Short Hop: Useful or Underpowered?

[PetulantWaste]

Hey guys,

One thing I haven't seen very often in competitive or casual play is the use of the short hop mechanic. I think i see people flub a wakeup u3 and get a short hop more often than people using them strategically as part of a game plan.

How do you incorporate shorthops into your gameplan?

What can be done to improve them (if they need improvement)?

Are there any VODs of players using them often and effectively?

 

[GothamInGray]

I'm of the camp that short hop attacks should cause pop-ups. Otherwise, I haven't seen much reason to do them other than as weird mix-ups.

 

[Deleted member 5032]

They should avoid any low poke, including d1’s that hit mid. As is, they’re really only useful for oki mixups into short-hop overhead, short-hop-land-low, and short-hop-land-throw. I’ll occasionally use them against command grabs if the opponent gets too predictable trying to tic into them, but otherwise they’re pretty underwhelming. It’s also way too easy to get them by accident.

 

[xenogorgeous]

crap mechanic ..... not that useful ... work more as some type of gimmick , and not really a relevant stuff to be included in all offensive or defensive movement in the game ..... ugh !

 

[stokedAF]

Depends on the character. Shao Kahn’s hops are great. Shangs are kinda terrible. That’s all I know. I use them mostly when people stay crouch blocked and spam low normals. Just to get them moving again.

 

[trufenix]

universal overheads are always a good thing.

 

[Sutter Pain]

I tend to use it the most after someone breaks away in the corner on wake up. I am a fan of it but getting poked out by a d1 is pretty lame considering everything from a short hop is launch punishable excluding empty hop into something.

 

[Enexemander]

Character dependent. Raiden's Short Hop Kick has very good range, so that's useful because Raiden has no overhead starters. Once they eat a few of those, you have a decent shot at conditioning them to get in his low starter.

They are fairly slow and (universally?) unsafe so you have to be careful with them. And some characters just have shit ones that aren't worth using.

 

[Evil Canadian]

Short hop attacks are incredibly useful, and many people don't know a lot of basic things about em.

Some characters have obscene range like Raiden, his hopkick is his longest normal besides f1, and unlike f1 it can actually hit people standing still.
Some characters don't have hurtboxes on theirs like Shao Kahn, very low risk to go for it as he remains stationary and gives out a hitbox without a hurtbox.
Some characters can get their full attack even 1f off the ground before landing, thus creating a strong hop oh/low 50/50 guessing game.

 

[Matix218]

Waste of a mechanic IMO

 

[STB Sgt Reed]

I think they're super useful. I know some players that use them very effectively and piss me off to no end lol

 

[Qwark28]

Should do 12%.

 

[DrFolmer]

I use them a lot playing Johnny Cage. This dude respected the low so much I hit him with 4 hop attacks in a row. They're really underrated tools for characters who lacks an overhead conditioning tool, I'm thinking Noob Saibot players could utilize them as well

 

[FoughtDragon01]

Empty short hop into throw is my religion.

 

[Gaxkang]

I'd rather have true universal overheads that bounce ala Injustice 2, rather than the hop attacks, which are just so-so.

They also can have awkward input issues.

 

[DDustiNN]

I think i see people flub a wakeup u3 and get a short hop more often than people using them strategically as part of a game plan.

How do you incorporate shorthops into your gameplan?

That’s exactly how I incorporate them into my gameplan.

 

[Vhozite]

The only thing about short hop attacks i don't like is that each character has two but they both do the same thing. Keep one as a knockdown and have the other keep them standing or maybe even pop up for a modest combo.

 

[KeyserSoze]

I find them very useful

 

[Edmund]

I think offline they lose a lot of viability bc you can see it coming

I personally don’t like them because sometimes I want to jump or teleport not hop

 

[Wigy]

If they made short hop l2 I think it would be so useful. Going for it in clutch situations is risky for myself as doing it out of blockstun I get full jumps a fair amount.

 

[RM Ree]

I like the hop/ overheads, especially ones you can delay. They usually give solid advantage, sometimes leading to a set-up. Kotal gets an unblockable from his, for example.

However, I would love to see them have a universal KB associated with them. Kounter/ punish lows or throws, opposite d2 KB. A lot of characters are as good as they are because of how strong throws are.

If you really want to incentivize hops, increase neutral jump start up to match u/f and u/b, and keep hop frames as the fast airborne option.

 

[NaughtySenpai]

For Scorpion short hop is useful because his overhead is ass.
I'm old and shit at the game and even I can react to that.

 

[scarsunseen]

I don't mind it, I guess, but I don't find it terribly useful either.

 

[PetulantWaste]

If they made short hop l2 I think it would be so useful. Going for it in clutch situations is risky for myself as doing it out of blockstun I get full jumps a fair amount.

Yes, it's kind of tough to get them in clutch situations and not a plain neutral jump. You have to be pretty quick. Sometimes a neutral jump is just better because you can combo off of it.

I use Shao Kahn and i know he has one of the better ones and i still don't find that many situations where i say to myself "man i should've short hopped right there"

 

[NRF CharlieMurphy]

anything the short hop can do..... NJK does better.