Mind If I asked you what you have taught him so far? Especially execution tips would be great! And any combos that you are asking him to focus on and which variation too!
Tempest is what he was going to focus on, but he never really clicked with MKX and didn't stick around. Online and such.
What I was working on teaching him was just basic stuff, rough footsie and spacing stuff. I don't play Lao myself, so it was more theory than literal 'stand right here' advice because I don't know Lao well enough for exacts.
As to combos, something simple with Lao is like..
(starter) x db1 x RC x 11 (or F1) x df1 x ji3 x d4 x 21
I'm sure that's not optimized but its relatively easy and sits around 30% +/- depending on starter and if you do F1 or 11 after the RC. Again, I don't play Lao, so maybe its just me, for some reason I have found F1 kinda inconsistent in my limited practice with him.
As to starters, B321 is solid. Advances forward a little, good string. Another string that can be somewhat tricky to pull off for some people (Ill go in to how I do it below) but is VERY important to Lao, very very, is 112124. Tricky to input until you get used to it, but LEARN it. To figure out what other strings you should be focusing on as starters, you can YouTube some tournament Lao players and watch what they like to use. If you didn't already know f0xy Grandpa is the best Lao (and possibly the best player period) in the world, so look him up on YouTube and watch what he does.
Another thing is learning to convert off the teleport. I BELIEVE his biggest damage comes off that, and it WILL land. Don't spam or abuse it like a fool and get blown up, but I see it used to great effect in high level play quite often. Its a great tool. Its not perfect, but it can do a ton of work for you, even if you aren't using it. Once your opponent knows that a teleport chunks 40% + of his life, it will drastically change what he's willing to do, and what he CAN do. I don't have a combo for you here, but I'm sure you can dig up a handful pretty quick.
ETC McFly made this video:
that you may want to check out, as it covers a TON of Lao combos.
In general, with any character, and especially if you're new to the game (I'm guessing you are since you asked about execution tips and such) don't get caught up in trying to learn 15 different combos. My advice to anyone new to ANY character is identify your important strings. Most characters really only have a handful that are actually useful, with the rest being fluff, so find your core strings first, then try to find a universal combo that will work with all your strings. Some strings and situations allow for different combos that optimize damage, but as a new player you don't need to worry about that. You have enough to keep track of as it is. I *THINK* the combo I listed above will work with any string canceled in to DB1, so its a decent place to start. If its not, or there is something easier out there, Im sure a Lao main will step in and correct me.
I break it down like this:
A) Identify your important normals with notes on what they are good for, and any 'tricks' they allow. For example, some normals on hit or block, may give you a specific amount of frame advantage and 'guarantee' a certain follow-up, putting your opponent in the position of HAVING to block your pressure after you land a particular normal. Kotal gets to go in to his B1 pressure after landing a successful D1, for instance. Understanding what your normals do is the foundation of your play. Sometimes MKX doesn't seem that way because it looks like its all huge juggles and snazzy combos, but the MOMENT you play another player who understands how to REALLY play the neutral game, you will realize really quickly how important this is. So, please, do yourself a favor and research your normals. You will have some you simply do not ever use, and you will have some that flat out win you the match. Get a notebook, take notes. Watch high level play and read the forums. You will find out pretty quickly what floats to the top and what sinks to the bottom.
B) Identify your important strings. Same as with normals, you will have lots of strings that are just fluff, and a handful of very important ones. You can find out the important ones really easily by watching some high level footage of your character being played. You'll see what the heavy hitters are using right away, as in most cases its only 2-4, possibly 5, strings that are worth half a damn. Find them out and spend some time with them. Learning how far some of them advance, how fast do they start? Which one(s) are safe/unsafe, etc. Spend some time in the lab just spamming them so they start becoming ingrained as muscle memory. Just familiarize yourself with them. Also, most characters have a string that is suitable for punishing. Something that starts up quick and has a little reach to it. Keep this string in mind and pay it a little extra special attention.
C) Learn your specials. *Most* characters use all,or almost all, of their special moves in one way or another. Spend some time learning what your moves REALLY do. How fast do they start? Armor? Invincible? Safe? Unsafe? This is similar to the strings section above. Spend time with them in the lab, learn the properties of each move and its EX version. Start to get an idea for why you would use this move, or that. Is a move suitable for neutral game use? Some teleports can be used to whiff punish in the neutral and grant combos for instance. Fireballs are an excellent example of a neutral-suitable special move. Is it something used to extent a combo? Ie, does the move juggle the opponent and allow you to keep attacking them? Maybe it grants a hard knockdown and splats them on the ground, allowing you to pressure them on wake-up? Or maybe its something like Cassie and JC's Nut Punch and it doesn't splat them, it keeps them standing, but with YOU at advantage so you can continue offense. learn 'em. Practice 'em.
D) At this point, I recommend semi-combining the three. You want to play some matches now. Head in and FOCUS on your normals and your strings. Not so much your specials. Get combos out of your mind for a bit. Your job should be using your normals and trying to set up for your strings. Don't spam special moves and do silly shit. Just work on blocking well and practicing your normals and your strings. remember that punish string we talked about? You want to work on using that whenever you can. If your opponent does something unsafe, you want to draw that thing like a gun. Punishing is tremendously important and this is the perfect time to work on it. As you do this, you'll start to understand how spacing effects everything you do. As you play more and more and more with a stripped down approach like this you will find yourself realizing WHY you're getting stuffed, or WHY you aren't and your stuff is getting through. You will start learning just WHERE to press what buttons and when. How far away you should be and what to do when you are too close or to far, to be effective. You will start seeing how something as simple as d4 checking can change the way your opponent moves and what he's willing to try. You can start to REALLY see and understand frame ad(dis)vantage. At this point you should only be using special moves to end your strings, and perhaps to occasionally whiff punish or try to break out of pressure (Lao's Ex Spin on wakeup to get a LK off you for example, just be careful and don't get baited). But seriously, the longer you play with your focus being solely on your normals and important strings, the more you will learn about the core of the game.
GOOD players seem to just magically LAND shit. Its like when you play a good player, they somehow always come out on top.. Every trade favors them, they always seem to beat out your moves and they always seem to beat you to the punch. This does not happen because that player knows the longest combo or the larger number of combos. That happens because the GOOD player understands everything that's happening. Where you are, where he/she is, EXACTLY what normal/string to use and when and why and how. I dont mean to keep harping on this, but SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many new players just want to do swaggy shit and think "Well ill figure this out and just learn it all at once" which is a mistake. Its too much. Unless you're a prodigy, a step by step approach that focuses on the CORE of the game for a prolonged period of time will pay out in results a hell of a lot more than a haphazard "I know a 60% combo but whats a normal and wtf is spacing I just spam my opener and hope it lands kthx"
Now,
E) Combos and conversions. One other thing that separates GOOD players from everyone else, if their ability to get damage off of everything. Someone, to use him again, like f0xy, can take a quarter MINIMUM of your life off of *any* touch. But don't focus too heavily on this up front. If you do, you end up saturated and overwhelmed with different combos and silliness. As I mentioned above, try to find a universal combo that will work off all your important strings. Don't worry about purely optimized damage., worry about reliability and consistency. I typically try to find three combo on a character at this point.. You want your BnB that works off your important strings/normals (some normals lead to combos just fine). You want a combo in your back pocket for punishing (beginning with the string we talked about earlier. This combo may be the same as your BnB.) and I usually look track down an air to air or anti air combo. If I win an Air to Air trade, land a NJP, or successfully anti-air, I like to know how to turn that in to reasonable damage. You may also want to look in to metered combos for more damage, depending on how your character uses meter. I didn't cover meter here because its use is a VERY character specific thing. Some characters have to use it for damage and to get combos at all. Kano is an example, he doesn't hit terribly hard without bar. Ermac is on the opposite end of the spectrum though and uses his meter for different purposes, as it does little to nothing to add damage, he uses his meter for utility and defensive purposes. Some characters use it to force situations that allow them to continue pressure or stay safe. It all depends. Dont stress it though, because if you've followed the steps outlined you should have a good idea by now of just what your character uses his/her meter for and why.
Now I just focus on these and go from there. Once these combos are second nature and so easy its ridiculous and you never drop them and etc etc etc, you just start adding. Look for ways to optimize the damage, or look for new combos that allow you to convert in to damage off situations you weren't before. Ideally, as you naturally evolve as a player the optimization stage comes on naturally. You *understand* your character, so you KNOW what you want to change and why.
The simple fact is, most people, even here, are just flow-charting their games. They read a forum post that said "Do this move then do this string then end it with this.". "When the other dude does this thing, you do this other thing with the stuff at the time". And so on. They read a post that said "OMG KOTALS D1 IS GDLYKE" So they spam it. They don't really understand why though.,. or what its doing for them. They saw St9rm use the shit out of B21 on Takeda, so they do too.. But they don't know *why*. they don't understand *when* to use it, what spacing is perfect, etc. They just know they saw it used or were told to use it, so they are using it.
The approach that I have outlined and recommend to my friends and most new players is meant to kind of bridge the gap between understanding and what someone tells you to do. I mentioned numerous times to watch high level play and read the forums, but I try to have you implement what you have seen and read in such a way that you understand WHY you're doing it and when its not appropriate or when better options exist, etc.
Ok this has been a damn book. I will try to type up something on execution tips and such a little later. you can PM me as well if you want to talk directly.
I will end this with a simple disclaimer: I am by no means a great player. I consider myself around average skill level in MKX, but, I am new to fighting games, only started with MKX and I have had a ton of ground to cover. The approach I have outlined is based on my conclusions while (incorrectly) learning MKX, and gradually refining my own approach to picking up new games. I have made every mistake I listed, and done everything as wrong as I can do it. Which is WHY I now know how to do it right, lol.
