Vega Match-Ups Thread: I Only Understand the Pain of Being too Strong and Beautiful

Yeah, EX CT works, but it’s a meter solution to a situation in which Chun doesn’t have to use meter, so it can’t be maintained (nor be used at the beginning of the match). I was looking for a meterless solution, or a meter solution that forced her to spend meter too.

The problem of walking away is that the screen isn’t infinite, and cornering yourself only makes things worse.

Actually, a combination of EX CT and walking back could be useul, since the screen position lost walking back could be gained later with EX CT, hit or block. That’s at least worth a try.

Considering the only other character I use is FANG, and he doesn’t deal with pressure very well either, it’s not the best solution, but still better than die to a horrible matchup, indeed.

I so feel like scrapping the comment I posted just now about using ex.CT to close in on fireballs, but then it is all about how the opponent chooses to react to it. Hopefully they just pity Vega and block it.

Not supposed to be in Vega sub-forums but oh well.

No one tried MT yet? Also wall jump. Try walk back Fba to other side of the screen? Go off the wall high and try not to get hit out of the air when going over. Now that we have no need for down charge using fba as an escape might be viable.

Not going for a hit, you mean? That works once or twice, but once they realize you only want to escape, our recovery on a non hit or block is as you know very punishable. Still another option to mixwith the rest of meh options to make things less predictable, so could work.

Don’t forget to mix in V.Skill against her fireball game. If timed correctly you can turn ‘around’ the fireballs.

The more I see on this character, the more I feel he’s a gimmick. I’m trying to remain optimistic, but all of his options feel situational and sub-par. V-skill seems like a gimmick, even jump in v-trigger is somewhat gimmicky if people just crouch/block it.

I am hoping Vega is just a toolbox character where you need to use every one of his tools to perform well, but I fear he doesn’t have any reliable options.

@DrKatz Vega has one of the best V-triggers in the game. Having said, his V-skill is quite limited and nothing to be abused. I use it mostly to catch people on wake-up who think Vega can’t meaty cos he’s too far. It builds your V-gauge even on block quite considerably. Against fireballs, it’s just too difficult to use considering different fireball speeds.

Vega’s biggest weaknesses are his crush-counter game, which is nearly non-existant now because of the fw.HP nerf, and his wake-up options, which are close to none. That, and his inability to cancel normally. It would have been nice if his V-trigger was at least throw invulnerable.

I think at his optimal, he’s pokey, evasive, and gets damage gradually, until he gets enough meter to use his deadly V-trigger/CA combination.

v-skill is good vs. fireballs, but really only shoto ones. Their fireballs seem to spawn farther away from their bodies than chun/nash, and the travel speed differences aren’t as extreme.

@DrKatz Vega is not really gimmicky, it is just that his strengths are more prominent now and so are his weaknesses. How I wish he has more air moves though (like command normals), I kind of miss his SF4’s n.j hk, it is so good to use it in air-to-air situations.

I like his vtrigger, really symbolizes what his game is, hit and run poke game. So far I like his st.mp (claw mode) the most, with nice range. Kind of reminds me of his old st.mk. V reversal is kind of situational though… I’ll rather have a normal v reversal like other characters.

Vega pretty much has no CC game. Doesn’t help that his s.HK whiffs on the entire cast 90% of the time. Wish c.HP was his CC again.

I love the direction they were going with him when he first came out, but his final version is incredibly lacking.

I think they got rid of his cr.hp CC because it’s an anti-air which works pretty well against some characters. That would have meant a lot of crush counters and great damage cos of Vega’s ex FBA/V-trigger/CA follow-up.

I do think he’s lacking something defensively, because some characters like R.Mika, Laura etc can really mess Vega up with resets/knockdown pressure.

Maybe making his V-trigger invulnerable is too much - but at least making his crouching version of V-trigger invulnerable can get him out and deals minimal damage which you can’t combo from. Of course they would have to increase the hitbox so it hits crouching and standing up-close. I don’t think that’s “broken” since there’s no mixup after and the damage is minimal.

I agree @Moonchilde . At first I really liked him and thought clawless was op. now I am seeing all of the flaws and still don’t really known what he does well besides walk fast. Others are meant for zoning, rush down, poke, mixups, etc. Vega doesn’t really seem to excel in any of these areas much yet. Maybe he is more of an all around character than can adjust? I’m just tired of game after game, not being bale to control the pace of t he match with vega because of random things he lacks. Especially online. People jump in non stop and if they get into cross up range, prepare to eat a barrage of non stop cross up after cross up even if you block em all. Why won’t they give him a damn defensive/invincibility move already!? Maybe throw invincibility frames and faster start up on H.ASE?

Maybe change his v.reversal PPP version to a long forward flip instead? I find that the best change for vega will to make his ex.fba (up hit)'s hit box extend out of his hurt box. This will give us a way to get out of the corner by using an ex.bar, instead of the ex.fba getting hit out by everything.

Ex.fba hit box.

http://i.imgur.com/4o7uRev.jpg

Or extend his st.hk hit box so it can properly connect when we try to punish a blocked sonic scythe, ex mixer, karin’s ex uppercut etc? It feels really frustrating that when we finally bait out their srk and have the st.hk punish whiff.

Vega’s jump mp is actually not too bad as an AA normal, the only problem is both sides will land at around the same time and I’m not sure whether Vega is + or - frames. Height dependent I suppose.

How do I punish Nash’s fwd+hp command normal? It is -13 on block and I can’t seem to punish it. Fought a nash player and he abuses this move together with his slow sonic boom. Sometimes slide works (only when he misjudge the distance and is too close), but most of the time I can only block and nash will continue on his fireball game baiting me to jump.

Hi guys…been lurking for a while…used to post a lot back in the heyday of SSFIV…how do you guys deal with Birdie?..i have a hard time against him cause i feel like i get outpocked by him…and i can’t jump on him for shit…i have a hard time against all characters with one button solves it all anti airs…Birdies crouching mp beats everything…and he won’t even let me get close enought to try to jump and cross him up cause he has long fast normals that hit me while i try to leave the ground…as if all of this wasn’t bad already his air to air normals destroy Vegas

I’ve found that, if you don’t overuse it, f+HP is a great attack against him, he is normally not very mobile so you get him to at least block it most of the time. Be very wary of being predictable because he can nail you with a jump grab if you do. Also, his chains are really unsafe in the mid range and you can easily punish them. Also, his wakeup game is almost as weak as ours, so pressure after a knockdown.

Birdie owns Vega. Birdie doesn’t have to do jack shit but stay in the corner all turtled up. If the player doesn’t press any buttons there isn’t a thing you can do, and if you try to get in he controls every space and angle you attempt.

I’m starting to get really frustrated with this game. I’ve had Nash s.MK AA me out of FBA, I’ve been completely behind Ryu and the opponent did s.MP and beat my FBA clean. From behind. At waist level. Fuck this game, another SF with Vega having mostly worthless specials and this time, lacking the normals to make up for it. CT is so bad on block i can’t fathom why i would want to use it for fear of getting blocked and FBA once again can be AA’d by stupid shit like sweeps.

FBA is for lonnnng knockdowns. LK/MK CT are backup combo enders in case you’re not in position to do a better combo ending in ASE, either target combo, an ex move or even cr.mp. If you want to get chip damage in you can use your normals and ASE to generate that. His normals are quite good, but he does get out normaled by 3-4 characters.

If you use tools incorrectly of course they’ll feel poor.

Anyways there are 15 other characters, if you’re not meshing with Vega’s tools and can’t get over the mental block of stuff not working how it is “supposed to” there are a lot of other options.

I find unless they are jumping in from far away it’s better just to press cr.HK to slide under their jump in since vega’s anti air options are a bit slow and lose out to a lot of different buttons.

@Moonchilde it’s true that Vega can seem pretty weak compared the tools of other characters…I was playing a good R.Mika yesterday and I got devoured man. She gets a corner carry every time and after that you’re pretty much screwed with resets/meaties/grabs. The pressure is actually harder to deal with than SF4 against someone like her in the corner.

I’m gonna play Vega cos I’ve had a lot of success with him in some match-ups. But there are definitely match-ups I don’t see Vega doing anything but getting blown up. Curious to try out Alex and future DLC characters for sure.

I’ve come to find that if you have enough meter for V-Trigger or CA you’re either doing so well you dont need either or you’re not making use of all the tools. His V-Reversal is his only real reversal and his EX moves provide him his safest punish options. If you’re sitting on full V meter or Special Meter people will rarely allow themselves to be caught by CA. If you have to work hard just to get 1 CA you could have efficiently spaced all that work out with greater over all damage potential by spending a bar when you’ve found an opening. But I’ve still struggling between Ultra Bronze and Silver. So I could be missing something.