Wake up options when opponent jumps in

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
1

Heya, I have only been playing Dhalsim for about a month now and recently decided to make him my main (after playing with Ryu, Ken & Zangief). I feel like I am getting him down pretty well but I have had one major problem that I can’t figure out when playing against some of my friends who are better than me. When I get knocked down, I often have people jump in and I block high then block low and then after that I feel like it is a guessing game. I either keep blocking low and block the entire combo then get away (which is often not the case), I keep blocking low and get thrown, or I try to predict the throw and tech and instead get combo’d. I have tried to wake up slide, slide instead of trying to tech the throw, wake up teleport (both normal and quick air teleport) and teleport (again both ways) instead of teching the throw but always get hit trying these and just end up in a combo.

Sorry if I sound noobish when it comes to this subject on Dhalsim (I haven’t been playing SF that long), but is there a wake up option for Dhalsim against opponents jumping in with attacks that doesn’t require as much guessing on my end and hoping to get lucky?

Thanks for any tips.

2

block then back lk back lk back mk to get some space dont wake up teleport since against gd players u will get option selected.

3

Standing? Is that safe if they are doing low attacks after their jump in attack?

4

No, you will want to block low generally after their jump attack. As you will get hit with low attacks. V.S good players it will lead to damaging combos.

5

So at what point should I do the back lk back lk back mk? When I think they are going to attempt the throw? Isn’t that still guessing and putting myself in danger of more low attacks?

6

There is no real “Time” to do it. You really have to just watch your opponent and read what they will do. I suggest watching some videos of other sims. There are a ton of Mochi in the video thread, as well as some of Arturo. Focus on When he is using pokes and when he is using fires. Honestly i use to use B.lk B.lk B.mk a lot to. I just recently trained myself to just use one B.lk to B.mk. It causes less room for error and pushes them back just about as far. Sometimes ending in a Strong yoga fire. Don’t do the fire all the time as if they know its coming they can jump it. As for wake up. You just kinda have to get a feel for it and realize that it is Sim’s worst situation. You can use the teliport, but use it very sparingly.

Sorry i can’t help more, but that’s just a very hard position to be in for any sim.

7

block

8

Shawn’s got this down pretty right. Dhalsim has low health and stun, you dont want to take the risk of using a reversal if all that will happen is that you are gonna get caught in more combo action.

IMO, you have to think about it in terms of threat. I assume we are talking about a meaty attack right? not necessarily a jump in? The move is active on your wake up already, so unless u have something with invincible frames, you are gonna get hit on wakeup. This leaves your options to block/teleport. I dont think IAT works for this.

Teleport is ok in a blue moon. I want to say that most players SHOULD always O/s a sweep when they jump in on dhalsim. anyway, if you are in the corner, teleport is a bad option.

That leaves block. So lets look at what can happen on the jump in

  1. jump in normal or jump in cross up - block accordingly
    A) follow up throw or high hit or low hit - you can block low, except for the throw in which case u need to tech. Keep in mind ibuki and chun and ryu sometimes use the air target combo to hit u twice in the air, so if u block low all the time, that shit is gonna catch u.
    b) follow up throw or another low hit etc - same thing

When i use dhalsim, I never try to counter poke until I see a block string finish, and I’m positive that i have frame advantage.
Sure at any point in a block string, your opponent can stop his string and go for a tick throw. That effectively resets the situation. But that’s the benefit of being on the offense, you dictate at that exact time what is going on. HOwever, if you block the string, or do tech correctly, you’ve negated taht lead and you can start to poke with b+lk or B+mk.

DHalsim is 100% about position. i would assume that typically you want to save the hard pokes fp and hk, for when you are 3/4 screen with a fireball on screen. This way, you force your opponent to react to your fireball, or if you are in a fireball war, once u have fireball advantage, you can counter poke him with s fp.

When they get into 1/2 screen, you need to be much more careful about the fireball and strength of your pokes, stick to mp, mk, cr mp and lk.
AT this range, fireballs are punished with jump-ins so know your AA accordingly.

Once they get in, of course you are in a disadvantageous position. once the string ends, b lk, b mk and then react. If he dashes in, poke. If he jumps, then AA or slide under and throw for putting them in the corner.

Facing pressure is what every dhalsim should fear. But u just have to hedge your bets. Sometimes its ok to get thrown. Sure it might reset the situation but perhaps you’ll respond to the next situation better. At least you don’t eat a combo. Sometimes, hey, eat the overhead. I’d say unless its dudley or balrog, u don’t run the risk of any more damage. There is no magic move to perform to succeed. U just need to adapt to the situation.

dhalsims fastest move is 3 frames and that is b+lk. The fastest moves in the game come out at 3 frames, balrog lp, shoto dp (obviously this has invicibility in the beginning.) sim’s fastest AA options come out in 5 frames or more (fastest being ex upflame).

Thus, if you stop a block string and are worried about more pressure and are sure that you are at least neutral in terms of frame advantage, then poke with b+lk. If an opponent tries to reset the situation with a jump in, then respond with ex up flame as its your fastest move at that point.

I’m trying to stress here that doing “nothing” is sometimes a good idea. If you are blocking normals, then its all good, if he hits you with a special move, you might eat chip, but more often than not (except in a few instances like sakura) he needs to recover and you can react.

You blocking typically pushes your opponent away due to the properties of hits on block. After a few blocked normals he may be out of range and u can hit with the godly b+mk. that is a pretty damn good poke. Just block more, bro. u can crouch tech a lot of throws but (shrug) mashing crouch tech doesn’t teach u anything and you are gonna get punished when people see you doing that (they stop string and counterhit when you in throw animation).

9

So what it comes down to is I have to guess lucky and the luck isn’t in my favor? There is no way to gauge what to do other than attempting to read my opponents habits (which still leaves me in trouble the first few times I get knocked down)?

Like I said, that is one of my issues. If I just block, I block the jump hk>crouching attack but then get thrown. Then having to guess they are going to throw and trying to tech it often leaves me getting hit when he does another crouching attack instead of a throw.

10

Most every match you play involves a number of phases.

You’ll have the cautious watchful phase where you kind of let the other guy do his thing so that you can get an idea what’s going on.

You have the experimental phase where you test to see if he’s going to throw when he’s up close, etc.

You then solidify your play style around theirs and be wary of them changing their formula slightly.

You have to observe the other player and see what they do, what they want to do, and try to anticipate when they’ll mix it up. Players generally always mix things up, but there’s MANY things that they won’t. Core aspects of their play style will stay throughout the matches of the session. When you first start playing the game you’re so focused on your own execution and choices that it’s hard to pay attention to the opponent. After a while you become confident in your execution and options as your general familiarity with the game and character increase. Once you get to the point where you can focus more on the opponent you can relatively quickly learn their tendencies and exploit them.

11

Majority of the time, you won’t really have any other options than to block their entire combo and mix-up on wake-up. It will push you back enough to get some breathing room assuming you aren’t cornered. If you are at the max range of using B. mk, try using it. There are some characters like Ibukis crouching strong that can either trade or counter hit b. mk so you want to be careful about it. If you think they’re going to crouching mk into ex tatsu or something like that, you can reversal yoga inferno on their poke, but that is really high risk high reward. Teleport works sometimes if they mis-time their attacks or jumping attack, but great players can punish it so you don’t want to over-rely on it in desperation.

Blocking/teching is the 2nd most important thing to using Dhalsim after learning how to space. Adjust to character mix ups and how people play well and you can avoid taking a lot of damage (tech throws after a couple light jabs or kicks and so on). It separates you from the scrubs who always dp on wake-up and it makes you a much better Dhalsim player and player of the game in general.