Any tips on improving my defensive capabilities?

[TH3MlLKMAN]

I've spent so long memorizing combos that I've kind of forgotten to work on my defensive skill as well. A lot of good those combos do me when I'm the only one being hit lol.

I know I need to recognize other character's blockstrings, are there any tips for that? Also, is there any way to reliably instant block on a consistent basis and I'm awful with throw rejects, green and purple throws get me every time. Are there any other ways to get a basic understanding of these things besides just constantly practicing and drilling it into my head? What about my wake-ups? When should I roll or do a neutral wake-up? How soon can I block again and for how long am I vulnerable after each one?

Edited April 25, 2012 by TH3MlLKMAN

[Airk]

I've spent so long memorizing combos that I've kind of forgotten to work on my defensive skill as well. A lot of good those combos do me when I'm the only one being hit lol.

I know I need to recognize other character's blockstrings, are there any tips for that? Also, is there any way to reliably instant block on a consistent basis and I'm awful with throw rejects, green and purple throws get me every time. Are there any other ways to get a basic understanding of these things besides just constantly practicing and drilling it into my head? What about my wake-ups? When should I roll or do a neutral wake-up etc.?

That's a whole big pile of questions, and I'll try to go through them one at a time.

#1: Recognizing blockstrings - really, there are only two ways to do this, and they complement one another somewhat. The first method is to play a lot, record your matches, and then watch them with an eye on blockstrings. This will at least tell you what that particular opponent was using, and expose you to some of the common stuff. The other method is to go through the frame data on the wiki and look at the revolver action table at the bottom for each character. Note which moves cancel into which. This will help give you an idea of what the OPTIONS are. Combine these two pieces of info and you should be well on your way.

#2: The only way to "reliably" IB is to practice and be able to guess which moves your opponent will do next. It's easiest against predicable opponents, so if you see someone doing the same blockstring over and over, try to IB it - try to be aware of what your opponent is doing so you can beat it. Getting the timing for IBs down is really just practice though.

#3: The only way to block reliably is to know what your opponent might do and practice. Most practice will come from "real" matches, but there are a few other things you can do. First, you can practice against the CPU - set your training dummy to CPU and raise the AI level (or whatever it's called) to 100. Then just block everything you can and see how long you can last. The other way you can practice is to use the excellent recording feature in Extend - you can record up to four slots and have the game randomly play one back. So for example, you can record Ragna walking forward a moment then doing each of these:

5B>5C>2D

5B>5C>Gauntlet Hades

5B>5C>Gauntlet Hades > Late Followup

5B>5C>3C

Then play back, and Ragna will do one of those actions at random, and you have to block. (And in the case of Gauntlet Hades, punish correctly) You can obviously do more complicated stuff too - run in 2A, run in 6B, run in 2B, Run in throw, or some stuff with rapid cancels, or whatever. This is a very strong tool, and I recommend you use it.

#4: Throw escapes are 45% being ready and thinking "Okay, he's in a position now where he could throw me, so I have to be ready to tech!" and 45% just practicing to be able to hit the buttons quickly. You can get pretty good "reaction" teching practice against some of the AI opponents - Ai Taokaka loves to throw, and AI Jin does it a bit too. AI Ragna pretty much never does. So mess around with that. The other 50% is mostly just recognizing "Hey, my opponent is real close, he could theoretically throw"; The last 10% is just crazy reflexes that you build up over time teching lots of throws, but if you are ready and have practiced, you can tech 90% of stuff. (That said, you'll pretty much never be "ready" 100% of the time, but those are the breaks. Heh.)

#5: Wakeups - this is a big, complicated issue. The "short" version is that you should never roll backwards in the corner. (duh). You should only forward roll or quick getup in the corner if you have a really good reason or are willing to take a really big risk. Generally, you should neutral tech in the corner. Midscreen, you should make an informed decision about how to get up based on where your opponent is, whether you want to be close to them, how close you are to each corner, etc. It's generally "safe" to back roll midscreen except against certain setups (Tsubaki 3C oki, for example) but you may not want to move yourself closer to the corner, or you may want to close in on your opponent (if say, they are Lambda.). But the tldr version is: If in doubt, neutral tech. The information on the invulnerability and stuff can be found on the wiki again.

Also, I think at this point it would be smart for me to recommend the Beginner Mode show, done by our very own James Xie, which does an excellent job of explaining answers to a lot of these sorts of questions. You can find the archives on his twitch tv channel or on Youtube.. The first episode or two might be a little bit on the basic side (particularly "ep 0") but James is pretty amusing, and the later episodes get into all kinds of good, meaty stuff. Strongly recommended.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Airk

[excelence]

Probably will be related to throw escape later... but if you're just starting ... don't macros your Grab and Barrier block button, do them manually.

[TH3MlLKMAN]

That's a whole big pile of questions, and I'll try to go through them one at a time.

#1: Recognizing blockstrings - really, there are only two ways to do this, and they complement one another somewhat. The first method is to play a lot, record your matches, and then watch them with an eye on blockstrings. This will at least tell you what that particular opponent was using, and expose you to some of the common stuff. The other method is to go through the frame data on the wiki and look at the revolver action table at the bottom for each character. Note which moves cancel into which. This will help give you an idea of what the OPTIONS are. Combine these two pieces of info and you should be well on your way.

#2: The only way to "reliably" IB is to practice and be able to guess which moves your opponent will do next. It's easiest against predicable opponents, so if you see someone doing the same blockstring over and over, try to IB it - try to be aware of what your opponent is doing so you can beat it. Getting the timing for IBs down is really just practice though.

#3: The only way to block reliably is to know what your opponent might do and practice. Most practice will come from "real" matches, but there are a few other things you can do. First, you can practice against the CPU - set your training dummy to CPU and raise the AI level (or whatever it's called) to 100. Then just block everything you can and see how long you can last. The other way you can practice is to use the excellent recording feature in Extend - you can record up to four slots and have the game randomly play one back. So for example, you can record Ragna walking forward a moment then doing each of these:

5B>5C>2D

5B>5C>Gauntlet Hades

5B>5C>Gauntlet Hades > Late Followup

5B>5C>3C

Then play back, and Ragna will do one of those actions at random, and you have to block. (And in the case of Gauntlet Hades, punish correctly) You can obviously do more complicated stuff too - run in 2A, run in 6B, run in 2B, Run in throw, or some stuff with rapid cancels, or whatever. This is a very strong tool, and I recommend you use it.

#4: Throw escapes are 45% being ready and thinking "Okay, he's in a position now where he could throw me, so I have to be ready to tech!" and 45% just practicing to be able to hit the buttons quickly. You can get pretty good "reaction" teching practice against some of the AI opponents - Ai Taokaka loves to throw, and AI Jin does it a bit too. AI Ragna pretty much never does. So mess around with that. The other 50% is mostly just recognizing "Hey, my opponent is real close, he could theoretically throw"; The last 10% is just crazy reflexes that you build up over time teching lots of throws, but if you are ready and have practiced, you can tech 90% of stuff. (That said, you'll pretty much never be "ready" 100% of the time, but those are the breaks. Heh.)

#5: Wakeups - this is a big, complicated issue. The "short" version is that you should never roll backwards in the corner. (duh). You should only forward roll or quick getup in the corner if you have a really good reason or are willing to take a really big risk. Generally, you should neutral tech in the corner. Midscreen, you should make an informed decision about how to get up based on where your opponent is, whether you want to be close to them, how close you are to each corner, etc. It's generally "safe" to back roll midscreen except against certain setups (Tsubaki 3C oki, for example) but you may not want to move yourself closer to the corner, or you may want to close in on your opponent (if say, they are Lambda.). But the tldr version is: If in doubt, neutral tech. The information on the invulnerability and stuff can be found on the wiki again.

Also, I think at this point it would be smart for me to recommend the Beginner Mode show, done by our very own James Xie, which does an excellent job of explaining answers to a lot of these sorts of questions. You can find the archives on his twitch tv channel or on Youtube.. The first episode or two might be a little bit on the basic side (particularly "ep 0") but James is pretty amusing, and the later episodes get into all kinds of good, meaty stuff. Strongly recommended.

Thanks a lot! The other things will take a little while but they seem like great tips but I've been trying your advice on throw rejects and blocking mix ups and I've already seen a big improvement.

Also, sorry about the huge pile of questions. I didn't exactly realize just how many it was until you mentioned it and I read them all out lol.