Go'day, how you do? This is me sending a smile to you~

Ok, so recently I've been getting really serious about Tekken, I'm trying to learn each character and pick a main later on so my defence won't be horrible against whoever I would match up against. Right now I can fairly say I'm good with Lee, not tourney good, but I have some mixups that seem to work, and fairly consistent combos(Juggles) with ok OKI mixups and so-so poking/punishment play.

So I know the basics, However my real issue is: timing, precision and movement. I know them in my head, but not on my thumb.
The brain works faster than my thumb can react, it's really...lame. I get abit worn on my thumb aswell from the pad, sometimes I can't even do a CD on DJ and Hei, but a EWGF I can manage 5/10 times, Kaz 9/10 I would say. (Bcos of Mist step)

I've been trying to nail Kaz's CH d/f+2~EWGF for a full launch with a pad, but it's not do-able for me. So I wonder if any pad player have actually mastered or is fairly consistent with this move.

And to stick players, well.. I just want to know, did you always use a stick? Or did you make a switch from pad to Stick? Is it OK to learn in a matter of weeks/months? I just wanna learn how you play with a stick, I've never used one! I just touched one.

I know I prob have to look elsewhere for more input on this, but I just thought I'd give it a try on the Giantbomb forums, cuz this is the best site after all to look for games, read gaming news, listen to podcast and read forum posts.

So with that, I hope anybody have any input, I'd love to hear from both pad and stick players, as I'm losing confident with the pad. Peace out!

I personally use a stick, but it wasn't easy to transition. I first used a stick in February of last year when Tekken 6 just hit arcades. I forced myself to learn to use it, because I really didn't want to wait until god knows when Tekken 6 would come out (which we now know was a good decision, because its only hitting the PS3 in Fall). It took a while, I'll be honest. Especially because I'm a Mishima player, and doing CD's, letalone wavedashing and whatnot on the stick was impossible at first. But after some practice, eventually it just clicked and I got better and better.

As for the problems your having, I can safely say that 95% of players go through what you go through. You just need more practice. It took me a while before I could do the EWGF, I just didn't get it. Now I have no problem busting them out. I'll give you a hint though, with the EWGF, its not how fast you can do the CD motion its how small the gap is between the CD and the pressing of the 2 button (triangle button for pad players). As for the CH d/f+2 EWGF launch, thats a tricky one. For the life of me, I can't do it. I'm still working on doing 5 EWGF's (I can do 4), then I'll work on that one.

So to answer your question, I use stick and, after jumping over some hurdles, I find it much more comfortable and easier to play with. And again, don't worry about your problems, you just need to play more and they'll fix themselves.

Thank you DeeJay for your reply! It's nice knowing there are some Tekken players on Giantbomb aswell!

as for the EWGF, Yeah I know it's the gap between CD and 2, usually i just hit 2 right before I hit d/f, seems to work, but sometimes I can't even get a CD after a lil sourness on the thumb(hei and dj only), not hitting 2 too early either. Yeah-- I can pull moves, just can't seem to do them at the right moment at times,
 But I can't shake the feeling that my movements are somewhat limited on pad than on stick, it's obvious the wrist is faster than the thumb, but whoa, saw some vids on youtube, those backdash~cancel guys are crazy fast when they need space. Oh and dash jabs... can't do them in juggles, no way. Lee's mistep for the win.

But what helped me most in your post is your transition to arcade stick, I think I will go over to it, I have time, I'm 19, even though there aren't any Tekken 6 Arcades I know of here(Norway, Oslo).
I believe with dedication I could probaly do fine with it, I mean, I have touched one. I'm not struggling to become the best ever in my country or something absurd, but I want to have some game, so that I am a competition and not just a scrub player.

I've played every tekken cept the one on GBA, since I was a kid, I played the shit out of TekkenTag, probaly my favourite. But I didn't know a thing about juggling, frames, oki etc, didn't learn a juggle til T5, then I just stopped playing(consumed by WoW). And picked up T5DR on PSN in november of last year. So I've only played for some months, learning the characters again, new moves, trying to figure all this frame stuff everyones going nuts about too. Frametrap-what now?

In conclusion, I'm gonna get Arcade stick, I'm gonna practice with it, I'm gonna beat all my friends, which btw I'm doing, And I'm gonna beat people online, damn the lag and the kickers! and I'm gonna get good at it! ...so any suggestions to what stick to get? Hori? Or steal my friends offical namco stick? the one I touched... or maybe just wait for the street fighter 4 one... but that's street fighter... anyways, thanks.

Haven't properly played a Tekken game since 3 but PS1 pad seemed fine back then.

Hope this helps.

I would always use a stick for like Soul Calibur/Street Fighter, but for Tekken, I got so used to the controls on the dualshocks that I don't think I would choose to use a stick on that game ever, maybe try it out sometime, but definitely use the controller for Tekken.

But what helped me most in your post is your transition to arcade stick, I think I will go over to it, I have time, I'm 19, even though there aren't any Tekken 6 Arcades I know of here(Norway, Oslo).
I believe with dedication I could probaly do fine with it, I mean, I have touched one. I'm not struggling to become the best ever in my country or something absurd, but I want to have some game, so that I am a competition and not just a scrub player.

In conclusion, I'm gonna get Arcade stick, I'm gonna practice with it, I'm gonna beat all my friends, which btw I'm doing, And I'm gonna beat people online, damn the lag and the kickers! and I'm gonna get good at it! ...so any suggestions to what stick to get? Hori? Or steal my friends offical namco stick? the one I touched... or maybe just wait for the street fighter 4 one... but that's street fighter... anyways, thanks."

Thanks for your input guys.

I've never even thought of playing Street Fighter with Arcade Stick, just can't see how it would be better playing with then a pad in a 2D fighter, but I'm gonna try when SF4 hits the shelf.
I played Soul Calibur 4 on Xbox360...yeah 360, never doing that again. It was fun casually and noobly with some friends, but once I tried going abit deeper in it, hells no. And I also found out Soul Calibur isn't really for me, I was fortunate to meet a couple of great players, friendly too, beat the living shit out of me with amazing super powers beyond my wildest imagination. I won one round, not the match, when I caught this guy off guard by using a custom char named Hard Gay(A Japanese Comedian that they seemed to know about, hoo~!) with that ring girl style bashing buttons randomly... Until... he stripped me of my funny hat and procceded to beat me so damn hard my Xbox threw up a little.

Back to Tekken: Recently I've been playing alot of Anna, so much fun... after I watched an old vid of Korea x Japan, Japan was dominating until they met... 200won. What an incredible Anna player, I just had to try some of her stuff out, and I liked it, so I did some practice and now I'm so comfortable using her above Lee or any other. I always go on youtube and watch some matches for characters I like, seeing how they play is very interesting and sometimes amazing, but I am aware that playing at that level is completely different from when I'm playing my friends or even going online.

There is some good competition here in Norway actually, there are some very good players here and they do have their own small community of fighting games.
Tekken is pretty popular among them, but I don't think there are that many tourney level, about 20+ maybe, I'm not too familiar with their community just yet, but I do know that most of them, if not all, don't use the d-pad, they use arcade stick.

Thanks for your link DeeJay, and especially for your inputs on arcade sticks, I have done some research and found various opinions, but the hori seems popular and maybe it'll be one I choose to go with. Money... I don't want to say it's not an issue, I'm not rich or anything but I do ahve some cash left from christmas that can get me a nice stick as I do want a decent stick for me to start practice and learn on, hopefully also one that won't break on me.

Most of my troubles, yeah they are largely due to my inexperience as a tekken player, I haven't played for that long consistently enough, I'm starting to pick things up as I try to learn each character, some moves, some combos, if I can do them at all to begin with. I lack practice, probaly alot, but I'm learning, and I don't wanna stop, I'm enjoying Tekken more than ever actually and I feel like I have the mentality to play fighting games, it's my favourite genre.

I'm still practicing and playing Tekken online even though there is lag, I want some match experience, and once in awhile I do meet a good player.
But aside from that, the main reason I brought this up is, if any inexperienced Tekken players, but with ambition, such as myself, want to know what's really the best way to play Tekken with, The Directional Pad, or The Arcade Stick. I realize it's also a prefference matter, but in a way, I do feel abit limited with a pad in both movement and move input.

I've googled the topic stick vs pad quite alot and searched my way through forums, digging for more information, watch some tourny matches on youtube or even Tekken 6 matches, watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother(random~ but dude, that is a funny show), and turning on Tekken DR again spending atleast 3hours there playing and learning each day. 

As Tekken 6 BR comes closer each day to consoles, I get more excited for it, I'm hoping for a strong online community aswell, Good competition and friendly players willing to wing a noob once in awhile.
Speaking of Tekken 6, which I did post under for, seeing matches on GT or youtube, Juggling seems to be longer because of that extra bounce thing after an ender, but I also noticed Juggling is not as strong as it was? And what's that glowing thing that happends to a player if he has less than 10% health left? Anyone know?

Thanks.

Well, if money isn't a problem then I'd say go for the Street Fighter IV Tournament Edition Stick. As I said, its expensive as fuck, but it looks like such a great stick. I would definitely get it if I could afford it.

And yeah, juggling is substantially longer in Tekken 6 because of two things:
Bound and walls. Bound is when you do a certain move during a juggle and they'll land on the ground in a position that'll let you continue the juggle, for example with Lee, his staple juggle in Tekken 5 DR was launcher, 1,2f , 1,2,f, 1,2f, 3,4
Now its launcher, 1,2f 1,2f, f4,3 B! f+2,1 (f4,3 and f2,1 are both new moves by the way).

Also that glowy thing is called rage, when your opponent has less than 5 percent health they go into rage mode, wherein their attacks do about 30% more damage. But rage has been nerfed in Tekken 6 BR, it does less than an extra 30% now, not exactly sure how much though. As far as juggle damage being nerfed, no it hasnt in 6 but it has been nerfed in BR.

All of this talk of fighting games and their obsessive amount of acronyms is more than intimidating. If this is a good example of fighting game players then I am going to get my ass kicked in Street Fighter 4.

Thanks for the info DeeJay. Now I guess all I do is to wait for Street Fighter 4 to come so I can also get the arcade stick for it, I'm not sure if I go for the expensive one or the cheaper one, I have abseloutly no clue if I will feel a difference between them. I'm gonna try and start practicing with my friends old Namco Arcade stick, we don't have a converter though so it'll be just T5 on ps2, but hey, it's a start.

Street Fighter is a serie I've never been able to get myself into enough, just a few random casual matches, I can only play Ryu or Ken, but usually I just Jump, Strong Kick, into crouch, Strong Kick again lol... I'm terrible at SF but I'm hoping I can get abit better once it's out. I love Street Fighter too, just hadn't had the chance to play it enough to get serious, Tekken is the strong winner in my book.

I don't think this thread needs to go any further now, I've already recieved good words of wisdom from a player that used to play on pad but later learned to play stick. I couldn't ask for much more then that and I'm happy you took time to share your experience DeeJay. 

I hope once Tekken 6 BR comes closer The GiantBomb Community will also embrace it with open arms and have a kickass time with it!

As my parents always said:

By the way, I forgot to mention that in Tekken 6, walls are much much stickier, for example with Lee, his pre bound combo is six hits long...SIX

Six wall hits is impossible in DR but its pretty common in Tekken 6.

I've actually only played tekken on an arcade stick once in my whole life. So for me it's gamepad all the way.