After playing a bit of multiplayer, I noticed most players tend to have a few tricks and tactics they use. For example, I personally mostly use a variety of heavy punch attacks, and in a typical fight I probably only use 15 moves or so…with a huge emphasis on a few of my ‘favorite’ moves, mostly 3 in particular that i tend to be using most of the time.
One of the first things I do in a fight is watch my opponent carefully. They might open with their favorite move, although a lot of people back up then and do some ranged…although anything could happen here, and the important thing is to watch what they do, and try to not take any damage. Also if they do a big move, there’s usually enough time to counter, although as a ranged dhalsim I might do things a little different than other people…although I have noticed most characters have some sort of ranged attack, if not via projectile than via fast (often flashing) movements across or around the screen that is about as fast and effective as a ranged attack in most ways. Thus a character will frequently have both ranged techniques at various ranges as well as melee techniques. As dhalsim I have noticed most people’s melee techinques, including the ‘crossover’ where they jump over your head and attack from the other direction quickly to get past blocking, as well as other tactics, tend to be more practiced than ranged, and thus as dhalsim I make it a point to stay out of melee whenever possible, and as a result of practice and most people trying to stay close I have developed a number of fast tricks for escaping melee, including using the yoga spear and a jump instead of an anticipated teleport, or even the risky slide since most people block low attacks pretty good and it has a huge cooldown…although I’ve been thinking about adding the weak slide to the mix as an escape, although that requires adding another button, since I mostly just use the two +++ buttons on the shoulders/triggers, the analog-stick, and the light punch button…and I don’t even use the k+k+k button that much, although if they get too jumpy I’ll start aiming kicks at them, or also if they’re back and trying to hop over fireballs I’ll assume they’re going to jump over the fireball and line up the kick.
The biggest thing is that people tend to do what they just did. So if someone hits you with a combo, there’s a 50% chance they’re going to do the exact same thing again. Block it the second time, and the third time you might see a way to hit them back.
Fights seem to have momentum…that is, typically one character will be hitting the other one, and the other one will be either blocking or getting beat up. This momentum changes, usually by blocking and getting out of range, and when you’re getting beat on and you block/dodge unexpectedly, you will sometimes see the other player hesitate slightly. This is a good time to land an attack of some sort at the proper range, which is why it’s helpful to know one character really good and all of their attacks, since many attacks can be used to change momentum of a fight or divert instead of simply causing damage. My teleport is used mostly for this, in many fights I’ll watch as my opponent “locks on” to me and gets ready to use a series of incoming jumps/slides/whatevers that they’ve practiced in targetting and hitting other players, and just as they lock on I teleport. Then if they look like they’re getting ready to melee a teleporter, I stay back and throw fire and punches, then alternate as they anticipate the opposite. (Hopefully, it often goes the other way too! 33% win rate at #11,000 lol)