Skeletal's Ranked Challenge Month Four: Tusk!

[xSkeletalx]

@STORM179

confirmed scumbag for full ultras and taunts

Yeah, in Ranked I will run full Ultras and taunts unless it’s someone I know in real life, from the forums, by name/fame, or I end up against a low rank player while in Gold/Killer. I run into plenty of trash talkers (I often forget to mute them at character select) or teabaggers, don’t mind taunts, and I do actually like Ultras. Not sure if you’re joking or actually upset, but I don’t really think I’m being that much of a ■■■■; I’m no teabagger!

Appreciate the feedback, let me break these out:

@STORM179

Maximizing damage - pretty straightforward, by just try to maximize lockout damage whenever possible. Ideally, you want to have your ender come out at the very tip of the lockout timer. You generally seemed to be ending a second or so before you had to, even in confirmable situations where you were already tacking on lockout damage.

I have a bit of trouble with Tusk specifically with regards to capitalizing on lockouts. Occasionally I will run a combo past the lockout timer and get broken (whether a guess or a read), other times I cut it short, usually once I have three or four Ender Levels of potential on the opponent. Occasionally I mis-input something and end the combo WAY earlier than I intended to - trying to go from Immortal Spirit into an HK double occasionally ends up as an Opener-Ender because I mistime my input, for example. This is definitely somewhere I can improve.

@STORM179

Punish buttons - you seem to like to use really big buttons to punish with as Tusk. While I’m certain those big buttons are hella satisfying to punish with, you should probably be using smaller, hit-confirmable buttons as your go-to punishes. For one, you’ll be a lot less likely to miss the punish (a decent amount of the time it worked it was because your opponent tried to press buttons, not because it was a legit punish), and you’ll also get into the combo system. While a first frame break would make your punish less damaging than a big sword normal punish, the upward potential for damage is a lot better. If you get broken, your neutral situation isn’t much different than the big normal post-hit situation, so again, don’t be afraid to take a chance on getting broken.

I don’t have much to say here, honestly. I am not great when it comes to converting combos with Tusk outside of situations where I have a bar of Shadow available; some of the clips here will show me stagger my opponent and then kick or swing wildly because I managed to mess up my inputs somehow. For me, it sometimes feels like landing a heavy normal with Tusk is a simpler option, and I guess maybe I’m settling more than I should be. This, along with the low amount of time I use Tusk’s Instinct are probably the result of my allergy to Practice mode!

@STORM179

Spacing out your normals. I think you might be pressing some unsafe buttons at point blank range a bit. None of your opponents seemed ready to punish them, but Tusk’s really big buttons are definitely not safe once you get too close to the opponent.

Probably a mix of not knowing what exactly is “unsafe,” having buffered a Shadow Skull Splitter before seeing if my previous attack hit (which usually gets Shadow Countered), and not getting the input I want. For example, sometimes I intend to crouch-HP but mis-time my inputs and get a standing HP instead. I also try to rely on Deflect to cover me, which doesn’t always work as I’m not frame-data intensive. Definitely things I can work on here, though some of it is difficult as I can’t always see if I landed a hit correctly through Tusk’s swings and particles.

@STORM179

Bonus thought: did you know you press lights after nearly every jump-in?

Do I really? I don’t think I’m doing that on purpose; I wonder why I’m doing that. Might be a hold-over from TJ since his light spin fist is really good off of a jump or crossup.

@Infilament

To add to Storm’s comments about the high/low thing, if I was playing against you and I saw you did close-range sweep as a mixup option, I immediately know that all I have to do is block it out. I might get thrown once or twice, but as soon as I block the sweep, I get all that damage back immediately (because I can punish you). Basically, while you technically have a mixup, as the opponent I’m not very scared of it because I see that you are taking risks that can get you killed.

But if your mixup involves cr.MK xx light skull splitter, suddenly I know that no matter how much I block your mixup, I don’t get anywhere… a successful guess on my part just puts us both in neutral, so I’m much more scared of the situation knowing that a correct guess on my end doesn’t lead to any reward.

I see what you’re saying. This makes a lot of sense, and this kind of thing is what I hate about not being a Practice kind of guy. I never really know whether a specific normal or special is “safe” exactly, just whether this feels like the right thing to do at this point in time based on past history. Deflect, for example has RUINED me during matches against Tusk in the past, but it doesn’t always work out for me, which is most likely a lack of frame knowledge and timing on my part.

I think I really have a lot to work on, and maybe I shouldn’t be too happy about reaching Killer with this kind of win/loss ratio. It sounds as though Tusk’s moveset is carrying me rather than what I’m doing with it.

[STORM179]

@xSkeletalx

I think I really have a lot to work on, and maybe I shouldn’t be too happy about reaching Killer with this kind of win/loss ratio. It sounds as though Tusk’s moveset is carrying me rather than what I’m doing with it.

Nah, you should definitely be proud of your progress with the character and that W/L record - we’re all carried by our characters to a certain extent. That’s why we play them: because their toolsets speak to what we’re good at and like to do. The trick is just iterating and figuring out how to wring the most potential from your given character.

You’ve definitely done well with Tusk, and you should be proud of that. Just want to make sure to take him (and yourself) as far as he can go.

[xSkeletalx]

Are Gargos, Riptor and Sadira also considered problem matchups for Tusk? I have had some seriously difficult fights against these characters in the last few days, and the ones I did actually manage to come out on top of were extremely long struggles.

Sadira in particular was driving me insane; you’d think her constant obsession with jumping would work in my favor, but the fact that she can cancel into Widow’s Bite (the projectile) at any point means I tend to get locked down or punished trying to AA her. I have a feeling I’m doing stuff all wrong, but maybe the matchup is one Tusk is supposed to struggle with, as well.