flannelog

Zouf, that's interesting what you said about Millia! When I decided a character to practice in this game, I tried out a few moves on everybody to see how they felt, and that's how I decided on Millia. Usually I try not to let tiers influence which character I choose, because in games I've played in the past that has led to me having a bad time. League of Legends, for example, is a game that I stopped playing because once I adapted to the meta and started playing high-tier/fotm characters, the game got a lot more boring. When I had the most fun was when I was playing characters with fun or interesting mechanics. If any of you know enough about the game, characters like Veigar or Gragas have fallen in and out of the meta at times, but are consistently fun or interesting to play, so that's what I'd usually go for! And yeah, I was hoping it wasn't the case, but I figured that I wasn't being fast enough getting out low kicks after Tandem Top if the opponent could react in time. I could blame online latency since I seem to do well with it offline, but that's just an excuse. I should be able to adapt! I am glad, though, that it seems everyone's been getting on my case about throwing out 6HS in neutral. I mean it! Being new to fighting games, I didn't immediately have a grasp on when moves were effective, or why. That's something learning combos couldn't really teach me; I could get down the timings for all of the combos in challenge mode until I could do them over and over, but that leaves me with 0 information about neutral game. From my limited experience, I'd say the most important part is finding my way to actually getting to my combos. Otherwise I've got nothing!! Also, the thing about constantly staying in motion, I see what you mean! It's better to keep my opponent under pressure than to give them room to breathe. And this even goes back to the fact that I've put a lot of time into practicing combos! Even if I do manage to land something big, my followup can be pretty shaky, and that's something I really want to work on. The reason I'm standing still is because I'm usually thinking "OK, what next?" When in reality, I should already know what to do next without having to think about it. Considering Millia is such a fast-paced character, I think this could turn out to be a critical flaw in my play if I leave it unchecked, so I'm glad you brought it up!! And finally, I'll take your advice about training mode! I actually think one of the more fun things about this game is experimenting on my own. Though it has led to some flaws in my play (for example, overusing 6HS, haha), it has also led to me realizing some stuff about Millia that I think is much more rewarding than if I had just looked up all the combos online or something. So, maybe it's the novelty of it, but I don't think I'll be bored going into training mode! I'll get to practicing and hopefully see some results soon! Wish me luck! Oh yeah, as far as the language pack is concerned, I never bothered to change it, but I probably will change it to Japanese, haha. Surprisingly, I do like some of the English voices of the cast, but hearing some of the voices after awhile gets a little grating. I also think Millia's inflection is kind of weird at times, especially in her victory speeches... Oh well! gEasS, that's sorta what I expected! I actually had an opponent recently that, when I'd knock them down, would block/react against the last thing that I hit them with when they were on wakeup. That was one of the first times I felt like I was actually reading my opponent, haha, and it made me realize how playing a real person is so different from playing a computer. If they're cognizant of the game's mechanics, they try to adapt, and you can even use that to your advantage! So in that respect, if I can get good punishes off with my oki, that should really leave an imprint on my opponent, and like you said, they either have to go passive or lose! I'm super grateful that you've all sent me such detailed responses! I haven't been a part of this community for long but so far it's been wonderful! Thanks so much!

Thanks guys! I've been practicing these past couple days with what you have all said in mind, and it's making a big difference. I'm more confident in my in-game decisions, and I've noticed a few times now that defense has seemed a lot easier as long as I don't get too flustered or eager to spam. Viola, your advice in particular about using forward roll after tandem top has been a really useful tool. It almost always catches them off guard, and it gives me a lot of room for followups! One thing though that I think I still need to practice is getting a successful Tandem Top combo after I've knocked my opponent down. What I mean is, usually if I can get a knockdown (normally through either a grab or a low sweep/2D), I try 236H into 2K, and that's where the combo would start, but oftentimes people will wakeup with crouching jabs, and that stops my offense. So if I know they're going to wakeup with jabs once I throw down a Tandem Top, what's the optimal way to react? And am I just not being quick enough? I guess now that I've written it down and have taken the time to think about it, a good way that I think to react would be to throw down tandem top and then dust, or to tandem top and then j.236P to fake them out. That way later when I use Tandem Top on knockdown they won't be sure of my next move, and I can use that to my advantage with various mixups. And now I'm kind of getting into character-specific issues instead of game related stuff, so... if I have any questions about Millia after this, I'll go ahead and take to the Millia subforum. I think now, though, I have a firm enough grasp on the character where if I have an issue with something, I should be able to figure it out through experimenting. Thanks again everyone!

Hehe, alright, I'm making a concentrated effort to only use 6HS in situations where it makes sense. It's better to train myself to play without relying on it anyway, since in nearly every situation there is a better option than throwing out 6HS for no good reason. Also, I wasn't sure what you meant with -13, but I did look up Millia again on the wiki, and under 214P where it says -13, the column is Frame Advantage. So I'm assuming what that means is that after the move connects/is blocked, I have 13 frames of doing nothing. Though I could also see an argument for it actually being the amount of startup before the move is sent out? I guess maybe I need clarification on that, but either way, I get the idea that 214P both on startup and when it ends leaves plenty of room for the opponent to punish if I throw it out for no reason/overuse it. And yeah, I can understand what you mean by the timing thing. Oftentimes what gets me flustered is seeing so many moves coming at me at once, so trying to process the moment where I can act can trip me up. Though I'm sure keeping a cool head and simply being aware of what moves leave openings can change the situation I'm in, for the better. Thanks again for taking the time to respond!!

Thanks for the response!!! And yeah, though I've only played this game for a small amount of time, I have started to notice just how efficient low blocks are. Considering most overheads I've seen have a pretty large windup, I almost always have enough time to correct myself if I'm blocking low to begin with. Also, yeah, I've gotten a little too reliant on Forward+HS, haha. It became a bad habit once I realized most people around my skill level can't block it properly. The fact that it knocks down also made me like using it, though in a few matches this has already has come back to bite me; I'll use it, the person I am playing against anticipates it, and they get in close to me for free. And using the dagger to startup combos, it seems like that's what it's made for now that you mention it, but before then I never really thought about it! Then again, this goes back to the fact that I am overusing Forward+HS... Usually if I hit dagger I just go braindead and use Forward+HS without thinking, when meanwhile I could've been getting a lot more damage out of it this whole time. As for now, I'll try and practice blocking consistently, and try not to overload my head with too many strategies. Once I get a firm grasp on blocking consistently, that's when I'll feel comfortable with moving onto dead-angle, like you mentioned. Your post let me articulate my thoughts a little better, and gave me a really good understanding of not only what my shortcomings are, but how I can work on them. So thank you!

Alrighty, thank you both for your detailed replies, and willingness to help me out!! The responses to Sol's moves specifically were super helpful. I remember the guy I faced spamming fafnir, and now I'm almost embarrassed to see how easy it is to counter it, haha. And Marukujin, that's some valuable information! I think it's pretty interesting how you said that once you get in the corner, there's no guarantee you can get out of it. And it makes sense to me! If you've been pushed to the corner in the first place, that means you had to put yourself in that position one way or another, so being in the corner is in and of itself a form of being punished for your play. gEasS, like I said, that info on Sol's attacks is super helpful! And once I progress a bit, I'm gonna post in the Millia forum with some footage so that I can get some feedback. Also, helping me realize that I shouldn't try and find gaps with attacks is super helpful. Often what I'll do is spam attacks when I think there's a gap (which, in the footage I'm about to post, I'm pretty sure happens more than once), and then before my hurtbox can even come out, I just gave away any blocking potential and gave them a combo for free. I'll add you on Steam soon! And yes, all you have to do to spectate people in steam is to right-click them in your friends list and click "watch game." The quality of the stream is pretty good, too!! Anyway, here's a couple videos I recorded. First, one where things didn't go my way, and then one where they did. I'm pretty sure one thing in particular that I'm missing in my offensive game is using Tandem Top (236H/236S) whenever somebody is knocked down. I've read in a couple places that using the variations of it on wakeup is a good way to win a game off of 1 string. Of course, I don't think I'm anywhere near that level yet haha, but it's still something that is probably at the core of Millia's gameplay, so I should really condition myself into utilizing it. I also just realized I forgot to put the inputs on the side. Ugh. If you have any criticisms, even if it doesn't have to do with my defense, please let me know!! Thank you!

OK, so lately I've been interested in fighting games from a viewer standpoint (without having seriously played one before), and finally I decided to pick one up (Guilty Gear Xrd) when it released on Steam. I'm having a lot of fun with the game, and got so into it that I ordered a fairly inexpensive fightstick and have been practicing with it for a couple days. I'm familiar with some of the "terminology" of fighting games, like teching, mixups, wakeup, that sort of stuff (using numpad to describe inputs however, that's new to me haha), but there's a few mechanics to Guilty Gear in particular, and just things I didn't anticipate with fighting games in general because I've only watched them before, that I have some questions about. To preface, I've been playing as Millia pretty much exclusively, bar when the tutorial had me playing as Sol. I really like her speed, and though I could be way off the mark, I think her mechanics favor aggressive playstyles, which is what I very much prefer in any type of game. Also, don't know how pertinent this info is, but I've spent around 15-20 hours playing the game so far!! I practiced a good amount of the combos in Challenge mode and committed them to memory, as well as trying to improvise some stuff in training, to get a better understanding of Millia's moves. So with that being said, I'm pretty confident in my offensive play, but when I'm forced into defense the game gets a little more confusing to me. For starters, when I can successfully block, I still have trouble finding openings/escapes to switch back to offense. I guess an example would be, recently I played against a Sol that was very aggressive and I'd often be put in a corner. If I'd block his combo, he would immediately start up with another. I tried to anticipate this gap in-between combos by using low sweeps, or attacks that come out quicker, but the low sweeps would get punished by moves from Sol that come out faster, and the jabs have such small range/priority that they proved ineffectual as well. Even worse, I would telegraph to my opponent that I was content with only blocking and he would respond with grabs, granting him openings anyway. So what I'm asking here is, what am I missing fundamentally that makes my defense so poor against competent players? I'd like to have a response to attacks that are specific to Millia (for example, if I see a certain move in a combo being used against me, what move should I use to respond?). I'd imagine, however, that the list of moves that I'd need to ward off, and the moves I'd need to use in response would be pretty exhaustive, so just advice in general would probably be the most helpful, at least in the immediate future. Pointing me in the direction of useful resources (videos, guides) that would help explain this would also be great! Another thing is, there are some mechanics in the game I don't fully understand. One example being, I know when I use Dust+an Attack as I'm being attacked, that it knocks the person away from me so that I can get the pressure off of me. I don't quite understand the recharge rate on it, however. I haven't tested it exactly, but I have found that if I use this in the first round, then I won't be able to use it for the rest of the round, and possibly even into the second round. But there's a point when it comes back, and I'm not sure if it's timer based, or pressure based, or what! The blitz shield I haven't put practice in, but fundamentally I think I understand. I'd imagine it would help me find an opening when I'm under pressure. I'd also like to take this as an opportunity to say, this website's wiki has been pretty crucial in helping me understand some concepts from the game that I had no idea about from training. So that was nice! Finally, air dashes give me a considerable amount of trouble. It took me awhile to train myself to air dash to the right with a fightstick properly, and I've got that down nicely, but jump cancelling to air dash to the left has proven to be very difficult to me. If there's a more efficient input, or if you have any advice when it comes to using a fightstick (I hold the stick in the "wineglass" method), anything would be greatly appreciated. And that's all I can think of. I have a couple videos I've recorded of my matches played, and that would probably provide just as much if not more information about how I play than what I just wrote. If anyone reading this is invested enough I'd be glad to send you a couple videos and have you critique my gameplay! Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to record the matches with my inputs on the side, but if anyone is actually interested, I will record a few with that in mind, and upload them! Thanks so much!!