I’m using Makoto in third strike and from what I understand. To get the most out of her you have to be good at parrying. Because parry equals free command grab. So how can I go about learning how to get the timing right for a parry. And in what situations should I be trying to attempt one?
If you have 3S from PSN/XBLA, it has parry challenges you could complete.
Try parrying fireballs for starters, next work on jump-in attacks. Then special attacks and low attacks.
The better you know how to time your opponent’s attacks, the better you will become at it.
You can also OS by doing a parry before a normal as well.
How’s that? Press forward at the same time as a normal? If your opponent attacks, it’s a parry, if not your attack comes out?
Tap a parry direction right before the normal.
Learning to parry correctly is one of the hardest parts of the game.
What Evolution169 is talking about is what we usually call a buffer parry, you can buffer a parry into a normal or another input.
Buffer parries are used more than guess parries for obvious reasons. They aren’t REALLY an option select because if you do a normal you actually eliminate the parry frames.
Now there is one option select that does work, and that’s buffer parry into kara throw, it’s called SGGK, what happens is the throw will come out if they block and if you get the parry, the normal you used to kara comes out instead of the throw. It’s a bit complicated.
Buffer Parries are what you should be using when pressuring opponents and doing stuff like dash up throw.
Something that you shouldn’t do is parry on wakeup or fish for a parry mid screen unless it’s a read or you understand the matchup.
A good way to practice parrying is start with just trying to use it in matches, think about what your opponent wants to do and what his options are from that range and buffer.
Trying to be sick and parry everything they do, IS NOT POSSIBLE.
Another thing to try is parrying special moves, over and over. That is what you’ll be parrying a lot of the time. For instance, Gouki tatsu, you want to be able to parry it if you accidentally crouch the first couple hits. Red Parry will come with time. It’s just about negating something that is already happening at this time.
Preemptive parries in high level are almost always buffers, no one reaaally thinks, alright I’m gonna do a low parry and get a sick combo. They say I’m going to buffer a low parry and try to make him block this crouch short because both options are good for me. Hopefully one gives and you get some damage out of it.
Oh that makes sense.
so there’s two different aspects to learning about 3s parry
part 1 is the simple mechanics of parry - how to do it, how much frame advantage you get, what you punish with, etc. that’s something you learn in training mode and is not difficult to learn.
part 2 is the decision making aspect. this is something that takes experience and improves as your game knowledge expands. the very short answer is that every parry attempt should be run through a calculation in your head that basically combines a risk vs reward analysis + your intuition about how likely your attempt is to work. As you play against stronger opponents, I think you’ll find that one has a direct effect on the other. to analyze these correctly, you need a good knowledge of the matchup and all the options that are on the table.
I recently visited LA, and was playing a Yun player, parried something and didn’t punish it. 5 star was standing behind me and said “you didn’t punish that because you parried a direction. never parry directions, always parry moves. scrubs parry in directions. strong players parry moves.” basically this means you aren’t guessing parry thinking “I sure hope/think he might possibly hit a high button here!” you are parrying because you know based on the spacing, the matchup, and the game state, that move is a likely possible option in that spot. game knowledge is what informs this decision making.
so good advice for learning how to parry is to learn the game, learn your character, and learn the matchup. people often explain parry as this elaborate guessing game or DEEP MINDGAMES but essentially it’s just a tool like any other you have. you always want to use strong moves with a good payout and high probability of success. parry is just another tool in the belt.
game knowledge feeds everything else about your play. so play a lot, vs a lot of different players, and pay attention to what’s happening! that’s how you start to understand the game.