Additional Topic: How to Use Dee Jay's Max Out in USF4 (AKA The Projectile I Never Knew I Always Wanted)

Popular opinion is that Dee Jay's Max Out is a mediocre weapon (or Air Slasher would be its new name in the SF4 games; I find almost all the new SF4 names for Dee Jay's moves stupid, especially compared to the earlier SF2 ones). The Max Out is not as fast as Sagat's Tiger Shot and not as quick to recover as Guile's Sonic Boom. That said, the humble Max Out has a lot of hidden strengths which people don't give it enough credit for. These include the following:

a) the slow version is very slow, making it difficult to avoid easily and making it a much easier tool for Dee Jay to use as a way to shield his approach (particularly when he does a forward dash after it).

b) the recovery on the Max Out, while not the best of the lot, is still pretty damn good, so that Dee Jay is not left open for very long after throwing it (unless you are predictable or using it from poor ranges).

c) the Max Out animates and is released quickly as a projectile. This makes it exceptional at cancelling fireballs from close to Dee Jay's body and also allows him to use the thing as an anti-air weapon from certain distances. Seriously, it's a better anti-air than the Jack Knife or normal attacks at certain ranges (e.g., when trying to anti-air Ken's or Sakura's mid-air Tatsus). 

d) the Max Out offers an excellent way to build super meter to make yourself more powerful later in the match (which is its primary use in a fireball war - NOT to hit the opponent; as an example, I often spend the first part of a match against Guile just throwing Max Outs to nullify his booms for this reason).

e) the Max Out has excellent Juggle properties, meaning you can follow up with additional hits on an airborne opponent (including EX Sobat and, more importantly, Dee Jay's Super, if you cancel into the Super from the Max Out).

Most of these benefits are not obvious to Dee Jay players because people try to use the Max Out in a fireball manner similar to Ryu, which doesn't work for long periods of time. The reason that it doesn't work isn't due to the Max Out's properties, though, but because of the limitations of the follow-ups he can do after it. Since his charge is killed by the Max Out's release, he can no longer do his Upkicks easily (or Ultra 2), which are his best anti-airs. Furthermore, his anti-air normals only work well from certain distances; meaning, if you're not at that perfect distance when you throw the Max Out, you are usually screwed (a problem I encountered many times before I found a way past it). Since Ryu has an always accessible dragon punch, his fireball game is much better from all ranges compared to Dee Jay's. That said, Dee Jay's Max Out has many useful applications once you better understand its properties. Most notably:

• To build large amounts of super meter for use later in the match (i.e., more meter = stronger Dee Jay offense and defense).
• As a starter for anti-air juggle combos (see above as well as the earlier post on Dee Jay's heavy-hitting combos).
• To cover your advancing dash (as mentioned above, designed mainly to put you into that perfect range where your moves work best).
• As a form of in-your-face fireball poke (given that it is fast, it is difficult for opponents right in front of you to react to it quickly, providing you a chance to reset things to a better range for your attacks).

Most people instead use Dee Jay's Max Out from about 2/3rds away from the opponent which is actually one of the worst ranges to ever use this move in the hopes of anti-airing after it. Like Dee Jay in general, the Max Out works best from either all the way across screen or from just within the opponent's sweep range. Everywhere else you should be using it either to cover your advancing dash or to anti-air an opponent with it. Nothing more.

It took me almost five years to figure out that Dee Jay isn't really a fireball character, merely a character who uses a fireball to set up the rest of his potent attack strategy. The more you play him, the more you will learn that this is true.

TLDR: You're not Ryu. Use your Max Out mostly to build meter, cover your advance, start a juggle combo, or push an opponent back to better distance for you. Very little else.

PDF Version of Post

The humble - yet secretly powerful - Dee Jay Max Out.

NOTE ON THE EX MAX OUT: I've already talked about the generally pointless uses of the EX Max Out that Dee Jay players tend to use. Even in combos, it's usually a poor substitute for stronger special moves in Dee Jay's arsenal. The only two regular uses for EX Max Out IMO are to bleed the last few pixels of an opponent's life bar away (i.e., chip kill) or as a two-hit anti-air maneuver to deter jumping. Everything else is mostly a waste.