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How not to suck and become a better player?

Phantasmagore

Phantasmagore

Hissss
I am still in the realm where I am overwhelmed by the opponent and have to resort to desperate button-mashing. If it helps, I intend to main Reptile. Looking for a secondary who has a similar way of combat.
 
kabelfritz

kabelfritz

Master
Phantasmagore said:
I am still in the realm where I am overwhelmed by the opponent and have to resort to desperate button-mashing. If it helps, I intend to main Reptile. Looking for a secondary who has a similar way of combat.
Click to expand...
a good first step is to understand your character's strengths and weaknesses and develope a gameplan based on that. does he have good stuff up close? then your goal is to get in on your opponent. does he have good projectiles? then try to stay full screen and keep your opponent out. if you got these basics down, you will force your character's game on the Opponent , and that way win a good amount of matches without knowing hard combos and other more complex stuff.

also a thing that not everybody does but is crucial: watch your opponent. always keep your eyes on him. dont focus on your character or the middle of the screen or something. you can react way better to his actions like that.
 
D

Deleted member 5032

Guest
Phantasmagore said:
I am still in the realm where I am overwhelmed by the opponent and have to resort to desperate button-mashing. If it helps, I intend to main Reptile. Looking for a secondary who has a similar way of combat.
Click to expand...
Make sure to differentiate between playing to win and playing to learn. Set aside a lot of time to just playing matches and fucking around; experiment with setups, try some tough block strings, etc. Expect to lose these fights. This takes all of the pressure off and allows you to grow as a player. The next time you play to win, you'll feel a lot looser and be able to better handle the things that are giving you so much grief now.
 
D

Death

Warrior
Get basic bnbs down and only play matches vs guys who are better than you. After a while of grinding you'll get better fundamentals without even realizing it.
 
pogse

pogse

Ruthlesss Mayhem
play single fight ai set on "hard", much better than online.
you can bait an AI overhead by holding down block on wakeup :DOGE them reads.
 
K

kashmoneyhoes

Noob
Phantasmagore said:
I am still in the realm where I am overwhelmed by the opponent and have to resort to desperate button-mashing. If it helps, I intend to main Reptile. Looking for a secondary who has a similar way of combat.
Click to expand...
Hey I'm a pretty good player. Not the best out there, but I am currently learning Reptile also. If you want add me to psn if you're playing on ps4. My account name is "kashmoneyhoes" and we can go into practice together. I know a few good combos with Reptile that can get you started. I have a good mic so I can verbally guide you through it. Let me know
 
A New Angel Is Advent

A New Angel Is Advent

mutton basher
So you have bnbs down, and you understand frames. Grind them out so you don't hesitate to dial in a low, overhead, or quick start up punish based on what the opponent is doing. One of the best ways to improve is to set a single goal every session. If you're mashing under pressure, block and refuse to mash. Even if you lose, you win if you can stick to the one goal you set to work on.
 
Mind Flex

Mind Flex

Mind Gamer. BOOSH
Go into training mode. Set the AI to Very Hard (Use Hard if very hard is too overwhelming for you). Play a mirror match for 30 minutes. Playing against your own character allows you to see what your character can do and really helps with understanding your spacing and options. Now go play some actual matches for 30 minutes and focus on using your new understanding of your spacing. You may not win much at first but you will be learning and slowing understanding more. Now just rinse and repeat.

Once you feel like you truly understand your character and you are executing correctly then that is when you move on to learn specific match ups that are giving you trouble.

TL;DR
Step 1-Understanding your character and executing properly
Step 2-Understand the game and your game plan for match ups.
Step 3-Play Mind Games against your opponent with your newly acquired knowledge.
 
B

BLACKRENEGADE

Salt.exe
The way I think about going into matches is this: I'm just here to play. I don't even concentrate on winning. Rely on fundamentals, concentrate on execution. Do have fun with it, the good and the bad, and you'll go very far. Please do visit the philosophy subforum. I'm sure it has the answers there.
 
LaidbackOne

LaidbackOne

Scrubby nice guy
Phantasmagore said:
I am still in the realm where I am overwhelmed by the opponent and have to resort to desperate button-mashing. If it helps, I intend to main Reptile. Looking for a secondary who has a similar way of combat.
Click to expand...
How do you learn anything else? Just play the game and watch streams from tournaments (the best way to get better imo)
 
villainous monk

villainous monk

Terrible times breed terrible things, my lord.
Understand your own play style. When to go hard and when to scale back. Understand and feel out the match your playing. Learn your reversals and throw escapes and how quick you can punish afterwards. Try to think ahead of a plan B if plan a doesn't work or present itself. Zone! Understand other peoples setups and their mix up games. Learn your overheads and footsies. R-E-L-A-X. Learn from your losses don't wallow in your losses because the other person who won wont be doing that so learn from your mistakes.

Practice. Practice. PRACTICE. Don't go online with out a massive amount time in the lab training & learning about yourself only to learn your not ready go online or play your with friends.

Oh and always ask for help. Look. Listen. Observe & Learn.

Good luck.
 
learis1

learis1

Guardian Cadet
Reptile is a very tough character to play unfortunately. Your execution, spacing, reactions, and setups all have to be top notch for him to be effective and do good damage. He's not beginner friendly at all.

I'd suggest a different character. One of the most beginner friendly characters I can think of is the toxic variation of divorah. You can use her long reaching low and overhead pokes and strings to mixup your opponent and deal damage over time. Her gameplan in this variation is really simple and very effective for beginners. Good luck!
 
Phantasmagore

Phantasmagore

Hissss
I've decided to tinker with Ermac and Quan Chi, now. How does combo timing work? My biggest problem is that I can't follow up on combos.
 
D

Drose4President

Noob
Phantasmagore said:
I've decided to tinker with Ermac and Quan Chi, now. How does combo timing work? My biggest problem is that I can't follow up on combos.
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See that's the problem. You play Quan Chi. I play quan chi too. You should just use Scorpion, Liu Kang, Kung Jin, Raiden, Kitana, Sub-zero, Reptile, and Kung Lao. Then you'll be good. I do decent as Quan Chi, but when I face someone with Kung Jin or Liu Kang. Whooo, go from average joe to a big league pro. Go from being a scrub to getting dubs. Just look at online, and even offline. 90% of those people don't have skill. They ride their character's cheap mix up that grants a free half your health combo that requires no meter to win.
 
Farpafraf

Farpafraf

Apprentice
1) I'd start using an "easy" character such as Kung Jin.
2) Hit the lab: you'll obviusly have to train with your character, even if you know when to do something you'll have to know HOW to do it.
3) The most important thing (and the most difficult one) is not knowing how to perform your moves but WHEN you should perform them in a match: watching good players can help you understand and greatly improve your abilities.
4) Play with someone who's better than you, even when you're much stronger than your opponent never get lazy.
 
Phantasmagore

Phantasmagore

Hissss
Farpafraf said:
1) I'd start using an "easy" character such as Kung Jin.
2) Hit the lab: you'll obviusly have to train with your character, even if you know when to do something you'll have to know HOW to do it.
3) The most important thing (and the most difficult one) is not knowing how to perform your moves but WHEN you should perform them in a match: watching good players can help you understand and greatly improve your abilities.
4) Play with someone who's better than you, even when you're much stronger than your opponent never get lazy.
Click to expand...
What exactly do you do in the lab? This has always been the vague step to me. How do you understand your character and train with him?

I wouldn't mind training with Kung Jin but I'm interested in Reptile, Ermac, Kung Lao, Kano and Shinnok. Which one of them would you consider an easy character to train with?
 
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Farpafraf

Farpafraf

Apprentice
Kano (cut throath ) is in my opinion the easiest to use followed by ermac (master of souls), Shinnok seems pretty bad.
If this is your first fighting game the learning curve is gonna be pretty rough: learn the basics (frames are the most important thing to understand), learn how to perform your moves, learn your combos and pressure strings, set the A.I to random block and learn to hit confirm your strings, study skilled players such as REO Sonic Fox Perfect Legend... finally play against someone.
It'll take a lot of time if there isn't someone there to teach you, but you'll get better for sure.
 
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