I personally think a “DLC only” tier list is rather lacking in things to talk about and it’s like putting them on the short bus to the Special Olympics to compete with each other. “We’ll subject these guys to their own set of statistics so they can feel special away from those good launch characters”. That’s just the general vibe I get when people talk about the DLC characters. They all playing basketball on the wheelchairs.
It’s just nice to see that Urien is the first DLC character that didn’t get downplayed to hell by the community. Other than LI Joe going HAM (even if somewhat sarcastic) about beta Urien getting nerfed into a standard SFV fighting being, it seems people realize the character is strong. There weren’t as many people as there usually are going “oooh the struggle” in the forums either. The few that did I just kinda laughed at.
It’s good to see that people are finally seeing that Guile is strong also. So much talk about how bad zoning is and you can’t zone and he doesn’t have his c.MK and his buttons aren’t good, but he’s still making things work. He shows that zoning really isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. It’s SFV so he obviously is going to have to go back and forth between offense with his new toolset, but his new toolset allows him to be more aggressive and switch gameplans better than I’ve seen in a long time for him, if ever. When he gets in he has decent shimmies to blow people up with and getting in with his V Trigger spells trouble for a lot of characters. V Skill oki setups where people are forced into a double hitting fireball are really strong as well.
Alex, Rog, Ibuki and Juri I feel are all pretty solid as well for their own reasons. Alex is a semi grappler with a much better mid range game than Gief which works out for him since he’s similarly boned on wake up without super. Basically instantly makes him a better pick than Gief especially with his anti projectile options and V Trigger which makes his neutral defense and offense stronger. He’s going to inevitably have problems vs heavy rushdown and other quick grappler characters as he just has nothing going for him once people get close (4 frame jab, slow ass v reversal, no special reversal), but you can still yolo super and he has decent health and big time damage to finally get something done when he swings and hits. He’s also pretty mobile for a big hybrid.
Rog is pretty straightforward for a DLC character and has pretty solid normals for one, so he’s obviously going to stay solid. Basically the easiest to use of the DLC characters as long as you know how to block and deal with pressure. EX moves can whiff punish a lot of shit and he can now V Skill all of his rush punches which have some interesting mind games to them if the opponent doesn’t react. Other than also being mostly boned on wake up and frame traps other than 3 frame button, he has what he needs. V Trigger is probably the best one other than Urien’s. If he has it you can still lose the match somehow.
Ibuki is really slept on too. Very good walk speed for a rushdown character and has a lot of mix ups available to her in and out of V Trigger. Can steal a round without V Trigger nearly as easily as she can with one. Long as you can manage your kunais she’s always a threat. Which her kunais now allow her to control the mid range game in a way she hasn’t been able to before. You can use the kunais to stop fireball attempts from full screen and then dash or walk in to close the gap. Air EX kunai is back to being a very dangerous offensive tool like it was in 3S. There’s a lot of stuff that becomes risky to try once Ibuki has meter for air EX. If you do any of them and she reacts or makes the read you will get blown up from the air and she gets a free juggle or reset into corner carry.
Her V Trigger is a bit overrated since it has no setups or any real continued strength if the opponent blocks and V Reversals it. Meaning its only really scary on a confirm or an opponent that’s burned their V Trigger/Gauge. To offset though her pressure without V Trigger is already ridiculous and she has probably the second best V Skill in the game. Blows up most pokes and builds V Gauge almost as well as Necalli’s can. Meaning you can get to that point of using it pretty quickly compared to other characters. f+HK once you get it started can shit on most of the low and standing buttons in the game when spaced right and is also CC to build meter for her. Solid AA game as well.
Juri is also another I feel pretty slept on character. She has a lot of the fundamental basics you need to be decent in SFV. She’s obviously not top tier, but don’t feel she’s as bad as everyone makes her out to be. I feel she’s just sitting on a ton of tools that have to be explored which is not common for this game. This game was genearlly built where a character’s tools are pretty easy to put together and it’s just optimizing some setups and combo executions from there. I feel Juri’s fireball, V Skill and stores are all supposed to work in tandem in a way that people haven’t really put together yet. I’ll watch different high level Juris like Skillsmith, Yossan, Sako, Prodigy and Aiai and say “when they combine their Juris together they might have something”. Her V Trigger is pretty slept on as well since she can cancel it off a lot of important specials. She’s also the only character that can whiff her fireball and then start almost free pressure with VTC. Her buttons are really unexplored and her counter hit combo game should likely increase her damage potential.
TL;DR they’re all better than Bison and Gief and they’re not in the Special Olympics.
