I’m playing Blanka/Kuma…seems a few other people in this thread are too, or at least were. Is this a team you feel like works for Blanka? Is there any good tech for it?
I’m still waiting for someone to tell me how the hell I’m supposed to piano with Blanka in SFxT
I’m trying out Blanka x Julia and Blanka x Chun Li right now.
I think Blanka’s really quite underrated.
Blanka is such a good point character.
I got 2 teams right now. Blanka/Guile aka team lame, get that life lead and run away. Blanka/Jack, get ?JAck in, do big damage, switch back to Blanka for great fundamentals.
Someone mind telling me why they think Blanka/Kuma is a bad team rather than just disagreeing with my post and not responding to it?
Blanka x Kuma is probably a pretty decent team. From what I’ve seen, Blanka is best as a character that allows you to get cross rush into big damage as expediently as possible, and can then lame it out if switched back in. I think Kuma would probably do well in the role of big damage anchor. People have strong opinions on how good Kuma is, but I think if you’re dedicated, go for it.
I’ve been experimenting with some Blanka setups and tech that might be interesting, thinking of building a beginner’s/intermediate guide. Anyone interested in helping?
Yeah I’m rolling Blanka with all meter gain gems and Kuma with damage gems and it works well enough. Blanka has great walkspeed and footsies to get tag combos in and then the bear is in with insane damage output and meter to fart on fools.
That’s a great combo. I got speed gems and metergems on blanka and I’m pairing him with Jack-X or Kuma.
I have a set-up where I get a 60% damage boost on Jack after a 2nd tag-in.
Blanka’s got great normals (not for pressure :(), a lot of speed, a great airgame but he’s lacking in pure damage. So you need someone to take care of that.
Agreed, Blanka is really just a tool for comboing into cross rush. When four of his medium normals each conveniently link into st.lp, you know what direction the devs wanted you to go in. I think he’s possibly one of the most focused characters in that aspect - every part of him is geared towards the same purpose.
Although I don’t necessarily think Blanka is that good of a character I definitely think he’s underrated in the sense that people seem to think he’s one of the worst in the game when he really isn’t.
I think his main issue is going to be dealing damage with solo combos in situations where you don’t want to tag into your partner, his toolset really isn’t built for that. c.LP links to s.LP which links to c.MK so you may be able to combo into his Super off s.LP confirms that way. His stand s.HK launcher seems pretty good, still looking for better ways to utilize it in combos.
Also, it might just be me, but it seems like Blanka’s j.MK is better in this game. It may just be because crossups are kind of “weird” in that they kind of crossup slowly and thus its harder to realize the move is a crossup and block it correctly or it might just be in that reversals are weaker in this game in general than they are in SF4. Mike Ross was going absolutely ham with that move at NCR and there didn’t seem to be that many ways to effectively stop (aside from just blocking that is).
St.lp is +3 on hit, so it doesn’t link into cr.mk as far as I can tell. But you can just cross rush to confirm and hit super after the cl.hp. You’re right that his solo damage is definitely unremarkable, but in the same way that Sagat’s is. You can hit 260-280 pretty regularly with no bars, and bring that up to about 350 with EX Horiball. Not great, but useable, I think. Especially given his toolset.
Also, because since 2013 waiting for your partner’s health to regenerate kind of isn’t viable any more, if you want to deal damage and keep Blanka in, just use a re-launch combo with your other character so you can tag out, then tag Blanka back in.
Blanka is a great character in this game. Someone just picking him up I can se having problems being successful with him in this game especially trying to play rank. He has more tools in this game than any sf game so I have no probe getting the w with him and any character really as long as I can play with them. He has low damage in hos combos bit no one seems to state that those combos are so fast that they drain a vitallity bar just as fast as kazuya
I don’t run from ppl although he does have bad matchups. U gotta be patient and just wait for ur turn to strike.
So if you chain c.LP, c.MP, c.HP you can get super after the juggle? Not sure what you mean here. How are you supposed to combo into super off cross rush?
Does Blanka have any usable combos off a s.LP confirm comboing out?
If you do any cross rush chain and end it with close HP, then you can cancel that into super, if you have charge, obviously. So if you confirm a cr.lp, you can link into st.lp, then cross rush to close HP, then super. That’s not a great amount of damage for the bar you’re using though so I’d only really use it if you absolutely cannot tag your partner in.
Off his lights, you can only combo into st.lp, so you don’t really have great combo options besides cross rush. His real combo options (such as they are for Blanka) start with his medium attacks, especially cl.mp and Rock Crusher.
I just found out that after having a deep cross-up j.MK blocked, you can do LP or EX Electricity, and the opponent stays back-turned. This makes it possible to start the infinite without using a partner or getting a knockdown first.
tricks:
cl.hp kara throw, add a tiny bit of range to throw
fish for a counterhit with cl.hp xx hp hop(+4 on counterhit) and -4 on block which is hard to punish without practicing
overhead setups(can fake with rockcrusher and block/backdash/low short) if done frame perfect these should beat wakeup 3f moves, the dash timing is more lenient than the hop though and easier to buffer:
sweep, dash, overhead,
f.throw, dash, dash(or hop) overhead. hop version forces a change of direction for them to roll
hp elec, dash/(or hop) overhead. canl force a change of direction in their roll if they don’t quickrise the electricity
throw setups:
f.throw, whiff mp ball, j.hp. Causes a lot of reversals to whiff, they must roll the opposite way. Can fake with hp ball which puts you in position to throw the roll, though you can can just do mp ball and walk back a bit as well.
corner f.throw, whiff mp ball, wait a few frames, jf, low forward. Empty jump low setup that forces a roll back into the corner.
corner f.throw, whiff mp ball, whiff cl.jab/cr.jab/cr.short(works different for different characters), j.mk. forces a roll into the corner, puts them in a funky crossup setup, and will trade with or cause some reversals to whiff.
corner f.throw, whiff hp ball, hop, mp elec(chip infinite), rollable
anyways lemme know if you like any of this stuff.
Seeing as how I’m back and running Blanka/King more seriously, I’ll try to contribute a little :P.
@Veserius - Love the set ups, especially the overhead ones. Those, the cl.HP xx hop and the corner stuff is working really well for me.
I will mention that the OH set up after HP electricity isn’t working for me. Is it only if they don’t QR? Also, if you use j.HK or j.HP after the f.throw, whiff MP ball the opponent can walk under you.
Just a quick safe jump set up:
After boosted sweep, hold uf then j.HK. Easy peesy 5f safe jump.
Also, I might starting using EX electricity a lot more on wake ups in generals. It beats absolutely everything. I mean, I think the only thing it wouldn’t beat is like an invincible grab. I tested f.throw, dash, hop, EX sparks and it beat cross arts, super arts, hwo dp, cammy dp etc, etc.
I mean a meter for 100 damage is almost a waste, but it all but guarantees you either the damage and a knockdown, or a +8 situation.
I’ll have to recheck stuff, pretty sure you can’t walk under the whiff mp ball midscreen as long as you do it the frame you exit the throw, unless the character is super super short. It worked fine with j.hp on the 7 or so characters I tested it on.
the electricity thing I’m pretty sure worked, might have to be close to corner. Sorry this was like 2 months ago, I’ll recheck and add some new stuff.
It’s definitely possible I wasn’t getting the MP ball on the first frame, so I’ll recheck that. I’ll do a little more lab work tomorrow