You have to pre-empt blanka jumping to be able to beat him air to air since his jump is so fast. A standing roundhouse will beat or trade will all of his jumpins if he does them from far out, and if roundhouse gets completely beat that means blanka did his jumpin early so you can get a reversal spd when he lands. From closer inside, lariats or standing jabs will take care of crossups and jumpins. Blanka moving forward against Zangief is usually a bad decision for Blanka.
Blanka jumping up and down in place has larger hitbox on his jumping roundhouse but he can’t hurt you if you don’t walk into him so you can either wait him out or if he keeps doing it then jump at him and j. strong. A green hand can take care of the other neutral jumping attacks and knocks down even on trade.
I’ve been having a really tough time against Sagat. I know he’s a tough match in general for gief but i seem to be getting beat when I know I shouldn’t.
I know its the standard c.block inch up yadda yadda glove move in, but as I get close, I tend to get hit with tiger knee then he hops back and continues to throw fb’s at me.
Once I get into footsies range, what my best move for avoiding the knees?
Try using a lot of green hands against Sagat. It’s my most effective weapon against him. Do not try to just use it to counter projectiles; the green hand is extremely effective at closing distance and also can stuff or trade with Tiger Knees and Tiger Uppercuts. Land a few grabs/holds or SPDs after your green hands, and you will really be on your way to defeating Sagat more often then not.
One more tip about the Tiger Knee; If you play against a Sagat player that likes to throw you after a close Tiger Knee, immediately do a KKK Lariat after you block the Knee. You will do some damage and get a free knockdown every time.
I generally have an easier time with Sagat then I do with Ryu.
Truthfully, I have a pretty hard time with al the shotos/ fb throwers if they play keep away. I’m to the point where once i get up close, about 50-60% of the time I can pull out a pretty decent combo.
Once thing I’ve found is that literally NO ONE is prepared for the hop. I’ve been abusing it lately. After a knockdown, get right up close and as they are about to get up, coprse hop, SRK’s will miss and most people (on xbox live) will go for the c.Rk. You can destroy most people like this and pretty much take them out before they adapt to the strategy.
I’m also having a problem whiffing a lot of spd’s. Do you have to be a certain distance away to hit on those? I know the jab spd has the longest range, but does the fierce one grab when the other guy is crouching?
By the way, I have a question about Zangief’s super. What is the range on his FAB? I know his SPD range is just slightly more then a c.roundhouse sweep, but the FAB seems to require that you have your opponent pretty much at point blank range.
for some unknown reason the scrub E-honda player how are hard to beat dont do much against lariat in front of would like to know if my guess is right that its against a skilled player a bad idee
all i noticed is this if i lariat right in front of them no headbuts no handslap the just knee there and wait till its finished and the earn a spd or crossover realy funny becouse those scrabs still can kill me when they are a bit skilled with lariat in front i won every single match against unskilled E-hondas even got ragequits…
Honestly I can’t do jack against Honda. Even when I’m doing really well in a room with Gief, all someone has to do is pick Honda and they will give me all sorts of trouble. They do not even have to be good with him; just torpedo + HHS is enough to mess me up. I’ll keep practicing the match, but honestly it seems pointless with how easy Honda has it. Luckily in SFIV, Gief vs. Honda is said to be 5-5, which is going to be amazingly nice after experiencing the terror that is Honda in HDR.
Vs Honda: cr.Jab like a maniac to stop Torpedoes and Slaps. Reverse SPD Sumo Splashes. If I get one SPD vs him, the match is pretty much over. Forward + Fierce after SPDs > tick > SPD, works great on Honda.
cr. jabs beat headbutts (sometimes) or if you got a turbo pad, Honda always sneak a a few headbutt doing a lot of damage, and when you knock down honda if you jump in on him (unless is a safe jump) you are going to get a free Jab headbut reverse, and going back to square one, him charging his next headbutt, and you spamming Lp and praying it hit hondas torpedo. its a sad and boring match. :sad::sad::sad:
Disadvantage against: Blanka, Claw, Cammy, Fei Long, T. Hawk
Large Disadvantage against: Dhalsim, Guile, Chun Li, Dee-jay
Nearly Impossible Match-up: Honda
By large disadvantage I mean that you have to either outplay your opponent, or he has to make some mistakes for you to win, but it’s definitely doable. Impossible match-up means even a brain dead opponent could hand you a loss, and winning is solely based on luck or multiple big mistakes by your opponent.
Even vs: Ryu, Ken, Sagat, Cammy, Fei, Hawk, Chun Li,Guile(ju just need to play his game)
Disadvantage vs: Claw, Hawk
Huge disadvantage vs: Honda, Dhalsim, Akuma, Blanka,Turtel Dee Jay(better turtel then guile becouse of his hughe low roundhouse range and you can not hop above it)
I’m having the worst time hitting st.mk into spd. Also, st.lk into spd. I can not hit them. I got the st.mk into spd once last night doing the full 360 motion. But I never was able to do it again. Anyway got motion tips they haven’t already posted? Or tips on why I’m scrubbin’ out? I also tried the db,d,df,f,uf motion. I feel like I could put more scary pressure if I can land these Tick throws.
you can see if you was tooo fast if your spd WIFF even when the enemy was close enugh try to be slower not faster and then increes the speed just one “tick” bevore the wiff^^
A good Dhalsim that is. If you don’t capitalise on mistakes with SEVERE punishment, you’re screwed. I played a slew of really cool matches last night against a badass Dhalsim player and had some real trouble. I’m trying to better my Meatgief skills, so I persisted in the face of annihilation.
I managed to take out a wee few matches by punishing as hard as I could once I managed to get in close, but damn it was tough. Very rewarding matches if you can pull it off though! I think that’s the beauty of using Zangbeef - smashing people around when the odds aren’t in your favour is a cool feeling
Countering his limbs with lariats opens up opportunities - i.e. you knock 'em down, fierce green glove to cross the distance, jump in with a body splash, crouch jab, SPD. Trouble is Dhalsim often recovers before you make it to the other side of the screen and counters, or teleports away and repeats a fireball/limbs distancing game.
I have a shit of a time against Chun Li also I’m really looking forward to SFIVs armour system. Something about taking a beating, but still advancing to dish out some limb breakage is really cool.
I went thought a similar problem. There is definitely a knack to it. Here’s what I found:
Key for me is keeping in mind where the requirements are for a normal to be cancelled, and programming my brain to wait until the cancel window expires. AFTER the cancel window expires on say a crouch jab, crouch light or middle kick, I immediately whip out the SPD motion (for me its down-back to up) and press fierce. If you CANCEL a normal into a SPD, you whiff as you can’t throw 'em when they are in the frames denoting a hit. Allowing a slight delay means you get almost exact frame timing that combined with the time it takes to execute the SPD motion, lands you a SPD with minimal time for the opponent to escape, or for you to be pushed too far away for Gief to grab.
Example: Say you were to crouch roundhouse with Ryu into a fireball. As soon as that foot connects, you whip out the fireball motion, hit punch and out it sails. It gets to the point where its a single motion: D, <kick>, DF, F, <punch>.
If you try to hurl that fireball out a short period AFTER the kick connects, the combo fails. You just get a leg sweep - ergo you lose the ability to combo.
With the Gief, you actually want this to happen. Because you can’t throw or command throw while the opponent is cycling through their damage (or block-lock) frames, you need to let the normal move complete its animation cycle and IMMEDIATELY perform the SPD once that animation cycle finishes. What this means is that the opponent is trapped. They either take or block a hit, can’t retaliate quick enough and eat a SPD. Technically there is a tiny window to reversal Gief, but it is infinitesimally small. NKI has a video illustrating this reversal window on YouChoobe with Guile flash kicking. Its nuts, but technically possible.
Its a practice thing that comes natural with time. I’m a new Gief player myself, but I’ve managed to get it down after a bit of persistence. It definitely opens up your Gief game once you get it nailed though. Its cool yelling out ‘gotcha’ when someone blocks or takes a poke at close range only to be mangled with the SPD
Couple this with Gief’s obscene grab range in HD Remix and you have a vicious way to punish people once you get in close. I used to enjoy playing Zangief back in the day, but moreso for laughs. Now he’s among my favourite characters as its really rewarding to hurl mid and top tier characters around with the big Commie
I’m really looking forward to SFIVs armour system. Something about taking a beating, but still advancing to dish out some limb breakage is really cool.