The Journey episode #2: Is Yang viable? - Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition v2012 training with Air

Viable? Yes. Easy to use in any measurable way? No.

People keep thinking that just because the twins are no longer brain-dead easy to play with, they are useless.

No thats not the case. Yun is still good look at kazunoko. Yang was over nerfed badly. I think kyoku is the only good yang lol. Yun outclassed yang period.

The whole basis of this video is based on the stupid misconception of what "viable" really is. Of course Yang is viable. He might not be the best at what he does and he obviously has his fair shair of weaknesses - he isn't top tier - but he's hardly unviable just because tournament players would rather flock to the superior Yun. It's like people who think that Hakan isn't viable just because he's not braindead like Cammy or Rufus.

He is fun to play with, relies strongly on mixups and meter use, but in my opinion hes not tournament viable. I think it's simply because of how many bad matchups he encountered post 2012,, ie: gief, thawk, abel, ibuki, cammy, hakan, fei long, balrog, honda, deejay and some more. What they did to his divekick was terrible, like he said, if its not perfect then u get a DP, a grab, or worse. And his health is low as well so..

@2 -- Did you actually watch the video? Most of Air's complaints ultimately boil down to Yang's low damage output. AE2012 nerfed Yang's mixup potential and his damage output. It's just a bad combination, such that he's now a High Risk/Low Reward character.

I think it's a fair question. Yang in 2012 must have really good execution and it pays off so little. He can't cross up with j. mk, any divekick above someones shin is punishable on HIT. All and all I would say Air nailed the assessment of Yang. Not very viable.

What makes a character viable in competitive play is if the Character is able to compete against the top tier. This video is just a rant and he just complains about yang rather than discussing the matchups of top competitive characters.. We get it. He has to grind a lot harder now to get damage that cammy can get in one combo..
I think hes still viable but in a competitive mindset there are better characters out there..

Man what are the chances I've just picked up yang, his damage output is definatly something I aint used to since I'm coming from dudley and abel I'd love to see nemo go to more tourneys love watching his yang

4th in singe elim qualifiers is not viable. You can just get good draw. All you have to do is just 3 games. I don't see anybody can win with Yang, not even daigo or infiltration. He is good for counterpick certain matchups. that's about it.

the issue is, why pick yang when other characters do pretty much EVERYTHING he does but better?

Yang nerfs are retarded period. You don't make a low damage/low health character. Why make a character who does crap damage even with 2 meters? Makes absolutely no sense. If they were going to nerf some damage, at least keep his cross-up hitbox or his s.lk so it can punish more things.

He's a fun character to use but it is way too frustrating with what little gain you get for correct guesses or reads.

Yangs damage output really is awful. It's a shame really.

Some of the nerfs to his crazy frame advantage he had in AE make sense, but killing his damage output at the same time just completely ruined him.

A majority of Yang's nerfs are unjustified. So they nerfed his dive kick as well as Yun's. However, Yun's is still a vialbe cross-up. Yang can't even do that. If Capcom does do a balance update for AE 2012, Yang needs buffs. Characters like Akuma, Cammy, Seth and Fei, could use some nerfs. But as far as Air's mindset is "Yang is a high risk, low reward character. Damage too low, mix-ups are generally garbage and rely on an opponent not knowing the match-up which with a solid DP or escape tool they don't need to worry about it."

Yang just needs some love. If the community will push for it, we can make a balance update happen despite current Capcom projects restricting this, we can get an update if we all unify as a community and push for it, then we can see an end to Seth, Cammy, Akuma, and Fei running tournies.

so I think what air was saying is Yang does no damage =P

Yang is definitely NOT viable. He relies on near-flawless execution to actually do mediocre to decent damage, has pathetic mixups now after his crossups got nerfed, not only his combos do crap damage it also suffers from damage scaling because of the number of hits his combo has specially when you include ultras, and his health is subpar too.

Oh yeah, have I mentioned that he does no damage? :D

Better to overnerf than to undernerf. Finding the right balance is also too subjective.

How do you undernerf a Yang that doesn't exactly have a stellar record even pre patch? There were no Yangs in the top 32 of EVO2011, even if you want to go all "LOL AMERICA SUCKS" you'll think that if Yang is truly overpowered and badly needing nerfs then he'll have a much better record. Yang at vanilla AE is no different from Firebrand in UMvC3, people kept saying that he's overpowered yet he's a highly momentum based character that needs meters to be really powerful and he requires far more execution than Yun for less rewards.

seems to be the best way to use yang's meter is with the mk, cross under tech. not so much about the long combos, but the resets. i know thats how i get blown up online.

yang's high execution really hinders him. if the inputs were more lenient, he'd be fine the way he is. just watch best of birds sick mixups

And another mindless complaint discussion about akuma,fei,seth,cammy. Every single time. It's almost like a stereotypical expression when talking about nerfs and buffs. People immediately go AKUMA SETH CAMMY FEI. It's so funny. Tell me what would you nerf about these characters exactly? I'd really like to know.

What does my akuma avatar have to do with this? I agree that they need some kind of nerf whether it's 1 or 2 things or 5. But tell me "why is it painfully obvious that akuma is op as hell", please. I'd really like to know. You sound like some angry kid who can't deal with the match up or maybe your just too bad in general. You know that you can learn a second char in order to deal with bad match ups, right?

I still have an Akuma avatar, btw. I don't question him being high tier, but I do question him being "overpowered". Besides, you still haven't told me anything about Akuma that is soooo overpowered and what you would nerf about him.

"Can't backdash or throw on wake up"? Why would you back dash on wake up? It's always a risk to do something on wake up. I knock you down and therefor you have to guess. This applies to every character. Raging demon 50% life? Dude he needs to have his ultra fully stocked to do so, which means that he is very low on life. You know his sweep is not unblockable, right? When he sweeps you, it's your own fault. Why should Akuma not have a Vortex after he successfully swept you? You get swept -> your own fault -> now have fun guessing. As simple as that. You are talking like "Pick Akuma, press sweep -> win". Of course you can pressure him on wake up. When you know that he teleports you can just punish him. Air fireballs are not safe. Raging Demon on wake up haha. You could say that to every ultra and dp in the game. And he has alot of options that's right, but on the contrary he has very small room for mistakes, because of his low life. Bear that in mind.

@ 29

Funny thing is that 2012's version of Gouki is his worst yet.

I personally think he's fair. He trades widely usable ultras like Metsu Hadoken and life for more options than other shotos.

An angry mind is a narrow mind.(NBD2)
You are not even reading what I wrote. You totaly have no clue about this game. You are obviously extremely pissed of by the top tiers and especially Akuma.

30, 34

Honestly both of you don't even know what you are talking about. Both of are theory fighting and not assuming Akuma at his highest level.

34
You cant say a Yang is garbage because best of birds lost an online match. And your claims on why Yang isn't viable are fallacies. All because you have to grind out harder than cammy doesn't mean he isn't viable.. It means he isn't fair. I agree he isn't a fair character but at his highest level we have seen top yang players in japan make top 8. All of your rants are coming from personal experiences and online play and you are assuming you are as good as yang gets which is delusional..

Yang sucks now. :/

To both guys ranting senslessly about Akuma: you ARE aware this post is a Yang discussion, right??

Now on-topic: Yang's nerfs made him, not useless, but barely competent and just barely noticeable. Why does a "mixed up based" (character like Yang is supposed to be) has little to none mixup options is beyond me. Health is a joke, and his damage output is just pathetic. Granted, he's still fun to play at casuals, but he ISN'T viable, at all, when you talk about high level play.