by BareknuckleRoo » Thu Sep 01, 2011 2:21 am
Roo/Victy is in the same tier as SoR3 Skate? No way, Roo is so much more useful than SoR3 Skate is in SoRR that he's nowhere near SoR3 Skate (I'd say that SoR3 Skate is also worse than Zan due to his throw usefulness having gone seriously down in SoRR). I really like Skate too, but man is he ever horrible in SoRR due to how much harder grabs are to pull off and how enemies easily avoid being thrown into one another. While Roo's difficult (and very unusual) to play effectively, he's at least Mid Tier if not High Mid Tier.
"+ Very quick"
He's actually not that quick, aside from his 1, 2 and 3 star blitzes.
"- Bad range"
He only has bad range if you try to start combos with his jabs. His basic punches should never be used unless you're in the middle of back attack tail whip staggering and you want to turn around and quickly try to grab the enemy or if you're using it to tack on extra damage in a grab combo. It's also safe to punch an enemy as they stand up if they're not invulnerable when recovering. Basically, you need to learn that his punches suck and not use them outside of safe situations.
If you try to start combos using his back attack, the tail whip has ridiculous range, speed and priority. It's also NOT blocked by kickboxers, etc. More importantly, it has a sweet spot where you can infinitely combo enemies with it staggering over and over (hit enemies with just the tip of it repeatedly). It's tricky to get the rhythm down and it can be tough catching enemies with it that love to jump around, but if you can do it, it absolutely trivializes bosses like R. Bear and Shiva (poke, poke, poke... oh hey I won without getting hit). Heck, it even works against Abadede (he'll try to use his counterattack but you'll be out of range and able to hit him again). It's a very safe poke to use when faced by a couple enemies (especially if they bunch up together) and against groups of enemies you'll usually want to crowd surf with his 2 or 3 star blitz anyways instead of using punches.
"- Weak power"
Only in SoR3, where it takes a long time to tail whip stuff for damage and that's really the best way to kill things as Roo. In SoRR he has a powerful (albeit non-slam) throw and his 2 and 3 star blitzes are among the best blitzes in the game. If you judge the distance right you can knockdown enemies right at the edge of the screen (or against a wall) at which point you can do a 3 star blitz as they try to stand. If all the hits connect, it's almost an entire lifebar. That's absolutely enormous damage, and it's pretty easy to hit enemies to the side of the screen where you can abuse this for lots and lots of damage. Heck, even if you use his 2 or 3 star blitzes to just rush through crowds, you'll still do a ton of damage quite safely (except against ninjas who are probably the bane of Roo's existence).
"- Can’t use guns"
Roo's actually just bad with weapons, period. He's much more useful barehanded (or rather emptyhanded, as he's got boxing gloves) where you can use his back attack anyways, so the no guns thing is only a slight disadvantage.
Also, despite being rated 5 stars in Jump (hahahahahah, what) his jump attacks are really pretty awful. They're weaker than the other SoR3 characters, he pulls his legs in soon after jump kicking (although it's got good range and decent priority), his standing jump attack is probably the worst in the game and his non-knockdown jump attack is only decent because it's better than Skate's awkward headbutt thing. Even then I find it not so useful in SoRR. Long story short, Roo's jump attacks aren't good. His jump kick will get the job done against Jets, but you'll really wish you had someone else's jump kicks.
Roo was definitely the worst character overall in SoR3 by far, as even that abusable back attack wasn't enough to make up for his overall weakness. But, in SoRR, he's so, so much better to the point where he easily manages to outshine some of the other characters. His 2 and 3 star blitzes are crazy awesome and it's easy to setup the 3 star one for ridiculous amounts of damage, his back attack works wonders against some of the nastiest enemies in the game and he's got a powerful throw now to use instead of just that weak rear grab attack. I'd say he's probably Sucks Complete Ass Tier under CPU control due to the weird tactics needed to make him an effective character, but if you learn to use him Roo can do some pretty impressive stuff.