Fly, You Fool! (Training Stuff)

[The Dave]

Hi! My name's Dave. I've been playing Skullgirls off and on since Squigly came out. Started playing more seriously after Eliza was finished. I was initially attracted to the game for Peacock, Ms. Fortune, Lovecraft references, fanservice, and the art deco aesthetic. I have about 340 hours on Steam between retail and Beta versions, and I'd put myself at somewhere between "beginner" and "intermediate" skill levels. I'd like to get better, so I figure one of these could help. I was going to wait until I had a good way to record my matches, but I figure I can still make my own observations and ask for advice.

I play a Cerebella/Eliza duo- I enjoy the balance between mobility, range, damage recovery, and big, juicy hits. I'm thinking of picking up Robo Fortune, but she feels... clunky for me. Like she's stuck to the ground. I seem to have some trouble with fighting game-based air mobility. I'll go ahead and blame over-exposure to platformers for this one- holding "back" while flying forward feels dirty and wrong to me. Other particulars about my playstyle:

• I have a decent-ish combo with Eliza. (cLK -> cMP/cMK -> cHP -> jLK -> jMP -> jHP -> airdash -> jLK -> jHP). I'm also pretty good about incorporating Eliza's airgrab for resets in this pattern.
• I need to improve my Bella damage; I've been getting away with situational Diamond Drop/Go-Rilla/Lock n Load/Cerecopter/Battle Butt/etc. I'm overly dependent on armor from Lock n Load and Battle Butt. I've tried building combos, but what works on the computer rarely works against humans.
• Ultimate Showstopper -> Khepri Sun lets me preserve the big stabby hit. I like this. Have trouble pulling off US, though.
• I don't use my assist very well... I enjoy Bella's Devil Horns for a surprise hit from below while I'm in the air, but I don't actually have a good assist from Eliza yet.
• I also don't use Sekhmet very much. The occasional extra damage on a combo, but that's about it. I always seem to get hit when I try throwing her out.
• I've picked up a bad habit of thinking all my combos need to start crouching <glares at Eliza>. This is also probably part of why I think Robo's so clunky and immobile.

Other-player stuff I have trouble with:

• Pressure, especially when I'm in a corner.
• What to do when I'm being bounced around like an elaborate juggling act, especially if I'm stuck in a corner.
  
• Beowulf's jHP, with and without chair. I have an uncanny knack for being grabbed or hit by my own fists... um, blood-tentacle... things. Beowulf in general is pretty nasty, but I'm getting better about throwing out an assist who can stand there and not get grabbed.
• LOTS of Squigly trouble lately... little zombie girl's become the most terrifying character to encounter. It seems like her moves all have five hours of hitstun or something.
  
• That jumping heavy snapping thing Fukua does is really nasty.
• Anti-rushdown strategy in general would be nice. I don't fight Fortune or Filia very often, but when I do, it generally hurts. Parasoul is also rare but terrifying.
  
• Getting crossed up while I'm trying to pull off Diamond Dynamo and I have three bars of meter is annoying.
• Beat-Extend Assist... any good advice for countering this would be handy. Even when I know it's coming, it seems to beat armor or anything else I'm doing.

So, yeah. Any advice would be nice. I'll also try to host lobbies so people can beat me up and maybe give feedback. Or not, not works, too. I can study the bruises...

Thanks!

 

[The Dave]

After some quick-matches, it looks like I can add "Why can't I switch out my character while I'm blocking?" and "why am I still in this corner?" to my salt.

Corners are nasty. I've heard of some sort of alpha-countering to spend meter and switch out characters, but haven't been able to pull it off.

Also, confirmed, still can't fight Squigly for some reason. Seems like she's all over the place and I can't land any hits.

 

[Pickles]

while you're in blockstun, press forward + assist call to alpha counter. It brings in that character doing their assist move, but doesn't have the vulnerable frames that normal assist calls have. Alpha countering costs 1 bar of meter, is the tradeoff. if you're having trouble getting stuck blocking try pushblocking (press 2 punch buttons while in blockstun if you don't know) more.

E: reading your original post I have some other advice but I'll post it tomorrow when I'm not on my phone and tired

 

[Pickles]

ok not tired!

First things first, if you have any way to record matches (I recommend using OBS, a few guides here and here), it's a lot easier to see things to do differently than trying to figure out what advice to give based on things like "I have trouble vs pressure" when that's kind of vague IMO. That said, hopefully some of this helps.

Its good that you have a combo for eliza that works for you, but I would definitely advise learning something with more damage. You don't have to do it all at once but having your "bnb" be a portion, or a slight variation of a portion, of a longer combo is helpful because then you're learning how to do that longer combo. (That said your current eliza combo is basically that right now, so just expand it a bit.) You mention building combos with Bella but it seems to me that you aren't really at the point where you'd want/need to be coming up with your own combos. The combo threads (at least for eliza, bella's doesn't but maybe there's easier ones later in the thread?) usually have some basic BNBs in the first post that I highly recommend just practicing until you've got them. They usually have points where you can substitute in moves to make a throw reset opportunity (for example with eliza, one of her BNB combo segments is j.mp j.hp ADC j.lk j.mp j.hp, if you use j.mk instead of the 2nd j.mp you can rejump for an airthrow), or just get a low/throw off a restand.

Devil horns isn't a great assist. I know that the prospect of having a DP assist is tempting, but bella and eliza both have honestly pretty crappy DPs. Something like lock n load or battle butt, that has the armor to absorb hits instead of just avoiding them with the invincibility of a DP while also having good horizontal reach, might work better for you. For eliza assists, Dive of Horus (236/QCF MK) is a solid choice (hits overhead and acts as insurance of sorts since it'll trade against things often). You could also try Butchers Blade (214/QCB MP) or HK Osiris Spiral (214/QCB HK) if you wanted a lockdown assist instead. Those are the assists I see elizas use the most.

Personally I think sekhmet is a bit of a noob trap because people will think "OH MAN I CAN'T GET HIT AMAZING" and throw it out at bad times, resulting in them losing all their meter at best or getting grabbed into full combo at worst. The main use of sekhmet seems to be combo dmg extention and baiting reversals sometimes, but I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Most of your combos will probably start off of a low, which is (with few exceptions) going to be a crouching attack, so getting used to starting combos off of c.lk is a good habit.

As for the other player stuff, I don't play either Bella or Eliza at any real level of competence so for general neutral stuff I'm afraid I can't help as much there, but again having match videos is helpful because it's easier to point out specifics. Though I will say 2 things:

Vs squigly: Again I don't know specifically what issues you're having with her but a lot of new players get bodied by her j.hp, so either approach her from the ground or hit her out of it, when she uses j.hp the entire length of leviathan has a hurtbox.

Vs beat extend: Basically bait it. It has multiple hits so using armor isnt a good idea, so either sit just out of range while it goes off or block it, then hit the assist with a move that's safe on block to get the lockout while also not opening yourself up to being punished. Optimally you could punish his assist call with your own for even less risk to your point character.

Also with regards to pressure/getting hit, again pushblocking is your friend if your opponent is just mindlessly pressuring, of course there are some situations where you shouldn't pushblock (i.e. if you could punish if you don't push), and high level players will often bait pushblocks, but in most cases pushblocking is your #1 tool to relieve pressure. If you're being comboed obviously your options are very limited, basically just either wait for the combo to end or watch for the reset and try to respond accordingly (block/jump/tech/etc)

 

[The Dave]

I have video! I have a bunch of videos now, actually, but one that might work! It skips a bit towards the end, and I made a couple lucky mistakes- a very fortunate accidental Sekhmet call towards the end, and I was going for Grab Bag instead of Bella's normal air grab. While it doesn't show me getting beaten up as much as would be helpful, I figure it's a good display of my offensive practice. Didn't get to use my Cerebella tricks as much, but that's okay.

 

[Pickles]

0:21 This is something I feel like a lot of people (especially with DP assists) do, i.e call assist and then jump back. It's probably out of fear of being happy birthday-d, but it's a habit you should aim to break. Dashing back instantly relieves your opponent of any pressure you might have been exerting on them, and it's kind of a lose-lose situation: if they block they punish your assist for free and it's locked out in addition to whatever damage they got onto it, if they don't block they're still out of pressure and take relatively low dmg. Try using your assist to complement your point character's offense instead of replacing it.

That's really the only specific time note I have since this is just a single game, and like you said you were pretty much on the offense the whole time so I can't comment on your defense which is something you mentioned wanting to improve, but the other thing is that you go for the exact same throw reset every time; not only that, but it's a REALLY telegraphed one. Try to find some resets that aren't so easy to see coming.

 

[The Dave]

Thanks for the feedback!

Rewatching the vid, it looks like my thinking was "relieve the pressure on me, reset to neutral." I'll try to watch out for that.

Recorded these prior to reading feedback: Getting whooped by Peacock/Squigly and doing okay against Filia/Cerebella/Valentine/icky lag goblins.

[Edit]

And another video, this time losing to Eliza/Parasoul/Painwheel. I like the way the video turned out, actually. Better example of some of my Cerebella stuff, too.

 

[The Dave]

More vids!

Spoiler

I might have gone mad with uploading power...

 

[Pickles]

Recorded these prior to reading feedback: Getting whooped by Peacock/Squigly and doing okay against Filia/Cerebella/Valentine/icky lag goblins.

And another video, this time losing to Eliza/Parasoul/Painwheel. I like the way the video turned out, actually. Better example of some of my Cerebella stuff, too.

First video:

:37 This isn't the only example of it but this is a good example of a bad pushblock. I mentioned that while pushblocking is a good way to relieve pressure it's not always a good idea and the latter is the case here. You might not have been able to punish the val tag but Val is very content to stay at range, it is bella's job to get in close and by pushblocking you gave her the space she wants for free. Just keep in mind when deciding to pushblock "do I want him further away from me or not"

:39 You use battle butt at neutral a LOT, keep in mind that it's VERY unsafe on block (unlike lock n load which is nearly unpunishable), I would only use battle butt if you think they're using a multihit move or something (so the extra armor would be a factor)

:41 I was wondering why you randomly got hit sometimes in the other videos (no counterhit, no wrong block, no crossup or anything) and if you're just walking at them sometimes that would definitely do it, there's no reason at all I can think of to just hold forward at someone at neutral like that. If that moment was an anomaly and the other random hits were just from not blocking then I guess just block more.

Second video:

:36 that's the kind of thing I was talking about new players just throwing out sekhmet for no reason, NEVER call sekhmet at that range, only call it when it's going to hit, just getting into sekhmet form is rarely useful

You seem to mostly know the tools Eliza has to get in on peacock (except for couch, even though it beats projectiles she'll just block it and you take more in chip from her stuff, so that's not as good vs peacock as you think it is) you just didn't use them optimally so just work on that I guess,

1:24 oh yeah learn a doublesnap that's a really good thing to have, its ok if you want to learn that later but in the meantime at least if you get a combo on 2 characters don't reset instantly. Also again with that launch into wait->grab, it's REALLY easy to see coming I don't think I've seen it work in any of your videos. Same advice as before, learn different resets, there's good resources here on skullheart but if you can't find anything you can ask in threads, people are happy to help I just don't play either of your characters lol

1:37 that was a good runstop-> super frame trap but you probably could have done it with only 1 bar

3rd video:

:28ish Eliza has a REALLY GOOD airgrab, and combined with an airdash is a good tool vs people who like to jump. In a situation like that where the other guy just keeps jumping and blocking airgrab is a good idea. Even against an opponent on the ground, if you think they're gonna chickenblock, airdash into throw is a good mixup.

:51 Another spot where you just get hit, thanks to the indicators I can see that you weren't blocking or pressing a button at all, so there's no reason for you to get hit there.

:55 Dunno what that was I guess you were just pressing buttons cause that wouldn't have comboed even if you actually chained the hits, get in the habit of going into a blockstring when you hit them so you can actually confirm into a combo if you see it hit.

1:21 another point where airgrab would have been better than just randomly throwing j.lk

The third game you just got hit a lot and he knew comboes so he got a lot more out of each hit than you did. Again, learn some comboes that do decent dmg (I'd say at least 5k without meter) with basic resets.

A really good piece of advice I read when I was getting into fighting games (it might have been from that shoryuken primer?) is "Have a reason for every button you press", don't just randomly throw out normals for nothing because then you get counterhit constantly. This is a difficult thing to get used to but it's basically be more thoughtful about your play and don't just press buttons hoping they hit.

 

[The Dave]

Thanks for the advice! This has been really interesting and helpful to look at.

:41 I was wondering why you randomly got hit sometimes in the other videos (no counterhit, no wrong block, no crossup or anything) and if you're just walking at them sometimes that would definitely do it, there's no reason at all I can think of to just hold forward at someone at neutral like that. If that moment was an anomaly and the other random hits were just from not blocking then I guess just block more.

Rewatching the vid, it looks like I thought I was facing the other way and was trying to block the wrong way...

RE Neutral battle butt- I use that too much when trying to cover ground with Bella. I'm working on jumping in with jHK to cover space instead. I mean, I could try letting them come to me, but that would be the smart, patient thing to do. :P

Second video:

Yeah, I was pretty dumb on that Sekhmet call- must've thought I could close the distance when, obviously, I couldn't.

Also, RE the run -> Diamond hit against Peacock- I was worried Peacock would block, so I wanted the low hit from Diamond in order to break it. I was also concerned Dynamo wouldn't do enough to kill.

:51 Another spot where you just get hit, thanks to the indicators I can see that you weren't blocking or pressing a button at all, so there's no reason for you to get hit there.

:55 Dunno what that was I guess you were just pressing buttons cause that wouldn't have comboed even if you actually chained the hits, get in the habit of going into a blockstring when you hit them so you can actually confirm into a combo if you see it hit.

:51- I can't tell if I was trying to get out a move- based on the meter and Cerebella's red health, I was probably trying to pull off Showstopper -> Khepri, using the enemy's combo to buffer US's input.

:55- Okay, not entirely sure what I was thinking there... May have mis-pressed a button. Or I was mashing.

1:21- I've recently picked up light jLKs for testing opponent defense and closing distance. I've had jLK -> airdash jLK -> cLK work for me before. I'll need to incorporate airgrab more.

To-Do

• Learn a new reset for Eliza
• Learn a blockstring for Cerebella
• Practice non-reset airgrabs
• Build better approach with Cerebella

 

[Pickles]

RE Neutral battle butt- I use that too much when trying to cover ground with Bella. I'm working on jumping in with jHK to cover space instead. I mean, I could try letting them come to me, but that would be the smart, patient thing to do.

Letting them come to you is also an easy way to lose the neutral game since you're getting them into your range but on their terms and they'll have the advantage so it's not necessarily the smart thing to do. j.hk jumpin doesn't actually cover a lot of horizontal space so I wouldn't necessarily switch to that. To get in tumbling run is good because it has an innate hit of armor, basically the advice is don't automatically follow the run with battle butt, runstop->some normal depending on situation is better just to get in. That said, if while you're mid-run you see them jumping in with an attack then by all means use battle butt to CH them.

:51- I can't tell if I was trying to get out a move- based on the meter and Cerebella's red health, I was probably trying to pull off Showstopper -> Khepri, using the enemy's combo to buffer US's input

Showstopper isn't really a good reversal because they can jump it on reaction, it's mostly used after baiting your opponent into committing to a ground action. If you're trying to reversal dynamo is better like 95% of the time, and the input is faster so you don't run into stuff like that. Also if you'd actually started to input 360 during his combo and it didn't come out by the time you got hit again then it probably wouldn't hurt to practice doing inputs faster (that said I know 360 is a hard input for newer players so don't worry about it too much, as I said dynamo is better in most all situations that you're trying to use USS and you can dhc it into eliza level 3 for basically the same amount of total dmg)

 

[The Dave]

More matches! And fewer videos this time, thanks to tinkering with Windows Movie Maker...

Showing some of my trouble with Squigly and Parasoul:

A really good Cerebella for me to study:

And some indication that I don't always suck:

I noticed I tend to have trouble when the other person throws a bunch of projectiles and assists on the screen at once- I lose track of what's going on and miss opportunities to do stuff. Still working on collecting new tricks for Bella/Liza.

 

[The Dave]

Been trying out Parasoul/Robo Fortune lately. It feels... dirty. Effective, but... dirty. I can't even reliably pull off down-up charge moves, and yet I'm doing surprisingly okay in Quick Match with this team.

I think I've figured out a big part of my problem: I can't tell what's going on. I seem to rely on audio cues, but most of the game's indicators are visual. Not to mention the trouble I get in when the connection fizzles and I get one sound when the exact opposite actually happened.

• Fukua looks like she's somehow always snapping me with the same attack
• Filia and Painwheel are loads and loads of spinning and pain
• I can't tell where on Beowulf I can actually hit, much less when I have a chance to do so. Heaven forbid I fight one that actually knows what he's doing.
• I have no frigging clue whatever it is Double is doing. Besides than hurting me
• Ms. Fortune (esp headless) and Squigly put me in nearly perpetual hitstun. It's not Squigly's jHP- it's her jMK, the spinning move, I notice hurting me most of the time. And then there are the crouching lights of doom...

Is this a common problem? Does it just come with experience and getting to know the other characters more? I can at least tell what's going on against other Cerebella/Eliza players, so maybe that's it...

Thanks!

 

[Pickles]

honestly its mostly experience but it can help to play all the characters just against cpu in arcade mode or something just to get an idea of what all those moves are. Again though, a lot of it is just experience and recognizing moves.

 

[The Dave]

I think I need to put the game down for a bit. The wins feel like I'm cheaply jackhammering the opponent in a corner. The losses are just frustrating. And it seems I don't like fighting half the cast. I think a hiatus might be nifty.
Robo-Story mode will be cool, though. Looking forward to that.

 

[fenster]

Nothing wrong with taking a break, just noting some old things here.

I think I've figured out a big part of my problem: I can't tell what's going on....
Is this a common problem? Does it just come with experience and getting to know the other characters more? I can at least tell what's going on against other Cerebella/Eliza players, so maybe that's it...

It does sound to me like yeah, you just are building up more experience of what the other characters can offer and aren't used to it yet. The better you get, the more you start to see different things about all the characters that you never really saw before. Nothing wrong with that necessarily, it just means you need to play more so you recognize what is going on, and once you recognize that you'll be that much closer to solving or dealing with it.

RE Neutral battle butt- I use that too much when trying to cover ground with Bella. I'm working on jumping in with jHK to cover space instead. I mean, I could try letting them come to me, but that would be the smart, patient thing to do. :P

It's not just that, but in general your bella just seems...panic-y. Even when you were upclose, you almost always were doing battle butt still instead of going for a normal approach. You need to remember that your basic ways of getting in on the opponent should be either from mgr to catch them in general, cLK to catch them trying to jump away from the grabs, or jMP/jHK as normal jumpins that will go over the opponents attacks or fireballs and land you a counterhit. Mainly those first 2 are what you should remember.

There's a ton of other things to cover for neutral game, but it just seemed like even when you were able to get in you had no idea what to do and were just doing random special moves with bella, so a good place to start is focusing on how you are going to open up the opponent and land the combo.

 

[The Dave]

Thanks for the feedback! Upon reflection, I have a problem of "the enemy looks vulnerable, but is a weird distance away. Try X special, I think that'll hit!" and it doesn't hit.

"I should take a break, rest from the game for a little bit." <plays a bunch of matches so I can get some more recent videos>

Spoiler

Admittedly, these are just the ones I did okay at; I figure that guy using Filia to wipe the floor with me isn't a very useful demonstration right now. I also took part in the 6-13 I Wanna Be the Skullgirl online beginner tourney and did pretty well, so there should be video of that once the archives are uploaded to Twitch.

 

[The Dave]

More vids!

Spoiler

• Looks like I need to figure out something to do when I see the enemy has a lot of undizzy
• I have a really hard time against headless Fortune
• Don't know how to fight Big Band, either
• DP Assists also give me a lot of trouble
• Have trouble executing defensive options. "I was blocking! Why doesn't this 'block' thing work?"

Not recorded:

• I also don't know how to fight Painwheel or Double
• Lots of trouble against cross-ups, especially by aggressive Valentines, Filias, or Parasouls.
  • Cross-unders are dirty and mean.
• Major trouble dealing with assists, recognizing resets, or seeing openings in assaults

 

[The Dave]

Question: How do I block if the enemy point character's in front of me but something hurty (assist, bomb, Battle Opera, incoming Beowulf) is behind me?

Observations after a few casual unrecorded matches:

• I seem to be doing better against Painwheel. Still get wiped, but at least I have something I can try to do (namely, airgrabs). Unfortunately, Painy can easy fly out of my very specific grab range. Have a really hard time doing this with Cerebella.
• Parasoul's giving me a lot of trouble. Eliza doesn't have a lot of space to fly between those bombs.
• Assists still give me a lot of trouble.
• Need to figure out the art of run-stopping.
• I think I'm dropping inputs. Don't know if this is a connection issue or something else. Seems like this didn't used to be such a problem...

 

[Pickles]

Question: How do I block if the enemy point character's in front of me but something hurty (assist, bomb, Battle Opera, incoming Beowulf) is behind me?

always hold back away from the point character, you don't have to hold away from assist/projectiles/etc if they are behind you and the point character is in front of you

 

[The Dave]

Thanks!

To counter my reliance on tricksy and false audio cues, I tried turning off voice and sound effects. The result was weird. Effective, but weird. Seems to help me focus a lot, though, which is nice. Also seems to help my salt problem a bit. Next I'll try just turning off sound effects, as the voice lines are nifty and amusing. I want to be fighting machine!
In the meantime, here are some vids:

Spoiler

I love what "no sound or effects" does to Big Band. Also, I need to start doing this more intentionally: If I can trick the enemy into bursting while I'm Sekhmet, I get a free, safe return to Eliza! At least, that's how it's worked the few times my skele-kitty has been bursted.

Thanks for checking this out, I appreciate the feedback!

 

[The Dave]

Voices without sound effects are delightfully lewd. So much grunting... Also, apparently the metal clanking from hitting Big Band and the squishy sounds from hitting Double are voices. Squish. Squish.
Vids!

Spoiler

A few notes:

• This is a few times now I've tried starting the match with H Upper Khat and the input failed. Need to work on my muscle memory. Did something happen to how the game reads inputs? Might it be related to connection trouble?
• "Unbreakable Elbow" isn't as unbreakable as advertised. Frigging Updo...
• Squigly's standing flame move is an overhead. Good to know.
• I keep thinking I can jump away from lows. It seems sensible, but doesn't work and is probably responsible for a lot of false blocks. Unless the trick is to jump forward and counter-kick instead of upbacking?
• Valentine and Filia are still confusing, hard to keep track of, and painful.
• I need to work on how to hit people after they've been grabbed by Weight of Anubis. I miss my follow-up more often than not.
• Need to explore the strange and wonderful world of normal grabs. Especially since my attempts at reversal-Diamond Drop keep accidentally turning into (missed) Ultimate Showstoppers.
• I really lucked out in that match against Fukua/Filia/Double. Need to figure what went right.

 

[The Dave]

Seems I've overly specialized against aggressive rushdowns. Did really poorly against a decent keepaway Double/Fukua/Bella today. Need to be more patient. Also, I still get confused by projectiles and heavy use of assists.

Spoiler

In other news, I'm a little tempted to pick up Guilty Gear. On the one hand, it has fires, explosions, and Massive Tank Fist Guy who seems delightfully similar to Cerebella. There's also Pirate Girl, so I can use whales. On the other, I watched Guilty Bits and the special inputs seem way harder to pull off than Skullgirls, and there's a ton of other complicated mechanics to figure out. Also, I'm not entirely sold on the aesthetic... seems a bit grungy. I've also just started a project modding Oblivion, so I can wait until GG goes on sale to try it out.

 

[The Dave]

I've confirmed I have a big problem dealing with keepaway. Peacock and Parasoul are particularly nasty. Boat is really easy for other people to counter, and Eliza's specials always get interrupted. Worse, fighting Peacock isn't fun. I've seen the big anti-Peacock video floating around on YouTube, but people playing her easily counter the approach or cover "dead space" with an assist. Plus, it's fairly simple for them to teleport behind me as I'm trying to advance, using my own airdash to give them enough space to keep me locked. Then there's her teleport-bomb... I don't know what to do about that.

Any advice? Thanks.

 

[The Dave]

Holy saltbaskets tonight was rough. In other news, I've discovered an amazing ability to channel the toaster from Fallout: New Vegas: Old World Blues.

Spoiler

 

[The Dave]

More matches.

Spoiler

• Don't know how to follow up wall bounce. This would be handy, especially considering Kanchou, Albus
• Don't quite understand the controls on Kanchou
• Need to find a way to extend my Cerebella play.
• Still don't know what to do about DP or armored assists. I thought lows broke armor?
• Accidental Showstopper wtf? I was going for Merry Go Rilla...
• Still can't keep up with gameplay to actually respond to my opponent. Heck, I have trouble responding to the direction I'm facing sometimes.
• I do like my opening against Peacock this match. Need to study that one, had some good Bella work done to me
• Likewise the Eliza I fought merits study. cMK assist? Need to test.
• Avery really, really messes me up.
• I am severely jealous of other people's invincibility frames and reversal options

 

[mcpeanuts]

Don't know how to follow up wall bounce. This would be handy, especially considering Kanchou, Albus

With Eliza I'd think you could just OTG c.MK then do whatever. For Bella you can c.MK (I only know this because one of the PS4 trials makes you do a combo using this, heh).

Still don't know what to do about DP or armored assists. I thought lows broke armor?

Lows catch upback which is probably what you were thinking of. They don't do anything to armor. The things that break armor are grabs, hitgrabs, sweeps, and snapbacks. You can't grab assists so only the last two are relevant here. My preferred option for dealing with DP assists is to just grab the point character; if your grab hits you're invincible for the entire grab animation so the DP assist will just whiff right through you.

I am severely jealous of other people's invincibility frames and reversal options

s.MP and IAD j.LK are sort of like reversals, they beat a lot of setups. I'm assuming you weren't talking about Bella cause if you were GTFO

 

[The Dave]

Some more matches. Took a bit of a break to visit parents out of town. Got really messed up by Beowulf tonight, and lucked out against Filia. Does "Make a lucky mistake and capitalize on it?" count as a playstyle?

Spoiler

[EDIT] Also, I just confirmed that OBS seriously messes with my frame rate. Tried to record a Robo-Fortune vs Nightmare Marie and the lag killed me ten times; stopped recording and took down the maid right away. Good to know. The heat may have also had something to do with it.

 

[The Dave]

AC got fixed, let's shoot some skelleys!

 

[The Dave]

Matches! Featuring special guest robot kitten!

Spoiler

• Don't know what to do when Valentine starts hitting me from everywhere. Really can't keep up with the crossups, most annoying
• Lag is also an issue. Need to be more choosy about which Quick Matches I accept
• Robo's lasers feel dirty. Effective, but dirty.
  • Chainsaw -> H. Danger! Doesn't link as well as I thought.
• Still don't like fighting Filia or Double. Can't keep up with what that voodoo they do so well...
• Accidental upbacks are annoying. Or, rather, the computer thinking I'm trying to upback and holding me still when I'm just trying to jump out of the way. Which, okay, is technically up and back, but still... need to practice evasive maneuvers... Likewise, need to see if I have any instant overheads...
• I'm slightly tempted to pick up Painwheel 'cause, like, oh my god, you know? Maybe after Robo Kitten purrs nicely for me.

 

[The Dave]

Salt time: What are Fukua's weaknesses? Because I want to pound that clone into the ground. I want that clone buried so deep she sprouts into a tree, which I will chop down and burn. I want to play Bane to that piece of Bat-Code's back. I want to break it.. All her moves look the same, and it is very, very not satisfying to fight. Any help? I want things to be very painful... for her. The fire rises!

 

[The Dave]

Been having a lot of trouble against Big Band and Parasoul lately. Especially if I get stuck in a corner. Have thirty videos from this afternoon of Robo Eliza. Here are a few:

Spoiler

Feel kind of bad about dropping Bella, but I didn't seem to be doing much good with her, and Robo's lasers are dirtily effective. Beowulf continues to be big and scary, but it's nice to be able to shoot him from the other side of the stage. Still have a problem with lots of things going on and not being able to keep up. I've also picked up a problem of accidental special moves, especially H Danger! as I'm trying to do a jumping-forward heavy kick. This is probably related to a lot of my accidental Sekhmet calls.

Need to take a break for a while. Anybody have alternative hobbies they'd recommend? Thanks!

 

[Nevins]

Nice watching those matches. Good use of beam super on the first Val/Doub one. And that Val move to avoid the Lv5 on the 2nd one was clever. You probably know this from watching those, but watch out for raw tags, since they can be punished & lead to big health loss. Maybe go for a hitconfirm into super, then DHC once in a while... Nice use of the burst into switch, though.

Whiffing the raw Lv3 vs. Fukua; yeah sometimes you go for it, and when you miss it, it hurts. Comboing it in is safest, but we all do that kind of thing once in a while. I'm trying to improve w/Robo as well, and need to watch out for continuing into cHP when the previous attacks are blocked, since you're left wide open. Keep it up!

Hobbies. Other fighting games/video games maybe? Something affordable (or free using the library) that you also get a lot of mileage out of & can do anywhere: reading. Fiction for entertainment. Or even nonfiction if the subject interests you.

 

[The Dave]

Taking a pretty long hiatus due to a move and getting into the Elder Scrolls games. It's just as well, it gets some of the salt out of my system. My Oblivion mod works wonderfully, and I've made a similar Merchant Mod for Skyrim now that a friend's gifted me a copy. I'm planning an Eliza themed Skyrim run when I'm done with Oblivion; any advice? I'm thinking Conjuration for minions, Destruction for blood sucking (obviously going to need Dawnguard for vampire shenanigans), Two-Handed weapons for the Staff of Ra, and Altmer for the race; any advice? Are there any Skyrim waifus I need to murder? Thanks!

 

[The Dave]

After months and months of Bethesda and other games, looks like I'm pretty much back in. Had this idea of going from Nekhbet Breaker to Systemic Circuit Breaker and comboing long enough to get into the detonation; running into trouble with the Undizzy system. Time to research some longer Robo combos and the ins and outs of undizzy...

Video is after Eliza's Airgrab -> Nekhbet -> Circuit Breaker

[EDIT] Well, looks like somebody's already done one better, comboing from Breaker to the explosion without any assist. Time to learn these:

 

[CaioLugon]

The combo you did works fine if you just hold s.mp for the extra hits (but can still be optimized a good bit)

 

[The Dave]

The combo you did works fine if you just hold s.mp for the extra hits (but can still be optimized a good bit)

Sure enough, that did it. Thanks!

 

[The Dave]

I've been playing a lot more lately, albeit casually. Just a few Quick Matches here and there to get my blood pumping. I'm kind of thinking of maybe going to Combo Breaker, but after running the numbers it'd be about a thousand bucks total for plane tickets, a hotel room, and buying a PS4 controller, which I really don't think I can save in five months. Maybe 2017.

After looking into @BlueFeena's thread for Eliza, I tried out Solo and I've got to say, she's a lot of fun by herself. Sure, I don't get the DHC's or assists, but since Eliza's my strongest character, the extra hitpoints really help me make comebacks. I'm pretty much dead if I get hit at all anyway, may as well have my best character there for the entire match. And when I do hit, I just have so much power!!! UNLIMITED POWER!!!!!

Robo's still pretty fun, though, and I like being able to poke Parasoul through her weapon. Full screen mid lasers have got to be annoying for the other player, but they're so darn nifty.

Also, I've been picking Gehenna Happy Teeth Land about once per playthrough if I get a chance. Sorry if it bothers you, but I like Happy Teeth Land. I try to at least make sure not to pick red/pink palettes when I do.

Double, Painwheel, Valentine, Parasoul, Big Band, Beowulf, Filia, and Fukua are still really weird and hard to fight. Oddly enough, Peacock's a little refreshing by this point, I more or less know what I'm doing there and have a little room to breathe.

I kind of wish I could disable taunts, but I understand why that's not an option. Not a whole lot I can do against people being jerks anyway, and they still have "teabagging." Speaking of, it'd be neat if their characters exploded or had heart attacks or something when they do, but again I can understand why not.

 

[The Dave]

Been playing a little less lately; still about once a day. Started getting into pinball, and that's been a ton of fun. I might look into figuring out how to make digital tables and see if I can design one Skullgirls themed.

Oh, training diary. Still fiddling with solos. Tempted to practice my Solo Bella, as I really like the sheer power and the reward for getting the right pokes at the right time. And deflecting is awesome. A week or two ago I deflected a Squigly SBO on start of match, and it was awesome. Okay, I don't have a very good follow-up, but deflection and devil's horns are their own rewards.

 

[The Dave]

I guess I'm playing again?

Been running into a lot of Big Band online lately. This coupled with lag and the screen shaking every time he jumps makes these fights really, really frustrating. It seems he hits everywhere all at once, and all his moves push you into a corner. I swear, sometimes I think Eliza's the most vulnerable character in the game. "Oh, use Sekhmet. Call bird insurance!" Sekhmet and Horace get interrupted. A lot. <shudders> <nightmares about Marie> <misses pre-nerf Couch that could go past projectile skulls and standing skeleton bombs> <reminisces about old Beta Build Marie fight where I "final bossed" the final boss>

On the plus side, I deflected a Giant Step last night. That was awesome.