Newbie needs some help

[matchakucha]

Okay, a litte backstory on my history of fighting games. In short, very little. DoA isnt the first fighting game I've played (used to play Soul Calibur and Tekken) but its been years since ive played either.

I decided to main Honoka (lol) since the fact her fighting style is a mix of everything, which really interested me as first, and also why Im posting this here as opposed to the general section.

Anyway, ive spent the past 2 days "training" against CPUs and learning all her skill moves, combos, and getting through the basics of the game, but as soon as i step into an Online game everything is different. One of the major problems I have is that once I get caught in a combo I have no idea how to get out. I know youre meant to utilize counters but it's extremely hard for me to predict which part of the body is being aimed at (and what move will follow) in order for me to successfully counter it.

The problem here is obvious, in that I have little experience so far, but I would gladly appreciate any form of help that could improve my gameplay online in general, not just specific to Honoka (however both are welcome).

Thanks

 

[CyberEvil]

The Tutorial will help. Stagger escapes and holds are your best tools for stopping strings that have begun. Crushes and faster moves will prevent them from beginning and give you the advantage. Honestly you just need to play against people who know what they're doing since mashing forces you to react differently.

 

[vicente]

I'm new too, and I'm a bit annoyed with honoka, it seems that no matter what I throw it has lower priority against even the slower cast. Supposedly 6k or 6p are good for this but it doesn't work a lot, her 214p+k crush gets countered a lot, and so on, and also I'm extremely annoyed with her lack of low string stun options, so most of the times they are fine just blocking. Supposedly 6t helps with this, but it's low damage and even though it has advantage, again your options afterwards are limited. It's incredibly hard to open them for damage IMHO, and I can't pressure them either since I'm countered constantly.

 

[CyberEvil]

Just throwing this out there: Honoka isn't the safest character in the world and isn't really a beginner-friendly character. She does heavy damage and has decent mixups however she has difficult getting in and opening up the opponent, as mentioned. Her jab shouldn't be overlooked as an opener since it's fast and people have to respect the follow-ups or try to hold them if they don't want to respect them. Post on the Honoka forums here to get some tips and watch some Winter Brawl 9 matches as Honoka showed up in a few top eight fights.

 

[vicente]

Yeah I've noticed that lol. I mained Helena until now but I loved Honoka moveset and her amazing mixup potential, and she's safer than Helena who's constantly in BKO or BT, also her long/mid range looks much better than Helena from my newbie perspective. Now I'm learning the hard way the downsides of her, still I'm slowly improving, or so I want to think, but it's hard to learn a new char while fighting people that has mained their chars for ages and getting my ass handed.

I'm lately using PP2K to BKO more since it's one of the few transitions into low that can open combo mixups, though I'm missing lots of the BKO mixups here logically.

I watched winter brawl Honoka matches live, the mirror match was cool and that 6T abuse lol Still I can't see those matches in youtube, I'll have to rewatch Twitch stream and see what I'm missing, great coverage btw.

 

[Awesmic]

Okay, a litte backstory on my history of fighting games. In short, very little. DoA isnt the first fighting game I've played (used to play Soul Calibur and Tekken) but its been years since ive played either.

I decided to main Honoka (lol) since the fact her fighting style is a mix of everything, which really interested me as first, and also why Im posting this here as opposed to the general section.

Anyway, ive spent the past 2 days "training" against CPUs and learning all her skill moves, combos, and getting through the basics of the game, but as soon as i step into an Online game everything is different. One of the major problems I have is that once I get caught in a combo I have no idea how to get out. I know youre meant to utilize counters but it's extremely hard for me to predict which part of the body is being aimed at (and what move will follow) in order for me to successfully counter it.

The problem here is obvious, in that I have little experience so far, but I would gladly appreciate any form of help that could improve my gameplay online in general, not just specific to Honoka (however both are welcome).

Thanks

As a fellow newbie also learning the game, I can tell you straight up that fighting the CPU is not the answer. Human opponents think a lot differently from AI, as testament to your frustration playing online. Of course, lag is always going to be a factor there, with some moves not coming out the way you want to with that frame delay and all.

Speaking of frames, frame data - whatever that is - is supposed to be this important aspect of DOA, or any modern fighting game, when learning what moves beat out others. Anyway, this @Sly Bass character made some kind of guide about it, and it's helpful for me, as I've been struggling on how to read it for a while now:

http://www.freestepdodge.com/threads/frame-data-explained.5412/


One thing the game's tutorial doesn't cover AFAIK are unholdable stuns. These are stuns which you can't cancel by executing a hold until the stun animation is finished (you can speed up the animation by stagger escaping though). This serves to remedy guessing, and open up guaranteed follow-ups. Sit-down stuns, limbo stuns, faint stuns, and wall stuns are a few examples of these unholdable stuns. Learning what moves go into these stun states at a certain critical stun level (if any at all) will not only improve the way you play, but give you a better understanding of the depth and complexity of the stun system DOA is unique for. The game isn't just about using holds (albeit some excel with them better than others), but abusing the stun system and using the environment to your advantage (which is best proven in stages like Scramble, Hot Zone, and especially Home).

I don't know much about the jailbait, but you should learn your matchups one at a time and look for players who specialize with these characters so you'll have a better idea on how to deal with them.

 

[matchakucha]

snip

Thank you very much for this. I was aware of such stuns but I think you're right in the tutorial not covering it. Could you also explain what you mean by limbo and faint stuns?

 

[Awesmic]

Thank you very much for this. I was aware of such stuns but I think you're right in the tutorial not covering it. Could you also explain what you mean by limbo and faint stuns?

A limbo stun is a type of stun that makes the opponent look like he/she is doing the limbo, or bending over backwards.

A faint stun is where the opponent loses his/her balance and falls backward, and the opponent can't recover from it by holding or stagger escaping.