Ok first thing's first, before I can teach you any technical information, understanding the notations is the most important thing.
Thread:
http://8wayrun.com/threads/basic-notations-and-terminology.58/
Convienient Video Format:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDDfI554mQs&feature=player_embedded
Once you understand these things; you can begin to understand the information presented on the site.
Alright, assuming you've digested those; there are many ways to learn to play the game. My personal suggestion is 3 major things help you learn the game:
1) The obvious: Playing the game.
Playing the game with skilled players is a more accurate definition of what I'm trying to say. There is an old saying, which is "Your only as good as your best competition". Playing against good people will show you what your bad habits are as a player; because they will exploit them. Then, from your match experience, and especially from your losses, if you can reflect on WHY you lost (or have a good teacher who can explain it to you as well), you will learn rapidly. It also familiarizes you with match-ups and move animations, as well as common tactics.
If you have no offline competition in your area (which you can figure out by visiting
this forum), or are loathe to venture out into the offline arena without some basics first, playing online is a decent but imperfect substitute.
Allow me to be frank: Online does not offer a complete way to learn. The differences in the game online and off are many and varied; due to lag having such a huge and sometimes hidden effect on the way the game is played. That doesn't mean that it's worthless though, because there are many good players online and even some top tournament players play online SC. The major difference between them and the bad players is that they omit "lag tactics" from their play as much as humanly possible. For more insight on "Lag Tactics" and how to level up your game online, visit
this thread and
this forum. Be sure to heed to header warning though. Sometimes the online forum can be not-so-nice.
2) Practice Mode is your friend!
SC4 offers a very robust practice mode; with tons of options. It can help you combo practice, and it can help you learn to defend against certain attacks. You can program it to attack you in certain ways so you can become familiar with how to deal with those things. Every good player has spent "time in the lab" as practice mode is known. Those combos you can practice? You can find them in the respective characters Soul Arenas, which house character specific information:
Nightmare Sophitia and
Astaroth. You can also find info on the characters moves; and matchups against other characters.
3) Watching videos of good players
This one seems obvious, but there is a caveat to it- while it is good to see what effective moves and tactics good players use; it is far more important to see what they DON'T do. Ask yourself why certain players aren't doing certain things and you will be on your way to learning to break down the game and become a better player.
Some sample videos from top tournament players for each of your characters:
Keev (Nightmare) vs Saitoh (Astaroth) Both of these players are largely regarded as the best players for their particular character.
Something Unique (Kilik) vs Ramon (Sophitia) These players are also widely regarded with both of their characters, perhaps the best examples in the US of each of them.
This should get you started, I'll follow this one up with some more specific information tommorow.
-Idle
