Introduction
A monk and yoga master from India who has served as a guide for countless suffering souls. Prefers to avoid conflict when possible, but his innate hatred of evil compels him to dispense stern justice.
Dhalsim is the archetypal normals zoner, a character who dominates the screen with incredibly long-range normals and a variety of projectiles. Dhalsim has the ability to stretch his limbs across huge portions of the screen, and is capable of covering entire lanes of movement, locking an opponent in place and checking their actions. Combined with his unorthodox movement, Dhalsim can be a difficult target to keep pinned down for long, and even more difficult to approach safely.
As a master of the art of yoga, Dhalsim is all about patient play and dedicated but rewarding moves. The key element of Dhalsim's kit is that many of his tools are very slow, but cash out for large reward if they land. For example, Dhalsim's 5HP, 5HK, and j.HP are slow to start up but deal great damage if they land and have exceptional reach. Dhalsim's jump might be slow, but it allows him a large amount of control over the screen thanks to his stellar air normals, and synergizes well with his divekick, Yoga Float and Yoga Teleport abilities. All of Dhalsim's crouching kicks slide him forward for dealing with opposing projectiles and other high attacks, and he has a good number of cancelable pokes that lead into respectable damage and okizeme. Overall, Dhalsim is very dominant at controlling the screen whether he's in the air or on the floor.
Dhalsim is also well known for his stellar setplay. If Dhalsim has gotten you blocking for long enough, he can set up for powerful mixup scenarios using Yoga Arch. The fireball launched from Yoga Arch controls a large portion of the screen and is difficult to deal with unless you spend resources, giving Dhalsim a way to funnel you into specific responses. Similarly, Dhalsim's reward once he's gotten a hit is fairly good. He does great damage and can often spend resources to set up for additional mixup scenarios to snowball his damage. His various Teleports also allow him to go on the offensive once he has an opponent afraid of his reach, opening them up for simple, yet devastating returns.
Dhalsim's largest weakness should be obvious - his speed. While a fair tradeoff for his reach, Dhalsim is undeniably one of the slowest characters in the game, both on the ground and in the air. He often requires additional setup to make situations like strike/throw possible where other characters can threaten it in basic pressure. His speed also makes him a prime target for aggressive characters, and he often has to fight hard to control neutral against them. Without a fully invulnerable reversal to bank on, Dhalsim often has to be very careful when he's in a pressure situation.
Overall, Dhalsim is a great character for those who have the patience and confidence to play him. If you like belligerent screen control combined with lots of reward for zen-like patience, begin your inner cultivation with Dhalsim.
Yoga!
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Classic & Modern Versions Comparison
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