HF too if u time it so he’s right above them as they stand. Don’t know bout ST.
Hey, I obviously main ken, but I’m looking to branch out into some other characters. What other character would you say would best expand my SF playing and cover Ken’s weaknesses if I learned him/her?
Guiles definitely worth it, but he’s the only other character I’m decent with. It’ll teach you what a charge character thinks, and would help your ken too.
makes sense considering guile is usually who gives me some of the most trouble. I’ve also taken a liking to Fei, but he’s not really that useful for counterpicking.
Pickup whoever you lose against the most when playing Ken.
Fei’s special, u have to have a solid poke game and pressure game to be effective with him, just dont use chickenwing from full screen cuz he gets zoned bad against fireballs.
This is great advice. I personally am a one trick pony, I main ken, and my guiles better on a pad.
@ shari: well, in that vein, any tips on getting claw’s super to come out right, i can never seem to pull it off
also, i played you earlier today, your claw crushed my ken a few times before i got warmed up, then I was getting competitive but still getting beat by decent claws 
(on a related note: i think the swing for the fences nature of most of ken’s moves tends to exaggerate lapses in concentration. It seems with ken im usually either doing really good or really bad.)
Oh GGs then.
Check the Vega thread i posted an easier motion for claw super.
yeah, ggs, today was definitely not my day vs. claws lol *runs off to vega thread
edit: just tried that other motion, shari ftw
Ok, yesterday I played Snake eyes’ ken on xbl, and the weirdest thing happend: He would do the knee bash, followed by the jumping jab, and twice I got a reversal flashkick, but he was able to block (safejump) it. According to the ST wiki, Balrog and some the DJ’s upkicks are the only one’s who can be safejumped in this way:
“Note from NKI: It’s only a safe jump against Boxer, and DeeJay’s Forward and RH upkicks. (DeeJay can hit Ken with reversal Short upkicks, but not Forward or RH.)”
How the hell did he safejump on me twice? Could it have been lag, giving me a reversal message even if I didn’t actually get one? Or could this be an accidental change from ST? Or is NKI wrong?
The answer is simple…you can safe jump on Guile with a jumping jab immediately after the Knee Bash. Why? The Flash Kick isn’t a zero frame startup special move. 
The fact Ken gets a free safe jump after the Knee Bash on the majority of the cast has been pretty well publicized…most notably in Sirlin’s SSF2T Tutorials.
Rog/dj/blanka/ken/akuma? only ones who can beat it?
GDLK strats, guys… I’ve been focusing on SFIV for a while now but I haven’t neglected HDR Ken. Just wanted to say thanks for all the tips.
Juice kick is my new favorite thing ever. Or is it knee bash…? Too good!
Someone with a bit more specific knowledge will be able to answer this more thoroughly, but I know that you can’t safe jump on Ken (and Akuma, I guess) and Blanka simply because their special moves have zero startup. Anybody else that Ken can’t Knee Bash and then safe jump on is because of either the duration or the distance of their aerial reel when they come out of the Knee Bash.
I’m pretty sure that’s explains it.
Is it immediate jump forward? I tried that on a claw and j.jab whiffed on his crouch, and a j.mk lost to reversal flipkick.
Yes, you hold jump forward while in the hold. If it doesn’t work on Claw, then he probably lands too quickly after the Knee Bash.
I’ll start using this more and see if I can come up with a full list.
Here is what I found through testing the post kneebash safe jump.
------------Tier A------------
Akuma, I didn’t test, but I assume his shoryukens will beat ken due to 1 frame startup.
Blanka, can upball to beat the safe jump.
Ken can fierce shoryuken, but that gives him a 33% chance of hitting the safe jump.
Hawk, can use rising hawk(any strength) to beat the safe jump.
DJ, can use lk upkicks to beat the safe jump, but that only gives him a 33% chance of beating the safe jump.
Sagat, can use tiger uppercut(any strength) to beat the safe jump.
------------Tier B------------
Ryu’s shoryuken will be blocked.
Honda’s torpedo will be blocked. I don’t know about butt splash.
Guile’s flashkick will be blocked.
Chun gets her own section. 
Fei’s flamekick will be blocked.
DJ’s dread kicks and mgu will be blocked. He can reverse with these two just to escape the safe jump.
Cammy could not be confirmed. I don’t run into many cammy’s so I don’t know how her reversals do against the safe jump. The computer opponent would not reverse after like 20 safe jumps.
Boxer’s buffalo headbutt will be blocked.
Claw’s flipkick will be blocked, I misspoke earlier.
------------Tier C------------
Why would you try to kneebash Zangief, he can’t do anything about the safe jump though.
Sim is your bitch.
Dictator is your bitch.
Chun Li
Post knee bash ken just jumps over chun li, so how do you safe jump her. Well, you can take a step back and then jump at her right? Why does she get her own section? Chun Li is the only character in the game that post knee bash, is put into a safe jump/safe crossup option. Safe crossup? The air tatsu.
The lk air tatsu is the easiest to time, but gives the least advantage. The hk air tatsu is the hardest to time, but gives the most advantage. How much advantage? Enough to walk up throw.
Some things I tried:
mk tatsu on landing puts you directly behind a crouching chun.
lk tatsu on landing puts you directly in front of chun.
hp hado on landng may fireball trap chun.
You also get walk up strats here too.
I am hoping someone more proficient at execution of this nature may be able to take this to new heights.
Hmm, I guess the wiki is wrong. Someone should fix that.
Probably, but I’d like more ken’s to continue verifying my findings.