Stuff. Stuff. Stuff. Stuff. Stuff. Stuff. Stuff. Stuff.
1 Like
Well, there’s good news and bad news. I have a solution to your problem (that’s already in the game!), but you’re not going to like it.
You see, I do just fine with breaking combos for the most part, not only because I’ve been playing for a very long time, but because I use a DIFFERENT method to figure out what my opponents are doing. Instead of looking at my own character’s animations, which are often obscured by the hit animations and sparks themselves, I pay attention to the animations of my opponent.
Yep, I learn whether that elbow to the face, for example, is a LP, MP, or HP and react accordingly. This may take longer to learn (I recommend starting with the heavy attacks, which are slower, and working your way down), since there are more animations to memorize, but it not only has the benefit of not being obscured, like what you’re asking for, but in that it also gives you the benefit of reacting to a an attack BEFORE it actually hits you (so you have more time, in frames, to break and are less likely to get locked out for being too late).
The developers in this game were actually pretty smart when they designed this game, because in order to learn how to effectively read and break a combo, you can:
- look at your own animations,
- look at your opponent’s animations,
- look at the speed of the attack,
- listen for the sound of the attack,
- look at the number of times that the attack hits (for linkers), and
- learn your opponent’s habits.
So, IMO, the best way to truly master this game’s combo system is NOT just to learn 1 way of reading when and where to break your opponent’s combos, but rather to actually learn 2 or more. 
4 Likes
While breaking is an integral part of the give and take system for combos in this game (which I personally find to be far more enjoyable than the standard “I opened you up, therefore I deserve this free damage” approach), the downside is that guess breaks will happen, people will get lucky, and players that want to win in skill and strategy tend to detest anything involving luck or guesswork.
I know I’m coming in from left field here, but hear me out. Yes, believing your opponent guess broke or did so multiple times in a match can be frustrating, but think of the alternative.
I mean, shouldn’t reliably breaking be extremely difficult? Shouldn’t your character be somewhat obscured so you can easily read their hit stun? Shouldn’t memorizing every character’s L and M auto animations sound like a Herculean task given how many characters there are now? Shouldn’t the speed differences between lights and mediums be a bit more subtle?
What GG said above was perfect. There are a lot of ways to read a situation to figure out when to break and what strength to use, but none of them are easy because they can’t be, otherwise the game turns in to a break-fest and the entire give and take system is ruined.
Now, you might think “yeah, but my request wouldn’t ruin anything.” Perhaps not. But should any aspect of reading for breakers be made easier when you have so many methods by which to read the situation in the first place? I personally don’t think so, though I certainly see where you’re coming from and respect your opinion if you disagree.
I do think that effects can be distraccting sometimes. For instance I really like how clean SFV is regarding this (I don’t play SF by the way). But when you block and you have hit confirm there’s not this crazy flashing “a la marvel” everywhere. I think this game used to be more like that and then they put some flashy stuff and keept on doing it. Don’t take me wrong, when you see a counter breaker in slow motion the effects are awesome. But lately I’m seeying lightings, rays, effects everywhere. Sometimes I can’t see what they are doing.
Regarding to breaking: yes, I do think they could make the scene a little clearer, just a little. I’m relying on sound to break sometimes, I usually watch the animations but some ads are stillc confusing (specially in the middle of the fight). Speed is good, that makes it easier to break lights if you are expecting them.
About the characters you mention: TJ has some stuff that are hard to see (however practice breaking the autobarrage, is not that hard). Tj’s biggles problem to me are his manuals (which I should focus on breaking his linkers anyway…) and his down-up + punch because if you can’t see all the hits there’s no audio cue to distinguish.
Aria: she is hard to break. I can distinguish heavies and then I break her by speed. Her leg linker, with the nades (is she Madonna btw?) wheterver is called, it’s very hard to react well (light hits three, medium hits four, heavy hits five, following a rythm).
1 Like
I think that’s part of the point with some characters. Is having the particles of moves hide their next move. Although if they toned it down I’m not sure it that would be a good idea. Since it might cause confusion on whether or not a move was hit or blocked.
Ask a dev.
So I apologize about before, honestly I made this topic because I was angry that I couldnt break stuff and getting broken the moment I pressed a button.
If someone knowledgable with the combo breaker system that can assist me at fixing my problem, please PM me.
Once again I apologize for making this topic with anger.
Honestly combo breakers are what is holding me back from being excellent at this game.
Light TJ doubles are face jabs, Mediums are gut punches, Heavies are uppercuts.
Light Aria doubles are a bit harder, but just try to keep in mind what her light normals look like. Medium kick doubles use the shotgun, so they are more obvious. Medium punch doubles have her lung forward but are still pretty fast. Heavies should be slow enough to identify.
1 Like
For both punch and kick buttons?
If you want to start using your opponents animations as your Que for breaking, then I recommend going into combo breaker training and starting with the characters that only have 1 set of auto doubles (TJ, Rash, Arbiter, Gargos, RAAM, and Eyedol)
Im confused, only one set? Like most of their moves look exactly the same?
When I say one set, I mean that punch auto doubles and kick auto doubles share the exact same animation.
1 Like
Yep, some characters only have as few as 3 autodoubles (ADs) while others have as many as 9 (most have 6 though).
1 Like
If they are breaking you a heavy linker at the first hit or breraking you before being able to see the animation they are guessbreaking you. They don’t care what you do, they just hit the breaker with what they think you are going to do. It’s frustrating I know, but don’t stop playing your game just because of that. You can condition them to break X strength and the use a counter breaker.
Watch out if they are reading a pattern, I played a guy that would only do medium and light manuals, 2 and 2, very predictable, so I took my chances to break that. I don’'t really suggest counterbreaking manuals online. Breaking in the right way is not that easy, guessbreaking is.
Thats pretty rough. Thought most people who break me locally are very good players so they probably already know my buttons.
This is very useful information. We should have a thread or chart that has little details like this for people to study and memorize. It would be a great learning tool for people who have trouble figuring this stuff out in game on our own lol
For example I always had trouble breaking Riptor (and still do) but once somebody here said (Flames = heavys) it helped out a whole bunch when fighting Riptors.
Does anybody have any tips for breaking Hisako? Every time I fight her I am literally guessing every time I try to break lol
We already did, I think.
…it’s around here somewhere…
Awesome, do you have any idea what I could type in to search for it? I would love to sit down and read over it sometime.
Sadly, I don’t.
You don’t really need it anyways, though. Just go into practice mode AS the character you need help with breaking and do a heavy opener followed by the 3 or 6 stanard ADs that each character has over and over again and commit them to memory (it’s what I did ages ago). Better yet, make that character the AI and record it doing the ADs, so you can practice reading them and THEN breaking them, visually. Best of all, go into combo breaker training, and set the AI to do random ADs only, so you can truly get the rhythm of reading and breaking. Once you get that, simply do a lot of the same for linkers and manuals.
1 Like
Yeah I will probably do that. I have a feeling it will take me a long long time to do it with each character but I guess it’s better than guessing so much lol
I know you have some Aganos tips you can give me lol Like the finger flick, is that light , medium or heavy? Or how about the stomp? I will eventually take everybody into training and learn them but I have a long way to go. Last time I started with Jago and it didn’t even finish the S1 characters lol
Aganos’ AD Animations
LP = finger-flick
MP = backhand slap
HP = gut punch
LK = head butt
MK = shoulder bash
HK = high stomp
1 Like