Why am I getting hit by non tracking moves while side stepping?

[bulldog0890]

is there a start up to side step? i don't get why even when they're doing a move that doesn't have the tracking property it can still hit me. isn't the point of side step to make them whiff stuff?

[MOSLEY]

You don't have iframes while sidestepping. You need to time your sidestep.

Also a lot of moves do have tracking, usually to one side more than another. Just not as much tracking as homing moves.

[Something Hank]

It's an unintuitive system for a newcomer to understand but:

Explicitly homing moves WILL track you wherever you go.

Every other move in the game however have a lot of /possible/ interactions. Feng's big knee move tracks pretty well to his left side, but not well to his right side. Some moves are /much/ better at tracking you at midrange. Some moves are linear as hell and won't follow you at all. Long strings especially realign quite heavily.

And then sidestep timing itself is important. Sidestep too early and your character slows down near the end of their sidestep and gets caught. Sidestep too late, and you don't gain enough distance and speed and get clipped. Sidesteps are also a LOT more effective when upclose because you travel a much larger relative circle around your opponent. Sidesteps will also just completely fail if your current frame situation is way too disadvantageous.

If you don't feel confident about your sidestep, then do sidesteps and immediately hold back after. You'll often times block instead of getting whacked. Sure you didn't make it whiff, but you're still safe.

[Mu'Ammar of Carthus]

Sidestep only dodges straights.
Like straight punches and straight kicks.
If it's more like a hook you're not gonna dodge it with a sidestep.