P-Rock probably works ok, but you probably have to work a lot harder than K-Rock. Harder to deal damage since you won’t have super anywhere near as often, nasty guard-bar antics since you have the shortest bar. There’s the difference between having Run and Dash that has to be taken into account. You sort of have to look at all that and decide if having a parry will make up for it all.
Rock with roll cancel lets him do a totally 50/50 guessing game off his close s.LK. RC 360+P eats up anything the opponent tries after the close s.LK, while d.LK, d.MK xx elbow combos for free when the opponent tries to jump away.
After the RC 360+P, do the laser, then whiff qcb+HP to get right back into point blank range, close s.LK again.
Keep in mind that without JD, it’s hard to fight against opponents spamming on Blanka balls though. Rock has to waste a level 1 in order to punish. This is bad if you’re looking to get meter for a CC or store up your level 3 for a reppuken trap.
C-groove CAN use late airblock to stop random balls. But I still don’t like it as much as JD. If you mess up, you usually get random jump-back then lose all your momentum.
I would play Rock in any groove other than A or S. A-groove is the worse Rock out of all of them, because he doesn’t even have air-block to save him from RC scrubs. S-groove just plain sucks.
wait wait wait.
what this about A rock being bad? Il admit K groove rock is alot better but, I use Rock and Kyo on my team. and I use them differentlly. I tend to use rock more defencivly when Im using A - groove.
I remember using A groove and Rock as one of my main characters. and play bait with rock instead and if get knocked down and I hit them with a rising tackle, free CC.
and sumtimes RC isnt that good when ur making them come to u I mean for the opponent.
wel I just play differently with every groove.
He has trouble against RC Blanka. Instead of saving up your meter so you can do rising tackle, CC, you’ll have to spend it all on level 1’s to punish Blanka balls instead. Trying to qcf+LK counter everything on reaction is also no good because Blanka can always fake you out. This risk/reward is definately not in your favor. JD, parry, or airblock is just better, and that’s why I don’t like A-Rock.
so RC blanka is the way to beat combofiend’s A-rock eh? interesting…
i remember watching him play at midwest challenge and he would just dominate people if he got them in the corner using most of the traps you’ve mentioned, with the threat of CC as another option.
oh, ok I know what u mean.
well I guess its how u play rock.
p.s S groove rock isnt that bad either u could do his most dmging combo on it.
About comboing after lj.
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Close s.MK combos after a low jump forward HK.
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Actually, unless this feature is an ‘EO’ exclusive, any character (i think, I haven’t tested it with everyone) can combo after a small jump in.
After reading your post, I started messing around and realized that not only will Rock’s s.forward connect after a lj.Roundhouse, but a crouching one could connect as well. Then I tested out the s.Fierce - magic, worked like a fuckin’ charm. Then I decided to test out other characters, on the chance that it might be something that was just particular to Rock. I moved on to Joe’s lj.Fierce, and though the timing is stringent, I managed to combo s.Strong, and later c.Forward. I thought ‘cool,’ so I moved onto Ken - then it occured to me that up until this point I’d only tested j.Fierce/Roundhouse, so I started with ‘lj.Forward, c.forward’ and then 'lj.Forward, c.Jab(!), c.Forward.'
I don’t know whether this is a big deal, or common knowledge, but before about 15 minutes ago I didn’t know that this game had full-combo potential after a small jump.
There is kind of a timing issue involved, though. It seems that while doing a small jump you have to hit the attack button at the last possible second - and when landing, you have to pause slightly before the next attack input. Anyway, I haven’t confirmed this with every character, but I assume it is universally applicable.
I just hope that this isn’t just an EO version ‘extra,’ else I’m gonna look REALLY dumb 
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The reason why lj.RH, close s.forward is good is because close s.forward hits in 2 frames. There’s not nearly as much timing involved to hit it reliably (you can do the RH a bit earlier, you can do the close s.forward later, etc.), and close s.forward will combo reliably to jab elbow.
i know of at least 4 people in socal that use rock in tourneys batch
Actually, you can streamline all this pretty easily.
When I think they will block:
-low short, standing short, 360
When I think they will attack me, throw me, or jump away (do anything besides block):
-low short, standing short, low short, low forward, super
And how does one consistently rc 360s with Rock? I find there’s too many conflicting inputs in the way. I either get some unintentional special move or just a plain 360 with jab.
Press (and hold) LP+LK really early, then spin the stick really fast?
If you’re doing your 360’s by starting at forward then rolling back to up (like the CvS2 book says you should do), the only way to stick a roll input in there is to press LP+LK at some time between forward and down-back. If you accidentally hit a button at back or up-back, you get an unintentional special. If you trying hitting roll at up, then pressing a punch button, you’ll get the non-RC’d grab. So that’s why you have to hit the roll really early, while holding down the buttons to avoid negative edge.
Even when I’m not trying to roll cancel, I always get the elbow instead of the grab whenever I press a button at up-back instead of up. So definitely be good at doing regular Rock 360’s first before trying to RC them.
Being able to consistently RC 360’s would make N or C Rock too cheap. Anytime you have your level 3 and you make the opponent block close s.LK, they’re going to get supered no matter what they do.*
They do anything other than throw or jump away? RC 360 grabs them. They get scared and do jump away? You wait slightly, then level 3 shine knuckle them as they come down from the air. They try to throw you when you RC? d.LK, d.MK xx super beats their throw and jump away attempt.
It’s cheap how much the rock, paper, scissors game is in your favor when you can RC 360 grab whenever you want.
*Of course the opponent can parry or JD his way out… but if they’re definately in trouble if they’re in another groove or they don’t have their full A-groove meter.
how many frames does it take till rock goes into “blur” for his qcb+hk?
2 frames is the shortest time before the blur. Unless I read that wrong…
Couldn’t rock just high counter a blanka ball? It’s not that risky when the ball is coming from like 1/2 screen…
anybody here know how to link rocks combo super, is there a shortcut in linking it from a jab or a short, its the most damaging super and least risky,
My bad…
A-Rock can pretend he’s second rate Geese and punish a Blanka ball with super jump forward, j.MK. The 5 frame startup is the same as his j.LK, so don’t worry about that. Geese’s ball punisher does 1300. Rock’s is 900 base damage. Hmm… I wonder who’s the better Blanka counter?
A-Rock still sucks because RC 360+P is damn near impossible… :lol:
After a close s.LK, d.LK, s.LK xx deadly rave is infinately safer than d.LK, d.MK xx super. The execution is harder that’s all. I dunno, all the good K-Geese players I know can do d.LK, d.MK xx deadly rave 100% though. So comboing into a super like that probably isn’t as hard as I think it is.
Just do c.lk, c.lp, c.mk xx deadly rave, it’s not too hard. Then again I use Geese.
Random Rock note:
Doesn’t Rock have some sort of special property on his low jump?
I think it was something like if u stick out a low jump roundhouse (or any attack) and the other guy tries to tripguard you, Rock ends up blocking the attack. Memory is a little fuzzy,
so corrections are welcome 
small jump rh.