Except that this won’t combo… Remember, the RFC will only crumble on hit. In fact none of Vegas cancelable normals sans clHP and sHK will combo after a focus cancel. You will rely on those two normals or use the only super cancelable special we have.
Other than that I think you are right. We get more options which is nice, but they are not limitless.
st.hk to red focus 1 to u2 seems very nice. we can punish things harder with that in our arsenal.
speaking of st.hk…jump hp, cl.hp x ex rcf, st.hk x red focus 1, u2.
style. haha
My counter to the, “most of the cast already has focus cancel-able Ultra’s” is that there is at least some level of execution involved. Pressing three buttons after a bnb involves no execution at all.
Even top ranked players drop focus cancel into ultra combos (albeit not often, but it does happen). I’ve seen J.Wong flub Rufus’ FADC into ultra combo. My point is, although the execution levels for FADC into ultra’s are not very high, there at least remains the possibility of an input error.
With red focus, its a guaranteed ultra after any bnb. There are characters whose ultra’s do large amounts of damage due to the degree of difficulty it takes to catch an opponent (e.g. raging demon). That degree is pretty much nullified with the implementation of red focus.
For all of you who are salivating at the increased options this presents, don’t think you’re alone. Non charge characters are most likely salivating even more. Sakura…Tatsu into red focus into Ultra…Dudley,MGB into red focus into ultra…Zangief, green hand into red focus…the list goes on. The difference is, these characters aren’t restricted by a 2 second charge. Their bnb’s are easier than ours.
My strategy for USFIV will be pretty simple…regardless of whether or not I win or lose the first round, my second round will be used strictly to conserve at least three bars so I can have my “win button”, “x-factor”, or whatever you want to call it, if necessary. The same strategy will be used for round 3.
sakura can focus after tatsu???
i really don’t think execution has anything to do with it (unless it’s to do with 1 frame unplinkable shit). grapplers would be a lot weaker due to delayed wake up, i have no problem that zangief can green hand into ultra. it would do almost no damage anyway considering how many light attacks he needs to confirms with to end it with the green hand.
same goes for akuma, his vortex is pretty much gone.
i just don’t think many would spend 3 meters just for a tiny bit more damage on their combos when 1 meter is enough. for example dudley needs 4 meters to pull that shit off. wouldn’t he do more damage just by doing 4 ex duck straights instead? a lot of characters that can already combo into ultra wouldn’t want to do this just like how many vega players wouldn’t want to spend that extra meter to get 20 more damage doing the ST after a wall dive.
difference with most charge characters is that their comeback factors are just a lot less than most characters. looking at the list of characters, the only non charge that might benefit from this is el furete…that’s it…
The above damages do not do a “tiny bit” of damage. So I don’t understand why you downplay the damage output Niah.
If you want to get technical and run the numbers for Zangiefs green hand combo I can but honestly, I’d prefer not to. Just off the top of my head, I can estimate the damage to do 400+. It only takes two lp, to confirm into green hand btw, 3 at the most depending on your skill, but even I can easily hit confirm off of two lp’s and I’m not a pro.
I believe people will shift the way they manage ex. combos by focusing on non ex combos for the majority of the round and begin to use them towards the end of a round, once their opponents life bar only has 30-25% remaining.
If you change your perspective of meter management, you’ll see red focus offers better utility as an “x-factor” kind of mechanism. Saving enough meter to be able to activate it as a comeback factor if needed, or a game ender to finish off the round. Ex. combos will shift and mostly be used to finish off opponents because the cost of using one bar is much greater. For example, after building two bars, you as a player now have to consider the options of either; 1) using an ex combo for a small amount of additional damage or, 2) conserving them and building the third bar to have red focus in stock, gaining the ability to do 400+ damage if necessary.
The meta game will change in regards to meter management.
i’m not downplaying the damage to charge characters, i meant to characters that can already combo into ultra. those characters that can already combo into ultra with say 1 bar and does 300 damage. if he was doing the same combo from the same situation, but with a red focus combo, it might do something like 320. but you lose 2 extra bars for that extra 20. THIS IS AN EXAMPLE BTW!!! that 20 damage is what i meant by “tiny bit” as in tiny bit more than what they can traditionally dish out.
i already said zangief isn’t too much of a problem because delayed wake up would of screwed him up in the damage department already, so i don’t think him being able to ultra from a combo is a big deal.
sure the meta game will change in meter management, but it would mostly apply to those who wouldn’t combo into ultra in the first place.
Why would anyone use red focus in a situation where a regular FADC is an option? I’m sorry Niah but I don’t quite understand where you’re coming from.
I don’t think you have fully grasped the idea that red focus crumple enable players to combo into ultra in ways that would normally not be possible. My entire point regarding this is that it’s way too easy to execute and apply to simple bnb’s, subsequently resulting in massive damage. Hence, my analogy to it being an “x-factor”, or a “win button”.
As an example, I also main Dudley, because red focus places you in a crumple state, I can easily combo into U1 off of a simple mgb, or duck under. I’ll re-emphasize EASY because honestly, if I have 3 meters and an Ultra in stock, you’re gonna have to play a damn near perfect round towards the end in order to seal the victory.
i never said anything about using red focus in those situations as a punish. i’m talking about punishes like punishing dudley’s ex machine gun for example. i’ll use ken with u1. i would have 2 options to land my ultra:
cr.hp, hp dp, fadc ultra
cr.hp, mp dp, red focus level 1, ultra
the difference isn’t that huge and certainly not a win button like you said it would be.
another example is like you mention, duck straight , red focus to ultra. that would mean you can punish fireballs or whiff spd’s easier. but wouldn’t you just use u1 straight off the bat anyway? it starts up faster than duck straight and travels just as much anyway. why would i waste 3 meters for 50+ more damage?
also last time i checked, mgb can’t be focus cancelled.
there are just so many examples where red focus just won’t deal that much more damage then their regular bnb into ultra
i don’t think being able to combo into ultra easily execution wise is of any concern. i.e. c.viper vs rufus
Dude ure missing the point entirely…
1)The incremental damage is too small to warrant the waste of 3 bars for all the members who could have done it before … and even those who couldn’t do it before should only end matches with it cuz ure giving up a lot of options
2) unlike marvel where u can sit on rage and wait for x-factor, in streets bars are critical (especially for vega who needs it to end combos)
Half the cast had it before so I don’t see the big deal in giving the rest of us it…I for one don’t see my self substituting my current combos to waste three bar AND my ultra just for a bit more dmg… I do however see myself punishing with cr lp, st hk, RFC U2…it must have been nice feeling like a pro using Dudley, abel, ken, sakura and the rest of the cast who could land ultra with 1 or less bar… now its our turn
if comboing into ultra was always around and abel didn’t break the game then I doubt it will get broken now that the lower tier characters have it.
Also yes we have seen pro players drop easy combos but that doesn’t mean they aren’t easy so let us not make decisions based on anomalies…IMO the only difficulty in execution presented in ssf4 is those (as put nicely by NIAH) “unless it’s to do with 1 frame unplinkable shit”
on more realistic topics… Any updates on vega changes?
Niah and neth are right. This must be true because I said so.
No news regarding the final changes. My guess is Monday. The games hits the arcades in 8 days and the official Capcom blog gets updated every Monday.
So, what are people’s realistic predictions about Vega buffs? What do you think will we get? (Not what we should get)
realistically, i think he’ll get an invincibility buff, but they’ll probably nerf his stun from 900 to 50. you know…for balance…
My prediction is that we get the Vega version from the beta build (super buff/damage nerf; crHP buff; U1 hitbox buff; U2 buff) with a reverted EX RCF back to AE frames (+4 on hit).
That’s it.
I get where nicfurious29 is coming from. I haven’t been feeling the red focus mechanic since it first debuted. It’s pretty lackluster. In terms of combo, I like the nuance behind burning 3 bars for the combo below.
j.HP, cl. st.HP xx EX RCF, cr.MP xx EX Wall, EX ST in the corner
It’s a big damage combo that’s flashy and demanding; position and execution wise. It’s the only time I think the risk associated with a 1f link is appropriate for the reward.
Also, Red Focus is pretty lackluster in the way you perform its other functionality. It could have been a way to entice 3rd Strike players and other players who thought the parry system was a neat and daring mechanic tho less daring than Red Focus since you could lose potential health.
i hope the “at least one more change for everybody” comment by capcom isn’t just limited to “fixing” the ex rcf…
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bk2ZoztCUAAXrKE.jpg:large
Thats the USFIV final changelog for Claw.
It will probably be translated and posted somewhere alongside with the others, but if someone can translate it for us it will be cool 
Hurry up! SOMEONE!!!
The first one seems to be cr.hp active frames from 2->4
Second one is mask pick up
Sixth is U2.
Seventh is the Super change.
Fifth might be “Bloody High Claw: Hitbox extended on the top of the attack”
But whats important is 3 and 4. Cause they are new.
And it seems ex.roll will remain +2 on hit.
The suspense of knowing what the remainder of those changes are is killing me.
Where did you find this btw?