I dunno, it's just people are talking about how hot Fight Sticks are all the time and going from an analog stick, which at the very least captures some of the motion of a Fight Stick, to just a D-pad seems a little bit  counterintuitive. I'd much rather make a smaller investment into a Fight Pad to see if I actually want to "do this shit" before cemeting my commitment with a quality Fight Stick, but I'm really not seeing the advantage. 
 
Can a more experienced player please enlighten me?

I'm not an "experienced player" but I'll throw in my two cents anyways. For me it is just as much about button placement as it is the stick on a fightstick. I have a hard time accessing the bumpers and triggers on a regular controller while performing all the necessary actions on the d-pad or analog. Pulling off ultras and supers is much much easier for me on a fightstick. Also, I have a tendency to jump a lot when I don't mean to using a regular controller while this problem doesn't exist for me when I use a full sized joystick.

I only use a stick now, but before I was solely a dual shock 3 user...I have a fightpad, but it didn't feel comfortable to me, and I didn't like the six face buttons.  I had about a 60% win rate online from the dual shock... I can't use a dual shock anymore to save my life, but that is just a little input.  Like always, its player preference.

I'll agree that once you you an arcade stick you won't want to go back. The regular controller is doable but you can't compete with someone using an arcade stick. This has been proven many many times when my friends and I have played with one person using a fight stick and another using a fight pad.

i think the fight pad is a great middle ground between arcade sticks and regular controllers. It all depends how serious your gonna get with Street Fighter or any other fighter

Yup.

I can't use a fight stick. The joystick itself is just a real pain in the ass. I haven't been to an arcade in a little over ten years, and over time it's just kinda... been lost to me. I'm way more adept with an analogue stick or a D-Pad, which I find gives me way better movement (although that could be attributed to muscle memory). I personally use the fight pad and hold it in a hybrid style. I grip the d-pad and tap the face buttons like you would on an arcade stick. Until someone releases (or I build my own) fight stick with an analogue thumbstick, I think this awkward way to play is going to be what I do for most of the time.

" I'll agree that once you you an arcade stick you won't want to go back. The regular controller is doable but you can't compete with someone using an arcade stick. This has been proven many many times when my friends and I have played with one person using a fight stick and another using a fight pad. "

I use a fight pad, and I think it's way better than the 360 controller. The d-pad is awful, and the analog is serviceable, but it doesn't compare to the nice big d-pad on my mad catz controller. I don't have enought experience with a ps3 controller, but if it plays fighters anything like the ps2/psx controllers do, they're not bad. Having all the necessary buttons on the face of the controller is great, too. I tend to use KingWilly's style the most often, but I do switch on occasion.
 
Arcade sticks are better controllers, but I can never seem to get comfortable with them on my lap.

I can't do that uppercut thing without a fight stick anymore.

"

I dunno, it's just people are talking about how hot Fight Sticks are all the time and going from an analog stick, which at the very least captures some of the motion of a Fight Stick, to just a D-pad seems a little bit  counterintuitive. 

"

As others have said it is all preference. I personally suck with the D-pad and now I own 2 different sticks. Theere is a bit of a learning curve with a stick but once you get past that at least me. I do not want to go back.

It's preference, you can do just fine with a standard controller.

I use an arcade stick for the Street Fighter series, but would probably prefer a 6 face-button pad.
I already have a stick for 360, PS3 and older consoles and while the idea of owning a fight-pad appeals to me, It's not really enough for me to invest in one. I wouldn't even be sure which console to buy it for.

For games from series like Tekken, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kambat and DOA that seem more designed for console, I still prefer an ordinary game pad. In other words: Fighting-games that can be played well with 4 face-buttons. 

It does depend on the console, though. 
Most of my fighting-games are for Sony-consoles and those controllers are good for fighting-games. Now that I have a stick for 360, I'd probably use that on DOA4... that is IF I were ever to pick that game up again. 

If you don't have a problem with using shoulder-buttons as attack-buttons (and apparently playing with analog stick), I don't really think you need to buy a stick.

I prefer to use a stick. But I think it just comes down to preference because I play just as well with a pad.

"... and going from an analog stick, which at the very least captures some of the motion of a Fight Stick, to just a D-pad seems a little bit  counterintuitive. "

I got a FightPad yesterday and I'm digging it. I haven't  touched an arcade stick in years and I didn't want to invest in one just yet. The D-Pad feels different to the 360 one so it takes a little time to adjust if you're used to that but it's definitely much much better, I'm finding it easier to do the double quarter circle motions to get those ultras out now. 

Having recently switched from PS3 to 360 I can comment on both. The PS3 fightpad is not much better because the d-pad on the standard controller is so good. It just comes down to button placement preference.
 
As for the 360 I really didn't like using the analog stick. I was fine with it but now I've got a fightpad I'm much happier.

I have the same problem, don't want to spend a huge sum of money on a fight stick but also don't want to put in time to transfer from analogue stick to d-pad

You could also get a SE stick. They're close in price to a pad, and if you're looking for something in the meantime, this is the best choice as you can always upgrade the parts.
 
If you know you DON'T want a stick, then unless you're playing on the PS3 where the D-pad is actually quite good, a pad is significantly better than the 360 controller. The analog stick is ok, but like someone else pointed out, it's easy to mess up commands, and the d-pad is just garbage.
 
I've never been able to reliably pull off a dragon punch on a pad. For me, if I was going to play a street fighter game, I had to get a stick. Strange how some people can't possibly play on a stick and some can't possibly play on anything else.

It matters really, If you don't like using shoulder buttons(etc hurts your hands or something.) than a pad is probably right for you

For me, I have enough stuff cluttering up the living room, so I don't really want to have to deal with a stick.  The pad's way better than the 360 controller, and it flies real nice when I throw it after losing to a fireball spamming bitch.

You can do great with a normal controller. Just look at the duder Vangief

i find it easier to play with a controller

I just go my Fight pad with Bison Art in the mail today.  The thing works great compared to the crappy stock 360 controllers.  Feels pretty smooth and comfortable with the button layout.  My success rate with directional commands has skyrocketed.  I'm a little concerned about durability but so far I fully endorse the Fight pad.  It's super effective!  Pokemon style.

I've been using the standard controller up until recently. I dabble and get used to the stick normally, but if I want to throw down some serious fight I switch back to the controller for a couple matches. I can't stress enough that it is really fucking hard to use 360 or PS3 pad because the Dpads generally are balls.

I had a fightpad, I was good with it, wasn't being held back by the fact it was a fightpad. 
 
However when you use a stick, the main advantage comes not from the stick, but from being able to access all 6 buttons at all time. Gotta get my plinking on yo.

"I can't stress enough that it is really fucking hard to use 360 or PS3 pad because the Dpads generally are balls."

" @LordXavierBritish said:

"

I dunno, it's just people are talking about how hot Fight Sticks are all the time and going from an analog stick, which at the very least captures some of the motion of a Fight Stick, to just a D-pad seems a little bit  counterintuitive. 

"

The game only registers 4 directions anyway. So an analogue stick and a d-pad, no difference whatsoever for this game.   As for the fightpad, I don't like that style of d-pad either, but it's great imo for playing things like Ikaruga and Final Fight, I bought 2 just for that in fact. I guess if I was forced though, I would take it over the standard controller any day, and i'm not even considering the analogue stick as a viable control method, i'd use the d-pad. "

" @The_A_Drain said:

" @LordXavierBritish said:

"

I dunno, it's just people are talking about how hot Fight Sticks are all the time and going from an analog stick, which at the very least captures some of the motion of a Fight Stick, to just a D-pad seems a little bit  counterintuitive. 

"

The game only registers 4 directions anyway. So an analogue stick and a d-pad, no difference whatsoever for this game.   As for the fightpad, I don't like that style of d-pad either, but it's great imo for playing things like Ikaruga and Final Fight, I bought 2 just for that in fact. I guess if I was forced though, I would take it over the standard controller any day, and i'm not even considering the analogue stick as a viable control method, i'd use the d-pad. "

It registers 8 directions, not 4. I would also agree with him, Fightpad is bottom of the barrel, 360/PS3 Analog is a step above. "

" @lordofultima said:

" @The_A_Drain said:

" @LordXavierBritish said:

"

I dunno, it's just people are talking about how hot Fight Sticks are all the time and going from an analog stick, which at the very least captures some of the motion of a Fight Stick, to just a D-pad seems a little bit  counterintuitive. 

"

The game only registers 4 directions anyway. So an analogue stick and a d-pad, no difference whatsoever for this game.   As for the fightpad, I don't like that style of d-pad either, but it's great imo for playing things like Ikaruga and Final Fight, I bought 2 just for that in fact. I guess if I was forced though, I would take it over the standard controller any day, and i'm not even considering the analogue stick as a viable control method, i'd use the d-pad. "

It registers 8 directions, not 4. I would also agree with him, Fightpad is bottom of the barrel, 360/PS3 Analog is a step above. "

Nope, it registers 4 :)  The other 4 are a combination of up/left/down/right. But that's handled by the game itself not by the input device, which means how responsive the diagonal input is is dependant on the game itself not the controller, each sweep of the game loop is only checking 4 switches for direction. "

The PS3 controller was built for SF IV as far as i'm concerned.

" @lordofultima: It's not semantics.  The game only reads in up/down/left/right, it then decides whether a diagonal is being pushed based on those four directions.  Your TE stick has 4 directional switches in it dude. C'mon. All I am saying is that having an analogue stick offers no advantagesimply because it's analogue, because the game simply reads in up/down/left/right. That's all.  If the game used a trackball or an analogue stick as its primary input method that would be different, the game would be using a float (or some other value) to determine the position of the device. But it's not, just four boolean values, up/down/left/right x on/off.    You are using down and you are using forward ;) The game just reads in down + forward, and concludes that you are pushing a diagonal. If this was not the case, arcade sticks would have 8 switches (some of them do. But not my TE :) ) "

" @mubress: Call me crazy but I lean toward the 360 pad for street fighter. There's just something about it... "

I am ordering a fight stick tomorrow.  Mainly for accurate execution of moves.  The PS3 D-Pad is great, but I am having a few issues with using it that is really hurting my game.  I can hit a down->left quarter circle easily every time on the money, but a down->right quarter circle is very inconsistent(especially when doing super/ultra).  Because of that I find myself jocking for screen position, just so I can do what moves I want.  It really hurts my ability to switch up my moves and do what I need to.  I would really like to learn Ibuki, but I know that there is no way that I will be able to play as her with a pad.  The last bit of convincing for me is the big ass blister on my left thumb.  Perhaps I am pressing too hard, but I don't see my self being able to put in a lot of time like this

I started with a 360 controller, hated it....then switched to a Mad Catz Fightpad.....Loved it......then started thinking about really putting some time in, so I went with the Tournament Ed. S stick, a beautiful piece of hardware, but at first i hated it. But after about of week in training with it, Im starting to see an improvment in my game, so it was definaltely the biggest learning curve, but seems to be worth it....
 
And speaking of blisters, my thumb was getting sore and just plain worn out after only a few online matches......with fightstick, i can play indefinately....

Goddamn we've had enough pad vs stick threads. 
 
Use whatever you want. 

Adon is difficult to use with a pad, or maybe I am just so not used to quarter circle motions at all.

Way better than a default 360 pad or stick in terms of directional control, 6 face buttons are pretty necessary for any kind of SF play.  Only moves I have problems with are 360s, but I'm not great at combos either, but that's user skill level.

People who are currently gaming with a stick, which are you finding to be the best option? TE stick, standard stick, maybe the Tekken 6 bundle stick? I'm not picking the game up until next week at the earliest, so I'm trying to solicit input before then.

I use one. I like it.

" @LordXavierBritish said:

"... and going from an analog stick, which at the very least captures some of the motion of a Fight Stick, to just a D-pad seems a little bit  counterintuitive. "

Even if you today are able to play the fighting games with analog today, that doesn't you anymore precision. Every fighting game out there still operate in 8 directions only. I would even suggest that analog is more in-precise, since the game has to interpret what your intention is, when holding a direction that falls in between the 8 viable ones. If your holding the stick in a north-north-eastern direction, the game has to somehow decide if your intension is to jump straight up or do a diagonal jump. With a digital pad and stick there really isn't any question. "

Heres the real question, whats the difference between the 2 main fight sticks? I am buying one in summer and would like to know what makes the TE one better.