hi guys… not much playing these days because of work and family stuff… i’ll be playing tonight so if anyone’s online (PSN) we can make and endless room…
Yooooooo, gg’s the other night man. I just finished watching some of the replays and here’s what I’ve got for you 
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Lets start positive… you’re spacing with Ryu (especially while playing defensive) is actually pretty darn good! Just need some more practice using his anti-air normals correctly (cr.hp, far hk, far lk) and you’ll be solid here.
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Offensively… your spacing with both characters could use some work. Many times you opt’d to jump at me instead of approaching on the ground… and against my team (and most of the cast come 2013 patch) that’s a huge mistake as you can lose over half your health from a single jump.
With Ryu you should be abusing cr.mk xx hadoken and Ryu’s CADC dash cancel more to approach (ex. walk up so you’re at max range for cr.mk… do cr.mk xx hadouken charge xx forward dash > cr.lp/throw… but mix it up and actually just throw the fireball sometimes too so you’re not predictable). If you KNOW the cr.mk is going to hit you can cancel into ex-donkey kick or launcher instead for more damage.
With ken, getting in on the ground is all about that step-kick… thing is neutral on block so you can follow it with cr.lk and beat most peoples buttons (or if you know they’re gonna mash, do lp srk into hp srk to teach them not to!). Also up close Ken can link cl.mk into cr.mk for a hit confirm into whatever cancel you want (fireball to be safe, hk.tatsu for damage, far hk to launch etc etc).
Both characters also have ranges where they can do a cross-up air-tatsu that goes right into Juri’s AA dead-zone and follow it up for damage (Ryu can do cr.mk xx tatsu afterward, Ken can do whatever since the opponent is still on the ground)… it’s not as strong as it was at release but it’s still a very important thing to know how to do if you’re playing a shoto.
- Combos… a lot of your combos are very poorly optimized (your switch cancel combo into re-launch was pretty good tho!) and as such you’re losing out on a ton of damage. One of the biggest things you can do is reduce the amount of lights you’re using. ex. instead of doing cr.lp > st.lp > cr.mp > cr.mk xx hadouken do cr.mp > cr.mp > cr.mk xx hadouken (and if it’s blocked sometimes stop after the second medium punch as the opponent can reversal/raw launch before the cr.mk on block).
Also get into the habit of going into a hit confirm chain every time you can (ie, after every jump-in, whenever you’re close and whenever you’ve scored a knockdown)… that way you give yourself time to decide whether or not you should do hadouken to stay safe, or if you can do something else for more damage. (there were a number of times where you’d do a jump-in followed by cr.mk into something unsafe like shoryuken, getting used to doing a hit-confirm before the special allows you to not put yourself at risk).
- A lot of your boost combos (especially with Ryu) were chains along the lines of lp xx lp xx lp xx mp xx hp xx launch… and while I’m also guilty of this with Juri (it’s hard not to just mash it out, I know!) Ryu’s alternatives are MUCH easier:
- cr.lp/st.lp > cr.mp > cr.mk xx launcher
and - cr.mp > cr.mp > cr.mk xx launcher
Ken’s options are pretty similar but don’t give you as long of a hit confirm:
- far.mp > cr.mk xx far.hk xx launcher
and - cl.mk > cr.mk xx far hk xx launcher.
These will be unsafe after the cr.mk when the patch lands… pretty sure he’ll get some new ones from his buffs though
- Your wake-up game… cr.lp (or any non-invincible move for that matter) when you’re getting up off the ground isn’t actually a thing. Any time you do this you’re gambling 50% of your health on whether or not the opponent times their meaty attack correctly… and against any half-decent players with a good connection it’s gonna be about 10 to 1 odds in their favor. (Looking at the replays there was at least one round were I ran a train over you because you kept hitting buttons on your wake-up). Your best options when getting up are (in order of effectiveness):
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Block: Just wait for them to push themselves out… except for Hwoarang and Cody, no character can stay in your face indefinately without putting themselves at risk.
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Block > Alphacounter: This is how you deal with people that have obnoxiously long block strings. super effective against the likes of Hwoarang, Cody, Asuka, Ibuki and Alisa with her chainsaws out.
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Backdash: you’re invincible for the first few frames of animation, as long as you’re not near/in the corner abuse it! If the opponent pushed a button you can even immiediately whiff punish them by doing cr.mk xx hadouken (safe version if you miss the window) or cr.mk xx launcher (YOLO version!)
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MEDIUM shoryuken: medium shoryuken’s have extended invulnerability windows making them better able to deal with meaty attacks. And it doesn’t really matter what version you used if it’s blocked because you’re still eating 50% damage unless you switch cancel it
(and in 2013 that won’t make it safe either…) -
Raw Launcher: only if you feel it in your soul that the opponent is going to meaty you with a crouching/launchable attack… (hint: Juri usually will, cr.mp is her best option in most cases. Just expect it to only work once or twice against a good player because they’ll start to bait it)
and this is a thread on how NOT to play this game… had to play some ranked matches to wash out the salt…