What's up with the spammers?
I just started playing doa5lr again this week and I've had like 10 matches today where it's just the other player backing up the whole time and spamming safe moves? It makes the game so boring. I'm constantly chasing the other players across the map only to get spammed when I get close. It's no wonder nobody plays this game anymore haha.
Truth be told, it won't matter what fighting game you play. You'll run into the same problem and get easily discouraged thinking like that when a match doesn't go your way. The sooner you realize it's your fault and not the game's fault you're not progressing, the easier it'll be to come up with productive solutions rather than quitting and claiming the game is trash.
Let's get this out of the way right now. Not everyone you fight is gonna go all-out offense and just hand you unsafe moves and strings on a silver platter. No matter what fighting game you play, you WILL run into these defensive players eventually, and you will have to learn to deal with it to grow as a player. Sometimes you gotta improvise, think outside your usual thought process in set play, and ask yourself these questions:
1) How well does the player know my character's options? Is that the reason the player's not taking any chances with me up close, and suffocating my options as a result by keeping me at bay with safe pokes?
2) How do I open up the player's defense? What are his common safe moves that he uses when I get within range, and how can I bait them constantly so he can do something different, and hopefully return the pressure in my favor when he messes up?
3) Would it be wise for me to save replays of this match, observe the match further, and assign the training dummy to re-enact that scenario until I learn how to deal with that solution with confidence?
4) You know what? Now that I'm getting the hang of this, why stop at that when I can read up in the character forums what this problematic character can do and be three steps ahead of the opponent next time I fight him?
I guarantee if you ask these questions to yourself and follow through in earnest, you will find a way to overcome said "spammers". It may not be the easiest road to take. It may be far easier and more tempting to just quit. But ultimately you'd be cheating yourself out of potential growth as a DOA player-- no, a fighting game player in general.
Don't be that guy. Don't give up that easily. Stay encouraged.