Which 5 characters do you feel fight the best at neutral, and if you are so inclined, why? IMO,
Honorable mention to Chun, Dictator and Vega who I think would make it if they had more universally functional anti airs.
chuns ultra 2 is a pretty good anti air now… plus her air to air is one of the best in the game
Hakan’s neutrals are pretty sick, especially when oiled.
Where’s Ken on that list?
Step Kick and 4 frame low forward are sick.
What exactly do we mean by neutral? Does that mean strictly on the ground? Are fireballs considered part of the neutral game? Does the neutral game has specific range requirements from the other character?
If anyone doesn’t have Oiled Hakan in their top 5 they are dumb
I would call neutral the space from right inside medium poke range, to just outside far poke range. On the ground, fireballs included.
Juri for sure. You’re not winning there with any character.
Guile. The sheer amount of damage you can do with that character with just normals is ridiculous.
He’s got:
Amazing range
Amazing anti-air
Great startup frames
Insane fireballs
Guile’s neutral is overrated, he has AA deadzones that I feel not enough people know about. Obviously AA aren’t everything, but I think Guile’s neutral outside of SB isn’t as good as say Chun/Vega who also have some trouble with AA. Other than that, here’s my top 5
Can you enlighten me on his deadzones? Would really help how I approach the matchup.
idk about evil ryu being better at neutral than Rose. Yes he is good but most of his tools except probably his farMK can get neutralized by Rose farMK / farHK / crMP / Soul Spirals… She has excellent AAs against him too. imo he is below Rose.
Forgot to mention that my list isn’t in order, otherwise I would put Vega at the top since Hakan only has the best neutral when Oiled, and it isn’t realistic to expect any Hakan player to be oiled more than 60% of the time in a high level match.
Ofc it depends on the matchup EXACTLY what range you want to be in, but try to jump at a range where his cr.HP would be extremely risky to use due to risk of empty jump, but also just inside his st.HP range so that your jumpin will hit a bit further in than the tip of his fist. This allows you to either beat or trade with st.HP upwards of 80% of the time, while most of the time dodging cr.HP. This makes it so the Guile has to use df.HK which is slow and has a mediocre hitbox, or just block or focus your jumpin (Focus can be OSed). The risk/reward is then highly in your favor a majority of the time, but like I said earlier the success rate depends on the matchup a bit.
I feel Rolento’s neutral is being overlooked here a bit. The sMP buff and sHP buff really helped it. He has great pokes and air mobility options and air 2 airs and Air2Ground options (both NJ and FJ). He has solid anti air options now with few dead spots, he has a low profile and naturally low profiles some stuff. His wall of knives both builds meter incredibly well and can be tough for some chars to circumvent. He can move forward or backward in a blink with Back roll/backroll->overhead/backflip->roll/wall jump. He has a kara throw and good focus. His jabs are among the best in the game and he has several multihit options. His neutral game is very good now.
It’s pretty good now, but I don’t think it’s top 5 worthy especially when you look at the other contenders.
Maybe not, but I think it’s better than Elena or Guile who have been mentioned a few times in here.
why the fuck would you count oiled hakan as a different character? I think akuma while teleporting has the best neutral game.
Oiled Hakan is practically a different character though, and it’s a core part of his gameplay. It’s not really fair to compare or the same as Akuma teleporting.
I dunno how to properly explain it I guess. When discussing Hakan though you kind of need to discuss both his states on their own merits since they come up so often and are so very different mechanically.
I think that maybe one important thing is possibly being overlooked about Oil hakan though is discussing how needing to stay oiled affects his neutral game. It’s hard to keep his oil going unless you manage to get a knockdown it can be difficult to maintain the oil in neutral, many characters can flat out shut it down unless they are knocked down and many can at least cost him some health with a poke during oil recovery. His neutral is great while he has that oil but keeping that oil is part of his play.
Elena has 2 unreactable lows that cause a hard knockdown and are hard to block punish at max ranges, a mid-range EX overhead that she combos out of with links and is -4 on block, the best crouching jab in the game, one of the best focuses in the game, one of the best backdashes in the game, strong walkspeed + back throw range, an EX that blows through projectiles and is -3 on block, normal overheads, small crouch hurtbox, and a low/throw invincible b.HK that is even on block.
Very few characters have an answer for that kind of tool set. Even versus the other “neutral game” characters, she shits on Rose/Guile/E.Ryu’s projectile games (also oppresses Guile/Rose on knockdown) and makes Fei think before doing rekkas. Rolento wishes he could say half of that.
(Just wish her jump wasn’t so damn ass lol)