What to do against aerial stuff?

[smoot]

Especially against characters who can double jump and have pretty decent aerial buttons, like Cerebella, etc.

I feel like Annie has plenty of options against opponents who stay on the ground. She has a decent grab and the airdash helps cross up opponents. She has imo one of the best sweeps and can also use j.MP against characters who like to use armor. I can do alright against players who cannot double jump/don’t know to.

However, against anyone who can consistently get higher than me I’m not sure what to do. j.HP seems really bad for air-to-air. j.MP does a little better but it still doesn’t cut it. I’ve attempted to use superjump+ hold j.MK to gain some altitude and ADC into other normals but I’m having a ton of trouble aiming it. I also have a lot of trouble aiming moves like j.236K, j.LK, j.LP and airgrab. Maybe it’s a skill issue, but I’m not sure how to practice that kind of thing.

I assume that Annie isn’t supposed to fight aerial opponents head on, but my anti-air options feel kind of wack as well. DP is really unsafe on block and gets predictable quickly. Her overhead is really slow. I can catch some stuff with 2LP but it’s really stubby.

...And then they descend on my head with their aerial attacks. I’m not sure what I can do except sit there and block it. I know that against some moves you can jump, block, and land on the ground during the block in a way so that your blockstun gets canceled and you can then counterattack with your fastest hit, but this is extremely difficult and I can rarely pull it off. Again, maybe a skill issue, idk. I feel like in Skullgirls you generally don’t want to block, because then you need to survive their hell mixup long enough to pushblock or something, so this doesn’t feel exactly right.

One last thing that was suggested to me is to run underneath opponents with Annie’s small hitbox and try to force them to guess which side to block when they whiff their move, but this usually just gets me hit.

I know the obvious solution is to pick an assist that covers for this weakness, but I don’t think that’s very good for improving my Annie gameplay. I want to know if there’s anything I have as Annie that can deal with this sort of thing before I give up and use assists.

Anyway, this problem gets even worse against characters who can zone in the air like Robo and Valentine. They can just jump and throw stuff for days as I chase them around the stage and hope they mess up on the way down so I can get in. I also struggle against Painwheels who decide to fly around and wait for me to do something dumb so they can come down and descend on me with the fury of a thousand suns.

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining. I’m just stumped. I’ve been trying to figure out this dilemma for a while and I’m not sure anymore. If anyone here knows what I’m doing wrong it would be much appreciated.

 

[Stuff]

The short answer is that it's likely an experience issue, the long answer is that it's an experience issue and really it depends on who you're fighting.

Against characters that are extremely good in the air (ex: val, pw, fuk, robo etc.) I think Annie is pretty much SOL they're bad match ups for her imo so it takes extra skill to get past those successfully

You can try using her AA moves such as 2LP 6HP or her disjoints such as 5HP, 5MP, 2MP 2MK (yes 2MK) but these all vary on how close you are to them and how much time you feel you have to time these normals correctly

I think Annie is much better on the ground but she also has really good buttons in the air

jHK is a good retreating air button even if you can't easily combo into it
jHP can be pretty decent provided you space it right it's fairly wide and easier to combo into
jMP is also a great retreating button or even neutral jumping into it is good and there's less of a timing requirement since it's so active
jLK is very good at close quarters in the air or sometimes as a response to somebody jumping since it's very fast and you can generally combo into it
jLP is probably your least favorite button but it's her fastest button so if you really need to use it, it's pretty serviceable
Her air throw can also be very useful here depending on the situation of course

Super jumping into a button can be very useful depending on what the situation is but characters like PW who have a flight ceiling are very afraid of people who super jump into fast button, it's like swatting a fly, it's pretty cool when you hit her

Generally speaking when it comes to air buttons is that you'll want to be in a situation where you either out-space their attack or can out right out-speed it, in any other case I'd recommend blocking in the air and pushblocking them away (as most characters can't continue pressure as easily as on the ground at least without being more predictable) or land canceling a normal you blocked (e.g parasoul jHP if you air block low enough, it's actually punishable now because landing cancels any blockstun you would have been in)

Nutty ideas that might work

Her Install gives her access to projectiles that can AA a lot better and some let you go into damaging combos
H crescent is very tall and is usually a good trade

As for how to practice, I'd reccommend learning just how far your attacks can reach against a jumping dummy and how far your opponent's buttons can hit relative to you since that'll help with securing knowledge of what will work best for what situation and also whether or not you can out speed their aerial attacks or not because that'll help you a lot in the decision making process

Unfortunately it's hard to give a definitive answer to these types of problems since they all will ultimately rely on your personal experience and decision making, I hope this helps and good luck