Also you can link lp,b+mp off cr.l for a good hit confirm off a low.
I got some pretty good info from this thread, thanks!
I just still can’t deal with pressure. I really have to watch more replays. I feel like an idiot getting rushed down and doing nothing but block. I miss almost every possibily to punish, especially against Kazuya, Heihachi and Law.
lol nah I don’t hate the character I really like him. I’m just trying to get advice from you guys. Sorry if it seems that way however. I’m just saying that I do hate the motion for Rock N Roll Circus and landing that J.MK cross up isn’t easy. I’m just stating facts I feel is true myself.
Like saying Twelve is horrible in 3S but to still main him. Just stating the facts about the character but not hating on him by any means.
If I hated him however I’d main any of the other 40 something cast members. He’s to much fun to drop! but I’m here to learn what others are doing with the character while stating what I’m finding and my views on him to get feedback what others think. I’m still not finding Rock and Roll useful! Maybe from watching others I’ll see what they do with it but as for now its not in my bag of tricks.
On another note I tried hunter stance today against a friend but he was using a rush down character. I found it to be pretty useful for that fact when I thought it was only really good for defensive play I find it to be neat for offensive play as well but I wanna try it on a character with a projectile to see how things fair from my prospective.
Kuma has good options when he has meter.
EX Megaton Claw is strike invulnerable on the first frame which means if you predict your opponent will go for an attack while your waking up you can throw that out and on hit convert into your BnB. What’s good that even if its block as long as you don’t go for the overhead follow up your safe. Just remember if the first hit is blocked don’t follow up.
EX Headbutt beats grab attempts as well as pressure strings so if your opponent is pressuring you while your waking up or even while your on defense as long as he’s standing you can reversal with EX Headbutt.
His best option is EX Frolicking Bear and what makes this so good is that it beats ANYTHING the opponent tries. Think of it as a SRK from the shotos but what makes this so good that if your trying to get up safely and your opponent is known to fake you out as far as baiting this wake up option out you can charge cancel backdash and be safe from all of that. I’ve even charge cancel forward dashed this to land a quick grab! Its his best option but don’t sleep on the others I’ve noted they all are really good when used correctly.
One way to use EX Megaton Claw that I’ve been doing is to do his Left Right Bear Claw chain into LP Megaton Claw and on block don’t go into the second part of the Megaton Claw attack. If your predicting your opponent will try something that’s on the ground then you can EX Megaton Claw and catch that attack for a good BnB. A blocked LP Megaton Claw is only -2 on block and EX Megaton Claw is invulnerable from the first frame so this tactic works and even if they block the EX version just don’t do the follow up and your still be safe.
also fun fact you can cancel Kuma’s Triple Hammer string into Hunter Stance so if your opponent loves to jump be rdy to do the Big Tree and it’ll crush any air type attack your opponent tries on you. Its REALLY good at doing this I tried it a lot today.
Hey there… I’m old timer tournament Kuma player (Tekken Tag, T4, T5).
I started tinkering with him a few days ago. I could use some advice on how to deal with footsies - they’re eating me alive. Also could use explanation for his spacing and basics for how he should be played (counter-attack character that only becomes effective after a knockdown? Turtle/keep-away/time-out character? 50/50 character? Offensive character?). After you knock someone down… what are his best options for keeping pressure on while your opponent is trying to get back up?
Thanks in advance.
ive played kuma since tekken 3, and its sorta easy for me to describe how he works. Honostly, he feels very much like tekken 6 kuma, almost same footsies, same grab setups, except now he has a hunting stance that is actually useful. In tekken 6, he was a whiff punisher, that had to get 3 punishes and he could kill anyone. Thats effectively like what he is in this game. Except instead of bear twin pistons (combo starter in tekken 6), now he is much more reliant on g-clef cannon and the lp~b+mp strings. (g-clef cannon was ass on t6 because it had to be counter hit to get a combo, and extremely unsafe on block, nothing to cancel to in order to make safe).
What he misses that he had in tekken 6 was powerful low moves that reach very far. He had downback right punch, that was this long reach, pretty safe on block, low attack, didnt do a lot of dmg, but was a great poke. He also had up-forward+12, which was a great low attack, and could be cancelled into bear stance. all that fun tekken 6 technology is all gone.
In exchange, kuma gets a reall decent anti air in the frolicking bear. Also, his hunter stance all has great moves, and its really great to just peck at people with lp in hunter stance. If you have frame advantage (they are getting up) mp in hunter stance is an easy combo to lp+boost combo. his sweep in hunter stance is great on block for a sweep (-1), but its startup is horrendous. (16 i think).
To control the ground, I peck with f+lp, and just lp~b+mp, depending on where the opponent is. f+lp is +3 on block, which sets up his special throw. lp~b+mp is 0 on block, and can be cancelled into megaton, to be at -2, which is safe against everyone except julia and pushes him far back enough to still let him keep the offense.
If akuma had a real low threat, he would be solid upper mid tier in my opinion because of the dmg he can deal, and he can effectively zone. without the low threat…im not really sure where he sits. He has potential.
All of kumas slower pokes need to be used sparingly. Chip dmg from megaton is the same whether or not it was cancelled from slower or faster pokes, so its best to save the slower stuff for combos. I do really like f+hp though, and it recovers faster than i would expect, but its 22 frame startup makes me gag. Marduk has similar long range pokes in his fp and rh, but there startup is much slower, making them vastly more useful.
f+fp is good on wakeup. So is d+fp which causes a wierd slip state if opponent is counterhitted when they are ducking. Unfortunately, I think the d+fp can be effectively back dashed out of, unless u time it in such a way where they can just poke u out of the startup…but I could be wrong. I do find people backdasing a lot on their wakeup, and i think f+fp can effectively deal with that, but still playing around.
So to summarize, kuma is an amazing whiff punisher that deals solid dmg if u can make the opponent miss their attacks. to go on the attack, rely on f+lp and lp~b+mp. Back dash is also really good, which can help u again dmg their whiffed attacks. Always get on the lookout for jumpins, and use frolicking bear if they are in front of u, and b+fp if they are above u.
Im still trying to work his throw game into all this, rock and roll circus is good, if slow, and I really dont like the headbut because of that ducking thing.
If people are backdash happy on wakeup you can use g-clef to punish them. I hit people with that all the time. Once they are sitting still you can go for cr.lk, st.lp, b+mp string, or b+hp if you think they aren’t hitting buttons, though online none of this mattes, cause most people are always hitting buttons. So your better off just cornering them and gor for pressure into ticks lol.
OH also hunting stance throw does the same damage as Rock N Roll Circus L. Range is worse but at least you aren’t missing out on damage when in hunting stance.
What gems are you guys tossing on Kuma?
Defense for me, as well. Kuma does crazy good damage and just landing a hit usually leads to a combo, most of the time so defense makes the most sense, really.
How ever doesn’t Kuma’s already have a ton of health?
I was thinking damage gems along with the meter gems.
How do you guys feel about leaving the opponent standing as far as landing that hit? Ultra David and James Chen talked about this last week on Wensday Night Fights. Where they feel its better to leave the opponent standing because knocking them down gives them the chance to make you guess whether or not they will roll or not and this really comes into play when you finally corner your opponent.
So I was thinking do the normal string into Megaton Claw but don’t do the ground bounce part of the combo. Your opponent will be stuck in the corner in a standing state. Then you pressure from there and read the DP’s if you feel he’s the type of player that gets pressured easily. Once you open him up again go for the full combo if you think it’ll KO.
I personally hate letting my opponent roll out of the corner because if they guess right they get more screen space to work with as far as keeping Kuma back.
With grapplers, i knock them down, the free command throw on roll is worth it. you just back up and input the command through so the active frames are right when the roll ends, free 200 damage and ANOTHER 50/50 read since they won’t roll back into the corner. But if i was playing anyone but kuma/marduk/king/gief/abel i’d just leave them standing.
and backing up with kuma for the command throw, leaves them within range for your heavy punch anyway.
I think kuma does too much dmg to not finish his combos. If you are worried about them rolling out of the corner, just dash back, then jump mk for a crossup. By not getting the ground pound, yer giving up at least 100-200 dmg, just not good with a slow character like kuma; every damage opportunity needs to be taken fully advantage of.
Whats up guys, here are a bunch of matches of my Kuma from the Option-Select stream last Monday:
I play from the start till about 50 minutes in, Let me know what you guys think.
Im watching now, Im very curious about the combo u do before super. U do the megaton into hp ender, then standing rh, first hit of megaton, then super. Does that lead to more damage? It seems like if u just did rh after the megaton ender, then super, there would be less damage scaling. Im not by the game right now, so I cant test, but if it does lead to more damage, then great find.
I also like your frolicking bear cancel after g-clef. Even with the dash, are you at plus frames? Or if opponent is mashing jabs, will they catch you?
I just tested it and it does less then doing the OTG after the bounce into super but I like the cancel on a blocked Megaton Claw set up. Stolen!
If they mash jab you will get hit but thats why I mix it up with backdashing or cancel into lp megaton. Its not completely safe but if you can get people scared of your jab then you can get them to block and not press buttons when you dash in.
Yeah they have to be pretty scared of getting hit for that to work, because its not even remotely safe. Even off a HP xx frollick dash cancel you are at disadvantage.
So I played a bunch last night against people in person finally. And I think right now the main thing I need to work on with Kuma is when IM outside of st.jab range. I feel like I can’t do almost anything there but stand around and wait for them to advance. Ive tried to use like f+hp and such to space peole but I feel like I always misread it and then I get jumped on and die >__> I also lost a few matches cause I was trying to get people with like armor on wakeup and such but I think I just need to play more patient when tourney time comes and I’ll be better.
Also to Luis nice spacing the jab for the most part, Ryan almost got you with that steve spacing. But I think IM going to try and use that st.jab against problem lows Ive been dealing with like julia cr.mk.
B+HP, c.HK, c.MP xx lp megaton, or c.mk lp xx megaton are good at that range. B+HP will catch jumpers too. I also just go into HBS at this range sometimes too. If they jump, big tree, if they approach on the ground they have to deal with lp or breakin. Starting to realize how strong hunting is.
I really wish Headbutt throw wasn’t accessible on aerial opponents. Rolling bear when the opponent is trying to cross you up would be too good.
Yeah I’ll try cr.mk and cr.mp I don’t use those much. I also agree it would be nice if I could roll whenever anyone was in the air, but oh well gotta work with what we got