Rose's Crouching Heavy Punch Ultra Street Fighter 4

Serperior posted November 25, 2014

Cr.HP is Rose's primary anti-air move, and is arguably one of the best anti-air normals in the game. If you use Rose, it is necessary that you learn to use this move. Let's discuss what makes it so effective:

Strengths:

1. Its vertical hitbox range makes it perfect as an anti-air move
2. Fast startup time, particularly for a heavy attack (5 frames)
3. Good for use in big punish/FADC combos

The primary use for this move is to anti-air incoming opponents. It is great at punishing most jump-ins so long as you have quick enough reaction time to initiate the move by the time your opponent reaches the apex of their jump arc.

However, it can be used as more than just an anti-air move. It is also a good move to begin punish/FADC combos with to score maximum damage.
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Weaknesses:

1. Average-to-below average lateral range
2. Painfully long recovery time (28 frames)

While Cr.HP is a good anti-air move, it's not without faults. First, it is a little bit lacking in horizontal range, both as an anti-air and a combo starter. Cr.HP sometimes whiffs on characters jumping in even when it might appear that it should connect, which is due to its hitbox. It's not very often that this happens, but it's enough of an occurrence that you should be aware that it can happen. It is simply a matter of learning to recognize the distance of your opponent's jump-ins to determine if they're coming in deep enough for Cr.HP to connect. In addition, certain character's moves may cause Cr.HP to whiff (Guy's Elbow Drop comes to mind, it can be tricky). Finally, when using this move to start a combo for a punish, you'll need to be in pretty close proximity to your opponent, practically point-blank range, otherwise it may whiff and leave you wide open.

Another downside of this move is that it has abysmal recovery time, meaning that if this whiffs or gets blocked, you are going to be a sitting duck just waiting for punishment. Not only that, but it is even unsafe on hit when used on grounded opponents (-10 frames disadvantage on hit). What this essentially means is, if you're not using it to anti-air, then you should only ever be using it when you are positive it will connect (such as to punish a vulnerable opponent's unsafe move) and you'd better be prepared to cancel it into one of Rose's special moves such as Soul Spark (LP or MP versions), Soul Spiral (any version), or HP Soul Reflect to make it safe and to increase damage output.