New to Injustice/FGs and Could Use Guidance On Tactics

[Geezer]

Hello and thanks for reading.

Before I'm (wrongly) accused of not doing my homework, please know that I've spent a good number of hours already both practicing in game, watching Injustice videos and reading guides online. Now I'm struggling a bit to fill the information gaps, so I'm starting my first thread.

To give you a little background, excluding dabbling in Mortal Kombat in arcades way back in the early 90s, I have zero previous fighting game experience. I bought Injustice mainly because I liked the idea of applying comic heroes/villains to this genre (and I'm not even a particular fan of DC or comics in general). Essentially, the super moves looked cool.

Little did I know that I'd opened the door to the vast world of fighting games, with its bounce cancels, frame traps and hypercompetitive e-sports.

I have average hand-eye coordination and am in way over my head, but I'm enjoying myself nevertheless.

So, I've spent hours just cycling through moves, combos and strings, seeing what combines with what, which yields the highest damage, gauging distances, etc. And doing it again and again until I can repeat 10-move strings for 30-40% damage with some regularity.

Now I'm ready to unleash my skills on the A.I. opponent (not that I haven't gone through any fights, but it's not where I've spent the majority of my time). And I realize that I really don't have a sense of how one should approach combat in Injustice (and possibly most/all fighting games).

What do I mean by "approach combat"? Since this probably seems obvious to most and so a confusing question, I'll give an example. I watched videos of several players and they jump a lot more than I do. My sense was that jumping will often get you wrecked. But they seemed fairly effective at it. That said, they very often employed suboptimal combos that were poor choices situationally. I tend to spend a lot of my time blocking, which they didn't. Frankly, they seemed to move about with little rhyme or reason — they didn't seem to manage/control the space (like maneuvering their foe towards a transition or interactive object). Maybe they were mediocre, but they were winning battles on hard difficulty, so they were holding their own.

I wonder whether it's best to press your offense or focus heavily on defense and attack opportunistically. I also haven't been able to discover any way to interrupt a foe's combo once you're a victim of it (I end up just riding it out and taking a significant health hit). I don't understand "punishing" and how to tell if a move is "safe" or not (for example, I read that most of Green Lantern's combos are "unsafe," and I like him...he's easy to execute strings with, but how is a combo executed mid-string "unsafe"? Or are they referring to how you initiate the string? If so, why not lead with Lantern's Might or Oa's Rocket w/meter burn for either? Pretty sure that once you're bouncing, there's no stopping the juggling-string...or is there?). Is this a matter of long frame counts for a given combo, so if you're blocked, you're stuck in your animation and your foe has plenty of time to counter with a damaging option of his own (or can "punishing" occur without blocking first?)?

Since I can't find a video of anyone who is clearly an expert at fighting games fighting the A.I. (which is where I want to start, not vs. other players, which will have a different dynamic altogether), I'd appreciate any guidance on how to approach combat tactically and what techniques I should prioritize (recognizing that all techniques can be applied and this is at least somewhat situational).

If there are already threads/videos/articles on this, feel free to point the way. I'm not asking anyone to reinvent the wheel here.

Thanks very much for reading.

 

[Barrogh]

Good day and welcome

First of all, I'd suggest you to read up on FGs basics. It's not something that must be written specifically on IGAU, it helps to understand things at all. Try and you'll see all that material on IGAU you've mentioned differently.

For one, try this thread.
This one should be helpful too.

Now, to questions I can answer:

My sense was that jumping will often get you wrecked. But they seemed fairly effective at it.

Some characters have good air attacks, some have great anti-air attacks. Sometimes you can jump when an opponent isn't in a position to antiair. Sometimes you can anticipate him doing something that doesn't hit air and counter his possible move with jumping. Ofc he can be baiting jump... But that's another story.

I tend to spend a lot of my time blocking, which they didn't. Frankly, they seemed to move about with little rhyme or reason — they didn't seem to manage/control the space (like maneuvering their foe towards a transition or interactive object). Maybe they were mediocre, but they were winning battles on hard difficulty, so they were holding their own.

I suggest you to watch people playing other people. Figthing AI is like another game at once. Speaking on movement, people tend to stay in position (mostly it's about range) that allows them to use certain attacks while denying opponents their advantageous position. You need to know different characters and what they can do from what range to see how exactly they try to threaten their opponent by moving the way they do. Closest relevant discussion I can find is probably here.

I wonder whether it's best to press your offense or focus heavily on defense and attack opportunistically.

That depends on your playstyle and matchup. Some characters want to stay on other characters, others would prefer to wait for opponent to make mistake, then some can take health lead and then play super patiently. Depends on mindset of player and tools that allow some characters do something the best. That said, a lot of IGAU characters geared with tools that more or less allow them to play differently, depending on situation.

I also haven't been able to discover any way to interrupt a foe's combo once you're a victim of it (I end up just riding it out and taking a significant health hit).

Combo breaker in this game is called "wager" or "clash", can only be used once per match, and only when you are in red health bar. Yellow stripe above health bar indicates availability of clash. You can find a lot of info on game's basics here, so I won't go in-depth here.

I don't understand "punishing" and how to tell if a move is "safe" or not (for example, I read that most of Green Lantern's combos are "unsafe," and I like him...he's easy to execute strings with, but how is a combo executed mid-string "unsafe"?

Here's why I suggest to learn basic FGs terms and mech first.
"Unsafe" may mean a lot of things.
"Unsafe on block" is the most basic source of "unsafety", it means that your opponent can start a combo on you with impunity if he blocks said move and you are within his reach. In order to understand why, you can read on what frame data is and how to understand it (but basically it's because opponent that blocks unsafe move can act earlier than you, while you are still recovering from said move and cannot do anything yet, including blocking).
Sometimes people will refer to other things as unsafe, even if it doesn't have anything to do with blocking. Basically, if you do something and your opponent can react to it offensively or it's realistic for him to expect you to do it and be prepared for it, and if in this case he has means to damage you for your trouble - it's "unsafe".

Punishing often refers to damaging your opponent for things like doing unsafe stuff and failing at it, or for behaving predictably (or both), for example.

You actually said it yourself:

Is this a matter of long frame counts for a given combo, so if you're blocked, you're stuck in your animation and your foe has plenty of time to counter with a damaging option of his own (or can "punishing" occur without blocking first?)?

An example of punishing without blocking would be spacing out (or jumping over, or something else) so that opponent's attack misses completely and hit him while he's in recovery. Or starting an attack so that it hits your opponent out of his dash, this effectively punishing him for dashing (dashes in IGAU are pretty much "unsafe" as they have recovery animation you can't interrupt to block incoming stuff).

 

[The Great One]

Play Martian. Things will come naturally to you

 

[Mikemetroid]

Play Martian. Things will come naturally to you

this is why we can't have nice things

 

[Geezer]

First, thanks for the replies, especially to Barrogh for his thorough one.

You managed to answer a number of my key questions; thank you. Now I just need to work on the rhythm, so to speak. At this point, I can manage somewhat involved combos against a static or very easy opponent, and I can manage to fight more or less fluidly against a medium opponent, but I can't really do both. I'll practice the combo over and over in practice mode only to blow it more or less every time in actual combat. That's the nature of pressure messing with your timing, etc.

My greatest frustration with the game at this point is the controls. I'm playing on PC (which runs very smoothly) and I initially tried IGAU with my Xbox 360 controller for windows. The d-pad was a disaster. I then migrated to the keyboard, which, though it may seem heretical to some fighting game fans, actually works fairly well and is clearly superior to the d-pad in many ways (bounce cancels are a good example — I can execute them flawlessly even in the space of a single hit). There are some awkward combinations, however, and I'm getting quite frustrated by the extra keypresses the game seems to detect when I'm clearly not pressing the button more than the required number of times. I believe this has something to do with the autorepeat sensitivity, which I'm working to fix.

But now I think I need to turn my focus away from long strings — rewarding as they are to pull off successfully — to more fighting game basics. While juggling is obviously valuable for damaging the opponent while denying them any opening to respond, I think it's more important that I work on the flow and defense, especially dodging and jump-dodging. My jumping at present is especially poor, as I've spent very little time gauging the distances from fighter to foe.

I'll stick with it, as I can see that fighting games are one of the most successful implementations of video game tech on a PC/console. I'm also considering investing in a special controller like a fightstick or Hitbox; however, these are so expensive that it's hard to justify a purchase without knowing whether I'll take to it.

Thanks again,

Geezer

 

[KidVanDal]

There are some awkward combinations, however, and I'm getting quite frustrated by the extra keypresses the game seems to detect when I'm clearly not pressing the button more than the required number of times. I believe this has something to do with the autorepeat sensitivity, which I'm working to fix.

Try turning release check off in your controller preset, that could solve the problem with the extra key presses.

I gathered you like lantern the most and as a lantern main I think it's very seldom justifiable to use bounce cancels due the amount of bar it drains vs the damage you get out of it. It's not worth it. And most of the strings you can bounce cancel also cancel into lanterns might wich you can mb for a free b3 (wall bounce).

If you need more tips on lantern, read the guides in his forum here on TYM.