Walk a bit between the TCs 
EDIT: Also shouldnt we have a video thread as well?
EDIT 2: Aaaaalso, who do you think are Rufus’ best partners? who can cover his “bad” matchups?
Just some things about f.HP
Ending Rufus EX GT midscreen BnB with f.HP instead of c.HK actually has some use. Cancel the f.HP into a back dash cancel GT for a safe hard tag if you’re not close to the corner. It’s also a safe setup to charge his CH property, although all CH really offers Rufus in this game is a crumple c.HP which as I’m aware you can only follow up with another c.HP, c.HK or a switch cancel to get a full BnB off your anchor character.
On top of that, EX GT midscreen can also be followed up into 2x F.hk and directly into launcher for safely tagging out Rufus 
Whoahohohoho, when you bnb with GT, switch cancel the second you start the GT and your next character can land a jump in and some juggles. Very cool. Also great as a block string where you cancel into your next character and try to cross them up. Galactic tornado can be used kind of like a mini Ken tatsu.
^ Cool idea, I never thought of that.
What’s your guys thoughts on the Poison MU? I don’t know anything about her, but I played a really good one online today. She seems to be like playing a Ryu, except a little more difficult. Maybe it’s just my MU inexperience.
Paired my Jin with Heihachi, Hugo, Kazuya, Raven, and shotos and coudln’t break 1500 BP.
Paired my jin (anchor) with Rufus on point and in 2 days got 4000+. Loooooove the fat man lol.
Wow thank you so much for this. I’m confirming into almost 600 midscreen because of this lol. Plus i’m loving tagging jin in the corner after Tornado, TC, f.HP, HK messiah or EX Tornado, f.HP x3, HK Messiah for really good damage.
Two questions…
1 - is there any way to link launcher off of any of these combos (or variations of them) in the corner? like, will EX Tornado, f.HP x2 or 3, launcher work?
2 - what is the optimized combo for after tagging in? I’ve been doing TC, fHP mid screen, and tacking on HK Messiah in the corner… I feel like there should be better options for him there.
No Gem thread…
I’ve been using 2 meter building gems and either a speed or a power gem depending on my partner/opponent. Usually the speed gem since it really helps rufus get in quick and stay in. 20 seconds is all he needs lol. I saw someone else was using a defense gem due to trouble getting in… i may consider that, but my issue isn’t really getting in, its geting rushed down by certain characters, espececially one with good AAs that can put pressure on rufus before i have meter stocked. That’s why I have the meter building gems (block/get hit by 5 attacks build meter)
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I really wish they didnt make this character so easy to play
with the exception of maybe 1/4 of the cast, all of them are easy to play.
As far as optimal midscreen tag-in combos for Rufus, I like the following:
LMHLauncher, (enter Rufus) st:mp: TC (walk forward) Sweep
You get a hard knockdown, that you can use to setup ambiguous cross-ups and some dive kick setups that will make most reversals whiff.
For me personally, I like the following midscreen combos these days for Kaz/Ruf-
Midscreen:
(Kaz/Ruf) cr:lp:cr:lp:st:lp:st:mp:st:mk:st:hp: Launcher, st:mp: TC Sweep
(1bar) cr:mp:st:lk:st:lp:st:mk: xx M Slaughter Hook (tag cancel) Dash Forward st:hp: xx H Galactic Tornado
(Ruf/Kaz) cr:mk:cr:hp: Launcher, cr:mp: cr:hp: xx Demon God Fist
(1bar) st:lk:cr:mk: xx H Galactic Tornado (tag cancel) j:hk: cr:hp: xx Demon God Fist
kind of proof right here though…
not trolling or anything, I play rufus myself. he just seems to have a very low skill barrier to get effective results. divekicks are too good, the hitbox is insane and its so + on hit that someone in a coma could hit confirm. damage in the corner or with bad is crazy, and anti-airs arent as common so pressure is often free on a lot of the characters.
hes too easy to play, I think at a certain level he is much less of a problem but the thing is the majority of people playing this game are going to get stomped by sub-par rufus players. I could see it being very frustrating and giving the game a bad rep and I really want this game to do well.
I wish he just kept his old divekick without the height restriction and all the crossup shenanigans he got in this game. Would make him more rewarding and less braindead crossup pressure.
I think you may be overstating it. He’s good, but in no way brain dead.
Brain dead = the 517 damage meterless combo Hugo can do from anywhere on the screen with one of the largest and most ambiguous crossups ever in life.
Brain dead = 1 button anti air lariat for gief, and 1/2 screen grab range on SPD
Braid dead = Rolento’s Jab.
Compared to those Dive kick is not brain dead. it needs to be used properly, and that takes skill. the three above don’t require any skill at all. Yes rufus is good, but saying that sub par players will do well is not true because a better player will know how to beat Rufus.
I do agree that he needs slight tweakds. I think his dive kick should be +2 on block, not +5. Maybe slight damage nerf to a normal or two but rufus definitely takes some skill to play. Just because I can pick him up and practice for hours at a time and play semi decent enough to beat half of the population of the ranked world doesn’t mean anything about Rufus. It means that they need to learn how to beat rufus.
TL: DR - Hate the player, not the game.
I play rufus in ae and sfxt. When I play him in sfxt, I literally feel like im using a fucking gameshark.
Hugo is dumb for sure, I wont argue that at all. Im just saying rufus can go about doing what he wants until he gets an ambiguous divekick to crossup and hit confirm off it. Divekick is fine at +5 on block, at +2 you would get dpd every time you didnt hit one and thats not a good idea.
I think what makes him so easy to pick up is you literally dont have to play footsies with him in this game. Thats a huge part of this game and rufus just gets to overlook it. He is a really good character. Thats a great thing. I think he just can get away with murder against some characters and I dont want my boy to turn into yun v2.
This is the first few weeks of the game and like other SF4 returning characters Rufus will seem like one of the best at first because we know much more about him than other characters with our SF4 experience.
That’s possible (EX GT > 3 f.HP > Launcher). For regular GT just end it with a launcher after the f.HP instead of cancelling into a Messiah Kick. I’d only recommend doing these if you don’t have meter for a Switch Cancel combo.
How is this possible when they are still in block stun when you recovered? The DP startup is 3f at best, so they would have to just frame that to punish anything you press after the dive kick, and you still have EX Messiah or backdash if you suspect a DP. Even if it was -2 on block they couldn’t punish it if you just block after the dive kick. I don’t think making it +2 is too bad. It evens it out, and doesns’ t make it so easy especially if they’re sucessfully blocking it. It adds slightly more risk, but still retain its utility.
Thanks for the info, i didn’t know launchers had juggle potential like that. I wonder if It’ll work with Jins…
divekicks are + on block but the higher up the more time you spend falling down, so +5 can turn into basically +1 if you hit higher.
What I was talking about was you wouldnt be able to press a button (rufus’ jab is 4 frames) when you land without having a 100% risk of getting hit by a reversal, or even good jabs. As far as I know for now, you can hit pretty low on a divekick and keep pressure without a window for a reversal.
Divekicks are actually quite easily beaten by a good read or an A2A.Watch matches of Justin Wong against Alex Valle and see how Alex restricts Justin from landing any divekicks at all.Chris G did some similar stuff at NCR against Floe’s Rufus which worked out pretty well in his favour.Flash Metroid has come up with quite a lot anti-Rufus strats of his own.It’s just a matter of time when divekicks will be the least of anyone’s worries
^^^^
Lol no. Anyways, found some interesting tech with Rufus pretty minor but also fairly helpful. Tag canceling right when you launch an opponent across the screen with Fragrance Palm has your partner actually run up directly in front of your opponent very quickly. If Rufus’s partner happens to be a mix up heavy character this could be very helpful for them.
hey guys i have a question…i have an opponent that i play daily and it seems that after i do a divekick and its blocked he always and i mean ALWAYS mashes jab EVERY TIME. the only method that i came up with to counter that is to ex messiah after a blocked divekick when i have bar and i have instilled in him not to mash jab when i have bar but when i dont have bar the mash fest happens. any advice?
Crouching medium kick into GT instead of close heavy punch into GT. Wins pretty much every time.
thanks starwave