A beginner in serious need

[Skymin50]

I've played Skullgirls, yes. I'm not all that bad, I can do some decent Big Bang combos. But that's about the extent of my skills - for when I go online I'm usually the punching bag of the match, getting close to if not perfected. I really want to up my skill but I just can't - especially when going up against real players, I just get demolished by all the comboes everybody pulls off. It's infuriating to try and get into a battle only to be air comboed for about 10 weeks - how can I work against this? I want to try and work comboes in, if not get closer to winning rather than just being comboed for days by a tourney player. I'm rather tired of it.

 

[Chaezy]

Add people from the beginner matchmaking thread to play with.

Edit: And by that I mean literally add everyone from there you have good ping with. The more different people you play with, the quicker you get better.

 

[gluemchen]

My guess is your playing against a variety of players that have quite a big amount of mixups and setups, probably also lacking character familiarity. Things you don't know how do deal with. It happens to everyone. Do not get intimidated. Keep on the ball. Figure out what happend and why. Use it to your advantage for learning in training mode. Sure it's annoying and takes time which could be spent on playing and "having" fun. But having fun won't happen until you understand why you are apparently getting bodied. Watch this video and let it sink in.

Spoiler

 

[Skymin50]

My guess is your playing against a variety of players that have quite a big amount of mixups and setups, probably also lacking character familiarity. Things you don't know how do deal with. It happens to everyone. Do not get intimidated. Keep on the ball. Figure out what happend and why. Use it to your advantage for learning in training mode. Sure it's annoying and takes time which could be spent on playing and "having" fun. But having fun won't happen until you understand why you are apparently getting bodied. Watch this video and let it sink in.

Spoiler

I appreciate the video, although I don't really understand half of what's going on. Thanks.

 

[gluemchen]

Maybe ask?

 

[Dime]

I've played Skullgirls, yes. I'm not all that bad, I can do some decent Big Bang combos. But that's about the extent of my skills - for when I go online I'm usually the punching bag of the match, getting close to if not perfected. I really want to up my skill but I just can't - especially when going up against real players, I just get demolished by all the comboes everybody pulls off. It's infuriating to try and get into a battle only to be air comboed for about 10 weeks - how can I work against this? I want to try and work comboes in, if not get closer to winning rather than just being comboed for days by a tourney player. I'm rather tired of it.

I see you use peacock and big band. Though i dont know what order.

What i can say though is that peacock and bigband no matter the order have semi weak anti air assists (unless you use beat extend)

My best piece of advice is to use beat extend if you arent already doing that, and if you dont like beat extend, then pick a character that has a VERTICAL AA assist. Such as pillar or updo (parasoul and filia respectively)


Once you have one of these assists on your team... Your opponent has to respect your defensive abilities as long as you actually call your assist and dont just let it kick it on the sidelines.


Having good AA assists is a must have for beginning skullgirls players because they are the best way to keep from getting rushed down. Once you have a team with AA assists down, THEN, you can make a better educated guess about getting rid of the vertical AA assist once you know what you are doing.


As it is right now, if you are using something like BB brass knuckle... That has a huge dead zone above the middle part of the screen... Which means you are weak there and need to cover that area with your peacock... This leads to being easier to be rushed down. BB Brass knuckle makes peacocks offensive zoning game much better... But lacks on defense in many situations. And until you really know peacock inside and out.. Its better to have a vertical AA because they tend to cover ALL defensive holes that peacock has.

 

[Skymin50]

I see you use peacock and big band. Though i dont know what order.

What i can say though is that peacock and bigband no matter the order have semi weak anti air assists (unless you use beat extend)

My best piece of advice is to use beat extend if you arent already doing that, and if you dont like beat extend, then pick a character that has a VERTICAL AA assist. Such as pillar or updo (parasoul and filia respectively)


Once you have one of these assists on your team... Your opponent has to respect your defensive abilities as long as you actually call your assist and dont just let it kick it on the sidelines.


Having good AA assists is a must have for beginning skullgirls players because they are the best way to keep from getting rushed down. Once you have a team with AA assists down, THEN, you can make a better educated guess about getting rid of the vertical AA assist once you know what you are doing.


As it is right now, if you are using something like BB brass knuckle... That has a huge dead zone above the middle part of the screen... Which means you are weak there and need to cover that area with your peacock... This leads to being easier to be rushed down. BB Brass knuckle makes peacocks offensive zoning game much better... But lacks on defense in many situations. And until you really know peacock inside and out.. Its better to have a vertical AA because they tend to cover ALL defensive holes that peacock has.

I don't really run Peacock/Big Band too often. If my BB goes down I'm basically dead since I'm shit at Peacock combat. If I do ever run that team though I run BB first, though I usually just run solo BB. However this doesn't help me getting comboed to death. So yeah.

 

[Dime]

Well i did fairly well at evo and I'm telling you right now that having a good invincible assist was (and still is) more than half the reason why i made it as far as i did (and have me good defense) If you look at top 8 of evo 6 of the 8 teams iirc had invincible assists. Both of the teams that i lost to had invincible assists, the guy that i beat, to make it out of pools, had invincible assists....

And the best skullgirls player in the world has not 1... But 2 invincible assists on his team. If you want to up your defensive ability, invincibles are the shortest path to an increase in defensive ability. Other than that you will have to get good at jumping backward, dashing backward, pushblocking and reading your opponents habits so that you can make the right guess on defense should they make you block something close range. But honestly, defense in skullgirls is mostly about not getting hit or blocking the opponent in the first place. If you do happen to block, then mixing up between pushblocking out, or mashing reversal invincible assist is a good way of defending. Also, if you happen to block a lockdown assist, more often than not your opponent will try to run a mixup on you while you are blocking... So doing a reversal pbgc there or simply a reversal just as you come out of blockstun... Is also really good for defense.


But like i said, not being in a bad situation in the first place is the best answer, and invincible assists help out for that more than anything else.


If not, then you just have to make great use of the things i already mentioned such as backdash, jump back, long ranged pokes like air cymbal, pushblock, pushblock autoguard, and pushblock guard cancel and reversals in general. Also last but not least, blocking in sg is really, really, HARD. Everyone gets blown up, even duckator. But the point to know is your first defensive mistake is generally being put into a position where you have to block, in the first place.