Feeling pretty hopeless...

[Carthage]

I've just lost something like a hundred matches in a row online, just constantly getting rushed down over and over and over in Blazblue.

 

Even when I predict exactly what will come out, nothing I seem to do ever ends up working. My combos don't come out, nothing I do on wakeup ever seems to come out, and blocking feels impossible while the opponent just does whatever mixup they want.

 

If I try to play keepaway every character feels like they can go from fullscreen to right in my face in half a second and it just starts all over again.

 

Every player that challenges me online seems to have a 75+% win rate too.

 

How the heck can I learn the game in this environment? 

[Monarch]

Let's attack the problem in pieces, firstly, your character. Who do you play?

[Carthage]

mu-12

[Monarch]

Mu 12 is actually a pretty great all round character. Can control space and deal great damage. But, being good at neutral is key to success. So regarding your attacks not coming out, is that lag or lack of execution?

[Elochai]

I've just lost something like a hundred matches in a row online, just constantly getting rushed down over and over and over in Blazblue.

 

Even when I predict exactly what will come out, nothing I seem to do ever ends up working. My combos don't come out, nothing I do on wakeup ever seems to come out, and blocking feels impossible while the opponent just does whatever mixup they want.

 

If I try to play keepaway every character feels like they can go from fullscreen to right in my face in half a second and it just starts all over again.

 

Every player that challenges me online seems to have a 75+% win rate too.

 

How the heck can I learn the game in this environment? 

 

Have you ever played offline? Methinks that part of your problem is the fact you're playing online (the netcode of CP isn't that great). It could also be that you need to grind out your combos/etc in training mode. 

Online win/loss ratio shouldn't really mean anything either. If someone beats up on scrubs all day, and they end up with a 90% WL, that doesn't make them "good" at the game. It just means they beat bad players a lot. Regardless, try to find players around your "level". Use the netplay/offline matchmaking threads to find people.

[Carthage]

Mu 12 is actually a pretty great all round character. Can control space and deal great damage. But, being good at neutral is key to success. So regarding your attacks not coming out, is that lag or lack of execution?

 

I can do basic combos in training mode and challenge mode, I guess I just can't do them well under the pressure of a real match. It might also be at least a little bit related to lag, because I only play online.

 

 

Have you ever played offline? Methinks that part of your problem is the fact you're playing online (the netcode of CP isn't that great). It could also be that you need to grind out your combos/etc in training mode. 

Online win/loss ratio shouldn't really mean anything either. If someone beats up on scrubs all day, and they end up with a 90% WL, that doesn't make them "good" at the game. It just means they beat bad players a lot. Regardless, try to find players around your "level". Use the netplay/offline matchmaking threads to find people.

 

Everyone at my level seems to have quit already :/

[Monarch]

Yeah, the only real solution I can extend to you is to go into training mode and practice things that you need to work on. Netplay isn't necessarily the greatest place to learn the game. But, you could always check out the match finder thread to get some good practice.

[Airk]

Time for my standard advice for people who say "I can do combos in training mode, but I drop them in real matches."

 

Go back to training mode.  Put health on regen.   Put the dummy on CPU, 100 skill.  Work on trying to land and do your combos.  Don't do stupid stuff - try to play the CPU as much like a person as possible - and just focus on turning hits into combos.   This provides a valuable bridge between "training dummy that does nothing but stand there, drool, and let you do combos when you're ready." and "human opponent who won't hold still long enough for you to even begin thinking about a combo."

 

Give yourself 30 minutes of this for a few evenings, and I guarantee you'll be better at landing combos in real matches.

[Midnight-Zephyr]

Time for my standard advice for people who say "I can do combos in training mode, but I drop them in real matches."

 

Go back to training mode.  Put health on regen.   Put the dummy on CPU, 100 skill.  Work on trying to land and do your combos.  Don't do stupid stuff - try to play the CPU as much like a person as possible - and just focus on turning hits into combos.   This provides a valuable bridge between "training dummy that does nothing but stand there, drool, and let you do combos when you're ready." and "human opponent who won't hold still long enough for you to even begin thinking about a combo."

 

Give yourself 30 minutes of this for a few evenings, and I guarantee you'll be better at landing combos in real matches.

I know Im not the one who made this topic, but im personally finding this very helpful.

[crimsonstardust]

Online isn't a optimal way to gauge skill level, you can to some degree but there's always something that online will do that will mess something up. For me I feel like my defense is cut by 30-40% cause things that I can react to on defense I have to make a raw guess oppose to react, or I drop an input for a reversal for something on reaction cause the game read it as something else. It wasn't until I actually got to play locally that I realized I was much better at the game I gave myself credit for, I generally try and stick to 3 bars and up in terms of playing online but even that has problems as the game sometimes won't accurately gauge that and you get matches that are more laggy then it shows.

Some other advise I suggest is to watch your replays, thankfully this game automatically stores replays of your matches online so you can watch your matches objectively and see what may have gone wrong or ask in your character's board for discussing what happened.

[D.R.F.]

^ crossups online=unblockable attacks

[Dark Ranger88]

There could be another factor that could explain why it is really difficult for you to win (that no one ever seems to bring up).

 

It could be your setup. I.E what kind of TV you are using and the delay it causes. Chances are if you are using any kind of huge flatscreen TV you have significant input delay.

 

I started out on an HDTV with significant input delay (and I wasn't even using game mode). Switching to a standard CRT was a godsend. And even now, I notice that I am noticeably worse when I play on my newer LCD HDTV. The delay just makes reacting to things harder.

[Airk]

That's actually a super good point;  Having a laggy TV multiplies the difficulty of everything by quite a lot.

 

At the very, very least, please turn on game mode.  But if you can, you really want to check out a low lag monitor or just you an old CRT if you can tolerate the game looking like mush.

[StylisH]

A question, is BB your 1st fighting game?  Out of curiousity

[mAc Chaos]

 

That's actually a super good point;  Having a laggy TV multiplies the difficulty of everything by quite a lot.

 

At the very, very least, please turn on game mode.  But if you can, you really want to check out a low lag monitor or just you an old CRT if you can tolerate the game looking like mush.

 My friend always used to be free to throws in the corner because the green exclamation point would get cut off screen on a CRT, lol.

[Airk]

 

 My friend always used to be free to throws in the corner because the green exclamation point would get cut off screen on a CRT, lol.

Yeah, this is another fun side effect of CRT play, but honestly, I never react to the green exclamation anyway.  It's always either the animation, or me getting thrown, so...

[Synyster17]

play arcade mode alot. this will help u understand the game better. everything else just takes time. 

[Angry Guy of DE]

Before practicing combos you should first spend time learning hit-confirms into combos.

 

Start with basic combos starting from different situations:

 

Ground confirm :

 

Air to Air: 

 

Anti Air:

 

Throw (Both ground and air throw):

 

Counter hit , Fatal Counter, and hits on opponent crouching:

 

 

 

Also learn what moves can gatling into each other and whether something can be jump canceled on hit or block.  You shouldn't have to think about what you have to do when you do a combo since it will be muscle memory.

[SoulGuitarist]

Like everyone else is saying, training mode is a great tool when you utilize it. Practice is very important. Fighting games are hard to fully master especially Blazblue in my opinion. You just got to keep at it. As for learning how to block certain mix-ups, I usually try to learn that mix-up with that character even I don't main them... Why? I record the dummy actions and play them back against me. Lol It really helped me get better and confident in terms of defense. For combos, it depends on how much dedication you put into learning them.

I wish you luck! You will improve!

[gli]

Even when I predict exactly what will come out, nothing I seem to do ever ends up working. My combos don't come out, nothing I do on wakeup ever seems to come out, and blocking feels impossible while the opponent just does whatever mixup they want.

 

If I try to play keepaway every character feels like they can go from fullscreen to right in my face in half a second and it just starts all over again.

 

Every player that challenges me online seems to have a 75+% win rate too.

 

How the heck can I learn the game in this environment?

I think the best advice hasn't been mentioned yet.

Save a replay. Reflect and make adjustments. Repeat.

Why?

If you reflect on your play you can identify the problems with a real example in front of you.

There is no need to practice "combos" in a generic sense. A really efficient way is to watch a replay and identify where you could not hitconfirm or complete a combo and practice those directly. By isolating the problems into single pieces it's easier to see where you need to progress. This is what is called deliberate practice.

 

If you review your matches you can identify why "nothing" ever seems to end up working or why "combos don't come out". If you do not have an example to work from you are attempting to improve with a blindfold on.

 

So, my advice is to take things slow. Do not try to learn everything at once. It is better to work on aspects of your game one at a time and work from there.

 

tl;dr: Watch a replay of yourself.

 

For reference, some months ago I had written a small article about learning fighting games from a "not-quite-top-player" perspective. I had wanted to share with some co-workers what was involved since they don't play fighting games or anything competitive so yeah lol

http://hst.pestermom.com/fg/improve.html

[D.R.F.]

^THIS! Watching a reply of yourself play is one of the best things you can do for yourself