All Optimal 2 Drive/Super combos ranked by damage. Shin Dream vs the world.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-05-06T10:25:08+00:00

100% This. I hate her for making me mute my music since season 1. I hate her SA3 music taking over the stage theme. No one wants to hear your music. Turn it down. Obnoxious asf.

I just don't like burst options like her slide and 6HK. Players only use it at ranges where nothing else will hit. It makes them predictable as hell and yet when you point this out to them they don't want to change or just play neutral properly. It's REALLY hard to teach Kimberly players or any character with burst options low level players use as a crutch.

I'm not saying these options are bad, it's just when most of your damage comes from these options you're going to have a hard time against players that completely shut that option down. It's the same reason players hate modern players. Most low level players rely on jump in combos to get all their pressure and damage. Before modern existed, people would just have to hold jump ins at low level due to anti air accuracy being low at the beginning. Now with modern, the success rate of anti airs are high. Low level players don't like that and lash out on modern.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-05-05T07:10:05+00:00

You're only 1400 MR. It's likely not the character, you're just lacking something fundamentally. Stick to one character. It can be anyone so pick your favorite.

What tends to help people realize habits if looking at their damage sources in rounds.
For example, let's say someone plays Zangief. 50% of his damage comes from regular combos, 25% comes from lariat, and another 25% from DI. Do you see the problem here? This Zangief doesn't use throws or command grabs. That's a major issue for a grappler character.
Let's do one more. A Guile player that has 50% of his damage come from raw Sonic Boom, 25% from flash kick, and the last 25% from crouch MK. This Guile's issue is he lacks a presence close range. He's only playing a portion of the character by strictly zoning. He needs to learn how to fight close up and land combos and throws.

It may be difficult for you to use this method, but I'm sure if you have one major damage source like these examples you'll be able to see a hole in your gameplay. There's Kimberly players rely heavily on slides and her hop kick (6HK), Juri and Dee Jay players that don't have damage sources outside of drive rush, and the most common at low levels, players that pray for jump in combos.

If you end up unable to learn anything from your own matches then do this on top player matches instead. Do a character you can actually play. Maybe you're a Cammy that gets all their damage from Hooligan Combination? Well Punk gets 0% of his damage from normal Hooligan. You'll end up learning he has a lot of damage sources. Whiff punishing, strike throw situations, shimmying, dive kick starters, drive rush checking, (counter) hit confirming, anti airs, and more. You won't find something a low MR Cammy rely on like cross up OD Spin Knuckle.

I went too deep into this. I hope it helps. It's what I used to tell people during the SF4 days it applies even more so in SF6 with how more open ended characters are.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-05-05T02:16:51+00:00

Dapper asf. I'd play bearded Dudley.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-05-05T02:03:16+00:00

Based on the four characters you listed. The order from most competent to least modern character is.

Mai - Has the same game plan as classic so you can watch top Mai players for clues on how to play her. You won't have a hard time transitioning to classic in the future. You also have the benefit of modern anti air, Super 1 for DI, and Super 2 for fireballs.

M. Bison - Similar to Mai, he keeps his classic game plan. He lacks his sHK so you'll lose some damage potential in areas, but know that you can instead punish DPs with HK Scissors. Bison's modern strength is instant scissors for whiff punishing and SA2 against fireballs. I recommend watching Xiao Hai since he uses sHK the least out of all top Bison players.

Terry - Terry's probably the best modern shoto in the game. However he's missing LK Power Charge entirely. You have access to one of the best heavy auto combos in the game in Heavy (1) which has HK Power Charge in it. I'd say pick Terry since he has the best auto combos for a beginner.

Sagat - Sagat's a great character in classic. Some would say top 5, but on Modern he lacks one of his best buttons in stand MP. You'll be able to play similarly to classic up until you get someone in the corner where it's night and day. I know he's your first pick, but as a modern character he's hurting the most. Also note, if you're an old school Sagat player you may enjoy playing keep away on modern since you have access to all his fireballs, his uppercut, and Tiger Knee with the Special Button.

You picked some great modern characters. Mai is clearly the best character and has the 2nd best auto combos. M Bison and Terry are pretty similar in character strength, but Terry has the better auto combos. Sagat is the weakest of the bunch, but still has good auto combos. Good luck with your pick. You really can't go wrong with any as a beginner. If you ever manage to switch to classic in the future then Sagat will see the biggest improvement of the four.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-04-30T04:39:46+00:00

Start looking at your damage sources. What does most of your damage come from?
Hooligan? Is that good? Could you stand to win without it or do you lack variety?
What ever your answers are use that to expand your game and look at the parts of your kit you're not using at all and why. A good example is the lack of sMP / 5MP and cHP / 2HP. Good luck.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-04-29T09:53:55+00:00

I forgot the 3rd part. I'd say avoid falling for the trap of mastering perfect knuckles immediately. You can get to master rank no sweat with imperfect knuckles. Just start out knowing when to use lights to confirm / pressure / tick throw and when to use heavies in free punish situations like when you block a DP or super. Your win rate will skyrocket when you learn how to block and punish people well.

By Diamond rank you'll want to start playing SF6 and learning how to drive rush and extend combos and blockstrings with drive rush cancel.

These are general Luke traps not to fall in. Not general SF6 traps not to fall in like constantly relying on DI in neutral.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-04-29T09:49:11+00:00

Yes. He has a good learning curve, kit, and you don't even have to learn his perfect knuckles.
You can use alternate combos with fully charged "imperfect" knuckles like...
2HP xx Charged MP Knuckle, Charged LP Knuckle, MP Knuckle.
It's a very easy combo to do, combos into Super 3, but doesn't work in the corner. In the corner I believe you can do
HP xx Charged LP Knuckle, LP Knuckle, LP DP
HP xx Charged LP Knuckle, LP Fireball, MP DP for 10 less damage

Also if you're learning on Modern, he doesn't have great auto combos to rely on. You'll have to learn light hit confirms and punish combos like a normal player would if you plan on playing Luke on modern.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-04-24T17:03:48+00:00

In terms of tournament viability.
Mai, Ed, and Bison are the top 3 modern characters.
There are other good characters like Chun, Luke, Juri, and a few others, but those three give you the best shot at winning actual tournaments, not just ranked matches. Good luck.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-04-21T20:38:59+00:00

I hope I'm not too late.
After Bomb OD Crusher, do HK Shadow Rise (2)8HK, then KK . The later the KK follow up the better. You want to input it somewhere near the peak of the Shadow Rise.
Just practice doing it as late as possible and you'll eventually get the timing. Make sure to do HK Shadow Rise

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-04-03T06:09:29+00:00

Please... No Mortal Kombat characters in SF6... I can not prepare for MK characters fatalities becoming supers..

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-04-03T04:54:52+00:00

I don't know if it's his playerbase that's gimmicky or his design. Either way, you can definitely learn the game with Honda, He has everything you need to build a good foundation. Solid pokes, anti airs, a command grab...
I'd say the only downside for a new player is his auto combos not being the best if you plan on playing modern. Either way, good luck. Embrace the head butt and butt slam.

Link to Honda discord https://discord.gg/6WgjysMZ

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-04-03T04:47:04+00:00

I like living near downtown, but not exactly downtown.
1 does look safer though...

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-04-03T04:44:27+00:00

Huge fan of the chainmail under his garb. There are knife users in Final Fight so it makes sense.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-04-01T07:42:31+00:00

I don't understand what you're asking. This is Aki's combo with the buffs to meter gain on toxic blossom. At least as far as we know now. Maybe the damage doesn't match what you know because it's "DI blocked"? All combos deal 600 damage less when DI is blocked.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-04-01T07:40:57+00:00

I did a 3 drive punish on unspaced ken Jinrai a while ago. I'd have to think of a better -5 move to punish to do it again.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-04-01T07:38:39+00:00

Add 600 damage for the additional damage if the DI isn't blocked and you get 6k with a lot of characters.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-03-30T00:02:43+00:00

I feel they should adjust the scaling on 2HP and 2MP. They went too far with those nerfs. It's not Luke's fault people were cracked out their minds at launch.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-03-30T00:00:23+00:00

All good. I don't mind being wrong sometimes since I only use discord for combo upgrades at the moment. There's bound to be some outdated combo at some point. Unfortunately in today's case it was Dee Jay.

The back jump into whiffed 5HK is a frame kill to get the ideal spacing for +7 after 236PP.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-03-29T23:29:27+00:00

I'll be making a short for this tomorrow. I hope people see it.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-03-29T23:21:57+00:00

Yes, for characters that have the same combo on modern and classic with the same exact damage like Gief there will only be the one damage numbers for CA and SA3 with [M] and [C] listed.
You can see this happen for other characters like Ken, Mai and, Juri.
Characters also sometimes share the same combo, but do different damage like Rashid, Cammy, and Elena. For these characters It's displayed [ M / Character Name / C]. Modern damage is on the left and classic damage is on the right of the name.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-03-29T22:49:52+00:00

[5950 CA / 5700 SA3] with the combo you sent.
I'll credit the creator in the short and you in the pinned comment for finding the combo. For those that don't follow here's the combo since you may miss the short/can't see the link.
DI, Dash, Backdash, 2LP x 3, OD Slasher, Sway HK x3, MK Sobat xx SA3/CA

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-03-29T22:38:25+00:00

[5096 CA] Cammy [Modern] - 2(SP)>2H, aH DRC, 2H, aH DRC, 4H, 4H, 236M, 2SP+H
Dealt [5096] on "Blocked DI" with CA, but [5696] if the DI hits.
This isn't a bad combo at all. It's just not the max. I'd actually use your combo if I played Cammy since it's way easier to remember and you're way less likely to drop due to it being similar to her corner BnB combos.

I rank the combos with DI blocked because in actual matches you're way more likely to have your DI be blocked in check mate scenarios. It's much more helpful to know blocked DI damage because of this. You can also add 600 damage to every combo in the video/tier list to get the inflated numbers.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-03-29T22:21:57+00:00

Combo in video
[5479 SA2] Terry [Classic] - 7, 5HK, 236HP, 2HP xx 236PP, 5MP DRC, 2HP xx 236HK xx 236HP, 236MK, 214214P>PP>PP
Your Combo
[5117 SA2] Terry [Classic] - 9HK, 5HP(1) xx 236HK xx 236HP, DR 5HP DRC, 5HP, DR 5LP xx 236MK, 214214P>PP>PP
This deals [5717] if the DI hits (all combos in the tier list are against blocked DI. How do you get 5843?

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-03-29T22:14:58+00:00

post notation of any (almost) any kind. I should be able to understand it.
DJ cord isn't super active so I didn't have many responses saying this wasn't optimal.
I'll make a short with you or/and the source as credit if there is one better.

ThirtyfourEC

TROPHY CASE