Calling Upon All The Sarahs

So...after much deliberation, I'm going to give Sarah another go. I stepped away from FG's mainly because my left hand was just hurting too much trying to convert to stick (yes, there are about 1000 jokes in that statement) which is something I thought that was holding me back. After thinking about it, I'd rather just keep going with pad and play a game I really enjoy. I know there are some players who can play at high level with pad, but whether I can be one (or hell, average level in my case) is open to debate. 2D games seem to be okay for the most part (seriously though, fuck combo execution) but 3D games seem to aggravate it more than usual. SCII and SCV seems to still be the best 3D FG regarding this but even then, it hurts after a pretty short play session.

If you want to know why it hurts to play on stick, the amount of motions you have to make in a game of VF are pretty high and I broke my hand in college, which makes doing a lot of the double tap motions tough. My defense was lacking because EDCTE, fuzzy, and a whole bunch of other things became struggles to get off even with what I would consider adequate training of about 3-4 months of consistent stick play. Granted, it's not much better with pad, but at least it feels like I'm doing it more consistently. It might have just been a bad spell though as my hand hurts and doesn't hurt on its own whims. I may give it another go on stick though.

However, I'll be honest that I'm at my wits end regarding how to actually get better both as a Sarah player and a VF player in general. I've looked at all the threads and have done my best to implement all the strategies. I've cut down the moves I used to be more efficient and I've tried (doubt I've succeeded) to be far less flow chart and more read oriented. For those who know me, I hope that my attempts to contribute to the community Sarah tech at least shows some sincerity in that statement. My frame knowledge has deteriorated a fair bit because I stepped away from the game, but that's nothing some studying and lots of training mode with the detailed stats on can't fix.

Sometimes, even when the frames are in my advantage, I'll still get CH'ed which more often than or not I attribute to online lolz. Who hasn't been there right? I do acknowledge that VF is faster than most people think and those with really good reflexes will forever be at an advantage but that's FG's in general.

I guess any positive criticism that can be leverage my way would be well appreciated. I know at this point, getting back up to speed on frame data, and reloading the optimized combos are the best starting place. I'm going to go through the other posts that came up in my absence to see what I can implement. Hopefully, anything that gets posted here can be used by other (Sarah) players to step their game. At the bare minimum, they should know that they aren't alone in sometimes feeling like you hit a wall and have no way of knowing how to get through it .

Cheers!

 

Hi, I noticed you playing Sarah on PSN last night. My advice to you would be get some games in with someone like Dingo/Brodi is also still active on there, and plays a pretty mean, no-nonsense Sarah that you could probably rip a few things off from.

Think about the plus frames from Flamingo, the low crush with 8K+G, wall combos, specific match-ups on weight classes etc., oki options with moves like 4K or 9K, switching up different throws to avoid breaks, and a decent sideturn pressure game from evades or that move she has from slide I think that creates this state.

She is a hard character to use, and keep getting wins with especially on something like PSN, in my view, which has well documented lag issues and all sorts of spammy players taking advantage of such conditions. Check out the Xbox streams from the New York crew, where you got players like Jacko racking up swift damage with her pace and pressure, wearing impatient opponents down to unblock and eat counter hits. If you are unable to reliably hit her max combos on a pad, especially the tricky 66K+G ender stuff, then it's probably better to trade slightly less hard-hitting options over randomly dropping them mid float, and thus throwing the whole match.

 

The funny thing is, when I first started playing FS, I ripped a lot of stuff from Beasty

@FGBeastEG You want to get better at the game? Step 1: have fun. If you're having fun playing the game, you'll naturally want to get better. Hit up some of your PSN buddies and just screw around in room matches (send me an invite sometime).

If you aren't having fun, you won't care to play anymore. You aren't a newb, so you know how this game works. Now you just need to start getting into the nitty-gritty stuff. Plenty of Sarah's on this site to answer your questions.

 

Just had a quick look at both her drop-down boxes above. Seems 5KP6 is 14 frame start-up, going into almost 100dmg up to Vane on CH, seems pretty sweet, maybe keep trying to set that up against those type of chars. Certainly need to keep more of an eye on her K punish with my own most used char after reading that!

 

I appreciate the support :humble bow:

 

Ohh Snap, It's a Coalition of Sarahs in dis beeccchhh...

If I may drop my two cents in, I'll share something I started doing. Not only have I been watching my own matches, but I've literally created a VF "To Do" list pertaining to what veteran players have advised me to work on.

You are your greatest critic. You'll literally nitpick at the mistakes you've make in your games until you won't make them anymore.

Also, keep that to do this out and read it before and after every match, and while you're watching replays. If you do something too many times, you'll catch it, then correct it.

Looking forward to playing you, Sir Backdash Beasty.

 

....... I cant say much since i use her brother lol. but here. lf you hvnt checked this out alredy this will help.

 

Fighting mirror with people who know that they're doing matches is the best way, that's only way I got reasonably decent with her, especially playing Brodiman and Hoyati which I miss doing. Heck after changing up characters I now decided to get my game back with her. She's just too fun to put down for long.

 

I see you on PSN a lot, just throw me and invite if you want a game...