Defensive Poking
Defensive poking is using quick strikes after your opponent has attacked and is a
recoil animation. Generally, if you have the chance, you will not poke in these
situations but rather, use a power strike or juggle starter... at least, that is
what is usually done. Defensive poking is safe. Instead of risking all or nothing
on big damaging moves, you take a sure (but smaller)
chunk of your enemy's life. There is very little risk on your part, and the damage
(although generally small) is almost guaranteed.
It is also a bit confusing for your opponent, and
this is what you hope to achieve. Paul Pheonix, for example, has about 4 staple moves.
When Paul blocks attacks, he will try to pheonix smasher (qcf+2) for silly damage. However,
that is exactly what your opponent expects, so, they will be blocking high. This is
the perfect time for a low sweep (d+3) or sweep elbow (d+4,2). If your opponent
tastes a few of these, they will start blocking low... THEN you can use your
pheonix smasher!
Defensive poking is more about being unpredictable and keeping your opponent guessing.
Some characters definately excel at defensive poking more then others. Julia Chang is
all about catching people within their recoil animation. Unfortunately for you (the reader)
my Julia skills suck ass. But I do know that her rapid counter (d,DF+1) and party crasher (f,f+1)
were tailor made to quickly get in and take little chunks of damage during an enemy's recoil.
She is the exception, Julia can be as predictable as ummm... a Lethal Weapon movie and still
crush you with her defensive poking.
Characters like Bryan Fury, Heihachi, Ogre, Paul, Jacks (to name a few) can be very predictable
if a little defensive poking isn't thrown in to mix it up. Bryan for example
has some great quick mid and low poking options, like d/f+1 and d+1+2. Basically, use
unexpected safe hit's to replace risky moves.
That basically covers defensive poking, unfortunately, since it is used to spice up
your characters dynamics and help you to not be as predictable.