Any easy way to practice timing on combos?

[Excelsior]

I specifically cannot seem to reliably do deejays intermediate 3 combo. The crouching light punch to heavy punch seems to only work randomly for me. Theres gotta be an easier way to practice the timing on these right?

[Killance]

Well I myself use the D-pad on my controller because it's more reliable than the joystick.

If you really want to get into perfect timings for combos then I'd recommend watching videos for that. Plenty top ranked players have tutorials on how to time combos.

[BloodCeles]

only advice I can give is just keep practicing and practicing. As time goes on you'll figure it out yourself and it'll work out. Also make sure to take breaks often to give your hands and mind a moment then go back to try again.

Another thing is to try to experiment a bit. instead of doing the full combo only practice doing the part you are having the most trouble with first to get use to it.

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by BloodCeles:

only advice I can give is just keep practicing and practicing. As time goes on you'll figure it out yourself and it'll work out. Also make sure to take breaks often to give your hands and mind a moment then go back to try again.

Another thing is to try to experiment a bit. instead of doing the full combo only practice doing the part you are having the most trouble with first to get use to it.

thats what i normally do. just break the trial combo down first before putting it together but this specific LP to HP combo is killing me

[Destre]

Try to get a feel for the "rhythm" of the combo.

This link is timestamped just before a specific part where Smug is being a bit silly and vocalizing his hits, but it visualizes the idea that he has the combo's rhythm memorized: https://youtu.be/L805dTcfL0Y?t=811

edit: embedding in Steam doesn't really work. The relevant combo in the video is at 13:31

[BACKSTABUUU]

For links, I usually start by doing it slowly so that I can ensure both hits come out, then gradually speed it up until it combos correctly.

There's also a combo training option in training mode that will turn on a meter over your head that shows you when you can go into the link. So you can practice it there until you've got the timing, then take it into the trials.

[Thorley23]

Originally posted by Excelsior:

I specifically cannot seem to reliably do deejays intermediate 3 combo. The crouching light punch to heavy punch seems to only work randomly for me. Theres gotta be an easier way to practice the timing on these right?

Is there a practice mode? Typically when it comes to fighting games i just set an AI opponent to not attack and then use them as a dummy, most games have some variation on this nowadays. Just turn off the timer, and practice.

That said I'll give you a "tip" whether your fighting the AI or a human just like real life fighting it comes down to reflex and instinct, if your actually thinking your typically going to lose and in any kind of real match at your skill level that shouldn't be happening. Also typically to do this with any proficiency it's sort of like playing chess where instead of thinking just on the current move you need to think about what the opponent can do fand how the board could look several moves in advance, the trick to fighting games is to think about coming out ahead on exchanges and what position a reaction will put someone in, and what you do from then on out, etc... this is why to be good you don't just master one character, you also gain awareness of what all the characters can do from a given position. This is also basically how tiers work, some characters without any seemingly powerful moves or combos wind up being very high tier because of the simple fact that they typically have a lot of good options from a lot of positions against most or all of the other characters and come out ahead in clashes even if no one thing is doing a huge amount on it's own.

That's the best I can explain it, and as I said, I'm not great. If you don't get what I'm saying I sadly can't explain it better.

At any rate where I'm going with this long winded rant is that it's rarely worth mastering this stuff unless you plan to show boat. Figure out what you can do by instinct and work your planning around that, if it's going to take effort to do a specific move or combo, unless you greatly outmatch you opponent and want to showboat, it's not going to be important.... and to be honest a lot of stuff in these games is very showboaty. When you watch a lot of the fights between high end players one thing you'll pick up on is that they oftentimes don't even attempt the really flashy stuff against each other, and this is pretty much why.

[Destre]

Originally posted by Thorley23:

Is there a practice mode? Typically when it comes to fighting games i just set an AI opponent to not attack and then use them as a dummy, most games have some variation on this nowadays. Just turn off the timer, and practice.

The mode is called "Training". You can access it through Fighting Ground or an empty cabinet in Battle Hub.

Originally posted by Thorley23:

Also typically to do this with any proficiency it's sort of like playing chess where instead of thinking just on the current move you need to think about what the opponent can do fand how the board could look several moves in advance, the trick to fighting games is to think about coming out ahead on exchanges and what position a reaction will put someone in, and what you do from then on out, etc...

There's a fighting game term known as "okizeme" (or "oki" for short) that translates as "wake-up strike". It is used by the fighting game community to describe pressure exerted after a knockdown. Some characters have better oki than others. On the way to your goal of depleting the enemy's health bar to 0, you can set up the next interaction by applying a good knockdown with a combo and then performing oki that limits the opponent's options on wakeup.

Rather than chess, I'd equate the dynamic to rock-paper-scissors. For every option in a fighting game, there's an option to beat it. Not all options are reactable, so making some kind of read is often necessary. By applying oki at every opportunity, you limit what the opponent can react with (often taking away the safest and most non-committal options) and force a guess that's unfavourable for them. In extreme cases, the setup can force a 50-50 (or in some games an unblockable setup).

Originally posted by Thorley23:

...this is why to be good you don't just master one character, you also gain awareness of what all the characters can do from a given position.

Here's where I'm going to disagree. You have to have some sense of what the opponent's options are to deal with a particular situation, yes. But if you execute a combo and set up your oki, the choice becomes significantly shallower.

For example, if I've knocked my opponent down in the corner as JP and cancelled my ender into Departure (quartercircle back punch) my opponent really only has 3 options to avoid getting hit with not all of the options being equally favourable. They can:

• Block
  
• Reversal
  
• Throw Tech

Blocking is the safest option, but it's beaten by throw and relies on guessing any potential mixups correctly to avoid being put in the same situation again.
Reversals are high-risk reads. If the JP gets caught pressing buttons, you'll knock them down and take your turn back. If the JP baits the reversal however, you're going to get punished with the starter of their choice. In a lot of situations this means you lose the round on the spot.
If you read a throw and throw tech, you go back into a blocking state from the oki he set up, but you've bought yourself another chance at life.

Besides the JP player needing to respect potential reversals, if your character has one, there's not any matchup knowledge required on their behalf to navigate that pressure situation. The example extends beyond JP in specific as well. If you know your character's game plan and are able to consistently execute that game plan when given the opportunity, you don't really need to understand your opponent's options in favourable circumstances. Yes, knowing your opponent's character helps in actually getting to that point, but ultimately the execution is a more important aspect in this regard.

Originally posted by Thorley23:

At any rate where I'm going with this long winded rant is that it's rarely worth mastering this stuff unless you plan to show boat. Figure out what you can do by instinct and work your planning around that, if it's going to take effort to do a specific move or combo, unless you greatly outmatch you opponent and want to showboat, it's not going to be important.... and to be honest a lot of stuff in these games is very showboaty. When you watch a lot of the fights between high end players one thing you'll pick up on is that they oftentimes don't even attempt the really flashy stuff against each other, and this is pretty much why.

I think you overstate the importance of being able to win every interaction. In fact, it's usually a priority for high level players when a game comes out to learn optimized combo routes and setups specifically so they can reduce the frequency of engagements. The less opportunities you give your opponent to play the game, the better.
I think your observations of top players going for shorter combos is not taking into consideration a) resources b) the state it leaves the opponent in and c) to a lesser extent, position. You don't want to burn through your meter on combos that won't kill or leave your opponent in a more vulnerable state. Hence why a high level player might opt to go for a shorter combo with more corner carry that leads into a hard knockdown in the corner and, by proxy, strong okizeme. The "flashy" combos are executed when a player has built up their resources and have reduced their opponent's life bar enough that they can kill by burning through them.

TL;DR: Learning your character's combos and setups are absolutely integral to getting better at fighting games. Understanding your opponent's character can help, but ultimately you want to dish out as much damage and pressure as possible to reduce the opportunities to play the game that you give to your opponent.

[RondoMane]

theres a training mode option to show your move recovery, there will be a bar above your head and it will turn green when you can link.