When you opponent is stunned in SF4

I’ve always thought it best to jump in with a heavy attack then continue with a combo, but I see many high level players do a lvl 3 focus, then the combo.
My reasoning is that focus attacks cause a great deal of damage scaling, and so it’s best to do a jumping heavy, but it’s much easier to land a lvl 3 focus, especially if your opponent is a fast at recovering.

So my question is, do high level players do FAs because they’re easier to land, or do they actually do more damage, and what do you do in this situation?

If you think that your opponent has a good chance at recovering from dizzy before you can land a jump-in, then you would want to go for the level 3 FA for a chance to get a unscaled level 3 FA. Otherwise, the jump in is superior.

Getting an unscaled Level 3 FA is a thing of beauty.

I’ve been lurking for a while now and I’m new to these forums. So, please forgive me if I’m asking a stupid question but I would like to improve my game.

I would like to flip the question around. What are some of the things I should do right away after being stunned myself? Is there anything I can do to recover faster?

Thanks in advance.

bneale

JUMP BACK

(i wanna kiss myself)

Is jumping the best idea? What about simply dashing backwards?

Also, if I mash the buttons, will I recover faster? Or do I simply have to wait for the stun to wear off?

bneale

A good combo that could get in a good major damage or ultra.

Hahah, no no dude ignore the jump back thing. You’ll understand when you’re blacker. ([media=youtube]otF5XwyVy2M"[/media])

You can get out of dizzy faster by mashing the hell out of your stickandbuttons. I’m not 100% certain about (S)SF4 specifically, but in many older Capcom fighting games, the optimal maximal awesomal way to mash (ie. how to register as many “correct” mash inputs as possible in a given length of time) was to wiggle the stick directly between diagonal up-back and diagonal down-forward, while sliding your fanned fingers left and right, back and forth over all six of your buttons in a sweeping motion.

Note that in almost all cases, though, your opponent will be able to hit you before you can mash out of the dizzy anyway.

Also note that you are in Vancouver and you should come check out the Vancouver thread. :smile:

depending on you character you can try to mash out an SRK so if you do recover in time you might catch them trying to go for that free hit

the damage they get from blocking your whiffed shoryuken wont be any more than they would have gotten if you didn’t mash out of dizzy

I jiggle the stick left and right or in a motion for an uppercut.

and I press the buttons instead of sliding my hand across all the buttons because I’ve noticed that when I do that my hand stays over the medium attacks and they stay held instead of being pressed repeatedly.

Focus attack

If you take too long to set up your jump in fierce/RH, the opponent can recovery and possibly have the chance of blocking your combo after stun, which would render the stun useless. This rarely happens, but there are times when even I forget or mistime my jump-in or something stupid, and the opponent recovers. On the other hand, if you simply charge your Lv3 Focus Attack, it is now UNBLOCKABLE, and the only way of them escaping is by recovering and then backdashing/jumping, which is harder to do than hold block. I’d say FA is decent to use because it keeps the opponent in place for a few more seconds and gives you the opportunity to gather your thoughts and make SURE the combo lands well. However, Jump-In Heavy is better in terms of dmg.

Space your fingers apart when you slide.

I know my friend just MASHES Ultra so if you don’t get him asap and charge up that focus, he ultras you. >>;

Thanks for the tips guys. I really appreciate it, especially being new.

@deadfrog, Thanks for pointing me to the Vancouver thread. I had no idea there was one.

@Kelter Skelter, When I’m dizzy, I almost always go for a sweep or a SRK. I find the sweep helps for quick escape and the SRK helps to counter any oncoming attack. Sometimes I do the sweep and follow it up with an SRK because the person is still chasing me. But your totally right about the whiffed SRK out of dizzy. I just didn’t realize it.

You should totally just reset him with a standing jab out of dizzy and watch him whiff the hell out of ultra.

what about if you fed him a standing jab and went straight into SNK after the jab. Wouldn’t it counter his ultra?

bneale

Uhhh? Blocked SRK leads to a HUGE unscaled combo while if they combo you while you’re in dizzy, the combo would likely do very little damage due to scaling.

It’s never really a good idea to try to hard counter predicted ultras with DPs, since virtually all of them have a large amount of invincible frames.

Thanks for telling me this. I wouldn’t have ever known unless you said this.

This is why I’m posting on here. I need to improve my fighting theory so, sorry for asking dumb questions.

bneale