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Hey everyone! Need solid advice!

I’ve been playing this game since launch and though I feel as if I’ve gotten better. I’m not where I truly want to be. I’ve recently been playing better players such as (cupcake88, bleujay888,titaniumtigers,jonny2cold,hit1357) and others. I’m trying to surround myself with good players and play smarter. It seems making reads against some of these people is just impossible. How do I make better reads? How do I condition my opponent safely? I understand frame data quite well but should I be paying attention to cancel frames and active frames as much as blockadv and startup? I understand neutral quite well so I don’t think that’s a weakness for me. It’s just making the reads to PLAY the neutral well. I’m really struggling. I don’t want to quit this game but I’m honestly trying to improve. ANY advice would be outstanding. I play supergirl,Harley, and joker. Please anyone help. I’m trying to take supergirl and joker the most serious. Thanks a bunch.
 

Dankster Morgan

It is better this way
I hadn’t played the game in 3 months, I feel I used to be pretty good, got on the other day, and was awful, couldn’t even move without being awkward.

So honestly, just keep playing and keep wanting to play and wanting to learn, it sounds like you have a really healthy attitude about it, just don’t be emo and ever ask people to go easy on you like some people
 

Roy Arkon

I will leave my seal on you!
As for making reads,as someone who also like to go by that myself, I can tell you that it is all about experience and getting better at that. All you need to do is to play as much as you can, learn from your mistakes by going into as many scenarios as possible during your matches, and learn from your mistakes and learn how to make the right reads in other similar scenarios, regardless if that scenario is about close range offense, Zoning, defense, 50/50's, interactables, mobility etc. As you grow and make mistakes, you get better at making reads. You don't need to change your style, let alone quit the game, you just need to get better at making the right reads, and the only you can do it is by to get into yourself through similar scenarios as much as you can while playing and learn what do in each scenario. You can also repeat the scenarios in training mode and try to find solutions there, and then try to use these solutions in real matches.

As for frame data, yes you should pay attention to it, and you also need to check other stuff such as range and pushblock, because the frame data doesn't show those particular stuff and you need to change your actions accordingly in real matches, it can both in your favor and against you. You can check these once again in training mode and see what options are the best for your characters.

I hope this helps :)
 

EntropicByDesign

It's all so very confusing.
I’ve been playing this game since launch and though I feel as if I’ve gotten better. I’m not where I truly want to be. I’ve recently been playing better players such as (cupcake88, bleujay888,titaniumtigers,jonny2cold,hit1357) and others. I’m trying to surround myself with good players and play smarter. It seems making reads against some of these people is just impossible. How do I make better reads? How do I condition my opponent safely? I understand frame data quite well but should I be paying attention to cancel frames and active frames as much as blockadv and startup? I understand neutral quite well so I don’t think that’s a weakness for me. It’s just making the reads to PLAY the neutral well. I’m really struggling. I don’t want to quit this game but I’m honestly trying to improve. ANY advice would be outstanding. I play supergirl,Harley, and joker. Please anyone help. I’m trying to take supergirl and joker the most serious. Thanks a bunch.

I could also recommend recording and re-watching your matches if you haven't. It can do wonders for looking at things objectively, and realizing that you have patterns or tells or commonly repeated situations that are helping your opponent read you. As well as identifying those same things in your opponent's, and even if you don't play that person very often, identifying those patterns may help you realize the same patterns in others when they start to manifest. Humans are terrible at being random in general.

Just a suggestion to add on to what others have said. Because I feel like there really isn't a good way for someone to explain how to make better reads, it is all just and internalization process. When you have been in a situation so many times from so many different angles you just learn to read the situations and Things become gut
 

gam224

The world's least hype player
If you’re looking to get better at neutral sonic hurricanes guide to footsies is a good resource. It mostly pertains to SF but the stuff learned in the guide can carry over to injustice
 

Roy Arkon

I will leave my seal on you!
Another thing I forgot to mention. If you are looking to learn more about footsies, here is another guide for you, from non other then one of the best NRS players ever, Tom Brady, who implements those explanations on IJ2.

 

Espio

Kokomo
Lead Moderator
Reads are basically just playing around basic psychology and probabilities and using those probabilities against your opponent. So this is why playing very well versed players is so advantageous, they make major adjustments in a reasonable amount of time and it forces you to have to adapt quite heavily on the fly more.

As an example, I was playing a good player and I was using Blue Beetle's flight pressure and doing a lot of different mix ups but then I started doing jump normal into throw and I caught them. I then did jump in normal into MB back 3, into back 3 that sent them through a transition and won me the round. This example is important because what separates levels of play is your ability to punish people for adapting to you as well as quick adaptations. It's about knowing the most likely decision but also knowing your opponent and making sure you attempt to (whenever possible) create guessing game scenarios where you are most likely to take the least amount of risk.

Another example is most people are used to Starfire players doing her charge after the opponent blocks the MB charge since it makes pokes whiff and such, if I'm dealing with someone who is good at jumping back or blowing it up in a different way, I might walk forward and forward 2 them to punish them/check them for trying to jump back or I might just walk back and start zoning.

Every character has a "flowchart" people expect, if you can deviate from that and bring something fresh to the table, it pays in dividends.


That's why I use commonly unused strings or unorthodox mix ups to mess with the opponent. I also might open you up with a gimmick and you won't see the gimmick again until ten games later or the next time we play. Just because you have a lot of options and shenanigans doesn't mean you have to over play your hand or show all your cards.

You just check people to remind them that yes I have this option, but you're not gonna get comfortable enough with it because I have a bunch of other tactics I can/will throw at you to keep you on your heels too.