I think every character can be B-A tier if a player is good enough to make it so. 
i picked up ibuki for a few different reasons:
my main was chun and chun loses to all kinds of mixup characters/divekickers, so when super came out and i saw ibuki and dudley and makoto along with rufus and co i thought āmixup city my chun will dieā so i looked at the characters and thought ibuki seemed like a good fit, saw justin wongs preview video of her and saw the crossup kunai vortex and was hooked.
i STAYED with her for other reasons:
few people knew the matchupā¦ even today many people dont know the matchup.
i liked the fact that she had a completely safe on block special and that it could be used to frame trap with st.mk for free (chuns frame trap sucks ass) also, this makes autopiloting with her pretty easyā¦ and autopiloting is FUNā¦ till it stops working, then its FUN not to autopilotā¦ so win/win for me.
she has one of the best AA moves in the game, this also makes it so that i can take things kinda slow and really study my opponent to find those reads and tendencies and then ruthlessly expose whatever psychological/spacing faults that i can.
plus shes fun to look at and even a predicatble autopilot vortex is unstoppable by much of the cast ad simply functions as an easy mode safe jump. i also like her crossup range as its totally possible to crossup while playing footsies for herā¦ unlike a character like adon.
but if it were any one thing it would be the combination of thinking that my chun would get bodied and and ibuki being a mixup character that i liked to look at.
also liked coming up with my own theory fighter mixups and strats, cause i ā¦love theory fighter and a character with as many moves as ibuki is a theoryfighters wetdream.
-dime
Perfect. That describes exactly how I feel about her, now that I think about it.
Back when I played SSFII, I used to play Cammy because she was the only character there that appealed to me. When I decided to get back into fighting games a few months ago, I found that my skill had gone back to complete noob status, and all I was doing was button mashing and spamming Cannon Spikes so I banned myself from playing with her. From there, I started looking for any good character that wasnāt either a shoto or charge character because their playstyle always felt shallow, and after seeing a video of VesperArcade owning with Ibuki I was sold.
That said, I wouldnāt have stuck with her if her playstyle didnāt appeal to me - having a wide range of tools and a game that requires both patience and thought are major points in her favour IMO. She might not be the best character to learn with from scratch, but Iād rather learn the game I want to play than some generic style that Iāll have to change later.
+10000000
Having a character I can be creative with is a huge asset for me imho. I do play Cody as well andā¦ I donāt feel like I can be original/fancy with him at all 
However the matchup not being known is actually a bad thing. I got used to beat 80% of Xbox Live by continuously autopiloting, and nowā¦ I loose to actually good players cause I canāt get out of this autopilot mode -__-
I was wonder if any of you guys would mind helping me learn Ibuki? I know that there are all of these threads full of videos and things like that but I learn better while have someone else talk me through it. If you guys know anyone who wouldnāt mind helping me out, or you yourselves wouldnāt mind helping me I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
This isnāt really the tread to cover this, but if you want general advice on anything you can feel free to ask on the forums and weāll help you out if we can. If you want someone to actually play with/against you you might want to look at the player directory thread(Iād offer but I live in Australia and Iām terrible anyway.). Also it might help if you were to tell us what stage you are at with learning Ibuki and Sf in general.
Honestly, your best course to take would be to thumb through the forums, check out all the videos, read all of the posts, etc etc. Thereās actually a LOT of good information in these forums, moreso than a majority of the other character sub-sections, and you can learn a lot by just reading posts and watching footage.
After that, then you can post specific questions in your problem areas, and weād be very happy to help. Understand that Ibuki can be a fairly complex character that isnāt as easy to pick up as sayā¦Ryuā¦but sheās very rewarding once you start mastering her basic tool set.
Man, anybody can just spam vortex and get up to the 2k PP range. Randomness ftw.
True, but even that kunai vortex can be difficult for newbies to pick up initially.
Can you call yourself a decent player if you only win because of kunai vortex? Iām sure if I pick other characters, I would still be in 500PP range =/
No, youāre just a player that abuses kunai vortex. Once you play an opponent that knows how to get around that little trick, youāre probably fucked.
Yeah, I thought so, but I still know some mixups like j. lk and do tick throws but Iām still inexperienced in a lot of things in this game.
I used to just throw kunais and jump or super jump to try and change which side the vortex would hit on, but once I learned a few setups and how to get the vortex on the side I wanted without thinking about it, it got much better. Not to say that I rely on kunai vortex entirely but it has won me a fair share of my matches.
If only Iād learned to use st.mp earlier, that helped my game more than anything.
We all start somewhere, so thatās fine. Over time, youāll learn to fine-tune your skill set, pick up more tricks along the way, learn to play more solid, learn to feel the momentum of the match, etc etc. Just keep up the work.
Which is actually the worst thing when you play Ibuki: people donāt know shit about her. Iām honestly tired to autopilot win most of my matches because people donāt know how to play against Ibuki, and then I get bodied by somebody smart enough to play patient against me.
To improve this Iām trying to play a completely different character which is Cody, and whenever I play Ibuki I try not to attack and just play on reaction without putting any pressure if my opponent goes down. I just wanna make sure Iām okay with footsies & defense -_-
Iām constantly telling new players at my local scene to attempt the escape of vortex and 90% of them donāt bother to do the focus attack or willing to burn meter to escape. Although most of them are having a difficult time escaping because they donāt know how to time their attacks. Then when someone knows how to escape and they practiced on their timing, I start doing things like safe jumping or a different set-up to confuse them. When I win against someone, most of them comment about how cheap the vortex is, when they donāt even try to escape or learn. I guess I just donāt know how to teach them properly because Iām really the only ibuki player in my area.
I really want a secondary character, but I donāt know who to use honestly. I like characters who can rush down well, have better defensive tools then ibuki, better footies. So characters along the lines of cammy, fei long, akuma. These characters that Iām not sure with, but I some interest in them: Makoto, cody, guy, blanka, vega, and guile. Halp me guys : [
If they donāt listen to you or they canāt react to what side Ibuki is on before the kunai hits then they should just gtfo. It really should be like 40% easier when they have information from an Ibuki player about how to escape the vortex. Also, you should body them by using one rep of kunai vortex only People respect me for that since I like to play with style and fairness.
If you really want a rushdown character, yes, pick Cammy. Fei Long can rush, but I feel like heās more of a solid character. Makoto hurts when she gets in because she has karakusa setups that lead to her BnB or into a feint karakusa setup. Just try out all of the characters!
First thing: If people complain on how cheap Ibukiās vortex is without even bothering trying to escape it, they should definitely gtfo. Just tell them to pick Ibuki and to be cheap, so they can check how cheap it is.
I like sometimes when people tell me āIbukiās vortex is sooo cheapā and then try to pick Ibuki against me and canāt land anything if I happen to be down, because Iām just autopilot backdashing.
If you feel you are playing autopilot with Ibuki, please never pick Cammy. Cammy is probably the most autopilot character in this game so if you are having trouble autopiloting, donāt go for Cammy.
Fei Long is everything but rushdown. Fei Long is all about spacing and controling the game, which can be interesting
Vega and Guile, rushdown? Are we speaking about the same game orā¦ ?
A good way to check how good your basics are: pick Ryu. Check how good/how bad you are. If you canāt do anything with Ryuā¦ Your basics are pretty bad
Solution: play better players, or play Ibuki without vortex.
Solution: play better players.
Good offense + good defense + good footsies = asking for an S tier character. Your closest bet is Cammy. Akuma is also a close second place, but he does have a vortex that can make shitty players rage (I thought thatās why you were seeking a secondary?).
Fei is good, but heās not really the rush-down type; thereās a difference between rushdown (can end the round in 5-10 seconds) and simply safe pressure, like jab rekka (takes 15-20 seconds to end the round even if you make 5 good reads in a row).
Makoto doesnāt really play footsies. Cody has poor defensive tools; well maybe not poor but definitely hard to use (a lot of smart cr.LP usage and well placed bingos). Guy has really bad reversal options; just like Ibuki he has no reversal without meter. Blanka is kind of a weird character, but might suit your needs if you can play him technically enough. Claw has possibly the worst defensive options in the game. Guile also has one of the worst offensive options in the game.
+1 for Ryu.