.

For me, yes, it’s very much impractical now. But my execution isn’t all that great. I can sometimes get it to work in training, but my success rate isn’t good enough to attempt it in an actual match.

Very impractical now in my opinion. I’d much prefer Standing LK(Far) or Crouching LP for those block strings.

Hmmm… It seems like the only way for me to become more consistent with the link is to actually p-link the cr.lk. Any tips on how to position the fingers on the arcade stick?

I can’t do the shit consistently anymore…before I was about 75% with it, now I’m like 10% with it. However, as long as its possible, it will be practical. Its uses are too strong in the scheme of things to just ‘forget’ because its harder. Got to just keep practicing.

  • :bluu:

Weren’t the changes to c.LK supposed to make tick throwing off of it better?

I guess it could be, well, 1/60th of a second better for tick throwing. But it never seemed to be lacking as a tick setup, seems to be just a plain old nerf to combo-ability.

Yeah the devs said they didn’t want Gief to be as combo based as he was because that didn’t fit his play style. Honestly I think Gief being able to link off c.LK’s into knockdowns is pretty stupid but to take it away and not give him much more is pretty stupid too.

My bad, I thought it was one less frame of stun.

I couldn’t do it, either, but I started to plink with my thumb and index finger with my thumb slightly faster (just like plinking for stronger buttons), and it’s made it much easier. Just started practicing it today, and went from almost never getting it to getting it about 50% of the time. If you do it right, it should look like this:

:lp::lk:
:lk:
:lp::lk:
:lk:
:lp::lk:
:lk:

I looks like they did might have made it harder to link l.kxxEX GH. I had several instances where the third l.k hit, but the EX GH was blocked. It might be character specific, though.

I feels hella awkward at first, but I think it makes the move at least a little more viable. If you aren’t careful on your down forward on the third plink, sometimes lp.GH comes out.

nerfing cr lk startup doesnt make any sense at all
in sf4 when u FBA some crouching characters, u MUST do cr lk combos afterwards instead of cr lp. because cr lp will whiff.
That’s why I almost always use cr lk links and I can link 5 cr lks to ex hand consistently, it makes my opponets think “WTF” LOL
With ssf4 , that joy is gone.
That’s why I am still play sf4 atm.

thanks for posting, i’m having consistency problems with plinking it … like sometimes it will look like

:lk::lp:
:lk:
:lk:
:lk::lp:
:lk:
:df:
:df:
:2p:

and that’s from a cr.lkx3 ex hand . i 'm working on getting it down… thanks for posting

just go into training mode and do his cr.lk into ex green hand for hours lol

i adjusted to the change pretty easily, but have also been using cr.lp, cr.lp, cr.lk > ex.gh

If you do it right, it also works as a crouch tech. yay! lol

Hmmm… Why are you still playing it?

For some odd reason it seems a little easier to me now… Before I had a difficult time with the odd timing so I generally did other combos, but not c.lk x3/4 isn’t really that difficult. I just like the timing a lot better.

Yes, the combo is very difficult to do now, but plinking is the answer! I spent a few hours just working on the timing of c.lk c.lk strings, and only had about a 20% success rate afterwards. However, when I started using the plink technique, my success rate went through the roof.

The first time you land j.hk c.lk c.lk s.mp s.lk xx EXGH you feel like a Street Fighter God.

last night i was bored so i put in vanilla just for the hell of it and went into training and was just shocked. c.lk combos felt so freaking easy it was ridiculous. it seemed like u had minutes between the c.lk’s lol. even when we were all playing vanilla i really didn’t do c.lk combos a lot cause my execution was like 75% but last night it was like 99.9%.

I’m pretty good at 2/3 lks, its the 3/4 where I start having issues.

  • :bluu: