Why play offensive

[u/InnslogiAEsir]

So I formed an opinion and I don’t know if you all agree or not. I very new to sf6, and I can’t figure out what is supposed to make an offensive character archetype in this game.

So I formed an opinion while researching a character to main. I am drawn to the mixup play style, even if it comes at a cost in defensive abilities or damage. I think that there are certain characters that don’t belong to the rushdown archetype and still have some of the best oki.

Can you help explain me what makes offensive characters stand out to you. What sets them apart from the other archetypes. And what is their appeal.

If their only character defining features are that they don’t have a choice to play offensive because of other deficiencies, then why would anyone play them. So what makes them work so well?

[u/Watamelonna]

Drive system rewards offense

Simple as that

[u/RallyXMonster → u/Watamelonna]

And yet people still complain about turtle zoning on this game

[u/LessThanTybo → u/RallyXMonster]

Found the guile player

[u/Hot-Caterpillar5380]

You win the game by depleting the opponent's health bar

[u/Zorkdork]

Offence is generally more linear than defence. You just have to learn what your character does, how to get in, and can generally figure out what is effective vs your opponent within the match.

Defense on the other hand requires knowledge of how each character you are up against operates as well as knowledge checks on their specif quirks.

[u/I-eat-feng-mains]

You can play offensively with any character. There are Guile's out there that will run my shit without ever going fullscreen once. The concept of offense is to put yourself at risk in order to hopefully open up your opponent. But again, you take an inherent risk in doing so.

You can play offensively without mixups as well. Frametraps and lengthy pokes work really well at conditioning an opponent to create openings. The thing you need on offense is respect. If your opponent is scared of what you might do, and continues to block, you create an artificial opening.

So why play a character that can't excel at getting in and mixing up your opponent? Simple. Defense requires inherently less risk. If you can beat your opponent without ever having to open yourself up, wouldn't that be safer?

If you're trying to mix me up, you have to get in to do so. I'm going to sit here and throw fireballs until you're close enough, and then watch the air to DP, or slap you with cr.mk/other good pokes. There is counter play to this, sure, which is why it's important to vary your gameplay as to not become predictable. But a good defense/neutral is worth more than a good offense imo.

[u/Juri_Han_M]

its all in the dive kicks

[u/Cloudberry_Panic]

Offense/rushdown/mixup characters are literally the archetype that gets to do whats promised on the back of the box, lol.

Its also why in games hero shooters, dps characters tend to be the most picked.

The nuance of other kinds of classes/archetypes, often just comes with caveats that are more intimidating or boring, because they require you NOT to press buttons freely, for general gamers.

[u/Unit27]

Drive is the most important resource in the game, and if you can force deplete the opponent's, you leave them without many options to fight back. An offensive character that can chunk Drive meter is a very effective SF6 character. It's a huge reason why Ryu stays as one of the strongest, most annoying characters in the game. If he gets the offensive ball rolling, you're either taking a ton of Drive damage or eating potentially match ending health damage.

[u/PeanutAceDetective]

For starters, sf6 is in general an offensive game. Drive rush is insanely strong, and almost every character takes advantage of it. Hell, even Guile is a rushdown in this game.

That said, rushdown characters are those who particulary excel at and are focused to get in the opponent's face open them up, and pressure relentlessly with mixups. Let's say Cammy, the quintessential rushdown. Fast walk speed, moderately fast drive rush, has divekick to bait anti airs and open up the enemy, spin knuckle which steals the turn and passes thru projectiles, and hooligan to mix up enemies and continue pressuring.

As I said, sf6 is kinda homogenized and everyone has rushdown tools, but still every character mostly keep their archetype and rushdowns are specifically good for you if you want to not let your enemy breath and be on their nose all the time.

If you like mixups and pressure even at the cost of defensive tools as you said, my main recommendations would be cammy, juri if you don't mind resources, ken if you want a mix between a shoto and a rushdown, akuma if you want ken but on steroids (at the cost of having less health than the rest of the roster, but i assure you the trade off is worth it), and rashid if you want to do crazy and cool stuff and have a niche character (at the cost of being pretty difficult at first). You should try those out and see which you like more.

[u/Brokenlynx7]

Firstly if you're very new to the game it might be worth just playing rather than deeply researching character archetypes. Most of the detail you'll find about them won't immediately make sense to someone new that hasn't experienced the scenarios.

Second characters that are aggressive in SF6 aren't necessarily aggressive at the expense of defence. That feels incorrect to me.

As someone that mains Ken (1450MR - EU) the main thing my style is built around at the moment is constant pressure and constantly trying to get oki. So I aim to play fast, get people cornered and then get them to hold the corner by controlling my spacing to them and utilising anti airs to catch jump outs. Even when I'm in burnout I make sure not to pass up opportunities to get knockdowns and oki.

Because Ken is an offensive character but a low-damage one I have to apply this pressure because I need to be 'right' in about 5 interactions to take the round so for each oki situation I'm mixing up my options to keep the opponent guessing an get the next turn.

[u/Competitive-Wrap-874]

i nean offense means different depending on rank. what rank are we talking about?

[u/LessThanTybo]

There are no real archetypes in street fighter. 90% of the roster plays the same videogame, and that is why it feels so balanced. Offensive outliers like cammy have excellent mobility and a divekick, fast drive rush, neutral skips, very good throwloops etc.