Is the "Claw grip" important for playing with a controller?

[Tagglink]

Hey. I've finally come up with a legitimate question to ask you guys.

So when playing with a controller I've read here about what I call the claw grip; it's when you use not just your thumb for ABXY buttons, but your index fingers as well. I suppose you'd be using your pinky to press the shoulder buttons, or maybe bind HP/HK to the left shoulder buttons instead.

I'm playing with a 360 controller at the moment, currently using the analog stick rather than the D-Pad because I have a hard time trusting the 360's D-Pad and I feel I can overcome my inconsistent QCFs and DPs with practice. But I digress.

I'd like to know if you all experienced controller players out there (not just 360, I'd imagine this goes for pretty much any controller) find it to be essential to learn to use more fingers than your thumb for the Light/Medium buttons.

At the moment I feel like I can do any combination of two L/M buttons quite well with just my thumb, however I bought the game 5 days ago and I have yet to face a good player. I do sometimes slip and input them one after another, which generally registers anyway but it's slower than pressing them at the same time right away.

If it's about PP or KK I can just learn to use my thumb for one L/M button and use another finger for one of the H shoulder buttons. But when it comes to Grabs (LK+LP) or 2nd Tag (MK+MP) it's more difficult. The assist combinations (MK+LP & LK+MP) is obviously really hard, but I can use the 2 macro bindings for those which are on by default.

So should I continue learning using my thumb only or is this considered suboptimal when playing with a controller? I'd rather find out sooner than later since I'd hate having to re-learn muscle memory from switching hand placement...

Thanks!

 

[digereedoodah]

I am far from an expert on what exactly is "optimal" but the simple answer to your question is no, you don't need it. I play with a Hori fighting commander 4, where I just use my thumb for all 6 attack buttons, and use shoulder buttons for assists, and input has never been an issue.

I'm sure there's some fancy pad tech you can find where you need claw grip, but it's never necessary. Also, if your hands are too big or too small, claw grip can be really uncomfortable, making it suboptimal.

Just do whatever feels most natural.

 

[Tagglink]

Hey thanks for your input. It's nice to hear the opinion of someone who has more experience & playtime than myself. I do feel better using just my thumb; I just wanted to know whether it was a really big handicap (as in, very difficult to do consistently) when you get to higher level play, which seems like it isn't the case.

 

[skull person]

I don't see any of the top Skullgirls players that use pad do any funny grips.
Dekillsage, TJ, Cloud and SonicFox hold it normally, so you should be fine.