Anyone know of a good primer for trying to learn Zangief? Things that may not be obvious, etc. I mostly play Bison but want to learn Zangief to mess with my friends and also be Hulk Hogan.
dunno about a good primer but this is a good post
https://www.reddit.com/r/StreetFigh...y_tips_for_a_upcoming_zangief_player/d079006/
tho the part in the end about white life is no longer true; life heals so slow that during a SPD it will barely heal a few pixels so you still have to risk using your V-Skil but you cannot hope to recover that health. it is an investment now.
V-Skill can be used without the punch. just press MP+MK, absorb a hit and you can instead do a jab or a SPD or whatever. do it against slow moves cause you don't really get any frame advantage out of it, but the important part is that using it with the flex punch is not obligatory nor even ideal. think of it as a turn-taking when on defense
the shoryuken thread was good but again, mostly S1
http://forums.shoryuken.com/discussion/207479/zangief-beginners-thread/p1
the main changes in S2 are yeah, the white health (which affects both his V-Skill and his sHP punch which has armor and which is super useful) and the new Lariat, which has extra hitbox so you can hit people crouched next to you and which can combo easily now, AND the headbutt can absorb super bar when you cancel fireballs with it. The other changes give you better frame advantage to mixup but that's largely it
basically your game plan is cornering the opponent, make them fear your SPD so much they jump and you punish them with an anti air or something. many matches you will win without landing any SPD just cause people will run away and eat sHK
something important people don't normally mention is that the 360 and 720 moves can be started in any joystick position and can be done in either direction. this is particularly important on a stick, where it is easier to go from blocking low to doing a SPD starting from back-low diagonal and ending in back-up diagonal
don't forget the Running Bear Grab which you will mostly land after sLK or cLK, super close. Don't bother trying to grab people from afar with it if you ain't using the EX version which has armor. it has decent damage, good stun and great cornering
and Air SPD has a lot of range and can even be an effective anti air (except you cannot do it when jumping backwards). Learn to use it to stop yourself in midair if you misjump a fireball, but don't abuse it since you can be punished for it
um what more...Ex SPD is necessary sometimes cause it has throw invincibility. it also has almost the range of LP SPD, same with air SPD
certain supers can be CAd on reaction if the opponent does them point blank without you in blockstun. Ryu and Ken come to mind, but not Guile. this ain't too common but sometimes Ryu will try to do a CA next to you by surprise. You can just churn the butter and grab them once their animation ends