sagat isn’t a good balance his strengths over shawdow the heel out of his disadvantages i mean only think I can think of is his speed an he is big. Once again Im not saying he is unbeatable but how bout u try to be another character an fight a sagat. Especially one that just those tiger shots an when u jump he does that damn kick to knock u back an start it all over again. But I agree with you on ryu he is annoying especially that dragon punch ULTRA BS he does its like that is all ryu players do spam the heck out of it an u bound to get hit by one an since I main akuma there goes half my life bar. An I will be killing them the whole round an that one bs move gets me an now we even or should I say im losing now.
Reduce his health to 1000. Remove f+rh juggle into anything except a tiger shot/knee. Change the hit properties of the tiger knee to make it not hit on the way down. These are the only real problems with Sagat, and they are admittedly minor. Tiger knee is a little too safe and is safe even when spaced pretty sloppily, and needs a change on the second hit to give it reasonable recovery. F+rh juggling into itself then ultra is also no good; this as punishment for even a slightly mistimed jump is just too scary and abusable. If these two things are fixed, then you could probably even leave his health at 1100 and call it a day. Right now I think the problem is that there is no tradeoff when you pick Sagat; he’s simply the best choice 95 percent of the time. A less safe tiger knee and a less crazy ultra juggle might help.
We can all admit Sagat sucks. All the top Sagat players just spam the shit out of fireballs and if their opponent manages to get close, they can punish them with Fagat’s tiger knee and uppercut and his insane normals.
Please… kindly GTFO.
Back on topic: I sway towards overrated. Sure, he’s got probably the best stat-line in the game (a tank, does big damage, combo-able Ultra, ridiculously fast fireball with good recovery), but he’s FAR from unstoppable.
For a character to be overpowered means (IMO) that they are virtually unbeatable. Sagat is not like that. I can’t be bothered to list all the flaws he has, but I pose the question… if he’s as overpowered as some people seem to think he is, then why aren’t Sagat players the world over (good ones I mean) monopolising tournaments?
The pros in the US don’t play Sagat because of preference. In Japana, Diago is having a hard time beating some of the pro Sagat players.
A character doesn’t have to be unstoppable to be overpowered.
O. Sagat was overpowered, but far from unstoppable.
Sagat is simply too good. I don’t think he’s too good to the point of being broken, in fact I think he’s pretty far from that, but there is definitely a gap between him and the rest of the cast. If I were to change one thing to bring him into balance, it would be to somehow change his ultra to mirror Ken/Gouken’s in that it does a ‘lite’ version on juggle or AA.
I say just tone his damage a bit would be enough.
Way to make me almost lose my job from laughing my arse off 
You da man.
yea, he’s overpowered, the amount of damage he does in 2-3 moves is ridiculous.
Damnnnnnn hella owned lol… that was enough to get me to step out from lurking the forums an post.
Grow some nuts an take your loss.
Sagat is not OP, especially this SFIV Sagat.
As a lifetime player of Sagat, since 1994, I can tell you that Sagat was even more powerful in older games. People think of him as an instant win or an instant loss if you face him.
Sagat is good, but to say he is OP, is absurd. You kids wanna see OP? Look at HD Remix’s Akuma, that is OP.
First off the only reason people think Sagat is overpowered is the fact that its easier for a bad Sagat to win than any other character. His health is too high for the amount of damage he does. Most noobs that play as Sagat either stay back and spam tiger shots, or they spam tiger knees which go almost all the way across the screen. I play as El Fuerte and I’ll admit, I am not that good. I have my good matches and my bad ones. I have also beaten my fair share of Sagats and been owned hardcore by them. I usually don’t have a problem losing its just that I just hate when I am doing everything I can do to bring down his health and he spams a few tiger knees and tiger uppercuts and all of a sudden I’m losing. So the next round they don’t like the fact that I was winning so they start spamming tiger shots and to counter it I wall jump and tostada press. Sagat can shoot 2-3 tigershots between the time I splash and get back to defend again…so anyway back to my point. Sagat has incredibly fast recovery times so he can win fireball wars, he has way too much damage for the amount of health he has, his tiger knees can be spammed one after another, and he has a high kick that can hit almost anything out of the air. Whether he has a lot of links and combos or not he is certainly overpowered. I know he can be beat its just that it takes so much to actually bring him down and you have to constantly avoid his tigershots. So yes he is overrated but to say he isn’t overpowered is just wrong. He does so much damage and yet his recovery time is quicker than most of the other cast. he is too good. Either his damage or health should nerfed no character should have that much of an advantage. Sagat is basically just a fireball shooting tigerknee spamming quick recovering Zangief. The only reason most people don’t call Zangief overpowered is because he has a fatal flaw like being able to slide under his lariat and he cannot grab out of the air. If Sagat had a flaw like this not only would we see less people using him, but less people would complain. If you ask most Sagat players why they use him they make some lame excuse some of which are true. But deep down you know that most Sagat players know that it is so easy to win with him (not to use him I, he’s easy to use but hard to master) that they don’t need to think of any strategy other than TIGERSHOT TIGERKNEE…TIGERUPPERCUT…TIGERSHOT…TIGER GENOCIDE…TIGER DESTRUCTION.
As a Sagat player I must LOL at your frustration with tigershots. When i play better players the tiger shot is only tool to get people to come to you. Other than mind games with the EX shot, I only get pathetic chip damage out of it. If your gettin slapped with them constantly, it’s not cause sagat is overpowered it’s because your underskilled. I can say that from experience in mirror matches. Sagat is one of the least mobile characters, yet i can rush down a fireball spamming sagat. So how you can’t do it with elf is mindboggling. He’s constantly splashing over mine. I use them just for bait.
Also you claim sagat is one of the fastest recovering characters. Unless you’re referring to the very well placed light TK, ur insane. The TU is probably one of the most, if not the most punishable move in the game. And any decent player, almost everyone in G2, punishes any other TK with a grab.
How about this…In a G2 match againt Elf, i whiffed a light TU in a wake up game. I had to pay for this with a 10 hit RSF. Now, how can you claim sagat is overpowered?
What really ticks me off about people calling sagat overpowered, is that if this is such. why don’t you pick him up for a week and start wrecking every non-sagat you play.
that last suggestion is a no-go. c’mon, if people took that advice and didn’t pwn immediately at the mere thought of using sagat, what excuse would they have left? that maybe, just maybe, they aren’t that good? that would be boring man. no thx. i prefer the whole: 'he’s no fun; there’s no glory in using sagat; i don’t sell my soul to the devil; only scrubs use sagat hogwash.
or it’s easier to admit that sagat IS overpowered, rather than admit that you got beat by a better player. hey, if that works for you, cool! :wgrin:
I think they know this deep down, but the fact that alot of others say it perpetuates it.
The King has one armor breaking move…maybe you should try playing with him in high level play…sure Sagat is easy to play with against newcomers and people that aren’t so good, but when you get to a level where people know what Sagat is capable of, than the game gets different
Even at a high level, their are still a lot of sagat’s, which has to say something about his strength.
http://www.versuscity.net/2009/05/15/street-fighter-4-power-players-11/#more-429
Sagat is both overpowered and overrated.
When I say overpowered, I’m not saying that he is so strong that he breaks the game. He is significantly stronger than most of the cast, and while the game is still playable and quite good as is, he could stand to be toned down slightly. Obviously some character has to be “strongest,” but with no bad matchups, Sagat is strongest and without a counter. So in that sense, he is, to a minor degree, overpowered.
But Christ on Toast, there are some folks who just think he’s an unstoppable damage-dealing deity with a speech impediment. I’ve heard people say that he’s “worse than O. Sagat in ST,” that he should be banned in tournaments, and all that nonsense. Obviously, these folks are putting Sagat on a pedestal a little higher than what he deserves. So yeah, he gets a reputation that is over-rating him.
Surely this entire thread is a joke… Sagat IS overpowered. If two equal players play and one uses Sagat, the Sagat one will win. He’s ridiculously powerful, and has higher health than average. K; so he’s slow, but that’s hardly even relevant as he hasmore than enough tools to bring the opp’ to him and never need to move that much (unless cornered). End of the day, I beat most Sagats, but I normally have tight matches anyway as, if I make 1 mistake, I’m going to eat one of Sagat’s stupidly powerul moves. Sorry, but I bet that, if most of the Sagat players tried to use a different character, they wouldnt have anywhere near the same success they have with Sagat.
End of the day; why is it Sagat is the one character Daigo loses against ? (k; so he’s lost some other matches, but overall, Sagat is a reall issue even for him)