Tekken 8: Best Poke Characters

Highlights

Poking in Tekken 8 is an effective strategy that gives players frame advantage and chip damage, allowing them to pressure opponents and win rounds.
Shaheen, Kuma/Panda, Jin, Jun, Law, Nina, Victor, Jack-8, Feng, and Hwoarang are fighters with excellent pokes that can be utilized to chip away at the enemy's health and control the match.
Each character has specific moves and tactics that players can use to poke, pressure, and create mix-up opportunities, making them formidable opponents in Tekken 8.

Poking is a tactic in Tekken 8 where players use their characters’ specific moves to tag opponents with attacks or combos that give them frame advantage, essentially keeping it their turn until their attack animations are done. These attacks usually have decent to great range to keep players safe from retaliation. In this game, they now add chip damage.

This strategy can be annoying, but it is effective. The following fighters have excellent pokes that players can utilize to pressure opponents by “death by a thousand cuts.” Chip away at the enemy's health until they succumb to the pressure and lose a round or the match.

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10 Shaheen

Stealth-Stepping Shenanigans

Shaheen's command attacks are great poke tools when facing enemies in neutral. These pokes include his df+1 as his main tool for poking enemies. Most of his pokes are mids, and while they can be easily blocked, they can condition enemies to forego blocking Shaheen’s mix-up attacks from uf+1. He can sneakily unleash these after his mid combo strings for good damage.

Some of Shaheen's moves also transition to his Stealth Step stance, which gives him the advantage on block. His 2,3 is one example. Press df after this string to get into Stealth Step, to access more of his damaging moves. Shaheen also has a couple of moves that delete recoverable health, like f,b2, which deals good damage when it hits.

9 Kuma / Panda

In Tekken, Bears Poke You

Pokes are deadly when fighters can do it from a good distance. Kuma and Panda can do just that. While considered as troll characters by most players, the bears have the longest-reaching jabs and pokes in Tekken 8.

The bears have the standard 1,2 jab combo and db2 that can reach and tag opponents from a surprising distance. New to Tekken 8, they now have chargeable attacks such as b,f2 and db1,2. These deal chip damage and also push enemies away when blocked.

8 Jin

Fundamentally Sound Fighter

As the game’s main protagonist, Jin has great overall mechanics, which includes his pokes. His jab has relatively good range for a non-bear character. His df1 is a good check after his electric attack, since it pushes back the opponent.

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Jin’s Demon’s Paw in Tekken 8 has gotten increased range, and is now a Heat Engager. This gives him even more poke pressure, allowing him to transition to a variety of combo strings that can chunk out tons off the opponent’s health bar if it hits. His f4 is also a good keep-away tool that is safe on block and can punish opponents. It also lets him transition to his Zen stance for some insane mix-ups.

7 Jun

Light Pillar Shenanigans

Jun is back as a playable character in Tekken 8. Now, she has new tools that help her cleanse opponents of their health bars in the form of her Light Pillar attacks. She has a lot of short combo strings that allow her to shoot a Light Pillar to chip away at her opponent and do good damage when they hit. However, this comes at the expense of incurring chip damage to herself.

Jun can counteract this self-inflicted chip damage by entering Heat. Once Heat is activated, she can spam her Light Pillar-powered strings to poke and pressure her opponent like her f,f1+2, without getting chip-damaged herself. Jun also has her Miare stance, which will let her heal recoverable health.

6 Law

Close-Quarters Poking Pressure

Marshall Law returns in Tekken 8, as do his quicker-than-a-hiccup pokes to keep his opponents back-pedaling and waiting for their turn. He has great jabs that help him steal his turn back, which can be stringed together for some added pressure. His strings also have a lot of mix-ups to keep opponents guessing.

2,2 is a great poke tool, since opponents need to block it mid. Adding another 2 can catch them off-guard and open them for combos. His 3,4 and f3,1 can be used to smoothly transition into his Dragon Sign Stance, which opens up tons of mix-up options.

5 Nina

Shifty Chip-Damage Dealer

The femme fatale is back, along with her highly elusive, yet demanding combo strings and command attacks. Her staple poke tools like 1,2 SS let her evade possible counterattacks from her initial jab string. Meanwhile, f2,2 can lead to an air juggle or keep away option, and her df1,2,1+2 or df1,2,4 allows her to push her opponent back to create space or wall carry.

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Nina has added new moves in Tekken 8 that give her excellent poke and pressure. In keeping with her assassin motif, Nina brandishes handguns to finish off some of her combo strings and Heat-empowered moves. That said, players need strong knowledge of her pokes and combo string paths to maximize her damage output.

4 Victor

Gun-Kata Ninja-Spy Tactics

Victor’s access to close-quarters combat weapons gives him good poking tools against opponents. Most of his pokes can be executed at decent ranges, keeping enemies from pressing buttons when they can’t reach Victor. Such moves include f1+2 and d2. When opponents get hit with d2, it forces them to crouch, allowing Victor to check them with his mid attacks like df2 and 1+2 for a great counter hit.

Victor can also close the distance with d1,1 which hits low, then mid and also jails the opponent. When he’s using the Perfumer stance, he can mix up opponents who try to steal their turn back while he’s performing his command attacks like b1. Alternatively, he can do some mind games with his crouch dash followed up with 1, 4 and his various while-standing strings.

3 Jack-8

Punch-Happy, Forceful Bully

At first glance, Jack-8 seems like a slow-moving brute, which is true to an extent. But offense-wise, Jack-8 has a speedy poke game. Most of his effective pokes come in fast. For example, there's db1, 2,1, to which he can add another 2 for a quick launcher against players who want to take back their turn. His db2 is another good low poke that can be charged to extend its range.

Most of Jack-8’s jabs give him frame advantage, and if they are blocked, his basic 2 and f2 can push enemies back. His f2 can even be used as a counter hit, which is useful when trying to pin down opponents near a wall. His Heat Engagers in b2 and b1+2 are deceptively quick and have good range, since Jack-8's big arms provide great reach.

2 Feng

Aggressive, Evasive Kung-Fu Master

Feng's move list is as versatile as it is complex. His 1,1 is a high-mid poke string, which is useful against players who tend to duck under high jabs. This string can counter-hit on the second 1, and Feng can unleash a slew of combos if he tags his opponent.

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His df1 resets the fight to neutral if the opponent blocks it. And if they try to take advantage with a jab of their own, Feng can use b1 which trades, but he regains control of the neutral and knocks them down. Feng also has evasive pokes like uf2: he sidesteps while making a deceptively quick jab that can punish opponents who try to strike back. From there, Feng can go to town with punishing combo strings. More aggressive Feng players can also go for f,f3. This strong gap-closing mid is plus on block, and can set up their stances for mix-up mind games.

1 Hwoarang

Relentless, Blizzard-Kicking Menace

Hwoarang is a rush down machine who can overwhelm his opponent with combo strings that can easily whittle down their health if they don’t block. As far as pokes, Hwoarang has access to a plethora of moves, depending on which stance he is using. Stance Switch Right gives him a strong 10-frame jab that most characters can’t interrupt. Once he gets up-close and personal, the numerous flowcharts for his kick combinations are up for the player to memorize and unleash.

When it comes to kick pokes, his various stances can condition his opponent to turtle, since his attacks come quickly and in bunches. This becomes even more oppressive when he activates his Heat. Hwoarang's combo strings deal tremendous chip damage while maintaining his frame advantage. In most cases, players need to decide if they want to gamble and steal their turn back from a rampaging Hwoarang, with him usually on the winning end.