Hello. Akuma main here, with some Guy on the side. I’m thinking about dropping Guy and trying out Rufus for a bit. He’s fun, but I only really took him cause I liked his design with the air grabs and baiting game. Still feel like if I win, it’s only because people don’t know how to fight Guy.
Couldn’t find much with search, apart from “what do I start with.” Anyone have recommendations? I’m okay at space control and decent at the vortex as Akuma, but my footsie game is mediocre at best, and I rely too much (I think) on focus attacks, super demon setups, resets and buffering jabs for ultra punishes. Execution is still meh after 6 months, and I’m at that point where I’m playing against either newbies or people who completely destroy me, with few matching around my level.
Thinking about trying Rufus for a while mostly because I like his character design, but also because of preference for rushdown characters. From what I understand he’s also a bit tricky in the “when will I divekick” bit, doesn’t really have footsies and has trouble getting out of pressure. How true is all this, and would he make a good secondary?
Oh yeah, I’m on PC if it matters.
You’ll only know for sure after you’ve spent some time with a new character so it’s always a tough one to answer. In regards to the things you mention he would certainly be a good alt for Akuma as you’d have a lot of match-ups covered. Footsies are important with every character once you reach a certain level but that probably isn’t an issue against most online players, you do need good spacing though. If you rely on focus attacks with Akuma (which is fine as he has a good one) you’ll have to quickly get out of the habit with Rufus as his is terrible, and yes he struggles to get out of pressure unless he has meter (and sometimes with it against certain characters that ex messiah goes over even on hit).
In the main you simply have to play with Rufus to really see what he’s all about, but there are things you can practice in training mode (aside from his combos) that will help, for example; instant divekicks, which even now after playing him since the game was released I still mess-up sometimes. Also; cross-up setups, ex messiah - fadc - ultra (not really that difficult but if you’ve seen Justin Wong play recently then you’ll know it can be tricky) and normal anti-airs (cr.mp, st,hp).
If there’s anything your struggling with be sure to post, it’s easier to give advice when you can be more specific 
