Constantly punished on the ground...

T

triptytch

[08] Mercenary
Evenin'

I am a relatively new player and keep finding myself getting beaten in largely the same fashion..

When I am upright, I generally wind up doing pretty well for myself, but when I get on the ground, I get thrashed every time. When I get people on the ground, it seems like they can roll out or pop up quicker than I can. I know you can tech out of being prone, but I still feel like I am significantly slower than my opponents on wake up.

How can I improve my wake up time and not consistently get thrashed within an ounce of my life?
 
Knowing how to get up safely (or get up and take the least amount of damage) is largely about knowing your options. (Like a lot of things in the game.)

There is:

Ukemi (Tech)
Siderolling
Backrolling
Standing in place (guard)
Attacking from the ground (generally "while rising" moves; slower than doing the same moves while upright)
Doing nothing

You need to know how to utilize all of these tactics. Knowing when and where to use them is a matter of experience, but you need to know at least that you can do all of these.

Now, generally, with the exception of special instances, I will usually try to ukemi. You can ukemi by mashing guard and holding a direction as you get sent to the ground (you can do it with one button press, but mashing makes it more "sure" and easy.)

You want to ukemi when it is possible because, as you know, when you are on the ground you are at a disadvantage, and you need to get back into at least a neutral situation.

Now, sometimes you can't ukemi, and you're forced on the ground. (Sometimes very close to the opponent, and you can't backroll away or stand up and guard safely.) What do you do then?

Well, what I like to do, is absolutely nothing.

(huh? lol wut?)

See, the thing is, when you are on the ground, most attacks will whiff over your head. The ones that do hit will generally hit for less damage.

Let me say here that generally, once you have taken a hit on the ground, you can ukemi right afterwards. This is why you mash, so you don't miss the timing and lose your chance (sometimes it can be hard to catch, and you stay on the ground... and you know you don't want to be there...).

Anyway, back to what I was saying- the ones that hit generally hit for less damage, so what you can do is take a tiny amount of damage, then ukemi backwards for some breathing room. Now you're OK!

There are attacks that hit for regular or more damage on the ground, and in that case, usually they are slower attacks, so you can sideroll them, or backroll them, or guard them to prevent yourself from taking damage. In other words, the big stuff you can usually do something about.

Now this isn't everyone's philosophy- this is just mine:

If you can ukemi, and you won't get hurt for it, do it. Get up off the ground fast and get back into the fight.
If you can't ukemi, then forget about getting up fast, and be patient. With enough experience, you can read your opponent's tendencies, and make the right choice to get up safely. Sometimes, enemies will just whiff impotently above you, which is when you can attack from the ground as mentioned.


Now, certain characters will have special okizeme (ground game) situations. Patroklos, for example, hits you with a certain set of moves, you're on the ground, if you do anything but stand and block or crouch and block you're probably going to get hit. That is to say, in some situations your options are severely limited.

In these cases, you have to get experience, or study the game. This is part of matchup study; knowing what each character can do lets you know what you can do in certain situations. When you know what you can and can't do, your survival rate goes up.


Almost everything in the game works this way:

1) Identify your options (at any given point in time).
2) Identify your opponent's tendencies.

Using the data from 1 and 2,

3) Make a decision and carry out the right option.

It isn't how fast you are, or your execution, or any sort of talent. The more you know about the game, the better you'll do.


Hope this helps. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
 
awesome response drake, Ill work on all the above things. That was exactly what i was looking for!
 
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