I’m switching over to Sagat since Bison will seemingly forever be shafted by Capcom. Basically want to know are you guys generally frustrated with Sagat? If you could do it all over again, would you pick Sagat again? Also, it’s very strange coming from a character that has excellent normals and pokes to one who relies principally on fireballs with slow normals and mediocre range. As Sagat, do you generally want to avoid close combat situations? Or can he hold his own up close? If so, what are the best attacks for close range? Finally, is there a published list of Sagat’s block strings and frame traps anywhere? Thanks!
Funny I see you posting here. I was going to pick up Bison until I read your posts lol.
I’ve been playing Sagat seriously for about 2-3 months. I had a pocket Sagat in vanilla, but then again, who didn’t? Hopefully the more experienced Sagats will answer after me.
Me personally, the only frustrating thing with Sagat is the risk/reward factor when a character gets in Sagat’s dead zone. This is an area that his normals don’t reach and fireballs are unsafe. As a Sagat player, sometimes you just gotta YOLO unsafe low tiger shots cause that’s the only way you can keep people from walking in on you. I’ve seen top level Sagats like Ryan Hart and Bonchan throw like 4 or 5 in a row and NOT get jumped on. If you do get jumped on, you’ll get knocked down AFTER losing up to 40% at the most.
His normals are good considering, but some characters have buttons that shit on his (dudley, rose, chun) so staying close range all the time isn’t where Sagat wants to be all the time. Sagat can hold his own up close if it’s on his own terms though.
That comeback factor though. 2 bars and ultra will keep people on the ground. And it’s very satisfying to watch someone try over and over again to get close to you only to send them back to the other side of the screen.
Sagat’s normals are actually very good. His big problem up close is probably his walk speed. He’s basically stationary, so even though he has good normals he can’t play with range like other characters can. Don’t plan on baiting your opponent’s normals and whiff punishing. Not going to happen that much. That said, he’s more mobile than you would think from his walk speed - at least once you learn all your karas.
His best normals up close are standing LK (cancellable), standing MK, c.HP and standing HK (hits twice and hits jumpers).
As far as frame traps go, some common ones are:
c.LK x 3, c.MK into Shot
c.LK x 3, fs.LK into Shot
c.LK x 2, c.LP into Knee (good for breaking focus)
I’m finally done. Capcom has made it clear that they won’t fix the character and they keep nerfing him like he’s winning every tournament in the world. Sooner or later, every serious Bison player regrets picking him, so it’s time to move on. Naturally when you move from a character you’re pretty good with to a completely new one, the character seems lame and ineffective. Unless of course, you’re going with a top tier character, who right off the bat, feels more powerful and effective than the rest of the cast (nice job, Capcom). I’ve messed around with Cammy, and you want to face palm that Capcom doesn’t realize they’ve made her too strong.
At any rate, Sagat feels like he’s moving in molasses compared to Bison. It’s an incredible adjustment. A few minutes ago, I was using Ken, and the character feels A LOT more mobile, and the normals feel crisper. Not sure at this point that a faster shoto isn’t a better option over Sagat who’s slow, but doesn’t seem to have anything to offset the sluggishness.
You’re right about the dead zone. Or at least, if it’s only the false impression of a Sagat noob, it certainly feels real. I’m looking for a character who isn’t top tier, but doesn’t have glaring weaknesses. Sagat’s lack of mobility and seeming inability to keep fast moving characters from swarming him like flies, certainly seem like flaws.
If you think it’s frustrating playing Bison (one of the simpler ABC characters in the game in my opinion) then your going to have all sorts of fun with Sagat. If there were a tier list of learning curve Sagat would be easily in the top 5.
Your match up knowledge (all 39 soon to be 44) has to be impeccable with Sagat, you must know every frame advantage/disadvantage, range , spacing and button in the game to even begin to get good with him. If you want to pick him up then fair play but I can gaurentee you by this time next year you’ll still figuring shit out.
He’s not a character that you can read some information, look at a Youtube video and start playing, he requires ever single ounce of brain power just to not get put into bad spots that you have to then escape.
If your ready for that then step right in! I’m sure a lot of people will be once they play Ultra but my money is that they switch to Guile after about a month.
yep if i could describe playing sagat in one sentence it would be this: no auto-pilot.
you gotta work from 99 seconds to KO for the win, and every feint, fake, button press, and fireball has to be intentional, because with the derpy bullcrap in this game, one lazy fireball could very well = game over. there are no brainless stuff, and no gimmicks. you play smart and you can go very far with sagat, but you gotta play hella smart.
One of the hardest characters to learn to play properly. You don’t have any real bullshit to abuse so you can only play honest. You must master what you can and can’t punish and deal with it accordingly. Sagat is one of the easiest characters to get abused with if you don’t know how to play against the matchup/player type. With no real walk speed you will need to learn an entirely different type of way to approach the neutral game, especially against characters/players that abuse their walkspeeds and know the “smart” distances to stay at from Sagat. Especially if they have a good sweep.
All in all though one of the most rewarding characters to play, and every win is YOUR win. Sagat is a character where the basis of your understanding of the game system, matchups, neutral, and patience is all you can ever succeed with. There’s a reason competitive Sagat players are well respected regardless.
This is a good read for those who’s learning anti Sagat