Need advice on how to get better.

[Magma442]

I bought skullgirls awhile back. I actually really do enjoy the game in fact I bought a fightsitck for it, but I don't seem to be getting better. It's hard to explain but I don't feel like I'm at a wall but rather a really dense fog. I've read up on how to get better at fighting games but It doesn't seem to help. I have a below average skill so going online results in me getting bodied faster than you can say wombo combo and I can't seem to study my opponents moves to get better. My other problem is that when I fight even in training mode my mind goes blank and I start button mashing, I also can't seem to link combos up because I'm a couple of frames off. I put aside 1 or 2 hours to practice but I get bored easily fighting CPUs or training dummy's but I also get bored (and salty) fighting online and suffering so many defeats. None of my friends really care about fighting games that much so I can't practice with someone on my skill level.



In short I'm not really at a wall but more in fog where I don't want to give up I want to get better but after trying everything my skill level has not improved. I'm good against CPUs but terrible against players.

 

[mcpeanuts]

As far as training mode, I watch a lot of speedruns on twitch, something I like to do while I'm watching is have Skullgirls open in training mode at the same time. When it gets to a boring part or the runner resets or something I'll grind out some combos for a bit until something interesting is happening again. If you like to watch TV you could practice during the commercials.

As far as not getting discouraged, I think it helps to play not necessarily to win but to achieve some kind of goal, the goal being something that will help you improve your game. Then even if you lose that game you can be like "that's fine, even though I lost I did the secret reset" or whatever. Right now my goal is just to beat people at neutral using point Band; if I do that at least once but later lose the game I'm like "whatever, I beat them at neutral with Big Band". If I don't do that but I win the game, I'm like "cool, I won the game". I feel like this mindset has increased the number of games I can play and be happy with.

I feel like it can also help to find someone at your ability level with whom you can practice. If you're winning around half the time against someone you don't get discouraged as quickly. Back in the day what I would do is play a lot of quick match or lobbies and when I found someone that I was going back and forth with I would shoot them a friend request. I don't really do that anymore since my friends list is pretty full at this point, but it worked for me for a long time and I'd recommend it.

 

[Magma442]

Thanks I don't have a problem with loosing I have a problem with getting utterly destroyed. I rather have a fight where I lose in a close match then a match where I lose in a one-sided fight. The thing is I suck at everything. I don't know where to start, how to do match ups, assist properly, what characters are great for what style (as in I try to go heavy hitter with peacock as if she was a tank). Remembering move list while trying to keep a cool head is my biggest problem I find.

 

[mcpeanuts]

Thanks I don't have a problem with loosing I have a problem with getting utterly destroyed. I rather have a fight where I lose in a close match then a match where I lose in a one-sided fight. The thing is I suck at everything. I don't know where to start, how to do match ups, assist properly, what characters are great for what style (as in I try to go heavy hitter with peacock as if she was a tank). Remembering move list while trying to keep a cool head is my biggest problem I find.

Fights in this game tend to be one sided just because of how strong offense is. You don't really see a lot of really close games even between people at the same skill level.

If you're having trouble remembering the move list, I think the only thing that can really help there is just play the game more. After enough games it eventually becomes muscle memory. Under your name it says you're playing 3 characters, maybe try playing 2 or 1? Less characters would be less to remember, which would be one less problem at least.

If you want, feel free to add me on Steam, I could give more personalized advice if I had a chance to play against you. http://steamcommunity.com/id/may_contain_peanuts/

 

[FuLLBLeeD]

As far as training mode, I watch a lot of speedruns on twitch, something I like to do while I'm watching is have Skullgirls open in training mode at the same time. When it gets to a boring part or the runner resets or something I'll grind out some combos for a bit until something interesting is happening again. If you like to watch TV you could practice during the commercials.

As far as putting things into your muscle memory, this is the best advice ever.

If you can do something while you're distracted, its in muscle memory. I watch Netflix/TV shows/movies exclusively while practicing fighting games. Its a great way to hammer things into your muscle memory while doing something you actually enjoy (because let's be honest, the initial grind to learn combos is not fun).

I just realized this advice mainly only works if you have two monitors. If you don't, do something else like listening to music or a podcast you enjoy (although when my other monitor wasn't available I just windowed both Netflix and Skullgirls on one monitor, haha). I don't really enjoy grinding combos that much, so I force myself to do it while doing something I actually like.

 

[SScrux]

Plaaay meeeee and I'll see what I can do for you - step by step.

 

[Jelly_]

I also would like to play against someone who can give me advices n_n

 

[mcpeanuts]

I also would like to play against someone who can give me advices n_n

Feel free to add me http://steamcommunity.com/id/may_contain_peanuts/

 

[Slap]

Dumb question that I think is semi-relevant:

What is a good way to quickly pick up new characters? I've been struggling to move past just playing Solo Parasoul for the forever, deprogramming from playing her to someone else has been a struggle for me. How did some of you guys pull it off?

 

[fenster]

There's no real secret other than "I learned a simple bnb that has okay reset points" and "I watched a lot of X player and I'm trying to mimic them", and then from there just training mode the quirks and grinding out the experience so you learn how to react with the character in matches.

 

[Dime]

Dumb question that I think is semi-relevant:

What is a good way to quickly pick up new characters? I've been struggling to move past just playing Solo Parasoul for the forever, deprogramming from playing her to someone else has been a struggle for me. How did some of you guys pull it off?

Me personally, besides doing what fester has said, I started out with a duo teamed and then quickly switched to a trio team once my duo was ok.

That's the "secret" if there is one. Just play the characters you want to play. Hopefully you have a good team to start off with... Copying a top player is never a bad choice if you like his team.


From there you just play the team. You will lose a lot at first but with every set of losses will come certain amounts of experience.

You may lose 10-0 and the realize that you did ok with your first character, but then once you got to,your second character you got mauled. So now you know to take the second character into training mode a bit more, lab some stuff out, watch a top player use your second character and see if they have any answers to questions you don't have... Etc etc


One of the quirks of fighting games is that it is the road to mastery that is fun. All you really have to do is break into the lower levels of intermediate play to get onto the road to mastery.
and as fester said, that's mostly about having a BnB that is decent that you can hit and having and using some resets.


After that it's all about getting in as many games as possible so that you can try to learn at an accelerated rate. Then you watch videos and theory fight up things in your head, test them out against people and see if they work, keep what works and discard what doesn't....



Then repeat the process again and again.

The evo champ is still practicing and still on his own road to mastery. We never stop learning at a fighting game tbh... I'm certainly still learning, so if you really want to take it seriously, get ready to always be flexible and have a want to learn things because afterall, learning is fun :)

 

[Shuffleupagus]

Just a short and simple thing to add to all this in terms of getting better in/at x, and it's been said in many different forms, it's just practice, practice, practice. They teach this in university, they teach this in the workplace, and they teach this in the military. There is absolutely no substitute for experience. Knowledge and theory are like the blocks to getting good, but the practical and application is what connects these blocks together, just like Lego blocks.

E: And part of this practice process does include online/local experience.

 

[DawnHibiki]

Hello Magma, I know how you feel. You may not seem to get better at first, but it's really because getting better can take a good amount of time, and it obviously takes practice to increase the skill you want to have. No one is going to be a god-tier player by playing in a matter of several weeks, let alone days. Back then when I jumped this game online, I used to only play a solo Squigly. I was just doing simple BnB combos and few resets, and I got bopped by some of the players online, but once I've been taking my good amount to time to practice, I've been getting better and better the more I play this game online with other players.

Jumping to online can be frustrating for inexperienced players, because this game lets to fight with random players with any skill level, so you may be fighting against a person who is highly experienced. However, making a lobby and inviting players to play with you helps you improve pretty well, and I've been seeing you streaming for your lobby. I can already tell that you've been improving with your Cerebella! She has some of the best reversals in the game, and she has great damage off of her neutral games, which makes her being a really strong character. Her resets and mixups are great too, & they're the reasons she's on my main team!

Keep playing if you can, and I think you can become one of the expert players eventually. Cerebella rules!