Fundamentals VS combos

[Sanjo]

Recently today, I had a discussion with another poster and now I'm really interested to know the global opinion here regarding the topic :
FUNDAMENTALS OR COMBOS
Between these 2 :
what makes the difference between good players and pros?
What requires more skill ?
What's harder to master ?

 

[Tanno]

Fundamentals, the most. The combos are just for the show.

 

[SonicNinja3532]

Recently today, I had a discussion with another poster and now I'm really interested to know the global opinion here regarding the topic :
FUNDAMENTALS OR COMBOS
Between these 2 :
what makes the difference between good players and pros?
What requires more skill ?
What's harder to master ?

Fundamentals by a landslide. You could have the most optimal shit in the world and get bodied by someone who can only do 20% max in a combo because they simply know how to play better than you. Its like with combo artists, they make interesting stuff and find the highest damage but that doesn’t indicate in the slightest that they understand the game.

 

[Gaxkang]

Well fundamentals yeah...especially if things are balanced enough.

I'm not really a combo player...and the dial system makes it more difficult for me too, or how some moves just...are nitpicky about inputs. In another game inputs would come out fine, in this no.
So with me it's more actual fighting, rather than looking for that touch to enter the single player game of long combo inputs. I myself don't like big damaging combos in fighting games, really. Which goes against the grain I suppose.

So I rely on a lot of fundamental stuff. As well as one can in this game...I think the game kinda doesn't promote it enough in its gameplay.

Like other day I was playing Shao Kahn and the other person chose Shao Kahn too. I could tell they could do Shao Khan combos, while I was not using combos beyond very simple stuff like say, meter burned shoulder charge and uppercut.
He lost.

Then he switched to Jacqui...and the combination of her natural advantages plus combos, left my Kahn with little to do.

And they were cocky about it and I'm thinking like, if you were that skilled you would have beaten with me with Kahn and not needed to lean on Jacqui.

Now if say a character can take half a lifebar with a combo...will they need fundamentals as much? A question of balance I suppose...

 

[Blade4693]

I think fundamentals. When I first started taking fighting games seriously I thought it was about combos, so I would spend a ton of time just learning combos...then realized once you face another person those combos do no good if you never get the chance to actually perform them on your opponent.

So IMO fundamentals are more important because I feel like in most cases the person who is a better player fundamentally is going to be the player who actually gets to use those combos. Obviously this is not always the case because balance and stuff but I feel like just at a surface level fundamentals are going to carry you farther than knowing a bunch of combos because like I said knowing a bunch of crazy combos do you no good if you never get the chance to do them.

 

[Blewdew]

Fundamentals by far. Jab anti Airing consistently alone was a pain in the ass to get used too (especially in mkx). There is also way more Knowledge involved. The better your fundamentals and understanding of the game is the easier and faster you can adapt to the shitty habits people have.

 

[Damaja325]

fundies by far. you can beat another person with throws and preset strings alone just by playing better.

 

[Vagrant]

This is not even close. Requires much more mental execution and a much broader field of preparation and skill development.

I would argue a player isn’t even “good” if they just have combos memorized and don’t have any sort of fundamentals.

What separates the good from the elite is how much you know about the game, how consistently you can execute, and how quickly you can interpret information and adjust.

 

[NaCl man]

This is a strange question as they go hand in hand.They are both important.
Fundamentals is a very broard term.
You utilize your fundamentals to set up situations where you can cause your opponent to make a mistake so you can cause damage. You want to take advantage of the situation by doing the most damage possible. Combos will give you you the most damage.

 

[Lokheit]

Learning combos is what puts you above your button masher friends. Once you have your BnBs you need fundamentals. You don't even need to learn that almost impossible combo that deals just 3% more damage, usually it won't matter as much as the number of times you can open up your opponent.

Fundamentals are way harder to learn and define more what a good player is (and I'm saying this as someone who has had a lot of time to lab combo routes and setups and very little time to actually play against people to get better, the struggle gets real).

 

[OutworldKeith]

If your fundamentals are trash, you’ll never land those flashy combos vs a decent player lol.

 

[Dreamcatcher]

This question is like "what's more important in basketball, being a good dunker or having good all around game?"

 

[gam224]

“Execution (combos) is like having a sharp sword. It doesn’t matter how sharp your sword is if you don’t know how to use it” -gootecks

 

[TyCarter35]

Fundamentals is what keeps scrubs from getting better because a scrub could know all the combos in the world but have shit fundamentals and they are no more than frauds

 

[FonicSox]

In a nutshell "fundamentals" are the implementation of your overall understanding of the game and its mechanics. Offense, defense, neutral, what your options are in a given situation vs your opponent's, so on and so forth. Combos are just one small facet of the overall. There you go. A great fundamental player would beat a combo video highlight reel creator without even using combos if it came down to it.

 

[Eddy Wang]

This is a strange question as they go hand in hand.They are both important.
Fundamentals is a very broard term.
You utilize your fundamentals to set up situations where you can cause your opponent to make a mistake so you can cause damage. You want to take advantage of the situation by doing the most damage possible. Combos will give you you the most damage.

this is actually where the depth of tekken comes in play so much and i love it.
Some character have easiest tools for whiff punishing, but isn't scary, and they have a combo one, which iis dificult to use as whiff punish consistently and requires more work.

another part where this takes a huge notice its during neutral, whoever has a life lead, plays usually to get a little more, as the match develops, if one finds a big opening the combo he does, might decide who takes the lead so the momentum might shift and who is following who might actually change.

Which is a big quid pro quo between fundamentals and exeuction, you can't have one, you need to have both, and while fundamentals are important it dosn't make execution far less important

 

[Matix218]

Is this even a question? I use all the same combos as the pro players who use my character but they would destroy me. Fundamentals of course.

 

[NothingPersonal]

Fundamentals converted into combos.

 

[Wigy]

No fundamentals and you won't land a single combo.

Go watch foxy Grandpa roflstomp everyone with a mid tier character with solid fundamentals.

 

[xenogorgeous]

Fundamentals converted into combos.

this 1000% !!

 

[Juggs]

Fundamentals. And it’s not combos that are important it’s execution. Execution is extremely important.

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

Recently today, I had a discussion with another poster and now I'm really interested to know the global opinion here regarding the topic :
FUNDAMENTALS OR COMBOS
Between these 2 :
what makes the difference between good players and pros?
What requires more skill ?
What's harder to master ?

My answer is fundamentals but I'd argue combos are part of fundies. I think you misunderstood me in the other thread. Side switches, reading you opponent and punishing with the most optimal response, setting up oki, corner carry into restands ect are apart of fundamentals as well as proper spacing, identifying player tendencies, adjusting to your opponents, making good reads, footsie, Wiff punishing, shimmy, setplay, optimizing staggers, Anti Airing JIK/JIP, Frame perfect-frame traps, wave dashing and cancels is all needed to play at a high level.

How you start, carry and end your combos are very important in every MK but you can't play at a high level without fundamentals.

 

[ColdSpine]

The word fundamentals is kinda lost in a game that has moves that ignore neutral like teleports

 

[joffocakes]

Having the execution and awareness to optimise your combos reduces the number of times you'll have to outplay your opponent to win a match but you need the fundamentals to land the combos in the first place.

 

[xenogorgeous]

Having the execution and awareness to optimise your combos reduces the number of times you'll have to outplay your opponent to win a match but you need the fundamentals to land the combos in the first place.

totally agreed !