General/Other - Mileena Need advice beefing up my Mileena defense (and dropping the YOLO mentality lol)

[BeastOfManila]

Hi folks,

I admit I tend to be more YOLO on the rolling compared to the average Mileena player.

1. any advice on how to improve my blocking of hi/lo mixups?

Mixups I tend to have problems with:

Sonya (overhead starter and low starter).
Cassie
Ermac (yes...I know...)
Scorpion vortex

Are there visual cues the human eye can process that should signal if I block hi/low or mash d1/roll?

2. when to block, when to interrupt with a roll, when to counterpoke with d3 and when to mash d1 to "get them off me"?

Strings that tend to give me problems:
Takeda's kunai strings
Cassie's b12>4 or b12>cartwheel strings
Alien
other strings I should be aware of?

thanks in advance!

 

[CrazyFingers]

Ok! So on the dropping the YOLO mentality, play games where you do not use ball roll or teleport AT ALL besides in combos. When you feel you're ready to start pacing yourself with those tools, start using them in different situations. Keep doing this on and off till you have it down quite well. If you don't have the YOLO move, you can't go YOLO yeah?

 

[Carl]

Hello the first thing is tge training room is your best friend as well as tym.

It seems you have no neutral or spacing and i recommend watching foxy grandpas mileena to see how he uses her defence and spaces himself out to whiff punish as her b1 is one of the best mids in the game and a good stagger tool.

If there is a character that bothers you its important to hit the lab and work on specific things about that character that target your weakness.

Even though say sonya overhead/low has a gap. If your spacing is correct when she does a jumpin 1 because of the distance, she has to use the overhead/low string rather than the low string. So its important to not have a closeup game with characters like demo sonya or johnny alist for example.

Its good to ask for advice and hope this helps.

 

[Tanno]

Everyone has had his YOLO mentality. The trick is to NOT use the roll at all. Consider this roll being the oki. Do not use any oki moves that are risky and late to recover on block. Try different moves that give a lot of pressure and a fast recover on block. You need to consider having different enders and midders in every combo.

i.e.: As Sub Zero mainer, instead of using the slide, which is an oki, I use the Frost Bomb. So I think of changing the combo like this.

B12~Slide into B12~Frost Bomb.

It's only a psychological matter to get rid of this mentality. Like @Carl said, just go to Practice mode and lab on those combos and moves to replace the roll.

Good luck.

 

[ILuvFightGames]

Honestly I think there's no way of practice against 50/50 mixups, that's why they're called 50/50's, there's no practice only guesses. Just try to look for any patterns that is all you can do.

 

[MadeOfMetal]

Hi folks,

I admit I tend to be more YOLO on the rolling compared to the average Mileena player.

1. any advice on how to improve my blocking of hi/lo mixups?

Mixups I tend to have problems with:

Sonya (overhead starter and low starter).
Cassie
Ermac (yes...I know...)
Scorpion vortex

Are there visual cues the human eye can process that should signal if I block hi/low or mash d1/roll?

2. when to block, when to interrupt with a roll, when to counterpoke with d3 and when to mash d1 to "get them off me"?

Strings that tend to give me problems:
Takeda's kunai strings
Cassie's b12>4 or b12>cartwheel strings
Alien
other strings I should be aware of?

thanks in advance!

The Roll and when to use it!
All you have to do is never use the roll unless you hit confirm into it, or simply punish a negative string that Roll will reach in time. or maybe on reads that you know the player tends to poke out of turn, since mileena roll will go through most moves.

thats the end of the rolling, never do it outside of that.

Blocking Mixups
as for blocking OH's and Low mixups, there is no special ability to see them coming. they are faster than your eye can see. you can learn a players tendencies and Make Reads and block them that way, but what you should be focusing on as a Mileena player is footsies.

Footsies and the Mileena Strategy
She has B12 and F23 and F4 and EX Ball Roll. All of these share something in common. Massive range, B12 is unique it has great range pluss make's a lot of moves wiff her B12 Hurt-box with that small hit-box of hers, and you can abuse this, try to Step back after each attempt to get out of the range of the very few characters that can D4 through each attempt, and then take another stab at B12 then mix it up every now and then, it has an OS or Option select on it. B1 cancels into her specials like Low Sai and EX ball roll for mix-up, So Does B12 into anything. So be creative, But don't do it too often the same Way we don't want to telegraph what we are doing next with mileena. Whats great about this range is aside from a handful of match-ups and Alien, no one can touch her there, and whats great is she has the advantage because she can touch them with all the tools I stated Above and once again here they are: F23/B12/F44/Ball Roll/EX Ball Roll.

Your Main Focus with Mileena up close
Your main focus with Mileena is Space Control, keep them at B12 range and if they ever get in some how, you have that super fast D1 slap backhand poke. That thing is unreal and immediately gives her the turn and proority to make a move. If thats not good enough she has a decent hard to counter D3 which has decent range as well. And never underestimate her D4 range it is a bit slower, but its still damn fast and no-one is gonna React to it. so use that to keep them out and back into B12 range.

Zoning with Mileena
And if they start Zoning you, you have some of the best Zoning in this game With Low Sai/High Sai and a get in quick tool that has Block-stun that is very hard to punish on reaction Known as DD3 or tele kick. That move used in synchronicity with Low Sais and High Sais she is a force to be reckoned with, far away as well as medium range and up close This Character is not to be underestimated.

Mileena Perception and Tier Placement
Sometimes you will come across a Mileena player that believes she sucks balls, and just doesn't have what it takes to beat the cast. This is incorrect and false information, and very understandable, because any main of any character feels the weaknesses of their character in a greater way than they do the characters Strengths. this is common practice. But i am here to tell you through this mini tutorial on Mileena that she has tools to handle Every character in the cast.

She can handle Zoning, Up Close, Full screen, Medium Space Control Range. Vortexs, Restands, Heavy Mixup charcters, Rushdown characters, Space Control characters. She shines in all aspects, and this is because she has unique tools to deal with them. Don't be mistaken Piercing is not her only and best pick for all macthups, I tended to use Piercing The most because it is well balanced variation. But we will talk about that in the next Section.

Variations and which one to pick for match-ups.
Mileena Piercing is the all around balanced variation, covers Zoning, Medium range footsies and Close up. this is because she gains the following tools to help in these situation's: B12, Low Sai, and of course B21-2+4 Combo ender which does the most damage of all of them. and a stagger string F1-2+4-1+3 this one can lock them in corner in a weird way, but i wont get into that.

Piercing continued:
B12 is used for space control to keep them at a safe range that they can't reach you at, Very strong tool, Don't underestimate it! Low Sai is a very very strong tool, that for some characters like Kenshi Balanced is a Game ender win all move. anything that low profiles Kenshis BF3 Tele-Flurry Zoning tool is a bad thing for him. and she uses this against a notable amount of match-ups. helps counter zone and win the trades. Then we have B21-2+4 this puts Piercing in another bracket ahead of the other two because it does more damage, and since this game is so punish heavy doing more damage on each conversion is very important and gives the edge to Mileena.


Ravenous and when to use it:
This variation is great and has very unique tools within that help in a lot of situations, Low Pounce and High Pounce are two key moves in this variation and then are are extenders to combo enders that are in this variation that others lack, Which boosts damage and how Negative or Positive you are at the end of the Combo, and that is uber important. You can basically spam High punce on your opponent and it has so little recovery and is so fast that it is a scary tool and you should utilize this move in your Ground to Air Combos and use it to AA Crossovers as well, that and U+3 works to stop Crossovers. Ravenous is the Anti Rushdown variation and works very well.

Ethereal and When to use this Variation and why its important:
This variation is a new brand of anti Zoning Pressure and anti Space control, This one Brings her Signature move Fade into battle, and this move is Like no other, it blinks out of the match and brings her Hit-box/Hurt-box with her, meaning, when she Fades she is not gonna get hurt while she is tapped out of the plain of the field. Why is this important you ask, well That is because she can use it to get in on Zoner's easily, She can Escape things no other character can like Vortexes, Cancel Pressure, Corner Traps and the best thing about it, is when you Meter this move to do so, Its your turn, and you can use Normals linked to FADE and keeps the pressure up. Enemy's Ethreal - Mileena, its never your turn if Mileena Has meter in Ethereal!



with all of this said she is an oki setup character and has F1 to break armor, abuse this move, you can hit confirm into F12B4 and mixup with sai or roll at end if you confirm hit and repeat combo, i like to end them in jik tele kick sai so i can run up and F1 before they can armor wakeup. keep that in mind just a friendly tip.

Hope this helps!



Mix-ups and blocking them continued:

Each character has different ones, and Playing a consistent opponent as in a friend who plays them that specific character well is a good start, you can play them sets of 20 until you start blocking those moves and get used to the animations. on top of when you play someone better than you, Record your matches with your DVR feature and Find what opened you up, what special tactics did they use to do it. and whats your flaws. work on those in Practice mode and with your friends, Replicate them as best as you can in the LAB set AI to record and play which move counters until you find best punisher's for gaps and whatever move they constantly abuse on you. and repeat this process on every opponent that beats you consistently. and as long as you are playing your best game and not throwing out punishable moves you should be improving over time.


I used Mileena when the game first came out, Short story she got alot of buffs and my brother mains her along with Reptile, and well we have this thing that we will not use eachothers characters. so i went on to other characters until Cyrax came out and im somehow using Kenshi Balanced/Kenjutsu as my main and Cyrax as a secondary. Damn if i think about it she got close to 27 buffs or sumshit. OMG we must have downplayed the shit out of her to get that treatment, now she is Top 5 easy. you picked a good character. hope she works for you and you stick it out.

 

[tafka Djinn]

stuff

Why are you using the term oki like that? Is there some sort of secret new FGC slang I missed out on when I said I wasn't going to TCW anymore?

 

[Tanno]

Why are you using the term oki like that? Is there some sort of secret new FGC slang I missed out on when I said I wasn't going to TCW anymore?

These terms are around in Fighting Games. If you had read the Raiden thread discussion, you would understand. I'm not the only one knowing about them. Half of the TYM guys know about them. :/

 

[tafka Djinn]

more stuff

No. I mean why are you using the term in that sense, because either you're a moron, or sudden developments in the communally agreed definitions have happened.

 

[meanzuga]

You're not using the term oki, short for okizeme properly

"oki" refers to the mindgame that follows any knockdown, but most often/ideally a hard knockdown with many plus frames because it limits opponent's options and expands your own. "Oki" is, in essence, bullying your opponent when they are knocked down.

Are you going to respect their wakeup and punish them big for doing an unsafe wakeup? Or do you guess that they wont wake up, and hit them with a 50/50 or go into blockstring pressure? Will they delay their wakeup? If so, how do you plan to counter it? Will you use an armor breaking string to negate a wakeup? Should you go for a flash parry to bait and punish their wakeup? Etc.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Scorpion's vortex isn't a true 50/50. Spend time with him in the lab and learn to react to F4.

 

[Saltea Moonspell]

Old habits die hard
"PL", the YOLO master.

 

[BeastOfManila]

thanks guys. will need to lab some more for sure. will try to get vids if i can.

 

[TheGabStandard]

thanks guys. will need to lab some more for sure. will try to get vids if i can.

The long and potentially boring method I did to stop YOLO rolling was to run through traditional towers through all difficulties and banned myself from using Roll outside of combos. If I do a Roll in the neutral at any time I would quit the tower at the current difficulty and start again until I ran through all of them. A little long but it helped me so it might help others.

 

[Tanno]

The long and potentially boring method I did to stop YOLO rolling was to run through traditional towers through all difficulties and banned myself from using Roll outside of combos. If I do a Roll in the neutral at any time I would quit the tower at the current difficulty and start again until I ran through all of them. A little long but it helped me so it might help others.

Sounds like a good testing session to fix this psychological problem doing the wrong moves, like the roll.

 

[SneakyTortoise]

Everyone has had his YOLO mentality. The trick is to NOT use the roll at all. Consider this roll being the oki. Do not use any oki moves that are risky and late to recover on block. Try different moves that give a lot of pressure and a fast recover on block. You need to consider having different enders and midders in every combo.

i.e.: As Sub Zero mainer, instead of using the slide, which is an oki, I use the Frost Bomb. So I think of changing the combo like this.

B12~Slide into B12~Frost Bomb.

It's only a psychological matter to get rid of this mentality. Like @Carl said, just go to Practice mode and lab on those combos and moves to replace the roll.

Good luck.

What do you think oki means?

 

[Baconlord]

I try to make sure everyone of my rolls has a reason for it. Like I think they'll do this and roll will beat or if I react to something. If you just throw out a roll because you don't know what to do then that's a bad roll but if you get more and more familiar with situations that roll works in you'll find that the number of random rolls you do will go down.