I gotta say man, your videos have been genuinely helping me out. I've always liked fighting games, I have Injustice 2 and Tekken 7, but I never could get "next level" on any of them. I figured DBZF would be the one, being a long time Dragon Ball fan, to reach that next level. Your videos have been my main guide on how to ascend to that next level, keep up the hard work!
There are a lot of tendencies in games like this that can surprisingly carry over to tekken. A bunch of characters have launchers that can be executed by doing a fireball forward punch. Give it a shot mate! Good games to you
Stagger pressure. People who block too much are usually looking for a particular action to punish. You can abuse this by delaying jabs. So say we are fighting and I'm blocking everything and teching all your grabs. You ca press L then wait until it's almost done and do L again. If you mix this with going into pressure and mix up what hits you do and if you end pressure early, your opponent will be forced to attack you as they won't be able to stay on defense if they cannot predict your attack pattern. Good example is: L, delay L, Grab. L, cL, cL, jH. By not being too aggressive but poking at your opponents defense they will have to act. Just don't focus only on this as Stagger pressure is easy to punish if they know your going to do.
Anytime :D I don't have fighters yet but I play the other ArkSYS games like I have no soul. I look forward to fighting good people in the game when i get it later this week.
Every time I try to Dragon rush after pushing a button it just continues the combo which leaves me stranded since it throws a heavy at the end of it as well. Is the timing super important on this?
Crazyhead432 Yes. The idea is to trick your opponent into thinking you will hit with a normal attack so they don't react to the throw. You should not do any 1 higher level play tactic repeatedly due to the risk they carry. The tactic I use with stagger is called Conditioning. It's when you do something so often your opponent works to counter it and then you make a 180 and do what stops that. You don't want to stagger pressure a mashy opponent very often as well as you don't want to use dragon rush after particular moves too often or you will be open for punishment. With that in mind remember that all things used in higher level play have a risk and reward. They won't always work but when they do they will always reward. You have to trick your opponent into falling for these tactics by playing unpredictable. After all fighting games are a lot like rock,paper,scissors.
Opps I misread that as you get hit with a heavy xD Yeah you will have to delay longer for the grab because auto combos. Thats why it's risky to do. Practice it in training.
Not only you canuse the assists to blind them, you can use them to cover the "blind spots" of your pressure(those moments when you're recovering from one attacn and can't do another one just yet.) so you can extend your pressure time and go for more mixups. No matter how good they are, eventually their defense will crack. No human being on earth can hold their defense for long against a lot of mixups. Sooner or later they will mess something up.
I thought i would post this on you post see what you think i made comment but not sure if you read them all.I have found something I think no one but me knows about other then you and whom ever reads this in matches just before battles you can change what charter starts the fight it might not seem useful but it is at the screen where it shows the vs. Match up by hiting the buttons on the controler you will find something will happen you will hear a chim indicating that you have successfully changed your starting line up for matches with people whom wipe out your best comboerz. You can change your line up so to confuse the person your fighting.
One thing to note is that if your opponent is in blockstun from being hit, you can't throw them. So assists like ssj vegeta's or yamcha's that do multiple hits can keep you from landing it, but trunks' and freeza's which pop up in the foreground help mask your mixups better
Thank you very much for this video, I'm sure these tips will help me improve. I'm usually a very defense-minded player, in just about any type of game. Button mashing opponents don't scare me, it's when I go up against someone who is also conservative and focused on patient punishes that I'm not as comfortable. Probably my worst situations are if I haven't been able to build an advantage and the clock starts becoming a factor to the point where I NEED to get damage on my opponent.
You are correct! I was just letting people know that they do go through blocks should the person not jump! (Trunks may not actually work as I learned earlier, may have had the settings wrong) Also I enjoy your tutorials!
This is false. You can only jump if you predict the super beforehand. The game registers the hit before the flash even happens, so they're impossible to react to
Fernando Zepeda Yea its easy to get angry when your opponent just stands back the whole time and waits for you to attack first so he can block it and counter it. I faced people that literally do nothing the whole game if you dont try to attack them first. I get that its a legit way to play, but its just annoying as hell
Herbert Just practise your ways to open people up, that's part of improving in fighting games. Chances are those who do that to you just understand the game better and only do the minimum. So many crazy ways to open up people in this game.
It's called turtling and it's been a frustrating, stupid way to play a fighting games since SF2. It shouldn't be "legit." It should get you blown the fuck up. Not enough developers are willing to pull their heads out of their asses and design their fighters to punish it. ArcSys is one of the few that has done so in most of their games, and FighterZ is still better than many, many games, but there's still issues in the effort and risk to reward ratio. The main issue in FighterZ is that it's much harder to open a turtling opponent up than it is for them to turtle. You have to be really on top of IADing, and even if you are, you need to have specific assists that can pin your opponent down. If not, the one easy way to do it, Dragon Rush, doesn't tend to lead to all that much damage without specific conversions, usually dependent on an assist (exceptions exist, and unsurprisingly they're usually on top tier characters). Forward medium overheads really aren't worth shit besides continuing pressure. This feels really out of place in an Arcsys game, they usually punish lame play much, much harder than most others (as well as reward aggression to an almost ridiculous degree, even FighterZ rewards you with buckets of meter for dashing at your opponent). Hold down back for too long in Xrd and you will easily lose as much as half of your total health on the first good overhead, or in some cases throw, and it's usually trivial to pull off unless your opponent actually tries to do something to shut you down. God forbid you turtle against Leo or Baiken, the match will be over before it has even started. Honestly, I'd really like to see the ability to universally link jabs out of grounded overheads (without an assist) and the implementation of Negative Penalty in FighterZ. I'm frankly dumbfounded they didn't carry that stuff over from Xrd.
Great video once again! Also sparking give you access to a lot of mixup options like jump cancel on block, the vanish mixup and superdash + on block. Since most of your content is usefull for beginers you should talk about whiffpunish since most beginers like to punch the air hoping the other player walk into their buttons.
Nice thanks for the tips this is going to help with the blocking issue I been coming across opponents who block everything even tried mixups and still block it.
As someone may have previously mentioned, in most 2D fighting games in general, usually the way to deal with someone who is 'spamming blocking' is to 'structure' your blockstring pressure in a way that leaves your opponent (the defender) thinking on what you (the attacker), is trying to do to open them up. Let's say that there are two players Player A and Player B. When it's Player A's turn on offense (he/she has Player B blocking their pressure) and Player B's defense is seemingly hard to crack at first glance (Player B can block low, high, crossups, the works), usually the first option to go to is to grab them (or in DBFZ's case, Dragon Rush). The implications of this is that now Player B has to look out for grabs (or Dragon Rush), which are beaten by mashing with a quick normal (usually in the form of a crouching light/2L/2A) or some form of maneuver to escape (usually a jump back or backdash, depending on the situation) whenever they think/feel/know/etc that a grab is coming since there's usually a gap right before a grab. However, now that Player A knows that Player B is aware that they are mixing in throws into their offense and has countermeasures for it, the usual countermeasure against those countermeasures that Player A can pursue next when it is his/her turn on offense again is to stagger their blockstring pressure (delaying the inputs of the normals used in your blockstring in order to leave gaps, ie: 2L delay 2L or 2L walk forward 2L) in order tag someone who thinks there's going to be a grab incoming and they're going to mash (whether a quick normal or a grab tech) or jump out (if done correctly, a delayed 2L should catch someone trying to jump out since there's usually jump start up in FGs). On Player B's side, once he/she knows/sees that their opponent is using staggers in an attempt to beat out countermeasures against grab countermeasures, then the option that's usually pursued in these situations is some form of invincible move to punish the gaps in Player A's staggered pressure, such as a dragon punch or a super move. When Player A sees that Player B is willing to DP or super in a gap, the next time it's their turn on offense, he/she may stop their pressure short (ie: 2L 2L stop) to try to bait the DP or super and punish. And once Player B realizes that Player A is stopping their pressure short in order to bait a DP or super, Player B can then try to escape by jumping away/backdash to reset the situation (the safest option) or 'steal' their turn so that now he/she is the one on offense while Player A is on defense (riskier option but yields reward for Player B) when they sense Player A will stop their pressure to bait a DP/super. If you've gotten this far, the picture that I am trying to illustrate for you all is that there is a very nuanced and complex form of 'Rock Paper Scissors' when it comes to the 'player interactions' in offense/defense. There is 'weight' in pretty much every decision both players execute as these 'interactions' play out as the action(s) that arise from their decision is some form of 'tell' for the other player to take into consideration for their next decision and it is one of the aspects of Fighting Games that I find very fascinating. While what I explained in the above paragraphs is a very barebones form of the offense/defense interactions of what usually goes down in high level matches (since it doesn't take into account of a game's unique universal mechanics, the two players' characters and their unique plethora of options available to them, the risk and reward of a particular situation, the option selects that one can do on offense/defense in order to cover a particular set of options that their opponent may do; all of these aspects of a fighting game influences a player's decision making in these situations and further complicates what I just illustrated above at higher levels of play), it should hopefully give people who bother to read this comment a better idea on how to structure their offense on someone who is blocking. That being said, I am really curious to see how the metagame aspect in respect to pressure for this game develops in the coming months.
I tried to reply to this earlier, but Its not showing up for me for whatever reason, so sorry if you get spammed with this twice. This is a fantastic write up! Really good stuff here!
Exile Entity if meme-ing then lol xD If you really are lost then I can try to elaborate/try to make it easier for you to understand. Let's make fledgling dbfz players great!
DotoDoya Thanks! Glad you liked it. Just wanted to further elaborate on some of your points by going a bit further on the implications of exploring ways on trying to open up someone with good defense since there's layers to this concept that goes beyond "hitting them high when they're blocking low or vise versa" and "grabbing them when they block too much" Hopefully you and others are able to understand my comment, I know it's quite a lot to take in.
One issue I've been running into recently is the jumping block. Blocks Super Dash, hard to find timing for grabs, and even blocks the old 2H anti air. Ive literally had opponents who do nothing but jump backward and spam assists waiting for you to mess up, and I'm not yet sure how to beat it.
I can think of two more. Where you call up an assist and vanish to the other side. But with the air dash idea you can also jump and right before you switch sides call and assist and then dash to the other and start a combo. Your opponent can only get out of this by vanishing behind you if you switch sides if you land on the same side they still get hit by the assist if it's a beam
I've played many, MANY fighting games before, but this and Pokken are my first, REAL official attempts at competitive fighting games. So Ima straight up n00b in this new space. Anyways, Your vids are amazing and very helpful! I've subbed! :D
Dragonball fighterz has done a great job with balancing accessibility while not taking away what I love about fighting games! A ton of fighters go wrong here and yet arcsys pulled it off flawlessly here in my opinion
Yeah it’s simple but there’s so much to every character. They almost all play alike but they also play differently. It gets people comfortable. The fgc is gonna blow up after this
Thanks for these tutorial vids. I just got the game today and I’m planning on streaming it. I’m okayish right now, but these vids helped me improve a bit. Keep it up.
I came to this video because today most of the people I've fought today would just sit in crouch and block and wait for me to get close just to use down heavy over and over again Frieza's down heavy has a big hit box and it seemed impossible to get around but I figured it out but needed more tips to counter these type of players this video is awesome thanks for the tips now I need to fix up my playstyle again lol
Thank's for this. I've got to a point in DBF that I'm good with combos but getting them started against good players is my problem and this should help.
An opponent who is Jumping + blocking and waiting for a super-dash opportunity is the real problem. Make a video on that. It would be great if our opponents kept their feet on the ground long enough for a mixup.
Krischenn yep. Otherwise it would be broken. Imagine using Vegeta assist on one side, and cross up on the other. It's impossible to block in two directions at once, so if it wasn't for autoblock it would be a guaranteed combo every time. And that's just no fair.
Hey can I request something? How about a video on getting out of corner pressure? Anything you could explain like vanish timing or even say assists like Adult Gohan and Vegeta's would help a lot of new players stop feeling frustrated in the corner!
Davis1228 I've played everything you've played and honestly I've found 2D Fighters the most balanced kind of fighting games. Tekken and VF style games being second. The only arena fighter that comes close is Gundam Versus, that series is a masterpiece. But really 2D Fighters corner pressure takes a lot of getting used to and even trips up the pros at times. You just have to get used to an uncomfortable situation.
Pressure game in this game in specific is a long subject but I`ll try to help. FGs in general work with a gatling system which means that the blockstring your opponent can peform has to end at one point for example if you block this blockstring LLMMH at that point I have to options, either give you the turn using an evasive move like some characters 2S or use a pressure externder, usually extenders have counterplay even in the corner. Every character have some kind of pressure extender like Krilins Solar Flare or Trunks command jump. Block the solar flare and punish or use 2H to antiair Trunks. It´s up to you to learn your which ones are exterders and the proper punish. In this game also you have to deal with assist but its all the same there is no overhead, low or grab assist so you can just focus on your opponent character mixup. Good players will cover a risky extender with an assist so be prepare to punish when their assist is on CD. I´m sure I´m forgetting things but this is something you can work with. Sorry if my english is not good enough it is like my 3rd language.
Davis1228 You know that zoning and pressure does take effort, right? You have options to get out and punish them. But I can understand how it may feel overwhelming to newcomers, there are lots of things to keep in mind on both sides.
IDon'twant2BeA SoldierMama Tekken ain't balanced at all. Kuma is garbage, Jin is nigh unbeatable. 3D Fighters are most definitely less balanced than 2D ones. Nightmare in SC exists.
There's more than these, android 16 also has an unblockable special and then there is more characters that have some sort of command grabs like hit cell goku black and even goku blue has one
Jean Carlos Rosario qcb L/M/H for goku blue but the range is minimal and for goku black it's qcb S you will charge a kamehameha while zamasu will grab your opponent
Oh sht thank you. I knew about Goku Black but I thought you meant another grab or something. But I definitely didn’t know about Blue Goku. Thank you! I was having a hard time with these defensive people. xD
Cells arial down medium will teleport to the opponent and deliver an overhead. Sometimes it will be behind the opponent if you execute it close enough to the grounded enemy.
I have found something I think no one but me knows about other then you and whom ever reads this in matches just before battles you can change what charter starts the fight it might not seem useful but it is at the screen where it shows the vs. Match up by hiting the buttons on the controler you will find something will happen you will hear a chim indicating that you have successfully changed your starting line up for matches with people whom wipe out your best comboerz. You can change your line up so to confuse the person your fighting.
If they're blocking, and i'm Trunks, I like to mixup with airdash into overhead or crouch M like you said. If it misses, cancel with QCB M (which sends you back), and then mix up with QCF M or do Special, which catches them advancing... in my exp, this can really throw off an opponents timing . I feel like this stops working when they see it a few times, but its gotten me out of some tight spots.
Its something that people used to call tapping the block that would be more closely related to useing reflect in this game or a snap vanish or a perfect block would be triggered
Another mixup involving airdashing is the delayed airdash. You jump at an opponent and air dash right before you land allowing you to attack with a high. This compliments empty lows well because you could choose not do the air dash and choose to land and do a low instead, which has similar timing. With an assist like Vegeta's it can also be visually difficult to see the attacker's approach. Being in the sparking state opens a lot more options to mix up but that is a more advance topic for another video I imagine.
I always called it turtling. It’s really frustrating when someone only plays safe and counters you. How do people do that jump dash so fast? My fingers don’t go fast enough.
Good tutorial, but note that Trunks' Lv3 super is easily jumpable on reaction (you can start jumping during the startup cinematic!) so It won't defeat a good turtle unless they don't know about it.
Problem is, is that when he blocks my attack he counters with his attack right after, and if I'm far he won't let me get close by using his support and ki blasts, if you think "He should just dash at him" he just blocks it and counters. This guy is really good at defense...
You can also use friezas assist while doing an overhead since it hits low your opponent can't guard both at the same time and gives you a guaranteed opening to combo
I think it's understated how disgusting empty jump low actually is. Vast majority of fighting game players that have been doing this for a while are very conditioned to block one high, then one low in a jump in situation. When they see that high connect, they're immediately blocking low. I see players of many skill levels fall for it a lot because it screws with their visual feedback so terribly. Empty jump lows are nuts.
No, that would mean attacking isn't an option to perform in the neutral game. Hibloc-lowbloc-clash, are your primary options outside the neutral game, mainly when you are out of turn and it's your opponents. Even then you must be aware of when your opponent slips out of turn for you to punish with an attack (most notably, the correct attack to make) to take your turn.
Hey Dotadoya I have a question when someone blocks low and I perform a forward M attacks and connects, it seems every move I do after the connected blow seems to hit to slow and they still managed to block low again and again leaving me with no success on a combo. Any tips?
0:25 it is perfectly valid to complain when someone refuses to fight you and only blocks and punishes, it's annoying and obnoxious. It's better referred to as "block mashing".
Visserin So you want them to stand there while you're approaching them? If you're getting attacked, you block. You have tools, use them. Use mix ups, grab him, cross him up, etc. Don't be predictable or you're going to get punished. Use mind games, force him to be aggresive, etc.
0:30 truer words have never been spoken. So many light green level players i played against just block for the whole game and wait foe openings. So when I start blocking as well they still don't make many attacks. It's a lame way to play. 💁
If you get mad a person is blocking rather then attacking you need practice is all my friend is a master at blocking in fighting games and it makes sense he always reads the player before just throwing a random attack hoping it opens up to a combo he attacks at the right time and does combos that lead to others oh and he never random jumps or anything like that, that shit will definitely get you killed.
Question that may sound dumb. How do you hit the overheads while you are grounded in front of opponent? If i try i just jump too high or far away and i m too slow. You seem to be able to hit them very fast and seemingly not jumping at all at the beggining of the video
Aether look for the super dash. Once you see it start up mash down heavy. Even if you’re late you’ll block it and there won’t be enough space between you and the opponent when in the corner and you can smash him in the air. Stay calm cus chances are this guys has been working you so every combo counts. Good games man!
I really would like to see a video about assists iv got most of the mechanics down and how to draw out the longer combos but I'm either forgetting to use my assist or not knowing when the best time to tag them
Cell is a great character to practice with. His fireball back heavy helps with the timing. Vegetas assist is a good one to practice with too. It’s the best one in the game. Gotenks too
You forgot Android 16. He can use his qcf/qcb light medium and heavy to go through blocks as well as both of his level 3 supers. EDIT: also Goku Black's qcb special and Hit's qcb light/medium/heavy.
Have you found a good way to implement goku blues super god shock flash yet? I swear I can never land that in a combo or anything. Only if opponent just walks right in.
Dragon rush works most of the time but hitting them with multiple Ki blast enough times than an instant transmission right after works a lot too plus a z assist if all else fails
I "developed" a tactic for my self: Stay in front of a blocking opponent, start a assist attack and hit the dragon rush right after that. I currently not know, if this works 100% of the time. I have to test this in real matches...
I've always preferred the dpad exclusively, but some people like just analog and others use a mix of the two. I would still say d-pad for the precision though in the end its up to whatever you are more comfortable with!
DotoDoya that’s for sharing your opinion. I’ll definitely be practicing with both and seeing which one I’m ultimately more comfortable with. I’ve always struggled performing half circles on the dpad but can really do them well using the sticks, but your movements aren’t as sharp using the sticks. I might just have to learn to play using both!
DotoDoya Yes! Like focusing on every aspect, community, gameplay, story, characters, dificulty, etc... it may take a while but, it would be nice to see it
Shannon Young I hate that move so much someone spammed it all game against me alternating between both than when I dashed or super dashed he would dragon rush or crouch heavy me :/
Rainbows341 Gaming teleport/vanish behind him... if you’re dealing with someone who does that you have to either teleport or play patiently and block and inch your way closer until the binding Kamehameha is too slow to get you before you reach him
What about if you jump and you ply op who just spam the heavy attacks 16 and Broly for example if you empty jump can u block fast enough to avoid counters or assists?
maybe a stupid question but can you start a combo after hitting them with forward medium ( the overhead attack) ? Because I couldnt find a way without calling an assist.