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- da_killah17
Heya! There was a time I told myself I would never do one of these. Things change apparently.
So, yeah. I'm noaa, the team I'm currently playing is Parasoul/Robo/Double with Pillar/HBeam/LBomber. Since Parasoul has no teal palette, I'm obliged to wear blues as colors since matching is obligatory.
As some of you might know, I'm Brazilian so hooray for laggy matches, but also hooray for persistence and dedication. We folks down here are strong at these I believe.
Anyway... I plan to make this thing long, detailed and really informative regarding the places my brain visits. So let's start with a bit (lol) of history.
Okay, back here now. So the reason I made this training diary is the following: Combo Breaker 2016 happened. And with it, Liam/Skarmand's awesome performance made my chin drop to the floor. He was doing really effectively something I've outright said was impossible: Not running point Robo.
That shit blew my mind. I've had inspirations before. Keninblack's old duo, followed up by Severine's trio were major influences in my playstyle, but the few matches from Liam that was available for us plebs watching the event from another continent was visited by me several times on repeat like nothing else did. Everything was beautiful.
So here I am. Running my own version of Parasoul/Robo/Double with my own vision of it. And I want to share it with you guys.
I know some people like to embed videos to their diaries. I want to do that too, but since these point of views and gameplans are new things I want to pursue and get advice for, I feel like any past footage of me will be pointless to be in here. So any opportunity to embed a set in here from now on will be taken.
You should also take this as an invite to fight me. I'm very friendly and will accept any challenge under 250 ping. My Steam should be linked in my SH profile right? So yeah, do the thing.
Anyway, as expected of training diaries, this will be updated. How often? I have no clue. But you can expect tons of text every time I do. If you endured it until here, you must have realized I do like to type.
Thanks for holding a slice of your time to read this. I really appreciate it and I hope this shines some light and bring new ideas to people who might be stepping the same stones that I am.
So, yeah. I'm noaa, the team I'm currently playing is Parasoul/Robo/Double with Pillar/HBeam/LBomber. Since Parasoul has no teal palette, I'm obliged to wear blues as colors since matching is obligatory.
As some of you might know, I'm Brazilian so hooray for laggy matches, but also hooray for persistence and dedication. We folks down here are strong at these I believe.
Anyway... I plan to make this thing long, detailed and really informative regarding the places my brain visits. So let's start with a bit (lol) of history.
Holy fuck this is long. No one will read this I guess, but I had fun writing it so I'm leaving it there.
Before Skullgirls, the only fighting game I've ever touched was Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2 for the PSP. That's right. I didn't know QCF+P was a Hadouken motion until a few years ago. I used to play Jin and the move I would use to hit confirm was 6C into the bow super.
A good friend of mine is a huge fan of Mike from his BBCT Tager days and was following Skullgirls' development since then. The game always looked great to me but I wasn't invested enough in the genre to get myself a copy for console, and I really hated the idea of playing fighting things on a 360 controller since I'm from a RTS / FPS / MOBA PC gaming background. So when I heard Skullgirls was coming to Steam it was settled.
I'm a really methodic learner, so I made sure to know NOTHING about the game until the very day I touch it myself. Looking back I'm kinda glad I did that, 'cause the character I instantly fell in love with was Double. And Double went through some severe changes through SDE to MDE.
So yeah, Double was my girl (wtf) and luckily I had a friend to freshly start learning with. He picked up Painwheel and off we went to learn how to do our things. At first I was really behind on every single aspect. While he already had nailed his 4k bnb with fly cancels involved, my go-to strategy was entirely around Luger > Car. Yes, I was the AI before it was made.
Time went by, I watched combo videos, learned how to do the barrel loop, the game kept changing a ton but that made zero difference for me. In multiplayer PC gaming this is quite common so in fact learning why stuff was being changed about the character I was learning actually helped me in the process I think.
Eventually I felt like picking up a second character. Another friend of mine was in the same path. His main was Squigly and he was trying to give Parasoul a chance, but since he absolutely hates charge characters he didn't gave her much time. I had no clue what that meant (and by that time, still had no clue how Squig's stances worked at all) so I gave her a try. The second I noticed her back walking animation was kind of tied to the timing of the charge moves... I was hooked. Suddenly I felt like an entirely new world opened itself for me to discover.
Parasoul is maybe the reason I invested so much time into this game early on. I was on my early college days so every single minute of free time I had I was up on the practice mode. Eventually Napalm Shot loops became easy and I started to feel confident enough in her to actually play against people with.
From that point forward I spent a lot of time with this duo, and our brazilian community was starting to really show its colors. Back then people either played solo or trio, and it was pretty clear that trio players always prevailed. Not because trio is better or anything, but simply because it generally meant they were the people who invested more time in the game. And for that reason I was feeling behind.
From that point forward I began to do some theorycrafting about my team. Thinking about gameplans and how I would approach the game itself since I wanted to actually be good at it. Eventually I felt like I had plenty of answers against everything the game would throw at any range BUT the extreme vertical above Parasoul's head.
My answer was: I need something to cover that space. A third character. Who does that? And Filia smiled to me.
She was pretty fun to learn. I had a tough time to keep up with her speed and make it my own, and to this day I believe I failed that. In any case, she fulfilled her purpose. I was felling much safer against any vertical approach and was getting many more confirms off assists calls, as to be expected of a team that had Pillar, Updo and the old broken L bomber.
Eventually I realized Filia was a burden. I felt I was paying too much of a price (damage and health of a trio) to get a not-so-significant reward that was my vertical reach with Parasoul on point. Since I realized I had no intention to invest much in Filia, I dropped her for good.
Dropping Filia was followed up by a character crisis. I felt it was necessary to run a trio, but I couldn't decide on anyone. At least not with the thinking I had: someone that would complement and add tools I don't have. Filia was doing that, but I needed more. So in the end I changed my perspective...
Instead of looking for a character for tools, I was looking for a character for looks. That was mostly the reason I felt in love with Double and Parasoul anyway. So I went to try Squigly and eventually Eliza, that was just introduced in the beta.
Neither of them did it. Even though I still like playing both of them today, they're not characters I see myself taking seriously. So I kept Filia in and that was my team for the majority of the time I played this game.
Eventually Robo Fortune came in the beta and I loved everything about her. From the days of her air dash till now, she's been the girl (wtf) I often go to the lab to fiddle with pointlessly.
When Robo fortune launched I had decided she would be part of my team, and for the first time I removed Parasoul from the point position. That was really weird.
I tried anchor Dubs, anchor Soul, different assist choices, but none of it was cutting it. It was just not working. Was Robo too bad of a character or she is one of those that needs time for people to get the feel for really? I had no clue.
In fact, I was so lost I decided to give up. Nothing I'd do made my point Robo work apparently. So I went back to my old duo, accepting that Filia was really never meant to be there as well and spent my days perfecting the playstyle I like to use with Parasoul and Double.
Then... we finally reach the present, where something happens and I notice something...
Before Skullgirls, the only fighting game I've ever touched was Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2 for the PSP. That's right. I didn't know QCF+P was a Hadouken motion until a few years ago. I used to play Jin and the move I would use to hit confirm was 6C into the bow super.
A good friend of mine is a huge fan of Mike from his BBCT Tager days and was following Skullgirls' development since then. The game always looked great to me but I wasn't invested enough in the genre to get myself a copy for console, and I really hated the idea of playing fighting things on a 360 controller since I'm from a RTS / FPS / MOBA PC gaming background. So when I heard Skullgirls was coming to Steam it was settled.
I'm a really methodic learner, so I made sure to know NOTHING about the game until the very day I touch it myself. Looking back I'm kinda glad I did that, 'cause the character I instantly fell in love with was Double. And Double went through some severe changes through SDE to MDE.
So yeah, Double was my girl (wtf) and luckily I had a friend to freshly start learning with. He picked up Painwheel and off we went to learn how to do our things. At first I was really behind on every single aspect. While he already had nailed his 4k bnb with fly cancels involved, my go-to strategy was entirely around Luger > Car. Yes, I was the AI before it was made.
Time went by, I watched combo videos, learned how to do the barrel loop, the game kept changing a ton but that made zero difference for me. In multiplayer PC gaming this is quite common so in fact learning why stuff was being changed about the character I was learning actually helped me in the process I think.
Eventually I felt like picking up a second character. Another friend of mine was in the same path. His main was Squigly and he was trying to give Parasoul a chance, but since he absolutely hates charge characters he didn't gave her much time. I had no clue what that meant (and by that time, still had no clue how Squig's stances worked at all) so I gave her a try. The second I noticed her back walking animation was kind of tied to the timing of the charge moves... I was hooked. Suddenly I felt like an entirely new world opened itself for me to discover.
Parasoul is maybe the reason I invested so much time into this game early on. I was on my early college days so every single minute of free time I had I was up on the practice mode. Eventually Napalm Shot loops became easy and I started to feel confident enough in her to actually play against people with.
From that point forward I spent a lot of time with this duo, and our brazilian community was starting to really show its colors. Back then people either played solo or trio, and it was pretty clear that trio players always prevailed. Not because trio is better or anything, but simply because it generally meant they were the people who invested more time in the game. And for that reason I was feeling behind.
From that point forward I began to do some theorycrafting about my team. Thinking about gameplans and how I would approach the game itself since I wanted to actually be good at it. Eventually I felt like I had plenty of answers against everything the game would throw at any range BUT the extreme vertical above Parasoul's head.
My answer was: I need something to cover that space. A third character. Who does that? And Filia smiled to me.
She was pretty fun to learn. I had a tough time to keep up with her speed and make it my own, and to this day I believe I failed that. In any case, she fulfilled her purpose. I was felling much safer against any vertical approach and was getting many more confirms off assists calls, as to be expected of a team that had Pillar, Updo and the old broken L bomber.
Eventually I realized Filia was a burden. I felt I was paying too much of a price (damage and health of a trio) to get a not-so-significant reward that was my vertical reach with Parasoul on point. Since I realized I had no intention to invest much in Filia, I dropped her for good.
Dropping Filia was followed up by a character crisis. I felt it was necessary to run a trio, but I couldn't decide on anyone. At least not with the thinking I had: someone that would complement and add tools I don't have. Filia was doing that, but I needed more. So in the end I changed my perspective...
Instead of looking for a character for tools, I was looking for a character for looks. That was mostly the reason I felt in love with Double and Parasoul anyway. So I went to try Squigly and eventually Eliza, that was just introduced in the beta.
Neither of them did it. Even though I still like playing both of them today, they're not characters I see myself taking seriously. So I kept Filia in and that was my team for the majority of the time I played this game.
Eventually Robo Fortune came in the beta and I loved everything about her. From the days of her air dash till now, she's been the girl (wtf) I often go to the lab to fiddle with pointlessly.
When Robo fortune launched I had decided she would be part of my team, and for the first time I removed Parasoul from the point position. That was really weird.
I tried anchor Dubs, anchor Soul, different assist choices, but none of it was cutting it. It was just not working. Was Robo too bad of a character or she is one of those that needs time for people to get the feel for really? I had no clue.
In fact, I was so lost I decided to give up. Nothing I'd do made my point Robo work apparently. So I went back to my old duo, accepting that Filia was really never meant to be there as well and spent my days perfecting the playstyle I like to use with Parasoul and Double.
Then... we finally reach the present, where something happens and I notice something...
That shit blew my mind. I've had inspirations before. Keninblack's old duo, followed up by Severine's trio were major influences in my playstyle, but the few matches from Liam that was available for us plebs watching the event from another continent was visited by me several times on repeat like nothing else did. Everything was beautiful.
So here I am. Running my own version of Parasoul/Robo/Double with my own vision of it. And I want to share it with you guys.
SO... let's start from order.
Parasoul:
The way I like to play her is heavily focused on tear zoning. I will only go in if I have a good tear placement up (and there's actually a good reason to go in as well, like an assist locked or something). That means in my ideal gameplan, I'll be a full screen away from my opponent, blasting him with H beam and tears.
Hit confirming fullscreen from tear explosions costs me 2 meters (snipe > magnet). I will only go for that option if I have the kill secured. Yes, I will not save meter if I have a guaranteed kill. If you ever see me do it, I made a mistake and I'll gladly accept punishment for it. Also, Liam's hit confirm from H Beam with j.lp > j.lk > j.mp > rejump stuff is also properly internalized I believe, there might be a better route if the opponent gets hit while cornered but I've yet to figure one out.
If I get a hit on neutral and I can't get my opponent to the corner (I'll never force it by using H Egret), I'll do a mixup. I heavily rely on hard reads using Parasoul's command normals once I notice blocking patterns and those usually give me fine results. Other than those, I'll sometimes do an airborne ambiguous cross under with the classic j.mp setup, but I don't feel comfortable with it.
My mixup and setplay game with Parasoul is often times really unsafe, so to cover that ground, instead of actually learning better mixups, I started to favor a hard knockdown game with j.hp burst baits and tear safejumps. I still don't know how I feel about these, but the fact that I need to learn better mixups remains unchanged.
Some people might say that favoring zoning as Parasoul is a bottomless pit. I'll not say it is not, but I definitely feel this playstyle gives me more information about my opponent and rewards a reactive gameplan (that I REALLY like to adopt) that abusing ground and air normals would. It also gives me the "holy shit he's going in now" card that can catch some people off guard.
Robo Fortune:
Aah, sweet little sparkling metal thingy. Be welcome, my dear. I'll make good use of you.
So... the main thing I want to throw out is: jumpback + j.hp + L bomber. Back when I was learning Robo as a duo with Double that would be the foundation of everything I did. This has not changed. You will see me do this A LOT and I see no reason to stop doing it. It is that good.
The second big thing I wanna say about the way I approach Robo is... I don't like to zone with her. Sure, zapping lasers feels good, but I don't feel comfortable unless it's a lone Big Band or Parasoul on the other side of the screen. This is one of the reasons I don't run HShot assist in this team like Liam does. Even though H beam + H shot > H beam is really awesome overall, I have other plans for Pillar, and other plans for Robo herself.
Some may not agree with this, but I find Robo a GREAT character to go in. If I have frame advantage somehow (easily achievable with Pillar and L bomber or most of her ground normals) she is nuts. She's basically immune to late pushblocks (j.mp and s.mp), can instant overhead most of the cast, has an unsafe mid-string overhead that can be safe with an assist call and two great normals to threat characters that abuse armor on neutral (c.mk and s.mp)
The only problems she has while pressuring is her limited reach and her inability to respond properly to well timed pushblocks. But in the worst case scenario what does that mean? That your opponent wants you far from him, and as Robo that is not really an issue, is it?
So yeah, I will favor going in as Robo unless I have a good reason not to. I feel like Robo's zoning is a high risk low reward playstyle and I do enjoy being safe most of the time against every single fucking thing. Look at me, I run two invincible assists after all.
She's my roughest character by far. I have between zero to two mixups in my hand that I know won't randomly whiff in my face, and that's not really a desirable amount if I want to go in I suppose. So I'm definitely working on that. I'm kind of confident playing her in neutral btw.
Double:
Oh hey my favorite nun, would you tell me why you hate being a nun so much? I wish that form had more frames drawn...
So... compared to the way I play Parasoul and Robo, Double is maybe my most disappointing character. I don't do anything really inovative with her but she's the character I feel most comfortable with nonetheless. Well... that's expected since she's the one I've been playing the longest.
Most Double players really really like j.hp. Yeah, they're right. It's a great move and it works particularly well with her weight, but the main thing that goes through my mind when playing her is using that move the least. She has other great awesome tools that doesn't come even near to having the same attention as j.hp does, and I do make an effort do make that statement reflect my gameplay.
Even though I burn meter with no mercy with Parasoul and Robo, once Double is by her own I don't really feel restrained if I don't have my catheads ready. I play anchor Double but by not in any way that means I require her having a rainbow-colored meter for my team to work. In fact, I DHC, combo into tag a lot with this team, messing with the order and manipulating bad matchups all the time. I feel like I can get a good hold of meter with any of the three as a point. This is not an issue.
I don't like to play lame with her. For example if I get an opponent cornered as Parasoul I'll gladly stay midrange where my s.lp barely hits and throw some napalm shots and lame it out, but not with Double. If I get an opponent cornered I'll go NUTS. Safety is not a concern and that usually bites me hard. Mentality is the main thing I think I need to work on as playing Double, and also maybe optimizations. I'll more often than not start an ending string with 200 undizzy consumed.
Parasoul:
The way I like to play her is heavily focused on tear zoning. I will only go in if I have a good tear placement up (and there's actually a good reason to go in as well, like an assist locked or something). That means in my ideal gameplan, I'll be a full screen away from my opponent, blasting him with H beam and tears.
Hit confirming fullscreen from tear explosions costs me 2 meters (snipe > magnet). I will only go for that option if I have the kill secured. Yes, I will not save meter if I have a guaranteed kill. If you ever see me do it, I made a mistake and I'll gladly accept punishment for it. Also, Liam's hit confirm from H Beam with j.lp > j.lk > j.mp > rejump stuff is also properly internalized I believe, there might be a better route if the opponent gets hit while cornered but I've yet to figure one out.
If I get a hit on neutral and I can't get my opponent to the corner (I'll never force it by using H Egret), I'll do a mixup. I heavily rely on hard reads using Parasoul's command normals once I notice blocking patterns and those usually give me fine results. Other than those, I'll sometimes do an airborne ambiguous cross under with the classic j.mp setup, but I don't feel comfortable with it.
My mixup and setplay game with Parasoul is often times really unsafe, so to cover that ground, instead of actually learning better mixups, I started to favor a hard knockdown game with j.hp burst baits and tear safejumps. I still don't know how I feel about these, but the fact that I need to learn better mixups remains unchanged.
Some people might say that favoring zoning as Parasoul is a bottomless pit. I'll not say it is not, but I definitely feel this playstyle gives me more information about my opponent and rewards a reactive gameplan (that I REALLY like to adopt) that abusing ground and air normals would. It also gives me the "holy shit he's going in now" card that can catch some people off guard.
Robo Fortune:
Aah, sweet little sparkling metal thingy. Be welcome, my dear. I'll make good use of you.
So... the main thing I want to throw out is: jumpback + j.hp + L bomber. Back when I was learning Robo as a duo with Double that would be the foundation of everything I did. This has not changed. You will see me do this A LOT and I see no reason to stop doing it. It is that good.
The second big thing I wanna say about the way I approach Robo is... I don't like to zone with her. Sure, zapping lasers feels good, but I don't feel comfortable unless it's a lone Big Band or Parasoul on the other side of the screen. This is one of the reasons I don't run HShot assist in this team like Liam does. Even though H beam + H shot > H beam is really awesome overall, I have other plans for Pillar, and other plans for Robo herself.
Some may not agree with this, but I find Robo a GREAT character to go in. If I have frame advantage somehow (easily achievable with Pillar and L bomber or most of her ground normals) she is nuts. She's basically immune to late pushblocks (j.mp and s.mp), can instant overhead most of the cast, has an unsafe mid-string overhead that can be safe with an assist call and two great normals to threat characters that abuse armor on neutral (c.mk and s.mp)
The only problems she has while pressuring is her limited reach and her inability to respond properly to well timed pushblocks. But in the worst case scenario what does that mean? That your opponent wants you far from him, and as Robo that is not really an issue, is it?
So yeah, I will favor going in as Robo unless I have a good reason not to. I feel like Robo's zoning is a high risk low reward playstyle and I do enjoy being safe most of the time against every single fucking thing. Look at me, I run two invincible assists after all.
She's my roughest character by far. I have between zero to two mixups in my hand that I know won't randomly whiff in my face, and that's not really a desirable amount if I want to go in I suppose. So I'm definitely working on that. I'm kind of confident playing her in neutral btw.
Double:
Oh hey my favorite nun, would you tell me why you hate being a nun so much? I wish that form had more frames drawn...
So... compared to the way I play Parasoul and Robo, Double is maybe my most disappointing character. I don't do anything really inovative with her but she's the character I feel most comfortable with nonetheless. Well... that's expected since she's the one I've been playing the longest.
Most Double players really really like j.hp. Yeah, they're right. It's a great move and it works particularly well with her weight, but the main thing that goes through my mind when playing her is using that move the least. She has other great awesome tools that doesn't come even near to having the same attention as j.hp does, and I do make an effort do make that statement reflect my gameplay.
Even though I burn meter with no mercy with Parasoul and Robo, once Double is by her own I don't really feel restrained if I don't have my catheads ready. I play anchor Double but by not in any way that means I require her having a rainbow-colored meter for my team to work. In fact, I DHC, combo into tag a lot with this team, messing with the order and manipulating bad matchups all the time. I feel like I can get a good hold of meter with any of the three as a point. This is not an issue.
I don't like to play lame with her. For example if I get an opponent cornered as Parasoul I'll gladly stay midrange where my s.lp barely hits and throw some napalm shots and lame it out, but not with Double. If I get an opponent cornered I'll go NUTS. Safety is not a concern and that usually bites me hard. Mentality is the main thing I think I need to work on as playing Double, and also maybe optimizations. I'll more often than not start an ending string with 200 undizzy consumed.
You should also take this as an invite to fight me. I'm very friendly and will accept any challenge under 250 ping. My Steam should be linked in my SH profile right? So yeah, do the thing.
Anyway, as expected of training diaries, this will be updated. How often? I have no clue. But you can expect tons of text every time I do. If you endured it until here, you must have realized I do like to type.
Thanks for holding a slice of your time to read this. I really appreciate it and I hope this shines some light and bring new ideas to people who might be stepping the same stones that I am.
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