I hit a wall with this game, but Idk what it is. Or how to get over it.

[POWERDRAGON6]

First I wanna say I'm new to the DOA community, so nice to meet you.

Regarding fighting games in general I'm no newbie. But this game is really hard to get a hang of. I would say my biggest problem is defense and the fact that I tend to go on auto pilot during matches, so I become predictable, I'm not sure how to break this habit, I don't feel like I'm getting any better.

What in gods name am I supposed to do when stunned? I know this question has probably been asked a lot but I really need to hear it from you guys on this site. I wouldn't really appreciate trolly answers like "just block" "are you randomly spamming hold?"

I'm eventually going to get stunned from counter hit sometime, is that gg after that? How in the world am I supposed to anticipate what someone wants to do? Button mashers and people with obvious attack patterns are no biggie for me, but what about a crazy Helena or Alpha player who mixes it up so good?

Some attacks come out so fast half the time Idk what the hell is happening or how i got stunned, especially from Akira or Kasumi

I really do feel like holding is just a guessing game, that's one reason why I know a lot of people turn away from this series. Is there something that high level players are doing to minimize risks that I'm not aware of? I know I probably sound like I'm complaining but there is a little venting going on here. I'm extremely seasoned in Street fighter and Tekken. But the experience from those games don't help at all.

Is online just a bad place to be getting experience in general?

 

[KING JAIMY]

First I wanna say I'm new to the DOA community, so nice to meet you.

Welcome to FSD / DOA! I hope I can help you improve by giving the tips listed below.

Regarding fighting games in general I'm no newbie. But this game is really hard to get a hang of. I would say my biggest problem is defense and the fact that I tend to go on auto pilot during matches, so I become predictable, I'm not sure how to break this habit, I don't feel like I'm getting any better.

If you feel like you're too predictable, your best option would be to go to training again (as obvious as it sounds). Try to remember the full set of moves of your main character (in your case Leifang) by doing Command Training and get the hang of her combos in Combo Challenge. Regarding Leifang, you say that your defense is a problem of yours. Well... I have to disappoint you. Leifang is without a doubt one of the characters who is extremely reliant on defense. If your defense is poor, then you are out of luck playing Leifang effectively. You can improve your defense in several ways:

- Improve your guarding. This is best done by learning the characters' movestrings. This will come over time and with experience; you'll learn when to block and how to block each movestring. If you guard something, you're usually at advantage and thus it is your turn to attack.
- Work on slow / stagger escaping. This is the most consistent option to escape out of a stun. You do it by holding H (guard) and spinning circles on your D-pad or Analog Stick.
- Improve your holds. Also known as 'counter holds' or just 'counters'. Holds are a pretty unique part of DOA. It is a defensive option and can be used in many ways to counter your opponents' strikes (punches and kicks). Upon a successful hold, you will inflict damage to your opponent. Some characters have Expert Holds (Leifang is an example of someone with Expert Holds). They are trickier to pull of but will give you a greater advantage in battle. Caution: A lot of newer players tend to over-rely on holds when they are stunned. Then you are asking for a Hi-Counter Throw, more often than not worsening your situation. Try to predict which move your opponent is going to do next and adapt to the situation. Mindlessly throwing out holds is not a good idea.
- Use parries if your character has them. Leifang is a character with both special parries and regular parries. Study them, as they can give you a tremendous advantage in battle. The main advantage of parries compared to holds is that they cover more guessing options (e.g. a parry catches both mid punches and high punches, whereas a hold catches only one of these options depending on what kind of hold it is). A disadvantage is that they can't be used during stun.

What in gods name am I supposed to do when stunned? I know this question has probably been asked a lot but I really need to hear it from you guys on this site. I wouldn't really appreciate trolly answers like "just block" "are you randomly spamming hold?"

I'm eventually going to get stunned from counter hit sometime, is that gg after that? How in the world am I supposed to anticipate what someone wants to do? Button mashers and people with obvious attack patterns are no biggie for me, but what about a crazy Helena or Alpha player who mixes it up so good?

The biggest part about DOA is landing the stun. However, it is by no means over for you when you get stunned. Slow escaping imo is the best defensive option to escape the stun. Mix-ups are almost always a thing, however no one is perfect in his play. There will always be patterns in your opponents's play, no matter what. Try to read and remember them. Holds become pretty useful when you've figured out your opponent's patterns during stun.

Some attacks come out so fast half the time Idk what the hell is happening or how i got stunned, especially from Akira or Kasumi

Try to remember those moves. More importantly, study them --> Is it unsafe on block? How fast is it exactly? How often does my opponent use these moves? By analyzing thing such as this, you can improve in no time. Being patient works wonders too: Sometimes you should stay out of their effective range and whiff punish them, for example.

I really do feel like holding is just a guessing game, that's one reason why I know a lot of people turn away from this series. Is there something that high level players are doing to minimize risks that I'm not aware of? I know I probably sound like I'm complaining but there is a little venting going on here. I'm extremely seasoned in Street fighter and Tekken. But the experience from those games don't help at all.

DOA revolves more around mindgames than any other fighting game. There is much less emphasis on execution and the like. This may make it look like a guessing game on the surface (in fact, it is to some extent) but it is more about reading and reacting. There's no real way to minimize risks besides practicing the game.

Is online just a bad place to be getting experience in general?

Yes and no. The ''no'' obviously goes for the extreme amount of lag experienced by most players. It makes the game unfair. Especially since everything is so situational and lag can make the difference between no hold or a Hi-Counter Hold. The ''yes'' would apply to improving your mindgame and getting used to different playstyles. You learn more from human opponents than from the CPU, after all. But it is most important to remember that online will always be inferior to offline play against human opponents.

 

[DestructionBomb]

Question POWERDRAGON.

Are you a visual learner or written learner?

 

[POWERDRAGON6]

Welcome to FSD / DOA! I hope I can help you improve by giving the tips listed below.


If you feel like you're too predictable, your best option would be to go to training again (as obvious as it sounds). Try to remember the full set of moves of your main character (in your case Leifang) by doing Command Training and get the hang of her combos in Combo Challenge. Regarding Leifang, you say that your defense is a problem of yours. Well... I have to disappoint you. Leifang is without a doubt one of the characters who is extremely reliant on defense. If your defense is poor, then you are out of luck playing Leifang effectively. You can improve your defense in several ways:

- Improve your guarding. This is best done by learning the characters' movestrings. This will come over time and with experience; you'll learn when to block and how to block each movestring. If you guard something, you're usually at advantage and thus it is your turn to attack.
- Work on slow / stagger escaping. This is the most consistent option to escape out of a stun. You do it by holding H (guard) and spinning circles on your D-pad or Analog Stick.
- Improve your holds. Also known as 'counter holds' or just 'counters'. Holds are a pretty unique part of DOA. It is a defensive option and can be used in many ways to counter your opponents' strikes (punches and kicks). Upon a successful hold, you will inflict damage to your opponent. Some characters have Expert Holds (Leifang is an example of someone with Expert Holds). They are trickier to pull of but will give you a greater advantage in battle. Caution: A lot of newer players tend to over-rely on holds when they are stunned. Then you are asking for a Hi-Counter Throw, more often than not worsening your situation. Try to predict which move your opponent is going to do next and adapt to the situation. Mindlessly throwing out holds is not a good idea.
- Use parries if your character has them. Leifang is a character with both special parries and regular parries. Study them, as they can give you a tremendous advantage in battle. The main advantage of parries compared to holds is that they cover more guessing options (e.g. a parry catches both mid punches and high punches, whereas a hold catches only one of these options depending on what kind of hold it is). A disadvantage is that they can't be used during stun.

The biggest part about DOA is landing the stun. However, it is by no means over for you when you get stunned. Slow escaping imo is the best defensive option to escape the stun. Mix-ups are almost always a thing, however no one is perfect in his play. There will always be patterns in your opponents's play, no matter what. Try to read and remember them. Holds become pretty useful when you've figured out your opponent's patterns during stun.


Try to remember those moves. More importantly, study them --> Is it unsafe on block? How fast is it exactly? How often does my opponent use these moves? By analyzing thing such as this, you can improve in no time. Being patient works wonders too: Sometimes you should stay out of their effective range and whiff punish them, for example.


DOA revolves more around mindgames than any other fighting game. There is much less emphasis on execution and the like. This may make it look like a guessing game on the surface (in fact, it is to some extent) but it is more about reading and reacting. There's no real way to minimize risks besides practicing the game.


Yes and no. The ''no'' obviously goes for the extreme amount of lag experienced by most players. It makes the game unfair. Especially since everything is so situational and lag can make the difference between no hold or a Hi-Counter Hold. The ''yes'' would apply to improving your mindgame and getting used to different playstyles. You learn more from human opponents than from the CPU, after all. But it is most important to remember that online will always be inferior to offline play against human opponents.

I really appreciate your reply Jaimy, I'm guessing I just got a little hot headed and didn't think things through, everything you said were tips I should've picked up on my own. I'm really disappointed with myself, these were go to things I should've worked on from the start. Just like any other fighting games. I probably just need to get used to this system and learn more.

Example; (I did not know about the stagger escaping) Knowledge truly is power.

I'm sorry if I wasted your time, but as for Leifang (I probably should've mentioned this and changed my main) I'm thinking of dropping her for Pai or Honoka. Hmmm actually, I think I just want to use them all, those 3 characters really stand out to me because of their play style.

Staying in training mode for hours doesn't feel AT ALL like it's making me improve, I don't think I've ever felt that way in any fighting game. It's so strange. But I know hard work and determination never betrays, so I'll keep at it. Thank you.

Question POWERDRAGON.

Are you a visual learner or written learner?

I can do both usually. But visuals with explanation are a must for me when it comes to this game lol.

Example; Seeing top players play doesn't help me with this game exactly, most of the time I'd like to see what they do, but also an explanation of WHY they did it.

 

[DestructionBomb]

I can do both usually. But visuals with explanation are a must for me when it comes to this game lol.

Example; Seeing top players play doesn't help me with this game exactly, most of the time I'd like to see what they do, but also an explanation of WHY they did it.

Understandable.

To be honest, you could absorb all the information but can still take time to burst it all out as secondary memory. The starting feedback is (believe it or not.) to keep playing. Losing or developed habits can go away. Likely when you started the game..you did it by yourself correct? went on a straight path without a clue on direction, so it's understandable that you developed a habit of particular things. No shame in any of that. Just keep playing against positive players that can help you on your way. Online is in fact a big hassle and quite the plague. Every single moment is a situational moment to where the stuff that gains you frame advantage gets thrown out the window...stuff like these has to be a point to where you may need to gather a friend who understands this and have online as a gather to play with you or only understand the matchups of characters.

What you could do is probably get some players here within the forums as friends and develop your game as you go and they can possibly adjust your mistakes or prevent stuff that you do from happening again. Everything is added weight to your hands..from the mindset to the execution, and then in battle against your opponent. To start off, I take it you already picked the character that you like..get some extra info here in the forums of the characters in the meanwhile before you head out.

 

[samuraihachi]

O_O I think I played you a few hours ago. If I remember correctly, you were the honoka player from that lobby and our match was Honoka vs Akira. Anyways, welcome to FSD! And you want to do what Dbomb and Jaimy said. If you got any questions, feel free to ask.

 

[POWERDRAGON6]

O_O I think I played you a few hours ago. If I remember correctly, you were the honoka player from that lobby and our match was Honoka vs Akira. Anyways, welcome to FSD! And you want to do what Dbomb and Jaimy said. If you got any questions, feel free to ask.

Aha yeah, I was trying out my Honoka. You're really good dude. I just don't know what to do when someone pressures me like that. But ggs

 

[tokiopewpew]

Example; (I did not know about the stagger escaping) Knowledge truly is power.

After reading this, I'd like to ask if you have actually done the ingame tutorial. Yeah I know, this question sounds so bromitic but this is the place where you learn about these things. I often hear newcomers saying they don't know what they can to for defense but also stating in the same breath that they did not even the tutorial yet or did not find it helpful.

Not saying this can be applied to you in any way, but I really wonder what people have in mind when they jump straight into online lobbies without even knowing about basic things like controls, hit levels or the triangle system. Even if you've already played other fighters, the tutorial should still be your first stop because all fighters are different in some parts of their mechanics.

 

[Lulu]

DoA is better offline.
if you don't want to guess then try Stagger Escaping.
Anyway what you can do is learn what all the stuns are and what makes them all different..... the important ones to remember are The Sit Down Stun, The Limbo Stun and the The Falling Crumple Stun.... remember some stuns can not be held out of and some can not be stagger escaped, if you get throw punished alot then not doing anything can save you alot of trouble.
Secondly heres a nice tip.... as you get deeper into a stun, then that narrows down exactly what options your opponent has to get more damage, so if you're in a level three critical stun then your odds of a succesful hold can be as high as 50 50 as there's just somethings your opponent won't do, sometimes I don't even bother throwing out a hold until a level 3 stun...... one thing to note is when you get hit by a low in a deep stun you will slip so hard that it can't be followed by a high attack nor can you be critical bursted, you can use that to determine whats coming next..... ofcourse sometimes people will go for the Critical Burst anyway because it can reset.
as for Alpha and Helena..... you could try to avoid getting stunned in the first place, obviously thats not ideal so the best advoice I can offer is to play as the Characters that are giving you trouble.... except for Akira.... for him just side step, if you catch Akira on counter hit (which you can do from side stepping) then you can play the stun game with him.

And now to defend DoA: Feel Free To Skip this section... its not important.
Yes its a Guessing game.... you do this in every fighting game... you can't see a low attack coming in a combo fast enough to stop it.... you either have to guess your opponent is going to go for a low mix up or memorise the string with lows in it. Its the same thing when somebody goes for the Cross Up, you need to guess in which direction you're going to get attacked, theres just no way of knowing with absolute certainty how you're going to get hit..... thats how Fight Games work..... Don't know why this is suddenly an issue when people get into DoA.

 

[POWERDRAGON6]

After reading this, I'd like to ask if you have actually done the ingame tutorial. Yeah I know, this question sounds so bromitic but this is the place where you learn about these things. I often hear newcomers saying they don't know what they can to for defense but also stating in the same breath that they did not even the tutorial yet or did not find it helpful.

Not saying this can be applied to you in any way, but I really wonder what people have in mind when they jump straight into online lobbies without even knowing about basic things like controls, hit levels or the triangle system. Even if you've already played other fighters, the tutorial should still be your first stop because all fighters are different in some parts of their mechanics.

Trust me I did do tutorial, the stagger escaping seemed to have slipped my mind, there were a lot of things that kind of perplexed me after the tutorial. Like learning my character and doing my best to block whatever the hell other characters were doing. But I see now that a lot things will come with time. But you have to understand that this is a crazy system that seems very unforgiving to me.

If there was anything else you could tell me that would help me out, I would appreciate it.

 

[tokiopewpew]

Secondly heres a nice tip.... as you get deeper into a stun, then that narrows down exactly what options your opponent has to get more damage, so if you're in a level three critical stun then your odds of a succesful hold can be as high as 50 50 as there's just somethings your opponent won't do, sometimes I don't

You may have to be careful with where you apply this. The higher the stun level, the more options become available for almost every character because they can also use slower moves like launchers which would get blocked when the opponent slow escapes on lower levels. Of course, this always depends on how deep the stun is from the move that was used, but the general rule (especially for beginners) is higher stun level = higher risk of guessing wrong for the stunned player.

you can't see a low attack coming in a combo fast enough to stop it.... you either have to guess your opponent is going to go for a low mix up or memorise the string with lows in it.

Nah, there are a lot of strings that contain lows which can be held pretty easily on reaction out of visual recognition. Also, in some cases, you can eliminate this guessing game completely if you know what opportunities the opponent has after landing a certain low or string.

Many lows from strings offer a small amount of advantage that can be reduced with slow escaping, meaning that the opponent cannot follow up with anything. And there are players around who definitely react to throw attempts rather than guess after getting hit by a low sweep.

 

[Lulu]

Trust me I did do tutorial, the stagger escaping seemed to have slipped my mind, there were a lot of things that kind of perplexed me after the tutorial. Like learning my character and doing my best to block whatever the hell other characters were doing. But I see now that a lot things will come with time. But it you have to understand that this is a crazy system that seems very unforgiving to me.

If there was anything else you could tell me that would help me out, I would appreciate it.

I've been a DoA enthusiast for 3 years now..... I still visit the tutorial every now and then..... its because the tutorial is weird.... it doesn't drill you the important stuff into you like it should, it barely touches on Stagger Escaping..... you know whats funny.... I don't even use that feature, thumbs are way too slow for it to be of any use to me. LOL.

Regarding Training.... obviously it can be boring and with so many moves and characters it can also be tediously overwhelming to go in there and test each attack one at time.... but you can make it simpler... just Do what I assume you did in Tekken...... go through your characters 80 plus moves and only experiment with Key Moves....
Just like in Tekken the important moves are the ones that track, launch, bounce and all that important stuff.
The Game doesn't label the key moves so I hope you can somehow get that information in a character breakdown or something instead of having to test them all by yourself.
Once you're familiar with move and stun statuses and properties then your training will be much more methodical and effecient..... remember....Key Moves.

 

[Lulu]

You may have to be careful with where you apply this. The higher the stun level, the more options become available for almost every character because they can also use slower moves like launchers which would get blocked when the opponent slow escapes on lower levels. Of course, this always depends on how deep the stun is from the move that was used, but the general rule (especially for beginners) is higher stun level = higher risk of guessing wrong for the stunned player.



Nah, there are a lot of strings that contain lows which can be held pretty easily on reaction out of visual recognition. Also, in some cases, you can eliminate this guessing game completely if you know what opportunities the opponent has after landing a certain low or string.

Many lows from strings offer a small amount of advantage that can be reduced with slow escaping, meaning that the opponent cannot follow up with anything. And there are players around who definitely react to throw attempts rather than guess after getting hit by a low sweep.

Well maybe you can.... I can't. The Animations are just way to ambigous tell a mid apart from a low in less than a second.

Anyway, yes as you get further into stun then more slower moves become more usefull...... but the key moves are the The Launchers, PB, CB PL, Etc...... all PB's strike Mid so thats 50 50...... the majority of those other moves also strike mid..... and those are the ones people use the most....
Its not like someones going to hit you with a move that does none these things.... like an Ender or a Sweep or a Hard Knock down.... that includes Mila since her untechable knockdowns are mids and since you're going that route any way might Aswell launch and get an extra hit before the knock down....
You actually have more options at the beginning of your stun then you do at the at threshold..... your odds are better as the situation gets Dire.

 

[POWERDRAGON6]

DoA is better offline.
if you don't want to guess then try Stagger Escaping.
Anyway what you can do is learn what all the stuns are and what makes them all different..... the important ones to remember are The Sit Down Stun, The Limbo Stun and the The Falling Crumple Stun.... remember some stuns can not be held out of and some can not be stagger escaped, if you get throw punished alot then not doing anything can save you alot of trouble.
Secondly heres a nice tip.... as you get deeper into a stun, then that narrows down exactly what options your opponent has to get more damage, so if you're in a level three critical stun then your odds of a succesful hold can be as high as 50 50 as there's just somethings your opponent won't do, sometimes I don't even bother throwing out a hold until a level 3 stun...... one thing to note is when you get hit by a low in a deep stun you will slip so hard that it can't be followed by a high attack nor can you be critical bursted, you can use that to determine whats coming next..... ofcourse sometimes people will go for the Critical Burst anyway because it can reset.
as for Alpha and Helena..... you could try to avoid getting stunned in the first place, obviously thats not ideal so the best advoice I can offer is to play as the Characters that are giving you trouble.... except for Akira.... for him just side step, if you catch Akira on counter hit (which you can do from side stepping) then you can play the stun game with him.

And now to defend DoA: Feel Free To Skip this section... its not important.
Yes its a Guessing game.... you do this in every fighting game... you can't see a low attack coming in a combo fast enough to stop it.... you either have to guess your opponent is going to go for a low mix up or memorise the string with lows in it. Its the same thing when somebody goes for the Cross Up, you need to guess in which direction you're going to get attacked, theres just no way of knowing with absolute certainty how you're going to get hit..... thats how Fight Games work..... Don't know why this is suddenly an issue when people get into DoA.

I know exactly what you're saying but in no way did I mean to sound rude to the DoA community, I don't think there was a reason to defend anything. I was just venting a little, maybe I just need to play people who are on my level and not people playing for years.

But anyways, yes I learned about all those stuns, and the different properties. But it didn't really feel it helped me THAT much. I think it's just gonna be something that requires experience......a very rough experience. I need to train my hand and eyes to be able to to react to whats happening, but idk what it is that just feels unnatural. And online certainly isn't helping due to lag, the A.I. won't help due to it's button reading and certain patterns, and there isn't a scene here where I live where offline players gather.

Thank you for the tips about Helena and Alpha, I'll try not to get stunned -_-;

So Akira's weakness is sidesteps? Interesting, I'll have to look into that.

Thanks for the tip about paying attention to how deep the stun level is. I'll need to take a lot of this information and take it in slowly.

 

[tokiopewpew]

but the key moves are the The Launchers, PB, CB PL, Etc...... all PB's strike Mid so thats 50 50...... the majority of those other moves also strike mid..... and those are the ones people use the most....

See, this is the first mistake new players make. As soon as stun level 3 get's reached (indicated by the red writing), they will hold. And they hold mid punch, because they are afraid of the critical burst, power blows and power launchers, while they don't need to do so because:

• they get hi-counter thrown or launched all day by other moves
• many PB's are slow and can be simply avoided by slow escaping
• it's not necessary to be afraid of it as long as you don't know if the players is able to land a high damaging combo after it
  
• some characters have two or more critical bursts of different hit types and levels, which means they'll get fooled anyway

With Kasumi for example, I can launch you with high kicks, mid kicks, mid punches and low punches on stun level 3. Or, I just go for a throw, which means your odds are neither 50/50, nor I am limited in what I use on you. It might be that players prefer to use mids because they usually allow the most damaging juggles, but no one needs to perform max damage combos to take a win.

Its not like someones going to hit you with a move that does none these things.... like an Ender or a Sweep or a Hard Knock down...

On certain characters, you will see the usage of hard knockdowns for sure because they allow the agressor to use force techs that deny the defender to use wakeup kicks, result in advantage on wakeup and allow to keep up general momentum. Since Helena has already been mentioned ... she's a prime example for that.

 

[Lulu]

I know exactly what you're saying but in no way did I mean to sound rude to the DoA community, I don't think there was a reason to defend anything. I was just venting a little, maybe I just need to play people who are on my level and not people playing for years.

But anyways, yes I learned about all those stuns, and the different properties. But it didn't really feel it helped me THAT much. I think it's just gonna be something that requires experience......a very rough experience. I need to train my hand and eyes to be able to to react to whats happening, but idk what it is that just feels unnatural. And online certainly isn't helping due to lag, the A.I. won't help due to it's button reading and certain patterns, and there isn't a scene here where I live where offline players gather.

Thank you for the tips about Helena and Alpha, I'll try not to get stunned -_-;

So Akira's weakness is sidesteps? Interesting, I'll have to look into that.

Thanks for the tip about paying attention to how deep the stun level is. I'll need to take a lot of this information and take it in slowly.

I know, Sweetness.... but it seems like thats just how fans react..... they over look the fact the you initially came here for help and just jump right into damage control... it can't be helped.
Yeah Akira really doesn't have many tracking moves... or many moves of any kind... PERIOD. But he is extremely fast and extremely safe...
The exact strategy is to Zone Him and punish the whiffed attacks, but if you run out of space or the character you are using doesn't have good range then you can Block the first attack and side step the second attack.....
At this point I should explain that when you Side Side step in DoA.... you only dodge one single linear attack at time.... so if you try to side step a string of attacks then each individual attack in the string needs to be side stepped..... if you stop stepping then you'l get counter hit..... Akira's strings are short (usually) so thats why you want to block the first hit so that can side stepp the second.... you can side step both but then you would be Telegraphing your intensions.
There are specific Characters in the game that have their own special side step that bypasses this rule..... and then some.

 

[Lulu]

See, this is the first mistake new players make. As soon as stun level 3 get's reached (indicated by the red writing), they will hold. And they hold mid punch, because they are afraid of the critical burst, power blows and power launchers, while they don't need to do so because:

• they get hi-counter thrown or launched all day by other moves
• many PB's are slow and can be simply avoided by slow escaping
• it's not necessary to be afraid of it as long as you don't know if the players is able to land a high damaging combo after it
  
• some characters have two or more critical bursts of different hit types and levels, which means they'll get fooled anyway

With Kasumi for example, I can launch you with high kicks, mid kicks, mid punches and low punches on stun level 3. Or, I just go for a throw, which means your odds are neither 50/50, nor I am limited in what I use on you. It might be that players prefer to use mids because they usually allow the most damaging juggles, but no one needs to perform max damage combos to take a win.



On certain characters, you will see the usage of hard knockdowns for sure because they allow the agressor to use force techs that deny the defender to use wakeup kicks, result in advantage on wakeup and allow to keep up general momentum. Since Helena has already been mentioned ... she's a prime example for that.

Its not a bad plan, some characters can telegraph exactly which move they're going to launch or Critical Burst with.....
Like Lisa and Ayane... they both have muliple launchers and CB but they can only access them from specific stances.... like BT. The Really Tricky ones are Alpha because shes got got three Critical Bursts.... which she can just flatout ignore all together in favour of her infamous throw. And Kororo, Helena and Jacky due their crazy fast mix ups Possibilities.
But for everybody else its a good beginners strategy. for Kasumi its tough because she doesn't telegraph which one shes going to use... all her key moves are accessed from her normal stance..... since she has both mid punch and mid kick launcher I just ignore the High launchers.... rather focuse on the ones that also have CB or Bounce Launchers.
Hard Knock down into force tech is not even that bad.... or well it isn't that bad for me now since I've been using Alpha to boost my defense..... it use to be an issue for before but once I show people I can take the pressure then they're going to try something else...
On avevarage holding odds are one in three at threshold.... imagine how much better I would play if I could stagger escape.

 

[tokiopewpew]

Its not a bad plan, some characters can telegraph exactly which move they're going to launch or Critical Burst with.....

On avevarage holding odds are one in three at threshold.... imagine how much better I would play if I could stagger escape.

Of course, everyone can believe and do whatever he likes. I stated these things to give Powerdragon some additional input from a different point of view on certain aspects, were he may choose from what makes sense and works out for him. I did not so to imagine how you would play because that's not relevant here.

 

[Lulu]

Of course, everyone can believe and do whatever he likes. I stated these things to give Powerdragon some additional input from a different point of view on certain aspects, were he may choose from what makes sense and works out for him. I did not so to imagine how you would play because that's not relevant here.

You're "additional input" was abit undermining.... its not a perfect strategy.... its just a simple stepping stone into the next level..... you can't expect every new player to go from not holding to be a holding master with nothing in between. Its a multi step process.

 

[tokiopewpew]

That's my last response in relation to your posts because I don't want to get off-topic. Since the TO stated in his first post that he has the feeling of getting too predictable and was asking for tips how to break habits, I'd say that telling him ignoring certain threats (in terms of launchers or hit types) and just hold always mid instead isn't the right response because that implies exactly the opposite of what helps him to get better: Paying attention to what the opponent actually does.

And if you see my answers as kind of 'undermining' of your statements, so be it, since you did not come up with any real arguments except that "it's not a bad strategy".