How do you guys counter TACs? I just hold a direction and mash S pretty much whenever I’m being comboed but that can’t be right. If they don’t use a TAC and either drop the combo or intentionally reset me, I’m going to get punished. I don’t think reacting to it is really realistic either, since I heard that the counter window is 11 frames long. So how do you do it?
mash from up to back to down and exchange
As I said, I don’t want to be mashing. Mashing causes me to whiff an S if the opponent drops his combo or intentionally resets and then I eat a punish. Any better advice?
No. You cannot register more than one escape input per window. If you counter an air exchange by spinning the stick and mashing, you just got lucky with the first input in the break window. The break is Tekken throw style (only one shot at escape), not VF throw style (as many shots at escape as the player can squeeze into the break window).
You shouldn’t mash indiscriminately just because you’ve been launched, as you already understand, but you will get a feel for when certain characters/players tend to go for TACs. For example if it’s a part of their meter-building strategy, or if they use TACs to change team order on the fly for a special DHC order or to set up a DHC glitch. So a little educated, intuitive, most of all brief mashing can go a long way.
Of course, people facing you will exploit this once they realize what you’re doing, but in general I’d recommend mashing D+S. It’s just not worth giving them a free meter.
Aggressors trying to bait victims into mashing a TAC break and thus whiffing air S certainly happens, but still strikes me as mostly theory-fighterish, especially considering how many normal, non-TAC combos build serious meter and kill without letting it ride on an instanced game of RPS. And, in any case, the break window is 15 frames, which is way more lenient than the throw break window in most games.
i tend to tap back + s in rhythm with their air combo at first, as I’ve noticed that most people expect you to tap down+s or simply use their forward+s because its easier for them during air combos. if its a team who is meter reliant i’m more likely to tap down+s. if it’s a team who have landed more than one TAC on me and use a mixture then I’ll more or less randomly alternate, down+s, forward+s, back+s on each air combo hit.
In order to counter a TAC, you must enter your input at the exact same time they are trying to TAC you. You must also input the correct direction they are performing the TAC with as well. As DR. Deelite said you only have 1 window opportunity and after playing a while, you will kinda get a feel for who will TAC and who will not.