Dealing with Lockdown

[LN-Omega]

Greetings.

I'm a Peacock/Cerebella player (the old classic...) wishing to improve my gameplay, and one of my greatest shortcomings I find is dealing with setups that cause a great deal of lockdown (pressure backed with Hornet Bomber, or Cerecopter or just blockstrings in general). Now what I've got on my to-do list (if and when school cuts me some slack) is:

*Practice push-block-guard cancel
*Practice/learn how to absolute guard (I know the basics, the execution though... eeeeerf...)
*Investigate/learn push-block quirks for particular moves
*Learn other characters' common blockstrings (mainly to defend against)

So basically, more practice (naturally), but I could use some input about these topics to speed things up, if any of you feel generous enough to impart such knowledge or show me ingame.

My actual (and admitedly deficient) defensive pattern with Peacock is to PBGC into medium Bang or pull out Battle Butt (assist) while blocking, but it really doesn't cut it when I'm locked down or being hit by a block string. Sometimes I pushblock and teleport if I'm fairly sure my opponent will commit himself to a jump, but as I said, all these countermeasures seem... sub-optimal to me.

With Cerebella, I either spam supers or try to charge a Battle-Butt to get out, although the latter seems to rarely ever work...

So, any suggestions?

 

[ClarenceMage]

Without an invulnerable assist, you need to either be VERY aware of where you can put in an invincible reversal, reading opponents tendencies and reacting to overly long pressure strings, or become very adept at knowing when to pushblock to create space for your character to get enough breathing room to get out of the situation.

If being locked down is a HUGE issue for you and you're finding the above things really difficult to consistently implement, seriously consider adding, Filia, Double, or Parasoul to your team for a gtfo assist.

 

[obregon]

Pea/Bella? Tag to Bella is a reversal that doesn't get shit on by jump/crossup overheads or throws. It will absolutely get people to loosen up and not just do the mixups/resets that eat up MP bang.

You can practice defending a few specific situations with option selects that combine throw techs and absolute guard but SG has such an open design and people use so many offensive patterns that you're probably only learning how to beat one guy's setup.

Anyway I think if someone has offense that's reliably blockable after getting their lockdown assist in contact with you it's assuredly because their offense sucks, absolute guard or not. The stuff you do at the point you're stuck in an assist is always just going to be trying to minimize how much you've fucked yourself with corny gambles like a tag reversal.

 

[Dime]

I wasnt going to reply to this, but then i noticed that you left out the most basic, easy and obvious way of dealing with lockdown assists:

Dont get locked down in the first place.


It may seem like a letdown to list this as a way of dealing with those assists... But tbqh, this defense is what the best players use to combat most of the cheap junk in sg in general... Dont get hit, dont be in range to get put in blockstun.



So a way to think of this is to get it in your mind that absolute guard and pbgc are LAST RESORT defenses to use when your first resort defense fails and you make a mistake.


To me, getting locked down in the first place is a mistake and so when reviewing vids of myself playing, instead of looking at things like "i blocked high when i should have blocked low while dealing with that lockdown assist" or "i missed my pbgc/absolute guard input" i think to myself:



Why was i there in the first place getting locked down?


I want to be the one doing the locking down.


And remember that all lockdown assists have a general weakness of lacking range... Which is the primary way to defend against them... Out range them so that they cant be called safely and use your longer range assist or normals to lock your opponent down instead.

 

[LN-Omega]

Indeed, the matches I win with most class are those where my opponent couldn't even get within one foot of my face, but some characters or particularly crafty opponents invariably will. Now usually I'll hide behind Battle Butt against those, but it's not a 100% failsafe. But perhaps there is no easy way out of solid pressure barring reversal Bang/Battle Butt and correct pushblocking. It just seems to me there must be a reliable way to shake off better players if only for a few frames.

 

[ClarenceMage]

Updo.

Edit: Alternately, LK Doublebutt. Maybe LK Doublebutt since Double contributes more to a team overall.

 

[Jason]

And remember that all lockdown assists have a general weakness of lacking range...

Except for MK bomber... which is why everybody plays MK Bomber assist.

 

[Dime]

True, but mk bomber is duckable giving it no lockdown outside the corner on block.. Its one of its biggest weaknesses. Though yes the assist is quite good basically being an invincible poke at midscreen that some characters such as val can convert off of quite easily, and then turning into a lockdown assist in the corner which every character can convert off of easily.


Also, with the exception of val and peacock, i personally think lk bomber is better for most characters. Its a true lockdown, easier to convert, and has more invincibility.

Mk bomber has range and a bit more damage though... It likely is more based on what you want to do, but i think i leave more damage on the table with mk bomber than lk bomber.

 

[Jason]

1. Not every character can duck it

2. Its not possible to duck the last hit.

 

[Dime]

3. Out ranging it refers to vertical range as well.

4. Making contact with the last hit only isnt being locked down.



...it would seem that someone wants to argue? I gave it to you that the assist was good and that the difference between it and lk bomber could largely be subjective.

You seem to want to say that making mk bomber wiff is somehow impossible or something or is harder than its worth.. Or something... What is it exactly that you are trying to say? These points you are making dont seem to be designed to educate, just to inflame... Or something...

 

[LN-Omega]

Oh wait, Bomber has invulnerability? THAT could explain a lot of other things...