Stamina: 1,100 | Stun: 1,100 | Tier Ranking: 30th |
Popularity: 19th | Frame Data | SF4 Tiers |
Zangief is the quintessential grappler character.
His damage is enough to make any character prefer to keep him away, but understanding his normal attacks is necessary to prevent the opponent from simply jumping away at every opportunity. The threat of his Piledriver is an ever present facet of his offense, and his moveset compliments it perfectly.
Zangief's weakness, which he shares with most grapplers, is his lack of mobility and large hurtbox, which renders him vulnerable to many high reaching pokes. Most of the damage he will take is from attempting to get close to the opponent. Patience and the willingness to simply block and walk forward is paramount to winning.
Spacing is key with Zangief, being a grappler, obviously most characters will try to zone you out. You have to know when to use what and why. Be aware of things like timing green hand to stuff out fireballs, not over using spd, using crouching lariat to anti air (sometimes it will trade, but mostly in your favor).
Nuetral jump haedbutt is a great tool(600 stun). Jab spd has the farthest range, can be done after two blocked crouching light punches if close enough. Try to use kick lariat to avoid fireballs, because a lot of the time double lariat allows your opponent to trow a fireball and dash behind it for a low attack.
After an spd the body slash will stuff a lot of your opponents wake up attacks. Seeing as how most of my play is online, i find myself blocking on my opponents wake up most of the time and punishing their random wake up attacks/ultra with hp spd.
Best advice, be patient. Zangief does big damage so getting dinged up a little while getting in is ok, so long as you make wise decisions once you're in. "If the life is even, Zangief is winning"-Cant remember who said it, but great stuff none the less.
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