SanguineScale

Thanks for the help Lumin. I'll start looking into Ragna's footsies and spacing more in depth. Nice combo vid btw.

Got a sort of lower level question regarding Ranga's approach in CS:EX. I've heard from a lot of people that Ragna's j.C is very good. I've seen videos of players getting jump-ins by first jump back once or twice and then instant air-dashing into the opponent leading with j.c. This is one of my few approaches, but I tend to muck it up, usually by missing the instant air-dash. I also feel I overuse jump-ins, particularly this one. Any advice on how often and in what manner to use instant air-dash into j.C? Also, my ground approaches vary depending on the matchup I'm facing, but usually boil down to either playing footsies with 5B or 2B, and in some situations, neither are applicable. I'm currently weighing the options of my other normals, and I was hoping for some pointers in that regard. Basically, my approach with Rags is garbage, which stinks because I see so many people play him offensively... I could be a patient Ragna if I wanted to be, and I did try that for a while, but being versed in a little offense couldn't hurt.

Wow thanks a lot for all your in depth help! Really means a lot. Looks like I've got a lot of work ahead of me as well. I'll be sure to hit up those Ragna forums for the combos in question. Appreciate the assistance guys. Now I've just gotta practice.... \\

So, recently I've been able to start nailing down certain Bnbs with Ragna, while in the matches (which blew me away at first to be honest, since I had completely sucked at replicating anything I did in challenge or training until just recently). I've got two or three under my belt, and am willing to learn many more, but a thought struck me as odd about all of this, and that is, what are the criteria for deciding what is a good or bad combo to use in certain situation? does it come down to character placements? meter remaining? Guard primers intact? Whether or not I've used my bursts? Because for some reason, deciding willy-nilly what combos to perform as I progress through the match doesn't sound at all like what I should be doing. I know this sounds like a character-specific question, but I'd really like some general know how on this topic before I specialize on my main. Really appreciate it.

This post helped me a lot lol. I've been trying to play blazblue seriously for a while now and i know ill lose tons now, since im trying to think about everything i do, but it'll pay off eventually. Its just gonna take a lot of work gotta go practice now :P

lovely.... just got the money together today too

man, gotta get a stick now..... just a little more time and money and i'll be there :P I seriously need to improve my game and I keep hearing this is a way to do it...

thanks ill give that a try

Also, now this explains why, in the tutorial, the game always harps on hitting with the very edge of every normal. It basically increases the possibility of avoiding unnecessary punishment in a situation where frame advantage lies out of your favor. lol it all makes sense now... :P Thanks man

wow that was actually really helpful..... btw i actually main Ragna, so this info truly does pertain to me and is quite insightful. I will be sure to take it with a grain of salt as you said, but I must start somewhere, and im sure there are much worse ways i could go about performing blockstrings. The way I see it, I have a number of options on ground mixups, as you have stated above. Special cancels are a possibility, as are gatlings into moves with positive frame advantages. My blockstring must end at some point however, and at that point it is advantageous to not leave your opponent too big of an opening to strike back. Certain specials are incredibly unsafe on block, but are not all bad so long as they are not routinely used. I've very often all around this site that mixups should keep the opponent guessing, and the blockstrings they stem from should reflect that fact. So I could go off of what you said, and end my blockstring a variety of ways: Dead Spike, Hell's Fang, an overhead, a low sweep, or even turn the blockstring into a two hit affair, switching from high, mid, and low periodically. Slowly, this is starting to make more and more sense. It seems I am learning :D Now its time for practice

ok well then i guess my next question is how do i find out what is a good blockstring? I have the challenge mode and this website for combos, which im guessing is another part of a good offense, so if something like that was around for blockstrings, that would be a great help. I notice stronger players online all the time fiercely mixing me up during matches and I want to learn how to start applying something like that in my game.

Alright I'm assuming that these two steps are where I'm at right now, but I seem to have somewhat skipped over three. I am in the process of committing certain bnbs to memory using training mode, usually the main ones featured on this site or in the challenges. From lurking around these forums, I've learned a lot about what universal offense is, but not exactly in what manner to implement it. I've heard the word "blockstring" a lot. I have a vague idea of what this is but if someone could clarify for me that would be a big help. I've noticed recently that I can pull off certain bnbs in matches by muscle memory, but I'm guessing that means nothing if I can't find the openings to land them, so universal offense seems like a huge step I need to start taking. Btw this step outline is really well-done imo. I can understand it and I really feel that this is how my learning process has been going so far. Hopefully with practice I'll be able to graduate on to bigger steps and start having some real fun with this game.