Need some low attack advice for lau

Ok, I'm working on learning to play Lau (my first char. for my first VF game). Right now I just opened the fourth arcade and am at 3rd dan. I'm not having any serious problems yet, but there are some situations and stuff that I need some advice on. I searched around a little bit and answered a few questions that would have been here myself, but I could use some help regardless.

1. Effective low attacks- Recently I've noticed the CPU blocking low and crouching a lot and waiting for me to do something. I found out that I have absolutely no idea what I should do. What are some effective attacks/combos/etc that will break low guard for Lau? Does he have any special throws or whatever for crouching opponents that I don't know about?

2. + follow ups. I hit with this a lot but don't have a lot to follow up with. I'm having trouble getting more than a handful of damage above what the move itself does. What are some (easy to time/execute) follow ups for this move?

3. Best juggle starters to use- Right now I'm basically alternating between elbow poking, throwing, and juggling. The problem is I seem to be abusing ++ and +. I know they're slow and they'll get me slaughtered if I abuse them at higher level play.

Thanks for any and all help. Lau rules! Just got that silver outfit and man is it sweet. /versus/images/graemlins/cool.gif

PS: I want to learn at least one more character after Lau coz playing one all the time gets boring. Who to learn, Vanessa or Brad?

 

1) You should do a search on fuzzy guarding to understand why the CPU is acting this way. I'm hesitant to suggest any type of attack at this point because contrary to the obvious, it's actually really hard to break that kind of defense. (The obvious being any mid attack.) The reason I say this is because if you try any type of mid attack, chances are the CPU will block it in that situation. So instead of jumping ahead, I'll suggest you first understand why the CPU does that.

2) After , all of the max damage combos require you to watch the stance as the attack hits. So a search on stance to know what i'm talking about.
Staple combos for are
Open Stance
Closed Stance +

3) The best combo launchers for Lau mostly imo are and . There are many situations where you can hit , learn when it is guaranteed.

 

a great major counter launcher that I use a lot is ++. You can delay the second hit (which is you tap ) if they block the first one and immediately attack and it will cause a head snap crumble or you can do the first hit, and buffer into the tiger stance and force a mid or high stagger guessing game. If you launch them in the air with the first hit, you can go into the tiger stance immediately and hit your opponent with ,,+.

 

Ok thanks, ya answered two and three for me quite well. I also liked the fuzzy guard post, it was interesting and something I'll work on sooner than later. I'm still not sure what the best way to stop a fuzzy guarder is though. Any tips? So far all I know is to delay certain attacks to get their guard to be off-time and hit em.

 

That's really just the tip of the ice berg on breaking fuzzy guard. For example, seeing that you are delaying the attack, the opponent will gain the initiative on attacking, so it's possible they can beat your delayed attack with one of their own. You might think, "so I shouldn't delay it?" If you attack too early, it's highly likely it will be blocked. So seemingly, either options have a certain degree of risk involved. However, this is where basic gameplay strategy ends. At this point it's much better for you to start thinking with your head in the context of a real match instead of using hard textbook numbers. For example, you will have to start thinking which options you will take. Attacking first and risk getting it blocked? Or delay and trying to beat the defense on reaction? Personally, and I believe generally, most good players take the first option. It puts you on the offensive and force the other player to react to the game you force onto them. For example, you run in and elbow. If it hits, great, you beat it. If you got it blocked, you have to think about the viable options for the other player, and immediately use something that will beat their best or secondary options. There is no one perfect way to always come out on top. It depends who you're playing, their knowledge, habit, and your knowledge, experience. If you can put some time and think about the game in this context and try out some stuff in training mode, I'm sure you might stumble on what many of the high level players have figured out. The key is to try different moves and stuff that you would normally not think of using and see how they work or not work.

It's a little ambiguous I know, but it's hard to understand the concept I'm trying to convey if I just handed to you on a plate. You'll understand it much better if you stumble on to it yourself. /versus/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

It's all good to use strategy based on your opponent, but my trouble is based on the CPU, which I guess leaves me to exploit patterns in the AI and suck it up to its perfect "guessing" skills. I only wish I knew some people in my area that played VF, or at least a machine in an arcade somewhere in the Pittsburgh area where I could find some real opponents.

Oh well, back to training! I have two more things to finish in tutorial mode (at least for the first time). One's low throw MTE and the other is the whole face toward fall recovery hit thing. After that I'll probably work on other training modes (tactics, free with ai on) or quest mode. And I'm still debating on who to learn next. /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[ QUOTE ]
It's all good to use strategy based on your opponent

[/ QUOTE ]

When I said, your opponent, it's both the character they use, and their habits, if you know. Obviously if you are playing a stranger, or the cpu, it's hard to see exactly what their habits are at first. So you have to rely on the given facts. Which is who their character is, and their movelist. So in this sense, it's important to understand what each character can do in different situations. The only way to kind of get a good grasp on this knowledge is to play through with each character learning their moves, and kind of play around with them in quest mode or something. Just do you get a feel of how they work.

 

Just as a response to Astaroth's first post, the PS part:
I'd recommend Brad, because he's not as different from Lau as far as the way he's played. Plus, I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun learning all his slips and sways /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif