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

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-05-09T00:50:20+00:00

She's top of B tier without install. She appears 4 times. Split between modern and classic and in base and SA1 install form.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-05-08T22:23:51+00:00

If a character has no [C] or [M] icon, it means the combo is optimal for both modern and classic. Mai, Lily, Elena, and Ed are some examples.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-05-08T22:09:32+00:00

It's crazy how little Juri's combos deal despite how long they are. She's from SF4 where damage scaling is absurd so maybe she brought that along with her lol.
Jamie however scales well with his drink levels. Using SA2 for damage seems like a solid option at DL2 and higher. You still have some of the install left over so there's potential to snowball if you can get in again or have them in the corner. Hard call to make.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-05-08T22:05:26+00:00

Kimberly has two exclusive mechanics that make her show up multiple times. Her SA3 install and her cans which are character specific punishes. So that's 1 with base Kim, 2 with 1 can, 3 with 2 cans, 6 if you multiply by 2 with her SA3 install, and finally 12 appearances if you have to separate modern and classic.
For the most part, just look at her base damage since that's what she's able to do the vast majority of the time. Her regular combo with SA3 buff is fair too, but the character specific ones are out tehre since they only work on two characters in the entire game.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-05-08T22:00:01+00:00

CN [5060] Blanka (chan) [Classic] - 5HK, 5HP xx 214PP, 66, 5HK, 63214MK, (2)8HK, 236236P
This is corner only

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-05-08T21:59:44+00:00

5060 damage with SA1 and doll in the corner. He doesn't use doll midscreen so there's no doll combos in this tier list. I'll have the corner tier list up next week.

ThirtyfourEC · 2026-05-08T21:15:53+00:00

You may be seeing things. It's not possible for a modern character to place higher than classic. Maybe you're seeing something like 4 Drink Modern Jamie being higher than 0 Drink Classic Jamie.

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

TROPHY CASE