Is it better to specialize or generalize?

In my opinion, it's best to master a character, and then get good with a character that's similar (ie Sieg and Nightmare). Then, it certainly helps to get a character that's nothing like your first character (ie Sieg and Xianghua). Picking Xianghua to back me up against fast characters really helps sometimes.
 
generalize. To beat your enemy you must BE your enemy. If you can play everyone decently/well then you know what moves they have and you know what YOU would do in a situation which gives you a basis for your defense against your opponent (best offense is a good defense?). Once you've generalized THEN you can specialize to the degree that you pick ONE player and make them your own personal god-tier. plus it jsut makes the game more fun to use different characters

of course you should probably START with one character for a little while when you FIRST play the game.. but quickly starting to generalize is always good. I mean, you might pick a character later on that you end up deciding is your favorite in the game. Hell, I started SC 2 by playing nightmare...moved to mitsu and then got very good with cervy and ivy. In SC4 I started with cervy (didn't like how ivy was SO different to sc2 version) and then I picked up yoshi cuz he felt the most fun. And then I got good with him and main him now. So you never know who you'll get good with unless you try other characters. You could potentially be missing your "perfect fit"
 
hellbottom said:
the more you know about the whole cast the more chances you have of beating them and the best way to learn about a character is to play it instead of knowing the moves and its best counters, it lets you at least know what options or approaches the opponent is thinking of taking against your character, even if its not always accurate.
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This is a very VERY good point. While you don't necessarily have to master every character, as long as you can the basic understanding as to how each character operates in a fight, then blocking and anticipating their moves can suddenly become a lot easier to do.

Other than that, though, I don't really see the point of getting good with the whole cast... that is, unless you're into Random vs. Random fights. :P
 
In SC2 I generalized I had 3 characters. Ivy main, 2nd Astaroth, 3rd Yoshi.

Ivy I knew well, but if they could beat her I brought out Astaroth and usually could beat them. If both lost I'd rely on the awkwardness and life gaining power of Yoshi.

However in SC4 my Ivy is VASTLY better than my Astaroth and Yoshi. They've pretty much become novelty acts whenever I feel like having fun rather than owning competitively with Ivy. At this point I'm so specialized in Ivy I can't find a single character to adopt as a true secondary. No character operates like her and being so used to her complexity I feel awkward playing the simpler characters. I've tried Astaroth, Yoshi, Amy, Nightmare, Cervantes, and Algol and I simply can't adopt any of them beyond spamming the basics, Astaroth being me most intelligently played of them all.

I fear generalization in 4 since each character is so vastly different than past installments. If I were to say pick up Hilde (who I would love to but have no clue how), she may harm my Ivy since they're are a full 180 on tactics and I may get them crossed. I still find myself trying to do Ivy's 2K with Nightmare for a quick low and doing nightmare's slow footstomp instead. Ivy needs very fast inputs that are deep and complex while Hilde needs constant focus on holding and releasing buttons and even requires me to remap my controller possibly.

The only real advantage is when it comes to counter pick I guess. I'm trying to adopt a fast character to compete with rushing characters that are difficult for Ivy. I need to try Talim and Taki next. I don't like the JF's of Setsuka. However, it may just be better to learn counter strategy with one character. Comfort will be out frame data.
 
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