42-hit post (someday… 5 for now)

Originally I was going to list what I need to improve upon, in order. Instead, I have opted to take a more in-depth look into the main thing I currently need to improve upon: combos. As I mentioned in my last post, I have never looked into combos before for any other fighter at all. I have started picking it up lately, but I am still far from where I need to be in this area. Hitting someone 30 times per opening vs 4-8 times makes all the difference in the world. Here are the sub-items I need to improve upon, listed in order.

1. Execution

Starting the combos I already know. Simply put, a lot of times I end up poking someone 2 or 3 times instead of initiating a combo. I should, in fact, be comboing nearly every time the opportunity presents itself. I think the biggest problem here in I have such an ingrained automatic response of poking opponents with 2 consecutive jabs. I think the best way to address this issue is simply to be more conscious. Think “now I’m starting a combo” the second I see an opening rather than “let’s try to open him up a bit and then do a combo”, which rarely works. Another part of the issue, I think, may be a (valid) fear of getting my combo blocked, leaving myself wide open. Again, I think greater consciousness while playing will help with this. When there’s a clear opening, initiate combo immediately, when there’s a questionable opening, poke.

2. Effectiveness

The combos I currently have under my belt are extremely basic. This is not a coincidence, I intentionally started with only basic combos as the subject matter was new to me. However, there’s no question that my combos could be a lot more powerful. Most combos should probably end in hyper moves, currently I only have such sequences with Ryu and, to a lesser extent, Soki. I think this is best tackled in training mode, experimenting with new ways to extend started combos to increase the effectiveness. Important as this issue is, I doubt I will be focusing on it much right away as I have some more basic issues to attend to first, such as..

3. Aerial Raves

Extending one’s combos with ARs seems like the natural second step in learning to effectively combo. I can sometimes land these nicely, but often I will miss the jump. Also, I could probably do slightly longer ARs when I do land them. This skill is almost more important as an exercise than as a practical means of ending a combo. I think this is another skill that would be best honed in training mode.

4. Consistency

Failure to combo, apart from failure to execute. Sometimes (fairly often?), I will land for instance, a 2-hit combo hopefully followed immediately by a 4-hit combo, instead of a proper 6-hit. While this doesn’t matter when things pan out (and is, in fact, slightly advantageous) the problem is that it’s a break in my attack string, which could be exploited by good or lucky players. Once again, training mode is the place for this.

5. Equal Opportunity

Morrigan, in particular, I like choosing on occasion, but as her combo is not standard I really don’t know how to pull them off with her at all. This could be remedied by looking online and, once again, with a little time in training. This is not a huge priority as it mostly just affects Morrigan and it’s not like I play with her all the time, but still it should be addressed sometime soon.

So that about sums up my issues with combos. As mentioned, I believe this is currently the most pressing issue for me to improve upon. Looking over my notes, it would seem a majority of this would be best improved upon in training mode. I don’t particularly enjoy training mode, but I think a few sessions of repetitiously digging a groove for myself would pay off. The most important improvement, however, is more of a matter of being conscious of starting combos cleanly. I tend to be pretty aware of what’s happening during a match, so hopefully keeping this in mind and putting it into action will not be terribly awkward.