After a semester of college, I’ve come back to Street Fighter. What are the important habits I need to change with Zangief in the transition from Super to Ultra? Are there any new important combos (or no-longer-combos) or concepts to pick up? What are the general things I need to practice getting back into Gief?
pick a new character 
From SSFIV to Ultra, there’s almost too many changes to even list. Even changes within the mechanics of the game. I strongly suggest you hit the lab and play with some things, as well as look at the change logs from SSFIV to AE to AE v2012 to USFIV.
When should i use 3x LK?
use 3K to go thru low projectiles like sagat’s and juri’s. Use 3K to beat some of the lower limbs of players like bison’s s.mk and dhalsim’s s.hp
Sorry, i mean 3x cr. lk. When should i use it?
Crouching LK x 3, only happens when your point blank. So you need a setup.
- From SPD-MPGH
- Cross up Knees behind or in front
- EXGH
- Cross up Empty Jump and land into cr.LK
If the opponent has a mashable reversal like a shoryuken, and has demonstrated they can mash between the 2 frame gaps on block, not hard to do. I would have to mix it up with cr.LP and cr.LK, as to not be predictable.
If they have a charged reversal, like Flash Kick or EX Spinning Bird Kick, its much harder to time, but still possible, so I would be more inclined to use cr.LK
You will also have to use cr.LK x 3, when the better. cr.LK. cr.LK. Far MP. st.LK xx LPGH/EXGH doesn’t work on certain opponents.
Thanx for the help. What about lk + EX Green Hand? Is it only for whiff punishes?
Yeah. I would agree. counter poke o/s Far LK xx EXGH
Far LK xx EXGH is also an option from a max ranged jumping HP aka Superman
Thanx never thought of counter poke. I think it will be very helpful ^^
Actually, you need to know all of them to be good. All of the light option select buffers into EXGH/LPGH
I think Crouching LP is probably the best, because of its mid range hitbox. Catches many of the opponent’s standing pokes.
Good for mid to high hitting pokes like Chun Li’s Far HK, Chun Li’s Cr.HK, Bison’s Far MK and Far HK
Far LK is good for low pokes like Ryu’s cr.MK, and also has the more range. But because not many pokes are low, from what I’ve seen, its not as useful.
Far LP is good for standing pokes like Adon’s Far HK, Dudley’s standing pokes, and Balrog’s Far HP
And crouching LK with the least range, is not as useful. But good to know.
That’s the key to your ground counter game. Mirror your opponent and if they switch their options, you have to switch also.
If you can perform these from block, its safer. But can be harder.
And you shouldn’t be predictable: You need to mix up o/s with hit confirms, and tick LP SPD. In case your opponent knows how to counter o/s buffers by walking forward and blocking.
For example: Your mix up is:
- o/s Far LK xx EXGH/LPGH (option select)
- Far LK. Far LK xx EXGH (hit confirm)
- Far LK. Walking LP SPD (tick SPD)
I can’t do 3x cr. LK with a stick but i can do it 99% of the time with my playstation 1 controller.
I’m using a madcatz fightstick pro. Is there a particular technique?
Any success trying to learn the rhythm?
It’s a 2 frame link. That can be done by double tapping. Hitting the button in rapid succession with different fingers. Almost like flicking the button with one finger after the next. Or depending on the quality of your buttons, eg. sanwa or seimitsu, you can press it quickly, kind of like having turbo on.
You can increase it to a 3 frame link. By plinking with crouching LP (or select/back button but you need to modify your stick). Press LK and then press LP one frame after, as if you were doing Vega’s kara throw or kara GH. Group your fingers in a formation that will allow you to hit LP and LK together, adjust your finger heights to make the finger that hits LK a little longer, so that it hits the stick FIRST. Use that finger formation to do the kara LK~LP. Check with training display input to see if you have done it correctly. The LK will repeat for an extra frame.
I find I have pretty good success with using 3 fingers positioned at the edges to rapidly mash the LK button.
I have an easier way. Practice.
This might be a completely stupid question, but just out of sheer curiosity how many people are still having fun playing as Zangief? I admittedly haven’t been playing much street fighter lately. You can say I suck or whatever, but like a lot of you I’ve endured every single version of sf4 nerfing gief more and more each time and I genuinely feel like the USF4 patch 1.04 was finally the nail in the coffin for me. I don’t feel that the character is viable anymore. I know snake eyez still goes deep in every tournament, but I feel like anymore he does it DESPITE zangief, not because of zangief.
That being said, I’m not trying to be super negative - if that’s the response I get then so be it, but really I’m looking to see if anyone else has found enough fun still left in my favorite character for me to try playing again. If he’s really as bad as he feels to me though please don’t sugar coat it.
Also, sorry if this is the wrong place to put it, but technically it is a question I’m looking for an answer to.
Thanks!
You’re not being super negative at all imo. I basically feel the same way you do. This is arguably the worst version of Gief we’ve seen in SF4 and that’s saying something. Ever since the patch it hasn’t been as fun as it used to be for me and I barely play now. Even now every time I whiff punish and see the gh completely whiff it just makes me sad.
I can only speak for myself, but half the time I don’t even go to my locals anymore, and when I do I rarely want to play. I still play other fighters, but as someone who only really ever cared for Zangief in sf4 I just can’t do it, its just not fun. What makes it even more disheartening is that even if I wanted to try to play another grappler, there’s no point as they’re all actually even worse than Zangief.
Thanks Combofiend.
Agreed, this is probably Zangief’s worst version. You can sometimes do light combos or spend ALL of your meter comboing into U1 at serious scaling. I go with Vanilla all the way. Maximum health, an ultra that does ridiculous damage, EXGF that knocks down, even a j.mk that beats or trades with Flash Kick! Zangief never needed combos. I’d still settle with Chocolate, though. The addition of Siberian Blizzard really helps some matchups (most particularly Dhalsim), and if you failed to land it, the recovery was not necessarily a guaranteed hit on you.
I played a little more yesterday – Did his standing lp, standing mp, and standing lk get a slight reduction in range? I felt like I was whiffing way more than I should’ve been. Could just be my imagination though.
I CANT PULL OFF GREEN HAND!!! HOW DO YOU DO IT AND ALSO HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH PROJECTILE SPAMMERS!!!