“There’s absolutely no question in my mind that he has the tools to be a mid, or even high tier character.” God that’s the most satisfying shit to hear in the world as an Alex player.
It gives him a non-committal option if you read your opponent jumping out of your command grab, which is great. Pretty sure V-Shift blows it up, which is why they gave it to him to begin with.
2:13 Yeah, this actually has a decent impact. As an Abigail player I would often stand parry after blocking lariat because it would force Alex to either do nothing or to go for sweep to punish it. Obviously not the end of the world, but it gives him a little more automatic pressure in the matchup.
i think you may have missed a couple things baf! St.hp can be cancelled into ex knee smash on a midair hit to combo depending on the height. You get real oki after medium slash elbow now! +2 after 2 forward dashes. Finally, you can now combo heavy slash elbow from standing heavy punch. this makes his optimal vs1 corner stun bnb easier and does more damage than lariat. otherwise you got everything perfect baf! I think Alex will be way more of a contender this season :D
@@Neogears1312 I'd actually like to see some buffs to his regular Knee Smash. Apart from juggle combos, it's mostly unusable as an anti-air unless it's a hard read. The LK version's range is too short, while MK and HK take too long to start. Their hitboxes are also tiny, so you're just likely to trade even if you managed to launch it in time. Just increasing the range of the LK version by even 10-15% would already give it a bit more usability against last minute jumps. While giving the MK and HK version some form of invincibility would be nice. I'd also like for stomp's last active frame to hit jumping opponents. One really vexing thing about stomp is your opponent can jump at the very last instant and completely avoid the move AND still setup a full jump-in combo. They're basically getting an easy and free punish for reacting late, which if it was Bison doing his stomp instead, they'd be eating a punish. If stomp has one frame to punish late jumps, you get a free hard knockdown and oki on hit, or at least forces your opponent to stand to block it. Letting regular headbutt have 2-3 frames of shorter animation would also be nice, since there's almost no way of connecting the non-EX version in a match unless you made a hard read. Lastly, I wish they'd fix the hitboxes on his crouching LK and MK and give crouching MK some sort of damage conversion outside of V-Trigger. It's highly punishable on whiff, and has considerably shorter range than crouching MP for slower startup, so there's not many situations where it's ideal.
@@tcchip nah man cr.lk is too OP! jk jk. I like the buffs it fucking baffles me that all knee smashes except ex do the same amount of damage and stomp doesn't hit airborne opponents. One more thing I'd add for the sake of balance is nerf chokehold and increase stun but make it a consecutive attack, depending on the v meter 😁
@@KurohigeDTeach-yy3ykAlex's Knee Smash, stomp and headbutt are almost useless without meter. HK Knee Smash is only usable after crouching HP hits a jumping opponent or on a hard read. It's too slow otherwise. MK version is even more useless. It's neither fast nor long ranged enough to be usable to cover a situation where LK or HK can hit (which is already extremely rare). Non-EX stomps are too slow to use as a punish, and -5 on block, so it's kinda useless to get in with it. Non-EX headbutt may hit once or twice against a careless opponent, but it's pretty much useless after that. What do you mean about the nerf to choke sleeper? What I'd like is for it to be buffed you that you can link it from the 2nd hit of EX Flash Chop. As it is, you're using meter purely for the faster startup and only doing as much damage as the LP version. I don't feel VT2 should be nerfed, as it's not getting enough use. VT2 is purely damage conversion, and highly situational damage conversion to boot. It doesn't do anything to open your opponents up the way a VT1 parry or guard break does. If they fixed DDT so it always hits if you combo into it, then you'd be at least getting reliable damage conversion. But since DDT completely whiffs on a crouching opponent even on a combo, while Choke Sleeper requires you to land a Flash Chop up close, Alex's neutral game options are limited. I think with the way DDT is now, everyone would be happy if it's changed so that it's completely blockable, but will combo properly instead against a crouching opponent.
@@tcchip well, knee smash isn't as useless as it was anymore, due to the fact that VS2 is fairly balanced but I see what you mean. Ex knee should overall be invincible or have armor, but it the knee can be used as an escape method when being chained from a guarded slash elbow. Heavy and or EX Headbutt should either knockdown or link into v triggers.... something! I only mentioned nerfing chokehold because I suggested it being a consecutive attack similar to his 3rd strike chokehold, but additional hits cost v meter (3 chokes mashing hp+HK) 1 chokehold racks up 120 dmg, including the flash chop that linked into it...so that would be over 360 dmg and being as busted and juicy as that sounds, people on the receiving end would be extremely unhappy about that.
You weren't kidding when you said now is the best time to pick up Alex. He feels great to play ! I love how his stHP works as an anti-air now. He swats you back on the ground like a fly.
The main reason why f.HP being +4oB is really nice and almost necessary is because Alex doesn't have 2-hit medium confirms -- all he gets without CH is st.MP st.LK which he needs to be basically point blank to land. This means that, after f.HP on block, Alex usually has to commit to st.MP xx Special in order to do anything meaningful, but if the opponent just chooses to backdash, they would get air reset by the st.MP because backdashes are airborne on frame 3 (which is when st.MP would previously hit), and whatever Special that Alex cancelled into would whiff against the air reset opponent, leaving him punishable, which sucked. When combined with backdashes beating command grab after f.HP as well, it gave the opponent a relatively strong defensive option that required Alex to make hard reads in a + situation to not be massively punished, which is pretty wack. At +4, st.MP hits them grounded, making the strike part of the strike/throw mixup more real. Also, Power Drop is a separate move from Power Bomb, and looking at sfvdiff those still have only the 2 active frames, so while the EX Power Bomb buff is nice to let you just swap out a Power Bomb for an EX without having to delay a frame in some situations (like after Air Knee dash up), it doesn't affect Yami Drop.
I feel like the system changes probably helped Alex more than most. He’s always struggled getting people off him. Most notoriously how he couldn’t even use v reversal to get out of the corner. Just having a tool probably will make those match ups a lot less frustrating.
As an Alex player, I honestly think he is finally viable. There are actually quite a few aspects to these buffs that I would like to shed some extra light on: 1) 5HP knockdown state means that you can even get super or ex knee off of an antiair if you hit the opponent high enough. It seems finicky right now, but I could imagine with more experience with this buff I could know when if would or wouldn't work and get some nice damage/oki off of it. 2) the 5HK knockdown change isn't that impactful overall, but the point of it is that sometimes, Alex would antiair with it but still be negative after the air reset so this is a quality of life buff for those situations. It is very common for opponents to neutral jump at 5HK range to beat both it and elbows so the ability to react to that with 5HK and guarantee corner carry or 5HK VTC ex flash chop xx Vskill is not bad. 3) Yea its a meme that lariat gets buffed every patch, but unlike those other buffs this one is extremely relevant and helps him keep pressure. +4 means that alex can press 5MP after blocked 6HP and the opponent won't flip out if they are holding jump or mashing backdash. It is worth knowing that for characters with 5f cancellable normals, +3 on block is a magic number for them for the same reason. Furthermore, it means you can make 6HP, 2LP a true blockstring. This means that you can guarantee they dont v shift right after blocking lariat in addition to other applications. This situation is made even more dangerous given the fact that he can threaten EX/LP command grab much more often after lariat due to the range buff on those moves. At point blank lariat range, that means he can threaten powerbomb after an LP or 5MP as well whereas in every season before this, the opponent could just hold back after blocking 6HP, 5MP every time. 4) You rightly pointed out that the cr. HP buff makes his antiair and vt1 stuff more consistent, but it also means that alex can always get cr. HP VTC flying cross chop every time regardless of what V trigger he takes. The other really big deal is that especially with many sweeps being more punishable, Alex can punish opponent's sweeps with 3HP much more often AND he gets much better reward for doing so because the second hit will almost always connect so he can punish a looot more spaced sweeps in this game with 3HP and still link ex knee/lp or ex chop/super/VTC. 5) You overlooked one of his other more important buffs as well. 5HP will now combo into HK elbow without a counterhit. This means that you can fish with it in footsies for an absolutely devastating combo: 5HP xx HK Elbow, EX flash chop xx Vskill or 5HP xx HK elbow, super. This also means that his optimal corner combo does more damage since 5HP does more damage than lariat, not to mention that it means he has a much easier time transitioning straight into his corner combo from footsies since 5HP is much much better in footsies as a whiff punish than lariat. 6) The mk elbow change means that in addition to being able to link into ex knee smash in the corner, he can get midscreen oki off it. 7) Ex powerbomb active frames means EX knee dash EX powerbomb works now without manual delay. 8) Sweep is much better on hit which means Alex gets real mixup after succesful 2HK, dash. I am combining some things other people have pointed out that I forgot to mention/didn't know into my post for posterity so future viewers don't have to scour comments. Shout outs to Cross Counter, budafuka, Cory in the house, and toms.
@@JT-hk9ur I prefer to use anime game/numpad notation for fighting games because they are more concise and avoid language barrier. If you look at the numpad on a keyboard, you can see all the possible directions you can input in a fighting game with 5 as neutral, 6 as forward, etc. So qcf would be 236. Half circle back would be 63214. So 5HP means standing hard punch, and 6HK would be forward + HK. A good example of why this is a better way to talk about fighting games is actually alex's crouching HP. The angle changes based on whether you are holding downback, down, or downforward. So rather than saying something cumbersome like "downforward version of cr.HP" I can just say "3HP"instead.
Also when explaining the standing heavy punch you forgot to mention that at certain heights you can combo the standing heavy punch anti air into ex knee
So it's seemingly the case where everyone's just... in a good spot? So far, I mean. Because I'd love for the meta to just be all over the place for a while this season.
V Shift probably upsets the meta enough as it is, so it would stack badly with too many changes. It is a pleasant surprise that most buffs and nerfed characters (minus Dhalsim maybe) seem to have earned it.
@@thelastgogeta I've been playing matches non stop since the update and switching characters to experiment with stuff like shotos, grapplers, etc. All and all the meta isn't broken at all, it's still just the same game with new added combos and editions. V-shift don't really hurt the meta either since the break only takes white health away just like V-reversal. Also everyone has it so it's not a deal breaker at all for any character. when playing Zangief and getting V-shifted then punished made me adapt all while I too V-shifted DPs and countered with a mid air EX screw piledriver. Your average punish that someone could dish out if they don't break honestly varies depending on where their positioning is. The game isn't broken and V-shift isn't the end of the world, it's not even a mechanic that can be spammed either. Nothing really changed other than the game being a lot more fun, V-shift is bearly seen honestly though my times playing in the high ranks. I'm sure it will be fine :)
After the EX powerbomb became 5f last year, it had to be manually timed after EX knee, the extra active fixes that. So you had to either lose out on damage and stun by going for the regular version, or risk getting jabbed if you time it wrong. Stand fierce naturally combos into heavy slash elbow now, that is a huge buff to that button as a whiff punish tool, especially if you're near a corner. The actual buff to medium slash elbow is being +2 after a double dash on quick rise now. You can actually frame trap with s.MP after lariat now. It was pretty common to backdash after lariat to get flipped out unless you kept it tight with lights or big brain called out and over committed with c.HP or another lariat.
Between v shift and these buffs this is exactly what I needed to get back into sfv. I only ever really enjoyed playing alex, so having him not feel totally invalidated by other characters is so exciting
There's something so cool about knocking someone back to the ground after reading their jump without even leaving the ground yourself. I'd be screaming every time I landed this.
@@oldschoolninamain9138 lol I don't play SFV anymore. When it was in season 1 I played Gief a lot for similar reasons to what I said. I played Ryu too to develop fundamentals.
@@PurpleFreezerPage Gotcha, thanks! I guess I'll try Ryu to get some fundamentals in before Oro drops. You just seemed knowledgeable so I was curious lol. Do you play Tekken?
@@oldschoolninamain9138 Noooo no im not knowledgeable. Im a casual player lol. Also sorry no tekken. I wanna try it but its a rage game for lots of people soooo meh.
@@PurpleFreezerPage Oh ok gotcha, my bad! I've been playing Tekken since the first one, Tekken 7 isn't really beginner friendly unfortunately. And you're correct, I get at least one rage quit a day, and I only play non ranked lol. Thanks for answering and be well!
Alex is one of my subs and I love him as a character! He was my favorite character from 3rd Strike along with Dudley and I'm happy that Capcom finally decided to make him a good character this season. He feels like he can actually deal with much of the cast now and is a legit threat to others. He might just escape the Twitter clip meme infamy that he's always been known for finally! Shout out to Demon Dan, that's my guy.
@@HadesHatredEdge I just kinda found it crazy that a bunch of the cast got some significant changes to buttons and normals and what juri basically got was a attempt to make vt2 good which didn't work and a cancel to her heavy charge kick... nothing that's really changing up her gameplan at least for me
He's the chosen one who is destined to stop Gill. He'll get a lot stronger in SF6, possibly the last chapter of SF and probably a retelling of Street Fighter: 2nd Impact and 3rd strike.
Few things. As someone mentioned before you get good oki from m. elbow now. Lariat being +4 on block means they can't backdash air flipout the st. mp afterwards. Also ex powerbomb change has nothing to do with yami drop (yami drop was added last season), instead alex had a problem when they changed his ex powerbomb to 5f instead of 6f after ex knee dash up you always had to delay ex powerbomb by 1f for it to land, otherwise it whiffed. Now that's not nescessary. It's a QOL change. Another thing is, st. hp now combos into h. elbow which is kinda huge. Walkspeed buff was also very welcome.
I never thought the st.hp anti air buff was all that useful. It starts up in 9 frames and there is only 1 frame where it actually anti airs but you can now combo off of the knockdown into super or ex knee.
You forgot that medium elbow knockdown after double dash on back rise, Alex is +7. He can go for a light command grab that beats all normals, or react with the appropriate normal
I don't think they really knew what to do with Nash to begin with. He's not fast enough to be a rushdown character, and he plays nothing like his Alpha version. Alex and Ryu had clear design directions in comparison. It's just that over the course of the game, they detoured from it, and that's why they just became increasingly bad until this season. Alex in Season 1 had very few combos and terrible damage conversion compared to his Season 4 incarnation, but nearly everyone would rather have his Season 1 version because he was solid overall and his tools worked for what they were intended for. Season 4 Alex on the other hand, was a one-trick pony.
You left out LK Slash Elbow being able to link into standing LK on Counter Hit. Not a huge buff, but it synergizes very nicely with the rest of his other buffs, and also with the change to crouching LP's hit advantage, gives you a means to get in close safely and punish anyone trying to hit a button in the meantime. His sweep is also 1F faster startup, and 4F faster recovery on hit. Combined with his improved walk speed, it definitely helps his oki. The other one that's really huge however, is standing HP in to HK Slash Elbow. It's a ton of corner carry, and easy damage conversion. Previously I didn't have much reason to use standing HP, since Lariat just worked a lot better as a hard, standing LP was a safer anti-air, and MP or crouching LP was better for close range. Now with the nerfs to anti-air jabs, you have to use his HP more to deal with jumps. A lot of the buffs Alex got over Season 3 and 4 were highly situational. They didn't help his neutral game or his BnB. Now Alex has much better tools to deal with people who previously can just disrespect his frame advantage and get away with it. Landing a few crouching LP into standing HP > HK Slash Elbow on Hard Hit would go a long way in stopping people from abusing jabs every time they block or are hit.
Fan name for when you do heavy chop on block into a super delayed power bomb. If you do it on the last frame, it comes out after the opponent has recovered from blockstun, so it'll beat even reversal 3f normals. The opponent can still jump but that's super dangerous if Alex doesn't do the drop. It makes punishing heavy chop into a guess basically
if the opponent blocks heavy flash chop you can cancel into the power drop follow up at the latest possible frames and it will grab an opponent before they have a chance to punish it. timing is specific but if you do it correctly it kinda turns punishing heavy chop into a guessing game.
Not a big deal, but it seems to be called Yami and Yomi exchangeably. Yomi makes more sense since it is about reads but you'll see HiFight calling it Yami.
@@thelastgogeta Yami means dark, and in my mind it makes it sound like there's something sinister and evil about this technique. which, to be honest, while I don't really get why it would be called that, it sounds kinda sick. i guess because you're getting to turn a punish situation into a mix-up and that's 'against the rules'?
Great vid! IDK if you have already or plan to, but can you turn your analyses of the Season 5 changes into a playlist when you finish or as you get to the end of the roster? That way, it'll be a nice way for people to binge your videos on the subject if they aren't keeping up with the initial uploads. Keep up the good work man!
Hey Baf are you going to main Oro when he comes out? Probably an obvious answer lol. Im only playing 3S and Alpha 2/3 until Oro comes to SFV. I have played a bit of SFV and i just didn't like how it worked :/ However, I love Oro, so I'm going to try again when he drops.
I love ALL the buffs to Alex, they all work really well together, but most importantly the VS2 and VT2 buffs. These 2 buffs alone make him feel like a completely different charackter, as VS2 and VT2 were completely useless (imo) before so I never used them. Now I can finally play VS2 with VT2 Alex.
3:15 blocked into suplex since when? I appreciate you referring to the older terms for attack strengths. You probably noticed that the devs gave Alex's normals the third strike whiff sound effects on certain attacks.
Been wishing for a better faster normal AA since season 2. All these buffs are of course welcomed, but Alex still have one of the slowest normal AA and no invincible, let’s see where these new buffs and vshift will take him. It’s still too early to tell.
He's never going to have an AA like that again. Even if he had, it would've gotten the Birdie and Mika treatment by now. He has one of the most rewarding AA's next to Urien and they only improve it with each patch. And while s.HP is meh as an AA, it's better now for catching people trying to jump out of pressure and way less committal than c.HP. It would be nice to have EX knee be full air invulnerable from frame 1, but I'm positive they would nerf the oki on it to compensate.
the biggest problem with alex is the lack of oki after command throw and the lariat can so be crouched from range. he will always be bad until they fix this
4 years later, Alex is all warmed up
he almost died of frostbite
My man had to go to New York state tech and get that degree first
More like 20 lol
This is a great comment
@@taylorbee4010 Facts. He had to get that money and excercise game up first.
They had to buff Alex’s lariat, it’s not an SFV patch without Alex’s lariat getting buffed.
“There’s absolutely no question in my mind that he has the tools to be a mid, or even high tier character.”
God that’s the most satisfying shit to hear in the world as an Alex player.
My guy. This season. We. Are. Buffed.
Another victory for the Alex Nation.
Look how they unmassacred my boy
The stand fierce change is so satisfying and adds so much character, really welcome change
It's also from his 3rd Strike incarnstion.
It gives him a non-committal option if you read your opponent jumping out of your command grab, which is great. Pretty sure V-Shift blows it up, which is why they gave it to him to begin with.
I think also worth mentioning is that the mk Elbow now gives you oki as a result of them floating more, you get a free double dash
They really went over the limit with these buffs. They're still buffing lariat though which is funny
Over the limit?
@@CrystalMang0 just me joking about one of alex's lines in game more than anything.
I did catch the line bro. I got you
I fully expect Lariat to reflect projectiles in the final patch.
@@fissilewhistle bruh that would be amazing.
They gave Alex the gun they never gave to T.Hawk
T. Hawk had a gun at the beginning of ultra with his buffed light Condor Spire, but then Capcom backpedaled and nerfed it early on. :/ Bastards.
He has the gun in Omega. He has many guns in omega, honestly.
Ey, he still has that line from Third Strike
"You can't escape" sounded so goofy, but so hype
The one in NG is the funniest
@@oldschoolninamain9138 MJ Alex was the best.
@@mostverticalproductions4808 💯 I miss it lol.
@@oldschoolninamain9138 ᵁ ᶜᵃⁿᵗ ᵉᵗʰᵃᵖᵉ
@@joejoejoej9763 This! 🤣
Aw man, I'm gonna have a field day with this buffed Alex
Get ready we about to bring the heat.. Alex mains commence
2:13
Yeah, this actually has a decent impact. As an Abigail player I would often stand parry after blocking lariat because it would force Alex to either do nothing or to go for sweep to punish it. Obviously not the end of the world, but it gives him a little more automatic pressure in the matchup.
I love the changes to the Heavies, they feel more powerful and realistic
i think you may have missed a couple things baf!
St.hp can be cancelled into ex knee smash on a midair hit to combo depending on the height. You get real oki after medium slash elbow now! +2 after 2 forward dashes. Finally, you can now combo heavy slash elbow from standing heavy punch. this makes his optimal vs1 corner stun bnb easier and does more damage than lariat.
otherwise you got everything perfect baf! I think Alex will be way more of a contender this season :D
If they make a 6 with Alex in it they should build off this because this version really answered a lot of the characters needless weaknesses.
@@Neogears1312 I'd actually like to see some buffs to his regular Knee Smash. Apart from juggle combos, it's mostly unusable as an anti-air unless it's a hard read. The LK version's range is too short, while MK and HK take too long to start. Their hitboxes are also tiny, so you're just likely to trade even if you managed to launch it in time. Just increasing the range of the LK version by even 10-15% would already give it a bit more usability against last minute jumps. While giving the MK and HK version some form of invincibility would be nice.
I'd also like for stomp's last active frame to hit jumping opponents. One really vexing thing about stomp is your opponent can jump at the very last instant and completely avoid the move AND still setup a full jump-in combo. They're basically getting an easy and free punish for reacting late, which if it was Bison doing his stomp instead, they'd be eating a punish. If stomp has one frame to punish late jumps, you get a free hard knockdown and oki on hit, or at least forces your opponent to stand to block it.
Letting regular headbutt have 2-3 frames of shorter animation would also be nice, since there's almost no way of connecting the non-EX version in a match unless you made a hard read.
Lastly, I wish they'd fix the hitboxes on his crouching LK and MK and give crouching MK some sort of damage conversion outside of V-Trigger. It's highly punishable on whiff, and has considerably shorter range than crouching MP for slower startup, so there's not many situations where it's ideal.
@@tcchip nah man cr.lk is too OP! jk jk. I like the buffs it fucking baffles me that all knee smashes except ex do the same amount of damage and stomp doesn't hit airborne opponents. One more thing I'd add for the sake of balance is nerf chokehold and increase stun but make it a consecutive attack, depending on the v meter 😁
@@KurohigeDTeach-yy3ykAlex's Knee Smash, stomp and headbutt are almost useless without meter. HK Knee Smash is only usable after crouching HP hits a jumping opponent or on a hard read. It's too slow otherwise. MK version is even more useless. It's neither fast nor long ranged enough to be usable to cover a situation where LK or HK can hit (which is already extremely rare).
Non-EX stomps are too slow to use as a punish, and -5 on block, so it's kinda useless to get in with it. Non-EX headbutt may hit once or twice against a careless opponent, but it's pretty much useless after that.
What do you mean about the nerf to choke sleeper? What I'd like is for it to be buffed you that you can link it from the 2nd hit of EX Flash Chop. As it is, you're using meter purely for the faster startup and only doing as much damage as the LP version.
I don't feel VT2 should be nerfed, as it's not getting enough use. VT2 is purely damage conversion, and highly situational damage conversion to boot. It doesn't do anything to open your opponents up the way a VT1 parry or guard break does. If they fixed DDT so it always hits if you combo into it, then you'd be at least getting reliable damage conversion. But since DDT completely whiffs on a crouching opponent even on a combo, while Choke Sleeper requires you to land a Flash Chop up close, Alex's neutral game options are limited. I think with the way DDT is now, everyone would be happy if it's changed so that it's completely blockable, but will combo properly instead against a crouching opponent.
@@tcchip well, knee smash isn't as useless as it was anymore, due to the fact that VS2 is fairly balanced but I see what you mean. Ex knee should overall be invincible or have armor, but it the knee can be used as an escape method when being chained from a guarded slash elbow. Heavy and or EX Headbutt should either knockdown or link into v triggers.... something!
I only mentioned nerfing chokehold because I suggested it being a consecutive attack similar to his 3rd strike chokehold, but additional hits cost v meter (3 chokes mashing hp+HK) 1 chokehold racks up 120 dmg, including the flash chop that linked into it...so that would be over 360 dmg and being as busted and juicy as that sounds, people on the receiving end would be extremely unhappy about that.
You can kinda tell if a character got significantly better by the tone of his voice.
The extra plus frames on lariat mean that you can’t backdash every option after a blocked lariat. St. Mp will hit and can combo now.
this is ridiculous lol
You weren't kidding when you said now is the best time to pick up Alex. He feels great to play !
I love how his stHP works as an anti-air now. He swats you back on the ground like a fly.
The main reason why f.HP being +4oB is really nice and almost necessary is because Alex doesn't have 2-hit medium confirms -- all he gets without CH is st.MP st.LK which he needs to be basically point blank to land. This means that, after f.HP on block, Alex usually has to commit to st.MP xx Special in order to do anything meaningful, but if the opponent just chooses to backdash, they would get air reset by the st.MP because backdashes are airborne on frame 3 (which is when st.MP would previously hit), and whatever Special that Alex cancelled into would whiff against the air reset opponent, leaving him punishable, which sucked. When combined with backdashes beating command grab after f.HP as well, it gave the opponent a relatively strong defensive option that required Alex to make hard reads in a + situation to not be massively punished, which is pretty wack. At +4, st.MP hits them grounded, making the strike part of the strike/throw mixup more real.
Also, Power Drop is a separate move from Power Bomb, and looking at sfvdiff those still have only the 2 active frames, so while the EX Power Bomb buff is nice to let you just swap out a Power Bomb for an EX without having to delay a frame in some situations (like after Air Knee dash up), it doesn't affect Yami Drop.
How he’s all warmed up.
I feel like the system changes probably helped Alex more than most. He’s always struggled getting people off him. Most notoriously how he couldn’t even use v reversal to get out of the corner. Just having a tool probably will make those match ups a lot less frustrating.
Is nice they didn’t forget to buff Alex lariat this season, 💪
Excellent review! Alex got blessed this season for sure
After being a low tier since 3rd Strike , my boy is finally getting some respect
As an Alex player, I honestly think he is finally viable. There are actually quite a few aspects to these buffs that I would like to shed some extra light on:
1) 5HP knockdown state means that you can even get super or ex knee off of an antiair if you hit the opponent high enough. It seems finicky right now, but I could imagine with more experience with this buff I could know when if would or wouldn't work and get some nice damage/oki off of it.
2) the 5HK knockdown change isn't that impactful overall, but the point of it is that sometimes, Alex would antiair with it but still be negative after the air reset so this is a quality of life buff for those situations. It is very common for opponents to neutral jump at 5HK range to beat both it and elbows so the ability to react to that with 5HK and guarantee corner carry or 5HK VTC ex flash chop xx Vskill is not bad.
3) Yea its a meme that lariat gets buffed every patch, but unlike those other buffs this one is extremely relevant and helps him keep pressure. +4 means that alex can press 5MP after blocked 6HP and the opponent won't flip out if they are holding jump or mashing backdash. It is worth knowing that for characters with 5f cancellable normals, +3 on block is a magic number for them for the same reason. Furthermore, it means you can make 6HP, 2LP a true blockstring. This means that you can guarantee they dont v shift right after blocking lariat in addition to other applications. This situation is made even more dangerous given the fact that he can threaten EX/LP command grab much more often after lariat due to the range buff on those moves. At point blank lariat range, that means he can threaten powerbomb after an LP or 5MP as well whereas in every season before this, the opponent could just hold back after blocking 6HP, 5MP every time.
4) You rightly pointed out that the cr. HP buff makes his antiair and vt1 stuff more consistent, but it also means that alex can always get cr. HP VTC flying cross chop every time regardless of what V trigger he takes. The other really big deal is that especially with many sweeps being more punishable, Alex can punish opponent's sweeps with 3HP much more often AND he gets much better reward for doing so because the second hit will almost always connect so he can punish a looot more spaced sweeps in this game with 3HP and still link ex knee/lp or ex chop/super/VTC.
5) You overlooked one of his other more important buffs as well. 5HP will now combo into HK elbow without a counterhit. This means that you can fish with it in footsies for an absolutely devastating combo: 5HP xx HK Elbow, EX flash chop xx Vskill or 5HP xx HK elbow, super. This also means that his optimal corner combo does more damage since 5HP does more damage than lariat, not to mention that it means he has a much easier time transitioning straight into his corner combo from footsies since 5HP is much much better in footsies as a whiff punish than lariat.
6) The mk elbow change means that in addition to being able to link into ex knee smash in the corner, he can get midscreen oki off it.
7) Ex powerbomb active frames means EX knee dash EX powerbomb works now without manual delay.
8) Sweep is much better on hit which means Alex gets real mixup after succesful 2HK, dash.
I am combining some things other people have pointed out that I forgot to mention/didn't know into my post for posterity so future viewers don't have to scour comments. Shout outs to Cross Counter, budafuka, Cory in the house, and toms.
5HP? 6HK? What does that mean?
@@JT-hk9ur I prefer to use anime game/numpad notation for fighting games because they are more concise and avoid language barrier. If you look at the numpad on a keyboard, you can see all the possible directions you can input in a fighting game with 5 as neutral, 6 as forward, etc. So qcf would be 236. Half circle back would be 63214.
So 5HP means standing hard punch, and 6HK would be forward + HK. A good example of why this is a better way to talk about fighting games is actually alex's crouching HP. The angle changes based on whether you are holding downback, down, or downforward. So rather than saying something cumbersome like "downforward version of cr.HP" I can just say "3HP"instead.
@@semantik95 Gotcha. Thanks for that!
I fucking loved Alex since season 1. These buffs are just so vindicating for him
one other minor change is Alex's stand HK now puts opponents into proximity block earlier. It makes it harder to just back-walk away from
Gill is the new highlight character, my guy is no longer a joke
When you mentioned light elbow pushback you forgot to mention that you can now combo standing light kick off of counter hit on the light elbow.
Also when explaining the standing heavy punch you forgot to mention that at certain heights you can combo the standing heavy punch anti air into ex knee
Oh yeah and EX yami drop always worked it's just more consistent now it seems.
I've been playing Alex since he came out and you have NO idea how happy I am with these buffs. Finally he's warmed up and rrady to rumble!
So it's seemingly the case where everyone's just... in a good spot? So far, I mean. Because I'd love for the meta to just be all over the place for a while this season.
V Shift probably upsets the meta enough as it is, so it would stack badly with too many changes. It is a pleasant surprise that most buffs and nerfed characters (minus Dhalsim maybe) seem to have earned it.
Definitely not everyone. Vega and Dhalsim are the big losers, and always have been for this game.
Cries in Dhalsim*
@@thelastgogeta I've been playing matches non stop since the update and switching characters to experiment with stuff like shotos, grapplers, etc. All and all the meta isn't broken at all, it's still just the same game with new added combos and editions. V-shift don't really hurt the meta either since the break only takes white health away just like V-reversal. Also everyone has it so it's not a deal breaker at all for any character.
when playing Zangief and getting V-shifted then punished made me adapt all while I too V-shifted DPs and countered with a mid air EX screw piledriver. Your average punish that someone could dish out if they don't break honestly varies depending on where their positioning is.
The game isn't broken and V-shift isn't the end of the world, it's not even a mechanic that can be spammed either. Nothing really changed other than the game being a lot more fun, V-shift is bearly seen honestly though my times playing in the high ranks.
I'm sure it will be fine :)
I hope g becomes bad finally
After the EX powerbomb became 5f last year, it had to be manually timed after EX knee, the extra active fixes that. So you had to either lose out on damage and stun by going for the regular version, or risk getting jabbed if you time it wrong. Stand fierce naturally combos into heavy slash elbow now, that is a huge buff to that button as a whiff punish tool, especially if you're near a corner. The actual buff to medium slash elbow is being +2 after a double dash on quick rise now. You can actually frame trap with s.MP after lariat now. It was pretty common to backdash after lariat to get flipped out unless you kept it tight with lights or big brain called out and over committed with c.HP or another lariat.
This is huge!! my big baby boy is a real character now!
You can cancel anti-air HP in knee smash for more damage (but it doesn’t work if the opponent is too close to the ground)
Thanks for these. Brief, clear and on point. Very good content.
Lol st HP is like "SIT DOWN."
just when i think i'm done they drag me RIGHT BACK IN, LETS GO BABYYYYYY HYPER BOMB
Between v shift and these buffs this is exactly what I needed to get back into sfv. I only ever really enjoyed playing alex, so having him not feel totally invalidated by other characters is so exciting
This is the good shit. I’m really happy that I can play this character again.
Keoma has been playing Alex on twitch, is been pretty insane
I've been waiting for this one Baf thanks so much
There's something so cool about knocking someone back to the ground after reading their jump without even leaving the ground yourself. I'd be screaming every time I landed this.
Can I ask who you main?
@@oldschoolninamain9138 lol I don't play SFV anymore. When it was in season 1 I played Gief a lot for similar reasons to what I said. I played Ryu too to develop fundamentals.
@@PurpleFreezerPage Gotcha, thanks! I guess I'll try Ryu to get some fundamentals in before Oro drops.
You just seemed knowledgeable so I was curious lol. Do you play Tekken?
@@oldschoolninamain9138 Noooo no im not knowledgeable. Im a casual player lol.
Also sorry no tekken. I wanna try it but its a rage game for lots of people soooo meh.
@@PurpleFreezerPage Oh ok gotcha, my bad!
I've been playing Tekken since the first one, Tekken 7 isn't really beginner friendly unfortunately. And you're correct, I get at least one rage quit a day, and I only play non ranked lol.
Thanks for answering and be well!
I'm not even an Alex main but if there is a character that needed this kind of treatment it's him. They got him out of garbage city
Hey man just want to thank you for taking the time to show us these. These are greatly appreciated. Keep up the great content!
Alex is one of my subs and I love him as a character! He was my favorite character from 3rd Strike along with Dudley and I'm happy that Capcom finally decided to make him a good character this season. He feels like he can actually deal with much of the cast now and is a legit threat to others. He might just escape the Twitter clip meme infamy that he's always been known for finally! Shout out to Demon Dan, that's my guy.
That light power bomb was a teleport u can't tell me otherwise lol
You'll get to juri eventually... I'll just have to wait
So far nothing good is being said about Juri.
@@HadesHatredEdge debbie downer amirite
I don't see anything actually meaningful out side of the wave 10f buff and the heavy charge CA buff so I'm wondering if this guy can change my mind
@@tylerboone6324 The overall vibe I got was "Capcom doesn't know what to do with Juri." I expected better since she's one of the few SFIV reps.
@@HadesHatredEdge I just kinda found it crazy that a bunch of the cast got some significant changes to buttons and normals and what juri basically got was a attempt to make vt2 good which didn't work and a cancel to her heavy charge kick... nothing that's really changing up her gameplan at least for me
He's the chosen one who is destined to stop Gill. He'll get a lot stronger in SF6, possibly the last chapter of SF and probably a retelling of Street Fighter: 2nd Impact and 3rd strike.
I'm cooking now Boyz CobraCity is back baaaaby
I've waited forever for this video
Few things. As someone mentioned before you get good oki from m. elbow now. Lariat being +4 on block means they can't backdash air flipout the st. mp afterwards. Also ex powerbomb change has nothing to do with yami drop (yami drop was added last season), instead alex had a problem when they changed his ex powerbomb to 5f instead of 6f after ex knee dash up you always had to delay ex powerbomb by 1f for it to land, otherwise it whiffed. Now that's not nescessary. It's a QOL change.
Another thing is, st. hp now combos into h. elbow which is kinda huge. Walkspeed buff was also very welcome.
Thank you for all these amazing videos!
I’ve wait 4 years for this moment
Finally Alex is here. Thanks Cspcom
Gunfight and DemonDan14 are going to massacre the online now. :0
They Made Alex Great Again
this is incredible news
I never thought the st.hp anti air buff was all that useful. It starts up in 9 frames and there is only 1 frame where it actually anti airs but you can now combo off of the knockdown into super or ex knee.
Bafael, are you going to main Oro when he is released? I see you have Oro videos. He your favorite SF3 character?
Yes and yes.
@@Bafael I see you answered my question lol. Btw, I appreciate all your videos and you've really helped me improve my Oro.
@@Bafael same
lariat being +4 on block means that s.mp will hit grounded against people who backdash or hold up
also you could always ex yami drop
You beat me to it! What a nice buff.
also walkspeed buffs
You forgot that medium elbow knockdown after double dash on back rise, Alex is +7. He can go for a light command grab that beats all normals, or react with the appropriate normal
ALEX NATION RISEUP
Alex looking dope af.
You forget to mention that they also buffed his forward and back walk speed
This is how he should have been from the beginning!
Alex is looking good. Now if only Capcom made his idle stance his default stance. So much more intimidating.
I can never look at anything but his legs. He’s not an action figure, why are they facing an entirely different direction from his upper body,
Just a message of health and happiness to everyone, and have great day :)
You can't escape!!!
In a girl voice like in NG and 2i
Also with the Standing HP if you hit the opponent in the right height or timing he can connect EX Knee Smash.
Oh no, what have they done, my guy....
Sfv finally looking like the game it should’ve been
Wow I might actually play SFV again
*JUSTICE IS SERVED!!!!*
We legit now. Looks like Capcom finally listen to all the Alex and Ryu crybabies. Shame they didn't give Nash the same kind of love
I don't think they really knew what to do with Nash to begin with. He's not fast enough to be a rushdown character, and he plays nothing like his Alpha version. Alex and Ryu had clear design directions in comparison. It's just that over the course of the game, they detoured from it, and that's why they just became increasingly bad until this season. Alex in Season 1 had very few combos and terrible damage conversion compared to his Season 4 incarnation, but nearly everyone would rather have his Season 1 version because he was solid overall and his tools worked for what they were intended for. Season 4 Alex on the other hand, was a one-trick pony.
why am i watching this, i don't even play streetfighter
Nice to see my boy alex buffed
I guess you could say... He's all warmed up.
He was all warmed up season 1. Now he's ready.
@@KurohigeDTeach-yy3yk
Took him a while
You left out LK Slash Elbow being able to link into standing LK on Counter Hit. Not a huge buff, but it synergizes very nicely with the rest of his other buffs, and also with the change to crouching LP's hit advantage, gives you a means to get in close safely and punish anyone trying to hit a button in the meantime. His sweep is also 1F faster startup, and 4F faster recovery on hit. Combined with his improved walk speed, it definitely helps his oki.
The other one that's really huge however, is standing HP in to HK Slash Elbow. It's a ton of corner carry, and easy damage conversion. Previously I didn't have much reason to use standing HP, since Lariat just worked a lot better as a hard, standing LP was a safer anti-air, and MP or crouching LP was better for close range. Now with the nerfs to anti-air jabs, you have to use his HP more to deal with jumps.
A lot of the buffs Alex got over Season 3 and 4 were highly situational. They didn't help his neutral game or his BnB. Now Alex has much better tools to deal with people who previously can just disrespect his frame advantage and get away with it. Landing a few crouching LP into standing HP > HK Slash Elbow on Hard Hit would go a long way in stopping people from abusing jabs every time they block or are hit.
Alex is a real boy. The lion is coming
Why, hello again! Enjoy your Saturday you gorgeous reader, you!
d'aww
don't tell me what to do
@@eoeaoe12e OK! 😁
Oh boy another baf video
Man alex mains played like complete idiots last patch can't imagine how they will be now
The boy lives!!!
I'm all warmed up
I sincerely hope these buffs make Alex viable.
3:14 What is a Yomi Drop?
Fan name for when you do heavy chop on block into a super delayed power bomb. If you do it on the last frame, it comes out after the opponent has recovered from blockstun, so it'll beat even reversal 3f normals. The opponent can still jump but that's super dangerous if Alex doesn't do the drop. It makes punishing heavy chop into a guess basically
if the opponent blocks heavy flash chop you can cancel into the power drop follow up at the latest possible frames and it will grab an opponent before they have a chance to punish it. timing is specific but if you do it correctly it kinda turns punishing heavy chop into a guessing game.
@@Bafael Thanks for the answer!
Not a big deal, but it seems to be called Yami and Yomi exchangeably. Yomi makes more sense since it is about reads but you'll see HiFight calling it Yami.
@@thelastgogeta Yami means dark, and in my mind it makes it sound like there's something sinister and evil about this technique. which, to be honest, while I don't really get why it would be called that, it sounds kinda sick. i guess because you're getting to turn a punish situation into a mix-up and that's 'against the rules'?
Powahbahmb.
Great vid! IDK if you have already or plan to, but can you turn your analyses of the Season 5 changes into a playlist when you finish or as you get to the end of the roster? That way, it'll be a nice way for people to binge your videos on the subject if they aren't keeping up with the initial uploads.
Keep up the good work man!
Yeah I'm already doing that lol
Nice...
Hey Baf are you going to main Oro when he comes out? Probably an obvious answer lol.
Im only playing 3S and Alpha 2/3 until Oro comes to SFV. I have played a bit of SFV and i just didn't like how it worked :/ However, I love Oro, so I'm going to try again when he drops.
3:11 how the hell does that work?
@Bafael I think you need to do a season 1/2 glance at how bad they were balancing Alex in this game. He was worse than Fang
everybody getting it
I love ALL the buffs to Alex, they all work really well together, but most importantly the VS2 and VT2 buffs. These 2 buffs alone make him feel like a completely different charackter, as VS2 and VT2 were completely useless (imo) before so I never used them. Now I can finally play VS2 with VT2 Alex.
ALEX NAYSH WHERE U AT
I think he needs moooooooore !
3:15 blocked into suplex since when? I appreciate you referring to the older terms for attack strengths.
You probably noticed that the devs gave Alex's normals the third strike whiff sound effects on certain attacks.
Kage next?
Hey, thanks
Been wishing for a better faster normal AA since season 2. All these buffs are of course welcomed, but Alex still have one of the slowest normal AA and no invincible, let’s see where these new buffs and vshift will take him. It’s still too early to tell.
He's never going to have an AA like that again. Even if he had, it would've gotten the Birdie and Mika treatment by now. He has one of the most rewarding AA's next to Urien and they only improve it with each patch. And while s.HP is meh as an AA, it's better now for catching people trying to jump out of pressure and way less committal than c.HP. It would be nice to have EX knee be full air invulnerable from frame 1, but I'm positive they would nerf the oki on it to compensate.
@@budafuka got it. It’s just me I’m weak at AA.
@@wasabi-in-my-eye3134 Slow AA is a definite weakness, I'm just saying he could have it way worse.
Help I’m too early
Acting like you won't get buffed
Alex is p pog ngl
the biggest problem with alex is the lack of oki after command throw and the lariat can so be crouched from range. he will always be bad until they fix this
Yes yes yes yes!!!!