Offensive poking
The objective of poking on the offensive is to constantly be on the attack
and to seize control of the match with aggressive force.
Offensive poking can be broken up into two catagories:
- pinning down
- interrupts
pinning them down
First things first I guess. Poking to pin your opponent down is a great
set up for mind games and mixups. When you poke effectively, you are
in control of the match. You set the pace of the match. You can
throw when you choose to throw, and juggle when you choose to juggle. When
you poke effectively, they panic and make mistakes... giving you psychological
edge... the power.
My personal fave for offensive poking is Law, and we'll be using him for this
example.
A good custom string starter is...
1, b+2,3
that's a jab followed by the first two hits from the junkyard kick. The
timing is pretty important for it, try to knock out the hits so they connect
at an even (seemingly slow) pace, about the same timing
as the 3 hits of the junk yard kick. The timing of most
of my Law strings is about that slow. With well timed (and seemingly slow) moves for
a while you will find that his
really quick moves become frightningly effective. You will soon find that you
can forge the tempo of the match... from dreamy slow pokes, to lighting fast
juggle starters and frenzy strings
When you pin them down
After the second hit of the junkyard
kick, go for another jab... or a throw, maybe a d/b+4 sweep. You can also
mix in
1,1,1
and
b+2,3,4
to pressure.
When custom stringing though, don't forget what your character is capable
of... be it life draining juggles, or evil throw games. You should be able
to quickly recognize when the character is going to bite and eat your power
moves... don't miss those opportunities to crush your opponent.
Using Law again as the example...
Law's devistating d+2,3 (or while crouching+2,3) can be used in poke mixups.
consider the following poking mix ups.
1,b+2,3,d+1 (keep holding down),4
the last two hits are mid low. Excellent for chipping damage.
1,1,F+2,2,b+2,d+1,3
a similar poking threat, that ends in the low punch to catapult. It's also a faster
combo then the first chain. The more you poke, the more you can set the timing of the
game. If someone expects slow hits (after effectivly being held down by slow hits)
then they fall victim for Law's lightning speed.
One more quick one is
1,1+3 or 1,2+4 (jab to quick throw)
mixed up with
1,u/f+4 (jab to flip kick)
Law has a great catalogue of moves, learning them, and the poking potential may
just re-invent your Law, and learning the essence of offensive pinning/poking may also
re-invent your Tekken game.
interrupting
Another vital aspect of offensive poking interrupting.
Interrupting is an invaluble tool in any offense. The heart of interrupts is to
stop your opponent from attacking before their attacks actually hit you. A lot of
this goes back to frame data. You don't have to be a frame data guru to know that
some moves hit faster then others. Hell, some moves are just slow. Unblockables are
slow, and they glitter! When you see someone glitter, you have enough time to hit
them with a jab, easy. Once you learn to react (instead of cowering or running
away... you big baby) you can probably whip out a pheonix smasher, or some hell sweeps...
depending on your character.
Of course, that's just an example. The true meat and potatoes of offensive poking
is stopping faster attacks in their animation before they get to you.
This also changes the hit status of the attack, from just regular attack to
a souped up counter hit. On counter hits many attacks and strings will
link and combo (like Law's d+2,3.) Some generic
(almost everyone has 'em) attacks are
- low jab (d+1 or d+2)
- jab (1 or 2)
- throw
- hop kick (u/f+4)
The jab and low jab are very quick. Some characters jabs are 8 frames, some are 10,
and (im not 100% on this one) the jacks have like 12 frame jabs. But even that can
get some jobs done. Although, the jab alone does shit damage the psychological
damage is there. You can't reverse an interrupt, you can't evade a well placed
interrupt, and you can't chicken one either. Also many characters can
link something from a standing jab.
The low jab escapes high attacks and has a little more priority then the standing jab.
That means, if you trade hits, the low jab will usually win and turn the tide in your
favor. Not to mention that Laws low punch to flip kick (d+2,3) is a guaranteed juggle
on a counter hit.
The throw is an excellent interrupt, but takes some sick skill to perfect. You can throw
someone out of just about standing move that is performed in the game. I had the
displeasure of playing a guy who did just that. Right about half way through every
other move I did, he threw my ass. He was merciless, but it was brilliant. If you
can perfect throwing interrupts, stay the hell away from me and stick to winning
tournaments.
The hop kick is almost completely forgotten in some arcades. It's so simple and
quick it's also one of the highest priority moves in the game! With the u/f motion
it moves foreward and the kick also add's some excellent range. King, Julia and Michelle
have great hopkicks that should be exploited without mercy. As an interrupt tool, they
fare below the jab in usefullness, but the positives of mastering the jump kick counter
are way greater then the negatives.
I would say it would take about 6 good months of experimentation (first against scrubs, then
move up to higher level players to hone your skills) to fully understand,
and effectively implement poke interrupts into your offensive strategy using most of the
characters. But that is only 1/2 of the poking game. To round out your poking skills,
you must learn defensive poking.