It’s adding a Jump Cancel Heavy Widow’s Bite > Web > Jump Cancel Heavy Widow’s Bite > Web… and whatever ender.
1 Like
By “Web,” do you mean “Web Cling?”
If so, and if I’m not mistaken, this should be unbreakable then, yes?
Web as in dropping a web
1 Like
@VotablePark106 I’ve reviewed the fights and when fighting Sadira as Sabrewulf, you really need to pressure her. Jumping HP is amazing as it’s fast and it beats out a lot of her areal attacks, however you want to be close to her, so that as soon as she jumps, you’re hitting her. Once she is down you want to use crouching MK. Just keep jabbing her and mixing in some throws or sweeps. Cr MK is great because it hits low medium of which will crush both Shadow Blade Demon as well as Shadow Recluse. If Sadira tries to jump out of it, you immediately due jumping HP.
Also, anytime you do a hard knockdown you should be charging Overpower. In most cases you will get to level three of which is unblockable. Sabrewulf may not be the powerhouse he was in S1, but he’s very nasty in the right hands.
@Jaranowska You’re Orchid is strong as always and you’ve got her damage down to a T. As you saw, when you pressure Sadira in the corner, there aren’t many options she has to get out of your pressure, save Shadow Countering something or finding an opening. I would focus on doing throw mix ups. Jab jab throw. Jab Jab DP. It’s kind of the same pressure that I use when I play as Jago. Orchid’s damage is quite scary so you want them to fear the mix.
@Juxtapose13 We already talked about having some issues with dropped commands and to be honest, that happens to us all, but one thing I’ve noticed quite a bit is you not capitalizing on other player’s mistakes. Anytime there is a failed Counter Breaker. Anytime another player does a move that is unsafe you should be punishing that. Your juggles are getting better, but I would also start learning some of her bread and butter juggles like Fang > HP > L Widow’s Bite > Fang > HP > Widow’s Bite…etc etc. You can also do a Throw > Medium Widow’s Bite > and LK or HP > Recluse…
A lot of the stuff I pull off has taken me hours to learn in Practice Mode and there are still things that I’m learning to do.
The more varied your juggles are the harder you will be to break.
The most important lesson for you tonight though is you really need to work on your defense. Defense is just as important (if not more) as offense. Keeping somebody from hitting you and blocking their attacks will help you as a Sadira main stay alive.
1 Like
I could see the chat popping up but I didn’t know how to write anything in the group chat so I just kept monastically to myself and my controller (like this: 
).
Thanks @WebNRagnarok for the comments, I will use them in my play and practice.
2 Likes
Thanks for the feedback and for taking the time to watch the replays (for all of us)!
You’re absolutely nailing my weaknesses to a “t.” For improving defence, the best way to do so, I’m assuming, is simply experience and playing more to learn and recognize situations, as well as learning match ups, yes?
One thing I love about fighting games in general, just like RTS, is there’s always learning going on, and always ways to improve. It’s a great overall mindset in general to basically look at, and problem solve stuff.
That’s okay man. You can type using a Controller, but it takes a while.
The important thing about being in the chat though is you could see what we were saying.
1 Like
You are correct. The more you know about various match ups, the better you’ll become at defending yourself. By playing against various characters you’ll learn what is safe or unsafe and how to punish when you can.
Lobbies are great, but Ranked has its perks as well. With Ranked you are constantly bombarded with people of various skill levels and you never know what you are going to get. This unpredictability will help you prepare for any sort of challenge.
You might face a noobish Bronze player one moment or Bass the next.
I strongly discourage playing against the AI to get better or even Shadows, as their styles become way too predictable, even if you are on hard. No amount of AI is going to compare to a human mind and that is what you are aiming to beat.
1 Like
Cool. And yeah, overall, my biggest hindrance to improving (and to not decline in general) is that I’m simply not playing the game much outside of our bi-weekly sessions. That’s also why I’m not being hard on myself, and am still enjoying myself even though I keep taking horrible beatings.
With any fighting game you get what you put in, and I’m not putting in much right now so I know I’m not going to get good results as a result.
In terms of Multiplayer, you recommend Ranked over Exhibition?
I am indeed aware of the limitations and issues with playing against the AI.
1 Like
For myself, I prefer Ranked for short periods of time. I generally don’t have a ton of time to spend playing KI, so Ranked is good to get a few short fights with various skill ranges. If I’m playing against a lot of lower skilled players I will pull out characters I’m interested in learning.
The only time I ever use Exhibition is if I play against another player in Ranked and they request a longer fight.
1 Like
Here’s the upload of yesterday’s session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0wcS_oXgZU
Thanks again for the games all!
1 Like
Cool, thanks.
On an aside, the one thing I find sad is when I see really strong players bashing themselves. I don’t mean constructively criticizing their play, I mean actually ripping on themselves. I saw a really high level player comment recently that they’re frustrated at not being good at anything in life, period.
While we all hear about the mind traps people get into in trying to blame other people or other things for their shortcomings, the opposite is true as well. The mind trap of not recognizing when you are doing well, even if you could still improve (as we all can).
The reality is, despite a lot of top players having a “celebrity” status in the gaming community, they are in fact normal people with normal jobs. Right now, with the way the world is, there is a lot of stress and sometimes that stress spills over into the KI world. I’ve seen a number of highly skilled tourney winners get into that “I’m really a loser” mindset, and a lot of it has to do with other things.
Sometimes you do have to step away from the game and do other things to refocus. I get the same way in the writing world.
In the early to mid 2000’s I had a lot going for me. I had a budding career as a screenwriter. I had an agent, a producer wanting to bring my stuff to the big screen, and a number of projects being brought to my table, including “fixing” other people’s scripts. I was gaining a lot of traction and then around 2010 everything went bust. Everything fell apart and then I got diagnosed with chronic migraines. I worked for nearly 10 years building up contacts and such and at the end of the day I got nowhere.
I was sick of it… tired of it. I had exhausted my imagination and for nearly 10 years I didn’t do much of anything other than work at the day job and live a lowkey life.
Despite the set back, stepping away proved to be what I needed. Starting a year ago, I began pulling out old scripts and I started rewriting them. I started making headway with Twitter, gaining a lot of followers and friends with directors, writers, and animators and was invited to a Zoom meeting a few weeks back. I’m glad I took the time off. I look at what I create now and it is vastly superior to what I did back then.
In short, when you burn yourself out on something, its very easy to overtly criticize yourself. Most of the time when I start getting really negative, I know its time to step away and take a breather.
As an added bonus, if you ever come across a book entitled, “The Werewolf Book 2nd Edition” Encyclopedia of Shapeshifting Beings, I’m actually IN the book. 
A good friend of mine, the late Brad Steiger asked me to help him with his book. He then immortalized me, by putting me literally in the book.
2 Likes
Absolutely. I’ve never done celebrity worship (be it in gaming or with television, etc.) as we’re all just people in the end.
What I find sad though is I find this self-bashing and putdown mentality to be quite common in the fighting game community (not just Killer Instinct), more so than any other competitive gaming genre, and absolutely it stems from other things beyond the game.
We also work in similar industries, as I work in television production. I’m an Operations Manager and oversee my company’s Toronto-based production and post production facility (it was the largest independent post facility in North America several years back). I’ve also been diagnosed with a chronic illness (Crohn’s Disease) which has been a challenging decade long battle.
I’ve also dealt with professional burnout as well, and that is certainly not a fun experience. I’m glad to read your brake did you well, and that you’ve picked screen writing up again and things are looking promising. Hopefully things keep going in that direction!
And that’s very cool about the Werewolf book!
2 Likes
Yes, but I didn’t know how to write on the “party” chat thing (I’m not very Xbox savvy, as I only got one last June). It’s true that with a controller, it’s quite long though. I guess a lot of people have keyboards!
1 Like
I personally recommend playing Ranked most of the time instead of Exhibition. You get to fight players of every level, sometimes you get squashed, sometimes it’s even, sometimes it’s easy, etc. Playing against high-ranking players can be very intimidating and it can make you lose your cool right off the bat, but now I just don’t care and I go for it.
1 Like
Everybody wants to be good at something and for some people competitive gaming becomes that thing. It’s a good life-lesson to not take anything too seriously though, whether it be something meant for fun like games or something more serious like a career. Ultimately, we can’t control everything. Sometimes it’s best to just let things be. Many people deal with insecurity for whatever reason, and that can totally show up in gaming. For instance, once I was playing against some really good player, and she beat me, but then I totally crushed her in the second game. Before the third and last game started, she wrote to me: “You ain’t good.” (and then she won). That’s called projecting your personal feelings of being inadequate on others. A lot of “salty” players are working through that, I imagine. It’s too bad, but it’s completely useless and a waste of time and energy. It’s great to want to better yourself in whatever you’re doing, but not if it means feeling crushed and horrible whenever you feel you don’t achieve that.
2 Likes
Yeah, I know how to do it from Xbox Game Bar on PC, but not on an actual Xbox One console (my Xbox One does not have Xbox Live Gold, so no Party Chat on it for me).
I actually played five Matches last night. Looks like there’s a lot of new players compared to when I was playing Ranked last summer, which is great!
It absolutely is. I’d go further by saying it’s important to prioritize what you take seriously. For many in their mid-20’s through their 30’s, this becomes their career, which makes sense of course since they’re building their future, their savings, starting families, etc.
Quite so. There’s actually far more outside of our control than in it. So it’s important to focus on what you can control, and not dwell so hard on that which you can’t.
And yeah, I’m very familiar in “projecting,” be it in gaming, or in real life. It’s a very, very common way people try and “deal” with insecurities.
1 Like
Hi all,
The next casuals is this Sunday at 3:00 pm eastern!
I’ve had a really rough ten days though, and I’m mentally exhausted and my health is acting up. I’m going to see how I’m feeling come Sunday, but in the event I decide to bow out for the session, is someone else interested in hosting and running the Lobby?
2 Likes