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Bad at Blocking, Crappy at Comboing, and On My Way to Greatness

MegaMix

MegaMix

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Valentine Robo Fortune
I've been playing video games for pretty much my whole life. My earliest memory in fact was me playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II on the NES at like three or four years old. During my high school years I gained a huge interest in fighting games, especially 2D fighters. Unfortunately there was one problem. No one played fighting games anymore. Everybody wanted to play Halo and Guitar Hero. I was rocking the PS2 playing Third Strike, King of Fighters XI, and Neo Geo Battle Colosseum. Later I got Guilty Gear XX ^ Core on the Wii. Admittedly I didn't really have any friends growing up and on the rare occasion someone came over they didn't enjoy the games...except Guilty Gear, but even that was rare. I tried to find people to play but I couldn't. At the time I also posted on shoryken.com, but I left after a year or two because people there were such dicks to me because I kept asking "stupid questions".

I eventually picked up Street Fighter IV, but quickly got bored with it. After that I dropped fighting games for years. It didn't help that I only had a Wii, DS, and a gaming PC as my platforms. Eventually Skullgirls was announced on Steam. I picked it up on a whim. I fell in love with the game, and played it frequently. I also picked up King of Fighters XIII. After about two months or so, I dropped fighting games again. Fast forward to two and a half months ago I once again picked up Skullgirls. I was enamored by the game and am now playing multiple online tournaments and playing matches. I also play other fighting games from time to time like Guilty Gear Xrd and King of Fighters 2002. What's more, now that I am independent and have a car (with great gas mileage) I can actually drive out to places and attend local tournaments. The downside is that in Chicagoland everyone almost exclusively plays Street Fighter V. Though there is a meet up for Guilty Gear which is where I go. Apparently a Skullgirls meet-up is in the works but I'm not sure if I'd be willing to drive an hour a fifteen minutes it takes get to the possible location.

Going to Combo Breaker was phenomenal. I was blown away how people flew in from all over the world just to play the games they love. After these experiences I am in it for the long haul for fighting games. No other games really entertain me anymore. That said, it is unfortunate I didn't have resources like online play and what not back in high school as I have to basically start from scratch. Currently I'm learning some basic BnB combos for Valentine and Robo Fortune (my team).

They are as follows:
Val: c.lk > c.mk (1) > c.hp > j.hp > j.hk > AD > j.mp (2) > j.hk > j.lp > j.mp (1) > j.hk > ADC > j.mk > j.hk > dash > s.lp (3) > s.lk > s.mp (2) > s.mk > s.hk (3) xx HK Bypass xx EKG Flatliner

R. Fortune: c.LK > c.MP > s.MK > c.HP > SJC > j.LK > j.MK > j.HK > [s.MP] > s.MK > c.HP > SJC > j.LP > j.MP > j.HK > s.LP > s.LP > [s.MP] > s.MK > s.HP > H Danger > Super

Robo's combo is one I almost have down, but I am struggling with Val's as it is difficult to connect the first AD to the j.mp (2) with some characters. So yeah that's where I'm at right now.
 
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Hiya, friend! While I can't provide specific pieces of advice with regards to Val and Robo, I want to help. I'm tryna learn Robo myself. Do you know what absolute guard is? It essentially lets you block both high AND low at the same time when you pushblock, as shown here. I ask because you say you're bad at blocking, and this may help you. ^w^


I totally get you with the friends not playing video games...I'm the only person among my friends who plays video games in general, let alone Skullgirls...the feels, man.
 
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Hey, I remember playing you. Along with Sunset, I can relate to not having anyone else to play games I liked with. But that all changed here. While I rarely can find people of low enough skill or experience, I can always find people to play with and people who like to help.

I will find you on Steam, and I will friend request you. I currently run Valentine and Fukua, and I'm desperately trying to improve my Val combos. Maybe we could set up some matches or training sessions. I've been wanting to set up a regular day once a week to do so for a while. My only request is that you like / learn to like bad puns.

There is no such thing as a bad pun.

And I'm jealous of you current Val combo
 
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Sunset Radiance said:

I still don't understand what he is doing. Is he blocking and hitting push block at the right time in order to block everything at once?

Sunset Radiance said:
I totally get you with the friends not playing video games...I'm the only person among my friends who plays video games in general, let alone Skullgirls...the feels, man.
Then during college everyone wanted to play NBA 2K. I showed some people Skullgirls and they were intrigued but too intimated by the game.
 
MegaMix said:
I still don't understand what he is doing. Is he blocking and hitting push block at the right time in order to block everything at once?


Then during college everyone wanted to play NBA 2K. I showed some people Skullgirls and they were intrigued but too intimated by the game.


So, he's pushblocking (blocking and pressing two punches) and holding back, which blocks high. But in the middle of the animation, he holds downback. By doing so, he can block low and high at the same time. Conversely, if you're pushblocking starting low, you go from holding downback at the start of pushblocking, to holding back in the middle of the animation, to block high and low. Does this make sense? Thankfully, he displayed the input on the left side of the screen, next to Ms. Fortune, to see how the input looks like.
 
Oh so as long as I am blocking and hold pushblock, and then react to the next attack, I am blocking on all sides? I think I understand.
 
MegaMix said:
Oh so as long as I am blocking and hold pushblock, and then react to the next attack, I am blocking on all sides? I think I understand.
You don't have to react. You can just block, pushblock, and switch blocks. For the duration of the pushblock animation you'll be blocking high and low simultaneously.
 
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Yeah. The reason for that is that if you pushblock while standing, you automatically block high for the whole animation, and if you pushblock while crouching, you automatically block low. So switching blocks means you automatically block high and manually block low (or vice-versa) at the same time, which lets you block everything.
 
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Update: I can now do half of Valentine's BnB combo.

Here is a video I recorded. Unfortunately there are two things about Fraps. The first is that it stutters and even freezes as soon as it begins to record. Hence why it takes me a few tries to actually pull the combo off. Second off, I didn't realize that it records the music I play on my media player as well. I listen to music while in training mode. So if you want to watch my videos it is something you'll have to deal with. Yeah it looks unimpressive, but baby steps!

 
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You're off to a great start...much better than when I started. I am in the middle of learning a different combo, but it has a similar starting string. What helped me a lot was turning the game speed down. This gives you time to see when and how fast each hit is connecting, so you can pinpoint exactly when to make the next input. It looks like all you need to do now is locking down the timing.

If you aren't happy with fraps, I would suggest giving XSpilt broadcast a try. It's not the simplest thing in the world, and you have to pay to unlock 1080p @ 60fps, but it never hiccups.
 
So I ALMOST have Robo Fortune's BnB combo. It's just that I struggle with H.Danger.

I either don't have it connect with my combo for some reason:

Or it just doesn't reach my opponent:

What am I doing wrong?
 
robo fortune's s.hp > hk danger does not usually connect on all hits. try shortening your amount of hits on s.hp!

edit: it also helps if you s.lp>s.mp>s.mk (makes them restand)> s.hp > hk danger versus just going into s.mp > s.hp
 
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Thanks to Elda Taluda's advice, I now have Robo's combo down. Now just have to practice and practice until muscle memory has it fully on lock.

 
While I've successfully mastered Robo's BnB combo, Valentine is much more complicated.


To cut to the chase, I'm trying to do her basic vialless BnB combo:

ightweights, Vialless, ~6.9k
c.lk, c.mk (1), c.hp,
j.hp, j.hk, AD, j.mp (2), j.hk,
j.lp, j.mp (1), j.hk, ADC, j.mk, j.hk,
dash, s.lp (3), s.lk, s.mp (2), s.mk, s.hk (3) xx HK Bypass xx EKG Flatliner


However I am having huge trouble connecting the highlighted move as the character I am attacking is often too high.
 
Don't bother with the LK, it does barely any damage there and will miss more often than it hits.
 
I would agree with Lex. That late in the combo, it doesn't do enough damage to make it worth it. I only find Val's LK to be useful when I am catching an opponent after an air bypass and want to relaunch.

And I have found the LP > MP > MK > HK > H Bypass > EKG to roll off the fingers fairly easily with some practice. And if the opponent is low on health, you could go right into any super > DHC at any point if you are worried about dropping the combo.
 
I agree that I can just skip the s.lk. However, I am concerned to as of why it isn't connecting in the first place. If I cannot connect it that must mean I am doing something wrong in the combo somewhere. Such as jumping to high or starting a move off too soon or too late.
 
If you can land the rest of the combo fine then there is no need to worry. If you really wanted to land the LK then you could microdash after the j.HK and slightly delay each LP. This would get you close to the opponent and the delay would cause the enemy to drop a little. It is still unnecesary and just an easy way to drop the combo for next to no gain though.
 
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"Microdash"? Like on the ground? That seems very difficult to execute.
 
Yep, microdash is a tiny ground dash cancelled almost immediately into an attack.
 
It's pretty tricky to execute, yes. Sometimes if you have a green vial loaded you can throw a vial instead of j.hk and the hitstun will let you run up and finish the combo with plenty of leniency.
 
Lex said:
Yep, microdash is a tiny ground dash cancelled almost immediately into an attack.
How exactly do I cancel the dash into an attack? Like dash and immediately attack? Or do I have to push back on the stick and then attack?
 
MegaMix said:
How exactly do I cancel the dash into an attack? Like dash and immediately attack? Or do I have to push back on the stick and then attack?

Pretty much dash and immediately attack. Since valentine doesn't have any forward-LP attack you can dash, still hold forward and press LP.
 
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Great. Now I'm starting to become worse the more I practice. I can no longer connect s.MK in the attack after the s.LP (3).


Not sure why it won't reach anymore.
 
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Ok. Imma going to give this a shot at fixing. I have not tried this yet, so....i could be waaaay wrong here.

I would see if you could delay the last j.HK a little bit. You could also remove the j.MK and just do AD > j.HK to get the two heavy hits in. If it still pushes the opponent away, you could replace the j.HK with j.LK. Being that close to the ground, I think you are able to combo off of it. If the j.LK does not, then you have a nice (but kinda predictable) reset spot.

If this doesn't work, have a beer
 
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Well I can do the combo consistently for the most part after tweaking some things, depending on what character I am going up against.

Anyway, my main focus now is on finding numerous resets, as well as being unpredictable in my moves and attacks. I want people to have a difficult time reading me.
 
Okay, it's been forever since I've updated this. I am MUCH better now. However, I notice that my Val is WAY weaker than my Robo. I have relied WAY too much on Robo to cover for Val while she attacks. When I go 1 vs 1 on someone , it's sometimes embarrassing how inexperienced I seem as it is difficult for me to get a connect with her. The main problem is that I don't know what moves can counter other moves. What would be the best way to figure out when to use what? Do I just go into the training stage with someone and try different things with them?
 
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