I mainly consider myself a casual player. I don’t participate in tournaments, I don’t commit to learning all the combos of every character. Some of the combo’s I’m just not fast enough with my hands at all on the controller. That being said, I do know a lot of Dan’s basic combos and know how to use his arsenal of moves well (I could be better on some of them). I usually win my fair share of matches… until recently. It’s gotten to the point where I am no longer improving with Dan. In a way, I think I’m getting worse. I can never actually win the match. I can wittle down my opponent’s health to be very low, but I can’t ever land that finishing move. And if it gets to that point, I tend to have people spam projectile attacks and can’t even get close, and when I do manage to jump over it, they seem to nail me with shoryukens, criminal uppers, tiger uppercuts, and everything else.
What are some good tactics to/for:
Combat characters who spam projectiles at long range regardless of their health?
Combat players who have a really defensive style where they sit back and counter your every move?
Good anti-air options?
Catch people in the Hisshou Buraiken (I usually never get my meter up all the way, I use a lot of EX attacks, but when I do, I don’t know how to use it)?
Get close to Dhalsim? (This is a problem I seem to only have with Dan. I can never touch him sometimes.)
Fend off aggressive players (More specifically, when characters like Yun, Yang, Ibuki, Cody, and Juri force me into a corner. I can never seem to get out of there, whether I use a koryuken or neutral normal or so on, there moves always seem to overpower mine?)
I know that Dan isn’t the best character, but I like Dan, and I enjoy using him and I want to get better so I can get out of my 3 day losing streak as him.
Use all of your options. Neutral Jump to safely avoid chip. Focus Absorb Dash to build Revenge and approach. Jump Forward to approach. Jump-in on prediction for the chance punish. EX Danku once in range to fish for knockdown.
LK.Danku pressure. That thing can leave you mad +frames when blocked crouching. Follow up with tick-throws, Koryuken FADC traps, backdash baits and more normals into LK.Danku.
HP.Koryuken
cl.HK xx Hisshou Buraiken or cl.HK > cr.MP xx Gadouken xx Hisshou as a punish. Can be used to punish attacks that leave the opponent at -3 on block/hit.
Vary your approach. Jumping attacks mixed with Air LK.Danku to change trajectory is a big one (Since Dhalsim relies on normals to AA). Make sure not to miss with Air Danku, though. Mad punishable on whiff. EX Danku in footsie range and the occasional random Koryuken if they’re predictable.
HP.Koryuken FADC, Block, Focus Absorb Backdash, Backdash, crouch OS tech. You need to time your Koryuken to come out after theirs, or your Invulnerability will poop out before theirs does. Anti-mash setups are a thing, so sometimes you just need to block. You need to block Cody’s EX Bingo setups. They’ll always cause Koryuken to whiff, so it’s dangerous to nurse DP in that matchup. On block, punish with EX Danku.
Thank you very much for the help. I managed to end my really frustrating losing streak and pick up some wins last night. The tip about HP Koryuken was useful. Ive been relying on MP Koryuken, or jumping normals respectively. It seems that Dan isn’t meant for aerial combat, which is bad for me because I tend to jump a lot. When it comes to projectile spammers, I still have some difficulty getting close, but I think i just need more practice with timing. Thanks a lot man. Really useful stuff.
For fireball spammers: If you have the life lead, just neutral jump and if you know that you jumped too early just do a Light Dan Kick in the air (for that extra air time)… if you are a taunting Dan, you can always air taunt while avoiding the fireballs.
I usually pull out air taunts while jumping over fireballs. The only thing is it starts to become monotonous when the next thirty seconds of the match goes: Hadoken, (jump) Yahooo! repeatedly. Nine out of ten times when this happens I have a large life lead, but my aggressive personality usually gets the best of me and I become thirsting to land that finishing hit.
That’s another thing, do you think an overly aggressive Dan (one that’s always on the attack and constantly rushing down opponents) is a good option for Dan? Or would you think that Dan is better off with maybe hit and run tactics? (if there’s a technical term for it, idk it, sorry.)
Never the less, I managed to beat a Guile the other day, who always gives me trouble with the sonic booms. I just dashed then block my way through the sonic booms and the flash kick instead of jumping. I found out, once you get close to Guile, he’s not so tough XD.
Close MP links into HP Koryu, far MP, and I think crouch MP (which cancels into other things). Dan’s close MP links are amongst the easiest in the game – if not THE easiest – and close MP also puts dudes into an unusually high amount of blockstun.
Simple thing to do is cancel into LK Danku as often as possible. When I first started playing as him, I didn’t do it very often and without it, it’s hard to set up any kind of pressure game with him since he doesn’t have many tools. The few that he has can be quite powerful however.