Low Combo Damage

[Maverick]

I main Chun-Li and only play as her. Is it just me, or is the damage for some of these combos a bit low?

In combo trials, when I do cr.MK->DR Cancel->5LP->5MP->cr.MP->OD SBK->Heavy Tensho Kicks, a 15-hit combo, it barely does more damage than just a jump HK + cr.HK two-piece. Heck, it barely does more damage than just OD Tensho Kicks all by themselves.

When I play people though, I get half my life bar taken from combos, lol. Some of these combos don't seem worth the work you gotta put in. Is it like this with other characters as well?

[SpiralD]

I should troll you as you at some point trolled me but whatever.
Yes juri is exactly the same.
You got to get 3 to 4 good hits or 4-5 if you get min damage hits making you work wayy harder then the players playing 2 touch.

Is what it is, shut up or switch to a top tier.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by SpiralD:

I should troll you as you at some point trolled me but whatever.
Yes juri is exactly the same.
You got to get 3 to 4 good hits or 4-5 if you get min damage hits making you work wayy harder then the players playing 2 touch.

Is what it is, shut up or switch to a top tier.

You def must be a lot of fun at parties. I have no idea what you're talking about, trolling you, but whatever. Thanks for the input.

[Rook]

There are three things affecting the damage of the combo you posted: the Drive Rush, the Light Punch, and the overall length. Because they're really easy to use and lead to an advantageous situation on block and on hit, Drive Rushes add some scaling to your combo, especially if done from a light attack or Crouching Medium Kick specifically, to compensate for its benefits. Additionally, light attacks add scaling too since they're really fast and weak. It'd be unfair if you could get a 50% damage combo off of a light punch starter, and that's why they have so much scaling. The more actions you have in your combo, the less damage it does (supers have a minimum damage amount though).

The Light Punch is probably the biggest reason why that combo isn't doing much damage. Combo trials aren't where you'll find the best combos for your character, as they're more so there to give you an idea of what their combos look like and you should branch off from there. I don't play Chun-Li so I don't know what her best combo off of crouching Medium Kick is, but you can go to the SuperCombo Wiki to find optimal combos for Chun-Li. You can probably just go straight to 5MP after the Drive Rush Cancel with no need for the 5LP.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Kyuketsuki:

There are three things affecting the damage of the combo you posted: the Drive Rush, the Light Punch, and the overall length. Because they're really easy to use and lead to an advantageous situation on block and on hit, Drive Rushes add some scaling to your combo to compensate for its benefits. Additionally, light attacks add scaling too since they're really fast and weak. It'd be unfair if you could get a 50% damage combo off of a light punch starter, and that's why they have so much scaling. The more hits you have in your combo, the less damage it does (supers have a minimum damage amount though).

The Light Punch is probably the biggest reason why that combo isn't doing much damage. Combo trials aren't where you'll find the best combos for your character, as they're more so there to give you an idea of what their combos look like and you should branch off from there. I don't play Chun-Li so I don't know what her best combo off of crouching Medium Kick is, but you can go to the SuperCombo Wiki to find optimal combos for Chun-Li. You can probably just go straight to 5MP after the Drive Rush Cancel with no need for the 5LP.

Thank you for the super helpful info! I will give your suggestions a try.

[Nooneyouknow]

Originally posted by Maverick:

I main Chun-Li and only play as her. Is it just me, or is the damage for some of these combos a bit low?

In combo trials, when I do cr.MK->DR Cancel->5LP->5MP->cr.MP->OD SBK->Heavy Tensho Kicks, a 15-hit combo, it barely does more damage than just a jump HK + cr.HK two-piece. Heck, it barely does more damage than just OD Tensho Kicks all by themselves.

When I play people though, I get half my life bar taken from combos, lol. Some of these combos don't seem worth the work you gotta put in. Is it like this with other characters as well?

So, in general, Street Fighter combo scaling since SF4 works like this:

100%>100%>80%>70%>60%>40%>30%>20%>10%>10%>10%.

With each step being an attack, not per hit. SF6 goes one step beyond this universally, and combos that start from light attacks, or 2MK have 100%>80% as their first stage of scaling.

Even further beyond that, attacks that are very easy to land a combo with, such as buttons that are faster on average for their strength, or target combos apply combo starter scaling, and can skip from 100%>80% even if the button is heavy, with some jumping to 70%. Several target combos also count as multiple attacks mid combo, such as JP's 4MP>MP TC.

Drive Rush Cancel also applies a 15% multiplicative scaling to the rest of the combo, rounded down.

SA1 universally has a minimum 30% scaling, SA2 40%, and SA3/CA 50%.

Now, to Chun Li specifically, Capcom has official frame data including scaling on the SF webstie: https://www.streetfighter.com/6/character/chunli

Taking the combo from your OP: cr.MK->DR Cancel->5LP->5MP->cr.MP->OD SBK->Heavy Tensho Kicks

Base damage for those attacks:

2MK 500
5LP 300
5MP 600
2MP 600
OD SBK 800
H Tensho Kicks 1200

Since this is a 2MK starter, followed by a drive rush, our combo scaling will look like this:

100%>68%>59>51%>42.>34%

For a total combo damage of 2108. Starting the same combo with 2HP (900 damage) would change the scaling to

100>85>68>59>51>42

Giving a total damage of 2829.

So while 2MKxxDRC is an easy combo starter for those who have it, it's a huge damage killer. Most combos off this starter vary between 2000 and 2400 damage across the cast. the 5LP mid combo isn't contributing to any more scaling than any other button would, it's just a low damage button.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Nooneyouknow:

Originally posted by Maverick:

I main Chun-Li and only play as her. Is it just me, or is the damage for some of these combos a bit low?

In combo trials, when I do cr.MK->DR Cancel->5LP->5MP->cr.MP->OD SBK->Heavy Tensho Kicks, a 15-hit combo, it barely does more damage than just a jump HK + cr.HK two-piece. Heck, it barely does more damage than just OD Tensho Kicks all by themselves.

When I play people though, I get half my life bar taken from combos, lol. Some of these combos don't seem worth the work you gotta put in. Is it like this with other characters as well?

So, in general, Street Fighter combo scaling since SF4 works like this:

100%>100%>80%>70%>60%>40%>30%>20%>10%>10%>10%.

With each step being an attack, not per hit. SF6 goes one step beyond this universally, and combos that start from light attacks, or 2MK have 100%>80% as their first stage of scaling.

Even further beyond that, attacks that are very easy to land a combo with, such as buttons that are faster on average for their strength, or target combos apply combo starter scaling, and can skip from 100%>80% even if the button is heavy, with some jumping to 70%. Several target combos also count as multiple attacks mid combo, such as JP's 4MP>MP TC.

Drive Rush Cancel also applies a 15% multiplicative scaling to the rest of the combo, rounded down.

SA1 universally has a minimum 30% scaling, SA2 40%, and SA3/CA 50%.

Now, to Chun Li specifically, Capcom has official frame data including scaling on the SF webstie: https://www.streetfighter.com/6/character/chunli

Taking the combo from your OP: cr.MK->DR Cancel->5LP->5MP->cr.MP->OD SBK->Heavy Tensho Kicks

Base damage for those attacks:

2MK 500
5LP 300
5MP 600
2MP 600
OD SBK 800
H Tensho Kicks 1200

Since this is a 2MK starter, followed by a drive rush, our combo scaling will look like this:

100%>68%>59>51%>42.>34%

For a total combo damage of 2108. Starting the same combo with 2HP (900 damage) would change the scaling to

100>85>68>59>51>42

Giving a total damage of 2829.

So while 2MKxxDRC is an easy combo starter for those who have it, it's a huge damage killer. Most combos off this starter vary between 2000 and 2400 damage across the cast. the 5LP mid combo isn't contributing to any more scaling than any other button would, it's just a low damage button.

I appreciate the time you took to write this. Thank you! This helps a lot with choosing my go-to combos.

[Everchosen]

The trials are nice and all, but the building blocks of any Chun Li combo worth doing in an actual match are

5lp, 2lk, 2lp => almost always l.sbk, sometimes l. hlk if your opponent doesn't respect frames

5mp,2mp => DRC extensions, H.SBK

6mp DRC 4hp => This will open up just about everything, including stance extensions.

2mk, DRC 5mp, 2mp => should be H.SBK, can be other things like OD.SBK.

2mk, DRC 4hp => This will open up just about everything, including stance extensions.

4hp DRC 2hp/4hp (2hp is for higher damage stance extensions, building down charge, or just higher damage in general. 4hp is less execution intensive for slightly slower damage as the confirm/cancel windows out of 4hp are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ridiculously huge)

Heavy buttons into stance HK =>
*Be careful with 5hk, it whiffs on crouching opponents, although worth nothing 2hp can drc into 5hk for big damage as it forces stand on hit.

Extensions you should definitely learn

any DRC 4hp into stance mk (the last round of Chun buffs made stance mk really good)

her stance 5hk launch extensions, primarily j.2mk, j.2mk, j.5hp, j.5hp extension/finisher (this is her go to safe jump setup, and can also link into level 3)

She has decent combo damage, but all of her monster 5.5-6k+ damage combos require level 3, and start off of a punish counter dr 4hp as this can be cancelled into h.hazanshu which links into 2mp and leads to scary stuff.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Everchosen:

The trials are nice and all, but the building blocks of any Chun Li combo worth doing in an actual match are

5lp, 2lk, 2lp => almost always l.sbk, sometimes l. hlk if your opponent doesn't respect frames

5mp,2mp => DRC extensions, H.SBK

6mp DRC 4hp => This will open up just about everything, including stance extensions.

2mk, DRC 5mp, 2mp => should be H.SBK, can be other things like OD.SBK.

2mk, DRC 4hp => This will open up just about everything, including stance extensions.

4hp DRC 2hp/4hp (2hp is for higher damage stance extensions, building down charge, or just higher damage in general. 4hp is less execution intensive for slightly slower damage as the confirm/cancel windows out of 4hp are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ridiculously huge)

Heavy buttons into stance HK =>
*Be careful with 5hk, it whiffs on crouching opponents, although worth nothing 2hp can drc into 5hk for big damage as it forces stand on hit.

Extensions you should definitely learn

any DRC 4hp into stance mk (the last round of Chun buffs made stance mk really good)

her stance 5hk launch extensions, primarily j.2mk, j.2mk, j.5hp, j.5hp extension/finisher (this is her go to safe jump setup, and can also link into level 3)

She has decent combo damage, but all of her monster 5.5-6k+ damage combos require level 3, and start off of a punish counter dr 4hp as this can be cancelled into h.hazanshu which links into 2mp and leads to scary stuff.

Awesome, thank you! Super helpful. I will def give these combo sequences a try.

[Tobithecomic]

Other people have already given you great explanations, I'd just like to add one thing.
Use the combo trials more as references for what is possible.
For example in this case that OD Spinning bird juggles into Heavy Tensho.

Most of the combo trial combos are not the most practical beyond the executional practice they offer, since with few exceptions they usually have bad resource to damage ratios, or just go for low damage/bad oki routes in general

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Tobithecomic:

Other people have already given you great explanations, I'd just like to add one thing.
Use the combo trials more as references for what is possible.
For example in this case that OD Spinning bird juggles into Heavy Tensho.

Most of the combo trial combos are not the most practical beyond the executional practice they offer, since with few exceptions they usually have bad resource to damage ratios, or just go for low damage/bad oki routes in general

Agreed about the Combo Trials. The combo's I've gone through so far are either too difficult or context-specific to reliably depend upon in a fight or, like you said, inflict too little damage to be worth it. Looking forward to trying everyone's suggestions!

[midnightgreen20]

DR cancel adds a lot of scaling for all characters. So if that's how you're landing a lot of your combos, you can't expect to do a ton of damage.

[Peddie]

Given OP's previously stated distaste for Drive Rush as an alleged unfair mechanic, I don't think that's causing the low damage output.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Peddie:

Given OP's previously stated distaste for Drive Rush as an alleged unfair mechanic, I don't think that's causing the low damage output.

You’re such a hater, lol. Yeah, I’m not a fan of the mechanic, but if you can’t beat em, join em. You said to adapt, right? Well, I’m adapting.

[Peddie]

Nice work, you're learning what fighting games really are about, which is "hey, as long as it works" and "any win is a valid win". And of course, can't forget Honda's advice of: "Nobody every got strong without losing, don't lose hope!", but I presume he means losing in a way that leaves you with information to help you gain insights on what you need to improve on.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Peddie:

Nice work, you're learning what fighting games really are about, which is "hey, as long as it works" and "any win is a valid win". And of course, can't forget Honda's advice of: "Nobody every got strong without losing, don't lose hope!", but I presume he means losing in a way that leaves you with information to help you gain insights on what you need to improve on.

You’re lucky I’m in a good mood, lol.