SF4 Armor Canceling

[Maj]

Does anyone know how this gimmick works? I wish there was more concrete info about stuff like this, but all i can find is ghetto hearsay piled into an SRK thread filled with pages and pages of wasted time.

It seems like if you use an armored EX special to aborb something at the last moment, you can cancel it into something else. But it only seems to work during the first few startup frames of your EX special. Maybe it's even a one-frame thing.

Doing this costs no meter for the first EX special, so you can legitimately cancel into super, and obviously ultra. You can also cancel it into another EX special so you get two super armor absorptions for the cost of one bar. But so far i haven't been able to cancel into regular special moves. What's the deal?

Armor canceling doesn't seem to work with Focus Attacks, except when you cancel Focus Attack armor into Taunt. That works for some strange reason.

[Doopliss]

I don't know much about it, but EX CoD xx(ac) EX Falling sky seems to be a good anti-air for Abel, I pulled it of by mistake the other day. I guess you have to AC into a move with the same button presses or more, it's really weird. Try cancling to a normal special attack with Goukens counter.

[Xenozip.]

FA into taunt against fireballs is pretty cool IMO since taunts can be canceled rather quickly. It gives you the option of standing still as apposed to backdash or forward dash or whiffing the FA.

The thing with armor cancelling just seems like a kara cancel similar to roll cancelling, there must be a move priority system similar to the move strength system for normals. Though I think Gouken can cancel his normal counter, so it'd be interested to see if he can kara his normal counter into a normal special or if it's EX only.

Doopliss' Falling Sky kara sounds like a really awesome use for it. The only other uses I've seen are karaing's Gouken's counter into Ultra or using Boxer's rush punch twice for double armor. I have no idea if Gouken can kara his demon flip armor move but that'd be hilarious if he could.

[Doopliss]

I can't see that happening, but it would be cool if he could cancel it to EX tatsu or something, then you could counter while still in the air as well. Or maybe you could armor cancel it into the dive kick, by pressing K?

[Maj]

Btw the reason i brought up this armor-canceling question is because my original plan for this Balrog combo was to have him absorb someone's fireball and use that pause to recharge for the super. I wanted to know if it was impossible or if i was simply doing it wrong.

There's gotta be an armor cancel combo in SF4 somewhere/somehow, but none of the obvious ideas work because the whole "feature" seems extremely restrictive in surprising ways.

[Xenozip.]

Yeah I can only see you just sticking it in a combo for the sake of "wtf". As in, doing a HP cancelling to an armor move to absorb a delayed fireball then armor cancelling into a completely vulnerable EX move. Hence the vulnerable EX move would have otherwise failed without the armor cancel to absorb the hit. There's basically no reason to do that other than to show it's possible.

Since it's a kara I really can't think of any other use for it other than just granting that one hit of absorption on otherwise totally vulnerable moves. MAYBE if an armor special moved forwards quite a significant distance in the first couple frames the kara-cancel would therefor allow some really range restrictive combo like a kara-throw.

[onReload]

Has anybody figured out why SF4 lets people cancel Focuses into Taunts? Would it be possible to cancel focuses into special or super moves as long as you did them within the same window? Since Taunts are just two buttons, the window must be small, but still possible. It would be awesome to see a superfreeze with the fireball/focus animation still on the character.

[Doopliss]

I think it's some kara thing in combination with armor cancel that allows that to happen,so I don't think you can do that. Except maybe lariat.

[onReload]

Hmmm...why a lariat then?

Also, does anybody know the juggle properties of El Fuerte's EX Quesadilla Bomb/EX Guacamole Leg Throw? If you FADC the first, the opponent is in the air twist animation, but I can't seem to dash cancel fast enough to grab him with the throw - if it's even possible.

[Doopliss]

Because it's jsut all the punch/kick buttons.

It's possible in theory, but I don't think yhey can connect to each other properly.

[Maj]

For a while there were some rumors going around that anyone could armor cancel Focus Attacks into specials by canceling into Taunt and then into a special, but i never saw any proof. Nobody's figured it out yet but there might not be much to figure out beyond what we've already seen.

As for EX chest bump into EX upgrab, i think it should work because the LK version works but the EX version might be too slow because the HK version looks like it's too slow too.

[Doopliss]

I think EX grabs higher than LK, that's why it misses.

[onReload]

For a while there were some rumors going around that anyone could armor cancel Focus Attacks into specials by canceling into Taunt and then into a special, but i never saw any proof. Nobody's figured it out yet but there might not be much to figure out beyond what we've already seen.

As for EX chest bump into EX upgrab, i think it should work because the LK version works but the EX version might be too slow because the HK version looks like it's too slow too.

Hmm, well then there goes the 4-bar (ha) stun combo, oh well.

I'm thinking that rumor you mentioned might stem from the fact that you can cancel out of taunts by doing pretty much anything, but only after a certain period of time - you know, like if you spam taunt, the character keeps interrupting himself.

[jchensor]

When I first saw the Focus -> Tant cancel, I got all excited... thought Charge characters could use it as a way to Focus moves and maintain their charge for Special Moves, so Guile could Focus -> Taunt a Fireball and then Sonic Boom. But turns out you can't Taunt unless you are in Neutral!

Somehow, it almost seems like Capcom thought of that.

- James

[CPS2]

Can you parry a whole super using this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uvJ2nBZwxc

[Doopliss]

If that works, then you should be able to kara into lariat as well, as I said.

Unless it's like yeb said and it is because of move priority.

[CPS2]

LOL you can parry Akuma's hurricane kicks with this. There's got to be other stuff as well.