Airk

I don't think looking up combos vs figuring them out yourself makes any difference, other than you probably ending up with sub-optimal combos. If you are finding stuff too executionally challenging, ask in your character forum if there are easier combos off of <starter>.

Just FYI, feel free to hit me up; If I'm online on the PS3, it's probably because of BB.

Oaky; Who's in for Tuesday?

Yeah; Sadly the answer to this is mostly just "play more" but it CAN help to play the CPU on max difficulty because it's a lower pressure environment and helps you learn to take those combos you've been practicing in training mode and use them on an opponent that is moving around and hitting you.

There are a couple of things you can do here. This is all from a BB perspective because that is what I play. #1: You can lean heavily on system tools - barrier gauge and counter assault in BB. These can get you out of pressure when used judiciously. #2: You can record strings from different characters and use the random playback tool to help learn to block them. (Record Ragna doing 5B > 2B > 6B, 5B > 2B > 2D, 5B > Gauntlet Hades and 5B > 2B > Run up throw, set playback on random, and just try to defend.) The problem with this method is it's really REALLY HARD (at least for me) to program the dummy to do all this stuff with the exact same timing, so I find myself reacting to the tiny pauses at different points in the string rather than the moves themselves. #3: You can practice this by setting the CPU on 100% and just blocking. The problem with this approach is that the CPU will still sometimes do some really dumb stuff - repeatedly - and often won't use the patterns real players would. On the upside, you really will learn what most of your opponent's moves look like here, so you'll be able to block better. #4: You can just play a lot and try to be more patient.

You could make an argument for Carl in S, but I haven't seen any super convincing Carl play myself, so it's all theoretical for me. Carl might be Stealth S. Uh. The leftmost column is the moving you are cancelling out of. The next three columns are which A moves, B moves, and C (Respectively) moves you cancel into. There's some color coding but it's mostly straightforward - and labelled at the bottom of the section.

Okay; Enough of this nonsense. It is time for my definitive tier list. No sorting within tiers (Actually, there is, it's alphabetical). S: Azrael, Kokonoe, Litchi A: Carl, Hakumen, Hazama,Jin,Mu,Rachel,Relius,Tao,Valk B: Everyone else B-: Makoto (I remain unconvinced she is THAT much worse than the other indifferent tier characters in the game. Actually, I think there's a stronger argument for moving a couple of other characters out of B and down into B- than there is for moving Makoto lower, but YMMV.) Tier List discussions may now be officially closed, especially if they involve links to gamefaqs. :P

Meh; I disagree with lumping "everyone else" together into A tier. I refuse to believe that, say, Hakumen and Tsubaki are in the same tier. So otherwise, all it does is call out the obvious outliers. Whoopee.

Please stop making the incorrect correlation between "characters having the same power level" and "characters having the same strengths and weaknesses"; They are not equivalent. Tager, Rachel and Tsubaki all sucked in CS1. They did not have the same strengths and weaknesses. Your point is invalid. Have a nice day.

25 frame fireball for plus a little is not comparable to a 19 frame startup +1 move, IMHO. Would be really nice together with special cancellable 6C. I mean, the fireball is great for other stuff, but for this particular situation, it's not a substitute.

Sounds like your PS3 stick is...er...sticky. Not sure if there's much to be done about that though. You probably just got a bad one - this is one of the perils of 'bargain' sticks. I will let others talk about the PS4, because I haven't been following that, but most sticks that work on the PS3 will work on PC.

I think I was running on some sort of post-evo boost or something; I NEVER block like that. :P

Apologies to the Bullet I fought last night if my leaving after the first match I won made you salty. True facts: The first 5 games were NOT being played seriously: DP on wakeup EVERY TIME from me! It still took me a couple to get an honest win once I started trying though. Good games!

I don't think I'm going to have time tonight. Next week should be a go though.

You can probably test using Tsubaki since most air throws have 3F of landing recovery. So like, j.D > Air throw? Might be a little tricky to test 3F vs 9 frames, but I have confidence in you guys.

She's 'easy' for beginners because you can mash followup attacks and get easy hitconfirms and more time to realize you're doing a combo, assuming 5BB doesn't whiff, anyway. I agree that her drive is practically a handicap though, since her damage with stock is basically the same sort of damage everyone else gets by default without having to spend any magical banana points. I _REALLY_ miss 22A and 22C. There were meaningful differences there and they should be brought back. Especially if we go back to 22C being +1. (If Hazama's F-ing Jabaki can be +1, 22C can be, damnit.) I don't think she's actually that easy to learn once you get past the very beginning sort of stuff. Her mid-tier combos are fairly execution heavy, and playing neutral and applying pressure beyond the most basic levels are not easy either. I guess she's "super easy" to learn in that her basic combos are super easy and she doesn't have any nonstandard movement. :P

The wiki is a pretty decent reference for this, though honestly, you could do worse than just going to challenge mode for a little bit and doing some of the earlier combo challenges. I wouldn't necessarily worry about a combo first though. Also, the suggestion that he "work on is learning key fundamental concepts of fighting games like footsies and spacing" is terrible, simply because it doesn't give him any information on what he should actually do. Here's a hint. You CAN'T "work on this"; This is just something that you learn by doing. So here is my super beginner guide to getting started with Blazblue: #0: Choose a character. It doesn't matter who, just pick one you like. You have chosen Mu. This is a good choice. (All characters are good choice, except Makoto. :P) #1: Drop into training mode and practice your character's moves - just stuff like 236A, 214D, etc. (Uh. If you don't read numeric notation, here is a guide). Mu has a couple that are a little bit tricky, but you need to be able to do all her specials at least 75% of the time. #2: Pay a visit to your character's Tutorial. It'll give you a quick rundown of a few useful tips. #3: Play against the CPU for a while. Learn how your normal moves and special moves WORK. Don't worry about what combos into what, just worry about stuff like "If the opponent is a ways away from me, use 5C. If they are jumping in, use 2C, I can do mixup with 2B and 6B." #4: NOW learn one combo. For Mu, something like 2B > 2C > 5C > Sword of Destruction. (Disclaimer: I don't play Mu, this combo may be a bad choice. Ideally you probably want something off 5C, but I dunno what the options are there). Do it in training mode until you can hit it at LEAST 50% of the time. #5: Play against the CPU some more. Practice actually doing your combo when you hit the appropriate move. You will fail a lot. Get used to it. #6: Get in there and play some real people. You'll lose a lot, but you'll learn. #7: Watch your replays and try to figure out what you're doing wrong. Also, try to identify a situation in which you don't "have a combo" (i.e. "I hit with 2C anti air, but didn't know what to do next"). Go back to step 4 and learn a combo for that situation. Repeat steps 4-7 until infinity, pretty much. At any time in this process, you should feel free to play against real people, but you probably want to get to at least step 3 first. Whatever you do, do NOT worry about "learning key fundamental concepts of fighting games like footsies and spacing" because you will be doing that organically as you play and analyze your replays to find your mistakes (DO NOT skip the "watch your replays and figure out what you did wrong" step.).

Yeah; I feel like I lose the air battle when I try to jump over the 4 winds, but I'll see what I can do; Thanks, that's a very helpful breakdown of their options.

Yeah, but it's way more fun to Astral through it. :P

Certainly _I_ can't handle one. :P I'm not even sure I'm prepared to deal with another POSTPATCH Kokonoe. :P

Switching characters is never the answer to "I am doing badly with this character." If anything, it makes it worse. You should switch characters only if for some reason, you feel you have hit some sort of barrier in execution ("I just can't do IAD combos!") or you realize you would prefer a different playstyle - but understand that there will be a nontrivial period of time when switching characters will cause you to lose MORE.

A whole 4 frames of landing recovery. Not sure that really qualifies when they're across the screen. And usually I'm not blocking j.D, it's hitting the ground in front of me because they are jumping back. The problem isn't so much "Help, I am being locked down" so much as "help, I can't figure out how to approach around this."

okay, so WTF do I do against a Litchi who does jumpback > j.D > Four Winds over and over? If I try to approach when they jump back, I get hit by jump D. If I block j.D I get locked down by four winds and they can do whatever. If I don't block it, they can still do it and it fills up a ton of space and gives them a free approach.

keen, thanks!

Hrm. So it looks (Corner) 5CC > 22D > 6C > CT > 5C > 2CC > 236C > 5C > 2C > 236B > 214B > 22B doesn't work on Carl? 236C just doesn't hit him.