Seriously, if you look over the changes they nerfed his spd range, he can’t combo into greenhand, they made his ex green hand slower, they nerfed his standing medium punch and they also nerfed his jump hard punch. They basically destroyed his neutral game and i think they nerfed him harder than akuma. Am I the only one that finds this excessesive or was zangief a super OP character? The only major zangief won was the 25th anniversary in Cali but I’m guessing he didn’t run into any of his multiple horrible match ups.
Because the SF4 player base would never ever be able to cope with OG SPD range (same as shoto cr.HR range) and normals. Vanilla SF4 Gief is already a nerfed Alpha Gief, in the first place.
One of the biggest nerfs is the nerf to his EX meter, from 4 bars to practically zero.
Although I’ll accept 2 bars, with the other 2 bars for FADC back dash and even then, your still punishable.
In the current build, I would dare anyone to use an EX move. See, you can’t!
This version of Zangief, is at an all time low, he’s even more russian roulette, except without the large payout.
Capcom has reduced this once great fighter into a gambling slot machine that rewards the opponent.
I’ve called it, as the mathematics isn’t there, and so aren’t the tools.
That’s a nice way of putting it. I would be ok if they made him into more of a “gamble” character, but at least up his damage. Perhaps in the end, the strongest, most threatening tactic we’ll have is land red focus into U1.
Gief will suck in Ultra, that’s a given imo. There won’t be any major tweaks to him that will be game changing. Capcom and all the whining scrubs should be happy though. So now we have a character that has weaker footsies, zero mixups, and all his bad mu’s are getting worse. Good shit.
Making EXGH not comboable but knockdown is OK. Except it doesn’t address the non existent use of meter once you get in. All other EX moves are risky gambles which lead to unsafe play. Super is garbage as 100% of the time, Ultra 1 is the better option. It’s better in damage, range, and post positioning and is practically FREE at no extra cost to EX meter. Differentiation between the Super and Ultra needs to be addressed, but for purposes of game balance, it doesn’t have to be. But fundamentally, its a flaw in design.
Option selects and combos into LPGH are so bad, as you’ve just handed advantage to your opponent for a small amount of scaled damage. We are comparing ending combos with far MP vs LPGH, damage wise.
Eg. cr.lp cr.lp lk xx LPGH vs cr.lp cr.lp lk far mp etc Although you don’t have the proximity, with far MP you are +5 on hit
The short fall and negative expectations of ending combos with LPGH needs to be addressed, otherwise no Zangief player is going to want to go there. I wouldn’t want to be on the bad end of the guessing game. Given if I’m right I get 250 from HP SPD, but if I’m wrong I lose 300.
With delayed wakeup, the significant of “getting in” and the meaning of “knock down” is reduced. They, Capcom, know this, and that’s why EXGH is a hard knockdown. The only thing you can guarantee is working them to the corner, to negate the ability to mix them up via cross ups, or lack of that option. Capcom knows EXGH is garbage, and that’s why you get that hard knockdown. You really need 3 EX bars to effectively land it, given it would be hard to get into position to land the 1 frame plink.
Zangief players have to constantly rework their game after EVERY iteration, EVERY version.
I think they probably just didn’t mention it. I really, seriously doubt they took that away. I do find it very fucking annoying though, that Gief is one of a handful of chars that have reduced UCW damage. 300 damage U1, 270 damage U2. Yea…that’ll strike fear into opponents.
They are listing changes compared to 2012 Gief, they specified that the SPD range change is a nerf, they also specified in previous change logs that EX GH had a Hard Knockdown, it isn’t there now.
I’m sure there are some out there that have hope and are optimistic but there’s no doubt in my mind that Gief will be a bottom five character in Ultra. No doubt at all. I guess I should really start using Hawk more to prepare for the switch. I’d like to use Hugo but I know he’ll be the worst character in the game when all is said and done lol.
So what exactly can Gief do now? They even nerf his st.mp and jumping hp too so what’s their logic in those changes? Then they give us a completely useless “buff” with the close st.lk bullshit. He’s the only character that’s gotten worse with every iteration of this game. I know it’s not all Combofiends fault but when they first announced his job I knew Gief would be completely neutered.
