d/f+2 Combos and You
Introduction:
Breaking habits are hard, even more so when you discover something yourself and it becomes ingrained so deeply that it's second nature to do. For me, and I imagine many other people, combos after a successful d/f+2 often are standard bread and butter. d/f+2, 4,1, followed by a combo dependent on level positioning and the amount of health remaining of me and my opponent.
Why should f+4,4,3 be your followup of choice:
If you've read my f+3, d+3 post B! article, you may have some insight into why f+4,4,3 should always follow your d/f+2 launch. To better expand my post from last week, regarding f+4,4,3, it really comes down to system basics and damage scaling. The beauty of d/f+2, f+4,4,3, 1, f,f+2, B! is in its low number of hits at only 5 hits pre-bind, excluding the launcher. To elaborate, the Tekken system has both damage scaling, often referred to as "fall off", as well as a gravity modifier that increases the more hits a characters takes while airborne. Basically the longer a combo continues, the less damage it does and the harder it is to sneak in additional hits. By putting your strongest hits first in a combo, there is less fall off increasing the overall combo damage. Secondly due to only 5 hits versus the 6/7 hits in older d/f+2 combos, follow up hits are easier to perform and have less push back, setting up some tricky oki options. Simply put, f+4,4,3 allows for a wide variety of follow up options that normally require modifying your combo. By using f+4,4,3, your post B!, options are left ambiguous which should increase your chance of landing one.
d/f+2, f+4,4,3, 1, f,f+2, B! follow up options:
f,f, 3,1,2 - for damage and close range post B! wall carry
f,f, d/f+3 - for 50/50 forced KND/Spike oki
(f+2),4, - for reset options
b+2+3 - for quick roll right catch (or quick roll catch with wall to your right)
f+3, d+3 - for running wake up oki
(d/f+2, f+4,4,3 can also be followed with a 3,1,2 for B! saving wall carry, further increasing its usefulness.)
Even disregarding damage potential and stronger oki options, the 5 hits versus the 6+ hits of older BnB combos, allows for post B! 3,1,2 to be extremely easy to perform. The dash in doesn't have to be nearly as deep and the timing is much less stringent to fully land the string which increases its practicality in tournament/high pressure situations.
Breaking the Habit:
In all seriousness, using a combo such as d/f+2, 4,1, 1, 1,3,2, B!, f,f, 3,1,2 is counter productive. The damage is fairly low for the amount of work required to fully land the combo. Small gameplay variables (such level positioning, opponent recovery, and execution speed) can drastically affect damage potential and probability of success. It's in your, and my, best interest to use d/f+2, f+4,4,3, 1, f,f+2, B! as your BnB as not only does it grant max damage, but has a plethora of follow up options that will keep the opponent guessing.