Some additional tips
- If you are genuinely looking to get better and want the best choice to grow with the game while feeling good as you progress, play Ken or Juri. The ease of use/power level ratio is heavily out of whack with both characters in that they get a TON of reward for being played quite simply, but still allow for further growth later on. Juri is so ridiculously overpowered that you don't even need to touch Feng Sui Engine (SA2) to get mileage out of her, but once you do, you'll go even further at the highest levels. Ken has optimal combos, but even the basic stuff hits incredibly hard. They did this on purpose, as Ken is the favorite choice among casuals, and Juri has a huge fan base, so they wanted to make sure that people giving their game a try feel good about themselves as they learn. They also have all the tools you need to teach you important stuff: fireballs for zoning, great anti air options, strong normal attacks to navigate neutral space, etc.
Guile is also a good choice if you want to use a charge character. All 3 are powerful and a threat that your opponent has to seriously account for even if they are superior to you, which is a good thing for your growth. Luke is good choice, but his optimal combos require a bit of timing/dexterity with his charged knuckles. Marisa is not a bad choice either, but you have to dedicate a pretty large portion of your mental stack to looking out for jumps at all times, because her anti air game is quite weak to compensate for her unmatched damage output. Honda is easy, but does not teach you good fighting game fundamentals and ultimately becomes much weaker as you go against better people who can parry his headbutt and buttsplash. Juri and Ken are incredible no matter what level you're playing at.
- Speaking of mental stack, get familiar with that term. When going into a fight, keep in mind 3-4 things at all times that you are aware of no matter what and retain that shyt. Common elements are people jumping at you, a command grab if your opponent has one, a fireball if your opponent has one, and popular moves in neutral space that you can look for to whiff punish or drive impact (if they can't be cancelled). An example of the latter is Manon's standing HK(roundhouse) and standing HP(fierce). Both of those moves are incredible, and because of that, Capcom made it so neither can be cancelled into specials. Meaning they are guaranteed drive impacts if you anticipate them and are correct. So that's 2 moves you should keep in your mental stack when fighting her.
When fighting Marisa, her st LP LP or st MP MP into Drive Rush cancel yields a very powerful mix up. She can either do her command grab OR crouching light kick to combo start. So, you should always have in your mental when fighting Marisa that when she's drive rushing in from those moves, your options are to jump to avoid the command grab, or block to avoid crouching light kick.
The most common mental stack in the corner is readjusting your brain to look for the red glow that comes with Drive Impact. That's why it's not always easy to drive impact a competent player in the corner. Another example is this: Remember I said earlier that Manon's st.hk is a great move but Drive Impact-able? So, if I use that move one time..maybe twice, the third time I am slowing it down and my mental stack is looking for a drive impact, because I know a good player is aware of st.hk's weakness. So I think two steps ahead of them, and if they drive impact me, I already got mine ready for that ass
The brain can only store but so many things in it at once during a match, so focus on the important things and make sure you are adjusting what is relevant to store by who you are fighting against.
- I said this earlier, but I repeat,
PLEASE RESPECT FRAME DATA. Turn that frame data feature on in training mode and get very familiar with it. Understand that frame data is concrete, consistent math and it does not change no matter how frustrated you might be blocking something. Example: If Marisa does a charged gladius at close range and you try to hit her after, you will be stuffed by standing MP MP EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. SO DO NOT PRESS ANYTHING. Another Example: when Lily does wind clad condor spire, she is plus +1 on block. If she presses st.lk, which is 4 frames, anything you press WILL BE BEAT IT OUT, SO DO NOT PRESS ANYTHING UNLESS IT IS AN INVINCIBLE REVERSAL ATTACK. BLOCK. You WILL get hit every single time, and this fact does not change no matter what. Respect the frame data, and then you can cultivate strategy that yields consistent winning habits. "Damn, she's +1 right here and in my face. I don't want to deal with that, so let me Drive Reversal to get her off me." Stuff like that.
- Losing is your fault always: not your opponent, not the character you play, and not the character they use. The latter is especially the case, because if the reason you are losing is their character, why aren't you playing them as well if the point of the game is to win? Can't have your cake and eat it too. If they're that overpowered and braindead and anybody can win with them, YOU do it then. Might find yourself surprised that it's not as easy as it looks no matter what character you play. Take accountability for your defeat and accept that your opponent is trying to beat you just as bad as you're trying to beat them. Nobody is entitled to a win. Even Punk, Mena, or the Birds can get caught slipping.
- The correct way to block JP's level 2 super is to block the first strike high or low(doesn't matter), the 2nd strike high, the 3rd strike low, and the last strike high. JP is an overwhelmingly powerful character even if you know what he can do, but not being aware is pretty much a guaranteed loss, so go practice blocking that in training mode.
- Chun Li does NOT have a throw loop. Anytime Chun Li grabs you and drive rushes after, you can punish her, so keep that in mind. Honda does not have one either. As far as I know, everyone else in the game does.
- Do not let Ryu continue to spam qcb+punch in block strings. That's a free drive impact if you scout it. He can't do anything about it.
- Practice punishing Kimberly's Overdrive teleport. It can be sniped out of the air every single time consistently, so do not let them get away with it. As someone who is actually good with the character, I can tell you now that most Kimberly players have poor fundamentals and rely on gimmicks that aren't actually solid if practiced against. Also practice dealing with her elbow drop (jump, down+medium punch). It's very good, and I've won countless games from people thinking I'm jumping behind them only to land in front of them. Also, Kimberly is particularly susceptible to parry, so keep that option in mind anytime she drive rushes at you to avoid the back+hk/down+mk mix up. They obviously can throw you to counter that, but most will not start with that in mind.
Oh, and Kimberly has the worst defensive options in the game. Until she gets level 3, she is helpless against your attacking her on her wake up(the term for when someone is rising from getting knocke down). Her level 1 super is a fake reversal. If you pressure her with crouching light punch, it will recover BEFORE her Level 1 makes contact with you, giving you a free punish.
- Manon is
NEVER PLUS FRAMES ON BLOCK UNLESS SHE USES DRIVE RUSH. Everything she has is negative frames, so be confident in using fast pokes (such as crouching light punch) to take your turn back after you block anything she does.
- Marisa's counter loses to throws and her backdash is weak, so you should be throwing her quite a lot, as she is helpless to it until she gets level 2 super. Also, parry her punches as much as you can, as she shaves a ton of Drive Gauge everytime she makes contact.
- Know that anytime someone is cornered, their chances of jumping are much higher, ESPECIALLY in this game with Drive Impact guaranteeing damage. Adjust your mental stack to look for jumps in the corner even more than before, and don't rush into Drive Impact every time. Use the THREAT of them knowing you have it to punish them as they helplessly try to get out.
@Khalil's_Black_Excellence is very good at doing this.
I'll add more later. If anyone has any questions feel free to hit me up. I'm not some elite player, but I'm definitely way above average, so I can probably help.
