Perpetual Hunter Club

So after a few hundred games, one may mash himself through the DANs to the first named rank - Hunter. However, some people (like me) may find that their skill is still not sufficient to advance through the ranks - sure, I can score some victories, but overall, my balance is negative. I keep losing to skillful lower ranks clawing their way up. Sometimes, I eat a totally silly stuff, and lose to a masher with moves I cannot defeat immediately.

So this is the place for people like me - Perpetual Hunters, the food for the real predators.

Welcome!

 

Although I am not in the Hunter Club, I do feel for you guys as I am stuck in the perpetual motion machine known as Defender. I don't lose my rank, but I constantly teeter on the edge of doing so.

Do not give up though! Learn from those mistakes and maybe take that time to pick up other characters to learn their moves and understand how they work so you can counter them with your main! What have you got to lose...you can't lose your rank!

 

My recommendation: for every day you're "stuck" at a particular rank, go into dojo and do the tutorial again.

Being stuck at a rank is usually a case of bad fundamentals. The tutorial mode, while not perfect, is pretty good at teaching some of these basics. If you can't do them all right away its ok, do as much as you can and then play online for the day. Next day, start with dojo/tutorial again. If you can stick to that schedule, you'll advance in rank once those lessons begin to stick.

Also hit up dojo to practice punishers and juggles. A lot of this new players need to get their muscle memory going to play effectively. But if you can do a particular juggle 10 times in a row without dropping it, you'll start doing it in matches.

Remember, all players were new at one point. Keep it up!

 

White_worm is on point. A good example is today, he utterly destroyed me 3 matches in a row. So I went to dojo and will return to matches when I feel better about those losses. Given his skill was far above mine, I was still able to recognize a lack of training on my part.

Being able to recognize that is really important. It helps avoid those demotions, which I have ran into several times. Its frustrating but at the same time I tell myself to get motivated and just practice more.

 

i recommend going to free training choose your main and any other character. Record three strings and then play it randomly. Practice your defense and familiarize yourself with the attack animations, interupt high attacks or evading.

 

I would say that Player Match is better than training mode for people that already get the basic basics. The timing and spacing and mind games are where people can improve the most and that comes with actual practice against other players. Yeah the timing is different online, but the basics are still there.

For example, everybody complains about not being able to punish online and I often feel that way too, but the funny thing is, I am way more successful at punishing Lau and Jeff players than any other chars...

 

Timing and spacing and mindgames sounds great and appealing even to new players, but... I am playing here and there against players like Kamamura is speaking about and it is NOT for them. Not yet.
At 1st, they need to learn BASIC of the game. They need to learn core hitchecking. They need to learn to NOT attack 24/7, even at big disadvantage. They need to learn which moves are good for what situation. They need to learn juggles - because tons of them just throw out BIG starter and follow with basic ...
I know a lot players like this even personally. They keep spending a lot of time working on their "mixups" and "mindgames" without even realizing that if they are consistently throwing out big juggle starters at -8, any average or better player will beat them with ease.

 

funny you should say that because that was the first thing that came into mind the moment I reached hunter and couldn't get a single win after.

I'll be honest, that whole incident with Abel Z has made me conscious of the way I play online. however if anything, it's helped point out certain weaknesses in my play, areas that are always left exposed etc. and so I went back to the dojo and as a result, while I may still not be perfect, am starting to win games and see my green bar starting to grow.

I also agree with the player game concept as its basically putting your theory into practice and building up your confidence before moving it into ranked. The only problem is that for some reason over here, they're ALL in ranked!


I will reach Raider soon as long as I remember to practice before jumping on live.

 

I became a hunter yesterday and it made me realize a lot of the things you guys are talking about. I've hit a wall skill wish. I mainly struggle with knowing when to evade, block and especially with how to properly punish. You play against some people and it seems they can do whatever they want lol. Someone recommended taking up a random character's move list everyday and its been helping a bit so far. Especially with knowing how to reverse vanessa, wolf, aoi, and goh throws and learning character's mix ups. I have a long way to go.

 

Does the cumulated win/loss % affect one's ability to rise in ranking groups?

Like, if I lose a lot as a Hunter before starting to win again, does that make me rise up slower?

 

Nope Mlai it doesnt.

Also, i found it really helpful to fight with people i can actually talk with. Like in a chat, or with a mic(i dont ahve one though).
I learned my best stuff from other people like Bilal73 and iamthedave and now i can even beat "Avengers" with skill instead of luck.
The game is really much more fun, if you have people to talk about it.

 

for me player matches is the best to be better..everyday i choose to play with high level players and that is very helpful and same time talk and advice me to get better!!!

 

I would recommend getting in some room matches with VFDC'ers for a week or so then go back to rank if you so desire. Save some replays of matches you did extremely poorly in and then replay them with the frame data on. Then you can try to figure out what you should be doing. Also going through command training with the frame data on, using a character you struggle to win against is very helpful. Doing room matches with better players will really up your game and as Tricky said "ranked is a good place to learn a lot of bad habits".

I don't really play ranked much i'm a raider or something, maybe played it for about 5 or 6 days. That being said I could easily end up in the perpetual Hunter's club as I only pick fights with people like White-Worm, DriftVF, Elite, and other solid VFDC vets in ranked. I have routinely beat berserkers and defenders etc in room matches, which is where I dwell. Ranked just isn't appealing to me when I have a pretty stacked friends list that always gets rooms or player matches going.

 

Hunter= Hunting for someone to rank up on

kidding.. I think a lot of you are missing the point of rank.
everybody is not going to make it to TigerClaw.

You are going to eventually hit a wall where you will lose more than you win. You'll seem stuck there. But that's your rank! If you're playing a variety of ppl and can't get out of hunter, or find yourself getting demoted back to hunter, then Hunter is your rank. That's the whole point of getting a named rank! There is no automatic promotion. you go as far as your skills and the pool of players will let you go. For some that's Hunter, for Others its Warrior, or Avenger, there are many ppl stuck at Conqueror!

To be sure, just because you've made it to Conqueror, does not mean you'll eventually make it to DoomSlayer Conqueror might be it for you, until you acquire additional skills (or have a string of lucky wins)

Your Rank is a measure of your skill relative to the pool of ppl you're playing against. If you are on the PSN, that pool of ppl is pretty damn good.

Some of the players in the Kensei and Butei groups are absolutely vicious.

I've noticed a lot of players are kind-a-STUCK in the Maou group. They might have hit a wall too.

 

For some reason, I don't feel reassured by this at all. To me, that says it's like entering a F1 race and because you're with the lowest newcomer team, you're never going to be able to get a podium position because that's the team you're stuck with, when in fact I SAY it's down to the driver's determination and drive to get him the finish.

sorry but i'm going to have to disagree on that.

 

@MegaMaN85 I'm not saying you're stuck forever once you hit a wall. Hitting the wall just means you've gone as far as you can go against the pool of ppl you're currently playing at the skill level you currently have. To move up you have two choices:

1) play against different ppl, who may not be as skilled as you. If you wait at hunter long enough this could happen as the old hunters move on and the new hunters come up, you may be able to beat them, and then go to raider. But the raiders might send you back to hunter if your skills haven't improved.

2) improve your ranking match techniques. Fighting ranked matches can be (and usually are) very different from fighting non rank matches. In ranked matches you should

1) Round management: Have an approach for each round. For example I give my opponent a certain style in round one (no matter what he does). In round 2 I surprise him by giving him a different look (based on what he showed me in round 1). Have a strategy for round 1, round 2, round 3

2) Opening moves: Vary your opening move for each round maybe in Round 1 you take a defensive position by quickly back dashing and creating some distance, maybe the same thing for round 2, and then in round 3 surprise your opponent with a aggressive offensive opening move.


3)Save your most aggressive and guaranteed stuff for the last round. Don't let your opponent figure you out in Round 1 and 2. Save the good stuff for last, give your opponent (if you can) a totally new look (your best look) for round 3.

4) Customizations Yes! these matter (many will disagree) but I've found that customizations can help be part of the mind games that you want to play on your opponent. I've tested it.
I use Lei Fei, I've played the same ppl with generic Lei Fei and with my customizations. They play differently when I bring out customizations. (Why this works I have no fKN idea but it does) Some ppl try to use the 'Silly' approach. Dress up the character to look ridiculous, when in reality you are master VF player. Others try to create the 'Bad Ass' look to make you think they got skillz but in reality they totally noobs that got caught up in the customizations. I have found many high level players make a specific statement in their customizations, you can't quite put your finger on it, but when they come out, you look at their rank and that customization and you just know (you're in for an ass whoopin) So I would suggest meaningful, very unique customizations. The right customization can create fear in the heart of your opponent.

5) Special Razzle Dazzle Move. Virtually every fighter has 2 or 3 of these. They usually don't do much damage, but they can be difficult to pull off and you seem advanced if you can do them.
Learn at least two razzle dazzle moves from your move list. Do 1 in round 1 when you and your opponent's life bar is still roughly equal. Do the second one in round 3 when you and your opponent's life bar are roughly equal.While these moves will not fool advanced players, it usually brings fear into the hearts of players in the Shi group and down


If you look at my 5 points, the idea is basically to shake the confidence of your opponent, make him/her second guess themselves and make them second guess you. Make them hesitate. Giving you just enough time to execute your game plan. And you should always have a game plan. Nvr just get in the ring and just start fighting. A good plan often (not always) upsets better skills.

 

Sort of like Kamais' Sharkman McWild... (Every game he's shuffling!)

I can see to a certain degree where you're coming from and I will give it a go as any advice is better than none (unless ofc the advice is utter bollox!) but I reckon you can give off just as much of a presence using default costumes. Why? Because I've only got one half of the dlc content at the moment and I'm still able to sense that presence from the missing half's line-up!

 

This article by alex valle is highly relevant to this discussion. I'll just link it here http://shoryuken.com/2012/07/16/lost-strategy-series-overcoming-plateaus-by-alex-valle/

Original published March 5, 2010 by Alex Valle (@AlexValleSF4)
One of the problems with SF today is the amount of complaints about characters people find easy to win with, or hard to beat. These are usually symptoms of reaching player plateau.
A wise SF player told me there are two reasons for plateaus:
1. The player physically cannot execute to their character’s full potential.
Ex. Viper player losing purely for dropping commands/combos. Or a Ryu player unable to commit to simple fireballs/uppercuts, who ends up losing to basic jump-ins.
2. The player cannot or will not learn more about the game.
Ex. Whenever there are hurdles about a certain match up, this forum is bombarded with excuses which doesn’t help their situation at all. This is the true issue.
Every player has to face and overcome this obstacle. Practicing a game with the goal of winning tournaments, you always run into certain characters or tactics which give you trouble. If you don’t find a way to get past that hurdle, you’ll continue losing to that character and never make it to the next level.
I’ll share one of my personal experiences from a few months ago. I’d been losing to mainly Rufus players and instead of complaining about his EX Messiah Kicks or his low risk high reward pressure game, I had to dig deeper on how to overcome my opponents’ superior play. My problem was my frantic defense: I jumped away very predictably, I dropped crucial combos, I got baited by double dive kick pressure, and I threw on wake up after seeing a dive kick oki. My reaction time to dive kicks in general was mediocre.
To beat the next Rufus player, I needed train on the above issues. Otherwise I would’ve plateaued and accepted defeat – in the form of trying to counter-character Rufus, which would result in doubt and morale loss.
Another common example is Ryu, who’s started getting an unfair share of forum hate lately. We all agree Ryu has easy combos/setups to ultra. Noted. To the casual-intermediate non-Ryu player, these “advantages†can be overwhelming.
If you are constantly getting hit by them, ask yourself, how is this happening?
I can assure you, it’s your own impatient jumping, trouble teching throws or getting baited to eat EX Tatsu in the corner, your decision to chance a 1-frame link versus Ryu with 2 stocks/ultra, or thinking that (for example) Bison c.LK x3 is a true blockstring.
Being outplayed in short.
Once you’ve identified these problems, the next step is to stop gambling with links vs SRK FADC and develop better baiting options (mix ups) when you have your opponent in blockstun. It’s been a year and you know an SRK is coming under convenient defensive conditions (2 stocks + ultra). Accept that, adapt, and punish accordingly.
Hope this helps.

 

Thank you Tricky, I found this very helpful!

A lot of what he said was noted in my game play back when i was heavily into SSF4 and once I made those changes I was winning more matches (can't say the same thing now as it's been over a year and I'm rusty as crap!) and I feel the same issue has come up with VF. As a result, everyday I'm trying to find a way to mix up and improve my game. But most importantly still try and have fun with it... even if I'm stuck at Hunter!