Kikuichimonji

Mixups are important, but neutral is more important. Knowing when you have an advantage you can push at neutral and when you should back off is key in GG. Watch the best players for your character and emulate them. I'd need to know your character to give better advice. Feel free to ask in character specific forums for more in depth answers.

Practice Challenge Mode combos until you can do them consistently without failing. Mission mode will help you get a grasp on the flow of GG. Use the character specific forums to watch videos of people playing your character and emulate the good players. The combos compiled by those forums are probably the best combo source, but they just take dedication.

Step one: learn BnB combos. With Sol, start with something like dashing 5K 2S 2D Bandit Revolver. Learn to hit confirm before the 2D. Next, learn a midscreen juggle. Sol's basic juggle combo is very simple and straightforward and shows up all the time in different combos. The best way to learn his BNB is to practice it off Wild Throw, his command grab. The basic BNB is WT > 2HS (jump cancel) > j.S (double jump cancel) > j.S j.HS > HS Volcanic Viper > Knockdown Eventually you'll want to learn his corner combos, and there's lots of little things to learn as far as starters for combos, but those two are enough to get going. Also, I cannot stress how helpful Sol's combo Challenge Mode is. It's an amazing learning tool and starting point. As for actually playing Sol at neutral, learn how to use far S and 2D into Gunflame, his fireball. Gunflame is super amazing and makes Sol frustrating to fight against because he gets pressure and chip damage on block through Gunflame. In the air, j.P and j.HS are super strong and can lead into knockdowns by comboing into his air HS Volcanic Viper > Knockdown. Sol's best anti airs are dashing 5K, 6P, and 2HS.

In addition, dashing command grab adds even more range. You can dash into command grab fine.

Shouldn't stuff like 2K/low air dash j.S be in here? Also, early meaty j.HS air dash stuff seems like it would fit into here. I can do a write up

From what I've heard, fuzzy backdash typically doesn't involve throw tech. It's a backdash input on wake-up where you'll only backdash if the opponent didn't do a meaty, and you hold down back after the backdash to block any meaties. The term "fuzzy whatever" just implies that there's an OS involved in an otherwise simple option.

One solution is to use 6K instead of 5HS at the range where they can throw 5HS on block. Edit: Another option is to cancel 5HS into 1st rekka. It's -1 on block and outside throw range on normal block for every character besides Potemkin. That's safer than 5HS raw, and you can frame trap them with the second rekka RRC. They can throw you out of that, but it beats all normals and leads to a crossup confirmed into a combo on hit or a mixup on block. Unfortunately, CH second rekka doesn't lead to a combo without RRC, so you have to use meter to make this work.

I haven't tested it yet, but I'm pretty sure people can throw Leo out of his 6K here because Leo's 6K doesn't have throw invincibility on frame 1. If I'm full screen as Leo, I'm just going to throw HS fireballs until someone jumps over one or shows that they can stop me from doing that. I don't have to go in if they're running away and I just throw HS fireball/s fireball. Leo's options at actually closing the distance to far S range seem absolutely silly bad, so unless I can't throw fireballs at all, I'd rather let the opponent do that for me. You need to time something to hit around 15-20 frames after 6HS is recovered. The options that work will vary by character, because Millia's backdash is only 11 frames and only has 5 frames invulnerability, but Leo's has 9 frames invincibility and 16 total frames, for example. But I would try dashing 5K, far S, dashing far S, 2D, and dashing 2S. Hitting on the 10th frame of the backdash seems to punish the majority of backdashes, but some aren't vulnerable until later.

If you piano 3 buttons to 4, you'll kara cancel the RRC to IK activation. This isn't actually useful because you won't get the RRC slowdown, it's just to make inputting IK activation easier without getting RRC.

2S is +4, but it doesn't combo to rekkas or 5HS (maybe on crouching?). You can gatling to 2HS if you're in range or maybe link a 5P, but otherwise you only get 2D knockdown. 2S also has abysmal range so I wouldn't be surprised if 5K 2S whiffed at longer ranges.

He basically does have HOS's 2S. It's +3 on block in this game.

It's not a projectile, otherwise Blitz Shield wouldn't counter Leo. See Slayer's Helter Skelter for an example of a move that looks like an attack but is a projectile. There are just moves with special hitstop and hitstun in GG that defy the rules. bt.S definitely is plus. I tested Leo vs Leo, and recorded the string bt.S > bt.K. The defending Leo did a reversal 2P after the bt.S and traded with the bt.K both times. That means that bt.S was at least +1. Yeah I noticed that too. It's actually listed in his frame data. But remember that Leo's H buttons all have lots of startup. whiff f.S > 5HS definitely has less of a gap than just doing f.S and stopping, but it's not a small gap by any measure. Worse, any hit will be a counter-hit. It's better to use Leo's guard point on his moves to make them safe.

That last hit that you're doing is called an OTG (off the ground hit). They can tech it and hit you out of your fireball. I don't think you even get to the point where the fireball stays out when you YRC before they can hit you. The 2K does barely any damage, anyway, so just do the fireball YRC right after you hit the third rekka without doing an OTG. Also, this is not a vortex because of Tension gain penalties. Basically, because you did the YRC, you hardly gain any meter from any immediate followup combo that you do. So you cannot do this infinitely. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do the YRC fireball (I'm thinking you totally should most times), but just remember that you're sacrificing 25% meter plus any additional meter you would have gotten with another setup. Lots of characters have safe jumps that also lead to mixups. Eddie has meaty Drill where he's recovered before you even wake up into it. Millia can beat wakeup throw with instant air j.K. Sol can meaty Gunflame YRC to force you to block a high/low. People go to these mixups because they are safe. If your character has something that is reversal-proof, you need to abuse the hell out of that in GG. If you have to hard bait an opponent's reversal without any setup that auto-baits it, you are putting yourself into a serious guessing game that you probably don't need to be in. You need to know the weaknesses of stuff like Eddie's Amopheous (doesn't hit right in front of him) so that you can abuse those weaknesses. Getting Sol to spend 50% meter on a blocked DP is worth it because all he has to mix you up afterwards is Wild Throw, and if you are smart about getting out that's not really a good option for him. Avoiding a VV RC on a guess every time by getting out of its way is giving the move too much respect. If you avoid it successfully and do a 30% combo... Sol still has meter to VV uppercut again. Using Leo's counters is a good option, but meter is life in GG. If you can take Sol's meter, sometimes that's even better than getting to punish the uppercut. You can even just do a Dead Angle attack to trade meter with him and knock him back down. They can throw you, it's just a 1 frame timing after the flash. I tested. Also, because you're doing this off a YRC, if they commit to a jab or whatever before your YRC comes out (they're not in blockstun!) then you will probably get hit out of your YRC and lose the meter without getting the flash. It's still a good strat, but just be aware that it is possible for them to Gold Burst/throw you.

May's IAD j.S (high, immediate) can be crouched to make it whiff. You can punish this whiff with 2HS or 5K. 6P can't be done low enough because May's j.S hits very high up. You need to shut this down because IAD j.S j.HS with May is seriously high reward for her, and she gets significant advantage and RISC crank on block. You can't air throw immediate IAD j.S because the horizontal hitbox is too good. May can also delay her j.S to make it hit crouchers. If she does, you can 6P it or still 2HS it, but the timing to anti air j.S before it comes out is different than the timing to anti air the immediate version. Because punishing IAD j.S is a guess on timing, Sol's rising j.P/j.HS is very important. Neutral jump j.P is basically completely safe at neutral and will hit May out of IAD j.S consistently. May still has the Anchor Wall of Doom (j.HS) which will hit you air to air (not off an IAD) and if it counter hits, she can convert into an Ensenga jump combo. However, she can't convert into the combo at any range like she could in +R because the untechability of CH j.HS is nerfed. So if you're 1/3rd screen or so, May can't punish you hard for j.P without committing to an unsafe anti air dolphin. May's j.2HS can't be crouched but loses to 6P (hard to time late enough, but you get the CH dash up) or 2HS (CH makes the jump combo follow-up more consistent).

Potemkin is not easy to rush down. He has a fast command grab with invincibility, a safe on block move that makes him low invulnerable, a move with armor, a super that covers the whole air space, an actual uppercut, a move that will always counter projectiles and gives him the best projectile in the game, a backdash that literally can only be punished on a single frame, and probably the best priority 6P in the game. Potemkin has always made up for his terrible movement with super broken moves like unblockable Slidehead. He's probably the best character in the game at punishing offense. He's weaker in this game because he doesn't do enough damage when he hits you and he can't follow up midscreen hits into super dangerous mixups because of the nerfs to stuff like 2S (used to Vacuum and be plus on block) and the removal of his throw invincible overhead (old 6K).

Sin's Bull Bash hits at two thirds screen. It hits at super jump height. It hits everywhere. He gets half life off it even at half screen. There is no such thing as neutral against Sin unless you can get close enough to him to stop Bull Bash. The only reason his ability to cancel his specials into specials is fair is because of his Calorie Gauge, so if you block enough of his specials, you can run in on him while he's eating. Bull Bash is 32 frames startup. If you can't react to that every time, you shouldn't be playing fighting games. For comparison, Millia's 6K is 19 frames, which is fast enough to hit people with correct conditioning but can be blocked on reaction. Sin can't throw you at his optimal range, which is half screen. Sin gets damage by utilizing his superior range, not by actually rushing you down. He has options that are just unfair in neutral and lead to big damage. The easiest way to lose to Sin is to try to play footsies when you don't really understand his options. There are certain ranges where Sin will just dominate most matchups, and if you try to contest him there, you will just lose rounds to things that you could have blocked.

You can't react to his low, but you can react to his overhead. So block low and look for the overhead, than shift your block. He now can't open you up at half screen for half life.

Sin has no mixup if you just block low and react high to the overheads. You need to respect the overhead and wait for him to run out of food gauge. Millia, you have to guess when you get knocked down. Don't get knocked down. After blocking a mixup, hold up back and possibly Faultless Defense to push her out. Faust has a super good jump for getting away from stuff. Just learn to respect that these characters have specific zones where they are more powerful than you (Sin at full screen, Millia on knockdown) and avoid those areas as best you can while being safe. Once you get close enough to Sin or far enough from Millia, you have the advantage with item toss, j.2K, far S, and 5K.

It's literally 1 frame slower. Accent Core had 18 frames startup and hit crouchers on frame 20. Xrd is 19 frames startup and hits crouchers on frame 21. Even if they block it, you're still +3 on block. Just blockstring into it again.

It could also be a few other factors, like spacing, but yeah it's a good rule to follow.

You've transcribed the combo wrong. It's 6P -> cl.S, not cl.K. Cl.K isn't a thing, only Slash normals have close versions. If you're getting the jump, you just need to learn the timing of the j.HS. Just hold up forwards after the cl.S. If your j.hs whiffs, it was too late. If it doesn't come out or you get a grounded 5HS, you were too early.

What specific combos are you having trouble with? You don't have to time jump cancels themselves, only the followup attacks, so I don't see the point in practicing jump cancels when you can just hold up to get them.

I really feel like the only way to judge character balance is by results. When you don't have a player fully exploiting a character's potential, you tend to over or under value a character's tools because they have to exist with the character's weaknesses. People always want to play theory fighter on characters they don't really understand. Often the first opinion on a character advocated by a prominent player is the one that sticks. You can even look at how the opinion on a character can greatly change within the same game version. In early +R, Slayer and Robo Ky were very highly rated. They both received some buffs, but the reason I think they were perceived as such strong characters was that their buffs (and lack of game changing nerfs) complemented their preexisting gameplan. Other characters, like Eddie had to re-learn neutral/setups and so were underrated early on. Input from active competitive players is an essential part of any decent tier list. If there are few competitive players for a character, your evaluation of that character is going to suffer.

Learn to recognize the height where you land before the second hit comes out. Alternatively, always buffer a cl.S after the first hit. It won't come out if the second hit connects. You probably aren't timing your j.hs appropriately. You can make it consistently hit twice on a standing opponent by doing it moderately early. This also makes it harder to AA.

You FDC by plinking SF4 style from K to another button while holding 1 (down back). You have to jump install to use teleport in combos. The trials explain it.