Blocking part 2

[shimedaiko]

I feel like I'm blocking about 99% of the time and getting counterhit out of my poke attempts the other 1% of the time that I'm playing against people in online lobbies. My main characters are bullet, tager, and hakumen in the past, and although I know that good blocking is core to their gameplay, I feel like I spend too much of my time blocking and not enough trying to get out of my opponent's pressure. I know that you need to look for openings in their block strings or to make use of things like DPs, alpha counters, and barrier, but I either get counter hit out of my attempts (sometimes I whiff alpha counters), or I miss the reset attempt, or I eat a meaty and I'm not really sure where to look. I could go into training mode and run the block strings of every character I play against and that I can think of, but I don't think that's as much of a problem because after a round or two, I can block 90% of someone's stuff but I miss the overhead or a gap, and I don't think trying to exhaust every single possibility is going to help as much as it will frustrate.

tl;dr: I'm not seeing openings in my opponent's offense.

I notice this more against characters like rachel, makoto, izayoi, valk

[LeDom]

I don't know about the others, but I can tell you that generally speaking, Makoto's overhead (6B) leaves an opening for a DP at least.

[shimedaiko]

For some reason I never read that overhead properly so I eat it or end up blocking it high. I don't know why I haven't tried poking out at that point but it's probably because I was punished for trying in the past.

[StylisH]

If you're trying to poke out of a string using Tager or Hakumen against those characters, you're getting counter hit.  I use two of them and nothing gives me greater pleasure than catching someone pressing buttons when they shouldn't.  

 

That being said, most opponents are usually a bit more respectful of those two because of 360/720/Zanshin so perhaps you should choose different opportunities to reversal? 

[Zouf]

Makoto has one of the easiest overhead to block, as she can only after a certain gatling. Just learn the matchup, and you'll never get hit by it ever again.

 

Anyway, this is an okizeme game. Once your opponent is on the ground, you ought to pressure him again and again. If you go back to neutral game, something failed somewhere (either you failed to catch a roll, or ate a reversal, or picked Tsubaki)

 

Also, use the barrier. The barrier is MIGHTY in CP, and will push back the opponent very far away after only a few hit

[shimedaiko]

Thanks for the tips. I understand it a little better now knowing the situation. I think the main thing I will take from this is to utilize barrier more often especially against heavy pressure characters and to practice 360/720 in defense more often.

[crimsonstardust]

It helps to know a characters gattlings and being familiar with overhead animations, I have similar problems when I play online, at that point it's really hard to play against some characters who have really good high low mix ups. When I play Izayoi for example, she has to have meter to be able get people off her, I usually stick her Justice Phorizer distortion drive when I see a gap or overhead. I dunno about Bullet, but for Tager and Hakumen you have options like Magna tech wheel for Tager or Yukikaze for Hakumen.

[Sashi]

Bullet technically has a legit dp in 623B, but it's ridiculously slow and has a terrible hitbox. Her Counter Assault has even worse of a hitbox. 720 is usable, but it's not like Tager's where you can just backdash 720, 'cause, once again, nearly nonexistent hitbox. In general I would say 623B, but it's probably better to just block and find a place to mash out.

[felirx]

Blocking always can be a sign that your neutral game needs improvement. Hakumen for instance has a decent antiair and decent pokes, which should make it harder for your opponent to get in as well.

 

For Tager (and maybe Hakumen), there are specific opportunities on enemies blockstrings where you can instant block and do a 360A / Hakumen counter. For this to be succesfull, you have to know the enemy blockstrings, their gaps and be able to properly instant block the gap and execute the punish. An example for this is Taokaka autopiloting 2A>2B>2C>5[C] ( > 6C), there should be a 360A able gab in between 2C and 5C charged and there definitely is one if he autopilots 5C to 6C.

On the other hand, Not every strings is like this. if Taokaka does something like 2A>2B>5B> jump cancel, and you try to 360A after 5B, you will instead get counterhit by her jumping hits. The proper reaction in this case would be to antiair if you have a usable antiair.

Instant blocking certain hits can also make a gap that lets you smash 2A/5A if your A moves are good. Against some characters, their overheads are smashable, 360A able and DPable. One exception to this is for instance Platinum, who can cancel to her 6B overhead from specific moves with almost no gap while also having low crushing frames making your 2A wiff.

 

Chicken blocking is also a valid option, again depending on what your opponent decides to do. There are setups to stop enemy chicken blocking depending on the character.

 

Against characters that have virtually neverending blockstring pressure, you have to really know where the resets are and what are you options to this. Good examples of characters like this are Rachel, Taokaka and Carl. Rachels offensive pressure only ends after her wind stock runs out. Your only option is to block properly or counter assault. Sometimes Rachel's do execution mistakes, leaving enough of a gab to smash out, antiair out or 360A out but you shouldn't depend on this. Properly instant blocking again can create a gap that lets you smash out, jump out, dp out etc. Taokaka will pressure you forever if you let her run her stagger 2a>2a / 5b>5b pressures with jump cancels, crossovers and cat jumps.

 

Izayoi will reset her pressure with stance cancels for as long as you let her if she's in second stance. Sometimes the reset is a frame trap and sometimes it just depends on the enemy to be conditioned to block. If you have a good antiair like Rachels 6A or Platinums, you will almost always beat the dash 5b/5c attempt to overhead. Naturally the izayoi player can choose to try to frametrap you instead with 2b/5b/another 236C/B etc to try to catch you smashing your antiair. This again becomes a game of reading your opponent or reacting to his actions.

 

Barrier and instant barrier is an option often. Barriering Rachel will make her spend more wind to run her pressure, resulting in it ending earlier. Barriering Azrael will push him back, sometimes creating large enough gap to make him wiff or force him to try to reset with gustaf. Barriering can also benefit the opponent due to the minus frames you get, letting him run some barrier only frametraps.