That’s probably a testament to Snake Eyez more so than Zangief.
I think Zangief’s ideal range is just outside the opponent’s 3 framer range. At the tip of the LP SPD range is where he’s more comfortable in this game. If you want to be closer, you need to have advantage. Ideally, you need +12 to start-up the Headbutt.
At point blank WITHOUT advantage, your at your weakest - trying to survive and maybe slip in that V-Counter.
In the midrange, I think you can FLEX almost everything for a guaranteed 50 damage, just gotta be razer sharp.
Well, my optimism is dying. I feel like I’m losing to lesser opponents. Thing is, I haven’t touched any other character at all and I don’t want to unless Alex ever comes out. I’m level 28 Zangief, 28 overall, that’s how much a purest I am. I got zoned by Vega so hard earlier that the mother fucker had time to taunt me and I couldn’t touch him.
His bear hug is almost useless. It’s to slow and I can’t help but compare it to Birdies jump grab. People have enough time to jump away from it from point blank!!!
I know I can choose any other character and do exponentially better but that’s not me. I’m sticking with the Russian. just venting.
Also kanalgravare, if you’re so enthralled with a grappler that has a footsies range sweet spot I’ve got news for you… There’s this guy named birdie who was physically designed to do that, and he does it very well.
Gief on the other hand was designed to combo into ex spd and they took that out without giving funding else to compensate. I don’t think he was designed to have this sweet spot, in fact, I think it was carelessness in his design that resulted in him ending up this way.
Evansgambit, you definitely can flex most attacks, however you might build up 200 plus white health just to score 50 damage. If you don’t want to risk all that health then you just have to sit back for like 10 seconds doing nothing while it heals and hopefully they don’t rush you down during that time. Fun stuff!
I will say this Gief’s biggest enemy in this game is that rollback lag. Apperantly everyone can hit combos and you can’t even get an SPD since it will turn into jump lp…
Yeah the rollback is pure garbage. When I get a really laggy match I just let them win, it’s not even worth trying imo. I must admit though that most of my matches online have been pretty good so far. I’d say 80% have been decent.
I just hate how he looks, can’t play someone I don’t like visually.
Baseless speculation. Everything points to the opposite. I also don’t see how him having comboable ex SPD changes his design in any way, just means he will have more damage on his combos.
It seems we are coming to the same conclusions here. What do we do about a character the can easily lose to everything? He has no options for getting rushed down besides block and wait for an opening or v reversal. How about v skill in this situation?
Next we get zoned very hard. I’m trying to stay patient and walk and block them to the corner. I’m coming from Guile/Charlie/Remy my whole SF career so I don’t really understand how to beat zoning. Can we brainstorm some ideas on how to beat the zoners? I have a huge problem with Vega.
Next is the issue with crouchers. It seems that some characters can be c.lp, s.lk xx lariat but others like Chun it whiffs. C.lp x3 is so lame for guaranteed damage in this situation. I try to mix it up with dropping one or two c.lp for SPD but that gets wrecked by jump and punish.
Ideas for v reversal? If they’re not paying attention it is a free lp SPD, but good players either backdash or jump away and I don’t think it can be punished with st.HK. V reversal just seems like a get off me move for two seconds with no real follow up at the cost of potential v trigger.
I’m having a hard time with Gief, you are (probably) having a hard time with Gief. I think we have two choices: we can either change characters or we can collaborate and figure out this version of Zangief.
What I mean his, his overall gameplan won’t change much, he still wants to walk the opponent to the corner, and his “sweet spot” is still the same. His damage and pressure would be much better but you still play the character the same way.
@Mesenkomaha If people keep jumping from your strings then hammer them with headbutt.
tl;dr Prey on patience and their mistakes. That’s about it, unfortunately, as far as I know… I agree we need to collaborate, though, as this is a shitstorm of frustration.
I’m doing the same with crouchers. I don’t see any other option. I honestly rarely move into abusing them sleeping with an SPD as missing that yields such a huge punish, a punish that does typically MORE damage than our own spd. This is more common below gold, too, as people tend to mash DP-styled techniques out of EVERYTHING.
For zoners, try and throw them off their game and balance. There’s a certain momentum you can feel when they’re in control. Change things up. Instead of flexing projectiles, headbutt one, or simply block. Neutral jump. Etc. They get confused. They want you to flex two and then jump the third.
I haven’t found anything useful with V-reversal beyond “oh fuck I need to set this to neutral.” I’m looking at you, Mika players. grumble
Another thing, head to other character forums and see what they’re saying about gief. Learn what they fear. How they’re playing against him. Etc. They’re sharing strategies just as we are, and you can see these being implemented as you fight them. Again, find ways to shake things up.
You’re so right bro. I was talking to a couple of players from my weekly and they both overrate Gief so much and just were dead wrong on so many things. One said that Gief destroys Laura and FANG and the other was talking about his v-sill and v-trigger. He thought we always got a free spd after we absorb with v-skill. Also people seem to think we can just walk in with armor and it’s this amazingly powerful tool.
Block and VR is all we got man. Other than that, I will sometimes backdash if I sense a throw; if they whiff you get a SPD punish. That’s mostly on wakeup, though; haven’t gotten ballsy enough to do it otherwise.
About zoners, mostly what Coyotegrey said. You have to mix it up between block, V skill, jump, headbutt and lariat. Like, if you’ve been doing headbutt against Sonic booms and they think they’ve downloaded it; next time they’ll throw a slow one, dash up and MK scythe to punish but you do V Skill instead, armor and SPD. Or, you’ve been flexing and blocking Rashid’s low tornadoes and dashing under the high ones; they think they’ve dowloaded it and next time they’ll do the long-startup tornado, cancel into the roll and try to get pressure but you lariat instead.
Gotta start making the hard reads. If you’re in a situation where you can do cr.LP very close, like after AA’ing a neutral jump with st.LP or wake up with cr.LP to blow up bad meaties, then on hit or block, they are in a 50/50 unless they have access to an invincible reversal. They block or press a button, they eat SPD. They jump or backdash, they eat air SPD. This also goes for crush counter sweeps and knock downs in the corner.
If you’re farther away, then it’ll be more risky if they’re a dasher. Sometimes, after cr.LP you’ll have to just say fuck it and forward dash SPD. If they still jump a lot, especially neutral jump, you get the same 50/50.
EDIT: You can do st.HK too to catch the backdashes. At best you CC, at worst you whiff and it goes back to neutral.
V Reversal, same as 3. SPD, air SPD or dash forward SPD/air SPD if they’re the back dashing type. Live by the hugs, die by the hugs man. Seriously though, against many chars it’s too hard to get in so if you get an opportunity to be +2 in their face, you make the most of that shit.
Gief is odd now in the fact that he is meant to control just outside sweep distance. And closer and he is ass unless you have frame advantage. That is why he is so good with someone in the corner. It is weird because he has no anti fireball there except vtrigger.
I think I figured out capcom’s design with him, they want him to be comeback. Loose like crazy until u get vtrigger and ca and then win in two hits. Hype yes, solid gameplan no.
Actually. You have to position in range of standing HP. On hadouken startup, you press and charge HP and release when you absorb. That way you don’t commit anything.
my best results are, yeah, cornering someone while just outside their sweep. I can pressure with cLP, sHK, s/cMP. I can just come in a smidge and LP SPD. Or even abuse my luck and the EX siberian express. Only problem is them jumping in the spot, although most of the time I can just cHP and hit them, sometimes I find myself out of range.
My worst recent defeat was doing that and deciding to Lariat to AA her; the Mika I cornered landed just outside the lariat and then used her fMP through it and grabbed me.
That was some bullshit.
At that distance I am careful with the sHP, cause my enemies tend to crouch so they can easily sweep it or combo it. Maybe from just a little farther.
Is there any use for regular siberian express? Ex version has a little hit armor which makes it useful to surprise people (cannot abuse it), but I cannot really imagine an use for the regular version. Even the EX version is kind of unreliable and I have seen it hug the air just in front of an opponent for whatever reason.