Can T. Hawk punish Blanka's Rolling Attack on block?
I fought a Blanka who just kept spamming his Rolling Attack. Usually it's no big deal because if you anticipate it coming you can catch it with a good poke or his Rising Hawk. But when they're really good at faking you out or if it's laggy it's impossible to catch him coming in. There needs to be someway to punish him for abusing this move.
Responses (2 total)
T. Hawk doesn't really have an answer for Blanka's Rolling Attack on block. The Rolling Attack will always put Blanka at a distance outside of all of T. Hawk's moves.
The only way that T. Hawk can punish the Rolling Attack after blocking it is if Blanka is cornered after T. Hawk blocks the Rolling Attack. In this case, depending on the distance that T. Hawk is from Blanka and the strength of the Rolling Attack, T. Hawk has three options:
- EX Condor Spire
- Far HK
- Far HP
(Note that the Far versions of the HP and HK are possible because T. Hawk is pushed outside of the range necessary to perform the close versions when blocking the Rolling Attack)
In order to punish with the EX Condor Spire, Blanka has to be in the corner (not near, in) and T. Hawk has to be right next to him. While this move delivers 150 damage and 150 stun, it's almost impossible to connect with unless the conditions above are met, and on top of that, T. Hawk must have meter.
The Far HK and Far HP are much more viable options, and as mentioned, T. Hawk has a better chance of connecting with these even if he is not right up against Blanka in the corner (but he still has to be very close).
Both of them do the same amount of damage (120) as well as the same amount of stun (a whopping 200). The Far HK is 25% slower on start-up, starting up in 10 frames versus the 8 startup frames for the Far HP.
However, the benefit of the Far HK is in the active frames. The Far HK has five active frames vs the Far HP's two active frames, so it is active 2.5 times longer than the Far HP.
Additionally, the while the Far HP has a wider hitbox (approximately 161 pixels vs 140 pixels on a 720p display), the horizontal reach of the Far HK maxes out at 2.091 (this is how far out the hitbox ends on the x-axis compared to the center line, indicated by the small yellow dot in the images below) compared to 1.800 (it should be noted that the range of most moves changes slightly through each active frame), giving it the longer horizontal reach (which is what you are after here).
Here is the the hitbox and range data of the Far HP (this is the second active frame, which has the farthest horizontal range):
Compare that to the hitboxes and range data of the Far HK (this is the first active frame, with the farthest range out of the five active frames):
As you can see from the "reach" numbers above, you can see that the reach area for the Far HK has about 16% more reach than the Far HP:
| Move | Horizontal Reach |
| Far HP | 1.800 |
| Far HK | 2.091 |
| % Difference | +16.1667% |
In conclusion, Blanka does the Rolling Attack against T. Hawk in the corner, your best bet is to use the Far HK to counter.
Because of online lag, many people abuse the Blanka Ball, knowing that they can get an easy win. I'm no Hawk expert, but I think his sweep (cr. HK) should to the trick, thanks to it's long range. The key here is patience. You should just take the chip damage whenever you have to, and counter his Blanka Balls when you can. Eventually you'll win.
