Do rolls serve a purpose other than to do max damage to dizzied characters? I’ve never incorporated them into my game and wonder if they’re good for anything.
In the tier thread there are a few people saying deejay is a bad matchup for claw. Um did I mis something?
Good for chip vs characters that do not have a reversal, do not have a reliable reversal or vs players that are just not good with reversals. You can also use the jab claw to beat reversals too if the timing is correct since the last frame or two I think are invincible.
When you knock people down with slide you can do a FP vega ball and if they aren’t ballsy enough to try and reversal it, they’ll eat some chip and if they try and reversal it and fail they get vega balled in the face
At most, if they reversal outta it you’re gonna get hit once. Which is why you should do it when you have more health.
I’ve noticed that there isn’t ANYONE who can really stump my Claw online. Are these players all just really bad or what?
Flip kick is so awesome. I love it when people try to jump in and try to attack me just to get kicked with a two hit flip kick. Nobody ever dares to jump into me. I also love tick throwing people to death. Makes me laugh.
Since my name on PSN is AndyChamp, someone actually messaged me saying “Champ*motherfucker”.
People on PS3 add me! I love playing Vega mirror matches!
On another note, d+u lp owns shotos.
If you hit somebody outta the air with RH Flip kick you can combo another RH Flip kick. Does good damage.
A ton of players online don’t know how to play against Claw, not to mention the fact that he desyncs a lot.
And D+U Punch only owns DP happy shotos.
Sounds to me like you’re playing some scrubs.
you like claw mirror matches… 
just feels like a spam fest to me when i play claw vs claw
but you can add me if u want… I haven’t played a good player online in a while… (missing ggpo)
What he said.
Also, you can mix it into your corner game.
When an opponent is knocked down from a slide or whatever, do a fierce claw ball; you’ll get a couple hits of chip damage. Then, immediately throw a couple cr.mp’s, followed by a slightly delayed lp claw ball. If your opponent is in a corner, they often want to jump out after the cr.mp’s; the lp claw ball often catches them.
Again, heed Daniel’s warning: if the other guy has a reversal and can pull it off consistently, avoid doing this every time. The key is mixing it up!
He might like it because as me and my friend like to say “Claw counterpicks Claw”
The first Claw to get the walldive shenanigans is usually the winner, but the other Claw can come back if he suddenly gets the “walldive” weight shifted in his favor.
It’s a seriously gay matchup, considering it’s a mirror one.
I’m finding I have a much higher success rate with Claw than Dictator right now, and I think I’ve put maybe 1/10th as much time into learning Claw too. :lame: I think the main reason is because it’s so damn hard to get Claw in the same traps as Dictator and Claw has reliably fantastic AA while Dictator is very pathetic in that department. Might also be that many players just aren’t used to a Claw that doesn’t continually go for wall shenanigans (sometimes I do the fake dive if they are AA happy turtles) and plays a ground poke/turtle game unless the wall is safe.
And on that note, I don’t have much experience at Claw vs Claw either, what’s really the best option here besides a) don’t jump in if they are crouching, b) hold down back a lot and c) go for the Claw charge move (superman, whatever the move is called) if they go for a wall? I haven’t lost Claw vs Claw yet, but most just jump around and do stupid shit. When they start going for the wall dives, I don’t get hit by them…I don’t understand how that is what is supposed to win this fight unless they (and I) are just not doing it anywhere close to right.
vega vs vega matches are fuckin retarded. whoever gets control of the wall dive first wins
I don’t agree with that. You can’t do continuous wall dives anymore and I think vega can back flip out.
Doesn’t matter really. Even if you don’t get the wall dive throw, you can still probably get the hit on the claw. Tap with c.MP, and go for another one. At best, you’ll be jumping MPed out of it.
Back flipping won’t do much because even if you whiff the claw, you’ll be able to sweep him. Then go for a walldive or a vega ball. It’s seriously whoever gets control of the walldives wins.
I agree, mirror matches gimme a major headache. Backflip may help IF you do it very early from my experience.
Regarding Vega’s worst matchups I gotta say Bison, Blanka and Honda (and Akuma?).
I’m gonna break down some matchups from my experience. Warning I am not that good of a player but hopefully this will make you understand the matchups a little better
from my inexperienced point of view.
Ryu/Ken - Shoryu,Shoryu,Shoryu,Shoryuken!! Yeah you are gonna hear that ALOT, they are gonna try to bait you with those, a well timed slide or c.mp will do the trick. If they jump at you flipkick their karate butts, backflip may help you if they attempt a crossup. Hmm what else…oh yeah you pwn their ground game, if manage to trap them don’t let them out of the fucking corner and stab them to their last pixel of life. Oh also you can bait shorykens with your fake dive, but most of the time they are gonna block it. Take note of this, shotos love their shoryuken, they simply do, you can fake a meaty attack and just block their reversal and free damage for you mate. That’s about it, I think Vega dominates both matches for a slight difference.
Chun Li - She is my second main, and I gotta say they are pretty even like most players believe. Her lighing kicks will shut you ground game, but lucky you her anti
air attacks suck, score a knockdown and wall dive its time. Her j.mk will own your air game so watch it. Hmm not much to say about this one, poke her…and don’t let her score a knockdown.
Guile - Guile is the best turtle of the game IMO. It is easy to corner him from my experience, his only arsenal when he is cornered is hk.flashkick, if you are smart you can bait them and you can send him back into the corner and keep your assault. If you have any experience against Guile players or if you are a Guile player urself I dont think I have to say this but…for the love of god, DO NOT JUMP! Seriously unless he Sonic Booms you, an experience Guile player will always have his flashkick ready for you. You can bait flashkicks with Fake Dives, but it can get a little risky if the is too close to you and you will just eat the flashkick instead.
Balrog - You can stop his dashes with cr.mp, try using you whole ground game, I never use st.mp expept on this matchup, for some reason it helps. Watch for headbutts and punish them when you can. Wall diving is not so bad againts him if you use it well, oherwise you will eat a headbutt or a st.mp to the face.
Zangief - Zone him…do not let him near you, do not let that hairy-russian-homo man wearing just his underwear touch you!. cr.mp, slide, st.mk, cr.hp will help you achieve this, I have gotten a lot of perfects against Giefs. Use cr.mp, slide, st.mk to keep him away, and use cr.hp if he jumps from a distance, you can also use st.hk, worst case scenario it will trade with his body splash. Play it safe…poke him…slide at a safe distance, knock him down…retreat, repeat and win that shit.
Bison - Seriously Bison totally shuts my air game, and my ground game lacks compared to his, also, corner is your worst nightmare against him. Flipkick beats Psycho Crusher and Scissor Kicks (hard), but do it too early and you eat the damage. If you manage to knock him down you get a free wall dive/vega roll attempt. Do not limit yourself to cr.mp, use your whole ground game. That’s all I can say about this one…since I also need help.
Blanka - Blanka is a little tricky. DO NOT let him get near you or watch you health drain with each bite. Punish rolls with cr.mp or flip on reaction (hard), hold back
and down the whole friggin round, use j.mp/j.hk if he jumps at you, slide if you see an opening or electricity, and again DO NOT let yourself get cornered and DO NOT wall dive. In other words…you are to be a ninja TURTLE.
Honda - Meh …one word HEADBUTT, who doesn’t have trouble with this, if you try wall dive eat headbutt, try jumping eat headbutt and you know the rest… If you can try wall diving to the opposite side (Behind Honda) he will lose his headbutt charge, pray he doesn’t react to that trick and…well…good luck. I have been keeping the pressure on Hondas and they don’t seem to to have many answers for that…oh wait…they can headbutt your ass with a reversal. As I said good luck.
Akuma - -Helpful advice here-…
I may add more on the future, Cheers.
With Honda…you can just jump back and HP and it will stop the headbutt.
About Blanka…against roll…you can just st. HP to punish it which is a fuckton easier now cause you don’t have to move that half step to hit him with it.
With Guile…you can do wall dives but just hold back to see if they flash kick or sonic boom…if the latter occurs…press forward and hit him with the claw’s range. Plus you can just slide a lot to beat sonic booms coming, that’s been toned down to a degree b/c you used could just slide all day and there wasn’t too much guile could do about it. But it’s still a good strategy until they get around it.
Chun-Li…there’s like a certain range where Chun can jump and there’s about nothing you can do to her other than flipkick…so always try to keep her about a st. MP distance away.
That’s all I can add. GS to Jadow for the strats.
Being in the corner against Dict as Claw sucks about as much as being in the corner vs Zangief as Dict. Anyway, most of the Dict fights revolve around them trying to throw me since they can’t get anything else to work. If you throw or slide them to the ground, just roll for some chip, otherwise abuse jumping fierce and crouching strong. Jumping fierce beats crushers and seems to beat or trade with scissors, and if they are charging down back, jumping fierce is usually safe. Maybe a late crouching fierce by Dict will stop that, but none of them have done it yet, so I’m not sure.
If they are in the corner just throw them if they block your fierce attempts. If they aren’t in the corner and they block, jump over them as soon as you land and hit fierce again on your way up in case they try either charge moves or jumping up themselves. This also screws up their charges. After you land crouching forward x2, or if they block the first, throw. Never EVER go for the wall unless they are at the opposite corner. Anywhere else will just get you jumping strong to the face x3, although sometimes the superman attack works if they anticipate wrong.
Honda and especially Dic matches are giving me fits.
I’ve given up trying to flip headbutts, I just pray for cornering and try to mix up jumping and sliding to break their charge but I’m still losing a majority of the time. Even to constant headbutts mixed with hugs/HHS :’( When I win it seems to be after cornering them and doing about 75% j.HK mixed in with slides and other pokes.
Against Dic I think I’m seriously at about a 15% win rate, chalking that up to luck and/or horrible opponents. If they’re remotely competent I can’t do anything, and there are certain players that beat me especially badly with good headstomps and throwing after blocked scissor kicks. Flipping scissors or crushers seems particularly futile because of the timing.
More general gameplan advice against either would be highly appreciated.
If you’re afraid of headbutt…just jump back and HP. It beats it cleanly. If you wall dive…do it on his wall so he losses his charge.
Good reminders, both. Definitely need to jump to his wall by default.
On my way back to the east coast after spending the week in Seattle, actually getting to play sf4 a little, and otherwise feeling very out of the ssfhd loop.
However I am returning home with a super sweet painting of Vega which was a gift from my wife, and painted by a friend. Will post pics when Im back in NYC.