Speaking of gimmicks. The Ultimate Gimmick would have to be:
2014 Dreamhack: Itabashi Zangief vs Luffy Rose
Blocked LPGH into Ultra 1. That shit was PRICELESS.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bedbf2D4ScQ
My thought are: Do I recommend it? Nope.
Do I support it? Hell yeah, as 1) I’m 100% bias and dislike Rose 
And 2) I’m rooting for the underdog, Itabashi
LOL. The look on Itabashi’s face was priceless, as he pulled off such a “high level” play
People who don’t punish Q bomb don’t know how to punish it or can’t punish it without meter. Again…30 seconds in the lab.
It’s not theory craft. If you know how to punish something, you’ll punish it. Can you mess up a punish or fail to react occasionally? Of course. My opponent can do that…it doesn’t mean I’m going to add that as a “positive” for the GH change. Now, if you had mentioned something like, “Character X can’t punish it with xxx anymore because it’s too far away.”, that’d be something noteworthy…but you didn’t…you’re talking about weaker players not knowing how to capitalize on your risky play.
And praying for messed up punishes on block…isn’t a gimmick…it’s reckless play and luck. It isn’t like it’s some sort of high-low mix-up risk…it’s bad play. No different than random dive kicks from Juri, or random Ruffian Kicks from Cody…
Ryu: “I’ll go for the meterless LP DP…my opponent might mess up the punish, and if he does…I do DP AGAIN! YAY!”
P.S. No, it’s just that you’re talking nonsense, and now you’re getting aggressive because what you’re saying doesn’t make sense, and you pretty much know it. You’re not going to backdown from that because you’d be admitting you’re wrong. Let’s just end this circle of a conversation and call it a day, mmmkay pumpkin?
No high/low but C hit it to knockdown can win you the entire game with gief with some proper vortex.Far better then a random DP that hits you.Well worth the risk in some situations.Its funny you would point out Ruffian Kicks because I’ve seem plenty of high ranked codys frame trapping whit it after rocks or whatever.
P.S. Your the one “mocking” me and I’m being aggressive? All I did was point out your butthurt over the stupidest shit ever. I mean who gets worked over by someone saying to him “no shit bro”.I bet you are one of those insecure douches that would get in to a fight if someone looked him wrong.
Nice touch on the pumpkin btw but I find sweetie a little more demeaning if that’s what you were going for.Nice try tho.
That isn’t even responding to what I said about high/low mix-ups. And those LK ruffian kicks, post knock down after rocks are thrown, are safe if blocked.
I’m sorry you think “Well no shit bro” is a perfectly polite way to respond to someone.
So after reading more ridiculous comments from Combofiend it seems that his reasoning behind the lp.gh nerf is that, “only a few Giefs were having success with him” and “Gief was always near you”. So the obvious solution for them was to make the move so bad that now we lose all mobility along with the other loses like combos, whiff punishes, etc.
Wait…so only a few people are good with the character, and THAT’S why they made him worse? The fuck kind of logic is that? No, seriously; what the entire fuck does that even mean?? :\
And “Gief is always near you??” FFS…I can’t even. Ultra was really growing on me too. And I’m bitching, but man I feel for Snake Eyez; wonder how it feels for game developers to specifically nerf YOU.
I said it before but I really think Combofiend has no clue about this game and about balance. Yeah, I know he’s not the final word or the final say but he’s just clueless and I think bias when it comes to the characters in general. He obviously knows nothing about grapplers and seems anti grappler imo. I think he just sees Snake play and automatically assumes Gief is op. You can even look at Hawk and the unnecessary nerf to jab spire. How many Hawks were winning tourneys or even placing high?
And Chief I was in the same boat as you. I was really starting to grind with Ultra Gief and the plan was to start going to tourneys in 2015 and really try to be a top Gief and then the patch happens and it just took all my desire away.
So what’s his response when it comes to Rose…
Maybe Combofiend is a bit stupid.
I said i before and I say it again:
When it comes to alance adjustments, don’t fu**ing suppose some character type “should” or “Shouldn’t” have this or that. Just look at if he’s viable. If he is, leave him as he is. If he’s ass, try to change a few things.
The guy simply has no clue why this is such a crippling nerf.
“Oh no, a grappler that’s actually good… let’s nerf him, I hate it when people complain about characters that make you think.”
God I can’t believe these guys only seem to listen to brainless traning mode heroes like Maximilan who hate chars like Sim and Gief.
You do realise that he plays Gief and Hugo himself, dont you? And he is really into Hugo and doesnt think he’s ass tier.
I’m a little troubled about what is happening here to be honest…
If you watch the general threads and threads regarding SFV, players seem to agree upon at least one thing; less “setup fighter” and honest play.
The lp gh range nerf was exactly that, less fixed setups and honest play.
After a hp spd -> mp gh you’re safe from 1f reversals and right in front of the opponent, what else do you want?
People here are actually complaining about having to think now? Having to guess/“read” whether the opponent wakes up with throw or uppercut?
I think that is actually fine.
Regarding the matter of “who even tries to gh fireballs, lol” kind of atmosphere that is going on… I do. And it’s actually really good now.
It’s basically a better Double Lariat now. You get the same amount of meter, dont take chip damage and even move forward at the same time.
Together with the RFA buff, Gief cant be zoned out anymore.
Either your opponent decides to throw fireballs nonstop which you can lp.gh with ease now while moving them to the corner and granting you meter while approaching him or he doesnt throw fireballs and you simply walk him there with footsies. And if you want to go supersafe with your footsies go for st.lk exgh instead, it’s safer anyway (since lp is still -2 on hit, some people can and will punish that).
I have yet to whiff a lpgh after a st.lk in footsies though.
LPGH is -2 so it’s not like Gief was getting gdlk setups off of it. Even so, just adding the pushback would take away the post LPGH setups. No real reason to nerf the range and it makes him lose a lot crucial punishes.
And just because you do it doesn’t mean that banishing fireballs is a viable strategy in high level matches.
I like FeistyFree’s thinking.
Feisty, I think you’d agree that adding push-back on LP GH and not destroying it’s range was perfectly reasonable.
Gief has lost a ton of punish options, a great OS and combo options because of the range nerf.
I agree the pushback nerf should be. The range nerf is ludicrous.
Not only a ton of punish options but huge mu altering options imo. Not being able to punish a Ryu or Akuma sweep is huge. Punishing q-bomb is huge. We can’t even whiff punish a Chun cr.rh now without meter-that’s huge. Oni’s hp-again mu altering. Not to mention other whiff punishes that just completely whiff now and simple bnb combos that just whiff now.
I do agree, somewhat. xD
I just see the reasoning behind the range nerf and that is basically a ridiculously ranged whiffpunish tool that brings the grappler right into your face from like half screen away. If a character gets nerfed I try to see things from OTHER characters perspective and in that regard I think that the lpgh nerf is justified.
The pushback on lpgh is also kind of a double edged sword I guess. I dont yet fully understand why it’s considered a nerf. On hit you’re -2 and out of regular throw range, yet within lp spd range as well as a good spot to stand in to catch backjumps with st.hk (on read)
Also, if I remember correctly, you’re outside of reversal lp srk range, forcing the opponent to use heavier versions that hit late and cant be fadc’ed anymore (already considered airborne).
I’m not trying to talk down the nerf, I just think controversial… I guess.
Oh and regarding option selects, you can still do that with mpgh. It will catch opponents backdashes midair, so you wont get punished even on hit. Only think that’s really annoying now is teleport punishes which are completely destroyed 
But well, a question, why is lpgh pushback considered a nerf now? I figure on hit it is way better now, on block obv. just as unsafe.
Everything you mentioned is good.
Just have to disagree with the highlighted part. Although you didn’t specify exactly which option selects.
We lost the killer chain cr.lp o/s GH to cover back dash and jumps.
In that particular o/s, MPGH won’t cut it.
Already we are looking at 26 frames. Any back dashes you know, that are 26+ frames duration? That’s what I thought. None.
Not only that, to get the soft knockdown, on airborn frames of the back dashes. You have to hit them sooner, usually around frames 8 to 20, else they enter the grounded phrase, where MPGH is no good at -6 on hit.
Plus, the setup for all that jazz, just got worst, at least ONE frame worst. Have to do it from SPD-MPGH:+2
Now we are just left old fashioned: cr.lp xx st.lk (o/s far MK or far HK) xx LPGH*
*Entirely theory mind you. Don’t think we can get the far lk from that range. But close st.lk if it hits, should be good to go.
I believe I see how you’re thinking. What you have to remember is that as easy as Snake makes it look, whiff punishing limbs isn’t free. It’s honestly not even that easy. It’s something that every good character can do without meter and I don’t think it should be different for Gief just because he’s a grappler.
In fact, I would argue that the previous LPGH did exactly what every good grappler in any game needs; make the opponent feel the pressure of not being able to make mistakes or be careless. Having to use EXGH instead for whiff punishes and outright losing some on-block punishes makes Gief much less scary and one dimensional.
Also, maybe I’ve just been doing it from too far away or it’s character specific, but the only time I can get an L SPD after LPGH now is if the opponent sticks something out. Otherwise, Gief isn’t in range to do anything. Regardless, I agree that the pushback is fine; I don’t really see it as a nerf either. More of a compromising adjustment. At -2, I didn’t really think Gief was all that scary after a LPGH, but he still had options. Now he doesn’t, but he also doesn’t have to worry about guessing wrong. And with him getting meterless punishes, the pressure to make something happen after isn’t as great as it was when he HAD to use EXGH. So (at least for me and my playstyle) going back to neutral is actually better. The pushback also means that we can use LPGH on other grapplers now too.
The only thing that I’d concede is too much is the option selects for catching jump and backdash. But I’m against os’s in general. I wish there was a way to just take that out and leave the LPGH range intact. Maybe increase the recovery of all SPDs so that Gief is -1 or -2 if does SPD xx LPGH? That way, he’d still have the OS’s, but he’d only get it off of suplex, normal throw and EX SPD. Hell, I’d make normal suplex a soft knockdown so that he only gets a setup off of EX SPD, EX suplex or normal throw. That way, he can get his OS, but he’ll have to give up his RFA comeback.
Go back to how you were playing gief prior to Ultra, when he didn’t have the OP jab gh. How did you punish Akuma sweep, then? We just dealt with it. I’m ok with gief not having a one-hit rekka now.
What kind of logic is that? Then why make any updates to the game at all then?
So guys, first i want to say that i respect all your opinions. that said, I completely disagree in the way many of you are dooming Zangief as “unplayable” or “destroyed”, it sound you are just bitching like a kid robbed of his sweets… i understand your “frustrations” in seeing a awesome character as The Gief being nerfed but HEY!, we have had worse iterations of the character than this and we have all learned to adapt. You’re making the case that Gief was made by lpgh and nothing else and that really tick me off, i don’t understand how many of you preach about “playing high level” when you spend an hour losing without even trying to adapt or find new ways to play the character, why don’t you try those 30 sec trainings you are so adamant to point out instead, maybe you learn something other than spamming lpgh, because that’s how you sound, like you spam lpgh and without it you cannot play the character!!!
Uff!! yeah that was a rant, and that’s what happen a guy a like me that wants to keep learning about Zangief, reads your gloomy comments. why don’t you instead focus on finding new ways to use Gief, like many other point out, use mpgh or using other links combinations, I mean, as much as I remember Gief is still one of the characters with the most hp and damage output in the game, it has one (if not THE) best anti-air move in the whole game, the lpgh still has the same starup frame advantage as before, an outstanding headbutt, and a god like crlk and shorter but still substantial reach for lp-SPD.
I apologize beforehand if any gets insulted for my rant, but yeah, a better attitude towards the character would be welcome in this forum. and believe me it feels so satisfactory when you win with a nerfed underdog against a top of the chain dog(online and locals). Have a good night