Dhalaim Against Rushdown characters who decide to turtle.
I've found recently that I'll be fighting a Dudley with Sim and other likeminded characters and have a problem of getting in on them when they decide to play my game of react and punish (from a safe distance.) If I IAT after a fireball they'll jump and mash jab basically taking out any offense I could have had going. What are good ways to be the aggresor with Sim that are also safe when a characters is not doing their usually easilly punishable attacks? Another fight I'm having trouble with is Zangiefs that decide to lariat alot since if I hit and it's a trade it's not at all good got Dhalsim, what are my options on maintaining my distance and still chipping away at his health. Fireball and round house traps are only getting me so far.
Responses (4 total)
I suggest that you shift from a reactive strategy to a proactive strategy. Which is not to suggest that you rush down - IAT is extremely risky, and is better suited for evasion and occasional surprise combo setups. Dhalsim's most effective poke range is a rainbow ark between max range s.LK and s.HP. This is where you'll want to stay against most characters - limbs shut down or trade favorably with fireballs so you can basically abuse them and poke all day if you vary your timing. Even an even trade is in Dhalsim's favor because it sustains zoning. Anti-air options are good from this range too - st.MK for long distance and back-st.MP for close distance. If they close in then back-st.SK and back-st.MK followed by blockstun st.MP will push them back to proper zoning range.
The above strategy is particularly effective against characters with slooooow startup *cough* Dudley. *Never* let him get in. Just poke him to death and shut down his startup. Neutral jumps are good too because you can anti-air with MP or teleport and punish machine gun punches with Fierce.
As far as Zangief, note that only the first Lariat hit is low. cr.MP after the first hit. You can force his Lariat timing with jab fireballs all day and punish accordingly. Ant-air as described above. Most of all, keep your patience.
watch how IYO plays and how he applies pressure even against other zoning characters.
throw a l.fireball then slide up behind it that will narrow the gap then fb again (be careful about ultra that will punish FBs) slide in behind the next fb keep closing the gap then you have options of IATs/ FB pressure/ yoga sniper/ slide in and throw/ just walk up
i cant help with the sim-gief matchup as i don't play sim so i dont know his match up ins and outs as far as i know its not a nice or fun match and you just have to make him jump and then anti air him if he lariats through FBs wait till it's ending and st.fierce him (then run like hell haha!!)
Dont really want to get up close and attack them with sim. He's all about pushing your opponent away from you. His only real offense is teleport mixups, and they're unsafe unless you read a fireball or other punishable attack. As for how to push them out, experiment more with your other attacks. S.lk, s.mp are very good for this. You bascially always want to hit with an attack at it's max range. s.hk and s.hp and for when your opponent is far away. The light attacks are for when they're closer, and b+xx attacks are for when they're in your face. D+hp or d+mp should go under dudley's d+lp.
I struggle with this too sometimes. For turtles you be patient if you have life lead. If you don't have life lead a good strategy is to mix up hi-low attacks. The range is a bit tricky for me and it takes some getting use to but mixing in d.mp and IOH j.hp (yoga sniper) is a good way to damage turtles. Yoga sniper is dificult to block on reaction and with d.mp which forces them to start crouch blocking you can get some damage in. Takes practice though, I'd say make sure to try to add d. mp into some of you pokes to train you opponent to block down. Normally I see after they are tagged a few times they get aggressive again. Be careful with yoga sniper, some characters can punish. Dudley for example can punish with EX Machingun blow if not mistaken so keep an eye on his meter an exploit him if he's unaware. Zangief is rock paper scissors. I suggest you do some research and learn what beats what. Once you've figured that out mixing up your pokes and effectively anti-airing (which has to do with rock, paper, scissors) is the key. Be carefull with yoga fires, some say to only throw them at full screen.
