I’ve been playing the “wanna-be dhalsim” for about two years now, and I think through my losses and consistent attempts at mastering him, I’ve learned quite a bit about how he should generally be played. I’m far from mastering him, but I wanted to try to give some of my experience to anyone out there who might benefit from it. So without further ado, I present:
Necro for Scrubs, by a Scrub
First thing you gotta know about Necro is that he’s not top tier. His priority is low, his speed(even if you master super jump canceling and all of your cancels) is only moderate, and his defense isn’t all that great. Finally, many of his important moves/combos take a lot of good execution to come out correctly 100% of the time. Necro requires a lot of practice on the part of the player as well, so he isn’t going to be easy if you choose him
So why play him?
- He has one of the highest stun ratings out of every character in the game.
- If played correctly, you can control matches to the point of absolutely frustrating your opponent.
- Most of his attacks/combos give you extra free hits if your timing is good(especially especially in the corner).
- Playing him is extremely challenging and fun at the same time.
- Long reach attacks that can surprise the opponent
- He’s one of the most fun characters to play in 3s(totally biased opinion).
So with all the advantages and disadvantages aside, I’ll move onto the tips.
Tip #1: Get them into the corner
Your number one absolute priority when playing with Necro is to get your opponent into the corner by any means necessary. When the opponent is in the corner, you can effectively control the flow of the game. Its not entirely about doing all the corner combos or anything, but pressuring your opponent to force him to make mistakes.
These are a few ways to get your opponent into the corner:
Snake Fang Setups
Tornado Hook Setups
Drill kicks/Super jump canceled drill kicks
El. Snake knock downs
Normal Knockdowns
Various Poke Strings
Snake Fang Setups:
Snake Fang(hcf + k): is one of Necro’s best methods to get your opponent into the corner. Snake Fang can be buffered out of almost all of his cancelable moves and has an extremely long range. It also has to be blocked low, so it works as a good poking tool. These are some ways to set it up.
All of these work even if blocked:
c. lk (max range) -> snake fang
c. lk -> b. mk -> snake fang
b. lk -> b. mp -> snake fang
b. lk -> c. lk -> snake fang
s. lp -> snake fang
b. mp -> snake fang(if b. mp hits while enemy is crouching it combos)
b. mk -> snake fang(combos if enemy is crouching)
Others
(Max Range) Snake fang
Snake fang -> dash -> dash -> snake fang
Now the cool thing about these snake fang setups is that they mix snake fang(low block) from either a low to high poke string, a high to low poke string, 1 hit high, or just 1 low. Because of this, it can be very difficult for your opponent to block it correctly, so be sure to use it frequently.
Also, keep in mind that blocked snake fangs are relatively safe from max range, and most of these setups push your opponent into that ?safe? poking range for snake fang to work, so use that to pressure them consistently.
After you successfully hit someone with snake fang, you should use mp. tornado hook/two dashes to follow up after them(if you’re not in the corner before you throw them). If you ARE in the corner, you you just switch sides :D.
Tornado Hook Setups:
Tornado Hook(hcf + p): Is another good way to get your opponent into the corner. However, its a bit more risky than poking from afar with snake fang. The main reason is because, a parried tornado hook(even the lp. version) equals a free combo for your opponent. So you must use this move SPARINGLY.
LP Tornado Hook
The main tornado hook you should use is the lp one. Lp tornado hook is fast, and combos off of all of Necro’s cancelable normals, even his fastest normal: b. lk(yeah its that fast). It also has a decent reach, so it can stuff whiffed throws and the like with ease.
As for getting the opponent into the corner, it does that job pretty well. If you hit a lp. tornado hook on someone, it knocks them into the air, and they go into the ?twirly?state. I’m not really sure what the name is, but that’s what it is for now. Twirly state is like a normal knockdown state, except the person kinda spins and goes more to the direction you sent them in. It also makes their hit-box bigger (so keep that in mind when comboing someone in the corner). Its neat because, if you hit them with tornado hook, you get a guaranteed knock down far into one direction.
If they are knocked down by tornado hook, a few things can happen. If they don’t quick-roll, you can dash into their carcass (Urien style) and push them more into the corner. If they DO quick roll, they push themselves more into the corner, without you having to do much work. In either case, your best bet is usually to follow up with either two whiffed lp tornado hooks, 1 dash -> whiffed tornado hook, two dashes(risky), or 1 lp. Nado -> walk up.
Most of these follow ups keep you in the opponents face but just out of range from stuffing you with a wakeup move.
EX Nado
The second tornado hook you should use for getting your opponent in the corner is ex nado. If it hits, EX nado is pretty much an automatic corner push, regardless of your distance from the corner. Even if blocked it still pushes pretty far. But this move is highly vulnerable if missed or blocked, so be sure not to just throw it out randomly.
It combos off of b+ mk, b+hk and b+ mp(haven’t used this one too much) and it KEEPS crouch damage for ALL of the hits. However it has a particular range of success so you can’t use it all the time(they have to somewhat close). So, if you’re in range for it, and you have the meter, use it over b+mk -> snake fang, but if you’re a bit far, use snake fang instead. It does nice damage too and knocks down, which you can further capitalize on with wakeup mixup.
***NEW!!***:
I found out recently with some experimentation that after an ex tornado hook on Hugo/Q you can reset them with b. mp/b.lp and mixup in the corner.
B. mp is a bit stricter on timing but does more damage and stun. Also b. mp as the reset makes him fall a bit slowly because of the hit stun so the reset timing is slower.
B. lp does less damage but, it happens so FAST that they might be recovering “mentally” and not realize the reset even happened, and you might be able to get away with pretty much any free mixup you want. If you train yourself, you can even b. lp, walk back a bit out of possible throw range and db + hp them. Vs Hugo that equals 6x elbow and vs Q that means db + hp -> b. mp.
Mp. Nado
Mp. Nado is only applicable in el snake setups, so I’ll explain its use in the next section.
Hp. Nado
Hp. Nado should only be used when the enemy is stunned or you can capitalize on something stupid they did, ie: whiffed hp shoryuken.
Drill kicks/Super jump canceled drill kicks
Drill Kick(d + any kick while in the air) may not seem like it, but is another handy method for helping push your opponent towards the corner. Similar to the twins’ divekick, the distance it goes at changes depending on the button you press. However, its a lot different from their divekick because it hits twice, its slower, and the angle that Necro goes towards the floor ALSO changes depending on the button pressed. You must also note that since the angle changes, so does the time that it takes for him to actually GET to the floor.
These points are extremely important things to consider every time you use this move.
One of the biggest plagues of Necro’s Drill Kick though, is that it must be done at the peak of his jump. And for those who have seen Necro’s jump, they know it is higher and slower than most of the other characters in the game. As a result, jumping towards the opponent and doing a drill kick can really get you stuffed by an antiair.
Luckily there is a way to “overcome” this lack of speed. This technique is called Super Jump Cancelling. Essentially, a Super Jump,(done by pressing down then up/up+forward/up+back), is considered by the game to be a cancellable special move. The moment you perform it, the game considers you airborne and any “air move” that you want to be done, can be done immediately upon starting the super jump. So what you can do is, press down -> up/up+forward/up+back/ -> down + any kick, and Necro will jump in the air a small height and immediately drill kick towards the floor at the angle of the button pressed. If done correctly, the drill kick will come out almost instantly and very close to the floor; surprising your opponent. I’ll explain the use of each super jump drill kick in the next section.
Using the Drill Kick To Corner Push:
As I stated before, Necro’s Drill Kick hits twice. The damage on the drill kick isn’t so great, and parrying it causes some weird things to happen depending on your distance. So most players will ignore it by blocking it/get hit by it. This is a good thing because you can use it over and over on inexperienced players, until they get wise and parry it.
The main drill kick you should use is the mk one. The mk. drill kick comes down at a roughly 45 degree angle and pushes back quite a bit on block. When its not hitting your opponent, this drill kick works GREAT for moving you forward. The best time to use it offensively is when you’re right in the opponents face. What you do is, walk right up to your opponent, and super jump cancel into the mk. drill kick as fast as you can. It usually comes out fast enough that the opponent wont be able to react immediately, either hitting them or making them block. You then recover before them and can mix it up with other moves.
Although I said the main drill kick you should use is the mk, you should probably use the rh. drill kick just as often as the mk. The rh. drill kick comes out at roughly at 80 degree angle. Since Necro’s body is elongated downwards more, he ends up reaching the floor faster. This combined with super jump canceling makes the rh. a great pressure tool. When used upclose, SJC rh. drill kick pushes back roughly the same amount on block. But since you hit the ground that little bit faster, you actually get enough time to use it immediately after hitting your opponent without too much worry. On some characters, the best thing they have to stop it is parrying and SRKs. I personally use it to pressure the enemy all the time, midscreen and in the corner and it does that job really well. Mixing this up with mk drill kicks and low high tornado hook mixup works really well, so be sure to apply the previous strats with this one as well.
The lk. drill kick is an interesting move. When you use it Necro flies almost parallel to the floor(like at 15 degrees). The main purpose of it is to run away from things. Just Super Jump normally(not canceled) and do it at the peak of your jump. I mostly use it to run away from Tengu Stone :P. But never use it as an attack.
Important side note about the super jump cancelled method:
If you super jump cancel as fast as possible, the height that Necro will start the drill kick will not change. Since the height that you start the drill kick doesn’t change, you can actually mix up the super jump cancel even further, depending on which direction you super jump in.
If you super jump straight up, Necro will move forward from his current position just a small amount as he does the drill kick, and then hit the floor.
If you super jump forward, he moves forward a bit more. This particular drill kick is useful because if done close to the opponent, Necro will sort of “appear” IN their sprite. This works well a few times, but you should be careful against using it on characters like Hugo who can capitalize on you being too close on landing. (Abuse this on Uriens because it stops them from doing much :P)
Finally, if you super jump backwards, Necro will fly backwards then go forward. This causes him to land almost in the same spot that you did the drill kick in. I consider this one the most useful, because it allows you to control a specific point on the screen, and to help prevent the enemy from advancing. Also, since you fly backwards first, usually if the enemy is just out of throw range, the last hit will attack them but you’ll land immediately after that, safe from a counter. Even on parry you’re safe from that range, so you wont have to worry.
Drill Kicks, and SJC Drill Kicks take a lot of control and practice to fully understand the gist of it, but once you master it, it becomes an extemely useful tool.
El. Snake knock downs
El. Snake(Super Art 3) like many supers is a super that causes a knockdown upon hitting the opponent. Any opponent that is knocked down by a super cannot quick roll after hitting the floor so you can use this to your advantage with electric snake. After a knockdown with electric snake, you can push your opponent closer into the corner by dashing into their body. Since they can’t quick-roll, you won’t cross them up and as a result get them closer to the corner for real damage.
There are a number of ways to get an electric snake on your opponent, some are better than others, but the staple ones are:
(All notes on who these combos work on comes from Coreografo’s Necro thread and Obscure’s Combo Thread. Thanks guys!)
S. mp xx el. snake
This combo works on everyone except crouching Chun, Makoto, Yun, Yang, Necro, Ibuki, Twelve, Oro, and Elena. You can randomly miss Ryu, Remy, Sean and Ken when they’re breathing and crouching. But you can hit Akuma, Urien, Q, Dudley, Hugo and Alex always so abuse this a lot on those characters.
Even though it misses a large amount of characters while they’re ducking; this combo is extremely important to Necro. S. mp is Necro’s longest range standing poke that can be super canceled. As a result its a great tool to stop dashing, and punish from max range on a standing opponent. It’s also pretty fast. Sadly, they removed its ability to be canceled into specials as it was in double impact T_T, so you can only use it as a super cancel and long range poke. But use it often as it can sometimes give u a free knockdown with el snake. Then dash into them for more corner push.
b. mp xx el. snake
Similar to s. mp xx el snake, except this one works on all characters, regardless they’re standing or crouching. This combo is really useful because if gives u a lot of time to cancel into el. snake, so it makes it really really easy to confirm whether or not you hit your opponent. The only drawback is that is has less range than s. mp. However, the fact that it can cancel/combo into a lot of necros specials, it makes it one of his best normals and useful for canceling into el snake. Abuse this one at will.
b. lk x2 -> s. mp xx el. snake
This one works the same way as normal s. mp, except the two b. lk’s give u a better chance of hit confirming. I believe this one works on all shotos regardless of whether or not they’re crouching because of the animation that occurs when they are hit during the crouch. But it still misses on the rest of the list. Also, if the enemy is far, you can use one b. lk instead to guarantee the two hit chain(sometimes the second b. lk will miss if they’re too far).
c. lp xx el snake
This cancel is surprisingly useful. I’ve only recently begun to use this one after I saw Sugiyama use it a few times. The use of it is that it’s REALLY fast, can cancel and hit from max range, and it can actually punish a whiffed c. mk from a shoto on reaction. Proof: [media=youtube]0M_psJhP1BQ[/media] (second match vs Ken) Free knockdown, and stun for corner push.
c. lk xx el snake
Similar to c. lp xx el. snake, except this combo has less range.
c. lk -> lp. denpa (f, d, df + p) xx el snake
To be honest I haven’t used this combo nearly enough to explain all of its uses, but it seems that c. lk -> lp denpa is useful for stuffing the opponent’s wakeup in general. After the lp. denpa, Necro kind of “steps back” and if it hits you’re mostly safe. Afterwards you can punish after the knockdown. Anyone who knows more about the uses of this one can please please inform me so I can post it up? Thanks in advance.
b. mk -> mp tornado hook xx el. snake
I probably should have listed this earlier. This is the bread and butter combo for necro. Use it most of the time you successfully hit a b. mk on ur opponent. All of the parts of the combo push towards the corner, and give a large chunk of stun and a free knockdown. You’re also right next to your opponent, so you can put them more into the corner with a few dashes.
These are the ones you should get the most comfortable with doing because they work on the highest number of characters in the roster. There are a ton more in coreografo’s thread so check it if you need reference.
Various Poke Strings
When you’re midscreen and you can’t seem to get your opponent in the corner using tornado hooks, SA3, or snake fang setups. You’re gonna have to start poking the crap out of your opponent to get them there. This section is devoted to just that.
The cool thing about Necro is that, since he’s a dhalsim-ish character. He has a TON of ways to poke ur opponent, even from far away. Also he’s a lot faster than dhalsim so u can be random as hell as well. So in this section I’m gonna post all of the poke strings that I know that can be used to push into the corner.
Normal Poke Strings
(Taken from this thread: http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=115274)
b. lk -> c. lk -> s. mk
c. lp -> b. lk -> s. mp
c. lk x lp. tornado hook -> b. lk -> s. mp (can be canceled into SA3 on hitconfirm)
lp. tornado hook -> lp. tornado hook (risky vs parry happy people)
c. lp -> b. mk x snake fang
b. lk -> c. lk x ex flying viper (QCB + PP)
s. lp(up to max range) x ex flying viper
c. lp -> b. mk x ex flying viper
c. lp -> b. mk x jab tornado hook -> c. lk -> s.forward (oponent cornered)
Various Mixups
UOH Mixup
There’s lots of ways to setup the UOH but I tend to find that Necro’s UOH has a really shitty priority compared to other characters. Some people might disagree with me but it always seems that way to me, especially vs chars with good wakeup moves. But in any case, here’s some nice ways to setup/use UOH off the top of my head.
Enemy In the Corner
Any cancelable move -> Lp. nado -> db. fierce -> s. lp -> UOH (confirm)-> super
Close db. fierce -> s. lp -> UOH -> super
Close db. fierce -> b. mp -> UOH -> super (Hugo, Alex, Makoto, Remy, Q, Twelve)
Neutral Throw -> (walk up)s. lp ->(walk up) UOH -> super(doesnt work on Urien)
Neutral Throw -> (walk up)s. mp ->(walkup) UOH -> super(doesnt work on Urien)
You In The Corner
Snake Fang -> db. fierce -> s. lp -> UOH -> super
Snake Fang -> lp. nado -> db. fierce -> s. lp -> UOH -> super (Dudley/Hugo) [I’m not sure who else this works on, need a confirm]
Snake Fang -> lp. nado -> db. fierce -> b. mp -> UOH -> super (Hugo)
Snake Fang -> el snake (3 hits)-> db. fierce -> b. mp ->(walk up) -> UOH -> super (Makoto only) - [It’s pretty unrealistic to have two full bars vs Makoto, but its a possibility. But after the b. mp I’d probably go for the ex. flying viper whiff/1hit/2 hit mixup instead].
Can’t think up any more, if anyone else can it’d be appreciated.
Whiff Mixup
I was inspired by Pino AB7’s match vs RX seen here (3:28 - 3:36) to try out a whiff mixup on wakeup vs chars without shoryukens. But not any normal whiff stuff, but usage of the b. lp/ b. mp. The thing about b. lp and b. mp is that they have the same animation, except b. mp is a little slower and his arm comes out farther. But, if u spam it along with b. lp, its very hard to tell which is which. Because of that, they make a very good move to confuse the opponent as to what you’ll do on wakeup. I haven’t tried this on a lot of characters yet, but the setup goes roughly:
Corner throw -> lp tornado hook -> whiff mixup OR
lp tornado hook -> lp tornado hook(whiff) -> whiff mixup
Whatever you do you wanna get some kind of knockdown in the corner that puts them in the air. During their descent, you do a tornado hook to get a bit closer and then put on the whiff mixup.
So what IS this whiff mixup? Well essentially, since Necro kind of “leans” forward as he does b. lp/ b. mp it can confuse your opponent to know how close/far you really are to them. Also, if you tap the buttons individually you stay in place. But if you HOLD back as you do it, you kind of move backwards out of throw range. Finally, you use the fast spam of the b. lp to confuse your opponent as to whether you’ll throw, whiff, hit high/low etc. People also dont often quick roll in the corner, so you can be safe to expect only their slowest recovery. Even if they do quick roll, you can just change the # of times you do the b + lp.
If the list says (hit) then that’s the only attack that will hit in the string. I haven’t solidified what works 100% vs who but you can do any of these things:
Whiff Mixup List
(b. lp)*3 -> b. mp -> throw
Walk -> (b. lp)*3 -> b. mp(hit) xx SA
Walk -> (b .lp)*2 -> b. mp -> throw
(b. lp)*2 -> b. mp -> c. lk -> throw
Walk -> (b. lp)*2 -> b. mp -> c. lk (hit) xx SA
(b. lp)*2 -> b. lk -> b. lp -> throw
Walk -> (b. lp)*2 -> b. mp -> b. lk (hit) -> s. mp xx SA
I mean you can really go on forever with this. The possibilities are endless, hence the extreme usefulness of it. Vs. chars with good wakeup moves, ie: srks, you can still spam, and then at the last moment either block, parry, dash back, or make it seem like you’re in range with the b. mp and then they’ll shoryuken right over your head. Then punish at will.
Rising Cobra Usage(RX Style)
Second thing I was working on was something I got inspired by from RX. I noticed that in a lot of RX’s matches, that when the enemy is really low on HP after some serious asswoopin juggling. He goes just out of throw range, and does the s. RH axe kick on them, and they eat it every-single-time. So I was thinking…Necro has that same axe kick(Rising Cobra)! It’s one of the most infrequently used moves by all Necro players: qcb + k. I was working around with it and I found out that you can actually vary the time at which the kick will hit the enemy, depending on which button you press, whether you cancel it or not, or your distance from your opponent.
For example, if you do the mk. axe kick from a deep canceled c. lk, it’ll hit them in the head. If you move back just a little bit, it hits at the VERY end of the move, at their feet. From max range the move will always whiff. So the range and the active frames on the move are very very ambiguous and can be abused similar to Urien’s s. rh. Just poke slightly out of throw range and cancel into it. People with fast reflexes might try to parry it, and get fooled by its timing(which also changes depending on the button pressed) and eat the move. Other people might not see the move coming at all and still eat it. Or, you can whiff it and confuse them, and then capitalize with c. lk xx super or something.
I know this strat is kind of poorly written, but I think its pretty useful cosidering that most people rarely use the kick, and even less people know how to see it coming. So be RX and axe kick people into their deaths lol.
More coming soon.
Edit: Sorry guys, I write a lot, I’ll try to condense it more also when I get the time.
Sorry for the long delay. I’ve been really busy, I’ll try to update this as I get time.
P.S. coreografo I’ll put in your notes also when I get time. Thanks for your contribution!
I beat 3 j-players that used makoto, dudly, and ken. I use necro sometimes, but now i will start the necro abuse. Watch out j-players…