Sagat Q&A: Ask simple questions here!

Need some helpful tips on upping my footsies game as a Sagat player. I just have some quick questions, but feel free to give advice beyond the questions.

  1. How do you guys deal with characters that have fast walk speeds and decent pokes, such as Vega(Claw) and Bison(Dictator), that can stop you from throwing tiger shots?

  2. Would you guys say that it is a good idea to learn the timing on kara uppercuts to tag poorly spaced fireballs?

  3. Do you guys use Focus -> Forward Dash -> w/e. as a footsies tool to get around someone who likes to whiff normals a lot? Or would it be simpler to just stay back and run the fireball game against someone who can easily out footsies Sagat.

Sorry if the questions aren’t very articulate, Thanks in advance.

As far as Sagat’s uppercuts go:

  1. Which has the most invincibility?
    a. Which is best for anti airs
    b. Which is best to use as a reversal (on wakeup or whenever)
    c. Are there certain strengths of his uppercut you should use in specific combos so that you don’t dash under an opponent and whiff Forward+HK after an FADC?

Thanks.

Don’t throw Tiger Shots when they’re in poke distance…in the case of characters like Claw, Dictator, Chun, etc. pay attention to their charge.

Not really. I don’t think it really qualifies as something you can even learn, it’s just part of your prediction skills…

FA fw dash in footsies is only good when the opponent can’t break Sagat’s FA easily (ie Claw’s st.HK=don’t FA) or the opponent is using a button with slow start up and a lot of active frames with decent recovery too often (ie Dudley’s fw.HP.)* Blocked* FA2 dash on the other hand is pretty good against most characters as long as you don’t get predictable with it (+4.)

LP Tiger Uppercut: 5f start up, 1-5f hit/projectile invincible, 5-39f air state
MP Tiger Uppercut: 5f start up, 1-5f hit/projectile invincible, 5-39f air state
HP Tiger Uppercut: 5f start up, 1-5f hit/projectile invincible, 5-39f air state
EX Tiger Uppercut: 5f start up, 1-12f invincible, 9-44f air state
*

There isn’t a best one, it depends on where the opponent is.

EX

It’s always HP TU or EX TU. A lot of times, LP/MU won’t reach far enough.

frame data is off on wiki…probably

Spoiler

I’m kind of confused by the game data. So my numbers might be off. Reason being that 1) I suck at math and 2) I don’t know if the game engine “includes” the starting frame when changing speeds, so…I assume it does. Hard to put this in words, but basically: instead of starting at 0 after frame 0, you start at 1 instead.

Is Sagat the most washed up character is SF4? sad times

I feel you man, I think this every time I play him. It’s not that I think he’s a bad or boring character, I just feel like he’s sort of like a stepping stone for other players.

It’s whatever though I sticks to the King.

What are some basic things to learn with Sagat? I’ve got kara fbs down (off f.lk and f.rh). Trying to make this char my new main.

Also kstoute is FRAAAAAY

I’ve been getting this itchin’ feeling whenever somebody comes here and asks for the “basics” for one of the characters with the hardest mastering curve.

[LIST]
[]Anti Airs
[
]Normals ranges
[]Fireball strenghts and kara’s
[
]Kara dp’s and knees
[]Blockstrings, frame traps and tiger knee strings
[
]Global Zoning concept
[]Hit confirms and buffers
[
]Safejumps and setups
[]1 frame links and 1 frame jab bnb’s
[
]Not getting blown up by top tiers (lol wut=)
[/LIST]
Easy right?

Lol I wasn’t expecting it to be easy. Time to get to work though! I’ve got the motivation.

Blue you bastard, this is that guy you talk to Darksouls about whenever we see each other in Toronto lol.

Why do you wanna switch Hawk? Your Hawk was so solid. It all comes down to his AA. If you can AA on point you’ll shoot up the Sagat ranks, trust me bro. Practice that AA game and people will respect your ground game.

Yo what’s good? It’s been a while lol.

I want to learn Sagat because I feel like learning him will help my overall game in sf. I feel like learning a different aspect of the game (keep away/fbs) will help me get better as a player. Still gonna use Hawk though, he’s too sick to not use. :stuck_out_tongue:

It will man, I picked up eryu this month for the same reason(learn rush down and mixup game better) helped A LOT. Hit me up on xbl if you ever want help etc.

GT: killrilla

STFU SCRUBLAZER UR THE WORST

stay fray in the sagat mirror. fraystoute the most fray of all time.

omg run it back

is two hit tiger knee always safe, or is it very spacing dependant ?

Spacing dependant. I also think it makes a difference on standing vs crouching. Good question though, something I’ve never really bothered learning myself. I only use the last hit block string ones. I think the hit/hurt box of the character also has an influence.

Is Sagat really top 10? Every Sagat main I’ve spoken to thinks hes barely high-mid. Looking at the rest of those top 10 characters, their playstyle is all rushdown and/or vortex and Sagat just doesnt seem to fit in with the direction the game is taking.

Looks like he just couldn’t think of a number 10 to put in so Sagat came to mind. There is barely a clear cut top 5 so picking 10 is just a crap shoot.

Your pretty much right. Fei Long’s the only solid character in there apart from maybe Adon, Sagat just doesn’t fit in that list - or the current version of this game. Too many characters designed to fuck him up.

Have a look at the SRK tier list compiled by players… I’d say that’s more like where he’d sit - http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/2845/tierlist14.png

Personally if I had to switch, I think M Bison (dictator) is well under rated. He’s only really got 1 or 2 really bad matches and goes decent against the better characters.

Yo, thought I’d ask my frame trap/counter hit question here, if i could get some sagat specific help that would be awesome!

So I understand the effectiveness of counter hits (off of frame traps), especially with the combo opportunities offered by that extra frame from a CH.

However, I’m trying to figure out how to even approach using them to their maximum potential.

Is it possible to react to the counter hit, then choose the appropriate combo? Even with the extra frame, thats still only 4-5 60ths of a second to react, comprehend, then execute the appropriate combo, which seems unrealistic.

Do you have to commit to the counter hit setup, and count on a good read that your opponent is gonna hit buttons in order to get the max damage combo?

For example, I’m a sagat player, our go-to frame trap is cr lk to cr. mp (which works well bc our blockstring starts with cr lk, and if its blocked, its easy to transition to frame trap cr. mp).

For instance, I could commit to every time i go for that canceling the CH cr. mp into low ts, which would be safe on block and do a little more damage on hit.

However, I’d rather extend the combo/net a knockdown rather than doing a fireball’s worth of extra damage.

Any help on how to get more out of counterhits???

Personally I think the counter hit system in SF4 sucks. I would much rather an audible noise or the writing be bigger or better placed. However it is what it is.

It may seem unrealistic but the frame advantage and animation is enough for me personally to commit to following through and that’s even online. Are you saying you go straight from the CH into a cancelled fireball? If so your missing the cr- jab. The jab is your buffer between deciding and from there you can react further. Cr.mp offers enough frame advantage on both regular and CH to realize you’ve scored then cancel a cr.jab into either a TU or TK or an EX LTS.

Basically when you hit cr.mp your immediate thought should be to prepare the cr.jab link into either a block string if blocked or a combo on hit because that’s why you pressed the cr.mp in the first place. Go into training and just set the dummy on CH and practice the link from cr.mp until it becomes auto pilot, basically any decent Sagat player out there will always be looking to link the jab on the end of the cr.mp regardless if it hits or not.

Your best one with one bar would be CH cr.mp, cr.jab into EXLTS for one bar and a knockdown plus blockstring if they are not mashing. Then you can take it from there. With 2 bars you can get more creative and a little safer.

Once you get the muscle memory going from cr.mp - cr.lp everything will just fall into place. St.mk is also a good tool as is the slightly slower cr.mk, the extra frames on the cr.mk can convince players to push something.