You don't main a variation you main a character.
And I don't jump backwards into kick to AA, I jump forward as they're jumping at me.
I didn't said i main hellfire, i said i've been playing hellfire more than the others, i main Scorpion, you said Hellfire is worthless, i've been using that variation mostly and discussing with notable Scorpion players a
@Slips and
@MITDJT, and not of the Scorpion mains among the kouncil has this same opinion you have.
Jumping forward is even worse than jumping backwards
The second you fall into a bait jump you're open to punish because your character will not be able to block during the landing, you're yet to see this i know.
As for the combo damge, I didn't know it was possible to combo off of Flame Aura, so the damage gap isn't as large as I thought. But saying you're getting 39% meterless is almost misleading. That's not your punish, that's only if someone fails to block the 25 frame overhead, which is easily fuzzy blocked. Not to mention the combo requires you to link within a 3 frame window. That's 1 20th of a second. I was only able to get this combo about < 50% of my attempts. It's probably because I'm not used to comboing off of Flame Aura, but as good as we all like to think we are, none of us can link a 3 frame window all of the time (unless there's some way to buffer this that I'm unaware of).
1 frame links in Street fighter without plinking:
what do you think 3 frames are to me? And i played Ibuki in street fighter which is constantly hitting combos with 1 frame links to get decent damage during real matches.
Hellfire do about the same damage inferno do meterless even without the overhead, the overhead might not be the combo starter, then your saying vortex and mixups are pointless. Because that is the only overhead Scorpion has to start a combo for the mix up game, besides you can still connect from a jump in. and you have the F2 which is a knockdown that puts things in scorpion favor.
I can get 30% easier with flame aura starter, B3, or 214, i did explored my options, it seems you have not, the only less damaging starter scorpion has is B2, which actually xcales damage.
Given you can perfectly link within 3 frames without ever dropping it you get 39% off of overheads, 22% was the most I could get out of the low starter (can you get more?), and 36% bnb (can you get more?). Like I said, I doubt anyone is able to link that 100% of the time, but if you could that's the highest damage I could come up with meterless. Another thing to note about that combo is that Fire ball is only +11, which doesn't give you enough frames to do anything other than poke without there being a chance of eating armor, so no continued pressure or low strings after the overhead combo if your opponent knows the data. And any combo that ends with Flame Aura rather than TP is less safe and more prone to getting armored out of afterwards.
It seems you still have to learn about smart play, i said on my previous post, those links encourage mashing, fireball being +11 is exactly the point i made on my previous post when i said:
he can also get one more fbc repetition which are pretty long and annoying, force people to mash and you can choose in quickly in which part you can end your combo by either baiting out options or mixups with lows, overheads, throws etc
This includes people mashing armor out hoping i can drop my combo,
which is exactly what a scorpion in hellfire variation willl expect you to do.
Hellfire favor smart play over guessing, the tools given to hellfire helps you to play smarter, safer and force your opponent to take more risks.
As Slips said before, its a low Riks/High Reward variation
Inferno gets 30% overheads, 26% lows, and 36% bnb, and the combos are easy as cake, no chance of dropping them. All combos end in TP (+18) so they are forced to respect the low and can't throw armor out after every vortex. In my opinion, the zoning tools and occasional block string mix up with minions, coupled with what I just mentioned, still yields Inferno as superior in almost every way. Though I don't think Hellfire is nearly as bad now that I know you can combo off of Flame Aura. Honestly even if Hellfire consistently got slightly higher damage from every combo starter, I would still prefer having the added mix up and zoning potential. And yes, the minions after a block string is a risk, but it's not something you should do often, only when you've appropriately trained your opponent.
You said Overhead is not a combo starter or punish, yet you count it here, ending combos with teleport doesn't mean they can't throw armor out, why do you think MITDJT lost to sonic fox at fatal 8? Why do you think you can duck thows even when they're being performed from blockstrings?
What is a blockstring? canceling your strings with minions its not a blockstring, there is no attack with cancel advantage of 26 frames and attacks with a blockstun so big that makes canceling into minions a blockstring, if that was so, canceling with Hellfire would've have been a runetrap just as quan chi was in MK9. The second they see the minion animation they will armor out, hit scorpion before any of he minions came out, 214 string on block is not safe is -14 which can be reversal punished by a lot of fast specials, or advancing normals with much less startup.
Watching the videos gave me one idea that I thought might make me want to play Hellfire again, that's 21 into fireball cancel pressure. But unfortunately because of the stamina bar you aren't able to keep the pressure up for long and you aren't even that plus after you cancel your run so it would be pretty easy to deal with.
Before I didn't think Hellfire was even viable because of Inferno, but now I could see it being played in a couple of situations, overall I still don't see a real reason to consistently use it over Inferno though.
What you need to do is not rush into conclusions, 21 fbc is not a blockstring, and can be interrupted, clearly that is not the way it was intended to be done, 214~fbc in other had is a true blockstring which can't be poked out off, we've been working into developing this variation further, once we get more data we will share, and the stamina is an important aspect of the game, it wasn't meant to endlessly pressure your opponent, that is the draw back, when you cancel your blockstring with FBC you can mix between low, overhead, throw, back dash or even jump to throw off timing, and they have to worry about all these options.
Hellfire is pretty damn consistent, Ask any Scorpion player who has been playing it for a while.
@Scoot Magee @JTB123 @vegeta