Meter use strategy

[MakA]

it seems to me that cvs2 is a game of three things

-great execution
-great patience
-building and using the super meter

-execution comes with pratice
-patience comes from the frustration of walking into the 100th dp

-super-meter usage gets better as the players understanding of the game gets better but there also seems to be particular where players decided to save their meter.

What factors in a match makes you decide to hold your super-meter or use it? What match-ups in particular make you use your meter just to get that character out of the way? What character gains the most threat from just having the meter built up?

When you get a full meter do you become more patient or more aggressive or neither?

[Pieguy]

This is a super groove specific topic. As K, you really can’t be too patient or people will whiff for meter while you sit and watch, leaving you at disadvantage. That’s why in K, you usually play characters that can mercilessly rush people down, who can also easily use meter. I don’t think a single top tier K character has a difficult time using meter. Hibiki is the only one that seems to have a slightly harder time.

The characters that are most dangerous with meter in K are probably Sagat (low jump danger), Geese (DR combo does 9000+ dmg), Cammy (you can land this so easily it’s just sickening), and Rock (also super easy to land). Of course all supers in K are dangerous but the supers I listed are all easy to land and do very good dmg. I think honorable mentions are Rugal (ugly dmg), Kyo (average dmg super but he becomes a huge threat in K because of his kick throw), and Rolento (low jump mp is nasty). And Gigaton Blow takes the cake for the scariest super (7480 dmg, 4 frame startup, fastest moving super in game)

[CMX]

The only problem for Hibiki to land a super is when the opponent is running away, but if you are in their face the you got the high/low mixup, overhead, backdodge overhead, and corner high/low mixups on wake up. Landing the super is easy, it’s just getting in to land it is the difficult part, cause once your in you force your opponent to play guessing games of whether to block high or low, rinse and repeat. Kyo is crazy easy to hit confirm his super since you upkicks into it and if you catch the corner juggle for like 10k dmg its just sweet. the only difficult thing for Kyo is staying in once he’s in.

[HAV]

My meter strategy in most fights is just to blow it.

I used to get all wrapped up in saving the meter, but I realized that it’s kinda dumb to save meter, in a lot of situations.

People are big on saving meter, but the cost of saving meter is time, which equates to life. If I opt to save my custom in a situation in which I could have used it, I’ve now opted to lengthen the fight indefinitely. I’ve seen it waaaay too many times. Player 1 decides not to “waste” (lol) the meter, and fight it out. Player 2 then deals significantly more damage, or actually wins the round instead. Either that, or Player 2 manages to run away for another 15-25 seconds, while building meter.

So now, not only have you sacrificed a good deal of life (in life lost, and life not regained for the next round due to time), but you’ve given your opponent more meter, while you spent the remainder of the round gaining none (you already have it…). Where’s the tactical advantage?

If I use the meter, I’ve now cut the round off. I keep whatever life I have, I now gain more life, since I ended the round quicker, and the character (that’s still alive!) has the chance to do some more damage, and build more meter to pass on the the next guy.

I break the match down, in terms of meter management, to “openings”. The way I see it, if I have you down to 45% life, I only need to open my opponent up one time to kill him, if I plan on using custom.

If I don’t, I now have to open them up 2-3 times to do that same damage. That means it’s at least 2-3 times more difficult/risky/time-consuming for me to do that. Against great players, you have to minimize the amount of times you need to open them up.

Same if I have my opponent down to 15-20%. If I land something that guarantees my custom, why not use it? If I would have used it to kill my opponent at 40%, why not use it at 15%? It’s the same outcome. My meter is gone, my opponent’s character is dead.

Now, obviously, there’s the whole psychology of the fight, and sitting on meter plays a large role in that, but fuck it. I think I’m more scary if my opponent knows that I’ll fucking kill them, no questions asked. Some of the guys that I play with swear by sitting on meter. I just don’t get it. There are very few matches in this game that require meter to succeed. I just think people are scared to fight without meter. Obviously, there are circumstances under which I would hold my meter for a while, but for every action you take holding meter, you’ve given up an opportunity to build your next bar. If I’m able to work up 4-5 full bars in a match, and you’re only working up 3, my damage potential is much higher.

One player I play with likes to save meter only for killing situations. I think that’s the most retarded idea ever, but by his logic, if he fights the entire round with meter, it’s easier to control what his opponent will do. I agree with that to a certain extent, but he’s also effectively making his meter useless in pragmatic terms, because he doesn’t use it, and the only times he does, the shit does like 30% damage (because that’s all that’s left). Once the opponent begins to analyze what’s happening, the super becomes much less scary, because we all know it isn’t coming out. More importantly (IMO), if I KNOW you’re sitting on your meter because it makes the fight easier for you, it leads me to believe that you can’t fight without it. This now means that I’ll be 10x more reckless with you. I’ve now gone into a mode in which I completely disrespect your meter, and force you to use it, to demand that respect back. But… once you’ve used it… it’s gone, and I know you suck without meter… so… fuck it. I’ll take the hit (obviously, I’m still trying to avoid it somewhat). Against C/K, or A-Bison, obviously, this doesn’t apply at all, but in the situations that I’m (vaguely) referencing, it works well.

I guess I’m just not scared of fighting without meter. There are situations that I feel much more comfortable with if I have meter, but those are few and far between, and even for those, I’m not going to pass up a great opportunity to use my meter, so that I can have it later for a situation that may not have to even come up, if I just use the meter to begin with.

Whatever though… I’m mashing now.

[noodleman]

i only have a meter strat during specific match ups. if it’s A-bison mirror for example, I will never activate unless my CC kills him, unless of course I know I can survive a full paint myself. Basically don’t give A-Bison “free” meter.

Meter management is different for each groove, and how you play those grooves and what characters. I’ve noticed that depending on how the match is going, C-Rolento either abuses his gdlk AC, or combo’s lvl2/3 trip wire.

The only reasons I see to save meter are:

1. Using extra meter (in C /Pgroove ) when you don’t need to…ie overkill
2. save 1 level of meter (C/N) to AC to get out of sticky situations
3. you’re about to die, and the damage you get from the meter is going to get erased for the next round.

About what to do with the full meter thing…most of the time I would say play as you normally would. Except for specific match ups…like A-bison vs Ken for example. Bison is basically not allowed to jump at Ken unless bison has meter from my experience. But then again, it doesn’t really change the style of play. You can be aggressive without jumping…so yea, my vote would be play as aggressive as you normally would. Meter just opens up options for the aggressive/defensive playstyle.

Havoc, i don’t think saving meter is a bad thing, especially in C groove. Now there are some players that are saving meter “the wrong way”. They’re waiting for some particular time to use meter, which I find wrong. I like how some of the top players save meter during offense, and use it during defense (mainly AC for obvious reasons). I mean why spend meter on extra damage when the same amount of damage can be had without using it?

I think it’s a matter of personal preference how the meter is used. Saving meter for the purpose of having something in stock is a plain bad idea, you shouldn’t be afraid to use meter for whatever reason.