How do YOU learn a new character?

Kzaoo

Active member
Well, this game is over a year old now and a few of you may be wanting to pick up a new character to make the game fresh. Share your ways of learning a new character here. I'll go first.


Research
The first place I'll go is testyourmight. I'll look at all the gameplay related threads there to see what problems people face when they're using the character so I'll know what to expect. Then i'll look at the guide for the character so I have knowledge of my character before using them so i'm not stuck in a match not knowing basic knowledge like anti airs and getting blown up because of it. Then i'll look at BnB combos to see the damage output for my character. After that i'll look at the frame data so i'm not in a match and then use an unsafe move without knowing and lose because of it. With this frame data i'll also construct frame traps.

Training
I'll try out what i've learned in training mode and with a friend and i'll also try out the whole movelist to see what position i'm left in. Also if the character i'm picking up hasn't had their frame data released i'll try out everything that looks useful to see if its positive or negative on block, i'll do this by making my friend standing block it, let go of block on the last hit and hold crouch and see who crouches first.

Observation

I'll watch some high level play and analyse it, i'll ask myself questions about what is going on. Some questions i'll ask myself are:
How does the player deal with situations?
What do they struggle with with the character?
Why do they do certain things?
How do they position themselves?
If I was the opponent, what would I do to beat them?
I find it is also good to watch matches where the player isn't successful to make sure I don't make the same mistakes.

Play

I'll test out what i've learned against real players and then recognise what I did well and what I didn't do well.

Ask questions

The first person i'll ask is myself, its all well having the answer fed to me, but its 1000000x better if I can solve it myself because that is testing my knowledge of the game more.

Repeat
I don't just mean do the same thing again, I mean do the same thing again at a slightly higher level, making solid progress one step at a time. If I go and learn 15 setups in one day its likely that i'll forget them in a few days and won't have intergrated them into my game yet, I just take slow and steady steps each time.
 
I usually lab everything myself first. You are more likely to find something new that way than to go straight to what people believe to already to be the meta-game for a character.

For example Jade has quite a few really quick normals. But all the Jade players I see play a very passive Jade where they just try to keep you at mid distance. And just counter your zoning or rushdown.

Because I didn't jump straight onto the TYM bus. I experimented with 1,2 - 4 - 1,2,2 - 1 - Sweep - D4 - D3 - D1 - 2,3,F2(slightly slower but a good one to start once you get them blocking)

I can play a very well upclose game with Jade because I didn't listen to the mainstream way of thinking.

But anytime you run into a huge problem and you can't figure it out yourself. It's good to combine knowledge with other people to find a answer

After fast testing/learning for myself THEN I go to TYM and other resources to gather any information I might find that can boost my game even more that I didn't know about or would likely not realize. like Jade's Oki.

Record your matches or atleast pay very close attention to when you get punished. You play to learn instead of play to win. Save play to win for tournaments.

Every time you take a hit or get punished think of why, how you can avoid it, and how you can avoid a counter to your counter of that move that hit you.
 
I usually lab everything myself first. You are more likely to find something new that way than to go straight to what people believe to already to be the meta-game for a character.

For example Jade has quite a few really quick normals. But all the Jade players I see play a very passive Jade where they just try to keep you at mid distance. And just counter your zoning or rushdown.

Because I didn't jump straight onto the TYM bus. I experimented with 1,2 - 4 - 1,2,2 - 1 - Sweep - D4 - D3 - D1 - 2,3,F2(slightly slower but a good one to start once you get them blocking)

I can play a very well upclose game with Jade because I didn't listen to the mainstream way of thinking.

But anytime you run into a huge problem and you can't figure it out yourself. It's good to combine knowledge with other people to find a answer

After fast testing/learning for myself THEN I go to TYM and other resources to gather any information I might find that can boost my game even more that I didn't know about or would likely not realize. like Jade's Oki.

Record your matches or atleast pay very close attention to when you get punished. You play to learn instead of play to win. Save play to win for tournaments.

Every time you take a hit or get punished think of why, how you can avoid it, and how you can avoid a counter to your counter of that move that hit you.

I usually follow guides and stuff, but i'm not gonna follow that guide like a bible, i'll test out things/ try out things myself and develop my own playstyle. I used to main Jade, too and everybody had to play me like a whole new matchup because I played her very differently to the norm, so i'm not saying that Its best to play like everybody else, its just that that stuff is helpful to get you started, you're not going to be playing with developed independently discovered knowledge day 1.
 
I usually follow guides and stuff, but i'm not gonna follow that guide like a bible, i'll test out things/ try out things myself and develop my own playstyle. I used to main Jade, too and everybody had to play me like a whole new matchup because I played her very differently to the norm, so i'm not saying that Its best to play like everybody else, its just that that stuff is helpful to get you started, you're not going to be playing with developed independently discovered knowledge day 1.

yeah i'm not saying you are that way.

I'm just saying my mentality.

I am pretty good at testing things and thinking outside the box. So doing my own testing tends to lead me to finer results at the end than me following others advice.
 
yeah i'm not saying you are that way.

I'm just saying my mentality.

I am pretty good at testing things and thinking outside the box. So doing my own testing tends to lead me to finer results at the end than me following others advice.

I know exactly what you mean and I am the same way, its just that for me I need a place to start and then I go on to all that stuff. I'm not saying your way is wrong (it can't be, you're probably the best player on the site) its just that i'm not as smart as you so I need people to think for me sometimes :laugh:
 
I just straight into the action and find out my way from there.

I do it with all fighting games lol MAYBE once in a blue moon I'll do a tiny bit of research.
 
I just straight into the action and find out my way from there.

I do it with all fighting games lol MAYBE once in a blue moon I'll do a tiny bit of research.

You should give research and learning a shot. You might enjoy more than you think.

At first it's annoying because it feels like work because it is.

But all work has its rewards.

when you go on a diet it sucks. But you lose weight feel great at the end.

when you go to work to make cash. Sucks ass, but when you get that paycheck hell ya.

Same goes for fighting games.

You can jump straight into the fun. But I promise you'll have a even higher level of fun if you put in work to learn the intricate details.
 
Well I do have lots of fun with it comes to MK9!

I just feel more confident when I'm thinking, "Oh yeah! I learned that myself!"

I was using Stryker the other day and I landed my homemade X-Ray combo on this guy and he was like "Oh shit! I ain't neva seen that combo before! That was sick! Nice job man!"

I felt so proud :proud:
 
I pick who intrests me the most (Example: Baraka, Mileena or Sindel) And only play with them till I'm good at it.
 
With MK I usually just go into training mode, figure what combos with what, and I'm on my merry way
 
For MK, I pretty much determined from Day 1 I picked Stryker. I always like to experiment with the characters I pick first so I can get a good understanding of them; things like movement and the such. Then I go to outside sources like TYM or TRMK to see what everyone has been able to find, and try to adapt it to my game. Then I go to Arcade and put it on Expert so I can get a feel for playing my character against some type of competition (even thought the CPU cheeses like crazy :laugh:) Then I went online to see how I stacked up. If I ever have the chance, I would always play with someone offline, no matter the skill level, just for the heck of it.

So yeah, I like to experiment w/ things myself before I check out different sites for info.
 
I go in and check out all of their special moves, and think of ways that they can be used. Then I go through all of the normal strings trying to combine them with specials. Also try some X-Ray combos. I check out the distance they can use their normal strings at, for footsies and such. Then I stay in Practice but set the CPU to Expert and fight them for a while. Sometimes I'll check for combos people have came up with.
 
I usually pick someone I suck with and play the Ladder and Test Your Luck over and over on different difficulty settings. Once I feel confident, I'll play against friends and such.
 
Test Your Might is great for match up and frame data but a lot of those things go flying out the window when it comes to online play. The best way to learn is to fight other people offline.
 
Test Your Might is great for match up and frame data but a lot of those things go flying out the window when it comes to online play. The best way to learn is to fight other people offline.

You can use frame data to create frame traps, know what can keep you at an advantage to carry on pressure ect, you don't just look at it and memorise it.
 
You can use frame data to create frame traps, know what can keep you at an advantage to carry on pressure ect, you don't just look at it and memorise it.

I think you need to read my post again. Im talking about the difference between online vs offline.
 
I wish I had decent people to play offline with :(

Whenever I try to play with friends offline, they usually have no idea what they're doing, so I have to play stupidly or else they don't wanna play at all lol.
 
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