How do you deal with pressure?

[evolution07]

Some characters have extremely good offense pressure such as Liu Kang, Takeda, Tanya, Sonya (with her mixups) etc, and I often find myself frustrated over certain situations and how to deal with them effectively.

My most hated pressure character is Liu. If someone knows how to use him extremely well, especially in the corner, I feel as though I should just award the entire game to my opponent. There doesn't appear to be much someone can do against Liu (in corner) since he easily breaks armor and can just mindlessly do fireball run cancels or a windmill punch with a safe ender.

I somewhat still struggle against takeda, but the more I've been playing the MU the less difficult it seems. All takeda players have a similar playstyle so it's not as difficult for me like it once was; but he's still a pain.

To everyone here, what's your preferred character of choice against big pressure characters and how do you effectively deal with them once they get their offense going? How do you ensure a victory if your character isn't a zoner, has no overhead / low mixups, is low-tier etc?

 

[New York Pizza]

Take every character to training room, learn frame data and what it means to be + and - on block. Figure out what strings are + and - and also if that character has specials that are + or can be armored. Apply what you've leaned in the match. But really you're going to learn the hard way anyway because of more skilled players, matchup exp, reads, ect... Just keep losing until you win

 

[Khaoz77]

I use Jax and Kotal, in my opinion two very good pressure characters.

They both have different kinds of pressure though, Jax has more of a "corner" kind of pressure while Kotal is a "make you nervous" kind of pressure.

The way I see it, in order to have counter strategies for pressure, you have to know what kind of pressure you're dealing with. In what position are you getting pressured? Midscreen? Corner?

What is that pressure trying to make you do? Is it trying to open you up for knockdowns? Is it to hit you with 50/50 situations? Is it to get you to the corner? Is it trying to bait something out of you? What is it that the character wants you to do other than block forever

Usually, pressure is dependent on the opponent's defensive weaknesses. For example, If i'm getting pressured by a Jax player, there is a 99% chance that if I fight another Jax, his pressure is going to be different based on what he thinks I am vulnerable to. So, in a way, it also depends on the player and how much knowledge of not only what is safe for the character to throw out, but what tendencies he can exploit from his opponent. Also, pressure doesn't always mean constant attack. Me standing still after a 1,1 and doing nothing while you sit there expecting something is another form of pressure, since you are making a decision based on what you THINK I am doing.

To fight pressure, awareness is probably one of the best tools you can use. I hope I was able to be of help bro.

 

[dennycascade]

Always know where you are in terms of frame advantage, always know your options in a given situation, always watch for and react to staggers, and most importantly...

ALWAYS mash armor whenever possible.

 

[Amplified$hotz]

Uhhh it's really best to win in the neutral and stop characters from conducting their offense but that's hard with characters like Takeda.
Just cry

 

[SaltShaker]

In MKX you don't handle pressure, pressure handles you.

 

[evolution07]

Take every character to training room, learn frame data and what it means to be + and - on block. Figure out what strings are + and - and also if that character has specials that are + or can be armored. Apply what you've leaned in the match. But really you're going to learn the hard way anyway because of more skilled players, matchup exp, reads, ect... Just keep losing until you win

I know what it means to be + or - on block, and I know how to lab; it's just dealing with someone like Liu from mid screen where once that endless fireball cancel gets started, you're basically fucked lol. At this point you almost have to use another broken character just to win.

 

[smellyloser]

I find it's more a matter of reading the player instead of the character. All players except the very best have their own habits they fall into. Some players really like to toss out a bunch of throws, others will go for unsafe mixups. Make a read, and if you're right punish them as much as possible.

Or you can just do what I do and play characters that don't need meter so you can do a bunch of armoured wakeups to escape the corner.

 

[A F0xy Grampa]

I know what it means to be + or - on block, and I know how to lab; it's just dealing with someone like Liu from mid screen where once that endless fireball cancel gets started, you're basically fucked lol. At this point you almost have to use another broken character just to win.

Against Liu your turn is on these points:

- After fly kick MB
- After blocking B12
- After blocking his D3
- Any stagger
- When he doesnt have the stamina to get another run cancel

 

[evolution07]

Against Liu your turn is on these points:

- After fly kick MB
- After blocking B12
- After blocking his D3
- Any stagger
- When he doesnt have the stamina to get another run cancel

The fly kick, the bf2 MB correct?

Staggers I'm still training myself to recognize and react on, but idk of any Liu player who staggers them. I play with some really good training partners, and even they lose to Liu and his pressure in both dragons fire and flame fist.

When he has no stamina left for a run cancel, is it possible to interrupt with a string? Idk how plus Liu is on his cancels.

 

[Red Reaper]

I use Bernoulli's Equation...

 

[xxFalcon Loverxx]

The fly kick, the bf2 MB correct?

Staggers I'm still training myself to recognize and react on, but idk of any Liu player who staggers them. I play with some really good training partners, and even they lose to Liu and his pressure in both dragons fire and flame fist.

When he has no stamina left for a run cancel, is it possible to interrupt with a string? Idk how plus Liu is on his cancels.

Liu Kang's don't stagger strings for some reason, they just do the same f213 fbrc f213 fbrc f213 bf2mb b12 bf2 MB....You can stagger b12 in there sometimes since the opponent has to respect your pressure..

 

[Amplified$hotz]

Against Liu your turn is on these points:

- After fly kick MB
- After blocking B12
- After blocking his D3
- Any stagger
- When he doesnt have the stamina to get another run cancel

What of lasher Takeda?