Seems like the other characters have this thread, so why leave Dhalsim out?
Who do you like as a partner for Dhalsim?
I started SFxT with Hwoarang as Dhalsim’s partner, but after playing that team for a while, felt that Dhalsim needs a more damaging partner. Hwoarang was great for mixups when he came in, but my main gameplay is with Dhalsim, as that is my “real” character, so I started to want more damage after a launcher with dhalsim. So I went to Hugo!
Now I play Dhalsim x Hugo, and I am really happy about the team. The only character that gives my team a serious problem is Rufus, and that is because Dhalsim is ass against him + he is just so OP lol!
As for the team synergy, I get pretty good damage from a lk mk hk launcher chain (into lp->lp clap->mk backbreaker with Hugo). But It scales a lot. I have therefor trained myself to hitconfirm with j.FP->c.FP->launcher after teleporting, for much more damage. I feel like “random” teelports are legit in this game, as very few people are able to punish it hard, and you don’t get reset in the air like in sf4, you get a knock down, where you actually have a lot of options as Dhalsim.
I almost never use meter with dhalsim btw, only for alpha counter x tag cancel lp->lp clap mk back breaker with hugo. I save the meter for stuff like c.fp->launcher (sim)->lp x lp clap ->super (hugo)
When I have a bad matchup with Hugo and want to get Sim in, I either go for an ex lariat x tag cancel or charge up to an ex lariat x tag cancel into sim. When coming in with sim I go for cross up teleport into j.FP->c.FP xx FP flame (if I want sim to stay in) or j.FP->c.FP x launcher (If I have hit, and want Hugo to come in and do more damage)
This was a lot of info about Hugo too, but I just wrote it to let you see how I think about synergy with Dhalsim and another character.
I too am partnering Sim with Hugo… Hugo for me is an assist character; Sim is my main… ** Sim on 2 meters is nasty!** IMO Sim has one of the best Alpha Counters in the game for combo/damage potential. You can Alpha Counter, then instant tag cancel Hugo in, and immediately perform a jump forward splash with Hugo, then c.LP x LP Clap into MK Back Breaker for about 500 Dmg!* (*Depending on which one of the 2 hit boxes from Hugo’s splash hits with, as one part does more damage than the other, the combo can do 517 Dmg) In the corner you can add a s.LK after the LP Clap, then MK Back Breaker for possibly some more damage.
No one expects Sim to be able to deal 500 damage… from a blocking position no less… it’s insane… I’d love to be able to see my on-line opponent’s face when they have just lost to Sim’s Alpha Counter into Hugo’s combo.
And while it’s still early days… take note that last night TS Sabin’s Dhalsim won the Big Two SFxT Tournament beating Chris G from the winner’s bracket and Clakey D’s Hugo with the help of Marn’s Steve won the WNF’s 2v2 SFxT Tournament. Other than possibly sharing a few bad match-ups here or there, the team is very solid.
Do we have any footage of TS Sabin’s Dhalsim?
Back to partners, I still haven’t really found one I like. Not a fan of Hugo, everyone uses him, and I figure eventually everyone will figure out how to counter him.
Ah! I have just been walking forward and doing lp to clap, but jumping splash will be incorporated from now on lol! Yea, I see where you are going with the points at Arturo and Claky, and I think it might be a good team. Hugo is top tier for now, but people have already started to figure out that crouching lp is a free anti air against the splash in many cases, so we will see:P
I can post some footage in the Dhalsim video thread. I will also post some matches of my own later.
Personally the two partners I have used for Sim was Paul at first cause he gave me big damage, but god he’s bad. Then I switched to Ogre who I use now. I like Ogre for several reasons:
- Good tag combos that you can easily tag cancel back into sim with.
- Great reversal which is very important against characters like Rufus, Cammy, Abel
- He has several matchups that he is very very good at like Hugo and Kuma
- He can play the lame game if I’ve already dragged counter out with sim, but he can also rush people down and some very good safe strings and frame traps he can do.
- He can full screen punish raw tags which you see alot of with sim teams.
The other partner I also think works well with sim is Heihachi, high damage tags that can be canceled and great mixups if you get behind and timer is hurting.
I think Ogre is a really solid choice. Personally, I’m a pretty firm believer in Sim/Raven.
I was actually thinking of pairing Ogre with Dhalsim last night! I don’t have a lot of Ogre practice yet, though.
He’s a really great partner with Sim for the reasons that Snadmonkey listed, but I just can’t use him. Feels too awkward to me. I like Raven because he does maybe the best damage off of a launcher, has good corner carry, is cheap, and is easy. Plus he can be lame or rushdown, and he’s pretty ridiculous at both. Builds a lot of meter too, which is good for Sim alpha counters into switch or random super.
I’ve been using Sim/Sagat since launch and it has been working out so far. I put a lot of work into Kazuya when the game was still new aswell but, I didn’t want to get into the situation where 1 character gets hurt and I’m forced to then play my opponents game to get the win. With Sagat I can play run away the entire time and stay in the same mindset the whole match. I generally do combos the same way as Arturo has been where I’ll combo to launcher then switch cancel to keep Sim in after the combo ends. Only costs 1 bar, builds quite a bit and still gets me in that 300-400 damage range while maintaining team order and screen positioning.
I’ve been heavily considering Sim/Raven or Raven/Sim but, honestly with Evo going 2v2 I’ll be unable to play it at Evo and because I can’t play it at Evo I’ve almost dropped the game entirely. When I do play locally we usually play 2v2 and I only play Sim. Thems the breaks.
One more for Ogre, I call it team Gandalf, You shall not pass! One chip to lead with Sim and force the opponent to come to me. Now they must face the barrage of limbs, threat of 3 frame super and then fear of AP with Ogre (that even beats xover tatsu). IMO, pace is the most important thing to control when using Sim in this game and so I will deliberately make them play slow, tag in Ogre and continue the slow pace with an occasional ramp up with his mixups, then tag Sim back in to make it slow. This usually results in a 50% life lead at the 30 second mark which will result in either a win by KO from their attempts to rush or a timeout win - either way a win is a win, especially when you clock 30 in a row. If I lose 50% life lead before 70 second on the clock, I will usually lose the round unless Ogre can mix it up and regain ground, so build super to take the advantage back next round.
I also play team with a mate regularly, he uses Ogre or Heihachi. It’s hard to tag in on Hei but he does do good damage and can regain ground quite well, but I prefer Ogre overall.
My reasons for Ogre:
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[]You don’t zone Ogre, Ogre zones you.
[]You don’t attack Ogre, Ogre attacks you.
[]Ogre has moderate damage tag combo (better than low damage)
[]I want consistent wins without counter-picking, Ogre has a nice balance of defense/offense.
[]Ogre’s combos and strategy is to push the opponent to the corner and keep them there - the opposite of Sim. Retreat with Sim, push with Ogre, retreat with Sim, etc. Sometimes I will flip this to confuse the opponent.
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Defensive
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[]AP. The fear of it will stop any good player from jumping toward you. You can also persuade them to doubt every single blockstring for fear of being AP’ed. It’s not about how big it is, its how you use it…
[]Flame kick xx tag is the bomb.
[]Flame kick has huge block stun,you literally both sit there for about 10 frames waiting for it to finish. It makes them want to jump (into AP). Do another one and laugh.
[]Has two GTFO me moves, flame kick is quite safe. Playing two characters that succumb to rush-down is asking for trouble.
[]Ogre has a long ass (time) super. Good for milking the clock, compared to Sim’s short one for quick and easy-to-land damage. Crossarts also uses a lot of time and is easy to land either as combo or AA for both chars. I can start round 2/3 with a Sim launcher into crossarts for 25% life lead and force them to come at me (brah!)
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Offensive
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[]Ogre can dish out 300-450 metreless damage in one combo or less than 8 seconds. This means if I’m losing significantly at 20 seconds, I can still initiate a comeback with Ogre, just enough to win life lead and tag Sim back or even sit there with AP.
[]Ogre can wall-bounce > pandora > Sim.super for win.
[]As mentioned above, full screen raw-tag punish.
[]Ogre deals with fireballs quite well, flame kick to return big ones, Owl’s Hunt if they’re in the right distance, AP to nullify if you’re feeling cocky.
[]One of Ogre’s bnb (snake blade xx hh) can use indigo punch to push to corner or waning moon to flip them back into the corner depending on which side you are on.
[]Good mix of low/high, all highs are unsafe on block but when used sparingly they are deadly. Again, it’s not the size…
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dk_au, you know you can cancel his infinity kick string into indigo punch to make that over head string safe.
Yes, I usually cancel into flame kick instead for huge block stun if blocked. I have trouble setting up infinity kick though as the startup is quite slow, they usually press something before the first kick starts. When it does land I either cancel into flamer or cross-arts. Good point though +2 is better than -6 on block, and the distance push on IP will push a full screen away on hit, I’ll start using that instead.
After reading some of your posts I decided to fool around with Ogre and he’s good, just takes some getting use to. I like that he can be played defensively.
I wonder whats better type of partner for Dhalsim:
A similar zoning character or an opposite rush-down character?
Depends how good your Sim is, how much risk you like to play as well as your opponent character choice. For example, my team will only do 100-300 damage at a time but this is enough for me to take the lead and stay in it. I can also do a burst rush-down with Ogre if I absolutely need to (taking high risks), but I can play very defensively most of the time with both characters.
If you paired with say Hugo, you would have excellent damage bursts when you do land - but if you’re behind 50% at 20 seconds left, you’ll find it very hard to catch up with Hugo or Sim (if they’re purposely avoiding you). The way Ogre forces high/low game, you can’t just block one direction and milk the clock, you need to block properly. If you’re never in this position however, then by all means use a high-damage partner.
Sim is good at two things - keep out zoning and launching. This means he complements anyone that has trouble getting in and can sit on the lead for anyone that can do big damage. For me, the criteria is:
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[]Partner mustn’t be a meter hog, Sim needs meter for reversal super and tags.
[]Partner must do decent damage. Guile is not an option because if I’m losing, there is no way to catch up.
[]Partner must have good mix-up options in case I need to catch up.
[]Partner needs a SRK or similar, two characters without wake-up options doesn’t suit me.
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Therefore Rufus, Ogre and Ken would be my top three choices in that order. Many characters come a close second and would probably depend on what your opponent picks but if I had to go double blind, I’d use these guys and be confident. I don’t use Rufus because I 'm not good with him, but if I could play him as well as I play Ogre (and if he doesn’t get nerfed soon) I’d switch.
I picked up Rufus for a few days to try out my theory. Overall he seems quite on par with Ogre as a partner to Sim. My notes:
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[]Rufus is better at offense but also weaker/different at defense. Ex-messiah is not a good anti-air, much less wake-up anti-air.
[]Rufus is ridiculously easy to do good damage with.
[]For my play style, Rufus eats a hell of a lot more meter when I use ex-snake and ex-messiah.
[]Rufus tags out easier with dive kick, messiah, c.hp, even launcher
[*]Wall bounce into pandora is significantly easier to land
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I still prefer Ogre for his defense but Rufus makes a good partner too. Against a rush-down team you might have difficulty keeping them out. Then when you tag Rufus in to attack, someone who knows how to defend against Rufus can be very difficult to get in on.
What about using a team of Akuma and Dhalsim? I use Akuma x Guile and definitely want to throw Dhalsim in there if I can.
You main Akuma, you’re in a better position to tell us 
I don’t see it working due to the lack of high-low mixups (into combos) and low life but he does have teleport and three hit confirm DP (saves meter for cancel tag, but also gives your opponent three hits to confirm a mash reversal). Air balls + DP are good for zoning. I’d imagine the team would be like Akuma/Guile, very defensive without the ability to catch-up.
I’ve been running Sim/Gief. I still suck at Gief so it’s quite hard. I see simsim is doing good with hugo. Not sure who else to team him up with really.