So how do you go about managing your team and the resources that you have to work with? What do you do with your first? Do you place a battery there, do you start off with a leader? When do you usually use skill stock? Super cancels only? Saving shifts? Quick shifts even if the entire thing is blocked?
From what I can tell, the only reason I've been doing better than a decent number of people I've been challenging here is because of this concept. This is what I usually do when I play a match in terms of team and resource allocation:
Let the first character be the battery and the damage sponge. Use someone who has at least moderate defense and can do good damage with or without stock. Preferably they should be better at building stock than your other two characters. I almost NEVER use a saving shift with the first guy because of the big problem: by the time you get the two skill stock to use the saving shift, your character will be pretty much dead.
Using the saving shift to gtfo is pointless at this point because you're gonna have a messed up character with almost no life when you switch him out. He's a walking liability. You are essentially shooting yourself in the foot keeping a character with zero life alive, because it's almost guaranteed that once he gets popped back in, he will die to something stupid, and right there you lose your momentum AND a shitload of your judgement when it counts.
If anything, with my first guy, I only use one skill stock and at best two power stocks, I try to use characters with really good hit confirms (Kyo, Iori, Ryo, etc.) before I use their DMs, but if anything, I try (emphasis on the word try, I DO get stupid sometimes with it) to save the stock for the other non-leader guy. Skill stock is usually used for either a supercancel or a really fast quick shift into my other non-leader character, whom I switch out almost immediately back to the first character after the combo is finished. I then try to do as MUCH damage as possible with the first and let him die.
While they're busy switching out their guys and letting you whittle out their other two people, you've got two fresh characters, and if you learned to conserve correctly, then you now have three-four powerstocks with one-two skill stocks. IMO, you're probably MUCH better off than the other guy, especially if you picked a leader with a ghey LDM that allows for free juggles off of quick shifts, saving shifts and basically anything that sends them flying.
At this point it's all about learning when to do a skill shift/super cancel/dream cancel combo and basically using the other character as support for quick-shift mixups, and to save your ass if you do something that leaves it WIDE open. At this point, instead of making like everyone else and saving the leader for absolute last, I usually try to dance the two characters around, bringing in the leader to do the damage and get the judgement while letting the other one harass the opponent.
And again, the main thing I do is to let the second one die once he's out of life. Saving him when he's almost dead is pointless unless his presence was essential for your team (perhaps he's good at countering that turtling Athena/Kensou player, or maybe he matches Gato in terms of speed and priority, who knows).
At this point, whatever I do, I try to not let the leader come in with less than 2 stock. In this KoF more than 2k3, your leader is the gamebreaker and one who will help with the win (hence the reason why he's called a LEADER). A leader coming in with < 2 stock at a pivotal point in the match (perhaps you were Gato and were trying to whore his
x 2 + P DM too much) - generally the last 30 or so seconds is extremely detrimental.The way this system works gives people who don't think about this concept a great way to shoot themselves in the foot when they lose a character, and I say more power to those who actually REALIZE this. Sometimes I see even in JP match vids the reckless abandon in which QSes and whatnot are used, and how some of these guys seem to treat it like a KoF with "some extra damage you can do at the end of a combo".
So whatcha think? How do you run your team?
B DM) etc etc
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