I consider myself to be a pretty above average player, I have my moments when things are really clicking and it seems like i’m unbeatable… I also have my moments where it seems anyone above straight newb level can give me a run for my money, but more often then not it’s some shade of grey in between.
What i do have going for me, is a good grasp of general fighting game basics, and especially with my bison, a decent footsie as well as damn decent grab game… but it pretty much stops there.
I’ve always acknowledged the existence of the focus attack, but i’ve used it maybe a dozen times total, and while i haven’t been a constant player(i did switch to blazeblu til it’s online community all but died) I have played a whole lot, starting right from the day of it’s release, so we’re talking never here for my focus attack usage…
It started off with me just wanting to make sure i had the basics down before i complicated things, but then as i started getting more and more comfortable with my characters, and having more and more success i just kind of forgot about it entirely discarding it as gimmicky and unneeded.
Well a few months ago i decided to get serious about it again, in preparation for ssfIV and have been running through championship mode to get my chops back up… but as i’ve climbed higher, i’ve noticed a common thing about all of the best players i meet… they all use focus attack, and they all use it liberally. Often times i feel i’ve got a better grasp of basics than these players, and feel like i should by all accounts be beating them, but because i barely even think about focus attacks existence i’ll end up doing something stupid and get hit by one and next thing i know i’m eating an automatic ultra, and i’m dead… so i’ve come to this conclusion, it’s time for me to learn the freaking thing so i can make myself a better player.
Now i do understand the basics of it, i know how it works, and i know about the three different levels of it, but as for when it should be used, and when it shouldn’t be used I’m clueless… what level i need to beat what, and all that jazz are beyond me as well. If it’s something as simple as just practicing it, then that’s fine i’ll keep on working on it, but i’m just hoping there is some kind of trick to it like there is to most everything else.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
P.S. sorry if this has been addressed a thousand times before but i didn’t see anything off hand… and sorry that this turned into a wordy mess as well