I played 3S before I learned CvS2, so P-Groove felt more natural to me than the other grooves (not that I don’t like the other ones).
However, I’ve noticed in most of the match vids I’ve seen that the majority of good players pick either C or A-Groove, as well as the occasional K and N’s.
As far as I understand it, this is because:
If you can’t roll, you can’t RC.
Most of the high-tier characters do better in C or A because of their damage capabilities.
Because LV.2 supers are preferred most of the time, if you miss, you still have meter for an alpha counter or some chip damage.
Knowing this, I think that the advantage of P-Groove can offset these advantages and should be a highly competitive selection for all characters.
Somebody trying to chip you do death? Parry that ish.
Somebody keep doing that cr.short over and over again? Block the first and parry the second. Voila, you just eliminated your guard crush problem.
Almost safe jump-ins, great for Sakura as well as anyone else with a good crossup, works wonders against characters with shoryus.
Great against defensive characters, forces them up close if you can predict their pokes.
With this, I’m wondering why I don’t see more P-Groove. Is it simply that A and C are just so much better than P? Or am I missing something?
also parry timing is much more strict when compared to 3s. less hit confirms, meaning option selecting is not as useful as it is in 3s (not that it’s not useful).
P also has no “Bullshit Damage”. Like Bison’s Paint, shosho’s etc.
plus there are alot more things to parry. more playable char means more different timings to parry stuff.
p groove is decent and can be a real bitch to fight against. you have to adjust your play style against someone who actually knows what they’re doing. at the end of the day though, it isn’t that great and is just too limited. you can make it work though, you’ll just have to work way harder and outsmart your opponent pretty much everytime you play.
If you’re good at parry prediction, I think P groove is pretty viable against most other groves. However, the main reason you probably don’t see it that much in high-level play is because the top tier A groove characters can destroy P groove. Even if you block the custom, you will get quickly guard crushed by Sakura, Bison, and several other A groove characters…and you aren’t going to parry a custom either :P. Given that A groove is so popular in tournament play (look at the Evo 2k7 teams), most top players end up not picking it.
it definatelt can’t be slept on though. all it takes is one parry and you can win a match depending on who you use. kyo can just destroy you way too fast in p groove, and cammy with parry is option select goodness. i just don’t think a lot of characters can take advantage of what p groove has to offer, at least in real life play. theory fighter can make you think p groove is dirty, but then you get guard crushed a few times and eat the cheese the other grooves offer up and you end up hating it.
i tried playing p groove for a while and just gave up. it’s fun, but against k and a groove, it feels like such an uphill battle.
It feels like an uphill battle because it is. I actually like P groove a lot, but I can never bring myself to play it more than once or twice in casuals because it’s so limited. Parry is really hard in this game (and really fucking risky against some of the higher tier characters).
I’ve been sticking with p groove since cvs2 came out. Like everyones been saying, its just too limiting most of the time. No red parry, no super canceling, short guard meter (this is just mean), and no bonus for meter, it is always a tough fight for the win. That said, its a hell of a lot of fun for me to parry certain supers, or catch a nice low parry into super. I also use it to ‘fill in’ the gaps on some of my block strings.
If you can read your opponent P groove is easy to use. P groove = anti RC groove. The way to play P groove is, to have to parry and rush them down when you have the chance. It makes their mind go crazy. Also, think about the attacks of your opponent. What is their percentage of low attacks, mid attacks, and high attacks. There’s only 3 ways to parry. Left Right and Down. So, if you know they hit low attacks like most of the time parry more of that. So bascially when you parry, you have 1/3 chance of successful parry. Also, don’t be predictable on your parry, like you parry most of your their jump ins or you jump in and parry most of the time. Somtimes to have to rotate parry, normal moves, special, normal, parry, special so you keep your opponent off guard. And also becareful when someone makes you parry a normal attack and super afterwards.
Just putting my own experience against p groove. Hope this helps.
Parry is cool, but don’t exclusively rely on it of course.
I mean i have some friends playing this groove, and sometimes they abuse parries and become predictable especially at anti air. So you can trick them with empty jump/attack jump/throw jump; high/low/throws mixup quite easily. And you RAPE their mind, (and bar) just because they don’t use a simple anti air, because a parry would mean more damage.
So learn to use parry when you have no better or no guaranted option, and CVS2 parry isn’t the same timings or possibilities compared to 3s parries.
Maybe it’s not a too good option for 3s players…
Don’t get discouraged! There are ways to make P-groove good but it’s totally dependent on each individual, so offering advice would be, by default, esoteric…and all of the good general stuff has been said. So yeah maybe links to your matches would be a better piece of advice
p groove = no options. if you depend on parrying to win, you’re trash because no one guesses right that often. now if have a really solid game as far as basics are concerned, AND are able to incorporate a few parry set ups into your game and keep the parry as random as possible, you’ll be tough to beat. a p groove player who’s predictable is a free win as far as i’m concerned.
