Disagree about his good tools… I’d say his strengths in terms of individual tools are as follows, if I had to pick five:
One of the best, if not the best focus attack in the game
Great ambiguous crossup in j.LK which leads to a very easy link BnB combo/blockstring/mixup in cr.lk, cr.lp, st.lp, cr.lp xx HP.rekkas
Some excellent normals (though they’re interspersed with some awful ones too)
Great super with lots of setups
Great air to air capabilities with j.HK and j.HP
He’s closer to the bottom, sure, but he’s not one move away from absolute shit. He’s got other tools as well, like his overhead, FK FADC HK.CW into ultra which has the potential to be brilliant (play against Honda if you don’t believe me), j.MK, neutral j.HK, and so on. He just needs to be tweaked to be effective. Proper use out of FK FADC, damage buffs, movement speed, sorting out CW shenanigans, and fixing the confirmation of his ultra/rekkas. That’s what you need to make Fei Long work. To make him good he’s going to need more.
If you’re throwing out his HK.CW at a distance that isn’t point blank, you’re doing it wrong. HK.CW will pass right through a ton of moves during startup – it’s fantastic for stuffing characters with command throws, or even as part of a throw mixup. If they’re crouching, throw out the LK version and you’ll catch them with a crossup hit. If they’re not, throw out the HK version when you’ve got them thinking you’re going to try and tick throw, and they’ll whiff the throw animation, eat 3 hits of CW which will allow you to combo them.
It’s absolute shit at a distance, but like I said, I don’t think that’s how it should be used.
I also think his command throw is one of the worst moves in SF4, for what it’s worth. And yes, I’ve read the thread. It’s still ass.
I didn’t feel like counting his mediocre moves but I maybe should’ve counted cr.mp as his 6th good move
LK CW, unsafe on block, also unsafe on that crossup on hit/block and it has the longest recovery time. does 100 damage and 150 stun on hit and is neutral after.
HK CW, unsafe on whiff, really slow startup. does 400 damage and 510 stun on hit and gets safe jump on all safe-jumpable characters except for guile.
The command throw is actually really good because of its high damage output and the simple fact that it can’t be teched. Just do it meaty on their wakeup or tick into it from blocked jumpin, st.lp (those are pretty much the only setups but it’s still really good since its the strongest non ultra commandthrow in the game). However it could use a buff so it gets useable in more than two situations.
Oh I forgot. Fei has absolutely no pressure of his jabs/shorts, this needs to be fixed.
The thing about HK CW that I use it for, is that despite it’s long start-up is throw invulnerable. I like to throw it out sometimes at randomish times when I think my opponent is going for a tick throw (As long as they don’t have an ultra and 2 stocks that is.)
on the topic of sagat. or other" bad" matchups, you have to ask yourself are you losing to a superior character, or is the guy you are playing just better than you at this point? i lose to good sagats and such all the time, but i feel its me. if i get tricked into silly jump ins, or i drop combos, or im not punnishing everything to the max, then there is no way i can blame fei. fei has to have an easier time in the match than honda or gief, and those are only 7-3’s, and they cant avoid fireballs
i know fei isnt top tier, but he isnt terrible either. he may have some 6-4’s, but lets not make it like he’s vega. he has an answer to just about any strategy or trap and the really terrible characters dont
I’m pretty sure that’s not it. I’ve lost to other players were I just knew I was outplayed and didn’t feel bad about the matchup. Sagat feels genuinely like a horrible matchup. He forces Fei to come to him with fireballs, and there is no safe range to fight him at. Tiger Upper neutralizes a lot of Fei’s stuff (like CW), and the damage disparity between the two makes it a huge uphill battle. Many of Fei’s strengths are pretty much neutralized by Tiger Knee and Sagat is one of the characters that can punish rekkas for A LOT of damage every single time it’s blocked from almost all ranges.
I know people want to be positive about Fei but super is a time for changes and rebalance and it’s pretty obvious this matchup needs a little work in order for it to be a fair fight.
I wonder what the startup looks like? that kick at the beginning was already in the cinematic so there may be more hits to it. Hell it might be a command grab for all we know. Which, I would use over his current ultra any day.
The kick had the camera angle already doing stuff so that wasn’t the start up of the ultra, unless it’s like Geif where there is no startup outside of the ultra. If they’re in range and not jumping it just does it. But I think there’s probably another hit to it.
Worst case scenario is that it’s a counter. I hope not.
Yeah, it really would help him a ton since he’s an in close fighter. Already thinking off the posibilities. CW blocked…command grab. cr.MK under tiger knee, buffer in command grab. Flame kick FADC blocked…command grab.
I wonder if you can do tenshin > command grab? lol
Man he’s gonna be scary in close.
Or it’ll be a counter and no one will use it, lol. If his first ultra CORRECTLY juggles as well… we’re sitting pretty.
That also depends on the upgrades the other cast would have. it’d be hilarious if Metsu Shoryuken had something stupid like 30 frames of invincibiility and hit on the first frame.
Watched the video again, the first hit to the leg is already in the ultra cinema. If it happens to be a throw I hope capcom doesn’t nerf it where people can just hold up after super flash to avoid it.