How many/Which kind of combo to learn before practicing something else?

[Hakkai_Requiem]

Probably one of the first things to learn as a beginner are some combos.
You can have all the basics, but if you can't capitalize on each one of your hits, the results will probably be underwhelming.

However, WHEN can you step up your training to something different?
I -as a beginner- would guess after learning:

>2 or 3 ground combos so that you can start a chain with a high, a mid or a low hit
>1 combo starting with an anti-air
>1 combo that can hit air-to-air
>2 combos that can start with throws. One for a ground throw and the other for an air throw

I'd chose those first combos so that they can lead the oponent into the corner and then learn:

>2 or 3 corner combos so that you can start a chain with a high, a mid or a low hit

That would make for a total minimum of 8-10 combos, so that you can start practicing the basics AND capitalize on your damage while playing.
What do experienced players think?
What kind of combos did you learn before delving into other stuff?

[Airk]

I've written about this more or less in passing before, but here's the gist:

You should try to have ~3 combos (may actually be more like 2.5) to start playing a character semi-seriously as a beginner. Those should be:

• A basic BnB combo off your best poke (Usually 5B, but may vary by character)
• A basic BnB combo off 5A/2A - this one may very well be an abbreviated version of your 5B combo.
• Some sort of combo off a mixup - either off of an overhead, or off of a throw.

All of those combos should be ones that work both midscreen and corner.  And it wouldn't do you any harm to learn some "combo stubs" that work in other situations like "if I hit with any of these moves, I can do Hell's Fang -> Followup and add a little damage"

More than that when you're just starting to learn a character is going to be way too much for an actual beginner.   If you're an experienced player of the game and are just learning a new character, you can probably learn more than that, but for a real, honest to goodness beginner, learning more than the above is way too much grinding combos before you get in and play.  The idea that a beginner is going to basically sit in training mode for like 20 hours to learn 10+ combos is absurd. Beginners absolutely DO NOT need corner specific combos, anti-air combos, counter-hit combos or whatever.  Heck, I'd argue that you don't even need throw or air throw combos, because for now, the 1500 or so damage+knockdown from those is fine.  It's probably not that much less damage than you're getting off your beginner combos anyway.

From that starting pool of combos, a beginner should be able to get in and play.  And then they should be able to use Beginner Learning Method #1: Watching Replays to determine where they seem to be getting lots of hits, but not getting any damage.  Then they can decide based on that information what combo to learn next - "I keep hitting with 2B, and I need a combo off that" or "My anti-airing is good, but I get no damage from it."  And they can build organically from there.

[RurouniLoneWolf]

1 hour ago, Hakkai_Requiem said:

Probably one of the first things to learn as a beginner are some combos.
You can have all the basics, but if you can't capitalize on each one of your hits, the results will probably be underwhelming.
 

I think you're thinking about how to approach learning a character with the wrong structure. The true reality is that you are expected to learn everything in parallel. You shouldn't be waiting to practice other stuff. Though you will be practicing everything in parallel and improving on each over time, there is indeed an order to things but this order is more in terms of priority of how much time you should be investing. IMO, this priority is Neutral > Mixup + Pressure > Combos. Combos fall at the very bottom of your list of priorities and you should not feel pressured to do full combos starting out. A 2-3 hit combo into knockdown is more than enough to allow you to practice the much more important aspect of mixup and pressure.

Oh, there's one more thing I have to say in response to the part of the statement I underlined. You should consider carefully what you use to track your progress as a player. Your opponent's health bar and whether you win or lose are both very poor indicators of your progress with your character. You need to shift your attention away from these things and focus it more on how you played throughout the match.  

 

[Putin]

17 minutes ago, RurouniLoneWolf said:

A 2-3 hit combo into knockdown is more than enough to allow you to practice the much more important aspect of mixup and pressure.

This tbh, it's what I've suggested to every friend that picked up fighting games.

Many new players have execution difficulties when they start out, but as you get more comfortable with the game and your character, learning advanced combos becomes easier.

By learning a very simple combo that you can convert into from many starters, which also leads into knockdown, you get the opportunity to practice hitconfirming first, then pressure and mixup, without worrying about dropping combos. Therefore, you focus on the more important aspects of the game, while getting better at execution with each and every match without even grinding combos in training mode, even though it definitely helps. Then, by the time you stop autopiloting the same string both on block and hit, and you reliably apply some sort of okizeme, you'll be ready to improve your conversions without much trouble; you'll probably picked up some intermediate combos on your way there anyway.

[Rotlung]

As a fellow new player, I've thought about this issue for a while. From my limited experience as a beginner, focusing on learning combos takes a lot of fun out of playing the game. I'll echo the rest: it's more important to learn neutral (like really learn it - know what exactly each button does, on an intuitive level, to the extent that I can imagine pressing the buttons and knowing what exactly the character would do). A lot of this comes from just playing the character repeatedly. I've found that learning a simple combo that leads to a knockdown is a good start.

For example, I initially had a lot of trouble learning Rachel. But once I got used to 5CC and 3C + summon being used as enders (and eliminated frequent usage of 2C aka 'cat chair' from my muscle memory), I really started to enjoy playing her. From then on, it's a matter of familiarity with which normals/moves gatling/cancel into each other, which would make learning combos a lot easier.

I still tend to autopilot the same string on block and hit (which is probably why I'm still terrible at applying pressure), but I think I'll get there slowly!