Additional Topic: How to Get Super Meter to Maximum in a Single Round (AKA How to Become a Street Fighting Bad Ass in 99 Seconds or Less)
As mentioned elsewhere in this journal, super meter is a big part of Dee Jay’s game plan and strategy, and the sooner you achieve four bars, the better off you are. In fact, as suggested earlier, you should really be aiming to get four bars every single round. This won’t always happen, of course, because sometimes you will KO your opponent quickly (or he or she will KO you). All the same, it’s good to get your head into the mindset of always building up that meter, and it's much easier to do once you start taking advantage of a few little meter-building tricks. Here is a quick list of the ones that I regularly use:
a) Focus your opponent’s projectiles, as well as any heavier attacks that they can’t cancel into a special – the beauty of this trick is that you build both super meter AND Ultra meter each time you do this. It’s not without its risks, however, so use this strategy carefully.
b) Throw Max Outs at safe or advantageous ranges – probably the easiest and safest way to build meter during the course of a round.
c) Follow up a blocked Max Out with a Standing Far Roundhouse or Roundhouse Dread Kick at maximum range – when doing this, you should only be hitting the opponent with the tip of either kick. Done properly, the opponent will have to block both the Max Out and Roundhouse, providing a nice chunk of meter build for you. Note: although the Standing Far Roundhouse has poor recovery, it’s usually safe against most opponents at maximum range and when blocked. Be aware that some characters may have specials, supers, or Ultras which can hit you even at that range, though, and keep an eye out for players who know how to capitalize on this. In contrast, the Roundhouse Dread Kick should generally be safe from counterattack if the range where it is blocked is perfectly spaced.
d) Do a Roundhouse Slide at optimal range, either on an approaching opponent or after a blocked Max Out – “optimal range” refers to one where only the very front of the slide connects with the opponent. At this one specific range, Dee Jay’s slide recovers with plus frames, meaning you can’t be easily hit after it is blocked by most characters (grapplers being the main exception). Like the Standing Roundhouse, the Slide Kick gives Dee Jay a nice chunk of super meter anytime it connects or is blocked. Note: Many players don’t use this trick because, at most ranges, a blocked slide notoriously leaves you open to heavy counterattack. Nevertheless, there IS a special distance you can do it from where this is not the case . . . so it’s worth becoming familiar with this range over time as a means of upping your game. Guy’s Roundhouse slide has a very similar property, incidentally.
e) Do blocked combos involving several hits – each blocked hit that Dee Jay performs gives him a small amount of meter, with more meter being awarded for progressively stronger or heavier attacks. The flip side of this is that you end up committing one of the classic Dee Jay sins whenever you do this (i.e., throwing several attacks in a row and potentially getting DPed in the middle). So you have to find a suitable tradeoff here between building meter and not leaving yourself open to heavy attack.
f) Connect any unblocked attack – note that these give you more super meter than the equivalent blocked attack. Obviously, combos will award a particularly large slice of meter here . . . but any unblocked attack except EX moves, Supers and Ultras will award some degree of meter for your cause.
g) Getting hit – you also get both super meter and Ultra meter from being successfully hit, although I wouldn’t recommend this as a long-term strategy for building your own meter up.
h) Perform special attacks – Max Outs, as mentioned above, are the most obvious option here but, really, any special attack will award some degree of super meter, whether it hits or not (the successfully hitting special will provide more meter overall, however). Dee Jay’s Hyperfist special provides the biggest boost to his super meter, but it’s normally unsafe to do in situations where it doesn’t hit. Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that all specials provide some degree of super meter in this regard, no matter how or where they are done on the screen.
FINAL NOTE
These are some of the most creative ways to build Dee Jay’s meter in the course of a single round. To get better at this, square off against a computer opponent, specifically with the purpose of building your super meter to full in a round’s time. Practicing this on a computer opponent will quickly give you an idea of the best meter tricks to use in different situations, so that you can start unleashing those supers at a much earlier point in the round than you ever thought was possible.
TLDR: Dee Jay has a host of tricks he can use to build his
meter to full within a single round. Get on these pronto to make your damage
factor much more deadly, much more quickly.
