how do you get better?

aedanwolfe

aedanwolfe

New member
from a theoretical and analytical perspective i know my mains inside and out, i can tell you most if not all there combos from the top of my head and different strategies for different situations. hell i can even breakdown which combos are good for what, when and why

but in actual practice...im really not that good. I mess up important combos and the worst time, i hesitate when i should push, if i panic i fall back onto something entirely predictable and get my ass handed to me.

So what do you do to get better? apparently knowing how it works isnt enough.
 
Some tips :

Psychology aspect :

- Do you have fear to lose ? You only feel confident when winning the match, having the upper hand ? Do you put effort to come back in a match you are losing , or , it's not your speciality ? If you lose 75% of your energy bar in the first 10 seconds, you suddenly are in panic, and cannot react anymore ?

- Can you figure out when you repeat too much the same moves sequences, and so, it's time to change during the fast pace match ? You think fast, act fast ?

- Do you recognize when facing a better player, and , after losing, you try to remember what he used to win, what you don't ?

- Do you are humble, or arrogant ?

Technical aspect :

- You try to learn others characters, even the ones you hate ? At least, to get used with what moves your oponent can use against you, and , how to defend properly against them ?

- You can change anytime, from an agressive style , to a defensive one, or counter-attacker, in the match ? Or you play the same all the time : "Rushdown is my friend and the only way I can play and win !"

- You have interesting to learn, undertand and pratice, for example, zoning, mixing, baiting and others concepts 2D fighting games have in common ?

- Training Mode is your friend, or something for noobs only ?
 
you pull that out of a handbook or something? lol.

well, when i start losing is usually when i "panick" a little i think. i catch myself using some fail tactics that are easily punished, and i get punished rightly so. for some reason i fail to think of something different to do, and then my finger reaction does the rest.

defintily humble, and i try to analyze where i messed up or where the other player capitalized, and what he did thruought the match that caught me multiple times. like scorpions hellfire, even when dashing i get hit by that thing.

i havent played as characters i dislike, but i try to fight all of them on expert in training mode.

i probably play more the same then i should. trying to tag up noob and csz because of the starkly different playstyles, should probably also work on changing up tehre gameplay on the fly themselves as well.

i do have interest to learn, have been reading guides on te fighting game in general as well. though im unsure if im doing the concepts well or not.

and i spend more time in training mode then i should i think lol. mainly to either play against computer on expert or to try and get more muscle memory into certain moves.
 
I think the hardest thing to get used to in MK is the speed of the match. When I watch a MK match it is usually over with 30 seconds. When I watch a SF match it usually lasts almost until the end. Please no SF vs MK talk, this is just merely an observation I have made. Since the matches are so quick in MK you can easily panic when the first combo is unleashed and you are now 30+% down on life. The best thing to do is to not panic and play your game as usual. You will get your chance to get even with a combo of your own.

Now the most important thing to do is to just play against people. The more you play against people either online or offline the less you will panic when things are not going your way.
 
Some people cannot evolve, they got stuck in certain skill level .... even if they double the time they play daily, watch lots of MK streams gameplay, buy all MK guides, or talk with Tom Brady 2 hours a day (LOL!), they simple cannot pass the maximum skill level they naturally have and/or have reached, more or less as they reached a personal peak apex where they cannot, or don't know, what more to do regarding this game .....
 
yautjared said:
Some people cannot evolve, they got stuck in certain skill level .... even if they double the time they play daily, watch lots of MK streams gameplay, buy all MK guides, or talk with Tom Brady 2 hours a day (LOL!), they simple cannot pass the maximum skill level they naturally have and/or have reached, more or less as they reached a personal peak apex where they cannot, or don't know, what more to do regarding this game .....
Click to expand...

I agree with you, but that certain skill level would be pretty high. Playing a fighting game is a skill first and foremost. You/a person may have some natural talent for that skill so given the proper opportunities a person can be one of the best in the world. But without that talent a person with enough time and practice would be very good. At least good enough to be able to compete at a high level over the internet playing against mostly people that also do not have a natural talent for fighting games, where the difference between skill levels would be the amount of time spent playing and practicing.
 
Scorpions hell fire is kind of cheap. It hits Sub-Zero even during slide! You can only avoid it by jumping.

Anyway, I besides what was already said here, I think that I can improve more if I correct my own stupid mistakes. For exemple, I know the opponent will block, but I slide anyways... It's like a bad habit, I think.

But anyway, read, search for info on your characters, practice, go to arcade ladder on expert and try to beat (or keep beating it) until you're satisfied and then go online. Don't be afraid to loose. Loose as many times as you need to. If you're loosing for a great player, study his play style and you will learn more about the characters and the game.
 
Respect your opponent and respect their options. E.g If your opponent blocked your last two overheads and punished them, mix up your offense a little and use a throw or a low attack instead. Expect them to block, expect the x-ray, expect the wake up.

It can be difficult sometimes to do this online due to lag; but if that's really your only option (and there's no local scene whatsoever) try not to get disheartened by anything you encounter - if your opponent caught you off guard and you got hit, you got hit. If you dropped a combo cus of input delay, the combo's been dropped. Whatever the case may be, don't let it get to you and don't give up on the match - it's always possible to win, even with slivers of health left. If not, at least you can go out trying!

Lastly, take advantage of this forum and it's members. Ask around, check your character's respective forums and add people who live close to you so you can get some decent matches going on.
 
Last edited:
A factor that, surely, influences a lot how good or bad you play this game, it's : Do you want to play this game competitively, or just for fun ? You feel you need to improve desperately every time you lose, or, your just laugh and feel OK funny about how the other guy kicked your ass ? What you concern level about loss, win, improvement and skill development ?

- Some people want to win all the time, so, every time they lose, they try to do something to make the chance to win, next time, higher, and , the chance to lose, lower ..... They care about their W/L rate and they train to keep maintenance of their online status. They could be professional players if they want. They have skill for this.

- Some people don't care about losing or winning : surely they prefer to win if they can, so, they play to win, but, your explicity can notice they have no interesting in get deep into this game, so, they base their skill only in the couple of hours a day they can play this game, after a hard day work in their jobs ..... so, they don't become stressful about this game the same way the competitive players do ..... they train enough to play with the minimum necessary to , for example, acomplish normally 2 wins and 1 loss on matches, or 1-1 W/L .... they pick 1 or 2 favourite characters and play enough to know how to play with them, but, still at more or less amateur level .

- And others, are all about "party time" : Random select lovers, they pick any character, smash buttons and don't care about their 12/120 W/L they have .... MK 2011 is not their priority.
 
Well, the only problem I have with the game is that I can't do Juggle Combos. I simply can't.

I sometimes do, in some occurences, but it's so rare I can never get it in MP. I sometimes manage to do a 7 hit combo which includes a teleport punch, beatup in mid air and then another teleport jump to end it.

But it's so rare. How can I master Juggle Combos?
 
Mastering perfectly juggle combos, to a point you can choose to use them over other combos, because you feel comfortable using them all the time with no error, it's tough !
 
Error Macro said:
Not like that. I can't use them, pure and simple.
Click to expand...

Juggles can be problematic online because of lag dropping/delaying your inputs. Apparently, there's a patch coming out in a week or so that will improve the online experience, so be on the lookout.

That being said, Ermac has plenty of opportunities to land combos. Force lift (down, back, square on ps3) beats pretty much every move in the game, has good range and grants you a free juggle.
 
its just learning about timing while training your muscle memory as far as juggle combos go. certain parts of certain characters juggles require certain input speeds, whether its waiting .5 seconds for the enemy or attack to get in te right area (often times letting the player come down enough from being bounced so your juggle combo doesnt wiff) or other inputs that require to be input before your last combo even finishes. usually this is the case with certain tight timing specials. you have to input the special command before your combo even finishes on screen to get it to work. and there are combos that require you to do both these things in the combo string. so its really about laerning the timing, this can be made harder online because of lag which is why i say you need the muscle memory, so instead of relying on visual ques on screen (which the lag can screw up) you know how long to wait or how fast to input something on instinct.
 
There are 3 important aspects that can change the game online vs. your experience in singleplayer modes:

- Your opponent: he's going to learn your fighting style and punish your repetitiveness. He can use mind tricks, and usually DOESN'T want to lose. He can and will spam and use "cheap" tactics.
What you can do about it:
It's hard to change your fighting style with characters like Noob or Smoke, but it's essential if you want to win.
With experience, you'll learn to "force" an opponent into teleporting or doing a special move to render them vulnerable on block.
Mixup slow ground recovers with wakeup attacks. Make sure you've got at least 1 juggle combo and 1 High+Low hits combo that you master and can use at will. This is the difference between life and death most of the time online.

- Lag: it's the only aspect you have no control over. One second it's there, the other it's gone. It ****s your timings up (all the precious hours practicing) and makes you miss combos and some attacks look like they should hit, but miss.
What you can do about it:
Even if lag slightly changes during the course of a match, it usually stays within the same range so you must adjust to that as quickly as possible. You usually get a good idea of how important it is during the character selection screen. If it's too bad, just quit the session. If lag don't seem so bad, what I usually do is I keep it very defensive until the opponent makes a mistake then I try my favorite juggle combo. During that small window I usually got a good idea of how much slower my moves need to be from now on.

- Yourself: some people aren't affected much by the events during a match, some are competitive and get nervous. I fall in category #2. I want to win and I analyse everything during a match.
What you can do about it:
If you feel nervous because you lost 30% of your health in the first 15 seconds of a fight, don't panic. You should be able to do the same damage back if you know a combo that does. If you see you'll most likely lose the first round, do not break a combo or use your x-ray. (like you got 20% or less health left, and he still got 80% and up) Preserve your meter and round 2 will just be like a new round 1. Knowing that you got a full meter is a psychological advantage too. A good opponent will always be careful and will fear an x-ray and play it less aggressively. If you see the opponent is much better than you and you just can't do anything, just block and watch him play... see what he does to get to you. Learn. Attack when he takes chances, but other than that, just try to survive defensively so that you can learn as much as possible from him. Beware of grabs if you constantly block. Unless you played like more than 100 matches online and know 75% of all characters basics, expect to lose often. It's part of learning. You just can't expect to own everyone if you only know 1 character very well.
You will win over noobs, but people that main another character will destroy you if you don't know the basics about that character.

Don't be afraid to use the hidden character selection icon... some people will look at the character you pick and choose a good counter character.

Hope this helps a bit. :)
 
Last edited:
Aedan push square on ps3 on character select screen, under random select you've got hidden select that makes your cursor invisible, just remember exactly where you are when movin it about lol, on the vs screen it'll show the character you last highlighted so your opponent won't know until the fight starts. Its a good trick to remember
 
Yautjared makes a great point in that fear of losing thing. I've come to realize that I do way better/pull of higher combos when I am not worried at all. Just relaxing, and focusing on the buttons. If I'm not online, I'm always playing the Expert/Hard ladder or getting comfortable with combos in practice mode. Because frankly the Expert/Hard ladders are more of a challenge than online play. Knowing how each character (as an opponent) plays is a big part of it. The reaction to certain moves, when to jump/block.

Just try to be relaxed and focused is my main suggestion.
 
Big Frog said:
Yautjared makes a great point in that fear of losing thing. I've come to realize that I do way better/pull of higher combos when I am not worried at all. Just relaxing, and focusing on the buttons. If I'm not online, I'm always playing the Expert/Hard ladder or getting comfortable with combos in practice mode. Because frankly the Expert/Hard ladders are more of a challenge than online play. Knowing how each character plays is a big part of it. The reaction to certain moves, when to jump/block.

Just try to be relaxed and focused is my main suggestion.
Click to expand...

Thanks, you're welcome. Yeah, your point is right too, and MoonQuake did a fantastic amazing analysis as well !! XD :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top