No problem man. I think alot of players that complain think that they can counter break on reaction or something crazy like that. You cant… its a gamble for sure. But you cant hit manual then CB and expect to get it out faster than there break attempt. Now Heavy ADs you can hit those and then CB… thats a very common tactic to “bait out” the break attempt and hit em with a CB… same with Shadow linkers. But when it comes to juggles/ manuals… Just use the CB command for your “hit”.
Hope it works for you… works for me all the time and its really satisfying when you catch em!
There’s quite a few issues being discussed here, so just some quick thoughts:
If you want to compete at a high level in a game, then yes, you should make yourself familiar with the game’s rules and systems. Otherwise you can’t really complain when you lose. This seems so obvious to me, but maybe I’m missing something.
Voicing concerns or complaints about the game’s rules and systems because you don’t like them or they aren’t fun is totally legitimate. But it’s a very different thing that complaining about the impact in competitive play. And you should at least know that what you are complaining about is true. As an aside, my ideal KI in-combo mechanics would be only linkers and autodoubles. To me this simplifies the decision making, lowers the amount of pure guess breaking, also lowers the ease of creating high lockout percentage situations and makes counter breaking much more relevant. This scenario is the most fun for me, as a player. But this is very different than a competitive gameplay balance suggestion. It’s a legitimate viewpoint but not one I’m going to perpetually lobby the developers for. And importantly, it isn’t just a suggestion that I think will help me place better at tournaments.
Should a competitive player use counter breakers? I think there’s a very interesting discussion in there. But the big issue for me is if everyone knows you don’t counter break, how many options does that take away from you? First, your opponent never has to try for low percentage break opportunities because he knows you will benefit from a lockout more than he will benefit from a low % break attempt. Heavy ADs are big damage that you just lose because they are reactible and unless you fear a counter why would anyone not break them? So you are now limited to low damage one chance combos or low damage long combos relying on manuals and low damage ADs. So I think conservative use of counters is a much more viable strategy than NEVER using them.
I don’t know exactly how many openers, enders, combo breakers and Counter breakers I do per fight, but more or less, when I play seriously, I’m going for around 3 combo breakers attemps per round, and around 2-3 Counter breakers per fight.
My opponent knows that I combo break(so they will not go for the easy to break combos so easily, and he surely will use Counter breakers sometimes to fish me out), and also that I counter break sometimes(so if I use a H Autodouble it could be bait, so trying to break it it’s not always the best idea)
If I never break or counter break any combo and my opponent notices it, I will eat the most damaging combos in the former scenario, or they can always try to break me without CB’s menace in the latter.
And in my book, using less options than the avaible is sub-optimal(cosndiering that all the options are viable, which they are).
Of course, all of this could be propaganda:
Fulgore: I never use Counter Breakers!!
Riptor: Sweet! I’m going to break all your combos! Riptor sees a HP autodouble
Riptor: Here I go! Activate Combo breaker! Fulgore uses Counter breakers
Fulgore: MUAHAHAHAHA, PUNY MORTALS, I HAVE CHEATED YOU, VICTORY IS AHEAD, MUAHAHAHAHA