Who do you think is the most improved character in Super Street Fighter 4?
We can look at stats, but I wanna see what actually people think.
With his Ultra 2 off reaction, and his 1 frame Tortilla into his Ultra 2 in the corner, I would say El Fuerte has improved.
Ken has improved, but not as much. His fireball's are better, but he's still not a high-tier character.
Guile has probably seen the most noticable improvement.
Chun has improved slightly with being able to do her Hyakuretsu Kyaku into Ultra 2.
These are the top four improved characters that I have noticed. What have you noticed?
Responses (8 total)
yeah I think Guile is a serious character now. He's looking very good. Less charge time on his Sonic Boom is a huge buff for him. He was already good at controlling space with that move and now that has been sped up for fireball fights he will be a much tougher match-up for many characters. I believe some of his pokes have been changed too, I am not entirely sure which ones as I'm not a Guile player but, I think the priority of his attacks have improved rather than the speed.
Chun-Li was already a character that had very few bad match-ups and went 5-5 with a lot of the cast. She already had the best footsie game in SFIV in my opinion. Quick pokes with high priority, fast foot speed and an incredible forward and back-dash. Her standing Strong has been buffed (it was great anyway) DF+LK is amazing now for anti-air purposes and can lead to her Air Stomps and even Ultra II if you have it. Her biggest buff is undoubtedly her new Ultra. She now has a million ways to land that Ultra, which makes getting hit by Short, Short, EX legs scary anywhere on the screen when she has Ultra II. She's definitely a little beast now.
Ken has been improved too. Faster dash, fireballs, sweep and can combo into Ultra from a far standing Jab. Daigo Ryu combos are now possible with Ken: Cr LK, Cr. LP, St. LP, St, LP, Cr. Roundhouse. Which gives him an untechable knockdown at close range which adds to his mix-up game.
This might sound strange to some of you considering this character has received some pretty big nerfs to her pressure tools, but I think Crimson Viper will be in the top 7 of this game.
Let me explain:
Her MP Thunder Knuckle is now -2 on block (it was -1 in SFIV) which means it's outright punishable by T-Hawk & Zangief (Command Grabs) and Ryu & Chun can Super it on block. Her Burning kicks have been nerfed too. Mainly the ground BK's which no decent Viper relied on too much anyway. I only use it to escape throws. Her air BK's are still pretty good.
She has a new jump arc and after a back throw there is more push back meaning Viper isn't as close to you after it, and it is therefore harder for her to cross-up with Jump Roundhouse
those are her nerfs, here are her buffs:
A LOT more priority and less recovery on her Crouching MP: This allows for her to throw this out in a footsie game (she has a very poor footsie game but this really helps)
HP TK seems to have more invincibility and doesn't hit at a 45 degree angle.
Her walk speed is faster which again helps her ground game.
Her biggest buff however is that her damage output hasn't been nerfed as hard as a lot of the other characters. And she now takes less damage because of the damage nerfs across the board. Her Fierce Feint Fierce combo still does 348 Damage. Her Ultra I alone does around 480.
If you look at the whole picture you realise that the nerfs don't affect decent Viper players and the solid damage output makes her very scary in this game. Expect Uryo and Flash Metroid to do very well with Super Viper as she now seems to suit those who played her passive aggressively, as opposed to balls out swinging style like others. She can now take the same risks as before with less fear of eating SRK's and Tiger Uppercuts and losing more than half of her life. Just think about that for a second...the reward out weighs the risk with Viper now...
(Updated) I agree with Dan Jones' answer but I also wanted to add Abel to that list. His Falling Sky has improved along with the first hit of his Change of Direction (it's now safe on block I believe).
What has made him more beastly is his new Ultra, Breathless. With it he can hold and release it when he wants (i.e. as soon as you land from a jump), he can cancel it with punch, it can get him out of corner pressure by sending him to the other side of the screen, therefore making it difficult to punish, go under fireballs, is unblockable, and has armor properties. With it he effectively puts a stop to Cammy's Dive Kick pressure (eventhough she can bait it) and can get to Guile a lot easier than with Soulless. It may not make him top tier but he is definitely better than he was in Vanilla.
Another character I'm surprised no one has mentioned is M. Bison (Dictator). Yeah he got his kicks nerfed and all, but he saw his Psycho Crusher get an improved hit box which extends down to his legs now. He can use that to cross you up on wake up, punish a jump in a lot better, and the EX version wil nullify fireballs, no longer having to do the PC before the fireball is thrown. Also, although I have yet to try it myself, he can now FADC out of his slide. I'll amend this post later when I get the chance to try it out but as any Bison player knows, that's a godsend!
Another improvement Bison received is his Ultra 2, the Psycho Punisher. With this Ultra equipped, Bison becomes a much more mobile enemy than with Ultra 1 since it's a command ultra and not a charged one. It's similar to his head stomp but has a lower arc and hits faster, and it crosses up and is controllable like Elf's Ultra 1 but with more range. It may not do as much damage as his first Nightmare Booster, but with it's area of effect and the range it has I feel it's a solid trade off. It can be done on reaction, (except against Guile, you have to pretty much predict his Sonic Booms because he recovers too fast) and can hit from the opposite side of the screen therefore shutting down any fireball zoning his opponent is doing. Everyone knows that letting a solid Bison player in too close without zoning him out with your fireballs is not an ideal match (for fireballers of course, I know how you grapplers roll ;D).
UPDATE: After trying it out last night, Bison can indeed FADC out of his slide. How awesome!
I completely agree with dommafia's answer. In a world where the top tier characters (Sagat, Ryu, Rufus) are getting nerfed, you've got Balrog/Boxer who was up there with said three with nothing done to him at all. I wouldn't be surprised if he snuck into S-tier when they release the tier listings.
Another one to mention is Bison/Dictator. With an improved Psycho Crusher, a beefed up reset game and a new, better Ultra on top of one of the best normals in the game (st. HK) it makes him as (if not more) effective as ever.
The most improved vanilla characters I've seen so far (in my opinion) have been Boxer, Dictator and Guile.
I cant believe no one's mentioned Balrog/Boxer. He's had virtually no changes. That doesn't sound like much but when you consider all the nerfs that were handed out he's looking pretty freaking beastly.
I would also put E.Honda in this list as well. His damage output is unchanged and his cr.jab into fierce hundred hand slap combo still builds a lot of meter. Also he still has a lot of ways to get in chip damage. His st.fierce and st.roundhouse are great pokes along with is cr.jab because each has good priority. And he still has really high health and stun.
