Tips for playing online for Guilty Gear Xrd?

[foxjasond]

I'm a casual player that recently got the game, and while I've mainly played with friends, I'm trying my first ventures into online play. Given that I'm still learning the game, where is the best place for me to start, player matches or searching for ranked matches? I'm nervous about playing ranked, as it feels like every player with a good connection is a far more higher level than I am, and even low-level players I play against are still far more talented at this than me.

[Hazama bin Laden]

Coming from someone whose in the same boat as you, I'd recommend sticking to Ranked matches.

Far easier to get paired up with people of equal skill, and it's not often that you'll get paired up with a guy whose league's better than you. Don't let these players make you afraid to continue searching.

 

Player matches are very deceptive. Often times the really skilled players are on player, and have low level in-game player ID's. At first glance you'll assume "oh sweet a new player to have a nice spar with!" Of course, when you get into the game, you'll immediately realize that they mean business. One of these players even disconnected in the middle of the first round when he realized that my level 4 Zato-one was actually a level 4 Zato-one. I practically apologized to that Elphelt, and I didn't even do anything wrong!

[GSD-SPL]

You're better off hooking up with people in player match / lobbies, imo. You're more likely to pick something up by feel, or to find some material to take to Training Mode over the course of a set, as opposed to just getting bopped once by several randoms in ranked. Playing a set with someone, even a small one, will be a more focused experience.

[magusheart]

I'm in the same boat about being still pretty new to the game and I've been doing player matches. Sometimes you get destroyed, sometimes you get good matches, and I learn stuff in either cases. Getting a bunch of sets in against someone of similar skills is a total blast, but I've found that my defense gets better as I face people that destroy me and I've gotten better at mashing less. My few escapades in ranked have been long periods of failing to connect to people followed by a single match, that ain't as fun.

 

Another option is to find people on forums/streams that'll wanna play with you. I recently found such a person myself and we're super even, makes for awesome fun matches where I can practice and I feel much less pressure from them, so I learn better.

[felirx]

If you just want to win random games, go ahead and pay rankeds.

 

If you want to actually learn how to fight characters, go to player matches. You can usually find a wide range of opponent skill levels in there but it's relatively hard to know how good an opponent is. You can check their card for games played for a rough estimate on how the opponent could be based on games played.

[DJPlace]

don't fight ranked unless you feel like losing to sol's  alot...

[Hollysmoke]

Don't. Local scene is more fun and more sociable.

And if you do for whatever reason, don't let them drag you down; there are lots of gimmicks and playstyles that you can get away with on netplay due to frame buffering and input lag. There may be things you're doing right but feel like you're doing wrong because of netplay, and bad habits you maybe developing because of netplay. Keep in mind you're coming into a game that has a long-standing community as a beginner and casual; expect to get roughed up during this phase. It happened to all of us at one point. If you want some critique on your play, ask the forums like magusheart suggested. There are lots of skilled players here who, while you may receive a thrashing, at least can also give you advice on where you went wrong and need to improve upon.
 

[Dude Butts]

honestly, if you ever have any inkling of being good at this game offline, I would encourage you to avoid online play altogether.

[NTR_]

Online isn't the devil guys. The best local players both show up and grind it out at home(training mode+online). I recommend player matches because lobby activity has been good so far. Msg your opponents after a few games and get a sense of what bad habits you have and what your getting hit by. Also play offline; dustloops pretty dead for some scenes that have moved on to facebook groups like the one in ,my sig.

 

LK telling how it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpZN6j8qLDo