Got it. Now that's really detailed! Thanks. Let me put that into practice instead of spamming questions. Oh wait. Do I have to memorise all her combos before starting with trying various juggles
I suggest learn the general basics in case you haven't already done so. Also, a juggle is generally a part of a combo since it is defined as hitting an aerial opponent, thus extending the amount of hits in your combo. Depending on how fast you learn, I suggest learning the best juggles for now and extending your knowledge later on. As me being someone who has a basic understanding of Hitomi, I'd say 7PK, 4KK, 6PK are your best juggles and after one of these juggles a typical combo ender would be P+KPP, 8PK6PK or PP6PK.
I'm still puzzled how do you guys deal with holds and that triangle system in general. I suppose i don't have enough reaction to recognize in split second what move is happening and react (especially when holds for high/mid/low requires different input) =/
I'm not sure what you mean by dealing with holds (i.e. how to correctly do them yourselves or reacting to an opponent's hold) but I will try to explain both situations regardless:
Triangle System
First off, you asked about how we deal with the Triangle System in general. Remember that the triangle system literally works like a triangle. Think of it as rock-paper-scissor. To use an analogy: Strikes (Rock) beat Throws (Scissors), Throws (Scissors) beat Holds (Paper) and Holds (Paper) beat Strikes (Rock).
How to deal with an opponent's hold
Thus, the way to deal with holds is by throwing your opponent. During the full animation of the hold, you can throw them for extra damage, which would be called a Hi-Counter Throw and this multiplies the raw throw damage by 1.5x. If they do a high or mid hold, do a standing throw. If they do low hold, do a crouching throw. It's as simple as that.
How to correctly use holds yourself
Holds are used as a means to deal with strikes. Recognizing if a move is a high, mid or low is crucial for responding with a correct hold. I can imagine that it's rather difficult to do so if you are new to the game. It is very important to learn the movestrings of the characters if you want to master holding. Obviously this is not something which can be done in one day, and it may take several months or even years to learn all characters' movestrings. Therefore you should get a better feel with holds over time and enough practice.
There are generally four mindsets when performing a hold: A guessing mindset, a (stun) escaping mindset, a predicting mindset and a reacting mindset.
- Guessing: You have no clue as to what's the opponent doing and just doing a random hold in hopes to guess right and inflict damage to your opponent.
- (Stun) escaping: Another mindset when doing holds is a (stun) escaping mindset. A well-known, infamous example of this is low holding to avoid getting hit by low and high follow-up strikes. This is not recommended since it makes one very predictable and people will punish whiffed low holds over time with a low throw.
- Predicting: You know or feel that a certain move is coming and are mentally preparing for your opponent's strike to counter with the appropriate hold. Recommended mindset if you see patterns in your opponent's playstyle (e.g. they tend to use a certain move in a certain situation).
- Reacting: Reacting involves holding a move without having the time to prepare/predict your opponent's next move. To master holding on reaction, it is vital to learn which strings are dynamic and which are static. A dynamic string is a string in which you can choose from different mix-ups/options. If you are on the defending part and holding, it will be harder to choose the right hold since the opponent has more options to choose from. A static string however, is a string in which a strike always leads into a strike with a certain hit type. For example, Jacky's 6P is a strike which has two follow-ups: A high kick and a high punch. Since both follow-ups are high and the opponent has no other options to choose from, you can react with a high hold!
Hope this helps!