How should I learn to use ex’s and make decisions based on my meter? like, how do you decide when to use an ex move or save it for critical art(super ultra whatever)? I’m thinking that i should just get used to every ex and ca individually but that doesn’t mean i’ll pay attention to my meter. only to see that i have at least one bar etc
Paying attention to your meter is part of the bare minimum you should be doing. If you can’t keep track of meter then negate it from your game plan. Not using meter is better than using it wrong and getting blown up and loosing. You need to be looking at your health, so you know if you can take a risk or not, your meter so you now when you can do EX or Super moves. There meter to see if they can do there special moves. And really importantly, their health. You need to know that when their health is at a certain level, if the combo you want to do will kill or not.
Knowing how much damage a simple combo with a special ender does means you can hold off using meter if their health is nearing the point that the combo will kill. If you have enough health that whatever they do wont kill you, you can try do a riskier combo that will be harder to do, but will do more damage, and if they have more health than what the simpler combo can remove,you may want to try it knowing that if it fails you will have no meter and be in a risky spot, but you wont die.
And keeping track of time means you may not even need to try anything, if you have the life lead and the clock is low you can play safe and run out the clock and win that way.
Try this:
After you have done a combo and the game has reset back to neutral, quickly scan the top of the screen and see the life situation. When he does a combo and the game resets to neutral do the same thing. The meter at the bottom is easier to keep track off since you pretty much look directly at it. But look at it once in while.
After a few thousand hours you will be used to it. And when you are in the lab practicing make sure you take the time to look at the meters. They will always be full. But you need to practice the habit.
Paying attention to meter and being aware of your resources takes a while to get used to. You can watch replays of platinum and diamond players forgetting that they have meter or not using it to it’s fullest extent.
Every character is different on how and when they should be using meter. For instance, Cammy has very few reasons to use meter within a combo. Her meter is better spent on EX divekick or saved for CA. I don’t main Bison, but I rarely see him do CA, so he probably spends meter more often.