Hey guys I got this game (SSF4: AE) during the steam sale and I've been playing it for the past few days and I've been getting absolutely slaughtered online. I've won 1 game out of about 75 games or so.
I watched
this guy's tutorial and I really liked it and I feel like I can actually get some damage in and usually get an A on my offense now. Is there a similar tutorial for defense? Whenever I let my guard down people are able to get crazy combos off on me and I always get an E on my defense, sometimes a D.
I have no idea about technique though, I always get an E there, no idea how to improve that.
Try the Vesper Arcade Tutorial if you have enough time on hand.
It would be helpful if you could illustrate your understanding of the game. Like a replay of one of your matches. Or show someone a replay. There's also a gaf beginners steamgroup for fighting games called "Scrubgaf" if you're interested.
Also the punish combo(f.HP into HP DP) in your linked video is sub-optimal. Just as an example. In theory a close standing HP into SRK is a better option it's easier to do and does more stun at the same amount of damage, but gains a little less super gauge.
If you want more positional advantage you can go for HP cancel into Hurricane Kick to push the opponent into the corner. There are more complex and more difficult versions of those, but they are rather difficult to execute due to the strict timing.
Read up and play a ton-a matches.
Dig around Shoryuken. Character forums and wikis. Watch online matches. Find someone who's better than you to practice with.
Keep in mind, I'm just an online warrior, but the best advice for trying to get good at anything is, practice practice practice.
Not picking on you in particular. But these are usually pretty much non-answers or VERY inconvenient to execute same with the "play a lot and get gud" answers I read a lot in other threads.
For beginners it's paramount to understand the basics first. Like
- How to approach the game and move away from a beginners misconception like
Code:
- "Combos are more important than anything!".
- "I always need to hit my Ultra or Super!".
- "I don't need anything else than HP, HK and special moves!".
- "Jumping is the best way to get in!".
- "It's all about the damage!".
- Normals and their uses, i.e. using light attacks to confirm your succesful hit so you can turn it into a combo.
- Inputs of the special moves and their implications, i.e. switching sides eliminates the sidewards charge of charge characters, Fei Longs DP can be easier done in defense due to it's input being backwards based.
- Basic important system knowledge like cancels, i.e. c.mk into Hadoken with Ryu
- Spacing/positioning and overall approach of a match, i.e. you don't want to be close to a grappler or you don't want to put yourself into the corner.
So they can even start to fully analyze matches. If one decides to dig deeper into non-game-specific systems like
frame data and hit/hurtboxes the learning speed should be much faster than the classic "trial and error" method and even for any fighting game. Frame data is especially important in SF4 for basic understanding due to it's reliance on links in combos.
I wouldn't rely on the grading results at the end of a fight to determine your skill level. While the grading results give you a little indication of how you did in a match, in reality it means nothing. Someone could win a match but end up with E's in every category, or win convincingly and receive A in defense when they didn't even have to block anything. Ignore this if you can.
Defense I feel is something you have to have to get a feel for, and the only way to do that is to just keep playing. You'll gradually learn the patterns of blocking, what moves require blocking high and low, and when people want to throw you instead. Repetition and muscle memory comes into play for this.
The only way I feel like you could learn fundamentals of defense is finding someone who is willing to help you out who can play with and teach you at the same time. Again, there's a lot of tutorials on Youtube of people trying to teach people how to play Street Fighter, but nothing will ever beat the experience you gain actually playing. Thankfully, Ultra for PC is around the corner, and that has online training mode, so if you have nobody locally, you can find someone who'd be willing to go into online training + Skype or something and educate you that way.
Have to agree with you. Grades mean nothing and you shouldn't use it as a pointer at all. Defense is something one has to learn indeed with matches. I think Kuroda a very well known 3S player used CPU to work on his concentration in defense so that might be viable training for a beginner.
Theory in general is good, but you still need the actual practice.
