Oh
I agree on this.
Once I got beaten 30-0 by a very good blanka player, every day he pwned me without mercy, a few months later he had trouble with my ken. And now I have like 85% Win on blanka players. It helps.
Hi!
I’m new to fighting games in general. I bought ssf4:ae maybe a month ago and I’ve been playing alot (150 hours) and I’ve read every guide I’ve been able to find.
I’ve spent alot of time in training mode doing combos until i’ve been able to do them 30 times in a row without mistakes and i’ve been learning the range of all my normal attacks and studied the frame data.
I’m also playing alot of ranked matches and that’s when questions pop up:
1.** How do I decide when to poke?** It seems that most of the time when I get into poke range my opponent decides to attack as well. Ultras, normals, specials. I figured I was being too easy to read so I started blocking when I got into the perfect range for me to attack. This has led me to an extremely passive play style were I just wait for them to attack me and all the decisions are made by them. Im very afraid to push any buttons.
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When blocking their combo or whatever they are throwing at me at close range, how do I retaliate and when? I’m sitting there waiting for them do something that is easy to punish, srk for example.
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How do I keep the opponent away from me without backing up against the wall? I spam and fake fireballs trying to keep them at a distance, but they keep getting closer (focus, jumping). I end up hugging the wall.
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**How to play aggressive as Ken? **Is poking with f.mk and cr.mk my only option that doesnt involve jumping straight at his face?
Thanks for reading my questions. Maybe the answers are “just play more, noob”.
for 1 you need to know your pokes and your ranges to use them, think about what the best pokes to use in that situation are ( your main pokes are step kick, cr. mk, far standing mp, sweep, far standing hk).
2 you tech there throw, basically you try to throw when you think they will throw.
3 your ken you are supposed to be the aggressive one unless you’re fighting geif or t hawk. if you do need to get out of the corner you always have your air tatsu.
4 after you poke with step kick you have alot of options if your close after the kick you could kara throw, ( if you know how to do it yet) you could do an overhead, and those are just some of my common options when i’m far and sometimes close i do the cr. mk or far st hk or if they are trying to do something after the step kick i will far st. mp. again those are just my options find what works for you. something you should start learning to do is after you knockdown your opponent you should be doing mixups so you should start by doing crossup lk or mk after you throw them or sweep them. what combos do you use btw?
that would be Nemo, not nero.
Thank you darktown.
The combos I use:
cr.lk cr.lp cr.lp.cr.mk,fireball <- I try to use this one when I’m really close and know they will tech my throw. But im having trouble starting it since I hesitate. Like I said im extremely scared of … doing anything that feels unsafe to me.
**cr.lk cr.lp mk, fireball **<- when close but too far away for the full combo above.
**
**
cr.lp s.lp cr.mk f.tatsu <- after a crossup I do this one, but I don’t like it since it has a tatsu finish.
**s.mp s.fp ex.srk **<- when punishing blocked SRK’s. (I guess there are more damaging combos to do in that situation but I use this one since it so easy.)
air ex.tatsu into ultra 2 <- I’m not fast enough to do the srk, fadc, ultra1 yet so this feels like my only option.
I think my problem is that I overthink everything and it just ends up with me doing nothing since I’m not sure when to do what.
Watch the match videos in the videos thread. Get an idea of what Ken can and should be doing from them.
Read the General Discussion Thread and have a good look at all the links in the third post.
Learn Ken’s basic combos. Fireball enders are NOT what Ken should be doing in general.
Practice, practice, practice.
Post some of your own match videos for extra critique on your playstyle etc.
Hope this helps,
Peace,
G.
do what g said, the main reason i asked you what combos you were doing was be cause i knew that since you are new you may be going on the wrong path in terms of combos. the combos you should be practicing are cr. lk cr. lp fp srk since it can build you up to being able to do better links and such and it is pretty easy but you have to link the srk not cancel. ( if you are having a lot trouble add another cr.lp if it becomes to difficult) and if you have meter you should do cr lk cr,lp st lp cr.mk ex tatsu as your bread and butter tatsu combo. basically ex tatsu is more damaging than fp srk but in order for the tatsu to hit you have to have the opponent standing which is why there is st lp to show you if they are standing or not.
also to punish random srk on block do close st. hk into either srk or ex tatsu.
hope this helps
Do excuse me.
G77: My hit-confirming is not top notch so i prefer fireball enders. Besides low damage, are there any other downsides? I will switch it up when I get more control.
Darktown: I’m having trouble with the cr.lk cr.lp fp srk-combo. The problem is the timing between lp - fp. and the FP seems to miss alot (is it supposed to be standing or crouched? does it matter?).Im also having trouble doing the link ofc… working on it though.
Edit: I’m able to do the combo now thanks to plinking but i’m pretty sure i’m cancelling the fp.
ty again 
For the cr.lk cr.lp fp srk , use the shortcut input , downforward , down , downforward . It will help you with that
I must agree with that, i allways look for the player that allready beated my ass, just to learn and why not LOSE again.
I must say that a close match is thrilling and end with a flood of adrenaline !! :_D
Not quite true. cr.lp can be chained into another cr.lp just like you do with cr.lk, cr.lp.
Ken should ALWAYS be chaining ALL his light attacks, because this is the only way to make them safe even on block.
Beginners should be looking to use cr.lk, cr.lp then link the fierce DP or cr.lk, cr.lp, cr.lp then link the fierce DP. Period.
You cannot special cancel a move that has been “chained” in SF4. So if you are chaining cr.lk, cr.lp, cr.lp, you will not be able cancel the second light punch into your DP, you will have to link it.
You can decide to try and link the first cr.lp into the second, but this is a 3 frame link, exactly the same as the cr.lp, fierce DP link. So why not just use fierce DP instead of another cr.lp?
Attempting to link light normals is asking to eat mashed out reversals and is generally bad practice for Ken player’s. It serves no good purpose to us.
If you take this viewpoint, you won’t need to worry about people mashing out a DP during your blockstrings…
Peace,
G.
i was talking about linking the dp not the lp sorry if i didn’t make that clear
i made it more noticeable so he wouldn’t get the wrong info
How many startup frame is a Kara-throw considered? In general does any kara move add startup frames to a move?
No, I understood what you said, but just adding another cr.lp does not automatically allow you to cancel into a DP. This is the point I was trying to clear up. Your highlighted statement above is incorrect.
It’s little errors like this that get people confused in the first place!!!
Peace,
G.
Ken’s f+mk can be cancelled during frames 1 to 3.
This would mean that Ken’s kara throw has up to 6 frames of start-up effectively, but you can’t crouch tech it until frame 7. This is why it is harder to crouch tech it compared to a tick throw because the majority of people will stick out a crouching short just as you throw them.
Peace,
G.
ok so i think i’m a little bit confused but let me see if i can put this together you say that he should be chaining normals so that he can link the dp. but i guess my statement is wrong because when i add another lp i link the lp instead of chaining it and because it is a link i’m doing instead of chaining i can cancel the lp into a dp since i link it. but i chain the first to normals so that is why i have to link the dp. is this correct? i don’t chain past the first 2 normals in this combo. and unless i’m online ( i rarely am i play alot more offline ) and it is like a yellow bar, or i don’t think i’ll be able to link the cr. fp, or the fp doesn’t give many hits on the character i’ll probably just link a lp for 10 extra damage.
I think you’ve got me.
It’s important to remember these things:
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Linking light attacks is a bit of a bad habit as it makes your block strings unsafe.
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Linking a cr.lp is just as difficult, timing wise, as it is to link a DP.
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On a few cast members, you will not get all 3 hits of your fierce DP on crouching characters if you do cr.lk,cr.lp,cr.lp. This will get you seriously beaten up on landing.
Peace,
G.
- alright well i don’t need to worry about block strings since i normally only do two normals lk lp unless i’m going for a counter hit setup and i won’t use lp for that
2 & 3 yeah i know it’s just my preference since i’ve done that combo when i was starting out, i normally go for cr. fp if it works. it really won’t get beaten because the worst that can happen is i only get 2 hits, but if thats the case i’ll normally switch it up to just linking the dp from lk, lp. this doesn’t affect me that greatly since i can use which ever one and not have to worry about dropping it. but it still helps to know.