How to block low, high or high lows? Playing against a character like Beowulf or Parasoul who can do so many low high mix ups really sucks. Especially when they aren't reactable so as soon as they reach in on you with the help of them spamming assist 24/7 then you easily lose.
Assist spam and help with low high blocking
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HiroProtagonest
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If you block an assist or anything else and they immediately keep pressuring you, the answer is to Reaction Shot while in blockstun and change your block immediately (crouching to standing, standing to crouching). This is a universal block as long as pushblock lasts. If there's a gap in pressure where pushblocking doesn't work, you can use invincible reversals depending on the character, team tag-in is a universal reversal though viability varies. Reversals can also be baited by the attacker choosing to block.
Also you have to learn how to win the neutral. The only way to do that is to play.
Also you have to learn how to win the neutral. The only way to do that is to play.
You need to learn when the characters will have access to their fast overheads and lows. For example, once Beowulf starts a blockstring on the ground his only lows are s.LK and cr.LK, after that all his attacks are mids (s.MP hold is an overhead but it is also slow and rarely used) apart from sweep which doesn't give him a combo. So once you block his first LK you don't really need to worry about overheads/lows afterwards. Obviously where his main mixups come in is at the start of his blockstrings where he can either do dash-jump overheads or his fast lows. If it is meaty here then you just have to guess I'm afraid but otherwise you may be able to learn to fuzzy guard it (the low will come out faster than the overhead so block low for a few frames then block high) but this does lose to delayed low.
Vs Parasoul her overhead low game in blockstrings is much more versatile. She has access to an overhead and a low at pretty much all points in her grounded blockstrings. Her overheads are a lot slower though, so you should be able to react to them with practice. Because of this you should block low by default and try to react to the overheads.
You can also use a reversal here to escape pressure but be aware that if you are blocked you may get heavily punished. You can also absolute guard (or reaction shot as Hiro called it) which is where you pushblock the first hit and then immediately change your guard (e.g. go from low to high). This will protect you from high/low mixups until pushblock time/the blockstring ends. This is very useful if your opponent has a lockdown assist like cerecopter and they try to mix you up during it since you just need to absolute guard and you are safe till the blockstring ends. Depending on your assists alpha countering may also be an option as well.
It will get easier the more you play as you learn to deal with more situations, so don't get discouraged.
Vs Parasoul her overhead low game in blockstrings is much more versatile. She has access to an overhead and a low at pretty much all points in her grounded blockstrings. Her overheads are a lot slower though, so you should be able to react to them with practice. Because of this you should block low by default and try to react to the overheads.
You can also use a reversal here to escape pressure but be aware that if you are blocked you may get heavily punished. You can also absolute guard (or reaction shot as Hiro called it) which is where you pushblock the first hit and then immediately change your guard (e.g. go from low to high). This will protect you from high/low mixups until pushblock time/the blockstring ends. This is very useful if your opponent has a lockdown assist like cerecopter and they try to mix you up during it since you just need to absolute guard and you are safe till the blockstring ends. Depending on your assists alpha countering may also be an option as well.
It will get easier the more you play as you learn to deal with more situations, so don't get discouraged.
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It really comes down to absolute guard.
If the opponent uses an assist to hold you in place so that they can move into a position for a high / low mix up, then you need to pushblock right before they attack you, and absolute guard.
This means that if the opponent mixes you up during your pushblock animation, they don't get mix up and you'll automatically block it.
The important thing about this is also that it creates a reversal opportunity at the end of your pushblock window when you become vulnerable to mix up again.
From that point, it's a 50/50.
They can decide to apply more pressure and hit you high / low after you leave absolute guard protection, BUT you get a reversal window and you can choose to use a reversal and ignore the mix up instead.
The thing about this 50/50 is that the risk reward is in the defenders favour more than usual.
If your reversal hits, you're hitting the assist AND the point, because the assist was just used nearby to put you in blockstun in the first place.
The exception is long ranged projectile assists, which make them very powerful.
> Robo-Fortune H Beam as an example, but Robo-Fortune is a lower tier character [imo] so this is the drawback of using Beam assist.
If any of these concepts don't make sense to you start by watching this Absolute Guard video:
<LINK>
Then watch this Push Block Guard Cancel video:
<LINK>
You can also read up on AG and PBGC in the defensive guide here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=172074812
If after doing that these concepts still don't make sense or you have more questions, let me know.