OK,
May be I can try and help out.
One of the toughest things in getting into DOA is trying to understand the triangle system and get around it.
The first thing you should try and convince yourself (pls dont take this the wrong way), is that theres no such thing as "everything is random", not in DOA and not in ANY game. With the correct understanding of the game you can have more focused approach in dealing pressure and dealing WITH pressure.
Kokoro is arguably one of the best characters in DOA5. The reason for this is that unlike most characters, she kinda forces you to commit. I will elaborate:
- 66P+K causes a faint stun (a faint stun is a type of stun that the opponent cannot hold or stagger escape out of). This means that your follow-up is guaranteed. In Kokoro's case, it can guarantee the following: 66P+K P+K 2P. if successfully landed, this will put the opponent in critical threshold, meaning any lancher after this would give you max height. This also means that you can instantly BURST. giving the opponent only one chance to guess from this set up and allowing you to go for a max damage combo or even a powerblow if you have one.
- 236H+P into P+K, another setup leading directly to threshold (allowing max height launch or BURST). the opponent only has one guess. What makes this more deadly is that you can land it from a blocked PP which is a TRUE BLOCK STRING (the opponent cannot hold you on block of the first P)
- another thing you need to bare in mind is that if you are being held alot that means you are obviously doing something wrong (you mentioned that you are being held by mids alot). if an opponent holds, this gives you an opportunity for a free throw with a "HI COUNTER" (+50% damage reward) as a throw punish to a hold. Kokoro's 214H+P,6H+P,46H+P is an extremely painful combo throw that mess up an opponent bad on high counter.
- once you get a counter hit of any kind, if you're not so good at conditioning your opponent, go for a launcher! Kokoro has every launch option when the opponent is in stun:
7K is MID K
2P+K ground bounce is MID P
4P+K is a HIGH launch
Kokoro is one of the characters blessed with the ability to do great damage on juggles ( i suggest practicing her 9P free cancel juggle which I will get into later)
- another thing worth noting is that 4P+K is a normal hit launcher. meaning if you land it, thats an instant guaranteed combo.
- If you're struggling againts spammers and mashers, try and learn kokoros CRUSHES. if you do not know what a crush is, check out my STRIKES tutorial on my youtube channel (link below).
- Kokoro's 9P juggle may seem hard at first, but with free canceling its actually easy. all you need to do is hold the (9) direction and press PHPHPHPH.. and this will allow you to land it 100% of the time. it is also her key to her max damage juggles.
- try and make use of her P+K cancel mixup. she can choose to hit high by pressing P, mid by ressing P+K or low by pressing 2P after. This is pretty deadly and frustrating to the opponent (especially if they were in stun) .. another option is to cancel then press nothing. you would be surprized how vulnerable that purs opponents.
- sitdowns, sitdowns SITDOWNS. Kokoro's 8P6P is one of the longest frame advantage sitdown stuns in the game guaranteeing any mid launcher after it and with the right setup even a burst (to a degree). (sitdown stuns prevent the opponent from being able to hold for a short period)
I made a Kokoro combo vid which can be found here. it might give you a few ideas :
Also, if you are new to the game and need a better understanding of how the game flows. Please watch the tutorial series I've made. Its a work in progress and new volumes are still being added regularly. you can see volumes 1-4 here:
(vol. 05 is coming real soon so keep looking back. I think it will help you alot and answer some of your questions)
If you have any more questions or need any more help, do not hesitate to contact me on Freestepdodge.com or my youtube channel inbox :)
I hope this advice helps you.
Thank you for the advice, but I already know this.
Here's how an opponent deals with me...
PPT - The opponent immediately follows up with PPPP spam before the T comes out. This applies to every Heichu throw, Heichu cancel (8P P+K, 2H+KP+K, 3PPP+K, PP2KP+K) that I use.
66P+K - is not a true crush move, so the only time I have to apply this is after whiff punishing with 236P. 236P tends to be rather selective in what it will punish on whiff. Factor in lag, etc. and you get the idea.
236H+P - I never get this off because opponents love to keep swinging.
I know Kokoro's 9P combo. Heck I told Vincent and showed Vincent a video about this combo. Outside of a certain Japanese player from earlier in this thread, I was using this before the combo got popular. Lag, etc. however, does make it difficult for me to perform this combo all the time.
8P6P - gets held out of often. Lately I go for BT P+K into 66P+K
7K - I use this launcher all the time. It's a essentially a useful frame trap after 2H+KK CH because it forces the opponent into a defensive guessing game. They can still (and often do) hold out of it. Once they start doing that, I go for throw mix-ups. Doesn't always work.
214T4T46T - I can't do this throw accurately in live matches. I'm still practicing it, but I often don't get the chance to get this move off, because it is rare that my opponent(s) actually blocks, or whiffs a hold. I'm not quite sure how I can properly set this up.
Look, today I fought an S- Ranked Christie player. Loved to whiff strings. Constantly does PPP2P. I punished this whiffing with 236P, 66P+K, P+K, 2P, 7P, 4P+K, 9P, 9P, 9P, 9P, 2KP > Danger Zone launch > P+K, 4PPPP. I took my opponent's life from max health to 25% left. This moment the opponent stands right back up, he starts spamming PPP again. KKK. 2PPP, and many more whiff combos. He didn't care that I just took 75% of his health, didn't bat an eye. Just kept doing what he always did.
I lost that round, and all subsequent rounds. I lost the match. And I have yet to win against this player.
It doesn't matter what I do, no matter how hard I punish them. No matter what setups, or crushes, or spam I use against the player, they still keep pushing the same crap. And whether it be my weak defense (the back button simply won't guard online), lag, or otherwise, they keep doing the same crap and I end up losing.
I've had matches where I've done nothing but 2H+KK and hit counter hit on opponents every time. And in many cases, they whiff a hold high. And I've never even struck them with a high move, it doesn't get anymore random than that.
If can't intimidate the opponent, if I can't get into their head, I can't do much. I'm extremely limited. Most of time, I'm playing passive aggressive, trying read my opponent and appropriately counter then with crushes and a variety of moves. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. I stuck using 2H+KK. I can't go fighting higher skilled opponents often because A) I can't find lobbies of 4 bars or greater B) When I create a lobby no one comes C) I get kicked out because I'm playing too rough on players.
So I end up going easy. I stay blindingly obvious, and I keep the pressure minimal. I want to improve, but either I'm facing opponents way too strong for me, or I'm fighting... idiots... I don't really like using that word.
I've ended up fighting so many lesser skilled players, that I have developed bad habits. Something I was trying very hard to avoid. Most of the time, I'm just going for launcher combos with 7K or 4P+K. I'm not trying to do anything overly flashy or complicated. I stun my opponent, fully aware that I could use 1KK to put my opponent in red critical for a CB. Or 8PP+KP+K. Or PK. Plenty of varied options there, that I normally don't use. Instead, the moment I stun the opponent, I go straight into a launch and combo from there. If I try to go for anything else, I'm usually held out of it. It's extremely rare that I will be held out of 7K (but it happens) and less likely 4P+K. But 8P, P, 1K, 2P+K, 6P+K, are far more likely to be held out by my opponent, even when I've never attempted to go for a critical burst.
The opponents I face are guessing. And they win those guesses often. It means that I can't use those options against them, which puts me in a position where I don't use them against other players. Its why I don't use 2H+KP, or 6KP, or most Heichu setups. They simply don't care.
