Sorry for the sabbatical. I recently got a ps4 and been trying to have a bit of a social life. BUT! Ultra Street Fighter 4 will be out soon so I have been brushing up on my fighting game chops. The current fighter of choice? Hakan, believe it or not. Picked him up recently as kind of a joke to play against my brother's Sagat and been playing him heavily ever since. Really digging his normals and how pressing forward changes each normal's properties. It's not all glitz and glamour, though. Hakan truly earns his low tier in how unbelievably unforgiving he can be. You must stay oiled all the time, particularly against fireball opponents, for mobility on your forward moving normals, dashes and ex slide. He tends to dominate just outside mid range, with sliding forward palms (forward + hp) backwards moving chops (back + hp) and forward moving trips (forward + hk, knocks down in some situations). This is pretty solid footsie range but is very strict, as mid range dominator a like chun-li and Vega (claw) tear him up majorly. One of his great approaching air-to-airs, jp fwd Mp is pretty solid and can lead to a slide or ultra 2. Lk also has good priority and can be a good option for "crossing up" opponents. If thrown at the right time it can hit in front but you land in the back, making it seem ambiguous. Proposed changes: Probably the most upsetting thing about maining Hakan is that he is really a solid B tier (maybe even A) in a low tier shell. Certain things he should have, he doesn't. For example, his oil rocket doesn't have the range that t.hawk and Zangief enjoy, even the Lp oiled version. I feel this is due to Zangief and T. Hawk having "cinematic" properties to their grabs where-as hakan's oil rocket is more of a command grab. Simply buffing the Lp version's grab range, even if it's just for oiled, would help immensely. Many tactics that are normally unsafe (Special move spamming as an example) work against Hakan due to his lack of punishability. While buffing Lp oil rocket won't solve all of those problems it will have a profound impact. Footnote: Oil Rocket also whiffs pretty hard when it's not appropriate, like as a block punish when the opponent is crouching. His super is really good and is probably one of the more useful supers in the game, however I don't feel it has the juggle points it should have (read: Juggle Property Guide link goes to SRK forums). For example, there are 2 specific example where I feel the special should work where it doesn't: Doing 2 focus attacks with dash cancel (like his ultra link) and after landing an air-to-air jp fwd MP. Granted, these situations don't necessarily have the impact that the lp Oil Rocket buff would have but the super has some hefty damage and not having the appropriate juggle points to land in those situations just seems glaring to me. As a footnote to this paragraph, the fireball punish (hk) version doesn't work for all fireballs correctly. This needs fixed. Along the same lines as the super, Oil Dive should have mirrored properties on EX (not on normal). As you may or may not know, his super has different properties based on which kick you use. Lk super = absorbs hits, Mk super = avoid throws, HK avoids fireballs. So my suggestion is, lk+mk ex oil dive absorbs a hit (not a lot of utility but it'd be nice to have), mk+hk would avoid throws and lk+hk = avoid fireballs (non EX). An alternative to this method would be to give EX Oil Dive super armor, which would be fine by me (oil rocket is a better answer for 360 set-ups anyway). One of the buffs I would suggest seems to be on it's way in Ultra, that being the above-head hurt box on his chop. So opponents directly overhead will get a nasty surprise trying to cross him up for free. My final suggestion has to do with oil duration. I would say that, for the most part, the oil system works fairly well, EXCEPT for the oil follow up to slide. Trading in a good chunk of damage for oiling up is quite a sacrifice, and while I am not saying you should get a HK oil out of it I think you should get a duration that somewhat reflects what you land. LP gets the standard LK oil (regardless of what kick you use for follow-up). MP gets you a few seconds longer, and HP a couple seconds longer still. So 6, 8, and 10 respectively. Landing an EX with a oil shower follow up gets you 12 which matches HP oil shower. I don't really want to drop Hakan in Ultra but I have been waiting a lonnnnnng time for Rolento to be added to this game. I waited ever since super was announced, hoping he'd be in the roster. I will have to evaluate the impact the current buffs have but they do not seem to be enough to make an impact based on what other characters will be getting. The oil rocket grab range buff is to all versions, so on the surface it doesn't seem like it'll be far reaching enough to punish a blocked SRK. All in all, I'll take a peak after I've spent some heavy time with rolento!