I don’t care about what tiers list say, I like Alex, but there’s really something off with the character.
The first thing that bother me quite a bit, is why on earth Makoto Sa1 does vaccum when Alex Sa2 does not ?
Second, he has to be played rushdown in order to be the most effective. But I think powerbomb let you too far from the opponent. You have to re work your way in after using it. And everyone know how hard it can be against most of the character.
So the two thing that really strike me is those two thing : No vaccum on SA2 and too much distance after Powerbomb use.
What other alex needs really in your opinion. Not to be a top tiers, but at least in order to be a more viable character ?
Too late to complain. Play Ford Strike if you want a buffed Alex in 3S.
The funny thing is that Alex is either high or solid mid tier in the few other games he’s been in (TVC and Capcom Fighting Jam). No doubt if he was in SF4 he’d probably be high-mid.
But the big problem with Alex is his bad footsie game and horrendously bad Powerbomb. Not to mention all of his bad supers but his footsies and Powerbomb are the bigger problems IMHO.
That and just give him a better command grab. I was really thinking about it and his Powerbomb could be the worst command grab in the history of Capcom fighters.
1: Has very little range. Slightly less than his Kara.
2: Very little damage off LP Powerbomb. Slightly more than a regular throw.
3: No invincibility so if you’re too close you can be hit or thrown out.
4: Even if it lands it pushes him back to half screen distance and worse yet…
5: Does not have a hard knockdown.
I could kinda’ see what the Dev’s were going for with Alex, but there’s a lot of things that don’t make sense. Okay, they make him one of the few Capcom grapplers with a HCB Grab and they make him relatively fast. But make his Grab weak as hell but at the same time make him the only Capcom character that can combo into his Grab and Grab super like an SNK character. BUT THEN design the moves that he can combo off of slow and extremely risky in a game with parries and characters like SA3 Ken and SA2 Chun… and if he’s too far away you STILL cannot combo into his Grab or Grab Super.
The more I think about it the more it pisses me off.
If you actually had links into SA3, I think it’d be too powerful (unless you prorated the stun). Think about it. A guaranteed stun combo that doesn’t require mad amounts of execution? SA2 doesn’t need a damage buff but instead needs vacuum.
I’m serious, though, about giving him a low hit confirm. Aside from SA2 doing vacuum he really doesn’t need anything else. A low hit-confirm means the opponent has to respect high, throw, AND low as opposed to just high and throw (Alex’s low options are his slow-ass sweep, cr.forward as a tick, or cr.short as tick or cancelled into a special move which doesn’t connect (only Boomerang Raid connects off of SA2).
Uhh, Alex low short is cancellable, it combos into EX rising knee and SA2. Fuuck. But yeah, it’s not really hit confirmable unless you’re amazing. If his low target combo could cancel into SA2 then he’d be set. And the last fucken thing SA2 needs is a damage buff. Power bomb is really useful, there are better command grabs in the game but just the fact that he has a command grab does wonders for his mix-up game. I don’t agree with hard knock down because no command grab has that in 3S plus jab power bomb already gives you a pretty good positional advantage as long as you have them in the corner.
Having a 1 frame SA1 would be cool but only if the input was changed to 720+P and it had a damage reduction. Definitely not a change Alex actually needs but it would be fun.
You can get a hard knockdown from Q’s command grab.
But I agree, Powerbomb is pretty underrated. It compliments his corner game well, combined with his other throws and high/low games. I mean he’s a fat hitbox and has a hard time getting in on faster characters, but that’s Alex. All the big guys have trouble getting in, even Urien who has to be willing to take risks to get in. I do feel that a vacuum SA2 would be very helpful though.
Would something like the Flash Chop turnaround state added after LK Slash Elbow also, be too powerful?
You don’t combo into it, but you combo to SA2 out of it. Their fault if they got tagged with it. If you don’t expect it to hit but just to get in, you lose your chance to do damage with the turnaround, somewhat like a fast/online game when you hit MP/HP Flash and aren’t ready or inputs don’t register in time from some frame skips, the match being ahead of where you thought it was. Or just slightly out of range after turnaround they’re generally safe unless you maybe burn EX meter on Slash Elbow to fly in there to try to hit them turned around.
4rdddd strike you went too far!
Sacrificing something there, probably have more on-block frames(disadvantage for Alex) at least. So it can’t be used over and over in the right range. More risk for greater reward. Which you could argue for or against and rather want to keep the regular, safer one.
No footsie with Alex ? I’m not a pro player, not even a good player, but from my little experience he has some great zoning tool.
EX Flash chop, EX Slash on the top of my head.
I think f.mp as a good footsie tool. Can be spammed without too much risk, good range, good startup, good priority,
To me Alex is the only character in third strike that doesn’t deserve to be such a weak character. That’s like guy in Alpha3 to a greater extent, he’s not weak but it’s a shame he isn’t more broken.
So what about this list of changes : I don’t think any of his super needs a buff since his ex moves are so good but SA2 still need vaccum effect
Vaccum effect for SA2 on grounded hit ( not on block ).
Reduced the distance a little between you and the opponent after you successefully landed a power bomb.
He has two good pokes: sMK and tMP. That’s about it. Only other thing he can do is sLK into SA2 and good luck with that.
EX Flash is okay but here’s the problem with it: It hits twice but the 2nd hit does not hit low and has low range. So let’s say your fighting one of the shoto’s at about quarter screen distance, you throw out an EX Flash thinking they might try something or jump out or whatever. All the shoto has to do is parry the first hit, then do crMK into whatever… Same applies to the Twins, Chun, and even Urien’s crHP if he’s close enough.
EX Shoulder is an easy punish with Ken and Chun’s SA. And it’s a pretty easy parry in it self. Even if let’s say you parry what they do at mid-screen -for example a crMK- the EX Shoulder is too slow to catch them in time. Same with EX Flash. And SA2 needs to be done close to land the whole thing. EX Shoulder is best used to punish or as a followup if you land MP/HP Flash chop.
I agree with everything else and as I said he’s actually pretty good in any other game he’s in sans NG and 2I. Even one buff to his Powerbomb and fixing his supers would be enough but alas…
The only other thing that Alex needs aside from a low hit confirm (and yes, I already mentioned, cr.short doesn’t count) is for Power Bomb to place Alex close to the opponent after landing it. As far as I recall, the frame-data for Power Bomb is concurrent with everyone’s favorite command throw, Karakusa (7-frame for light, 8 for medium, 9 for heavy). He could use better range with it, but what would make Power Bomb a scarier threat (aside from it landing him close enough to continue offense) is the threat of, you guessed it, a good mix-up. He doesn’t need more damage out of it; he already does enough damage as it is. Making it faster would be sick, but I don’t think that that’s necessary.
the footsie problem is definitely the biggest. obviously I don’t play Alex, but I don’t need to to know that all his worst matchups tend to be ones where he can’t close in on his opponents. a decent low poke is going to help a hell of a lot more against chun, oro, nekuro, shotos etc. more than improving hyper bomb
“The only other thing that Alex needs aside from a low hit confirm (and yes, I already mentioned, cr.short doesn’t count) is for Power Bomb to place Alex close to the opponent after landing it.”
I am glad we agree with that. It’s hard for him to get close, so once he’s in he should be able to stay at good distance.
Other question I have. After a powerbomb, is doing a whiffed flash dash on a knocked down opponent a good solution ? If it is, there’s no need to reduce the distance after a landed powerbomb. What do you think ?
Let’s look at a few situations. To keep it simple, we’re going to use jab Power Bomb. Of the three strengths, he lands the closest to the opponent after a successful Power Bomb, so for distance’s sake we’ll use this. Also, I’m testing on Ryu right now. Will test on Ken later.
Midscreen Power Bomb; opponent quick-rises:
Dash and Slash Elbow are not quick enough to close distance with opponent, opponent has already recovered.
Midscreen Power Bomb; opponent does not quick-rise:
Two dashes covers ground. Medium Slash Elbow leaves you almost on top of opponent. Light Slash Elbow leaves you just barely out of range so you must walk up to do jab Power Bomb or even s.forward into Flash Chop, but opponent also has time to recover so mashed uppercuts can win, etc.
Corner Power Bomb; opponent quick-rises:
One dash is good enough to get in. I advise against using any Slash Elbow, though, even short. Better to sacrifice that tiny bit of meter for choice on positioning which is key with Alex.
Corner Power Bomb; opponent doesn’t quick-rise:
Either your opponent knows to mess with your timing or your opponent is a moron.
Quick-rising after a Powerbomb is one of the easier things to do so the chances of someone not doing so is slim to nil. The best way to use the Shoulder after a knockdown is if you land a MP/HP Flash Chop and follow up with EX Shoulder. If you do HK shoulder you should be right on top of them.
If I can build on this for a second and maybe vent a little. The problem with Alex isn’t just one thing. The problem is that everything he has suffers in some huge way. He has a bad command grab. Bad supers. No low combos. And for the most part bad specials. Only two of them are really useful the others are more like “Oh my god, I can’t believe you got hit by that!” kind of thing. His pluses are good mixup and really good damage and stun if he gets in with a bit of meter. Emphasis on if.
All these problems create kind of a perfect storm for him and if just one of these issues were resolved he’d be a much better character. Another big problem is that he isn’t really scary.
For example:
Ken/Chun/Mak/Urien/Yun/Dudley/Denjin Ryu just off the top of my head immediately become scary once they have or are just about to have Super. If Alex has Super than who cares? He can’t do anything at about mid-screen to you that will hit. He can jump in but you could bait him or know how to counter jump in parry which isn’t really that hard. You’re still in control. He has to find that way in and you don’t.
If Alex lands a Power Bomb at mid screen and you have plenty of health then who cares? There’s nothing he can do to pressure you after that unless he has you in the corner. If you got hit by it you’re still fine. You took a little bit of damage and he has to find his way in again. Compare this to being grabbed by Hugo or Makoto. You get grabbed and you think “Oh shit now I have to get out, or hopefully parry or do something to get out, maybe I’ll get lucky!” and that does not come into play with Alex unless he has you in the corner and Chun/Ken/Twins/Akuma can easily get out of that corner and there’s very little you can do…