SSFIV AE:2012 Help choosing a character

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

Howdy, before I get started I’d just like to say I’m aware this is quite a hard question to answer, and I’m expecting some of the usual replies to this kind of thread, but that’s okay. I’m just slightly at a wall (probably a very small one) and looking for help, and I figured this would be the best place to do it.

I’ve recently (maybe about 2 weeks ago) got into SSFIV AE. I haven’t really played much Street Fighter before, I was always a MK type of guy. And I’ve also recently made the jump to a fight stick. All that in mind, I’m having trouble choosing my character(s). This is probably no surprise even if you didn’t read the thread title as a lot of people have this problem.

Now I’m quite used to MK in terms of fighters. And I pretty much played Liu Kang in every game he was in. but I’ve always chose characters who used fighting styles closer to ones I use/relate to. (I.E i also played Sonya since TKD hits home) and my problem is I’m having trouble finding characters that use a fighting style I like. To elaborate, I’ve played a bit online, offline, training etc with quite a few characters, and I’m not having to much luck.

I like to play defensively. I’m not a big Offensive rush in and mash 500 buttons to kill you with combos on wakeups type of player. I pretty much like to sit back, poke out, letting the enemy come to me and punishing mistakes etc. (I also realize that it’s matchup based and nearly no character can have strong special/normals, sit back all game while being safe. Like If i ended up playing Honda. I could do that if they’re a rush type, but then I’d have to run after Sagat. As an example.) At the moment I’m really not intune with the combo system, rarely can I get out some simple combos every time, Most characters I use at the moment have good normals/specials that I can just jam out. and most of them have a safe form of anti-air that works in a lot of situations, sadly most of them have no answer to fireballs.

So I guess what I’m looking for is some suggestions of slightly defensive characters, maybe based on Zoning and Poke-ing with some good anti-airs. That or someone who doesn’t have that many complicated/hard to execute Combos.

I do realize that at the end of the day If i want to at least stick with this game seriously I’ll have to man up and learn some of the harder stuff to do. But I’d like to find a few characters that fit my style before that and stick with them through the learning phase. Rather then changing my character on a daily basis.

So yeah, What I’m asking may be impossible (as maybe no characters fit that description) but I’d rather try now and fail then start learning to play super aggressive and 500 hit combo people only to find out later that someone else who may have been the perfect character for me.

TL :: DR (And i wouldn’t be surprised at that) I like to sit back on my ass and not use hard to do things to kill people. What character(s) should i play?

EDIT:: Also if you have any tips with said characters, feel free to put them. And I’m playing on the PC.

2

Sagat, you already mentioned, has powerful zoning and not exceptionally difficult combos. Guile, Dhalsim, Chun and Rose all fit this too. Ryu and Juri also meet your criteria, but have harder hitting, difficult combos that are important, along with the ability to rush down (they are the more middle of the road characters). Gouken and Akuma can be played defensively, but you need to be able to vortex when the time comes. Several other characters can be played to zone, but most of them require that you “go in” in some matches.

So I pretty much listed everyone with a fireball in order of how little you need to move towards the other player.

3

Thanks for the quick reply. I had been thinking about Sagat but it’s been hard to find some tutorial of sorts explaining him. Didn’t really enjoy Guile or Dhalsim, but Chun isn’t a bad idea to. I also don’t mind if the character has to Go in in some matches but can be played to zone. As long as their In-Game isn’t to complicated, If hard combos weren’t a problem I’d probably pick up Sakura as she has the kind of defensive style and tools to go in when needed that I like. Just man her combos…

Anyway thanks for the reply. I think I’ll look more deeply into Sagat and Chun. See if I can find a thread about starting to play them.

Edit :: Chun seems slightly low damage, I’ve seen some of her BnB settups etc, and although she does well against some characters I just feel her having a low damage output sometimes for no apparent reason, and I can’t deal very well with rush/pressure characters.

Sagat isn’t to bad actually. I don’t mind his playstyle. Although It’s getting annoying how his Anti-Air options aren’t exactly easy. Normally they’ll jump in after a fireball and there’s never enough time to anti-air. unless they’re at Mid Distance. But once again I keep having a problem with pressure, If ryu is up in my face I don’t find i have a lot of options other then blocking and hoping i can get off a c.mk knee to back him off. It’ll probably get easier with time but Sagat is a nice character. Chun is to but i just don’t feel the damage from her.

4

If you don’t mind having to be on the offensive some of the time, you can also try Vega, Balrog, Bison and Adon.

I also forgot to mention Rose, but hopefully you’ve gotten someone you’re comfortable with. Good luck.

5

You did mention Rose. But I don’t mind having to be offensive some of the times. I’m liking Sagat but still not completely satisfied, just feels like I’m spamming fireballs xD. Still at least he has an answer to most characters, I used to play E.Honda and man did I lose to any zoning player. Adon was actually my first character I tried since I saw someone play him on a stream and liked the look. He’s quite nice and has the sorta moves I’m looking for but my god is he hard to play right, 9/10 I’ll just keep getting punished for stuff I do. Anyway thanks for the suggestions, Haven’t tried Bison yet so I’ll try him.

6

Ryu, Cammy, Sakura, Ken, Viper, are the shit.

7

Cammy and Sakura are quite nice to play. Sakura in general has been someone i’ve been trying but I haven’t had to much luck with her as I just get face raped by Ryu’s. Ryu and Ken seem to be my most hated match ups, they just seem to have a lot of pressure in the corner. Viper is a real nice character just I have no idea how to play her, my friend does quite well with her though. As a point I’ve started trying Yun out as I’m probably going to need to learn a pressure character to actually learn how to beat them. It isn’t going bad but man are rushdown characters hard.
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8

Personally, I’d recommend that you try out Cody. He’s a pretty fun character to play, and he has really good pokes, an excellent anti-air, and can zone semi-decently with his rocks (or you can fake rock to bait a jump in). He also has some of the easiest combos in the game, and can get really good damage without having to rely on 1-frame links. He also has several ways through fireballs, either fighting them with rocks, or going right through them with Zonk Knuckle (bingo punch) or EX ruffian kick (or U2 for that matter). His main weakness, though, is when people get in on him. He has almost no way out when he gets pressured himself, other than EX Zonk Knuckle, which is extremely easy to bait and loses to cross-ups. It can lead to a combo into U1 if you have 3 bars though.

You should give Cody a shot if you want a change of pace from the more defensive characters, which most everyone else nailed. I’d also recommend that you try out Yang. He has good footsies, he can deal with zoning pretty easily, and he can play defensively if he has to with his palms. He also has some options to deal with pressure, unlike Cody (you can EX teleport to escape the corner, or you use LK Roll Kick as a DP). His main downside is low damage output, and it can take a while to really get good with Yang, since he’s pretty reliant on mind-games and resets.

9

I agree with the above answer.

Cody SOUNDS like your guy.

10

I’ll recommend Cody as well (see avatar).

His normals are very good, HK Ruffian Kick is an amazing anti-air, you can easily learn to FADC into U1 from a HK Ruffian Kick (probably one of the easiest FADC’s in the game), he looks cool and is not too dependent on hard combo’s.

11

Thanks for the replies. I’ve pretty much been trying every character, Haven’t tried Cody yet but by the sounds of him I’ll give him a shot. I dislike the whole Pressure problem but I guess no character is Perfect. But I do really like the sound of him. No 1 frame combos is a big +++ sign, and the fact he has an easy/reliable anti-air is nice. I’ll let you know how it goes, but he does sound quite nice. And it’s a change from spamming Tiger Shots xD

EDIT:Well. I’ve been trying him just in training mode, and my god I can’t link any of his combos at All. For some apparent reason his links are pretty hard… Weird.

12

Yes, his links are tricky.

Keep at it, man.

13

It’s not that Cody’s links are hard, it’s that they come awkwardly late compared to when it feels like they should. At least, that’s my impression of it.

Also, based on the OP, I would have recommended Dhalsim 100%, but since you said you weren’t feeling his playstyle I’m not going to force you. He, along with Vega (Claw) are pretty much the SF series’ quintessential “poke” characters, and he’s a lot stronger than Claw is in the SFIV series because of several factors, including system mechanics (Focus Attacks hurt Claw’s poke game a lot). Also, Dhalsim’s combos are remarkably easy, though you don’t really use them particularly often.

14

Cody has some of the most diverse and easiest moves to get down pack. I measure my opponents distance and when they cross that line. I attack.

15

At this point I’m pretty much open to anyone’s playstyle. It’s just finding someone that feels right. I agree with the fact that they come awkwardly late, and it messes with your head a little. I may try Dhalsim again, I’m pretty much going through the whole cast trying to find a playstyle i like. My main problem with Dhalsim in my play of him is i feel that a lot is punishable. I can be across map, and i’ll have my HP blocked and just instantly eat it for some reason. There’s probably a trick to it, It’s just hard finding these tricks xD I’ll experiment around with him a little more. As for Cody I’ve tried some more but the whole combo aspect of him is really wearing on me, I can go in training mode and do it 7/10 times but then when it matters in a match I never do it. Although i like his Zonk punch.

16

Can I suggest that you try cody for a little longer. You say that you hit his combo’s 70% of the time. Then in stead of in matches, put your opponent in training mode on computer controlled. That way you will ease into doing it on a moving opponent and feel a little bit more stress/pressure but not as much as in a match vs somebody else.

And remember, it takes time and practise to learn them. Yesterday you hadn’t tried him yet and now you are already frustrated. Since you are relative new, you don’t pick up and use combo’s as easily as veteran players yet.
Don’t worry, you will progress and this is in my opinion not the reason to leave a character. If the playstyle is lame I can understand, but not when you say that the simple combo’s are too difficult. You will probably have to go through the same with every character you select.
There are some exceptions of difficult characters with a lot of 1-frame links but I understand this is not really the case for cody (I don’t play him much).

I have heard before that Cody is a good starter character, Dhalsim on the other hand seems much less well rounded. So if you ever want to switch or take up another character you probably cant use much of his tactics etc on that new character.

So because of this and not giving him a proper chance I would just say, stick with cody and really practise with him for around 20 hours. By that time you will probably be doing those combo’s with ease and looking for chances to punish those opponents silly mistakes :slight_smile:

17

Yes, some of Dhalsim’s limbs can be punished on block. Which can be is matchup dependent, and just because a character “could” punish one of Sim’s pokes on block doesn’t mean that the move which would punish hits far enough to hit the retracting limbs. Even when it does, the punish will likely deal almost no damage unless the enemy commits to a risky move like Shoryuken. The “trick” so to speak is in psychology - if you think the enemy wants to DP your next poke, throw a whiffed :db:+:lp: instead and you’ll have plenty of time to hit them out of their move’s recovery. If they didn’t DP, you lost pretty much nothing - :db:+:lp: starts up, executes, and recovers very quickly, so you’ll still have time to react to whatever the enemy did. Also, keep in mind that Dhalsim has fireballs, and that certain spacing / timing of limbs after fireballs can have the fireball’s guardstun make the poke safe as well.

edit: As far as not doing combos with Cody goes though… most players struggle with using them in matches first. The key to hit-confirming and using combos is experience; take any one combo you’ve learned and play some matches, focusing solely on using that combo for a while.

18

On the whole I do like Cody. I’m not putting it down to Lag but it’s just slightly frustrating when you can do it a lot of the time offline through story and what not. And as soon as you try to do it online it ends up getting blocked and i get my face smashed… PC’s match making really isn’t that fun. I’m still sticking with Cody, I’m pretty much trying like 6 characters now, It’s just frustrating that’s all. Cody seems like a nice character to use. As he has good answers for a lot of situations. But my got the amount of times I can’t get c.LP into c.MP, and then into a CU/RK without actually failing the combo is beyond me…

Quick Edit:On a point, I’ve also tried a few people with Target Combos, and while it’s nice to be able to just bash the buttons out most of the characters with them feel like they don’t hit hard enough without a big string of combos and wake-ups, and that just isn’t my style

19

You could try Rufus then perhaps? His execution is fairly easy. I think you can even do his hard punch into (him spinning move) with negative edge. So that is simple.
And his target combo leads to an easy ultra or a (ex) snake strike.
Anti air is decent. wake up reversal is good.

But he is not very defensive as you originally wanted.

20

why has no one mentioned balrog? he sounds like the perfect character for you. Is really good played defensively, you don’t have to learn his hard links, and has amazing pokes.