The reason you see more of rigs ultra is because it is almost always a good idea to do rogs ultra after headbutt, whereas for sakura it is rarely a good idea. Even for those ultra lovers out there, you have to be able to see that balrog gives up nothing, and gains damage and screen positioning by doing ultra, whereas sakura gets slightly more damage, and gives up pressure or really sick mixups. Same with ryu. It’s free damage for them, but it comes at a cost for sakura.
true story. my friends would ask why i dont use ultra when i have it and i tell them because i loose all pressure and im back to my disadvantage
More like Rog gains an advantage by landing his Ultra, and Sakura doesn’t. Every time Sak lands an EX Shunpukyaku is an Ultra opportunity. 5/6 times it’s not worth using.
true story
fix her otoshi as well. it should wiff when someone throws a fireball during any part of it. should also hit crouched opponents like wihen sagat throws low tiger shot. a faster dash would be nice too, as of now back dash is useless and forward dash is slow. im curious if they gave her a new move besides the ultra.
Sakura’s forward dash is 18 frames long, same as Ryu’s. Back dash is 26 frames and 1.0 distance compared to Ryu’s 27 frames and 0.8 distance. I’m not saying Ryu’s dashes are good but I thought they were at least “average”. Although a faster forward dash would suit her character and help her get in easier, a tiny bit more range too would be nice.
It’s not because her Ultra sucks, though. It’s because her mix-ups and pressure are good.
Even if you jacked up her Ultra damage, her mix-ups and pressure would still be worth going for because they lead to big damage and dizzies. No ultra is going to beat that, unless it does like 600 damage…which would be ridicuous for Sakura.
but would it make her broke? i didnt think so either
No character should have an easy, 3 frame, hit-confirmable 600 damage combo.
Sagat has something very similar. And, you know how much everyone appreciates Sagat.
Not every character has to be dependent on their ultra to compete. Sakura is one of those characters. With proper tweaks elsewhere in her move set, she will do just fine without worrying about her ultra.
It’s always bothered me how her back throw sends the opp to the other end of the screen (a.k.a gives them the advantage). It would be nice if it kept them nice and close like her forward throw does. 
Sagat not only has a good ultra and multiple setups but also has many other tools. If sagat and sakura switched ultra DMG, i doubt their position would change much on the tier list. I do believe it would make sense for the guy who gets 280 damage+ ultra everytime you jump to get the less damaging ultra and the character who is nearly as free as gouken on wake up(ok i’m exagerating) and has one viable setup for her ultra to do OK damage.
I personally don’t ever use sakura’s ultra except when it’s to finish a match. It’s like not a threat at all. Even when i hit with it by predicting some move, nobody’s like OMG sak’s ultra. I get where a lot of you are coming from, wanting to up the damage on this ultra, and i agree. Especially since we’re getting an ultra which is going to be doing pretty much the same damage as this one and can be used as an anti air, upping the damage on this one wouldn’t be too much to make sure it’s not alienated. Hell it looks like sagat’s fireball ultra does more damage than sak’s U1…
I also feel that sakura is too gimmicky and relies TOO heavily on resets( good luck vs gief with that). I think she should get some more concrete ways to rake some damage. J.Mk is a good step forward in that direction. I feel like a lot of you are scared of her getting some concrete tools and want to keep her as a gimmicky character. I also play viper and despite the fact that she has some pretty nasty resets, she is actually a solid character who can incorporate gimmicks in her game or play a no nonsense game. She doesn’t depend on resets to score some damage, even though her resets can be used to lead to big ass damage, has better ultra setups, a damaging ultra and is a lot more technical to use than sak. Personally, i feel that a character depending on resets is a flaw in game design. Sure having them is not bad, but a whole strategy based on them makes the character’s gameplay somehow bland and repetitive.
Would be nice. Buffing her throw range certanly couldn’t hurt either when it comes to how her base stats help apply pressure.
Completely unrelated to that point, but in regards to Ultra II, who’s to say that it won’t push your opponent forever away just like Ultra I? Might have the exact same problems we’re in right now.
It’s a fireball Ultra, even Dan’s one pushes him further away than the person it’s hitting 
It’d at least have more uses than Haru Ranman does regardless.
exactly more uses is enough for me
How is her air tatsu shitty, it beats out like 90% of the anti air normals in the game.
would it be too much if her air tatsu crossed over?
seriously, a dive kick would help so damn much
Not exactly what I’ve been saying but it’s another good point that backs up my opinion on the matter.
I think I have said a few times that I find Sakura’s ultra to be a model of how ultras should be. Can add good damage situationally, makes you think before you finish your combos, can be used as a reversal as well. Really top notch job by capcom.
I wouldn’t mind them upping the damage to 600 and making it combo off of nothing, if they were to go the route of making shinkuu hadouken very comboable but weaker. I mean currently almost everything sakura does can link into ultra anyways if she wants to, I can’t imagine something that much more comboable. Perhaps off corner dragon punch when you have no meter?
Ideally I would like to see her haru ramen move out faster and further. It should be a reasonable punish to blanka ball and honda headbutt, because as far as I can tell she has little to no punishes for those two, and that really hurts her matchups.
so does every other air tatsu, but ryu can cross over and if it hits he can land his super off of it, akuma can land a dp out of his air tatsu and well as ken, and ken can also land ultra if it puts u in the corner. sakura’s doesnt cross up, u cant land an ultra or a super or any other moves for that matter. the only thing good about it is that u can kara it and escape from a corner. is it terrible? no. but it isnt good either.