not being predictable with rufus is kind of hard, especially with his limited mobility when you take away divekick to get in. From my experiences a blocked roll leads to a shoryu to my face.
So I don’t get misunderstood, Snake Strikes are useful for dodging fireballs , but because its a defensive move that does nothing for you except build meter and hold your ground, you’re better off using Tornado if you anticipate the fireball.
MP Snake Strike is especially useful for dodging Ex Fireballs, since they can’t be focused and Snake Strike leaves the ground faster than a regular jump.
So for me the rule of thumb is- If you anticipate a fireball, Tornado. If you don’t want to get hit by a fireball in a cinch, Snake Strike (MP clears fireballs more easily, LP barely does but is safer). If the opponent isn’t being predictable, and you want to close distance safely, verticle jump dive kicks to close distance.
If the opponent is being SUPER predictable, and you’re 100% sure that a fireball is coming and you have 2 meter and Ultra stored, Messiah Kick> LK> FADC> Ultra.
Blocked roll?
I agree. You have to have excellent footsies with Rufus. like knowing exactly where you can roll, where you can Snake Strike hop fireballs, when you can dive kick etc.
I have had the most luck switching up my divekicks.
When people start to fireball you jump straight up and divekick. You will move a little bit forward and you will be relatively safe.
I am having trouble with the Air to Air battles. Every move I do seems to be beat out. Only thing I can think of is jumping neutral HK.
Vertical jump MK has surprisingly high priority. Beats everything but the earliest jump attacks.
You know, some more light should be shed on Rufus vs. Blanka.
Seems like it is extremely hard to get a knockdown on him.
What can I do for footsies against Blanka? I have no clue what pokes beat out Blanka’s pokes, and this seems to be the only way for me to fight him other than using mind games to force a mistake.
Quick question:
Can Gief punish a blocked HP Galactic Tornado with SPD?
Anticipate the fireballs, and Tornado right through them @ midrange. At long range, LP or MP Tornado just to suck up the fireball juice and build meter. Almost like parrying, and if the player is that dumb to give Rufus of all characters free meter, then all the power to them.
Rufus likes his meter like he likes his big macs. He’ll eat those fireballs right up. Yum.
IIRC he can’t. His SPD has a 2-frame start up, and blocked hp tornado leaves you at -1. I think the only one he can SPD is ex tornado which leaves you at -2 on block.
Just tested it. Regular, EX, Super, and Ultra do not punish it if you
A) Jump
B) Hold back after the tornado has finished.
Yeah, I struggle against blanka more than any other character, even sagat.
Can’t divekick pressure due to electricity/vertical roll.
Can’t target combo into Ultra because it always whiffs.
Blanka seems like he has insane priority on his air normals.
I read the stuff in the OP but i’d love more info on this matchup.
BTW, what’s the best approach for a Rufus mirror?
Against Blanka, I don’t play this match enough but everytime I do, patience is key. IMO Blanka and Zangief are the two characters whom you absolutely have to change your game plan for.
Against Blanka, I find myself poking at max range with crouch fierce a lot, dancing at that distance, baiting him to roll (block and walk forward> crouch fierce to punish) or jump (Ex Snake Strike or crouch MP to counter).
If you absolutely have to advance, the only safe way is to walk forward, using crouch Jab or stand Strong to beat out rolls, and to poke.
Dive Kicks seem to beat out electricity if they’re meaty. Whiffed electricities can be punished with Ex Tornado.
I generally try to bait Ultras with cross up dive kick. His ultra will totally whiff if he tries to AA you with it.
Would like someone to test if this works:
- Meaty Dive Kick against Blanka. Blanka wakes up with Ultra. You block Low> High> Low. Does it work? Or do you get crossed up cause of Rufus’s fat hit box?
I read the initial comments in the first post, but I’d love some more Zangief tips.
I’ve actually found sMP a little bit more versatile than cHP. Quicker and has a better chance of beating out a Hand. cHP just seems to get swallowed by it. Usually, I toss out sMP to push them back, and use cHP once they are at a little bit safer of a distance. Also sometimes I toss out fHP. It seems to have better priority then I thought it would and it knocks him far far away.
Upclose, I find I actually throw him a decent amount of times. Not in the sense I am putting a throw game on him, but finding spots seems like the best way to take advantage of the little gaps in his offense.
Can I EX Messiah out of his wake-up game? 'Cause he’s totally throwing me almost every single time he gets on top of me.
In my experience no, I think he beats it out. I could be wrong though.
edit: according to the gief forum, ex messiah kick does beat whatever gief will try to throw out
My general game plan is to zone him out with crouch Fierce and stand Fierce/Ex Snake Strike. Dance to bait Ex Green Hand. Block then> S.Fierce> Tornado, then more zoning.
Ex Messiah beats all his wake-up options that don’t involve a jump.
Jab Snake Strike beats all his wake-up options except for very deep cross ups, Lariat, a deep jump in, and crouching and doing nothing.
Stand Strong and stand Forward are both decent pokes against him, but are succeptible to getting beaten out by random lariats, so I’d rather stay just inside crouch fierce range.
Dive Kick (blocked)> Ex Messiah works really well in a pinch cause almost all Zangiefs will try to Lariat/SPD after the dive kick.
I’ve read this thread a few times, and can’t recall anyone mentioning this, but any tips on fighting Bison?
Going to the air is pretty risky against him, as doing HK>snake strike seems to be effective about 40% of the time, he usually stuffs me the rest of the time. I’m also not sure what to do against the godlike priority of his Head Press (charge down+up kick) follow up.
Finally, he has a wicked poke in his short, I know that cr.Fierce beats it, but more often than not it would put me in a bad situation as even though it left room for him to capitalize on me, it was the only poke I knew for SURE would beat it. How do standing Forward/Strong’s work against this?
I actually thought of Heimlich from A Bug’s Life, myself. 
My Rufus is so bad right now. I couldn’t win my SFIV Gamestop due to a random jump-FK’ing Sagat. I really need to work on my execution for blockstrings. My triangle jumping is top-notch, but getting in is so much work with so little tools.
I’ll def. need to try this I was getting eaten up for free air-to-air last night, it was demoralising my Rufus game :sad:
So… dhalsim…
I have real issues getting close to him due to his jumping and standing fierce which has insane range, and when I get close to him he just teleports away.
What do I do? 
Dhalsim is a bitch! Have you watched the Iyo vs Kindevu <[media=youtube]vcWT34dO4Ew"[/media]? This shows some of what you have to do but Kindevu gets zoned to bits by that fierce punch in matches 1 and 3. When you get in you need to capitalise with Rufus mix-up game and hit him with the easy in-corner Ultra shenans. I’ve only played this a few times but it is a hella frustrating match.