I heard somewhere a while back that this Rock is good?
Hello?
Yes. Hello there. Another awesome thread. Stay away from S-Groove, it will make you a better person.
I started that thread because I believed back then that S-Rock is good. I still do. The reason was simply Rock is a solid character. Thing is he’s got a very high learning curve. You drop him to learn other characters and try to play him again it’s like… "Wha??? I used to be much better than this."
With him it’s a serious matter of matchups. However he can effectively deal with most characters in the game.
It’s all a matter of using Rock like you would if he had no super, and throw in S-Groove’s mixups and that added damage bonus from Max meter. While I agree with other grooves like K or RC grooves are advantageous for him, S is a unique feel of its own.
One of my favorite tricks with S-Rock was
Kick dodge attack xx qcb+HK xx 360+P, PPP, qcb+HP/HK/Super
After you break 360 it depends really on where you are.
It was good because the kick is his close s.HK, and the hit stun from that makes the window for counter attack very damn small. There’s enough time to shift and cancel to throw and catch a good many people off guard because it’s so damn fast, and if you mash jab kick or whatever you’ll fuck up the timing and get thrown. You must be precise to “MASH” out of it. Thing is you gotta be shit hot with those cancels.
Thing is you’ve got to be good at those S-Groove mixups.
You have to be able to play and not be reliant on Supers for the win. Kinda like A groove until you activate.
If you get pressured you always have his counter attack, or if the other guys attack patterns somehow get predictable you have those psychic counters to reset the match and start a pattern of your own.
You still have his low jump HK, and HP. His j.MK is very good air to air.
His empty low jump to 360 can be a pain in the ass.
His Roundhouse is arguably the best in the game, and you have infinite c.HK xx qcf,qcf+P/K
He has a run to mix up with his rage runs, though I never once did his rage runs from max distance before. Maki’s are better.
He gains a knockdown from the dodge punch attack, though I believe you should always go for the kick instead because you can inflict more damage that way.
While you can’t RC, you can cancel the dodge into a dodge attack (the cancellable one you can Kara-Cancel into anything you want), or another dodge, or block out of a dodge.
His Roll sucked ass anyway.
Keeping in mind that you can’t block out of chargine, you can special or super out of it. You can bait jump ins while charging rising tackles, while “charging” meter. For those who say the tackles suck, fuck off. Those moves are good, and nothing is parryable, blockable or just defendable if this move is done late enough, and it has invincibility of its own as well.
If low on life you can charge for a level 3 if you’ve been charging throughout the whole round and as you finish charging, buffer the motions for a super and once you hit max hit the button and it’ll come out.
There’s all sorts of different things you can do with S-Rock, and while some would argue that it’s his best, and worst, I liken to think of it as different.
There’s a little trick I like to use, but it only really works agaist (mostly) idiots and noobs. Knock down and start charging right in front of them and when they go to anti-air what they THINK is a dumb move you dodge it and RT or something. Honestly, it’s not really practical againt anyone with half a brain, but if you pull it off you know in your heart that you just made that guy feel like a total dumbass.
Actually wouldn’t it be easier to Rising Tackle out of the charging animation… The RT has invincibility of its own, enough to beat wakeups.
Bating with the charge works a lot. Of course though they could always throw you. I’m note quite sure what the startup of the RT is, but a wakeup throw could probably catch him out of the charge. I wouldn’t ever dodge over a waking opponent.
Forgot the frames on a dodge… Think its like 36 frames… But being cancelable on the 18th frame. There’s too much of a window to get thrown and it’s not worth the risk.
Unlike P and K groove, S can really only dodge “Meaty attacks” safely, people whoring lights and mediums or throws would fuck up the dodge game. I usually dodge only heavy pokes, specials or supers.
Shit, Rock can just maintain his zone and charge to max for the damage bonus and go to work guiding the opponent to getting trapped in the corner a bit.
It’s a tossup between the threat of Rock’s Lvl 3’s and the novelty of fighting against an S-groove Rock, most people never really get that chance. S tends to force you to use the most out of you character, without being too dependant on supers and sometimes meter, but hell I’d try to get that bar up to Max or at least near it when fighting A-Sakura.