New to Fighters, Combo'ing is literally impossible for me

[Germanic Tigress]

I've been watching a friend play and he said he'll teach me once I get past the basics, but I couldn't even do a basic combo for 30 minutes today. So I took a break and tried going through the tutorial arcade quest stuff. Got through Gong fine, then immediately it gives me a 7 attack move string combo that I'm supposed to practice and master to do anything in phoenix. I can barely even get the first move to trigger properly, and if that actually goes off ever, I get the next two fine, but the 3rd nearly always misses, and any time it hasn't, I haven't been able to react fast enough to do the rest of the combo. How the heck am I supposed to practice button timings if the buttons don't go off the way I expect and are ridiculously delayed despite me mashing the next attack button just to get it to go off properly? I'm more used to games that have some level of attack queue-ing, and I'm aware this game doesn't, but like... I have been gaming for my whole life and this feels like I'm having to learn how to type or worse. At least when you're typing, you can go back and correct stuff to do the right button presses as a kid. As an adult what am I supposed to do? My friend said my button input is too slow sometimes, but when you look at the control display, it looks fine supposedly. I'm using a Steam Controller that has worked fine on every other game I've played. I've tried using the dpad and the stick and both pretty much never work for diagonals unless it is PERFECTLY diagonal. Again, only had this issue in T8 so far. I'm by no means expecting to be "good" at my first Fighting game ever (unless you count smash like 15+ years ago at someone's house for a single day lol). I've been a pc player my whole life, but there's no way to use a mouse in this game really, and using the keyboard feels super janky. I tried it, but the combos still just don't work at ALL save like twice where I didn't even get to finish the combo. I feel like I'm not really learning the game, just getting frustrated at my lack of ability to improve already.

Using Kuma if it matters. The combo is Challenge 3 in practice mode. Tornado something.

[SantaBeliever]

1. Use keyboard
2. Try to input attack at the end of an animation of another attack, dont mash it out, tekken combos is all about timing
Kuma combos have some tricky timings here and there, but nothing too hard.

[Ragnell Avalon VTuber]

Can't talk about using the keyboard but a lot of Tekken strings have to be 'dialled in' rather than pressing your next button on hit - hit-confirmable strings are the exception in Tekken, not the rule. If you're looking at a "7 attack move string combo" (I remember being this new at fighting games) then most likely the game is trying to teach you a launcher, juggle, tornado, and ender, which is going to be four discrete moves/strings performed in sequence rather than a singular series of moves.

Incidentally, if you are using a keyboard, many modern keyboards won't accept more than two inputs at a time when using the arrow keys, which can make diagonal inputs difficult or impossible. You can check if that's the issue by using a tool like https://en.key-test.ru/ which looks for the raw input; that might be a problem.

If you're using a steam controller, which controller are you using? I use a DualShock 5, for example, which I appreciate because it's very easy to hit diagonals with its dpad and I find it easy to perform half-circle inputs with, but if you're using an XBOX 360 or Nintendo Switch controller it will probably be harder to use the dpad, and god forbid you're using a 3rd-party PC controller that didn't cost at least 200 USD because those are all thoroughly awful.

If the issue turns out to be a skill issue because it's teaching you a whole juggle, something valuable to be aware of is that you have a pretty significant amount of time to move after hitting a tornado before the juggle is actually dropped, so you might be required to dash or deepdash up to opp so that the ender doesn't drop.

[Buhoy Alkash]

You need muscle memory to do combos and the only way to get it is to practice.
Don't bother with combo challenges at first, just start with doing simple 2-3 hit strings. Once you feel like you have no problems with that, start doing simple combos.

Combos in Tekken consists of 3 parts:
- Launcher (any move that launches the opponents in the air or stuns them, letting you hit them more)
- Tornado flip (a move that, when hitting an airborne opponent, puts them in a state when they fall head down first with their legs and ass sticking up so you can hit them again. These moves are marked with a red screw-like sign in the movelist)
- Ender (can be any move, preferably one that either deals decent damage or is advancing so you can easily reach your opponent)

Just pick any moves that work well for you. I don't know what works well for Kuma in particular because I don't play him, but you can just search through the movelist and try everything in practice mode.

[Cheez3™]

u can build ur playstyle around ur weaknesses when u start, if u have problems doing combos, u can practice more movement/counter hitting/punishing. no idea with kuma tho, he's a bit stiff compared to others. the 1+2 attacks of kuma are really strong.

[[RNGR|x|GORO]]

Originally posted by Germanic Tigress:

I've been watching a friend play and he said he'll teach me once I get past the basics, but I couldn't even do a basic combo for 30 minutes today. So I took a break and tried going through the tutorial arcade quest stuff. Got through Gong fine, then immediately it gives me a 7 attack move string combo that I'm supposed to practice and master to do anything in phoenix. I can barely even get the first move to trigger properly, and if that actually goes off ever, I get the next two fine, but the 3rd nearly always misses, and any time it hasn't, I haven't been able to react fast enough to do the rest of the combo. How the heck am I supposed to practice button timings if the buttons don't go off the way I expect and are ridiculously delayed despite me mashing the next attack button just to get it to go off properly? I'm more used to games that have some level of attack queue-ing, and I'm aware this game doesn't, but like... I have been gaming for my whole life and this feels like I'm having to learn how to type or worse. At least when you're typing, you can go back and correct stuff to do the right button presses as a kid. As an adult what am I supposed to do? My friend said my button input is too slow sometimes, but when you look at the control display, it looks fine supposedly. I'm using a Steam Controller that has worked fine on every other game I've played. I've tried using the dpad and the stick and both pretty much never work for diagonals unless it is PERFECTLY diagonal. Again, only had this issue in T8 so far. I'm by no means expecting to be "good" at my first Fighting game ever (unless you count smash like 15+ years ago at someone's house for a single day lol). I've been a pc player my whole life, but there's no way to use a mouse in this game really, and using the keyboard feels super janky. I tried it, but the combos still just don't work at ALL save like twice where I didn't even get to finish the combo. I feel like I'm not really learning the game, just getting frustrated at my lack of ability to improve already.

Using Kuma if it matters. The combo is Challenge 3 in practice mode. Tornado something.

what is that gong and phoenix stuff?

[Wipkonijntje]

the timing ( time u have between combo parts and the exact timing u need to press the next part ) is way to hard to learn for ppl new to modern fighting games.

also the timing makes zero sence and doesn't feel natural at all.
new ppl will need like a year just to master basic strings ( if they actually have a job and a real life ).

[Spooky7.62]

Combo challenges just show you some of his moves; they often are not good combo routes.

Best thing to do is look for moves/strings that after a launch lead to a tornado.

After identifying 1 to 2 strings that lead into a tornado see if its possible to input 1 to 2 other moves before said tornado string and boom you have a combo.

Lastly while combos are great and fun, a great deal of your dmg also comes from well placed pokes.


Try not to get frustrated, the games is fun once you get the hang of it.

[Spooky7.62]

Originally posted by Wipkonijntje:

the timing ( time u have between combo parts and the exact timing u need to press the next part ) is way to hard to learn for ppl new to modern fighting games.

also the timing makes zero sence and doesn't feel natural at all.
new ppl will need like a year just to master basic strings ( if they actually have a job and a real life ).

Mastering strings does not take a year, more like a week if your new but consistent.

[Wipkonijntje]

a new player won't complete the last string chalenge in practice mode after 1 week.

[Spooky7.62]

Originally posted by Wipkonijntje:

a new player won't complete the last string chalenge in practice mode after 1 week.

Never said they would, ive even recommended the op stay away from challenges as alot of them are sub optimal to things players can find on their own.

[Germanic Tigress]

Originally posted by RNGR|x|GORO:

Originally posted by Germanic Tigress:

I've been watching a friend play and he said he'll teach me once I get past the basics, but I couldn't even do a basic combo for 30 minutes today. So I took a break and tried going through the tutorial arcade quest stuff. Got through Gong fine, then immediately it gives me a 7 attack move string combo that I'm supposed to practice and master to do anything in phoenix. I can barely even get the first move to trigger properly, and if that actually goes off ever, I get the next two fine, but the 3rd nearly always misses, and any time it hasn't, I haven't been able to react fast enough to do the rest of the combo. How the heck am I supposed to practice button timings if the buttons don't go off the way I expect and are ridiculously delayed despite me mashing the next attack button just to get it to go off properly? I'm more used to games that have some level of attack queue-ing, and I'm aware this game doesn't, but like... I have been gaming for my whole life and this feels like I'm having to learn how to type or worse. At least when you're typing, you can go back and correct stuff to do the right button presses as a kid. As an adult what am I supposed to do? My friend said my button input is too slow sometimes, but when you look at the control display, it looks fine supposedly. I'm using a Steam Controller that has worked fine on every other game I've played. I've tried using the dpad and the stick and both pretty much never work for diagonals unless it is PERFECTLY diagonal. Again, only had this issue in T8 so far. I'm by no means expecting to be "good" at my first Fighting game ever (unless you count smash like 15+ years ago at someone's house for a single day lol). I've been a pc player my whole life, but there's no way to use a mouse in this game really, and using the keyboard feels super janky. I tried it, but the combos still just don't work at ALL save like twice where I didn't even get to finish the combo. I feel like I'm not really learning the game, just getting frustrated at my lack of ability to improve already.

Using Kuma if it matters. The combo is Challenge 3 in practice mode. Tornado something.

what is that gong and phoenix stuff?

It's the arcade quest, which I was told is sorta like the tutorial of the game. It was okay initially.

[Germanic Tigress]

Thank you for your answers, everyone. I'll try out some suggestions and also break in my steam controller a bit and see how it goes. And to the person that was asking what controller I have, it's literally "the steam controller"

[Germanic Tigress]

That kuma combo in the arcade quest is still literally impossible for me. I've been trying for ages to pull it off, and while I can get the launcher and tornado off, the last part only ever recognizes a single button press before switching to a different moveset. I'm trying really hard not to mash, but it feels super unresponsive, even on keyboard if I try to "wait" for the right time to press the keys, resulting in missing moves. I feel like I'm learning bad habits and bad muscle memory already. What do I do to fix this?

In mordhau I'd practice against bots in slow mo and steadily increase it. Over the course of weeks I because very good at intuitively performing chambers against people in realtime. There's no way to slow down time in this game as far as I know, so am I stuck with just throwing my head against the wall and not being able to even complete the arcade quest tutorials? (feels really demoralizing to not be able to complete a tutorial)

[Germanic Tigress]

Originally posted by Spooky7.62:

Originally posted by Wipkonijntje:

the timing ( time u have between combo parts and the exact timing u need to press the next part ) is way to hard to learn for ppl new to modern fighting games.

also the timing makes zero sence and doesn't feel natural at all.
new ppl will need like a year just to master basic strings ( if they actually have a job and a real life ).

Mastering strings does not take a year, more like a week if your new but consistent.

I'm new to fighting games in general, there's no way I'm going to "master strings" in a week you crackhead, lmao.

[Germanic Tigress]

Originally posted by Wipkonijntje:

the timing ( time u have between combo parts and the exact timing u need to press the next part ) is way to hard to learn for ppl new to modern fighting games.

also the timing makes zero sence and doesn't feel natural at all.
new ppl will need like a year just to master basic strings ( if they actually have a job and a real life ).

Okay so what do you suggest I do? Just ignore "difficult (for me)" combos until I'm faster or something? I wanted to play this game because I thought it was about predicting, not just having a hurr durr 180ms reaction time. (I'm slower than average, like 230ms if I'm lucky)