So from the first blog we touched on just the basics of picking up the game and learning about the game in general. Basically you jumped in the command training and combo training and moved from there. I'll assume if you are even reading this you understand the game a little bit better now and even learned some stuff on your own! Originally was going to blog about the stun system but I feel to really get a clear base we have to know what our defensive options are first then move on to offense.
Everyone wants to do cool combos they see in the videos and IF they get that very specific set up they saw or practiced then it's party time. However to get there you have to be able to defend yourself to even open up an opportunity to do so. So in this blog we're going to go over some of the defensive options and how they help you get better.
(1) Blocking! Now it seems pretty self explanatory and the fact that I'm mentioning the most simplest tactic ever but the average player seems to not want to do this. When attacks are blocked unless that move is designed to give advantage the player is at disadvantage. Of course they have strings to " mix it up" but in general blocking isn't that bad an idea. Part of getting your offense started begins with blocking their offense and starting up your own. We're not going to get deep into the frame data about blocking but in general. . . .when in doubt, just block it!
(2) Sidestepping. In Dead or Alive 5 they FINALLY added a sidestepping system to the game. It took a while for players to adjust but now you will see people throwing it out there here and there. Now imagine someone is doing a string that is really bothering you because they either hit you with a mid or do a throw. You end up sitting there and guessing between this mix up when you really don't have to. Many strings can be sidestepped at certain points (not to mention countering) which will get you a free hit/stun to start your own offense. If a string is bothering you take it in training mode and see what your options are versus it so next time someone tries it you will know what to do!
(3) Punishment. This is something that has pretty much went out the window in this new era and for the most part I can understand why. Why take the smaller damage, a resetting knock down, and slowing down my momentum when I could go for a mix up and maybe double that damage? Let's take our FREE damage people because not much comes for free in these games so unless you need to make up a lot of ground it's best to just take that easy life. A lot of this comes from a persons doubt in his own ability at the neutral game so they opt to go for something more risky which isn't the worst idea but it's making it harder to win (unless the mix ups are paying off).
(4) Damage Control. This is probably one of the harder concepts to get at lower levels and sometimes even the mid level. Someone may have a really huge lead but then take a big risk throwing away the lead. Why even bother taking that BIG a risk considering they need it to win a game. You don't always need to take the risky option offensively OR defensively. A good example of going into damage control is; you are about to close out a round and only need one hit, you have almost 50% health, but you get stunned first in the neutral exchange. Instead of just slow escaping you go for a hold and they land a big throw on you for extra damage either killing you or bring it really close. You didn't really need to take that risk but so many players will and end up sad.
(5) Struggling aka Slow Escaping. The last thing I'm going to talk about is slow escaping. This is for when you get stunned you pretty much rotate the D-Pad or stick. For a while not many people used this outside of certain situations but it has gained a lot of ground recently because of some of the new offensive options. Basically using this can get you out of certain stuns or just escape a stun mix up because they hesitated. With the addition of sit down stuns (will be talked about in the next blog) if you don't slow escape you get free launchers because of the properties of slow escaping. Knowing what you can and can't slow escape is really strong because you can save yourself a lot of stress if you slow escaped the stun instead of attempting a counter.
Defense is the core of any fighting game. Knowing a bunch of combos is great but if you can't hit anyone or stop their offense no one will ever see them. There is a lot more to defense than these 5 points used but this can get a player started.
Thanks for reading! Comments, suggestions , and questions always welcome!
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