I agree about the j CDs. it isn't something to just throw out haphazardly but follow up with the best string possible after one gets blocked. And I'm not opposed to poking completely. I suppose I should say I'm attempting to get to his pressure and guard string phase faster, and then guard crush and followup combo sooner.
People are far more willing to block when their gauge is still a good bit above 50% and I'm trying to get them into a panic and demoralize the opponent by crushing that gauge early. And since those are my goals I try to apply pressure sooner, after the opponent sees I'm willing to go after the guard bar early, guard strings add more danger forcing them to take more risks to not fall to those strings. Then I can hang back a little more and punish unsafe reversals. This is of course theory but I intend to put into practice next chance I get (probably at the end of this month). Is there a way to get to the pressure phase earlier without upping the hop/jump offense? Or should I go back and stick to a more poke based offense til I can start pressure games?
On the anti air point, while not great his qcb + P makes a decent anti hop. The hurt box is pretty low and will avoid alot of the smaller hop hitboxes that would still hit if they did a full jump like Shen's hop CD. typically they have enough time to block after failing to hit and landing but since I'm trying to make the opponent block more frequently anyway that suits my needs just fine. It will however still get beat by really low hitboxes like Iori's hop C.
Stay with a more poke based offense, let them be conditioned to think that you'll annoy them with Ralf's high priority ground pokes and get the guard gauge down that way and they will panic and do something risky. After they do panic reversal or whiff a normal from your annoying pokes, punish them hard for it. After that, there are 3 ways it can go down.
1. They'll try to throw out a fast move like Cr.B or Cl.C, aka mashing a lot of buttons on wake up.
2. They're real ballsy and will go for a reversal DP or super
3. They'll block
how to beat this:
1. Throw meaties on their wakeup, Cr.B is your best choice since you can link it fairly easy into CL.C already, and the later frames will just basically let you hit the easiest link ever and Cr.B can chain to itself
2. Throw a fake meaty to recover quicker than their reversal and block, then punish them for it.
3. Go for Guard String Pressure, and keep them under control with Frame Trap and run pressure strings.
If 3 happens, keep em eating those buttons until they crack and will DP/reversal, and rinse and repeat
How you get to the pressure phase how well you are in the neutral. You gotta practice footsies first before you get what you want.