Have you been using the spinning lariat defensively in SSF4: AE more often? For example, 3 X kick lariat on wakeup & 3 X punch AA? I know this sounds like a noob question, but it seems like the go to move to get someone off of you. I’m interested in hearing your opinion because, Ultradavid mentioned that Gief is more footsies now. What do you think?
Do you find that you’re landing more SPDs now that the jab version has increased range? If so, has your approach (moving towards your opponent) changed?
Hey - I don’t use lariat more in ae. Kick lariat is crap, I only use it to dodge projectiles or very occasionally in certain situations. Out of habit I STILL occasionally use it against lows like I did in vanilla but it always fails. I use PPP lariat the same way I did before but I don’t like trading and losing health.
I am landing more SPDs and after picking up ST recently, zangief really is a lot more like ST Gief now. After playing ae, going back to super I find the knockdown jump in mixup boring and weak, as most people will block most things most of the time. I think Gief is a lot more dangerous now and obviously less susceptible to anti-air shoryukens. Hopefully this will make our giefs jump less in general.
Back to SPD though - yes I am landing more, and I am going for SPDs in 150% of situations. It is very scary for the opponent to not be holding up at all times now. I’m going for SPDs on block, on hit, walking up, dashing, focus dashing, everything. I’m handing out SPDs like Christmas presents.
Another thing I think Gief players with access to AE should be focusing on is the hitbox changes to hard punch (I think it was cr.hp? Can’t remember). I am think to find its usefulness now, experimenting with it as a poke, anti-air, etc.
Awesome! Good to hear you’re liking the new changes. Thanks for the rundown of how Gief generally plays now. I agree a return to ST style is a godsend, considering how scary his grabs were back then. Like you said, it totally changes the game!
It’s far st. HP that was fixed because it would strangely whiff sometimes. Here the changes again in case anyone forgot:
Normal Moves? We increased his range on Far Standing Hard Punch.
Special Moves? We buffed his damage on Light Punch and Hard Punch Spinning Piledrivers, and increased range on Light Punch Spinning Piledriver.?
EX Banishing Flat, when it hits a grounded opponent, will no longer knock down.? As a result, it is impossible to go onto wake-up offense after EX banishing flat, but it’s within Light Punch Spinning Piledriver’s range so please utilize it wisely.? There are no changes to either Lariat.
Ultra 2It is possible to alter Siberian Blizzard’s traveling distance by putting in a forward/backward input between Ultra freeze and start-up.For forward direction, it can travel much further than before, so it’s easier to grab backdashing opponents.While the ground recovery on whiff has increased, we see it as a buff considering its possibility on controlling the distance.
OverallThe major changes are the EX Banishing Flat (Green Glove) and Light Punch Spinning Piledriver range. It became necessary, not just for Zangief players, but for the opponents as well to alter their spacing, so please research thoroughly in SSF4 Arcade Edition.
After console release, please record some more of your matches. I’m interested in seeing your progress and how your playstyle has changed.
Managed to punish a bison flying Around at full screen with ultra 2. No more of that on my way to the arcade now. What sucks though, is in our arcade the timer is fast and the damage is higher than normal because they want to make their money back before ae comes out on console
edit: I got them to put the settings back to normal
OK I had planned to get direct capture from the arcade today but I had some technical problems so I’ll be testing again on Monday. Anyway:
I played against an Akuma and tried to punish his neutral jumps from 2/3 away with ultra 2, but I could not get across the screen fast enough. It seems the ultra moves slow to start then quickly accelerates.
I feel like Gief is godlike in this game, in comparison to how he was before. I must note that my opponents are not yet used to EX GH not knocking down so life is easier for me now than it will be three months from now and that must be taken into consideration, but I feel the general playstyle is much stronger now.
One issue I had with gief in Super was, if you get a knockdown in the corner, you are compelled to crossup and risk letting the opponent out of the corner, especially with characters that have slow reversals like Guile & Balrog. Or say Dhalsim, knock him down in the corner, cross him up and he teleports to the other side of the screen. You don’t have that now because gief is so damn DANGEROUS. My game plan at the moment is to patiently stalk them into the corner. If they try and stop this happening they are likely to be in SPD range. Once in the corner, say you get a knockdown. Stand just out of throw range and there is a lot of pressure on them.
SPD range lets you stand at a relatively safe distance with a chunky spd area to use
If they jump you can potentially use U2
etc etc
Gief is a lot more FUN to use now. Stand outside of ryu’s cr.mk range and just spd him. Awesome.
Gief is great!
Also, Rose ultra 2 is not a bullshit ultra anymore. It’s like Dhalsim’s ultra 1, you can straight throw her out of it on startup. Smart Rose players will of course backdash but if you are doing wakeup pressure you should be able to pop it with meaties.
It’s funny , no one forcing you to cross up them in the corner
if ex hand kD, you can always safe jump nj headbutt to apply safe pressure in the corner
or you can do light green hand to further push them to the corner if EX hand KD.
all the options is far better then a 50/50 now.
if you crossup dahsim in the corner , it really shows how bad you were playing this matchup, everyone know you should headbutt him there and dont cross himup. and in AE ,you cant even headbutt him anymore, any you said it’s good thing, LOL. cant believe.
ALL the thing and tactic you said about non- kd is already there in vanilla and super with far better options.
standing next to them while they get up is far better than keep a distance after the EX hand hit.
you can even punish their back dash with os sweep while standing next to them while they get up.
or do something during their wake up and back dash to bait reversal
All of them are better options compared to non-KD.
So all the things you said actually shows what’s you were doing wrong in the previous version, not how good AE zangief is.
another great thing about non jump meaty in previous version is
if they got used to it and expecting you to stay on the ground.
do a sudden late jump meaty can often caught them and do huge damage
but you dont even have that option now in AE.
no one said you must cross up jump after ex hand KD.
you can always walk around beside them, adjust distance, back dash bait. ground os meaty, late jump meaty, lp hand push.
if you caught them with cr lk, you can hit confirm with 3 cr lk, instead of just 1 in AE non-KD.
you can mp spd or hp spd them instead of just lp spd in AE.
os sweep alone is a far superior option to punish back dash.
and if you use lp hand to punish backdash, it’s always gonna hit them, but in AE because of the distance, you may miss and get punished.
@WorstGiefEVER I played AE for the first time about 2 weeks ago and Gief felt like he had fewer options without the ex GH knockdown… I did notice my opponents would opt to jump back most of the time, but without u2 juiced up it seemed like all I could do was stalk them into the corner. Is Gief’s game all about getting in lp SPD range at this point?
Also have you gone up against any T. Hawk players? I played a pretty solid one and had a lot of trouble gaining ground. Without being used to the new SPD range I was likely at a disadvantage but it seemed like that matchup was worse for Gief than in regular SSF4. Has this been your experience?
T.Hawk beat gief in super too imo and with his buffs and giefs terrible nerfs I imagine he’ll be even tougher. His normals destroy giefs so good luck getting in spd range against a decent Hawk player.
Have not played a Hawk yet. The only Hawk here I know of is Ryan Hart and he is in Japan right now. You need to option select his pokes and focus through that kick and grab him.
I haven’t played enough to say what Gief’s game is now but previously it was about punishing people for trying to avoid SPD, now it might be more about landing the SPD, time will tell.
By the way, I tested my arcade direct capture rig yesterday and it works 100% now so I should have around 4 hours of AE footage on Friday.
I honestly think “grab” Gief still cannot compete in this game on a high level. “Combo exhibitionist, punish with grab when available” Gief is top 15. Gief success in the past was all about landing huge combos like cr.lp/lk > s.mp > x2 st. lk exgh etc etc. The type of shit you see Vance do. And I think that is not going to change. But he does have a new element to play with if your yomi is gdlk. Its called controllable u2.
Honestly tho if you really want to play a mixup command grab character with good buttons there are alot better ones, I think Mak is one of them. Abel always was. Hawk to me plays this “style” that you guys prefer as well. Just hard for him to deal with good FB zoning.
Out of curiosity, if the opponent is jumping back all the time, how do you combat it? I never found a good way since Vanilla where you could cr.lk > ex hand them as they tried to jump back. What is the solution now?
on my way to the arcade now. What sucks though, is in our arcade the timer is fast and the damage is higher than normal because they want to make their money back before ae comes out on console 