Goals (help me improve please!)

[Donseanelly]

So I have decided to give this game my all and I want to see improvements in my play but I have no idea what to focus on. My fundamentals are not as good as i'd like, I keep dropping combos and my muscle memory sucks. Despite all of this I have been seeing improvements! I can actually hit people now without getting wtf wombo combo'd, My IAD's with filia have been improving and I learned an aerial reset which I have pulled off like...once. I also am unsure of whether to use a controller or a keyboard for the game. The controller is familiar to me and the keyboard is unfamiliar but i feel like my execution could improve by switching to a keyboard plus i eventually want to switch to either a keyboard or a stick so there's that.

So now to get to the point. How does one improve in fighting games? i keep hearing about fundamentals, mixups, blockstrings and punishing and I have been through the entire tutorial and completed it but I still am having trouble. Is there a character that naturally teaches the fundamentals? Is there an order in which i should practice basic skills? How do I even know if a character fits my hands so to speak?

 

[Stuff]

Fundamentals (they're your basic defense, offense and neutral knowledge for the most part and usually carry on to other games ((the last part is a bit debatable)) ) come from playing the game so usually playing and practicing more helps you understand things more. When you do get stuck on something more specific though you can ask away. I'd start with the beginner's resources thread I found it really handy when I started off and back then it had much less content.

I think the most important things to learn are: Knowing what normal to stop at (what attack is safe to end on, on block) usually your lights are, and some mediums, some characters have specials that are safe. Hitconfirming (set the dummy to block randomly and Confirm that they are either hit or blocking and either do a combo or end on what's safe on block ((you also don't have to confirm your light normal, you can confirm from Light > Medium and still be fine)) ). What to do against a reversal (You'll see reversals a lot and some are either baited or can be just plain beat). blocking (you can set your dummy to do 3 different blockstrings and you can set them to play at random to then try and guess what you're blocking. Similar to the Parasoul blocking tutorial). Pushblock (PB) and Pushblock Guard Cancel (or PBGC this gets important as an assist game can technically have infinite blockstrings but this mechanic (pushblock) combats that which you can learn about more in the defense guide in the beginner's resources thread ((there's also a tutorial on it in the beta version of the game)) ).

As for order, I have no idea!

And be sure to fight a variety of people, Strong ones, weak ones, ones within your level, you can learn from all of them!

Don't ever be afraid to ask for advice from those that beat you either and don't be afraid to ask top players things. We're all regular people and I like to think most of us want to help.

Some people pick a character based on an archetype they enjoyed in a previous game but if this is your first game it's best to just try all the character tutorials and see what feels better for you. Personally, I played each character's story mode to see what character I felt was more natural to play as.