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Video/Tutorial SaBiie's Smoke Video Thread

PeeJaeys

Sabi
Ok, I don't know if this is where it belongs, but hopefully it is. I'm asking the community for help. I've tried asking for help, but I don't really learn unless it's hands on and visually stimulating. So, I figure I post videos of my worst games, hoping that you guys could help me out. I don't mind harsh critism, so long as it's constructive. And if any of you guys would like to put videos up here, or put up response videos I would love that. If you have any other questions, just look and the video description. Thanks!

First Video


This is just funny LOL

Second Video

My BnB combos
 

JHCRANE 14

GO VOLS!!!
Overall your a good smoke player. I don't have any videos to post, sorry. My only 2 cents would be use you EX teleport punch on wake up more and when you land the jump kick air throw, throw an EX smoke cloud every once in a while when you have spare meter for the 10% unscaled damage, but thats just my opinion. Hope this helped.
 

Altsa

2 things:

1st. Random teleport punches for the love of god - dont do those. Reward doing those = taking 8%, risk doing those = losing 30-50%. Make sure it hits (for example when opponent wiffs an attack) or only wiff it after air throw for pressure.

2nd. For some reason your combos were very short, almost every combo I saw you could have gotten 10%+ more very easily. I dont know if this was a fear dropping the combo while playing online but to be honest, smoke combos aren´t THAT hard.
 

G4S KT

Gaming4Satan Founder
Yea, I think overall your Smoke is solid. However, there are some things that you can add in and take out that will enhance your game.

First, the good things. Your use of tp was really good. Using it to punish aggression on wakeup and random jumps, as well as wiffed on ground for oki and air for cross up. I don't remember seeing it blocked and punished once. You also have decent setups and opened your opponents up pretty often. Your use of smoke drift was at times really good and at other times not so good, but I'll go into that in a second.


Some things you can incorporate:

  • longer combos. once you get those openings your combos were a bit too short as stated above. Take some time and master the combo I pm'ed you; that way if you score a jpunch, you can do 42%.
  • More footsies/down pokes, especially sweeps and the d+4 > b+2,3 trap. d+1 traps after a blocked smokebomb, which is especially good to know.
  • EX shake. This is how I spend most of my meter. Just within the last few weeks I've started incorporating this very heavily into my game and it's working out great so far. It's an amazing tool against crossups, rushdown, and to prevent punishment if they end up with advantage
  • linking smoke drift after normals. Linking a smoke drift after normals/combos can work out really well; on hit it tech chases and on block it crosses up. However, it's not entirely safe so be careful.
Things you can take out:

  • using regular smoke drift as a vehicle to initiate an attack. This is actually how you are taking a lot of damage in the video. Now, I know that if you've read Tom Brady's living guide on Smoke, the way he words his description of the drift is very deceptive; he makes it sound like it's more or less safe. It's actually extremely unsafe and Smoke is easily knocked out of it. Therefore, trying to approach into attack distance almost never works. That being said, your use of it to control spacing is pretty good. keep doing that.
  • Smoke bombing from close range. This is the other thing that's causing you to take a lot of damage. I would say if you're any closer than half screen don't check them with it from neutral because it can be punished. However, you did punish the cyber subs counter once with it from point blank range with it for a full combo. that was pretty hype. You also have to be aware of what the opponent's wake up options are before throwing one at them on wake up. Raiden can hit you with superman if you try and smokebomb on wake up and it's not perfect. I'm actually not a fan of throwing bombs on wakeup. I prefer to oki with tp or drift, but that's just me.
  • jumping. I would suggest taking it easy on the jumps. This is an easy habit to get into (jumping around all over) with any character but it's extremely dangerous. Try limiting yourself to jumping only when it's a safe jump, like when you have advantage or at a wiffed move.
  • This last thing is probably a personal thing, but I'll include it anyway. I never ever try and stutter string with Smoke's non-down poke normals. They're pretty slow and it's easy to get out of and punish. Smoke seems to me to be built to do damage in large chunks; to be tricky with your setups and do a chunk of damage then pressure and try and keep the ball rolling by reading your opponent and to back off if they get you off them. I feel like trying to get all up in their face like that is counter productive.
So, this post turned out a lot longer than I expected lol. Hope it helps. From here, you just need to gain experience against specific characters and how to handle them. Knowing your opponent's move sets and situational options is just as important, if not more important, than knowing your own.
 

PeeJaeys

Sabi
Altsa - Yeah, theres a reason for that. Visually, I guessitmate whether or not my combo will pay off. The thing is that, online, it's like I feel my combos aren't going to go through. For some reason, it'll like stutter and the opponent will either fall faster than usual, or slower. But I will work on not dropping anymore. And the random teleports, your right. I get jittery. I noticed right away I need to stop random tele's.

Phyrron- Yeah, your right on a lot of those. The foward phase when used subtly works wonders and catches them offgaurd. But I noticed I become very predictable. Not good. Read everything you wrote but it would take too long to reply specifically to everything you wrote. But! I learned a lot. =]

This is turning out to be a good idea after all. If anyone wants to incorporate anything with their smoke, add it away!
 

G4S KT

Gaming4Satan Founder
Altsa - Yeah, theres a reason for that. Visually, I guessitmate whether or not my combo will pay off. The thing is that, online, it's like I feel my combos aren't going to go through. For some reason, it'll like stutter and the opponent will either fall faster than usual, or slower. But I will work on not dropping anymore. And the random teleports, your right. I get jittery. I noticed right away I need to stop random tele's.

Phyrron- Yeah, your right on a lot of those. The foward phase when used subtly works wonders and catches them offgaurd. But I noticed I become very predictable. Not good. Read everything you wrote but it would take too long to reply specifically to everything you wrote. But! I learned a lot. =]

This is turning out to be a good idea after all. If anyone wants to incorporate anything with their smoke, add it away!
Glad I could help. Maybe you didn't get hit out of smoke drift as much as it seemed, but it was the very first thing that happened in the video so it really stuck out in my mind.
 

Jamison

Noob
Most has been said but here are some repeats and additional tips:

Test out your opponent with the teleport punch if they continually forget to block then continue using it heavily, but most opponenets will continually block it so you need to use it as defense not offense.

Smoke bomb is great wake up attack or long range HORRIBLE close range.

Jabs not that great, but Smoke has the FASTEST sweep in the game which is great for quick plink damage, especially since most opponents use standing block when facing Smoke, it also is an awesome anti teleport move, especially to Raiden opponents etc.

2,1, Smoke Bomb if 2,1 doesn't land abort the bomb.

Smoke drift forward almost always a fail, use is for spacing which is normally away from your opponent.

Shake is a good asset which I saw none of, especially against zone happy Subs with Ice ball.

Combos: 3 D1 2 Throw 21% even online you can squeze out an additional string of 3 d1 2 or even the easier 3, 2

3, D1, 2 dash 3,2 smoke bomb right before they hit the ground, then do your air throw or 1 telepunch, this can be done consistently online

Finally knowing your opponent.

Each character is different and should be dealt with differently, I saw too much of the same gameplay with all the opponents, but this takes the most time to develop.

Overall, glad you are playing Smoke great character to learn and a lot of fun once mastered, good luck, shoot me an invite if I am on.
 
nice thread sabiie... The only thing that I can contribute is from my little experience of playing you. Like you said you get predictable... try mixing it up more and add a footse game
 

galindo

Noob
Sup bro, only thing I could add is that I feel you need to work on your jumping. I'm usually slow to react, but it felt like I usually beat you to the punch. And it felt like you jumped alot.

Cool video too
 

Alithvia

Ice Clone.
Don't have a PS3, so I can't spar with you on there, but I have seen you on 360. If you are looking for some practice against a Sub-Zero or Kenshi, send me a friend request.
 

SZSR

Noob
Yeah people have already said it here but i'll reiterate, you have to make people respect the Shake and :en Shake, that thing has saved my life on numerous occasions. People typically don't respect the Shake and get hurt from it. Don't be afraid to throw out a :en Smoke Bomb a few times (like 1 or 2) while your opponent is turtling, it chips so people don't like to see that health go down, which makes them very impetuous to attack, that is where you punish hard with optimal combos. Optimal combos again as already said in the thread, is something you're not doing, I usually do mid to high 30's (which you need to learn more of, I think if Pyrrhon PMed you, they should be good combos) just so that people become hesitant on attacking you so brashly. Then they back off, and then you chip them again, and then they come in and then you punish, ad nauseum. I can't judge your oki, but you should (as again already said in the thread) try to d+4, b+2, 3 trap to help combo off your opponent hesitant at getting up, you should also be trying your hardest for that 10% untechable :en Smoke bomb, it'll save you if you keep chipping off your opponent. And keep doing that rushdown too, mixing up a pseudo-zoning strategy with your rushdown as well, will confuse your opponents to no end. It makes them think twice about how they will approach you.

Additionally, learning your matchups which Apocalips has made a good thread on matchups. It might be a little outdated but the strategies are the same (if not very similar).

Also, look closely at Cabibi's how to play Smoke thread and the thread which outlines all of the :en Shake exceptions, it'll be very useful to read.
 

PeeJaeys

Sabi
I love it. I've done what a lot of you guys have recommended and it improved my smoke game a lot. I still suffer from the occasional random teleport and phase in. But I tend to commit to my combos. Just that lag makes it pretty hard sometimes to time the fall properly. I'll be taking all your advices to heart and in a few days will post some of my games using what you guys said to do. =]

-Galindo Yeah I know for some reason I feel like I hit first, but it doesn't come out. Idk, whenever your on if your good on it we can practice. I'll play a diff character as well, trying to learn other characters, hopefully it'll improve my game.

-Alithivia I'd greatly appreaciate it. I've seen you in action. I would love to, I'll get my Xbox this week.

-Spirament I try sometimes, but I honestly feel like smoke is terrible upclose. TERRIBLE. I'm going to try.

-Jamieson Rad everything you wrote and I've started incorporating what you wrote.

- Thanks guys!
 

ETC AdmiralAugustus

Grabble Frazzled
Why am I not in this video?!??! lololol

I really like that teleport punch after a knockdown. I don't play smoke, but I'm guessing that shit is armored on the EX version??
 

Kwon

---->----
Ok, I don't know if this is where it belongs, but hopefully it is. I'm asking the community for help. I've tried asking for help, but I don't really learn unless it's hands on and visually stimulating. So, I figure I post videos of my worst games, hoping that you guys could help me out. I don't mind harsh critism, so long as it's constructive. And if any of you guys would like to put videos up here, or put up response videos I would love that. If you have any other questions, just look and the video description. Thanks!

First Video
You would have won the second round (and the first match!) if you had intercepted better after your popup at 01:26! :)
Either with a kick or throw!

It's all about reaction! :)

You are fast with your teleports and the d3 after a blocked kombo, that's great stuff.
 

PeeJaeys

Sabi
Yeah, Im going to put up a video soon to show you guys I've listened, but I want to play better players. The harder to play against the better. I feel you can only get better by losing to players better than you.
 
I think it's pretty simple. Once you get a life lead, RUN LIKE HELL. It's a very turtley, slow matchup... Block a lot and punish. You almost don't even want to telepunch at all.
 

G4S KT

Gaming4Satan Founder
Does anyone have/can get a hold of videos of Crazy Dominican Jr. playing Smoke recently? He's repping Smoke now at the level I knew Smoke was capable of since launch date
 

PeeJaeys

Sabi
Admiral- yeah i remember getting RAPEd by his pale hands. =[
Phyrron- Any video? I wanna see. I'm starting to notice a couple of people getting it in with smoke now. At decent levels. BTW I'm going to add you, so you could show me what YOU know. Or tactics you like to use for specific characters. If you don't mind? =D I have sort of a mic.