Personally I’m working on small analyzes on Kuma since people can really go to the lab with him. I hope its proves fruitful in some way.
Other notes taken from the guide
Kuma st.lp doesn’t have a hurtbox on it so you can just throw it out there if you have the spacing right and it won’t trade.
Kuma st.lk moves his hurtbox backwards pretty far so decent counter poke, goes into st.lp,st.mp xx megaton claw
Kuma Cr.hp against crouching characters creates slide stagger on counterhit (similar to b+hp, mp)
Rolling Bear is completely strike and projectile invincible… punishes those projectile spammers with roll into headbutt for lots of damage.
Kuma is alot like hakan actually - he’s a grappler with decent combos that doesn’t care about keep away as much as he cares about rush down… but he gets ex megaton and ex frollicking bear to make up for it.
The scary thing, you can be as patient as you like with Kuma…especially with three bars, because one foolish jump in by the opponent, equals EX frollicking bear into wallbounce into a simple HP > fatal wind at the least, and the opponent loses half of their life! whaaat
So Now that some people got some feel of Kuma what do any ofyou speculate will be his tier placement?
Personally While he as respectable tools I still see him being Low or even bottom tier. While Kuma stuff allows him to cope with many notorious tactic, Fundamental stuff still keep him tamed.
Kuma’s Pro
Damage
Tricks
Range
Kuma’s Con
Speed
Recovery
Meter
MISC
Risk-Reward
Team management
HitBox
Interesting ^
Personally I feel Kuma will be best in second spot ready to be tagged in for major damage, and then get out! Haha
He definitely has tools to handle the situation if it goes 1 v 1 though
Just what I’m thinking, maybe he’ll turn out really good on point I could be wrong, lol
huh, you can cancel the first hit of the st.HP -> st.MP as SOON as the first one reaches active frames. even on whiff. so you can get to that far reaching swing pretty quickly. if youre close enough, the first attack still hits.
I think i might like using the Super easy input gem on him. Headbutt becomes up+P and Circus is Dwn,fwd+P. lol
they still do nice damage even with 10% less damage, AAing with F.Bear is better too since you can input the motion faster.
What are Kuma’s options on an opponents wakeup? The back hp, hp, hp target combo hits overhead and you can confirm it off the first hit, but it still seems risky. His command grab is risky too since they will be crouching 95% of the time, and his other command grab throws them the opposite direction.
I’ve had good results with a meaty mp, mp target combo starter, and if it’s blocked go for the low hit with lk, and if it hits go for the hp finisher, then link cr.lk->cr.mp xx EX whatever.
Now that I think of it I need to start chaining into sweep so that they have a low hit to worry about. Or just sweep in general.
I’ve been experimenting with going into hunting mode every time i knock them down and attempt a mixup with hunting spear and grizzly fling. one hitting high and one hitting low, both lead to combos on a good guess.
Alright I just beat the number one ranked player (9600 points) with Kuma, and the key to my success was stacking 3 defense gems. He was using Rolento and Raven. He hit me with a team super which with that team I know is pretty damaging, but it activated all 3 of my gems and only did 1/4 of Kuma’s health. I got one opening and did a team super of my own and it took 3/4 of his (Gief x Kuma).
Kuma with all defense gems is really, really friggen’ scary.
Interesting, personally I’ve been using power gems for damage, but this sounds pretty buff! What was the defense gems you were using? 
You need to save that match and upload it!
Im surprise most prefer kuma as the partner. I prefer him on point as the start of fight, Kuma is in his best position. Mid range.
I’m not really that comfortable enough with him yet to put him up first, but right now he’s just there to add damage to my combos, lol
I use Kuma as a partner cause Rolento is obviously better on point. Its also nice having Kuma to open people up when I need too.
Kuma is on point for me since he has way better pressure than ogre
So, I’m really loving Kuma; as a person who mained the guy since T5.5, it’s fun to see Capcom’s take on him and they got him pretty faithfully…complete with his lack of good low moves, it seems. Not bad either way, even if he does smell faintly of Turkish oil…
Anyway. Didn’t see one going through the thread, and I apparently haven’t been arsed to check in training mode (since I don’t actually own the game - long story) but is there a list of Kuma’s overheads?
I know Megaton Claw’s heavy followup is.
How about the first hit of b+HP? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it blocked low.
Anything else? I was surprised his f+HP isn’t…bit disappointed, too, that his b+1 in Tekken has no real equivalent here, as that would have given him all kinds of ground in this game.
But, I digress.
Overheads?
Moves that are surprisingly low, while we’re at it?
Also, someone mentioned the first hit of his b+HP chain being able to transition directly into HBS; gonna have to try that later if true.
Yep you can go directly into HBS from it. His back hp is indeed an overhead, and also catches backdashes on an opponents wakeup if you continue to the second attack.
/end reply
Zangief x Kuma has gotten me 4000BP so far. Really starting to see some team synergy. Defense gems of any kind on Kuma are a must imo, because he has to take some pretty stupid risks.
ALSO ALSO:
If you anti-air with frolicking bear you put your opponent in juggle state, regardless of counterhit. Then when you land you can do cr.lp xx HP Megaton -> lp follow-up. Good stuff.
So I was just reading the Brady guide and it says that during Cross Assaults when both characters come in and attack, their life totals are averaged together. As a high life character though, what if Kuma is on point and down on life, and he Cross Assaults with a low total life character with 100%? It would look odd if the life bars don’t match up at half full - but that would mean that Kuma gets more life than the other character donated.
For example, say Kuma is at 1 point of life left, and Akuma is behind him at a full 850. Now I Cross Assault and their life totals are averaged. Akuma loses 425, but does Kuma get 425 (averaged life total)… or 550 (averaged life percent)? If it averages the percents, that would give Kuma/Akuma a total of 1100+550+425 life, or 2075 instead of their normal 1950. Can anyone test this out somehow, I’m at work and can’t… You could get Kuma low on life with Akuma behind him, then Cross Assault and see if their life bars meet up at 50%, or if Kuma’s life bar is lower than Akuma’s, showing that he only filled 425/1100 (39%).
Anyone have a consistent tag in combo? I was reading up in this thread and alot of people seemed to be using c.HP xx HMC but Its incredibly hard to land online IMO, anyone have any other ideas or tips on landing it? Seems even harder in the corner.
I found MK xx Light Megaton Claw to be much easier.
You mean post launch? like your partner does launch into Kuma? Cause if so you could try st.hp or st.hk to make the timing easier damage is the same afaik.
yeah point man combo into launch bringing in Kuma.
Thanks Ill try that out a bit.