Combo Help (j.MK - Cymbal Clash doesn't work frequently)

[MankeyShank]

Let me just start off by saying that I'm very new to Skullgirls, and have only been playing it for a few weeks, so I'm a huge noob. Within those weeks, I've been avidly learning how to play Big Band. While I've learned quite a few combos, there's one combo in particular that has been giving me trouble no matter how much I practice it.

The combo involves jumping MK into Cymbal Clash. What's weird about this is that I can cancel j.MK into the only other midair special, Tympany Drive, just fine, but whenever I try to cancel it into Cymbal Clash, I have extreme difficulty doing so. Sometimes when I want to do the HK variant, j.HK will come out instead. I have the button inputs shown in training mode, and it shows that I'm doing a back quarter circle, but it still doesn't come out. Sometimes it does come out, but usually it doesn't. I know that with certain moves you need to time the move you go in afterwards more carefully, but for reason this simple j.MK-Cymbal Clash is just incredibly difficult for me to get the timing right.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can master this? It's really starting to frustrate me.

Also an FYI, I use an Xbox Controller, in case that helps.

 

[Ninja]

hmmm.... this just might be your own execution. From the sounds of it you seem to be doing the QFC motion too slow when going for a HK verion of Cymbals, that or you are pressing HK too early before the game fully reads your QFC input. Do you have the listing for the combo you are practicing?

 

[MankeyShank]

hmmm.... this just might be your own execution. From the sounds of it you seem to be doing the QFC motion too slow when going for a HK verion of Cymbals, that or you are pressing HK too early before the game fully reads your QFC input. Do you have the listing for the combo you are practicing?

Yes, I do.

c.LPx2 - c.MPx2 - HP - j.LP - j.MP - j.HK - LKx2 - MKx2 - j.LK - j.MKx2 - MK/HK Cymbal Clash - HK A-Train - Super Sonic Jazz or Strike Up the Band.

I've actually noticed I've been the QFC too slow and I've been doing it faster w/o any slip ups (missing the down-back part) but still having trouble. Don't know why, I feel like this shouldn't be that hard to execute.

 

[Ninja]

here try testing out the move/ input by itself. If comes out somewhat consistently then you just need to get the timing down, but it doesn't then something might be up with the controller... Not entirely sure what is going on, I would have to be physically there to really understand.

 

[mcpeanuts]

The combo involves jumping MK into Cymbal Clash. What's weird about this is that I can cancel j.MK into the only other midair special, Tympany Drive, just fine, but whenever I try to cancel it into Cymbal Clash, I have extreme difficulty doing so. Sometimes when I want to do the HK variant, j.HK will come out instead..

Short answer: Try using MK Cymbals instead of HK Cymbals.

Long answer: Big Band's j.HK isn't special cancellable, it is one of the only (the only?) normals that isn't in the whole game. In one of the earliest betas for Big Band, people found that you could hit them with j.HK, cancel to Cymbals (which whiffs), then combo off the wallbounce without using your OTG. So people would use this to make combos that had like five wall bounces or whatever. Mike saw that and was like, well, no, that's stupid, so now j.HK isn't special cancellable.

The side effect of this, which is probably what you're experiencing, is that the game's leniency on special moves works differently with HK Cymbals. Normally if the button press is off by a bit relative to the quarter circle motion, you'll get a few frames of whatever normal you pushed cancelled into the special move you wanted. However since j.HK isn't special cancellable, in the specific case of HK Cymbals this does not work, you can't do a few frames of j.HK then cancel it. People complained about this in some other thread and j.HK was changed to be special cancellable as long as you do it in like the first 3 startup frames of the move or something, but HK Cymbals is still sort of unreliable. I'd recommend always using either LK Cymbals or MK Cymbals, those versions of Cymbals don't have that problem.

 

[Lawnalog]

it is one of the only (the only?) normals that isn't in the whole game.

you also can't special cancel Robo Fortune's c.HK but idk if that move counts as a normal?

 

[mcpeanuts]

Forgot about that one yeah. There's probably another I'm forgetting

 

[Mr Peck]

There's also Beowulf chairless c.HP and c.HK (the arm moves), and Robo's s.HK (the overhead). I think that's everything. Sorry for the derail!

 

[MankeyShank]

Thanks everyone, I got it figured out, I was trying to cancel into Cymbals at a later time than Tympany Drive, which is why it wasn't working as well. I've now been cancelling it at the same time (a little after the 2nd part of j.MK kicks in) and it's working fine.

I'll follow mcpeanut's advice and stick with MK Cymbals from now on. Thanks for the help!

 

[MankeyShank]

In OTHER news. Turns out, another reason it was working as well was because my PC is anus, so there was some input lag due to this. I downloaded the game onto a laptop and it the game runs MUCH more smoothly and the combo can now be done with considerably more ease than before.

Also, framerate is now orgasmic.