Penguinator

You can edit the WIki even without an account. If you want an account so the edits show your username (instead of just an IP adress), request it with a PM from one of the moderators like shtkn.

I use Discord actively and while there is some good information floating around, a huge part of the daily content is either same things being repeated indefinitely and/or completely off-topic discussion, though that might depend on the character (some having more to discuss than others) and the people/moderator of the server (some being more willing to participate in circle-jerking than others). You could make a similar question about people posting on character forums, but not updating the Dustloop Wiki and the answer is the exact same: it requires more effort, but at least with WIki you may have legit excuses like not understanding the format/code or not having the confidence in writing coherent and easy to understand language. The less popular BB character Wikis are really scarce on content despite character forums having tons of stuff, though in that case spending time to create a Wiki on a character that might change completely in the next version (ie. next year) wasn't probably very motivating.

The answer to that is actually no. The ranked died really quickly after the release because the connection filters didn't work very well (connecting you to anyone across the globe, though at least you could see the real 0-4 bar status before accepting the match) and playing matches in a Player Match rooms (usually named after the location so players of the right region can find it more easily) is about hundred times faster and the lining/spectator system works really well, too. So if you're looking for players, check the Player Match several times around the evening (and remember that full rooms don't show up on the list). For even more consistent match partners, try joining a fighting game / GG / Xrd Discord of your region to find opponents in real time. And just like sparkanius said, loads of people (including high level players) actually moved from PS to Steam on release because the input lag was so much smaller. According to some, playing PC online with 2-3 frame delay was like playing PS offline so no one wanted to go back to PS -Sign- netplay after experiencing it. IIRC Revelator has improved either the netcode or input lag so PS online isn't that bad anymore, but still the major reason people moved to it is all the new content, six new playable characters (with balance patches) and system mechanic changes being the most obvious attraction.

Depends completely on the situation, but in general it's a bad habit. You can use the good sides of mashing buttons without suffering in accuracy by doing piano inputs. Usually mashing decreases your accuracy to produce correct moves, which will make you drop combos or at least prevent you from hitconfirming properly. However, in neutral, your first hit might clash and if you pressed the button only once, you'll go through the recovery of the move (unless it's a multi-hit move) while being vulnerable to opponent's hits instead of immediately canceling into another normal or special you were mashing. One common example is when a DP clashes with a normal; without mashing if it's a multihit DP, the latter hits come out, but the invulns may have run out, while with mashing you might get another DP with new invulns for much better chances for an advantageous trade. Teching is usually done with mashing (holding back + one/two buttons and mashing two others which results in a quick air FD) even among top players, but if you know the spots where untech time ends after the last hit in a combo, the fastest possible tech can be easily baited with various airthrow OSes which means you need to alter the timing of the tech accurately.

I have never heard of anyone talking about total time in frames and it makes some of your explanations way harder sounding than they actually are, which is why frame information should be limited to single specific situations (like frame advantages, punishes and whiff recoveries of certain moves). Also, most of your frame talk is about links which are nowhere that important in games with gatling systems (GG, BB, etc. what this whole forum is all about) and you didn't explain the basic concepts of blockstrings (eg. hitconfirms, frametraps), not to mention all your talk about linking whiffed moves which sounds like something players should aim for while in reality it serves absolutely no purpose unless you were actually talking about "hit on block", but in that case you should have used the right term for it since practically everywhere whiffing means "to not hit at all"; being forced to go through full recovery, usually without any cancel options (PRC being a major exception in Xrd). In general, new players would be much better off playing the tutorial modes of ASW games (especially the ones in Revelator) and watching Guilty Gear Crash Course (which can be mostly applied to all airdashers) than trying to make sense of your short cryptic explanations. I hope you don't take this personally, but you should leave the act of teaching to people who are actually good at it (and I don't mean pedagogic students or anything; being able to convey important and correct information in compact and down-to-earth manner is enough).

I had watched stream archives since AC+R (and Chronophantasma) and read up about things long before I started playing Xrd on Steam release so I knew all about the mechanics, but it's been over half a year (almost 10K player matches according to my R-Code) and I still can't use all of them correctly. From time to time I remember that pushing the opponent back with FD or countering safejumps with Blitz is really useful, but doing all the things at right situations is still is too much for me to handle. RRC and YRC are used loads of times each match and Burst (Blue) at least once (hopefully twice) unless you're perfecting, so those will be the ones you'll master more quickly. What's great about Xrd is that all of these mechanics have their purpose and everything revolves around the same Tension gauge (Burst being the only exception); if some character doesn't really need one mechanic, it can spend the Tension in some other way, and more universally, if you use the whole Tension gauge for defense (FD, Blitz, RRC'ing a reversal to make it safe), you don't have anything to spend on offense (Overdrives, continuing a combo with RRC) when you finally get your turn. While the defense in this game is really strong with all the option selects and defensive mechanics, you gain way more Tension by acting offensively (even walking forward gives you Tension) and acting too passively is punished (by slowing your Tension gain and even resetting your gauge to zero), so matches never end up being turtlefests.

Taken from the original release notes, アイアンセイバー 密着状態で一定時間相手にヒットしなかった場合、攻撃を終了するようにしました。 Iron Savior When right next to the opponent, in the case you don't hit the opponent for a certain period of time, the move ends.

Here's the latest arcade data from the official Player's Guild. It's probably little biased because the hardcore arcade players play the less popular characters more than casual online players, but it's a more objective look on things than personal speculation. From what I've played on Steam -Sign- in EU, Sol, Kai and Slayer are definitely the clear top three. Pot, Millia, Axl , Sin, Elph and Leo are less popular after that while I-No, May, Ram, Venom, Zato, Bedman and Faust are more rare, especially when it comes to more skillful players. Also, what I remember from various top JP players saying, Leo is much more popular in the west.

Unless you talk more about your character and the kind of stuff you're trying to hitconfirm (anti-air, blockstrings, specific pokes into specials etc), it's impossible to say anything else than watch this thing.

Revelator is being released on consoles in about a month and the ones who pre-ordered it are playing the demo that comes with it. Also, few serious people who are still playing Sign might be doing it on the Steam version since it supposedly has less input lag than consoles. I have been playing it since December and at least on Europe there are still lot of players around.

Xrd SIGN had great in-game tutorial modes; Tutorial (very basic controls and movement), Challenge (combo challenges for each character, though some of them aren't very practical for actual matches) and Mission (practice for various mid-combat situtations, option selects and other useful stuff). Apparently Revelator's Tutorial will be revamped into a more intuitive action game sort of mode, so look forward to it. Guilty Gear Crash Course is a great series that explains everything a beginner needs to know, including the input language (eg. 5K, c.S, 214214S etc, which isn't really limited to Guilty Gear). For actually learning a character you should look up basic useful combos (aka BnB) from the character forums and watch how top level players play the character (movement, pokes, okizeme etc).

I have only played since the Steam release so my words don't have much weight, but one thing I can say is that you missed a lot of hitconfirms, ranging from 5P, throw, counterhit 6H and Rensen YRC. Pretty much all of those can be handled with Axl's BnB anti-air combo: (5K, c.S, or 5P into) 6K, 2S HJC j.h, j.d, Bomber. On heavier characters, use 6K, 2S, TK Bomber for the knockdown. TK Bomber is also important for corner combos, so learning it is really recommended. At longer ranges 5P, 6K, j.6P is also handy for that little extra damage and pushback. Also, 2S against high toss granade looked pretty bad. The long whiff animation gives the opponent all the time to punishing or closing in, so I guess 5K or j.P would be better choices. I played the same matchup recently and the opponent happened to be the tournament's organizer/streamer so if any Axl veterans are still here, I could take some advice too.

I don't care about playstyles; if they lose, it's their fault and if I lose then it's my fault. It might be because I'm still very new to the game (started with Xrd Steam release, which is the first fighter I've tried to play seriously), but in general I don't get angry or frustrated at games. In fact, I usually laugh at my mistakes, at least when they're really big or surprising. In general, I get more annoyed against Axl's hopeless matchups, ie. Venom and Chipp. The latter is painful but at least one good read or random counterhit confirm nets you good damage, but former is a complete pain in the ass the moment things return to neutral. Also, both have unusual wake-up timings that ruin my okizeme. That being said, taking even one round against experienced players feels so good that I'll keep playing the matches.

The video tutorial series Guilty Gear Crash Course has entries on exactly what this thread is discussing about, complete with comparisons to SF and how movement works for footsies, so writing a completely new guide might be a waste of time.