@Ramma Haha, you got me :). To be fair, I knew you could, it’s been demo’d in several combo videos. You just can’t juggle from it when FADC’d 
BTW for those that don’t know the reason:
The hitbox for Zonk has a juggle increment of 1 whereas the attack data has a juggle start of 99 this means that if you hit the opponent with Zonk FIRST to start a juggle you are always at 99 but if you hit a person already IN a juggle it only adds 1 point. My guess is that this is due to the original design of the move to be an alpha counter which meant it was expected Cody would never be able to use the move in a situation where the opponent would already be in a juggle state when you first hit them.
cr. MK xx Hadoken is a true string in USFIV.
Cody is seriously screwed in this version. It’s just depressing. Every buff they give someone else just makes life harder for Cody, and he’s gotten nothing to show for it at this point.
Funny, I just made a similar post in the rebalance thread. That will definitely skew that match-up to Ryu’s favour. Cody’s changes so far have not been encouraging but I’m trying to stay positive hoping he’ll get something good.
Cody will fall in the tier list if that is all we get from what we know so far. Top tier will fall as well, but not beyond Cody, while lower tier characters will climb above him.
I thought this was just pure speculation? I’d be very surprised if that change genuinely made it through.
Honestly, with some characters getting buffs of this magnitude who were fine the way they were, and then Cody getting zonk FADC, I would be surprised if there wouldn’t be another balance-patch after USFIV. Cody is probably not the only one ignored.
Then again, these are rumors, and Cody might still get a lot of buffs.
It’s too early to say that Cody is being ignored. I’ve heard some chat about possible changes that weren’t even asked for.
Let’s just wait for any official statement though.
However, if more stuff keeps coming out about other characters, we’ll have to tell combofiend and the likes that Cody fans are out there, waiting.
@ADN What chat? Anything trustworthy?
I agree though, let’s wait for an official statement. Just scary to watch all the buffs while at the same time contemplating the one “buff” that was given to Cody.
Dunno how reliable , especially since that was a few weeks ago so any change might be gone now. They’re just testing out different builds and see what’s up. I guess they’re also talking to a select number of top players for inputs (which to be fair may not be the greatest idea).
The question is do those top players know what Cody needs or doesn’t need, unless they are maining, or having mained Cody they probably give the wrong impression about the character. Buffs being excluded because it would make him “too strong”…lol
Honestly though, i think Cody only needs very few buffs to make him a very very solid character.
he still needs them to stay competetive. I mean if c.mk xx hadoken true block string for ryu is true, that’s more than a little tweak.
All I want is EX Ruffian to have fireball invincibility from frame 1. I’ll be good to go.
If I could get 1 other thing though, I’d ask for faster charge time on all Zonk knuckles
Please increase his walk speed to help him with footsies. I would love for cody to have an air throw like in alpha 3 maybe this will help keep the pressure on his opponent thus allowing him to mix up more with cross ups, lows, etc. also make the Zonk knuckle (bingo) charge time faster and give him away to combo into ultra 1 with out using to much meter(3 bars SMH). How cool would it be if he could CUxxFADC ultra 1 ?
Depending on how prominent red focus becomes, Cody’s zonk and mk ruffian are the best tools in the game to deal with it
Sakura’s LK Tatsu, Yun Lunge Punch, Viper MP Thunder Knuckle, Dan LK Dan kick, Evil Ryu axe kick, Rose Soul Spiral, Hakan Light Oil Slide and Oil Dive, Makoto EX Hayate, Sagat EX Tiger Knee, Fei’s Chicken Wing, Chun EX Hozanshu (remember it is getting armor break potentially.), Seth Tanden Engine, Gen’s Hands, Guy LP / EX Hozanto are all as good or in many cases better.
Sorry but there are still a bunch of safer, faster, and more effective moves to beat Red Focus, even among characters who already are better at most things than Cody (Sakura/Yun). Not saying crLK - MK Ruffian isn’t a fuck ton better than a lot of characters have (Cammy/Akuma/Blanka/Guile/ect) but it’s still not “the best in the game” by any means.
I think what is interestingly over looked though: Knife throw breaking armor just became a better buff as it’ll be the only projectile that will break Red Focus.
I mean because they can be use reactionarily (is that a word??). The only specials that I can use to react to focus is zonk and mk ruffian (could be just me).
For every other character i use a fast normal with lots of active frames buffered to counterhit the release, but that is going alway since these moves don’t usually break armor themselves.
You can use at least half of the moves I listed in a similar fashion to beat focus on reaction. Hell, Sakura’s LK Tatsu, Dan’s LK Dankick, Guy’s Hozanto and Gen’s hands don’t even really require you to change how you play the character as they are now.
Edit - Posted with wrong account somehow!
I don’t think zonk or ruffian are that good for breaking focus unless the opponent is at very close range or has a horrendous backdash. Granted zonk is really good if you see them release the focus, but until then it’s a bit of a gamble. I guess it might be worthwhile to use EX ruffian to break red focus - don’t think I’ve ever seen a Cody player intentionally use EX ruffian to break a normal focus though!
Is anyone else worried about these changes? For characters like Cody who have one ‘combo’ ultra and one ‘punish’ ultra, having both ultras in a match is going to be next to useless given that the damage for both is reduced. Who wants a punish ultra with reduced damage? And if red focus is intended to help escape a vortex (i.e. they don’t properly fix vortex characters) then what use is an ultra that usually requires two bars to combo into it? On the flipside, some match ups are going to be a hell of a lot worse if other characters choose to use both ultras - at the moment Akuma has to choose between the ability to cancel sweep into U1 or teleport into U2, but if he can do both then Cody can’t focus within sweep range or attempt to option select/make a read against a teleport! There must be tons of other equally horrible examples where this will make already difficult match ups even worse.