as someone whose primary fighting games before strive were smash games ive always found versions of the "perfect block" mechanic to be really fun, and even tho im not great at it in strive i think its a really good addition that i try to play around because it can make certain matchups a lot easier (sin nago in particular)
I got over 150 hours in the game. 204 successful instant blocks according to my badges. And yet... I look forward to watching the rest of this video where I finally learn whAT AN INSTABLOCK IS!😅 EDIT: Ohhhhhhhhhhh!
IB is my fav mechanic, shoutout to Sajam for talking about it months ago. It’s really helped my defense, especially against Ky DE and Ram rekka 2 Your guide is very appreciated, I feel like the way you explain things helps it click.
I always forget to use IB in blockstrings, but IBFD feels free (specially on wakeup) and good enough because I'm a zoning enjoyer. Getting that Testament 2K punish after IBFD feels glorious. On a related note, I fucking love that the cancel window in Strive is usually huge. It just feels a lot more responsive, and you get to throw the opponent off by changing your timings. It's an elegant system.
One thing I can't wrap my head around is whether air IB just off the ground has a place. Most of my IBs happen in that situation, out of reflex from old airblocking games where "chicken blocking" and "land canceling" right after jumping can net otherwise-impossible punishes. It doesn't generate punishes in Strive thanks to the game's added landing recovery, but for some reason the situation after occasionally throws off offensive sequences, and I don't understand why some players will let me take back turns afterwards from minus frames on landing just because I'm close-range
Someone already mentioned it but yeah air IB has it's place due to it drastically reducing landing recovery to 5 frames. It's hard to use intentionally but it can just happen a lot and you can take advantage of it for sure
IB is quite a cool mechanic since it adds a lot of depth to defense, especially with IB FD- rewarding a gamble on a tight window to influence an opponent’s offense. Having IB also negate chip damage is also pretty interesting since it’s kind of like how parry worked in old Street Fighters where you risk mistiming it and getting hit but you dont need to rely on tension for FD.
Something to note for those learning IBs on block strings: You must let go of back/down back and return to neutral for at least 5 frames before attempting to IB. You can't just mash block fast hoping to get it during a block string. Alternatively, instead of going to neutral doing 151, you can do 131 (down back, down forward, down back) 131 is a bit safer because it ensures you are always blocking low if your opponent does a gapless low into low. If you mistime 151 you can get hit by the second low since you'll be standing going back to neutral.
If you have a hitbox and it's SOCD is set to last priority then it's even easier since you can hold the 1 input, press 6 (which combines with the 2 to make a 3) and then just release 6 to return to down backing. This means you can literally "negative edge" it by just learning the release timing. Despite what many think, this type of SOCD is actually legal in the majority of strive tournaments. (Only Capcom banned it recently but Arcsys didn't care.)
I really like IB and think IBFDs and I think they are criminally underused. You’d be surprised how many common situations you can apply either mechanic or use IBFD in place of deflect shield
Supplemental video is Jonathan Tene's video with an example of IB against every character (at time of posting). I'd love to get the hang of it, I do appreciate that you can tend to only hit it and apply it against situations you're familiar with. I think they were going for a tight window so that introducing slight delays can throw off their IB timings, makes sense for how strong it can be.
it was cool realizing we use the same model of headphones! great video, I'll use it as inspiration to actually practice IB finally, but wanted to comment specifically to say, hey, same headphones!
I don't really IB (at least not intentionally) But I play Ky, so I am usually smacked in the face when my opponent demonstrates they know how to IB my 214S
I really like how IB is implemented in Strive. In older iterations the fact that IBs become unusable if you miss it for a while made it really unintuitive to use. In Strive however although it is much more difficult to use, it is more intuitive. When I manage to IB Ky's dire eclat, or both hits of tatami or Testament's projectile I feel godlike XD, really rewarding and really fun to use.
IB is always something I've been aware of, but I haven't gotten to the point where I can cleanly insert it into my mental stack and so I don't attempt it
Instant blocking is hard, and the reward is nice, but failing it in a way where you get hit instead of really sucks :C I mostly use instant block when I need IBFD
So my one friend is bad at everything else in the game, but occassionally gets instant blocks. Sometimes multiple times consecutively. And it always throws me for a loop. They don't even practice that much.
personally, IB has been something in the toolbag to try against pressure sequences that are giving me trouble. like, if I can take a situation to training mode, I'll give IB or FD a try there. it's not something I do normally -- but then again, i haven't been playing much strive. I do have 2 questions: 1. do you think IB is less worth it when playing a charge character? from how you explained it, it seems that trying to IB something will always cause you to lose horizontal charge. 2. is IB more or less effective against characters like Bridget who have multi-hit moves? how about IBFD?
the only times i try to IB rn are on nago f.SS and ky's dire eclat. hard as hell, but it makes me feel pretty cool when it does connect so it's worth it I'd say
instant block is the move that good players use to make me stop spamming rekka 😭 i don't go for it often myself, though it would open up a lot more punishes if i was okay at it
The only reason I don't do IB is that I eat low attacks by doing it. I can't press diagonal inputs cleanly enough that game would recognize it in time. Everyone pretty much responded to me by just saying I just have to practice, but I don't know how to practice to get better at the input I have been doing for 10 years. I do play on my pad controller but I've used sticks before so maybe I should go back to using that?
Ive learned ib against sin nago and pot anf even when im locked it i will never consistently get it i think the window is just too small to be consistent especially whrn people can switch up their block strings
IB would be more interesting if they made it like xrd, slightly changes frame data and a larger window to perform. It would play into influencing how your opponent uses the timing of delay cancels more often and I think it'd add more layers to offense/defense
after wallbreak when the enemy has a heavy knockdown on me i go for ib grab either the grab is enough to punish them or nothing happens and they continue their pressure on me (boowomp) or they are trying to grab me instead and i dont even get an ib in the first place and the grab is teched since it kinda feels like gambling even when ive done it right I've been going for ibfd instead after wallbreak more
i like the idea but i feel like i get hit a lot trying to get an ib. vs people who stagger it makes it really hard to try and time without opening myself up. frame traps murder me
alright after labbing it vs aigis doing wild shit, you are right, i just never labbed it and my ability to go from neutral to blocking just didnt exist. you are goated, ty!
how do you feel ibfd compares to deflect shield? been out of the game a while but i was confused when they added deflect shield because ibfd does a similar thing
They are not really similar for the most part I'd say. Both pushback but deflect is more severe, blocks high/low for you and requires almost no timing. Both are strong but also different in application
I have a good amount of playtime, and i have never seen someone use ib intentionally. On online, not offline, not in tournament, never. I really think its too hard, so its only useful at high levels. Im just really confused as to why they changed it. The older system is just so much better imo.
300 hours in strive and never tried going for ib, its too hard to hit and the benefits when you do hit are too quick and small me to react to because I assume I don’t get it.
I really dislike instant block, it is not fun to use and super unfun when it is used against you. On top of that it is not intuitive to use so I mostly ignore it.
I think it is a bit of a failed mechanic. It is too difficult to reliably perform so it is more of a bonus to get. Further, because of its difficulty, it is a mechanic that is used by a fraction of the community. You will virtually never see it done intentionally on Floors lower than Celestial, and even at the highest level, you don't see it done too frequently. I get why it was changed from the older versions, but I think the older versions were implemented far better.
I was not padding the run time, shorter videos are better anyway. Everything I talked about was because it was interesting or relevant to using the mechanic is all