Luminos564

For the DPs, I figured out what is the "most likely" reason: its because instead of inputting the 3, I seem to be constantly inputting the 6 instead. Happens a lot since bot Makoto and Mu-12 go into their 6C motions often when I do it. Probably because I'm still not used to the feel of the stick. As for the mashing, I only really do it on 2 separate instances. One is when I am being comboed to death and am trying to mash out of it if a Burst in unavailable. The other time is when doing the Challenge Mode combos (though that's slowly getting better). The reason I go through the Challenge Mode (missions 1~3 mostly) is to get better understanding of timing, but that's still not up there as sometimes I really need to mash in order to make it in time before the AI recovers. Is feeling adrenaline such a bad thing though? I mean for the most part I try to be as calm as possible and go through the motions, but every once in a while, I get a sudden rush in my gut. I dunno. I posted here because I was under the impression all gameplay discussion was to be under this category.

Glad to hear it . Its all about biting the bullet I think. Can't get better without getting pounded to the ground for about a 1000 times and getting back up each time for more. Or at least, I like to think that way.

^Oh trust me, no matter how hard I lose or get owned, these days I just don't care and it doesn't deter me from wanting to get better. I used to get pissed off playing Ranked around 6 months ago, always caring about my PSR, win ratio and the like. However, that was taking its toll on my life so I stopped playing it altogether and I realised how stupid I was. Haven't touched it since and I stick to Player Matches now. I do want to be better at the game, but above all else I want to have fun with it. And while there is some frustration in regards to my progress, I will not be discouraged by it.

To be honest, I have tried the other grips before and none felt as "comfortable" as the wine glass did. In addition, it was the only one which I could, for the lack of a better word, believe wasn't damaging the stick itself (like the Grip of Doom for instance). But perhaps I should give it another go. I had already outfitted my standard Arcade Pro 3 with the Sanwa screw-in buttons and while I was at it, I ordered a replacement Sanwa stick just in case I broke the first one.

Quite. Prior to the week and a half break, I was practicing every day for about 2 hours. Movement, DPs and at least 1 standard BnB. Perhaps I'll make sure to shorten the breaks in between practice to make it stick quicker.

Ok, its been a while and I thought to share some of my experiences after buckling down and seriously trying to learn how to play using an arcade stick, as well as my (planned) main and sub. I took the advice of the people here and after a few days of working hard at it, I took a break by playing some other games for a week and a half. Got back into it today and this is what I found so far for myself. Stick in general: -Blocking and Barrier Blocks have become easier. I can now block people's attack strings much more precisely, sometimes even better than when I used the D-pad. -Dashing is still inconsistent, but its better than before when I couldn't even chase down someone constantly backing away. -DPs (623) still needs a lot of work. I either cannot activate them when I'm under pressure or they come out when I do not want them too. I must need to get confortble with the motion still. -Throws and escaping them has become better, but not consistent. Still better than on D-pad though. -Cancels (Jump, Dash and Rapid) all need improvement. Makoto: -Had the longest trouble with executing her 214A motion of all things. It was weird since I could do 214B no problem. Even weirder, against an opponent, 214A isn't a problem but if I practice it by itself, I usually just get a 5A. -Still cannot do her basic tricks, but 5B>5CC>6B>5D isn't an issue. Better to know one than none I guess. -Execution needs a lot of work, but that will come with experience I hope. -One weird thing that I noticed, is that as soon as I begin to land combos with her, my adrenaline kicks in and I really get into the match. A person who was owning me just rounds prior, is now making mistakes and I'm punishing it, forcing them to step it up lest I start crushing them. I guess momentum is what's helping me in this circumstance. Now I need to learn to do that all the time, not just after losing 7 straight times in a row. Mu-12: -Oddly, Mu-12 feels "natural" for me to use with a stick than on D-pad. Its just...I dunno "comfortable" and somehow "makes sense" if that means anything to anyone. -Her DP still needs work, but that's a given since the statement above. -I'm finding I can use her basic 5C>2C>6C much better now and my pressure has improved, tough its still hardly threatening. -However, I seem to be constantly throwing out 6C when I was looking for 3C. Its costing me a lot of health. -I keep auto-piloting her drive, positioning the turrets just about anywhere. I need to learn to stop that and soon. All in all, its not a hell of a lot of improvement but its getting there, if only by an inch. Just gotta practice even more.

That would be nice. Though I only have a wireless connection and most of the time, I get 0-bars. But if you're fine with that I'd be more than happy to play against you .

I agree MAdBater. I wasn't considering practicing multiple characters at a time. Learning to main Makoto and adjusting that knowledge to a stick is going to be plenty for now. No reason to overload myself with work that will never get finished and only leave me frustrated beyond belief. At least now I got something of a goal to work on whereas before I wasn't sure what to do.

@Blade: I see. The unfortunate thing is that I do not have that many friends (online or offline) that I am able to do that with. But I know of 2 that I see on a semi-regular basis so I think I can ask them if the need arises. However, the rest of the points you mentioned, I can certainly do. I already watch a lot of replays and other videos of better players than myself so that's no problem. I suppose the 1st thing I'm gonna have to do when I get the chance is go to training and pick 1 combo (a simple one, nothing too fancy) and practice it until its part of my muscle memory. Then see if I can land it consistently against the A.I and then later apply it against someone online if possible. Rinse and repet until it feels natural then for the characters I have in mind.

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm gonna have to do. However, that will take time. I've spent some 1000 matches with Haku-men (playing as badly as I described earlier in every single one of them) so the only solution is to play the other characters enough that those habits disappear. But I should be careful shouldn't I? Eliminating bad habits is the desired outcome but its possible that instead of eliminating bad habits, I instead replace them with new ones. So perhaps you could tell me, what sort of "good" habits do I need to develop and how? I'm more than willing to practice for hours on end with the stick I bought, with the characters I've chosen but it would be fruitless if I'm not practicing the right way. I don't mean practicing character playstyles (that should ultimately fall on my preference and skill) but just general approaches to matches, regardless of the character in question. **BTW, this is a bit off topic but that's a damn good avatar Blade. Its like if Haku-men merged with Bahamut (FFXIII).**

Well, when I said "autopiloting", I meant it in a bad way for me. When I was using Haku-men in CS1, I was very fond of using 3C>3C. It worked miraculously well against certain people. I was also constantly using JC to send the opponents flying back, but I'd never chase them down or capitalize on their mistakes. And that was the extent of my attack plan: -Are they standing on the ground? 3C. -Are they dashing in the air? JC. -Are they attacking me on the ground from far away? 4C or 5D. That was (and still is) all I knew how to do. And since I never bothered to use other characters while playing either CT or CS1, my mind and tactics have been stuck in Haku-men mode without being able to switch it off. Sure, I can win this way and I do throw out his specials once in a while, but generally the above 3 things are all I can do. Its gotten to the point where this is nearly barring me from learning other fun characters. Trust me, I wouldn't make the decision to drop my long-time favorite character without a good reason. And I am a firm believer that just knowing how to do combos do not make you a good player. There is much more to it than that. But if using Haku-men this way has caused me to be stuck in this sort of rut, then I need to make changes and the 1st step is to start over from scratch.

I don't want to sound like I'm insulting your intelligence, but how would you use the wrist to make the motions? Perhaps I've been using it but I cannot be certain since this is the 1st time I ever attempted to use a stick (afraid I never spent my childhood near the arcades). As for the dashes themselves, the only time I've gotten them down when I wanted was then I held the 2nd input of either 44/66 for a brief second. But that kills my timing (what little I have). I see. I was always looking at the combos as a whole rather than in parts. Would explain why I never got past the 1st 4~5 commands of the sequence before I started mucking things up like usual. And once again, I'm the fool that didn't use Training mode and instead just jumped into the fray of online play and Challenge mode. Quick question though: would you recommend I focus on the characters I want to use regularly (in this case Makoto, Mu-12 and maybe Lambda-11) and generally have fun with, or should I pick a character like Ragna who was designed to bring new players in and get them used to the system, in order to get the timing and execution down?

Duly noted. I haven't played the game for the last 2 days due to Challenge Mode frustrating me and my own inability to do them. But I figured I can't sit around doing nothing and since I cannot seem to make progress on my own, I needed to ask for help from others. Now, to avoid making a giant wall-o'-text, I won't be quoting Tempest Dahlia or MAdBater. @Tempest Dahlia: Shows just how much of a scrub I am since I never set Training mode dummies to block on random. I'll admit that I didn't even know what hit-confirming is until I looked up the term myself and MAdBater explained it. Sad thing is that I know Training mode is invaluable but all I ever used it for is learning to D-counter the various characters on Hell difficulty with Haku-men. Got none to blame other than myself for that. @MAdBater: Oh I am more than willing to use a stick. I wouldn't have bought one if I wasn't making plans to use it. But the month I spent practicing it, all it amounted to was me getting used to the Type-B button layout. Still can't dash when I want to and do 623 motions consistently, while the rest of the motions I sometimes do either too fast resulting in the character jumping or miss some so the move fails outright. But you're right on the money with the "inexperience" and "execution" as my problems. I can do some simple stuff like Ragna's 5B>5C>214A>214D, but if you asked me to add 6A after the 5C and do his JC>JD>Air214C variants, I'd freeze even though the combo looks so simple in theory. In addition, when using the stick, my right hand is very "slow". What I mean by that is that it takes a lot longer for my brain to send the signal to press the button as opposed to the controller. Guess I'll need to up the hours when I come back to Training mode. You mentioned practicing timing for the combos. Now I know Challenge mode has some BnBs for the characters but the timing for combos has been one of the things I never learned. How would you suggest I prepare myself for that? Should I try to conquer Challenge mode's strict timing or is there a way to do it more gradually?

Oh believe me, I don't frequent BB's online portion often. In general, I wouldn't even touch it if it weren't for the fact that none of my IRL buddies play the game (they're not into it like MvC3 and MK9) and I like to play against someone once in a while. The odd thing is, I can understand what people say about characters (combos and strategy)...on paper that is. I can understand that Makoto can do a combo that looks something like this (5B>5C~C>6B>5C>5D[lv.3]>2D[Lv.3]>jD[lv.3]) and I can understand how its supposed to look like. But when it comes to the actual implementation of it, be it in practice mode or against the COM/another player, all that knowledge seems to disappear from me. I do take breaks from the game, usually to play the games I've been negecting, but when I come back to BB, I forget how to do things again and have to begin from scratch.

Ok, so recently I made the decision to stop playing like an utter scrub and devote as much of my time as I can to learn how to play Blazblue "properly". In my case, to stop playing Haku-men autopilot and to utilise the system. So I dropped Haku-men and decided that I want to learn Makoto (as my main) and have Mu-12 (sub), while keeping Lambda-11 in reserve in case neither work out for me. Even bought a stick since the d-pad started causing my left thumb to seize up in intense matches. However, things are not going well. I did not expect things to get better quick but after a month of practice on Makoto (the latter 2 are recent decisions), things are not improving in the slightest and I keep falling back to bad habits that I picked up over my years playing: -Mashing buttons. -Falling for the same trick over and over again. -Using the d-pad even though I told myself not to. ...and so on. In the end it dawned on me; why was I attempting to learn combos and match-ups when I never learned the fundementals of fighting games? I've never played them on a "professional" (always just for the fun of it), so I never learned any of the fundementals that are associated with them. Stuff like oki, hit-confirm, heck I don't even know how to read frame data. So I was wondering if anyone here has some advice for me in order for me to be a better player and remove these bad habits. What should I learn and where to start? I don't need to be a pro, but I truly want to better myself for future fighting games that I plan on playing. Thank you in advance.