First rule of an “status based fighter” (which I’ll loosely call G for now). You’re only as good as the Level you’re on the most. It’s why Hakan was ass up until Ultra SFIV where he got to start the match oiled, so it was relatively easy to keep it on for the majority of the match (yes, Hakan got periodic tops and great moments, especially with Infiltration but he still wasn’t a truly good character until Ultra).
Even when focusing on charging levels, you’re going to be on 1-2 most of the match. Now, a hidden upside to his VT1 is that it locks in whatever level you were on prior to the VT. What I mean is that if you were Level 2 Pres prior to popping VT1 (where obviously you stay in 3 for the duration), once you leave the VT, no matter how many times you were knocked down or even Charge, you’ll be at Level 2. So besides the already good absurdity of VT1, it also protects your Level (though on the flipside if you pop it at Level 1…you’re back on that the second you leave VT1 no matter how much you charge within it).
It’s a reason why I’m not focusing on my Levels so much. Because I have to learn how to live with being on Level 1 most of the match anyway.
Alright, I played this game again. Who would have thought.
Decided to not buy Sagat right now because as cool as he looks I’ve never been a fan of classic shoto zoning gameplay and he’s more or less that archetype.
So G it was. First thing I noticed is that his inputs are super annoying because I suck at canceling into DPs from crouching moves and as a result throw out his weird fireball to often. Second thing I noticed is that it’s utterly pointless to throw single-hit fireballs at him unless you want him to have V-Trigger available after ten seconds at full health. I found it rather hard to get his pres-level up or more importantly to keep it high but generally speaking he’s pretty fun. I’ve yet to find a decent AA but for some reason I never tried V-Skill so maybe that’s the answer. Definitely not going to main him or anything or starting the grind again but he’s fun enough to hop back from time to time.
I also gave Falke another go whom I bought about five minutes before I stopped playing. It’s kinda sad how awful her V-Skill is at stopping fireballs compared to G’s and to make matters worse she doesn’t even build V-Gauge by doing so. Capcom really doesn’t care about her. That said if she came out a year earlier or so she’d probably my go-to character because despite the lack of love and having a rather bland moveset she’s exactly the slow-paced, neutral-focused, long-ranged footsie character à la Rose I’ve always wanted in this game.
I would say Guile and Menat prove that defensive characters can work in this game and be in the top spots of the game. They just finally came out with some ones that work the system well. Anti projectile options only go so far vs Guile because you’ll mostly be burning all of your EX meter just to maybe get in on Guile sometimes. He has a stronger offensive game than he did in IV also so he can take it to you, build an even larger life lead and then good luck. Menat basically has projectiles that are hit boxes so anti projectile options dont work vs her any way.
There are clearly characters that can zone well now and Sagat looks like he has the mix to zone while also having the offense to keep life leads when you’re in a match where you can’t kill shots all day.
On another note I’m really glad Bonchan seems to like this Sagat and making him work. He’s been looking completely lost ever since S2 so maybe this will give him a bit of success at last. Plus it’ll be nice to finally see a S3 character in tournaments outside of some Blanks hopping around in pools.
People are saying Cody is bad even though he has solid normals, a v-skill that is invincible on start up and set ups out of the ass with one of his v-triggers.
SF5: Everybody Is Bad Edition.
SF5: Play Cammy and Don’t Top 8 At Evo Edition
SF5: Bison Needs to Play a Super Delicate Spacing Game Edition
SF5: Guile Is Totally Playing Defense Edition
This game has more fake news to it than the 2016 election.
With G all you need to do to gain a pres level is land a bnb or a command grab, both of which go into high strike xx pres level. You can also just do it raw from 3/4 screen or so if your opponent is being a twat and running away. This will make the opponent not want to do that, and at midrange G is pretty decent with his good AA and spaced LP fireball. Finally, his v trigger gives him full presidential stocks and allows them to be canceled into each other, so you will be going presidential atleast once a round and at that point your command grab is basically the highest damage one in the game outside of giefs CA while your fireball is a multihit version that juggles and blasts through other fireballs.
Tbh, G seems designed to be played in level 2 presidential. He’s quite good there and it’s easy to get to and you are 1 level away from 3. At level 1 he’s weak but serviceable. Pres levels aren’t hard to get, but they are hard to keep, and that’s what his v trigger is for. It’s your world when you activate.
His command grab is 12f and unlike Necalli he really isn’t a close range powerhouse that is able to stick to your butt until you stop pressing buttons. So you’re left with landing a random dash punch or rushing them down until you get a combo, which imho he isn’t really that strong at.
In the end, sitting back and waiting for them to jump might be the easiest way to get out of lv2. So maybe harass them with fireballs and dash punches until they start to jump?
What I do is a combo of jump like a shitty version of phenom, and intersperse that with cr.mp xx fireball wiff buffers, raw fireballs, BHP AA and some occasional FHP for the CC. You really can’t sleep on his fireball. It’s pretty decent and has decent range. You lose your turn on block from midrange but I don’t know of many normal moves that have the ability to punish the -8
Upclose I’m doing a combo of cr.lp>command grab. Cr.lp>throw (beats 3 framers) cr.lp>st.mp frame trap and various other blockstrings. Not really had to much of a problem threatening the CG. Mostly I just get jabbed out of it, but that’s my bad for not properly conditioning the opponent. I’m figuring out answers for most things. Only real problems are the AA versus divekickers and his lack of a reversal.