After watching a few videos of dirty and thanatos I was a little curious about learning some more about these two pokes. Poking is obviously a big part of oro’s game, so I’m curious what makes using one over the other better. When I was watching match vids, it seems that those two never really throw out RH near as much as forward and I just don’t seem to see the benefit. It’s obvious that forward is faster, but I don’t think roundhouse is punishable on block (is it?).
Anyways, does the speed really make up for the beefy damage, stun, and range that RH provides?
RH is really good but it’s easily punished if it’s whiffed too often. Which is why you’ll only see them throwing out RH when they are sure it’ll make some kind of contact with the opponent. The only other time they’ll really use it is in situations where they know they can’t be punished seriously for whiffing it. Like if the opponent has no meter or they are far enough away from the opponent where punishing it is difficult.
Otherwise… if the move doesn’t make some kind of contact with the opponent it’s relatively easy to punish. Most characters have at least one poke they can use to punish a whiffed RH on reaction. I’m sure it’s pretty safe on block but…in 3rd Strike that doesn’t matter much if your poke gets parried. RH has enough start up time to make it easy to bait and parry if used unnecessarily.
Chun Li makes it almost impossible to use RH. Her b+HP can beat it easily and her best poke (c.MK) completely goes under the RH. Oro’s body is grounded during the RH animation so he’s going to die if he gets hit by anything from her. She has at least 3 different normals she can use to punish a whiffed RH. Obviously getting it parried means you will die as well. It sucks because c.MK is her main move for comboing into super. Chun’s c.MK will just not allow Oro to pressure with RH like he normally can.
Chun’s super also travels half the screen length instantly so if she wanted to she could just wait for you to throw a RH and just activate SA2 and punish you. Ken can also easily dash up and c.MK to super or just throw super. Also… I believe there are some characters that are too short to get hit by RH when they are crouching but tall enough to get hit by FK. IIRC…unfortunately Chun Li is also too short to get hit by standing FK when she is crouching. Her c.MK can even go under the FK and combo into super.
LOL @ switching up between the different SF connotations. MK=FK obviously.
Its not quite as simple as that.
Its all VERY circumstancial, and very character specific, but ill list a few pointers vs a couple of chars.
In general:
Medium kick:
1)Comes out 1 frame slower
2)Has -5/-4/-3 frame disadvantage on block/hit/crouch hit.
3)Has less priority.
4)Has greater range.
Roundhouse kick:
1)Faster
2)Has -5/-4/-3 frame disadvantage on block/hit/crouch hit.
3)Has higher priority.
4)Has less range.
So this means…
Versus Ken:
a) medium kick outranges kens cr.mk. If ken parries oros medium kick at max range, a cr.mk of his will still completely whiff. Roundhouse is outranged by cr.mk, and ull eat a super…
b) medium kick tends to get beaten by kens cr.mp, whereas roundhouse will blast through it more often than not.
Versus Yun:
a) medium kick will lose to yuns cr.mp, rh beats it.
b)his shoulder can sneak under both of these moves.
c)roundhouse is a great way to punish divekicks which aim to land short of oro.
Versus Alex:
a) Alex has no moves to sneak under roundhouse, and this move beats every poke that medium kick beats, possibly more, so here theres no major harm in using roundhouse over mk.
So yeah, this only a tiny bit of what goes into choosing what pokes to use versus what char, and WHERE. Oro also has other very good pokes, namely cr.mk and cr.fierce, which have their place in some fights way moreso than rh and mk. or fk, or whatever.
Ultimately the move does a little less damage yet has way more range. Beating out a shoto’s MK is also a big thumbs up.