Stepping

Well an important general tip is actually character specific, and that's to learn which side a character is most weak to. Raph being extremely weak to stepping left, for example.

Other than that, sidestep is usually a good option to start with after having a safe attack blocked, force your opponent to use other options that cover that. In general though it's all just part of the mindgames. So while how and what to step are things covered in practice mode, WHEN to step is something built over time with experience.

Training is probably the best mode, just make the dummy use AA or 1B (i think)

You can check each character's soul arena, sometimes you'll be able to find the info there. Mostly what I do if I'm curious about a certain character, is to find out what their most often used moves are, use record in practice mode to make the dummy do them, and then see if I can step.

For example, to try and limit Amy's options at range, I found that both her 8wr a+b launcher (scoops) and her 66a among other things, could be stepped to her left. Went on to test 33b, and found that it could only be stepped to her right. Things like these will be important to pick up as you learn Soul Calibur.

You won't learn them all at once, just practice against moves or characters that give you trouble, and you'll pick up more knowledge gradually. And of course, knowing it won't help unless you can practice in an offline environment.

Over 80% of the roster is weaker to their right side.

You bring up a great point, but great PLAYERS will compensate because they will be highly trained against stepping to the weaker side. Also, highly trained steppers will be spamming sidestep taps and sidestepping faster and more accurately then you so it's not just the sidestep, it's the ability to hit it before, for example SCH K for Siegfried. That's an example of a move that you can sidestep, but you're not going to be able to unless you're friggin' awesome.

The best use of stepping is in combination with parries and quick attacks. Quick attacks forcing your opponent to respond in kind limit the range of his hits. A double-tap single sidestep is even better than an old parry in the advantage that it buys, so in fact stepping is the single most effective method of gaining advantage in a duel. Well...that and taking a weak hit while on the ground->quick recover->natural combo on counter...but that doesn't work on the internets.

God that is so true it feels like a crawl and sometimes I can't step stupid vertical unblockables when I start my step the moment I see the attack start. It pisses me off.

Double-tap would result in canceling the first step with another, thereby diminishing its evasive potential because of start-up and cutting the active frames of the initial step.
ALWAYS single-tap in SC4.

Double tap brings you into 8 way run state, which changes how many moves track your character. Some moves will only start to track your character if you enter 8wr state.

In SC3 you could double tap if you returned to neutral, and pull off double/triple steps that had very high evasive properties. No longer the case in SC4, you'll just go into 8 way run.

would be cool to list every character's step speed, i only play NM but people says he is one of the faster side steppers.

That is wrong.
You can only cancel step into 8WR by holding the last directional input. 8WR is by definition contineous movement and has inferior evading capabilites compared to step, which is why more moves will track your 8WR when they wouldnt track your stepping. Double-step only get similar results, because tracking automatically resets as soon as either the active window of the step ends or it gets cancelled by the player (i.e. him using an attack or another kind of movement). However the 2nd step is still able to evade attack 8WR could not. The condition for this occur is that the opponents attack doesnt connect before the active window of the 2nd step starts and that it covers enough ground to actually avoid the hit-box.

So your saying that the verticals only "home" in on you during a double or 8wr, and that they "lose" target if there is only a single step?

So your saying that evasion ranks as: single step> double step> 8wr

A video would be awesome just to see the application of the different types and their differences. Especially against certain B combo strings such as Zas's UB vertical string and his B,B > B with Guard Break string.

Sorry for the "newb" question, but:

When you say "left", do you mean "my" left of my opponent's left?

To simplify the question: Do you mean 2 or 8 from the 1P side?

He means your left, the opponent's right. It's opposite for most of the cast, who you mainly step to your right. I confuse these two constantly, lol.

Thanks, Kowtow.