I kind of think that those “Holes” can double as a trap to some characters.
You know it’s funny, not too long ago I went and took a look at Spinner Ball P again. I remember when the game first came out I saw that it was -3 and went “Oh, not very good, next” and didn’t think about it. But it was, again, one of those things where I’m just looking at frame data and not applying it in a meaningful way.
I never noticed how even though it’s -3, it puts you at the range of most people’s c.mp, and with Bob’s new walkspeed, it’s not too bad to walk out of the range of their longest medium poke either. Now I’m doing blockstrings like s.lp>s.lk>cl.mp, st.lp>b.mp xx MP spinner ball, P. Starting off a great standing poke into an airtight boost string into doing another tight blockstring with a 4 frame gap. I suggest everyone else look into Spinner Ball P again, since you can throw it in quite a bit of things to keep yourself safe while resetting a situation into a, while disadvantaged, fairly good posiition for Bob to take advantage of those long normals and nj.
Exactly, spinner ball LP is a great tool for Bob’s pressure, you just have to be wary of your match ups. I can’t stress that enough actually, because you don’t want to be caught by a Kazuya mashing cr.LK. If you know the opponent though, walking out of range and using st.LP catches a lot of character’s counter pokes. Generally characters need at least 6 frames to reach Bob at that distance. Plus, it’s a great mind fuck after you’ve been using spinner ball LP all game to stay safe, then finally bust out pannini flip, tag cancel for an awesome incoming mixup.
So I have been playing this game ALOT more seriously recently. That being said, how do I deal with Jin, more specifically Swaying Willow during pressure? Advice is much appreciated.
Jin has 10f of strike invincibility during Mental Alertness and takes an additional 5f to connect Swaying Willow, so in general terms, one way to deal with it is to maximize the number of active frames in your pressure. If you pressure with jabs and fast strings like st.LP>b+MP, you can usually stuff it during the startup. Bob’s st.MK and cl.HK also have a high likelihood of stuffing it due to their active windows. You should also apply Bob’s throw/neutral jump mixup, as both options will beat Swaying Willow, and Bob’s neutral jump is quite difficult to anti-air on reaction.
That’s very helpful, thanks. I’m going to go test other options as well and see what I can come up with.
Does anyone know how to approach the hwoarang matchup with bob? What should I look for when it comes to punishing his moves.
Hwoarang can be scary, but I’ve played quite a few so I’ve picked up a few things. Some of the specifics still elude me because I haven’t used him personally, but I’ve definitely played some capable Hwos.
First off, just remember that he can’t compete with you in the normals department. Special step is pretty useful for Hwoarang to get in, but that’s it against bob. Bob pretty much out ranges him in every other way. Keep him in check with bob’s good normals as much as you can. However, when you’re in the neutral game vs him, LK hunting hawk (qcb+LK) can get through some of your more useful normals (ie cr.MK, cr.LK.) Point blank, LK hunting hawk is -4, so technically it is punishable with st.LP. It’s a one frame punish, and I have been able to get it before, but it’s tough. Regardless you’re usually going to be at an advantage, so make the best of it.
His overheads are really solid, but like bobs they can be a bit slow. His two hit one is pretty punishable. -8 actually. Train yourself to see the string, and punish with whatever you want, I usually use st.LP, far MK, confirm launch to be safe. His other overheads are relatively slow, so your going to want to poke him with a jab to keep him honest. If you aren’t comfortable with his dash mix ups, block the best you can and look for an opening to ex dash, sweep. This will at least get some damage and reset to neutral.
If you get more comfortable with the string, dash shenanigans, use well timed jabs (st.LP, better at 4 frames) to stop his pressure. I believe he is slightly negative on all of them. When in doubt, just alpha counter him.
The main objective vs Hwoarang is space control. He’s a nightmare up close, especially for bob who lacks great defensive options. But he really needs to be up in your ass to be effective. So, y’know…keep him out of your ass 
If you can be more specific, I can probably help. I main Hwoarang and know a lot about him.
Edit:
Since you said this, I just did a direct comparison between their normals, and found the following:[list]
[]Hwoarang’s st.MP (7f) out-ranges Bob’s normals, except for st.LK (8f), cr.MK (7f) (just barely), and st.HP (11f). Bob can also stuff it on startup with a well-spaced cr.MK, which combos into dp+MK>LP.
[]Hwoarang’s cr.HK (7f) seems to have the same range as Bob’s st.HP (11f). Bob can stuff it on startup with cr.LK or cr.MK.
[]Bob’s cr.MK (7f) can potentially be counterpoked by Hwoarang’s cr.MP (5f), but Bob seems to win more often in this situation. Hwoarang’s b+MK beats it clean due to the crush property. qcb+LK can beat it as well.
[]Bob’s st.MK (8f) can potentially be counterpoked by Hwoarang’s cr.MK (5f), but Bob seems to win more often in this situation. Hwoarang can also beat it with st.MP (7f) or neutral j.HK.[/list]
Overall, I want to give Hwoarang the slight edge here due to better startup of normals and walk speed.
Hwoarang definitely has the normals to compete, that’s why he’s such a good character, but it’s tough to give him the edge, especially considering the emboldened points above. Plus there’s the issue of nj.RH which is one of the better footsie tools in the game.
The thing about Hwoarang’s cr.MK and cr.MP isn’t really that important, I think. It just means that his main tools in the matchup are limited to st.MP, qcb+LK, b+MK, and cr.HK. I guess the main thing to take away is that they both have answers to each other’s tools, and it’s not significantly in either character’s favor.
But a lot of his tools are still limited. Speaking strictly in terms of advice in the Hwoarang match up, I think you should play to Bob’s strengths, and that’s careful space control with his dominating normals. Where Hwoarang seems to be strong is counter poking and making good moves to get inside the opponents comfort zone. Then proceed to go HAM with overheads, cross ups, double overheads, fake cross ups with divekicks, etc etc.
I’m not saying that Bob dominates the neutral game therefore the match is in his favor, just that it’s infinitely more effective to play Hwoarang at a certain range, keep him at bay with smartly placed normals, and punish his riskier stuff. At least with Bob, if any of that makes sense.
In terms of playing the matchup, I agree with what you’re saying. I’m just pointing out that he has the tools challenge you if you are trying to keep him out with pokes like cr.MK and st.HP.
Has anyone noticed anything weird about the recovery hitboxes of Bob’s MK>MK and MK>MK>HK strings? I was testing to see if I could punish with Hwoarang’s cr.HK and got some strange results. The MK>MK string was always punished if the cr.HK was fast enough, but if it was timed later, it would just whiff. Timing it even later caused it to be blocked. The MK>MK>HK string was always punished within a certain range, but doing it from further away resulted in the cr.HK always being blocked.
Probably a result of the different parts of the string hitting meaty or the range. The HK at the end of that string does WEIRD things…usually good weird though.
While I was working on setups with Bob today, I found a strange bug. In the corner, I noticed that having a cl.MK or cr.MK blocked and canceling it into LK Spinner Ball causes the 2nd hit to whiff. This happens consistently, but it turns out that it only happens as 1P Bob. When 2P Bob does the same thing, the LK Spinner Ball will always connect both hits. It’s a bit gimmicky, but after experimenting with this for a while, I concluded that 1P Bob can use this to bolster his mix-ups a bit.
Setup:
- Combo ending with dp+P>P in the corner
- Neutral super jump MK (whiff)
- st.LP>b+MP (whiff)
- cl.MK
Follow-ups:
- hcf+LK>P
- hcf+LK>K
- hcf+LK, throw or nj.HK>HK
- hcf+MK, throw or nj.HK>HK
If the opponent presses a button, it will lose to one of these options depending on their timing.
That is…incredibly funky >.<. Lol, a 1/2 player exclusive glitch? Do you mean that if the opponent presses buttons after blocking the cl.MK they get hit? Or just during the meaty set up? I’m a bit confused 
I’ll look into it when I can, been on that injustice kick 
They have a chance to press buttons after blocking the Spinner Ball because of the 2nd hit whiffing. It causes the P follow-up not to be a blockstring anymore, leaving a gap of around 2 frames.
I have an update on the bug I mentioned earlier. It turns out that it only occurs on standing block, not crouching block, meaning that it doesn’t have practical uses after all. Just use MK Spinner Ball in that situation to prevent it from happening unexpectedly.
The last few frames of Pound Cake (the P followup to headbutt) will groundbounce even on standing opponents. It is also an overhead. Want a gimmicky strat? After a back throw, do MP headbutt into pound cake and it will hit as a meaty overhead that groundbounces.