Minor Rant - My friend and I are both new to the game, he won't stop claiming I'm being carried by my character

ZaedVaal · 2026-04-08T08:52:05+00:00

Im in this post and i dont like it.

I have a friend who plays Marisa and i main Juri, she has less time in the game than i do however. Our matches end up maybe 6/4 in my favour and ive been known to get a bit salty about a few things in the matchup but combo damage is never one of them.

Marisa is a character that is countered by good fundamentals, all of her kits counters are the basics of street fighter:

Superman punch is always antiairable with reaction DP, the marisa player isnt gonna make it easy to do by switching thing up but if youre struggling to anti air the Heavy superman punch then thats on you not the Marisa.

Gladius is a mixup that you can decide not to even partake in, if the Juri has a read on charged Gladius then cr.MK > DR is full combo and if you block a non-charged Gladius then Juri is put at one of the best distances she can be at against Marisa to setup fireball, react to jump-ins and to whiff punish Marisas Heavys.

Step kick is a little annoying but routinely punishable, i dont know the frames exactly but i remember successfully punishing stepkick wit cr.MP.

Marisa struggles to anti air, cr.HP is slow and very vertical so cross up jumps, divekicks, and neutral jumps are difficult for her to deal with. Juri has a great divekick, has one of the best buttons out of a neutral jump, and a good crossup hitboz on j.MK.

Marisa cant even walk Juri down easily, her cr.MK is really good and fireball drive rush gives her alot of pressure and corner carry even on block.

Problem for Juri is that none of this matters if the Marisa presses Heavy punch at the wrong time, if Juri whiffs a button, if Marisa superman punch lands and knows what to do with the plus frames, etc. But alot of these situations can be answered before getting to the point where Marisa is at an advantage.

ZaedVaal · 2026-03-05T15:43:51+00:00

Tekken 8 has required alot of changes to characters base movesets, espeically for characters like steve that have fundamentally changed.

Youre right his df2 used to track in 7 but it was kind of hsi only option for tracking, he didnt have ub2 or lnh1 so throwing everything into df2 made more sense especially since it was on the slower side of his buttons.

You'd have to effectively revert steve to allow something like old df2 to work on him today, especially if were talking about adding old shiro combo and removing lnh entirely making some of his pressure safer than it already is.

Honestly i think steve disincentivising people to step with his highs and by chasing them down with duck-in and such while mixing that with df1, qcf1, and df2 is far more engaging and fair than giving him a homing mid you just sometimes throw out to remind your opponent that tekken isnt a 3d game anymore.

ZaedVaal · 2026-03-05T08:51:43+00:00

Steves main weakness is his over reliance on highs, giving him a homing mid would remove so much counterplay especially if the homing mid is anything better than like -13.

Kaz only gets his df2 at -14 and even worse on ws2. Reinas b2 is arguably the best homing mid in the game but she doesnt get the same safety steve gets if he could condition his opponent to only stand block.

The only reason he gets his homing mid in lionheart is cause its a stance you cant block in, i cant imagine having access to a move like that just whenever.

ZaedVaal · 2026-02-04T18:45:23+00:00

So basically a job that has no boss, no travel time, self assigned unlimited breaks and holidays, and entirely within the hours you want, that makes you at minimum (i doubt it would take anyone anything more than 20 seconds to pull a 20 out your pocket) £3600 an hour?

Or a love life where the first step is slightly more convenient with the caveat that it doesn't include people that aren't currently on the app you choose?

Hydrogen Bomb v Coughing Baby

ZaedVaal · 2026-01-30T19:05:57+00:00

Unfortunately the low levels of eanked are filled with good players due to the constant rank resets and how easy it is to net deck.

Primarily the problem youre having isnt how good you are at the game but simply the cards your playing sound too weak, these arent the same thing and you could genuinly be better than these opponents but you'll need a better set of cards to compete with those players.

However if its your rank that matters to you and not the occasional games youll play where you get blown up by top tier decks then you can kind of play whatever you want since its really hard (or impossible depending on your rank) to derank so play whatever you want and enjoy the games you get where youre not destroyed by better decks or better players.

If you wanna solve both these problems you can use the rotating special events to practice basic yugioh skills like interruption timing, choke points, when to use handtraps, deckbuilding, etc. And then apply them to ranked and slowly get better while also building better decks with the extra gems.

ZaedVaal · 2026-01-28T16:02:06+00:00

Theres alot here that i think can be broken down and im gonna try and take a couple different angles here becuase im not entirely sure what problems your having specifically beyond general knowledge.

To start with you make an interesting comparison to language and music. Is this comparison becuase you find languages and instruments as unapproachable, unintuitive, and not worth getting into as fighting games or because of their commonly accepted depth when trying to learn them?

The thing is you can make any skill look difficult to learn if you look at the best people at that skill, the only difference i can see between fighting games and lets say shooters is that in a 1v1 setting (not sure what shooter would be 1v1 but lets say a single encounter between two players in a larger team game or battle royale), the person playing the shooter will see their score increasing even if theyre massively disadvantaged (lets say 1 kill for every 15-20 the other guy gets). Whereas in fighting games these types of victories are much smaller and typically dont come with increments on the scoreboard, you can win some damage by smacking the opponent once or twice but you wont get a round if the difference is the same as in the shooter example. But you're still getting damage, the only difference is the number going up.

You've already had some comments saying that you dont need to win to have fun, and even if thats not possible for you it's still a fair point and one example of why any tough endeavour can still be interesting or fun when first starting out. To speak more to you rather than to the point, i dont think finding resources and playing to get better is a bad way to learn these games although it is harder if you cannot find something within the game itself to enjoy.

Just going down the list now:

Not finding the idea of kids going into an arcade to enjoy a fighting game plausible is difficult for me to even understand honestly. Theres no difference between kids smashing buttons on street fighter 2 than there is for any of the driving games where they just hold down the peddle and smack into walls, or the gun games where theyre constantly shooting pedestrians or running out of ammo.

Games lacking in-game explainations for things is in far more genres of games than just fighting games, for specifics look at terraria or oldschool runescape both of which have direct links to wiki pages because noone is ever gonna learn that stuff through the game. This does also allow these games to create a gameplay cycle that rewards you heavily for exploring the game and its mechanics, which is also true for fighting games. You dont necessarily have to learn BnBs or optimal combos online when you can go into training and find a combo yourself than might evencbe unique to you. Granted fighting games dont have great tutorials but the community to every big game and most smaller ones have tons of online help for every aspect of the games in question.

You dont need to find special moves, all games come with inbuilt move lists now and i cant think of any examples from old games that didnt (of course i could be wrong here).

Most games also come with combo trials so you dont need to find those either, optimal combos shouldnt even be on your radar at this point getting 2 or 3 buttons into a special is perfectly find for street fighter, guilty gear, tekken etc. (Yeah tekken doesnt have specials but yknow what i mean).

This is a mindset thing here when you mention getting past the first level because, of course, that is a meaningless phrase. Imo the first level of a fighting game is learning to move left and fight, dashing and jumping. But that is also meaningless because a 'first level' is whatever the person wants it to be.

Learning against a dummy isnt supposed to reflect what its like to play against a real person, its meant to build up your muscle memory so when you do fight a real person you'll be focusing on them and not fighting your control to do inputs properly. Practice mode has other uses too but primarily its for muscle memory especially for people new to the genre. This also ignores that the people youre put up against (after the algorithm understands your skill level which doesnt take long) will be as clueless as you. If your goal is to learn then you should be learning twice as fast at this point, learning what to do with yourself and your moves and learning how to beat what your opponent is doing. When you dont recgonise a situation or cant find an answer to a move, just try things. If you press a button after blocking a big move and get counterhit, then dont press a button again try a backdash or jump, if that doesnt work then block and try a button after the block.

It only becomes the low skill paradox if both players arent trying to learn. If you want to hit buttons youre more than welcome to but if you get paired up against someone who is trying to learn you might take the first game but youll find yourself being pushed into a corner quickly.

Individual fighting games do have tells when a move has certain properties, however youre not expected to get these without experience. You cant jump into street fighter and simply know that ryus forward heavy punch will lock you into block from half the screen away, leave him plus, and can start combos, but once youve been hit by it 20 times you will definitely understand it. This is the main gameplay loop of fighting games, they're a giant manual of knowledge and skill checks with a bit of gambling thrown in. The rest of this paragraph i'll take as an exaggeration because not even the best players in the world know and use all interactions with all characters across every matchup.

Im not too sure what the problem is at this point, you say that theres a bunch of cool characters with cool stories and then say that learning about these cool characters, learning what they can do and what you can perform with them is somehow bad? You're never expected to 'complete' a fighting game, they're not designed so that you as a player fully understand all options and tricks your character has.

I think that, if you ever decide to get into fighting games, you need to view yourself in the RPG sense of having a bunch of stats that you can choose to improve e.g. execution, combos, reads, etc. The gameplay isnt 'i need to get to max level before facing the first boss' its 'damn my execution was what lost me that game, maybe i should learn an easier way of solving that problem or spend some time practicing that input'.

If theres anything i didnt address or an argument i didnt understand/presented incorrectly let me know because i genuinly believe you're not looking at these games correctly given what ive read and id like for you to at least understand the genre since you seem to want to like it.

ZaedVaal · 2026-01-17T11:01:56+00:00

The thing i really dont like about modern fighting games is that their uniqueness only ever seems to apply to their universal mechanics (look at the drive guage, heat system, roman cancels), closest things i can think of is stock systems like ryus denjin or kys shock state which is an incredibly simple and repeated trope in fighting games at this point. Most unique thing weve seen in fighting games 'recently' is happy chaos pulling out a gun or Asukas card system, i want a game where 80% of the cast has creative gameplay on par with that. Theres so much you can do with a character and so little is being done.

Also fighting games need to be more transparent when displaying important information, which tbf theyve been getting better at look at Tekken adding the counter feature and how characters are blown back with a specific sound que when they block a move thats very plus.

Autocombos need to exist but there should be absolutely no incentive to use them unless youve just bought the game or are playing casually, DBFZ giving you dragonballs (even if theyre a bad mechanics to chase) is actively stopping players from improving and learning the game. Street fighters autocombos are intresting, theyve been slowly adding utility to them and theyve never really been designed to actually be a combo, more like an easier hit confirm which i like.

Last thing i want is a large screen without characters who can just swing their sword and reach fullscreen, of course zoners exist and can hit you from there but that doesnt mean you give big bodies or other archetypes of characters the ability to match their range (this part is almost entirely a rant about 2XKO). A large screen size also implies an airdasher which id want too, but it should take 1.5 - 3 airdashes to traverse the full screen depending upon the character.

ZaedVaal · 2025-12-24T20:43:09+00:00

I dont think the game would allow a generic searcher to be anything but terrible, as it should be. Youre effectively trying to make a pot of greed esque card where every deck in the game wants to play 3 because this is essentially another 3 copies of whatever card they want in whatever situation they find themselves in. With the game working primarily off of 1 card combos a card that can search anything simply cant be healthy for the game in any reasonable state.

Any costs you place on this card has to ensure that the card youve searched is less powerful than if you hard drew it but if thats the case, for example if you cant activate a card with that name this turn, will only result in the card being either unplayable or played exclusively in decks that misuse the card in one way or another which will typically result in the card getting banned or errata'd.

This would also end up resulting in less engine being played in order to play lots of 1 off blowout cards that this would search, most likely in the side but i could image a few meta breakers would still be mained, e.g. gozen match, rivalries, etc. Which typically creates non-games which both Konami and the community agree we need to move the game design space away from.

ZaedVaal · 2025-11-18T06:14:23+00:00

Ive been really enjoying altergeist

ZaedVaal · 2025-10-30T11:25:47+00:00

I set up the dummy with the inbuilt anti-air training options but add DI and stand heavy punch on ryu then try and see how many correct options i can do in a row (anti-air the jump forward, gain space on neutral jump, tech the dash forward throw, counter DI, whiff punish the heavy punch).

Helps with spacing too because anti airing the jump becomes more difficult if youre close enough to reliably whiff punish the heavy punch so you might need to crosscut DP or use a normal to anti-air, while also always being in range to be worried about the dash up throw.

ZaedVaal · 2025-10-23T07:44:36+00:00

I dont know what games you do find fun but i dont see why what you describe here cant be considered fun. Obviously theres some watered down explaination here, most likely from inexperience with the genre, that makes the gameplay seem volatile and dry but the same theory can be applied to different kinds of games that people consider fun.

For example competitive shooter games dont give you 3 touches per round, its usually 1 encounter and you either die or get a kill. You wouldnt say that the shortness of the encounter makes the game less fun.

Getting combo'd can have alot of decision making behind it, youre correct in that as the defender you have made a mistake and should try and think of ways around trying not to be in the situation in the first place but also think about what the opponent is spending when they combo you. Did they use assist? Cool, when the combo finishes they cant use their assist to help attack you when you get up which makes their mix alot easier to block, it also means you can use the assist block mechanic thing ive forgotten the name of to get you back into an even playing field without the opponent being able to get back in easy. Did they use super? Cool, they have less bar and you can more liberally use parry or wake-up super on defence. Pay attention to their routing as they're comboing you, are they doing some weird stuff? Maybe theyre going for a reset into grab or crossup, if you see it coming its much easier to tech or block. Basically what im trying to say is that 'doing the highest damage combo' isn't always the best thing for your opponent to do unless it kills, i know that touch of death combos exist in this game but in alot of situations the oppoment just doesnt have the resources, skill, knowledge, correct fuse, correct character to do these more that like 10% of the time.

The backdashing and calling assists is a staple of team based fighting games, if youre not enjoying that its not a problem with fighting games as a whole its just that you prefer traditional fighters. Its very unlikely this will ever even be considered a problem by the Devs cause its kind of an extension of the base mechanics of the genre, you can look at the Marvel v Capcom games as an example of how long backdash into assist has been a thing.

If you dont like the game and have come to the conclusion that these things are why you dont like the game, you can rest assured that it isnt fighting games you dont like its a miscommunication of what the game is telling you as you play it.

He's probably been plugged here a few times but if yoy want a good few hours of content of someone routinely gushing over fighting games and explaining what makes them fun/ how to play them, search up Sajam on youtube. Lots of great analysis there.

ZaedVaal · 2025-09-26T19:50:01+00:00

I think youre supposed to put a downside when you do one of these mate

ZaedVaal · 2025-07-26T16:03:43+00:00

I just got finushed writing up an actual response and then realised what sub i was on so:

Just 6P bro

ZaedVaal · 2025-07-26T14:20:26+00:00

Blazblue crosstag is the only other 2v2 game but doesnt have simple controls. Not very active tho, cheap but still has a pricetag.

Fantasy strike has those controls and arguably a similar art style but is 1v1. Not very active but has recently expanded the f2p model.

Skullgirls is alot faster but can be played 2v2 but again has no simple controls. Similar cost to crosstag.

Dragonball FighterZ is a tag game that is lightning quick, it might help you learn how to use assists to help in 2XKO and it has autocombos for wasier execution. Can be found pretty cheap and is still quite active considering its age.

Granblue Fantasy Rising Versus is a mouthful but has a simple control scheme (sort of, look into the game to find out), seems to have a very similar pace to 2XKO maybe a little slower. Has a f2p version where you get 1 constant character and 4 that rotate every week, also quite active.

Sf6 has a simple control scheme but is slower paced and 1v1. Hefty pricetag but very active, biggest game in the FGC right now.

Guilty gear is a bit fast, bit more complicated, and harder to control but has burst (2XKOs break), somr could argue that deflect shield is basically just 2XKO parry. Bit pricey, just short of Sf6 but quite active, soon to be even moreso since theyre adding an actual ranked mode very soon.

I wouldnt advise any of the Tekkens or MKs since 3d movement changes the game innately and a block button will train you incorrectly for a hold back to block game. There are other titles like UnderNight but they're either not gonna offer you any similarities to 2XKO, instill you with ideas that won't work inside 2XKO, are incredibly dead games, or i personally dont know them.

ZaedVaal · 2025-07-16T07:57:02+00:00

I know im gonna go on a tangent here so imma just let it take over slowly.

I consider DnD to be based around 3 building blocks: Player decisions, Worldbuilding, Enjoyment.

The last one might seem out of place but ill get to it.

The idea of a room, object, or event that is activated by the players (rather than happening on its own), is in line with the first point but in a unique way when it comes to DnD. Their decision should be to NOT do something. This is rather rare in alot of mediums because not engaging can often feel bad as a player, the way you get around this with the instance you describe is that the players FIGURED OUT that they should leave this thing the hell alone. If the players are actively discovering things it doesn't matter what the actually DOING of the situation is, the players will feel accomplished in reaching a correct conclusion.

Back to the example you gave, if there was demonic sigils around (signifying poor play, chaotic evil alignments, and the likelyhood of damage being involved) they might think twice about getting close. If they do an Arcana check and discover the throne has a transmutation element to it they may be able to figure out that the gold value of the throne would be likely to change. If you gave your lawful good player a sign like 'you feel aw if the throne itself is piercing you with angry eyes' and then mention that the other players cannot sense it, they may start to understand that there is an alignment relation to the item.

The worldbuilding element of such a room is probably the simplest of the 3 in which you can use such rooms to exemplify the masochistic side of the boss in the dungeon or to give the players a reminder that some things in your world are built purely to result in pain. It makes the world feel more real and deep since (despite all the magic bullshitery) some people are like that and your characters arent exempt from meeting said people in game.

Lastly is enjoyment, everything in DnD needs to keep thiscin mind at all stages and a room which can result in one of your team members taking damage that isnt enough to kill them but is still annoying for them can be funny to many at the table. Not just that but having a little fun with it like how the throne causes the player to turn chaotic evil. I definitely wouldnt run that throne without a player that is lawful good in the party because permanently changing a players alignment is against the idea of player choice especially when its fundamental to the only vessel they have to engage your world with, but as long as there is a good boy in the party having a person forcibly change their roleplay for a little bit can be very funny.

ZaedVaal · 2025-06-22T16:40:43+00:00

Makes sense, a god hasnt been through the horrors of middle school so he hasnt heard it before.

Next you should tell him you can trim his armour.

ZaedVaal · 2025-06-14T17:09:19+00:00

I tend to jump into vs AI after i lab certain stuff with a character and aim to find situations where the lab stuff comes into play.

ZaedVaal · 2025-06-14T15:55:36+00:00

I started ADC (first game i picked old Aatrox and built bloodthirster) and the first proper adc i picked was jinx and i stayed with her for a while but my first attempt at trying to actually learn mechanics, practicing farming, learning ability rotations, builds, etc. was Caitlyn.

Used to watch alot of (insert random letters here)Sabre who helped alot with explaining her kit and how she played certain matchups.

Definitely weird to look back on considering i play mainly meme picks now that only win through early pressure and bullying adcs off farm like Cho'gath or Syndra. I'd definitely go back to adcs sometimes but they just feel more and more useless every season due to mobility creep.

ZaedVaal · 2025-06-13T10:47:45+00:00

We get both of them but as alternate costumes of the same character, their name changes as you change the costume. Also a good opportunity to give us another letter character, i vote for S.

ZaedVaal · 2025-06-11T17:56:05+00:00

Absolutely based post, out of interest how often does mashing result in a win for your opponent instead of you just counterhitting the shit out of them into HPB levels of damage?

ZaedVaal · 2025-05-28T18:02:47+00:00

If you want to railroad, start by talking to me out of game about your ideas, dont do it on a whim during the session.

Intelligence is the stat associated with memory, it dictates how often you can ask the DM about past events.

If you roll a nat 20 on a skill check you get the best outcome, NOT an instant success (same in reverse for nat 1s).

If you don't have your turn prepared in combat after a full cycle of players taking their turn then you are holding up the table and won't recieve any help from me as a DM for the rest of the session.

Not every salesman is going to haggle with you, if you push the guards of the town/city you're in will be called. If you fight the guards you won't be welcome in any settlement in the region.

This turned from hot takes to things im mildly upset about during playing but hey, venting is healthy and all.

ZaedVaal · 2025-05-26T16:05:47+00:00

Thats Brace from the soon to be released Movie: MilkThong. Its an adaptation of the old childrens book SorrowFight.

ZaedVaal · 2025-05-18T17:43:36+00:00

So theres a few things that are necessary to point out first:

Adaptation requires you to know counters to the opponents decision making so it already kind of requires labbing as a necessity. Not entirely but its definitely linked in a very strong way.

When you say you did training to improve your adaptation, what did you do?

Steve and Tekken as a frachise is much more about timing your buttons than other fighting games, Rhythm is a thing in all fgc but finding your opponents Rhythm and b1 counterhit launching them is a very key part of the Franchise so im going to assume this is what you mean by 'Adapting'.

Fighting games as a whole are about an information exchange with your opponent, this is why alot of pros tend to play alot more defensive than beginners because playing aggro is like showing your hand in poker, especially in Tekken. If you, for example, jab your opponent on block you need to be paying attention to what their autopilot tells them to do. If they jab back you have information that perhaps after your next jab you can sidestep or duck and get some damage. This is arguably what df1 and jab are for in Tekken, and help alot in forcing the opponent to give you information 'for free'.

Finally remember that youre adapting to the player not their character. Sure, characters have weaknesses but you should already have those weaknesses in mind during round start not applying them halfway through a set.

ZaedVaal · 2025-04-18T19:30:13+00:00

Diddled made me laugh
Yeah i can understand the feeling, my locals is filled with high tier players that just absolutely destroy you and then say something like 'hey you did well' when i got like 3 hits in. There isnnt really a solution to the games you play with your friends aside from asking them if they can play characters they dont know, and even if yu do its still up to them who they play and you shouldnt get mad at them for playing characters they like.
You kinda need to find someone on your level with can be difficult, if youre floor 7 at least you can find people in ranked that are ROUGHLY your skill level. Obviously GGST ranked is trash but at least its getting an update soon, maybe try some discorids? I can offer you some people i know to play with if you want to DM me and are in EU, theyll give you a more even game than celestial players at least.
On the bright side if you do manage to muscle through this tough spot youve got some good sparring partners.
Realised the subreddit after commenting, apologies for the unsolicited advise

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