Strategies for A-groove

I’ve never used A-groove because I don’t understand how to do custom combo’s. I’ve always been hesitant to get into learning it, because I don’t really know where to start or how to even use a custom combo. So can anyone shed some light on A-groove for me and give me some good tips on how to use from a noob stand point…?

roll, activate.

oh okay! after i activate, what next? cuz really, i know how to activate, i’m just wondering about how i should do custom combos, ya know, the part that comes after activating…

seriously, do i just keep hitting lp repeatedly or what?

here’s an example of one of my custom combo’s…

with haohmaru: hp, hp, hp, hp, hp, hp, hp, hp, hp, hp, qcfx2 hp.

that’s bland imo. i know there’s gotta be more to a custom combo than that. but i honestly have no clue where to go…after the activating of course.

choose your a groove characters head onto character specifics for CCs.

read the entire first post… then click on whatever character you want

quoted for teh truth.

plus dash, activate.

or walk activate

jump in activate

whiff something and activate

the possibilities are endless

One thing to keep in mind is that after you activate, you have to do your strongest hits first. After the 8th hit, each hit afterwards is 100 damage.

I think of it sort of like playing C Groove until I get full meter. At that point, I can give myself a little leeway with attacking and taking certain risks. Once you get meter, your main focus is to land the CC.

Just some random things to keep in mind:

  • Unless the opponent is one their last character, NEVER activate when they have low life in the red, or end of the orange. It would just be a waste of meter. Save it for the next character.

  • More activation options = better A groove character.

  • Practice superjumping during CC. When I first started, I had a hard time getting a superjump while in activation and I would get regular jump sometimes.

  • Always do the most damaging CC for whatever situation you’re in.

I’ll agree with that…except that a lot of times, like when I have half life or more with full meter and my opponent has like 25% or even less, I’ll burn custom just to make sure that they die. This is like reassurance that they won’t get a last minute surge with an annoying ass character. It’s happened too many times where you could’ve killed them but you saved meter, and then they random out lvl 3 or their own custom or something. I feel more confident knowing for certain that I’m up a character 'cause they’re already dead than taking the risk of making a mistake and losing that advantage that I would’ve had.

Doesn’t A-Groove build full meter the fastest outside of K-Groove?

c.short, walk up custom.

how come this always works? Empty cross up, activate.

The common reaction is to block high or to go high to try to tech a throw, but the activation freezes and the A Groove player gets a free low hit.

because the players suck?

Buk’s counter for an A-groove guy jumping over your head and doing random activate is to wait until the last second until the guy is just about to land, jump over his head for a cross-up yourself.

Seems like Bison jumping up on reaction after the flash with double MP’s might counter that unfortunately though. :tdown: