Why does Ryu's standing EX.Tatsu -> Ultra 1 (in corner) do more damage then Ryu's jumping EX.Tatsu -> Ultra 1 (in corner)?
Here is what I found:
standing EX.Tatsu -> Ultra 1
- EX.Tatsu without Ultra does 160 damage in 5 hits.
- whole combo does 458 damage
jumping EX.Tatsu -> Ultra 1
- jumping EX.Tatsu without Ulta does 200 damage in 5 hits.
- whole combo des 362 damage
Theoretically the jumping Tatsu has more base damage and it should be better then the standing one especially in combos. It cannot depend on damage reduction on hit as both Tatsu hit 5 times.
Best Answer
The Ultra must not be hitting for all 8 hits.
This possibly may be because the hits in jumping EX Tatsu count as juggle hits and there's a limit on how many hits can juggle in a combo. Metsu Hadouken has a juggling potential of 8, of which 4 are used for the last 4 hits on the jumping EX Tatsu, and the other 4 are used for the first 4 hits of the Ultra. That's why the last 4 hits whiff.
Standing EX Tatsu must not juggle the opponent until it launches them on the last hit. So the juggle counter only starts on the first hit of the Ultra.
This link has an explanation of juggling as it works on the SF4 engine.