I. Beginner

If this is your first time playing Tekken and/or your first time playing a fighting game (at least) semi-seriously, I definitely recommend staying away from Dragunov until you have a better grasp of the mechanics of the game. If you have already skimmed through "The Manifesto" and a few of my posts, you may have noticed me referring to Dragunov as a fairly safe character. This is true under the assumption that you properly counter hit confirm his strings and use options that are valid in certain situations. The problem is that recognizing these situations takes a good amount of time and comes more naturally with a strong understanding of how frames work, with emphasis on having a reasonable understanding of Dragunov's frames on hit and block.

Looking past the more in-depth reason why he's not beginner friendly, Dragunov has major issues with tracking, punisher strength, and overall "spamability". A player with a good amount of experience will be able to literally run circles around Dragunov. With only a few normal moves that track both directions and two homing moves that are both high, it is very hard to stop you opponent from abusing SS. While it may not seem important now, a character's punisher strength is very crucial to success at mid/high level. Unfortunately Dragunov is lacking a NH i10-i14 KND/W! and poor damage/frames on his jab punishment. He's also missing a scary i14 punisher as b+3 is very light on damage and f+4,4 is both even on hit as well as lacking range to punish most notable -14 moves. Lastly, spamability is a wonderful side effect that can come in handy in clutch situations. Looking for a safe, generic d/f+2? Try an i15 that has a wonky hit box and is -12 on block. The match is coming down to the wire and you think the opponent is going low? Hopefully you're not going to hop kick, because Dragunov doesn't have one and his u/f+4 tends to whiff on very low hitting attacks on top of only granting a small combo on hit.

The one thing Dragunov has going for him, in sense of ease of use, is a lack stances. As such you don't have to worry being caught in a situation you're unfamiliar with unless the opponent catches you in a specific tech trap or such.