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Alex's diary of verbal diarrhea - resurrected

bigbandpro69

bigbandpro69

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Beowulf Big Band
09/07/2014 Entry
Playing: Big band + Double
Assists: LP Beat extend + Cilia slide
Where am I at right now, in terms of progression...
300 hours in and I've played a bunch of characters and a few teams. I'm alright in intermediate lobbies, but do not fare well against top players (as far as online players go, anyway) It's worth noting I'm EU, and play on an arcade stick. I shall post things here that I should work on/ remember for later.

30/07/2014 Entry
Playing: Big band solo
After a while of using MK A train + cilia slide assist setup, I decided to switch to playing solo Big Band, as double felt tacked on for the sake of having a team. I have a fair amount of resets and one big combo for putting characters to sleep. I'm feeling brave, so I'm going to detail some matchups now. It's worth noting again that I am currently a solo player, so this may not be correct within the possibilities of assists with BB, which I am not really bothered about, since I feel BB is a pretty solid solo.

vs. Filia - J.LK stuffs a bunch of her IAD stuff, and really dissuades people from throwing j.HP out. For this reason filia players will often back away on round start to throw you off. Some won't, so round start is a question of whether they will attack or not. I find that dashing up and grabbing beats that. I've also tried using parries, as IAD j.HP and c.HK slide should be reactable. The main problem with this matchup, is, like most matchups are going to be with big band, is that the corner is 10x as dangerous to be in. Weirdly I haven't fought anyone who does IAD j.LP against my big hurtbox but I have a hard enough time already when it comes to getting the reversal right in the corner. (which is LP beat extend in most cases) Good matchup for big band if played right.

vs. Cerebella - This matchup really sucks for Big Band, in my opinion. For one, big band doesn't have many armour breaking options other than c.HK sweep and c.LP at close range, which I admittedly don't use much. This means CB doesn't have too much trouble getting in on you and tossing you around. What really sucks is that the main reversal tool I use, LP beat extend, is only hit invincible, meaning I have limited options against CB's command grabs other than jump. I will resort to playing keepaway, doing LP brass a whole bunch with s.MK kara for extra range if necessary. This forces CB players to armour or DP, due to her slow speed, which can be baited by successfully landing one or two LP knuckles and then feinting one.

vs. Painwheel - Not sure how to put this one... MK + HK a train assists get stuffed more often than not by j.HP and J.HK, but I have caught some players sleeping on flight. j.LK has also proved useful for breaking armour and shifting momentum. Otherwise this is pretty standard matchup.

vs. Peacock - Interesting matchup. On round start, it is a crucial guessing game of what peacock will do. You can predict a jump with MK a train, you can dash and grab if you think they are going to sit and call assist, you can predict a teleport (behind you) by doing jump back j.MK into combo, I like doing that, makes me feel smart. You can assume that most players unfamiliar with the matchup are going to jump back, though. In the case that peacock does manage to get fullscreen, you can do stuff like HK giant step into HP knuckle to cover ground. But I feel that all versions of brass knuckle are important for keeping peacock down. You can armour through some patterns with MP and HP knuckle, s.MK kara MP knuckle has a bunch of range and can be safe at the right distance. I capitalise on knockdowns as much as I can with j.MK overheads, baiting QCF MP reversal, etc. Once you are hitting peacock a lot, you can expect a teleport which is solved by overhead/crossover j.mk by doing jump j.mk and jump back/over j.mk respectively. Overall, pretty good matchup for Big Band (so far)

vs. Parasoul - This could maybe be BB's worst matchup. Parasoul's pokey normals and mixup options make for a grim matchup for BB. Maybe I haven't played this matchup enough, but from what I've experienced, BB is forced to gamble on A train + giant step + DP to prevent himself from pushed into the corner. Once you're in the corner, it's mixup hell. (if the parasoul player is good)

vs. Fortune - Good matchup for BB. It is much easier to grab fortune with MK + HK a train than another character like painwheel. This dissuades jump ins and allows you to control space a lot better. When fortune takes her head off, SSJ (QCF PP level 1) becomes extremely powerful, as the lower part of the hitbox will hit the head without fail. With a charge, it can even kill in 1v3. I like to use j.MK to hit the head with fortune players that turtle at the other end of the screen.

vs. Squigly - This matchup really depends on the skill of the Squigly player. As a lot of Squigly players will use divekick a lot to get in, you can assume control of the air space with MK+HK A train, with s.MK kara for added range. Squigly players that recognise this however, will be more cautious. Silver chord is very effective against BB's brass and a train, as it breaks armour and gives Squigly a free opening. You can dissuade them from throwing it out by doing emergency break block, HP knuckle + super for a bunch of damage. SBO is deadly against big band, as it will break armour. I have found that you can mash QCF PP super against raw SBO for a punish.

vs. Valentine - Weird matchup for BB. Valentine's multihit air normals, namely j.mp, will completely stuff MK + HK a train without fail, so jumps must be predicted rather than reacted to. BB has a few answers to valentine's air normals, like DP (all versions, really) or cymbal clash - TK'able? One thing to note is that you are less vulnerable to valentine's crossup crap since you are so big. So enjoy that.

vs. Big Band - Weirdest matchup ever. I'm going to need more experience in this matchup before I detail it here, but for now I'm just going to say that it is strange.

31/07/2014 update - After playing a bunch of big band mirror, I can say that when the threat of parries is known by both players, the matchup turns into a strange guessing game of parry fishing and grabbing (when you think they are fishing for parries) Probably my favourite matchup, for the parry opportunities alone. Obviously it's not favourable either way, as it depends on the players fighting.

vs. Double - Don't know this matchup enough to detail anything.

vs. Eliza - Don't know this matchup enough to detail anything.

vs. Fukua - Don't know this matchup enough to detail anything.

06/09/2014
I stopped playing solo big band somewhere in late august, played cerebella + double with H Lock and load + MK bomber assists (a la dekillsage evo finals) After a while of that team being a success, I found that it lacks in fullscreen options and is vulnerable to keepaway (learnt this via sets with zeknife playing squig + band) and I thought it would be a shame if all my big band experience were to dissipate, so I added him onto the team, on 2nd, with LP beat extend assist. Both previous assists for cerebella + double are the same, although I change to HK bomber vs peacock. So far the team has been a bit wonky, and I'm lacking in proper play which will hopefully improve in the future.
 
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Alex12898 said:
First formulated Parasoul bnb - does a whopping 4161 damage
Notation: (j.HP starter) s.LK s.LK s.MP c.HP j j.LP j.LK j.HP l c.LP c.HP j j.HK


Currently editing together match analysis with my good buddy zeknife
I love this combo as a reset opportunity if you use j.MK for a reset. In fact j.MK is PSoul's best jumping attack because it will give you access to all other jumping attacks. d.J.MK is pretty good to if you want to get higher on the opponent for a cross over reset.
 
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WrestlerGuile said:
I love this combo as a reset opportunity if you use j.MK for a reset. In fact j.MK is PSoul's best jumping attack because it will give you access to all other jumping attacks. d.J.MK is pretty good to if you want to get higher on the opponent for a cross over reset.
Good stuff. So I'd just jump after the combo then instant j.MK and chain it into something like J.HP?
 
Alex12898 said:
Good stuff. So I'd just jump after the combo then instant j.MK and chain it into something like J.HP?
I guess. In the video you always used j.HK, i thought you could use j.MK a few frames after j.HK, but you should learn other resets to keep the opponent guessing what you will use next, like the overhead and stand-crouch commands.
 
Zeknife sets #2:
Hopefully the size is good enough to view from the embedded video. Working on analysing sets with another pal, KillJoy.
 
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I recommend having multiple matches with someone you have a hard time with, and ask what you might have done wrong. It helps me a lot when I ask what I've done, and so I build my game around it. Even better, ask what you did right.
 
Alex's diary of verbal diarrhea

Not Alex Ahad, 0/10 :PUN:

This is some cool stuff though, never seen a CereSoul player before.
 
Sorry I have nothing real to contribute but that title nearly wrecked my keyboard/screen. Wasn't sure I had read it right.
 
WrestlerGuile said:
I recommend having multiple matches with someone you have a hard time with, and ask what you might have done wrong. It helps me a lot when I ask what I've done, and so I build my game around it. Even better, ask what you did right.
I get drawn into long sets with certain friends. Admittedly I don't ask enough about what I do wrong/right so I'll ask a bit more.
TechPowah said:
Not Alex Ahad, 0/10 :PUN:

This is some cool stuff though, never seen a CereSoul player before.
Actually, it's strange but I've sort of dropped CB after playing p.soul, the latter character being more well rounded for my kind of play. I may or may not create the team but at least I have some amount of experience with CB under my belt if the need arises. I suppose I have a thing for solos.

ruins72 said:
Sorry I have nothing real to contribute but that title nearly wrecked my keyboard/screen. Wasn't sure I had read it right.
Sorry that happened. I tried to make it as silly as possible.
 
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One suggestion that i have is to stop using Parasoul's sniper shot, especially in neutral. Most of the time it's a pretty bad option and it ends up either being a waste of a bar, or a waste of a bar + a big punish.

In general, Parasoul is better for building meter for other characters on your team, instead of spending it herself. Her sniper shot is a really bad neutral tool in nearly every matchup, and it adds negligible damage to combos. If you use sniper shot anywhere after the first string or so, it gets scaled soooo hard that you pretty much just wasted a bar unless you kill with it.

Her bikes super is also a really bad damage option for combos, doing barely anymore than sniper shot with the added disadvantage of having the chance of having some hits miss (ending up making it do LESS than sniper.) It is a better neutral tool than sniper though, it is safe on block and you can cancel Napalm Pillar into it to make pillar safe. I personally never liked spending meter in this way, and I'd just call my assist with pillar. It often gave me the same results as using bikes after pillar, but also allowed me to combo off of pillar on hit. The obvious downside is that you can get happy birthdayed if you don't use it wisely.

Her level 3 is actually a pretty good tool though, don't be afraid to spend meter on that in neutral or at the end of combos.


Sorry for the rant about parasoul supers lololol
 
Alex12898 said:
Sorry that happened. I tried to make it as silly as possible.

Twas all in good fun lol. Keep it up.
 
Icky said:
stuff
It has become apparent to me that both level 1 supers have very limited use after trying them out a lot, I can only think of QCF PP having the usage of punishing any kind of heavy move or super when there is no possibility of reaching in there with any regular attack. That and it forces the opponent to grab which may be handy for counting down the clock. Honestly I don't use QCB KK much and never thought much of it.
 
Alex12898 said:
It has become apparent to me that both level 1 supers have very limited use after trying them out a lot, I can only think of QCF PP having the usage of punishing any kind of heavy move or super when there is no possibility of reaching in there with any regular attack. That and it forces the opponent to grab which may be handy for counting down the clock. Honestly I don't use QCB KK much and never thought much of it.
They unfortunately have option of just blocking and punishing with whatever they want, not just a grab. It's minus enough that it can be punished by nearly anything on block (assuming they're close enough.)
 
Icky said:
Her sniper shot is a really bad neutral tool in nearly every matchupl

It's got a good use in knocking airdash characters out of the sky at mid-far range, since you can't block when airdashing. I've done it heaps when I've cottoned on to their movement patterns. If you've got Filia second you could DHC to Gregor or something to make it actually worth something too.
 
16/04/2014
Threw common sense out of the window today and adopted a berserker playstyle which involves pressuring the opponent as much as possible. Worked out fairly well and opponents had to waste supers just to get me off their backs. Call it button mashing or lack of respect but that is what I am focused on right now.
 
Alex12898 said:
16/04/2014
Threw common sense out of the window today and adopted a berserker playstyle which involves pressuring the opponent as much as possible. Worked out fairly well and opponents had to waste supers just to get me off their backs. Call it button mashing or lack of respect but that is what I am focused on right now.
There is no lack of respect. No matter how anyone plays, it's never cheatin in Skullgirls. Nobody can cheat in Skullgirls unless they hack it with Marie of some shit to make their hit box smaller.
 
WrestlerGuile said:
There is no lack of respect. No matter how anyone plays, it's never cheatin in Skullgirls. Nobody can cheat in Skullgirls unless they hack it with Marie of some shit to make their hit box smaller.
I'm mainly taking after a friend's playstyle which is simple endless pressure. I plan to build knowledge of loads of chains to keep the heat on the opponent at all times. It is also an effective strategy as there is a certain aura of "fear" created for the opponent when they have no idea what I might do next which is an excellent plus if I am going nuts.
 
On the eventful day of 420, I displayed a rather poor showing at skullbats EU. So I decided to pick apart Parasoul in terms of her normals/command normals and their quirks + properties. I have screenshotted all of the standing normals' hitboxes for observation:

1. s.LP
XIAyFHq.jpg
A poke. Looks like it could be slid under if predicted. Has a very good range.

s.LPx2 - this attack chains into itself regardless of whether it hits or not.
wfiCwK8.jpg
This second attack hits a bit higher with more reach. Something interesting to note is that the very end of the hitbox is notably larger and covers the entire tip of p.soul's parasol.

s.MP
jkw9ZKZ.jpg
This attack has a range considerably less than s.LP, making it unsuitable for poking and general neutral game. Looks like this move's main use is for chaining off lights. Simple stuff.

s.HP
MT7m3bo.jpg
Holy cow. That's a pretty giant hitbox, and it extends far above p.soul's head. Perhaps this could be used as anti air. Something worth noting is that this attack will move you forward slightly, making it valuable for extending combos (?)
s.HPx2
IiR9gaA.jpg
The second attack will move you forward even more, and the hitbox remains very big. It looks like this attack could be hit low as p.soul's feet are wide open.

s.LK
FTTvFvE.jpg
This attack has very limited range, and it looks like it's only use is for starting combos and OTG combos. It has the same properties as s.LP and s.HP in that it can combo into itself. The hitbox is the same.

s.MK
AI5vhsA.jpg
This attack hits fairly high for a kick, and leads me to believe that it could be used for juggling opponents in the air (?)

s.MKx2
Dn2tcak.jpg
The second attack is more or less the same as s.HK, except it has less reach, a smaller hitbox and it does not produce a wall bounce.

s.HK
s5xPkkZ.jpg
As previously stated, s.HK is similar to s.MKx2. As it hits notably higher, it could be used as a possible juggle or anti air. I'm not certain yet.
 
Sort of dropped this training diary. Just played the game a bit more and formed a team with the characters I'm comfortable with.
 
I've decided to resurrect this training diary as I feel like I require one.
 
If you don't mind, cross-posting this here for your own reference and those who would read your diary


I'll try and form some critique later today, hopefully.
 
gllt said:
If you don't mind, cross-posting this here for your own reference and those who would read your diary


I'll try and form some critique later today, hopefully.

Here's some notes that came to mind for Alex

Some might be obvious, some might not
Cerebella
Merry-go-rilla is pretty excellent and you should totally get used to the spacing where you have a low/throw mixup with it. I don't know if I ever saw you combo after it, but that is pretty easy and you should totally learn that if you haven't.
If your back is to the wall, mash diamond drop because that is pretty much a reversal and it is great
Also fish for titan knuckle because that's a nice big safe button
You don't have to respect parasouls whatever > lp shot blockstrings at all, pushblock and deflect should beat it pretty reliably


Big Band
If you have meter and Big Band is low on health just do brass > ssj > catheads the moment the opponent calls an assist (Or do it anyway if they don't) That shit is safe and there's no point keeping a bleeding character on the screen if you have this dhc
j.mk + call bomber lets you combo off the instant overhead and do pretty much anything after, good on wakeup and stuff

Double
If Double is in with a bunch of meter, above all you should probably be looking for an opportunity to safely use catheads to reverse the momentum (Just put the opponent in blockstun with luger first chance you get)
Do some fastfall stuff from j.lk/j.mp/j.hp because that is probably a good mixup
If you have meter and are up against Parasoul, you can car on reaction to napalm shot
When you go for dekillsage-style j.hk > j.hk > j.hk pressure you need to delay the thing after jumping so it would hit them if they crouch
Luger > catheads is good on incoming and beats everything probably
You can combo off ground/air throws without otg in the corner, just hit them with s.lp or s.mp or something as they fall


General
If you hit with hornet bomber and aren't prepared to convert, at least try to capitalize with titan knuckle/brass
Cerebella is on your team so maybe you should use her unblockable tag sometimes
 
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So it's been a while since I've touched this thing which sort of shows how much attention I give to training/practice in general but let's put that to one side for now. I don't know if anyone will actually read this wall of text or really give a shit (i mean this is about some loser's videogame problems for crying out loud) so I'll treat it as introspection in text form that I can come back to when necessary.

I'm stressed... I lost 10/10 to dragonos (who exclusively plays solo bella) with my eliza/parasoul/big band team which has confirmed my beliefs that I am some degree of fraudulent. From the top of his head, dragonos listed out what he thought I was doing wrong in our matches which may or may not extend to my play as a whole - probably does
  • "you press buttons" - I think this refers to how I will throw out moves rather generously in neutral game. I can't really comment on this. It's not like I mash buttons in neutral, I do moves that I think will beat other moves. That's what neutral is, right? Anyway it got me killed quite a lot vs solo bella, I think it was mainly j.HK, j.LK and j.MP doing most of the work.
  • "you don't have air resets" - This is mostly true. I'll be honest, I don't know what exactly makes an air reset. I know that air grabs, air burst baits, crossunders and crossovers exist but not really what makes an air reset other than resetting in the air. Is it just a setup that can lead to any of the previously mentioned things? Whatever, I need to learn some of those.
  • "that lead to other air resets" - Apparently this is important, and I think it's because he plays bella, who can basically get out of ground resets free (right?) Sounds simple enough, I just need a plethora of air resets to work with.
  • "you don't have safe okizeme/reset" Okay, this I can fully agree with. I don't like the concept of okizeme setups because I *think* they lose to basic reversals like DP or super on wakeup. But he mentions "safe okizeme" like they exist, I am not aware of such things. Off the top of my head I can think of something like call assist and do low/high/throw and the assist eats any reversal attempt. Perhaps I am wrong.
  • "you don't have original burst baits that I don't know about" While it's true that I don't have many burst baits at all, original burst baits are basically the devil to come across so it's not like you can fault me for that... This being said, the idea of me not having original burst baits links to how I don't produce my own material in training mode.
  • "do you have counter hits combos?" - No, not real ones anyway, I know that using L/M/H moves for the first hit of a counter hit combo adds increasing amounts of undizzy for you to work with but I haven't properly implemented this in ...training mode... yet.
  • "I guess not if you don't lab ever" - yes
Some additional solo banter:
  • I have a problem with playing against solo characters. When I discussed the topic of solos and 1v3 play with dragonos I made some complaints.
"Solos get a huge amount of respect for free"- what I mean by this is that you can't employ a aggressive neutral game in 1v3, as the 3 man team in this case, as the problem of losing any kind of trade which leads to conversions is much more of a game changer than in 3v3. I think this is completely unfun, as playing very carefully is not really my style, or perhaps I enjoy the fast paced gameplay SG has to offer on 3v3. It feels like neutral as a whole is not even an option for the 3 man team facing a solo, or rather it is unfavourable as one wrong guess could mean a dead character. I suppose 3v1 is more deliberate and demanding. I would much like to hear some opinions on solos in general, mostly about what 1v3/1v2 adds to the game, detracts to the game, how it should be played, etc.

I'll be honest I hold some distaste for solo Cerebella in particular, the looming threat some of her air normals and her mixup potential makes me lock up in neutral and get overly scared. I guess I have problems with her in general, not just in 3v1.

So what is there to be done against solos? I've heard that the key to victory is cheesing with assists, but when I called my assists they got punished with titan knuckle mostly, which I'm guessing is significant damage. Admittedly, I call my assists fairly liberally. I use pillar + H brass, and there were a few cases where parasoul would come in with something like 1/10 health and promptly die.

Finally I have a problem with practicing +"labbing" and coming to terms with the importance of both. I don't use training mode all that much, and I don't really know how to use it optimally - I don't know how the save state/dummy action double function works, I don't really experiment with all of the options available, I find it hard to make original stuff with my characters. I usually just load up training mode and press buttons without much purpose. I was once told that recreating situations that I lost in in training mode and finding answers was the proper way to learn fighting games, but I guess I didn't take that advice to heart, or I was just too lazy to actually do it. Thinking about it, a lot of this ties into the "git gud" mantra that basically means put effort in. I'm not sure if I want to put effort in, I mean it's a videogame, but the future of being mediocre for the rest of my pro gaming career is not one I really want to experience/accept.
 
Here's a combo I made for Eliza, works better on heavy characters.


also....


this probably only works on filia/maybe other lights
 
Alex12898 said:
"you press buttons" - I think this refers to how I will throw out moves rather generously in neutral game. I can't really comment on this. It's not like I mash buttons in neutral, I do moves that I think will beat other moves. That's what neutral is, right? Anyway it got me killed quite a lot vs solo bella, I think it was mainly j.HK, j.LK and j.MP doing most of the work.
If you aren't just blindly pressing buttons but still lose eg air to air every time, either your counter is wrong (you do X to beat jMP, but X doesn't actually beat jMP) or you are consistently reading him wrong (you do X to beat jMP, but he actually does jLK, which beats X).

Not much else to say here, you'll have to figure out which of the two applies and fix it.

"you don't have air resets" - This is mostly true. I'll be honest, I don't know what exactly makes an air reset. I know that air grabs, air burst baits, crossunders and crossovers exist but not really what makes an air reset other than resetting in the air. Is it just a setup that can lead to any of the previously mentioned things?
Nothing "Makes an air reset other than resetting in the air". That is precisely it.

If you look at eg Parasoul vs Bella

1) sMP sHPx2 xx L.Tearshot, sLP sMP(D) xx L.Egret, Dash
- Into delay cLK, or 6LP, or 6MP, or delay Throw, or j.4LK, ..

2) cHP - jLP jLK jMP, land dashjump
- Into delay jLP-jHP or Airthrow

vs 1), Bella can do: Tag, LnL, Run-Ram, Dynamo, 360, Diamonds, Block + call Updo assist, Upback, Throwtech, etc
vs 2), Bella can do: Block (can't call assist since in the air), Throwtech

- So if you do 1), there's the quite real risk that Bella calls out your whatever with a Dynamo/Diamonds/whatever and just wrecks your face. Many of her options beat multiple of yours (eg she expects Dash-Low and you do Dash-Overhead, but 360 beats both of those)
- If you do 2), Bella has literally 0 options that leave her better than at neutral and is stuck in a true 50/50 where a wrong guess means she gets combod (if she expects an Airthrow and goes for a Tech, she'll get CHd by the jLP)

That's what an Air Reset is (for). Most characters have worse reversal options in the air than on the ground, so resetting the opponent while they are stuck in the air means you are in a much safer position (particularly important against Solos, who can kill half your team with a single reversal call).

that lead to other air resets" - Apparently this is important, and I think it's because he plays bella, who can basically get out of ground resets free (right?) Sounds simple enough, I just need a plethora of air resets to work with.
While a plethora certainly helps, it sure isn't necessary.
Take the aforementioned most basic of basic resets:
[cLK cMK cHP - jLP jLK jMP] into either Airthrow or delay jLP-jHP.
- If the Airthrow hits (because opponent was blocking), you can pick up with [sLK cHP - jLP jLK jMP] and same game
- If the delay jLP-jHP hits (because the opponent tried to tech a throw that didn't come), you can pick up with [sLK cHP - jLP jLK jMP] and same game

There you have an Air Reset Loop that is fully safe (against Bella) and will keep going until he guesses correctly.

"you don't have safe okizeme/reset" Okay, this I can fully agree with. I don't like the concept of okizeme setups because I *think* they lose to basic reversals like DP or super on wakeup. But he mentions "safe okizeme" like they exist, I am not aware of such things. Off the top of my head I can think of something like call assist and do low/high/throw and the assist eats any reversal attempt. Perhaps I am wrong.
The simplest "safe oki" there is: Assistcall, either Jump or delay Jump (50/50 whether the Assist hits sameside or crossup); this will beat the utmost of reversal options.

There are also safejump options and whatnot.. but overall I don't really think this is necessary at all. Same thing with "original Burst Baits" and "CH combos".
Sure those are nice and it won't hurt to have any, but in the end what good are 500 combos if you have no idea how to land a hit? 99% of this game is decided by neutral game and reads; whether your combo deals 6k 7k or 8k damage doesn't really matter in the end.

I would much like to hear some opinions on solos in general, mostly about what 1v3/1v2 adds to the game, detracts to the game, how it should be played, etc.
Solo adds to the game: An easy way in for beginners, a way for people to play who hate all but one character.

It's a chore to fight however and I fully understand your distaste. Be careful with everything, abuse your superior neutral/offence/defence gained from assist calls, play safe.

There's not really much to say, you'll either have to live with your dislike of Solos and make the best of it, try your best to avoid fighting against people whom you know pick Solo, or quit the game.
There are things for everybody that they don't enjoy playing against (Brass assist, BB in general, Fukua, ..) and it's pretty much the purest form of "deal with it" there is.

the looming threat some of her air normals and her mixup potential makes me lock up in neutral and get overly scared. I guess I have problems with her in general, not just in 3v1.
Bella's best air normal is jMP, which has 14f startup and rarely leads to combos. Do NOT panic.. and try to figure out what exactly hits you and why; can't tell much else without a match recording.

when I called my assists they got punished with titan knuckle mostly, which I'm guessing is significant damage.
Knuckle on an assist is indeed significant damage, especially by a Solo, and to make matters worse applies sliding knockdown to your assist, which means you won't be able to call it for quite a while.

You'll have to learn how to protect your assists and just not call them allatime.
Eg if you do Backdash Pillar-assistcall with Eliza - then summon H.Servant at the end of the backdash, so Bella doing Titan Knuckle to punish the Pillar gets grabbed by your servant (which leads to a full combo).
Or Parasoul calling Brass can dashjump-block behind it, to be safe against any sort of reversal while putting pressure on the opponent
Or Bigband calling Pillar can time Giant Step as a sort-of-frametrap which makes hitting the recovering Parasoul nigh impossible
etc

Also of course, you have access to two assists. Do not call an assist if it has a lot of red life; call the other one, allowing your first to regen their life back.
If you only have one assist left and it's on 150 HP with 14k red health, also don't call it - just run away instead. Common sense etc
 
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So I feel like it's high time I get serious and start improving before I sink in another 100 hours and still be mediocre. I'm feeling pretty lost right now on what to do so let's go from step 1:

Hello, I am Alex, I go by alexo on steam. I'm an EU player, from the UK. I've played SG on PC since Nov 2013. I play on an arcade stick - Hori Fighting Edge, to be precise. I've played a range of characters and I'll list them in the order I picked them up:
1. Filia - first character, played her solo on an xbox 360 pad when I pikced up the game. Mostly relied on IAD j.HP j.HK because that was easy on pad.
2. Peacock - picked her up sometime around when I picked up Filia, can't really remember. Projectile patterns were easy on pad, as well as backwards ADC so I played Peacock quite a lot.
I got my arcade stick around new years 2014, and I think I played Filia + Peacock quite a lot for a while
3. Cerebella - My memory's fuzzy but I recall playing her sometime after I got my stick.
4. Parasoul + Double - Somehow met an American player called Killjoy who played a lot of sets with me, suggested I pick up Parasoul, because I would learn the game faster with her. I think I also picked up Double under his advice (parasoul + double duo, probably)
5. Big Band - I don't know what exactly happened, but I ended up playing Big Band and maining him, I played him solo for quite a few months after his release and now he's my main character. At some point I was probably best Big Band in the world, and might still be, if I somehow make my way out of my current state - I've been feeling pretty negative and self depreciative in general.
I feel conflicted about BB, however, for a couple of reasons. He seems to be treated as a joke character, who is fundamentally stupid, and is only played for the assists. People say "herp derp Big Band mash super, mash DP, giant step, herp derp" I really dislike this side to the character, and I play him point to rep him against all of the shit he gets. I personally like how you can read the opponent from any distance, and I like how he has tools designed to make the opponent respect you. I was told in a chat that he is a "coin flip" character, or is, in other words, random. This was from a very good player, so I took those words to heart. Since then I've felt like dropping the character would help me get better, that BB was the thing preventing me from getting good, etc.

So that was my character history out of the way. I've probably touched upon the rest of the characters to get a general feel of how they play, but not enough to play well with them. There's probably a shitload of other things to cover... so let me just write a list of things I feel are wrong off the top of my head:
  • My execution has got worse - not hugely, though.
  • I haven't settled with any kind of team - this seems to bother so many people, from what I've seen, and I can sort of see why. Playing multiple characters at once? Pretty taxing.
  • I don't keep track of my current material - combos, resets, general tech -I just do some combo into some reset (see below point)
  • I freelance quite a lot in general, don't practice much - I'm just lazy in general, I guess.
  • I don't develop new combos/resets/tech.
  • I don't use resets that much, I have a few here and there, for example - j.lp j.lk j.mp w/ Parasoul and c.LP c.LK OTG restand w/ Big Band
  • My setplay sucks - if I think I know what this word means, anyway. (doing character specific setups, optimal punishes, stupid hard to block resets, etc)
  • I don't use training mode to figure out how to beat things, which I realise is a HUGE factor in getting better at fighting games in particular, but gave up in learning how to do it ages ago.
  • According to Zeknife I place too much importance on making reads "to prove a point" and this leads to be throwing away matches I could have won otherwise.
  • According to Mr Peck I don't press my advantage enough, and do risky things even when I have the advantage (this was mentioned in a stream some while ago)
  • I talk with ClarenceMage sometimes because he seems to know what's up, but I don't seem to get better despite his good advice - So I'm bad at learning, I guess?
  • Right now I am REALLY bad at playing against L Extend assist, every other assist is at least manageable. L Extend assist causes me to freeze up and throw out zero buttons in neutral.
  • Generally negative about things, jaded about the EU SG playerbase and how they play the game - People tend to dislike me for this.
  • Stuck in some weird skill vacuum where I don't feel like I'm making any significant progress and I can only get worse, haven't really "overcome" any players for a long while.
I did want to start recording all my sets via OBS and to upload them on YouTube some time ago, but I have a pretty bad relationship with that program. I will try and make uploaded sets happen from now on, though. I'll be posting those here as a track record for monitoring progress and for anyone interested to watch.

EDIT: there's a few other HUGE points that I should have included:
  • I don't use absolute guard (but my defense is actually pretty good, despite this)
  • I don't PBGC, hardly ever. Sometimes do it vs. SBO or dynamo if I'm at chip health
  • I don't fully understand the game system and how it works, kind of vague, but yes
  • I think my reactions suck, not sure it's just a natural thing or that I don't pay attention in matches
 
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