The Zafina alt costume review is amazing.

Yeah the solo fighters are a bit annoying I suppose considering we are in a tag game. As you pointed it, much of it seems to be a fall back option, if someone loses with a team they fall back to solo with the character they are most comfortable with to remove worrying about tag options. 

IMHO that's a mistake, the only real thing a solo character has going for them is the additional damage output. However if you were unable to get your opponent down to under 20% health in the rounds of the previous game, your 20% damage increase isn't going to help you. I can't remember of the top of my head what the damage boost actually is, I'm just using that figure as an example. You also have no access to tag crash to stop oki pressure in an emergency. If you go to the floor you are going to have to run the gauntlet when getting up, if you find yourself face down face away in a corner you can pretty much kiss your round goodbye as a solo character.

A lot of it is definitely the security blanket effect. Players feel more familiar after playing solo for the last 10 years.

That solo characters are currently getting wins to me comes down to the fact players with a team are trying to pressure the solo characters onto the back foot in attempt to prevent them from being able to start up their offence and thus minimise their exposure to potential damage. The thing is, any time you try and apply pressure on block you are open to someone punishing you if you throw out something with long recovery, or you risk someone sidestepping to the right after your jab and you having your follow up df2 universal launcher attempt sidestepped and massively punished for instance. 

I am hopeful that it's something that will die off as more people get their tag strategies implimented into their gameplans, or it's something that people will come to realise isn't some kind of OP I win button like we had in the first few days after launch.

What I personally don't want to see is events banning solo play though.

Huzzah! Welcome to the thread Smang. 

I'll condense Escape's getting up advice and put it in the OP for ease of reference.

Welcome dude, glad you could make it. (Took yer time). I'll hopefully be on tonight (depending on work), the quest for a second character continues.

Nah man I'll probably be working late again tonight so no Tekken for me.

Sad times.

true, but that might involve playing something other than sf4!

i am glad to offer up my sofas, as i think Ricky lives nearish the smangcade... also i am lazy

haha, he can live without his brain. i'll go anywhere dude, just offering options!

Roujin wrote:

You also have no access to tag crash to stop oki pressure in an emergency.

I've yet to find a way Lee can't punish a post-Bound TC after WR 3,4 (hard rebound knockdown) and non-splat d/f+3,2,3. Backrolling into a normal tag is unpunishable on an open stage (unless I can dash into a slide before the incomer's able to block; doubtful).

I share everyone's pro-tag sentiments, but it might transpire that teams are a real handicap on closed stages. Maybe.

Bear and Badger is up.

Feng's a good poker, Pez. But if you're playing this with the patience you do IV, I think King would be an excellent choice. He's one of the most well-rounded defensive characters.

A good tip definitely, I use that technique with Yoshi where he can go into his KIN stance after certain punch strings. All I do is keep the last punch of the string held down and then press the remaining punch.

One thing though, its definitely better in the long run if you just get used to getting your dual button input press execution down, so that you can do your moves on reaction to punish unexpected whiffs.

Good to know man, still badgering away with Feng but I think my main issue is I'm playing him in close like Marduk and he really doesn't have the strings/moves to be effective that close. Should be dancing and poking around at mid to far. Started having a play with King as well, can get an 81 pint combo of Marduk's Bound easy as Jaguar Pie which is nice, he feels good too, will put some more time into getting to grips with him this weekend. The lure of that multi throw is great...

Hope to get some games with you soon Scape.

Oh and Gg's to Smang!

as cool as kings multi grabs are, is it worth using them? are they not easy to escape?

Escape wrote:

Armor has better launchers than King, but worse mids and throws.

Indeed, but as has been pointed out to me, Armour King hates Marduk, so the team comp wouldn't be remotely as good. Still haven't given up on Feng though, just hasn't clicked properly yet. Plus his move set isn't nearly as basic as Duk's.

True enough, but Rage can be a pretty handy thing to have early on if it's all going a bit wrong in a fight. I'll give him a look, threw Zafina in to the mix against Smang last night a couple of times, forgotten how absolutely bonkers she is, got some surprisingly heavy hitting moves that hit downed opponents. Too much damn choice. Also I turned Feng into Yun.

I can't buy anthing in the shops to make my Charlie Nash style Feng, can anyone help?

Hmmm, Well he has the combat trousers and the sleeveless puffer jacket. Plus you can stick some Aviators on for the glasses, but I don't remember seeing any big quiff hair options.

That part of the store I don't get, on some outfits with Marduk it has sideburns and actual front hair pieces available, but I'll go in with a new build and those two options will be locked out. Most confusing.