New player. Thinking of using Parasoul and Cerebella together. General tips?

DrDialUp said:

Also how much damage should a beginner combo using 1-meter be doing? The difference in damage based on the opponets team # is confusing me a bit. I have a 1-meter Cerebella combo that IIRC does ~7400 against a 3 person team but only ~4500 against a two person team. Is that decent? It's cLMHP, instant jMK, jHK, cLK, cMP, cHP, then shoryu command grab into windmill super.

Basically, if there are three characters, the damage multiplier is set to 1.30%, as opposed to the basic 1.00%. 1.00 is the universal multiplier for combos, or what people list when they post combos.
A basic Cerebella combo that will teach you her important links is c.LK - c.MP - c.HP - j.MK - j.HK - c.LP - c.MK - J.MP - delay until right before they hit the ground - j.HK - c.LK - s.MP - s.HP - Cerecopter - Diamond Dynamo.
This does about 8k with 1.30% and around 6k at 1.00% (probably, just estimating, don't remember and can't test right now). I'd recommend visiting this thread, which is her main combo thread.

DrDialUp said:

Parasoul specific questions - Everywhere I read says she has great normals but I'm not really seeing that outside of HP and jHP. Her light and medium punches/kicks are either slow or don't reach far at all. So I'm assuming I'm using them wrong. All the combo guides say cLK is her main combo starter but I basically have to get right in their face for that to connect. Is all that information true?

Please don't take much of this to heart, as I don't play Parasoul myself, but can answer some of these.
Yes, she has quite a few good normals. j.LP is great for air-to-air or stopping your opponent's moves. She's also got two good overheads. J.MK is great for resets because of the glide, so it has plenty of uses.
C.LK is her main starter. It's got decent range and hits low, so that is what you're going to want to use. It's not her fastest but you want the low hit and the range s.LK doesn't have.

The standard for telling how much damage a combo is doing is 2v2 or 2v3 I believe. What you want to look for is the damage ratio being at 1 in the advanced data box in training mode. Teambuilding actually isn't as critical in SG as it is in Marvel, since pretty much all of the characters are good. Play the characters you like in the order or composition you like them. On the other hand there are some moves that function better as an assist than others on a character (like using an invincible dp over a low vulnerable move), but its still important to do what works for you.

I dunno about beginner combos, but for most of the cast your BnB should be doing about 7-9 thousand damage for one meter (depending on who you're playing as, I think bella might be in the 9k zone).

Also with bella it's generally a good idea use command grabs like excellebella sparingly, as grabs will scale your combo to 50% (I'm not good with scaling and such someone should correct me) so you'll be losing out on a bit of damage. On the other hand that move is pretty good for building meter.

With parasoul j.lp is a very good move, it's active for a very long time, and is most often used to combo into her j.hp, which is also a very good normal. The problem with J.hp though is that it causes a techable knockdown when you hit with it, meaning if you just go in with j.hp alone you will not get a combo unless your opponent doesn't tech. On the other hand, if you do another normal, like j.mk or j.lp before it, you can combo afterwards.

J.mp is more used for resets or as an air to air attack.
Napalm Trigger (tear detonate) is actually used in both zoning and in combos, although mixing in a move like that can tend to allow more room for input errors.

@Skarmand knows quite a bit about parasoul and he's in charge of new people too so maybe he can help.

Also if you think that's a wall of text you've got a lot of reading to do on this forum.

1. Team Building is a LOT less critical in this game than in Marvel, as every char in this game is good and most of them work in various locations due to being more well-rounded.
So don't worry too much; if you throw 3 darts at the SG char select and at least one lands on a character, you will generally have a playable team.

2. Normal Team Order / Assists for that would be Parasoul[Pillar] / Cerebella[H Lock&Load / Cerecopter],
but as noted SG chars are very flexible - Cerebella[H LnL / Copter]1st with Parasoul[Pillar / L Tearshot / H Tearshot]2nd also certainly works.

3. Damage Numbers are looked at in 1.0 Damage Ratio, which is present in 1v1, 2v2, or 3v2. In eg 1v3 you deal a lot of bonus damage, which changes the numbers.
Any damage is ok as long as you are confident in actually being able to execute the combo. Focus on learning the game!
Combo certainly looks fine for a beginner, if you can do that it's good!

4. If you WANT to improve your damage, then -rather than learning longer combos- focus on learning conversions and pressure/resets
EG: Do you know how to combo out of the Merry-Go-Rilla Command Grab?
Dealing 4000 damage after that (instead of just the 2300 from the grab) is much more important than adding 500 damage to your combo out of cLK
EG: Do you know that after your jHK,cLK,cMP you can do a slightly delayed cancel into her "Kanchou" special move and get a very fast crossup (and do you know how to combo out of that, etc)
Adding this to your arsenal rather than always finishing the combo makes your offence a lot scarier
EG: Do you do Parasoul cLK cMK s.b.HK string? Do you do Tearshot-dash-Throw, do you use her 6LP, etc
Landing hits is a much better than scoring optimized strings after them.. that 10k CH combo after jHP doesn't help you if you never hit with your jHP!

5.Parasoul DOES have great normals. The following are her main buttons:
- sLP reaches very far, has a very good hitbox, and is very quick for the combination of those things
- cMP reaches very far too and has a very good hitbox + moves you backward which allows you to dodge attacks
- jLP has a really good hitbox and is very active, so you can press it at any point during your jump and it will always be a pain to deal with
- jLK is quick and hits at a good angle
- jHP speaks for itself
Most of her normals aren't very [fast], but have high [priority], so they will beat out whatever the opponent is pressing at the right distance.

Here is a basic example comparison of her sMP with Filia's sMP: http://i.imgur.com/lFhG4eH.png vs http://i.imgur.com/bEbmgb9.png
Green Boxes mean the character can be hit, while red boxes mean the character can hit.
As you can see, Filia has green all around all the red boxes (meaning any part she can hit with can also be hit by the opponent), while Parasoul has a large mess of red that has no green anywhere nearby.
THE UMBRELLA CAN NOT BE HIT BY THE OPPONENT, while Parasoul is able to hit with it!
This gives her great space control which the opponent can't do much about - if you are at mid range (where her normals being slow doesn't matter that much, and they just beat out the opponent's options)

Her Buttons become even more powerful when you learn how to make good use of her movement abilities:
Both her Dash and her Dash-Jump are very fast and go a long distance, which allows her to weave in and out of the opponent's range while keeping up the threat of Buttons which the enemy can't really handle!

6. Yes, cLK is her main combo starter. It IS a bit stubby (especially if you are used to Cerebella's insanity..) but as mentioned her dash is great, so it's not too hard to get into the range where it hits.
If you really really dislike it (or are far away), you can try using cMK as your starting button instead, which is a bit slower but has longer range.

7. Trigger (Detonation) is largely Zoning-Only. It CAN be used for combos, but it's really not worth the trouble (if you want a midcombo Tear Detonation, you can just hit the Tear with a flame-normal or another tear)