I love this idea, here here.
So i know the kara throw and get away tatsu are obviously very good to kens game. im finding it pretty hard to get the kara fireball kara srk and kara focus dash down though. are the kara fireball and kara srk really necessary in his game?
i heard u can also kara his U1? is this f+mk and all 3 punch buttons?
also what option selects does he have apart from crouch tech, jump in hp/srk jump in hp/tatsu/U2?
For kara focus, just work pressing medium kick before fully pressing down focus, while pressing or holding forward of course. For kara fireball and kara SRK, work on inputting the f+mk or f+hk before whatever punch button(s) you’re gonna press (like a plink). Then when you got that down, you just add the motion (FB = QCF, SRK = F,QCF). Sometimes I’ll get kara fireball even though I meant to do kara throw because I input too many motions by mistake. So it shouldn’t be much harder to do them. But, no, kara hadoken and kara SRK in not necessary. I don’t think anyone would say they are. Kara hadoken can actually be pretty risky because it moves your hitbox even further foward, making you more susciptible to eating jump-ins or Guile’s backfist etc. So spacing is important. Kara SRK can be useful is some situations/links but meh.
You can kara both ultra 1 and ultra 2, but there is little use in doing so. I wouldn’t worry about them. You can kara with f+mk u1 theoretically, but usually get a focus attack, so you want to do it with f+hk instead. With u2, either is possible, except karaing with f+mk I feel is a bit more awkward whereas with f+hk it’s just like plinking hk with all three kick buttons.
There are plenty option selects, there’s OS sweep, OS step kick, OS EX fireball, OS EX SRK, OS jump etc. etc. check the OS thread, try thinking of ways to use option selects and try discovering some for yourself.
^ thnx for great reply dude
Bad news, the new match-ups thread may not come out until February at the earliest.
There’s three match-up threads, not two. Which means I’m going to have to read through 53 pages!!!
http://shoryuken.com/f259/dear-doctor-ken-match-ups-insight-ask-question-get-answer-208753/
http://shoryuken.com/f259/new-ken-match-ups-thread-updated-08-07-a-201584/
http://shoryuken.com/f259/old-ken-matchup-thread-178925/
–I’m a bit confused on why you should buffer fierce srk after c.mk. if he blocks you’ll be wide open to punish, no? Or do you mean to simply buffer without the input. OR are you assuming said ken should have 2 bars for FADC incase enemy balrog blocks? still wouldn’t a hadou be safer to buffer after a c.mk? I have no idea so please clue me in.
fireball would lose to his ex moves. Buffer the srk from safe distances or up close if you have meter. If you buffer srk and just stick out cr.mk the instant your cr.mk connects with armor from Ex the srk would come out.
You do it quickly. So that if he doesn’t rush punch, your c.mk whiffs and nothing happens. If he rush punches, the c.mk will be canceled into srk.
Just because I’m really lazy, has anyone been jotting down ALL the changes for ALL the characters for AE.
I’m obviously well clued up on Ken’s changes and I read each of the blogs as they came out. But I’ll be damned if I can remember any of them now. I’d really appreciate it if someone had every change for every character in some form of list…
Hope someone can help me out here.
Makoto is really worrying me right now. Not being able to jump in on her during her wake-up is going to really hurt Ken in this match up I think…
Peace,
G.
–great. thanks a lot. I will try it asap. what ultra do you recomend against balrog. often I’ve caught him dashing with a U1. but now that I’ve got my stick I’m trying to figure which is better for what match-ups. I already know U2 is useless as an anti-air ultra. Terrible
I’d recommend u1 vs. everyone except Akuma(jump in option select U2 punishes teleport)…but I’m not one of the Ken Masters on this board.
I don’t know how many times I’ve said this but, u1 for characters you’ll be rushing down that don’t have fireballs and u2 for characters with a good to decent fireball game. Like don’t bother using u2 against Gouken and Sakura, gouken has a good fireball but he lacks a solid anti-air, while sakura has a bad fireball and a decent anti-air. U2 also good for teleport characters. Using u2 on Dhalsim is iffy though, once you hit him he’s on the other side of the screen where he wants to be and that’s no good. =/
I think it’s more a case of reading your opponent.
Yes, there are some match-ups where a specific Ultra is desirable. Here are 2 examples where character choice determines the Ultra to use in the match up:
Blanka = U1 (lots of possible Full Ultra’s off of fierce DP’ed blanka balls and also punishing his Ultra on block).
Rufus = U1 (If he goes for his ex messiah after an ex tatsu mix-up or Fierce DP into FTK cr.lk, the second part whiffs ON HIT and you get full U1).
For me, I default to U2 unless the opponent is a real crouch tech masher or a very character specific Ultra is required.
I’m trying to get my execution to the point where I never miss my cr.mk xx fireball FADC U2. Once I’ve mastered it I can look at U2 like this:
It’s a hit confirmable Ultra that has to be blocked low. It has a 4 frame startup but it costs me 2 stocks and scores me 450 damage.
When you think of it like that, U2 has to be considered more versatile than U1 right?
G.
I’d like to say U2 against a good Balrog who isn’t abusing cr.lp. Ken can land A LOT of cr.mk’s in this match-up and this means a free combo to U2 if your execution is on point and you have your 2 stocks…
Again, I tend to read the opponent in the first match and make a decision from there.
G.
Yo I choose u2 for balrog because the low forward thing and the fact that if ur reactions are good enough u can stop them from spamming rush push and the good thing about it is because u1 has such short range u have a much better chance of catching them if they try to fake u out wit it and also its faster than u1 which helps also because I no a lot of times I miss ultra punishing blocked headbutts.
U2 hits crouching.
And still you don’t want to use U2 on characters where the lack of okizeme puts you at a disadvantage. It’s nice to be able to shut off you opponents fireball attacks but the distance you shoot away your opponent with U2 is not very good for Ken has he has to start all over again getting in.
I think you missed the point I was trying to make.
If you can ALWAYS hit the cr.mk xx fireball FADC U2, you can consider the cr.mk as the “start-up” for U2.
As far as I’m aware, the only characters that Ken is going to really struggle to close ground on are Dhalsim and Seth right? And because these guys both have a teleport, U2 is a good option to have in your pocket because it can be OS’ed to punish teleports.
I understand that if you successfully land a U2, you put yourself at full screen again, but for a minimum of 450 damage, I’m willing to accept that. If I was that worried about closing ground on someone, I’d have to also remove cross-up lk tatsu as well because if they go for a reversal DP move, I’m gonna knock them halfway across the screen with it for a measely 50 damage!!!
I’m gonna do some testing but I’m thinking Ken could follow-up a successful U2 with a mk or ex tatsu and land right next to his opponent in time to block. At the moment, I just throw a lp fireball and backdash twice behind it to close the ground after a successful U2. But like I said, it’s 450 damage!! That’s not to be sniffed at…
I’d like to end by saying that this is all just MY personal preference. I’ve been choosing U2 every match recently because I want to get better at FADC’ing into it. I’ll happily lose 15 matches straight if it improves my execution!!!
G.
I default to guren as well for teh reasons G stated. That and the hitbox on the first kick reaches a lot further than people expect. That coupled with 7frame start up makes it a great move to punish whiffed pokes. Nothing like getting hit with a raw ultra to really rattle the opponent.
U2 against ROG, Reasons:
1-Punishes Low dash punches, light, medium and heavy on block.
2-Better to react to dash punches than U1, cuz if you react too early, U2 still travels on the ground and hits him.
3-When rog is knocked down ( balrog feet facing ken ), Cr.lk>st.lk OS Kara-U2 > combo, OS Kara-U2 catches rog’s backdash.
4-Ambigious/unblockable/crossup J.hp OS U2 ( Auto correct motion: qcf qcb KKK ) beats his runaway, wakeup dash punches. If he backdashes, EX tatsu will comout to punish him.
5- Combo-ability from cr.mk > hado FADC U2, and don’t forget Jab>U2 ( Jab hits rog crouching)
I totally agree with you G77. A good advice is once you get cr.mk>fadc>U2 down, practice jab>U2. Actually this is the reason that stopped me from switching to stick, cuz I already got consistent with it on the pad. I even have matches where I land jab>U2 and still lose, but in some other matches its a trump card to for the win, specially as a hit-confirm after an ambiguous setup. I don’t really mind the scaling, total damage is 3XX which is still good.
I also pick U1 against rufus and blanka for the exact reasons you stated. Another character I use U1 on is Honda, safe-jump OS U1 beats all his wake up options and also his backdash.
It’s not 450 damage minimum to U2 is it? And I might think sagat, ryu, chun li and guile fits the characters that you don’t want to be far from too. But I do see your point as I was once before a strong follower of guren and it’s still good in some matchups and as you say maybe in alot of them. But the oki after it really, really sucks! And I think only the lk tatsu is a safe option among the tatsus but I might be wrong. Well it’s nice since it comboable I’ve always thought that. But hey, whater hoists your flags mates.