Strategy/Playstyle Discussion + general Q&A

Need help to be better with Nightmare

Hello all,

I need your advice on what to do...

I consider myself a semi-newbie to SC4: I only play Nightmare (someone advised that he's easy to learn for beginner and is less likely to be called "cheap" when playing online) and is familiar with 80% of the moves... I have a tendency to rely on only 40-50% of the moves (I use 33B 90% of the time to start my attack.. ) and have a bad habit of sticking to 1 or 2 combos for consecutive matches (4A, 6BB or 3A, 3B for follow-ups when they are on the ground..) Oh and I am terrible at defending and launching counter attacks (an average-good mitsu, taki or amy can easily take out my entire life bar if they keep pressuring with mix-ups)

The defending part is where I need the most help... Should I start playing other characters to learn their move sets and combos..? or should I stick with Nightmare and learn how to defend different opponents by facing them?

Grim Slide... a lot of ppl are advising to utilize this move.. and I see tons of combos with GSS in the middle... but for some reason I just cant find a way to implement this move to my game...

Night Side Stance.. same thing.. cant use it effectively at all... I've seen a lot of good players use the A+B, then almost guaranteed 2A+B to charge up.. do you actually switch to NSS by pressing B+K first, then do A+B to launch them into the air? I have seen people starting a vertical attack then the NSS A+B, 2A+B.. but I cant figure out how to do it myself....

And if I cant even master Nightmare's 2 stances with limited moves... should I even bother using other characters with multiple stances like mitsu and sieg...?

Please help a struggling newbie Nightmare...
 
Need help to be better with Nightmare

I think the best thing to do at this point is too look at Tiamat's NM guide (here). It also helps to look at some videos too (cupui has great vids).

As far as NSS and GS go, you usually go into these stances after moves. That standing vertical attack you're talking about was probably 3. WR is a good move to go into NSS as well.

In general I wouldn't say NM is a newbie friendly character. I'm actually under the impression that he's considered cheap online because of his RO game, that and it's pretty hard to block 1A on reaction with the lag. That's all really besides the point. I think you should give NM a little time after looking at the guide and some videos, and then see if his moveset matches your play style.
 
Need help to be better with Nightmare

Yeah, nightmare isn't THAT noob friendly. His moves are pretty simple but applying them well isn't as easy as some other characters.

And sometimes he is considered cheap online... I had somebody curse at me for all 3 straight matches yesterday. Every character will be considered cheap by somebody.

At this point if you are still struggling with your main, do not go off and start trying to learn other characters. It will help you defend against them..But at this point it might not be that great of an idea.

In accordance with what Microgamer said, Watch a ton of Nightmare replay videos. Watch carefully. Watch what they do against quick players to relieve pressure, how they use GS, NSS, or anything else you had a question about.
One of the best ways to learn if you really pay attention.
 
Need help to be better with Nightmare

Play with other characters to learn their moves, not just against them. Most high level soul calibur players have no problem picking any character and playing decently, especially since they want to know the most effective combos that character will play and their difficulty level and weaknesses. The best way was to play AS the character, not AGAINST him.

Grim Slide won't come out after the low unless you hold forward and DO NOT MASH BUTTONS. Thus, the combo must be done without mashing or it never comes out. My guess is that's what you are doing. Try :1::(A): : :(6): : :K: and wait while holding forward until you see the stride start. It's more difficult online because the move has to be queued correctly so make sure you know the queue speed for offline play before attempting to learn this move online.
 
Strategy/Playstyle Discussion.

Before you read this: dont get me wrong, i love Nightmare, and main him all the time. The only thing is that he doesn't seem to rank in any of the tournaments posted on this website. Is this because he has suddenly become unpopular? Or is he not considered as "good" as other characters? (Yoshi and Amy are mentioned frequently) .
 
New here, got a few questions

ok...maybe this is just me but apparently I wasn't aware that all of nightmare's moves are listed in the move lists. If this is true could somebody link me to where the full list is?
 
Soul Wave (GSA+B_A+B) Properties

I've noticed there's three modes for this attack so far.

The normal mode is simply if you're standing and hit A+B
The autoGI mode, whatever incoming attack gets autoGIed and the attack continues
Some hyper mode, nightmare eats a hit and the attack explodes the whole screen with what seems like always a CH.

Does anyone have specific knowledge on how it works?
What attacks does it auto-GI?
 
Strategy/Playstyle Discussion.

I've found good mixup with bA6 and the GS followups (or not doing them) to keep range on characters who would rip nightmare up in CQC
 
Strategy/Playstyle Discussion.

LANCE said:
Before you read this: dont get me wrong, i love Nightmare, and main him all the time. The only thing is that he doesn't seem to rank in any of the tournaments posted on this website. Is this because he has suddenly become unpopular? Or is he not considered as "good" as other characters? (Yoshi and Amy are mentioned frequently) .
Click to expand...

he's been unpopular ever since SC3 came out
 
Soul Wave (GSA+B_A+B) Properties

it is not an auto GI

it is an anti "weak attack" move. it works against non-low moves that do very low damage
 
Soul Wave (GSA+B_A+B) Properties

Tiamat said:
it is not an auto GI

it is an anti "weak attack" move. it works against non-low moves that do very low damage
Click to expand...

so it just makes the repel sound/animation when it happens? or is this about the mode where he ignores the hit and continues with Soul Wave?

I've seen it look like it guard impacted, so that's what's confusing me.
 
Soul Wave (GSA+B_A+B) Properties

it will guard impact attacks that hit nightmare after the initial activation
 
Strategy/Playstyle Discussion.

@Lance: He's not an easy character to use (Effectively, that is). Most of his moves are pretty risky, and characters like Sophy and Raphael will give him a lot of grief.
 
Strategy/Playstyle Discussion.

after 1.03 comes out I think nightmare will flip flop the vs raph matchup though. lol
 
New here, got a few questions

for as far as i know, Nightmare has no unlisted moves... just unlisted details, like the guard break effect on soulcharge.

If im wrong... i would like to know as well :D
 
Strategy/Playstyle Discussion.

I play a lot of Nightmare, and i do reasonably well...

There was some usefull stuff posted above, and i thought id share some of my tricks with you guys.
Maybe you will know and use all of this stuff, but ill share it anyway.

one nice trick i like is:
:b(A)::(6): which goes to grim stride after a backstepping attack. I have found that the backstep fools many people into rushing forward as the move isnt over used by nightmare players... in fact i have yet to encounter a nightmare doing that.

The following combos starts slow, so be carefull when you wanna use it:
:(6): or:6::6: :B:, :A: + :K: hits the opponent in the air and catches them for an additional hit.

A similar version is to start with :3::3::B: and hit :B: + :K: . The timing here is more difficult, and you will have to end up standing with your back to your opponent. But a couple of tries in practice should make it quite easy to do it for real.

Further I am a big fan of the listed combo: :1::(B):,:A:+:B:,:2::A:+:B: a combo i like to start when the enmey is down, as even when the first hit misses, there is a chance of the second hitting if he gets up (the same counts for the other listed combo :3::(B):, :bA: which i also use a lot).
But like to add that the combo can be started with other moves too... like :(B): while rising or :(A): or :a(B):

Some character specific tactics i have found pretty usefull:
The tactics down here are mainly usefull aginst spammers, but i know some people have trouble beating them, so it thought id share these too. They are not tactics to win the entire game, but a nice way to counter common situations in ranked matches.
(most experienced nightmare players will find this bit obvious)


Against Cervantes:
If he spams teleports a lot, start sidestepping a lot. if he does the Up-down teleport sidestep until he almost hits the ground, do not hit before this, but wait patiently and time a :(8)::B: so that it hits cervantes the moment he touches floor... this will piss of the teleport addicts.

Against Kilik:
Kilik isnt to hard to block, so wait for a combo to finish and counter with move of choice, and follow up with a move or combo that creates distance between you and kilik.
A lot of kiliks are temped at this point to rise while climbing their stick, and drop down with their unblockable. you anticipated this and strarted running towards him, and use (the above posted) :(6)::B:, :A:+:K:. If you start running but he isnt climbing his stick, hes probably not gonna do it, and you will have to take measurements to avoid getting damaged by his low spinning attack while rising. that means back off or block low.

Against sophitia i have a very small tip that seems to work for me, but i could do with some additional info on her:
I have found that :6::K: a very commonly used counter hit for nightmare, misses her a lot becuase she tends to duck it while attacking, but :4::K::K: seems to hit her every time. Her jumping moves make :1::K: miss more often too :3::K: however works almost every time.

Against mitsurugi:
This is the type of spammer i have most trouble with as blocking can be tricky and sidestepping pretty hard as well. I actually try to GI Mitsu's when they spam moves. and just try to fight my best. but the advice that i CAN give is this:
:6::K: should be used with care if the mitsurugi uses his :4::B: attack as it will dodge the punch and hit you in the face. instead use :b(A)::(6): to go into grimstride and go for the :K:,:K: or :A:+:B: (:K:,:K: is the safer of the two, but im addicted to hitting people with :A:+:B:). Also learn to watch out for mitsu low spin attack, it isnt to hard to reckognice, and if you block it, give them the a kick while ducking, and if they look confused (i guess i do this on intuition :S), follow up with :3::B: while ducking. (A frequently used move by me to attack opponents if i find myself in crouched position after an enemy attack has been blocked.

Well thats it for now... i feel like playing another game with him... feel free to critisize any of this, or add information.
 
New here, got a few questions

a little side note from me:
i find 4K, K and 6K rather useful for up close. they come out rather fast and iirc 6k pushes away.
 
New here, got a few questions

1K, 66K/66K6, and 6K are best interrupts for nightmare. 4KK sucks because second hit is duckable on guard, and single K is just really weak. not much point in using K when you got 6K at the same speed

use 11K when you would do 4KK, way way safer
 
Strategy/Playstyle Discussion.

i guys! some misc questions by a new Nightmare user :D

1)is aB useless as it looks?

2)any good mix-up to insert the unblockable 4A+B?

3)does 33B, 66B only launches twice when the opponent tech roll? i'm not sure but sometimes it will only push them away from the ground.....sometimes it launches twice.....maybe it's due to opponent's tech roll but i want a confirm :D

4)any guaranteed combo with a final 22_88B? i can't find any good use for it

5)any guaranteed combo with a 4B?

7)is 2[K] worth using? it looks cool and it's guaranteed 2A+B....but it's slow....isn't risky to use and getting punished during charge? mmm

7)are there peraps not listed moves? for example Ivy has CL 6A,K and A+B, A+K etc moves not listed in Command List.....so maybe also NM has not listed moves :)

8)is 44BB useless as it looks? any guaranteed combos with this? i only found that if the first B whiffs, and the second B hit, it launches in air....but nothing more
tnx :D

9)what's the difference between 33B6, stop & wait, BT B+K and 33B, stop & wait, A+K???? ....the first one runs under the opponent then BT Attack Throw......the second one stops in front and then Attack Throw.....and the first one is harder.....so what's the difference? isn't better and simplier to use the second one?

tnx

note: sorry if wrong topic.....but i didn't find a NM discussion topic
 
Strategy/Playstyle Discussion.

HitsugayaT said:
i guys! some misc questions by a new Nightmare user :D

1)is aB useless as it looks?

I dunno about this move. I know thats its pretty fast (i16 right?) and that its really safe. I also give really good adv. on hit. The problem for me is that this move is a high, and I don't know whether I would use Aga instead. I know that sounds stupid but thats my thought process atm.

2)any good mix-up to insert the unblockable 4A+B?

I never used this move ever until I saw some vid posted yesterday that showed the unblockable hitting a side rolling opponent on the ground after a ground throw. I have no idea wheter this is good or not but I tried it after I got a couple of back throw in some matches later that day and it hit every time when they tried to side throw except when I wasn't close enough.



5)any guaranteed combo with a 4B?

It pushes them so far back...and ppl block this move 99% of the time because its so slow...I wouldn't know.

7)is 2[K] worth using? it looks cool and it's guaranteed 2A+B....but it's slow....isn't risky to use and getting punished during charge? mmm

I've read that this move is good at walls...and after a running K. I don't think 2A+B is guaranteed either, I've had people tech out of it before. Or maybe I was doing it too slow?


9)what's the difference between 33B6, stop & wait, BT B+K and 33B, stop & wait, A+K???? ....the first one runs under the opponent then BT Attack Throw......the second one stops in front and then Attack Throw.....and the first one is harder.....so what's the difference? isn't better and simplier

I dont know about this, I've always just used the BT Attack Throw after. Its easier and leads to the same oki situation afterwards.

Alot of these anwser would probably be better anwsered in the Ongoing NM guide. Hope this post isn't butched/misleading or anything...I'm new at this stuff/NM in general.
Click to expand...
 
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