Is it better to be a strategic player or a practiced player?

[Lumpymoomilk]

Some people go into practice mode for hours a day to perfect their combos, while others prefer to play people consistently, learning how people play and seeing what your character has to counter what the other characters can do.

Do you think it's better to have a practiced routine that you can pull off perfectly and if you catch the opponent off guard in that situation can pull off a high damage well practiced combo.

Or be a little more of a strategist, maybe not always trying for the biggest combo setup but read the opponent more and get in more small combos when any opportunity presents itself.

I know the ideal way to play would be a mixture of both. But I'm just curious from the higher level players if they had to choose one or the other which do they think would work better.

 

[RampaginDragon]

Try to be both. Practice a lot, but use your head. Over all, I feel like a more practiced fighter is a little better than a strategic fighter. Though both are great assets.

 

[Smarrgasm]

Some people go into practice mode for hours a day to perfect their combos, while others prefer to play people consistently, learning how people play and seeing what your character has to counter what the other characters can do.

Do you think it's better to have a practiced routine that you can pull off perfectly and if you catch the opponent off guard in that situation can pull off a high damage well practiced combo.

Or be a little more of a strategist, maybe not always trying for the biggest combo setup but read the opponent more and get in more small combos when any opportunity presents itself.

I know the ideal way to play would be a mixture of both. But I'm just curious from the higher level players if they had to choose one or the other which do they think would work better.

I think having the ability to read and have a strategy/fundamentals is the better overall. As we see players like Chris G and Justin Wong can do well across many fighting games and they probly dont spend as much time practicing as others. They just have the natural ability to understand the game overall. Practicing is very important but you can win sometimes just through being able to see things coming and countering them.

 

[Zwooosh]

Fishing for combos in this game won't get you far.

 

[Mikemetroid]

Strategic. Practice only needs to be done for your strategies...

For example, I can beat some of my friends with only nut punches and 132...yet they know all these combos and things like that, they have mad openings in their play style.

 

[Lt. Boxy Angelman]

Strategy beats combos. Every time. Especially with high-damage machines like Cyrax and Rain, when you HAVE the massive murdering BnB's and dirt, but you can learn to win without them.
Beating your opponent is second only to making them beat themselves.

 

[TotteryManx]

Both of course! Practice mode is a great place to practice and perform set ups against certain character moves. Then applying them to an actual person is key.

 

[A F0xy Grampa]

Practice is merely the icing on the cake.

 

[SquirtMcGirt]

Why not practice in the lab with another person? Really figure things out that way.

representing SVK

 

[BoysBoysBoys]

Both.

You can randomly find some set ups if you're just messing around with combos in training.

 

[Lumpymoomilk]

I know big combos definitely help. But most combos I know are in the mid 20's to lower 30's. I can't pull some of the bigger ones off online because of input delays/lag or just my own stupid clumsy fingers. But I think I'm more on the strategic side as well.

However I do see the value of practice, when some Cyrax players have taken off over 75% of my life because they caught me with 1 net and I already burned through my meter lol I can end up losing., not saying they are fishing for combos, but there's only so many bombs/nets you can avoid in the case of someone like Cyrax if you don't have a teleport.

It's unfortunate practice mode can't let you designate what move you want the CPU to do against you so you could practice, what beats out what ect.

 

[Faded Dreams V]

I go to practice mode to devise strategies and set-ups, not learn combos.

 

[Lumpymoomilk]

Why not practice in the lab with another person? Really figure things out that way.

representing SVK

I would but the only people I know that play are online, I do have friends that will try silly set up's with me in player matches though.

 

[Smarrgasm]

I would but the only people I know that play are online, I do have friends that will try silly set up's with me in player matches though.

My silly freddy setups are legit you must admit.

 

[Lumpymoomilk]

My silly freddy setups are legit you must admit.

No they are rediculous and ugly, just like Freddy being in the game.

 

[Faded Dreams V]

It's unfortunate practice mode can't let you designate what move you want the CPU to do against you so you could practice, what beats out what ect.

That's what frame data is for. lol

But yeah, I do wish Practice Mode was better. Not just in that aspect, but in many other ways.

 

[Lumpymoomilk]

I go to practice mode to devise strategies and set-ups, not learn combos.

See I like that, that's what I do too, except I'm rarely in practice mode. I just go online and say lets see if this rediculous strategy might work.

 

[SquirtMcGirt]

See and it is worth practicing your combos, just so you can do them, but playing other people helps you figure out the best time to use them. They both have alot of value. Like for instance I play Kabal as one of my mains. To learn how to ndc i spent hours in training mode, but to figure out how to implement it against another person without them getting out easily I had to play other people. Both have uses if you ask me. Execution is important, but so is implementation.

representing SVK

 

[Miss Kanzuki]

VERY good question!

I think you ideally would need to be both, however, when it comes down to it and your opponent is doing all kinds of bat-shit crazy mix-ups, there's not much time to think and there's little margin for error--a misread here, a misread there all because I had a "strategy" in mind,...that's when experience trumps strategy. jmo

 

[FrostyBarrel]

Well, I go into practice mode ,so I can hit the combo if the opportunity shows itself.I mean I'm not saying I fish for combos, but work on set ups.(IE:Go for JIP ,but end up on the other side/Anti Air/Punish bad teleport)I still feel more strategic I can't play a Noob Saibot the same way as I do a Sonya.

 

[Gruntypants]

Fishing for combos in this game won't get you far.

Unless you're cage.

 

[davidovitch]

Personally I drop combos a lot and don't even know the hardest hitting combos of some of the characters I like to play. Practice mode is only fun for me for one hour or so per character. I also don't know much of the frame data so I lose out in close range poking exchanges to players that do know the frames.

However I still manage to beat a lot of players who have better combos than me and seem to know more frame data (safe pokes, etc.) by just playing smart. I zone a lot when I know I have the advantage, I jump when I feel I am just out of their anti-air range, or jump backwards to bait players into jumping after me, etc.

So for me personally strategy is more important than execution, or at least more fun.

Having said that, there are a thousand matches I played that I could have won if I hadn't dropped my combo's or gotten some other inputs wrong, etc. I guess the execution can be just as important as the strategy, but it's just too boring for me to spend a lot of time practicing it..

 

[JagoMIH]

I think having strategy/fundamentals is more important. Doing combos in practice is good and all, but it's harder to do them on a real opponent. They're not just gonna let you combo them, and if you do hit them, you might not get the ideal height desired so juggling might be harder. I would say focus more on actually playing people, and doing bread and butter combos that you know will work, and you will naturally get better at your combos the more you use them in real matches anyways. Focus on landing that 25% so that you can do it everytime, then move up to 30%, 35%, 40%, etc.

 

[Lumpymoomilk]

Personally I drop combos a lot and don't even know the hardest hitting combos of some of the characters I like to play. Practice mode is only fun for me for one hour or so per character. I also don't know much of the frame data so I lose out in close range poking exchanges to players that do know the frames.

However I still manage to beat a lot of players who have better combos than me and seem to know more frame data (safe pokes, etc.) by just playing smart. I zone a lot when I know I have the advantage, I jump when I feel I am just out of their anti-air range, or jump backwards to bait players into jumping after me, etc.

So for me personally strategy is more important than execution, or at least more fun.

Having said that, there are a thousand matches I played that I could have won if I hadn't dropped my combo's or gotten some other inputs wrong, etc. I guess the execution can be just as important as the strategy, but it's just too boring for me to spend a lot of time practicing it..

That's very similar to how I play actually, don't know that much about frames, but I try everything out, I know what "usually" stuffs what, when I can I space myself to good distances and if I see a pattern emerge for my opponent I try and exploit it. I just get bored too easily with practice mode, data ect. Fun is my #1 priority but I have lost some matches too just like you said because I don't bother or mess up the big combos. So I could use more combo practice but I just don't care that much I guess.

 

[Zwooosh]

Unless you're cage.

Hang on sir.