Hello everyone.

I've been playing DOA4 for a little while now, and let me just say this to begin with: I'm sick of getting my butt handed to me by the AI.
I used to play DOA 2 and 3 and I noticed that the series got more and more difficult. I've heard about the lead prima donna behind the series, and I kinda feel sorry for the poor geek. But enough about that.

I was wondering if someone would be willing to teach me a few tricks online, so I can start enjoying the DOA series once more?
On that note: Do people even still play this game online? (People that also have a life and actually enjoy the game itself, and not just trying to find noobs they can beat up. ^^)

I always enjoyed the DOA series, and find it a shame that it's now so closed off to new players, because only veterans can really put up a good fight. In my opinion games should be challenging, but not so hard as to ruin the fun. After all that’s why most of us are playing: To have fun.

What the hell are you even asking about?  You 'feel sorry' for what 'poor geek'?.

You're asking for help -- yet you're ridiculing people that actually have taken the time out to understand the game as a whole.

Wtf do you want?

"People that also have a life -- stop."

Basically, you're the typical scrub that assumes that anyone that is better than you on a video game has 'no life' and 'does nothing but play (enter game here)'. 

DOA4 is 'closed off' to 'new players' because it is been around for I dunno -- almost 5 years?

Find someone willing to teach you the basic concepts of the game and take it from there.  Otherwise, you're actually S.O.L considering most of the more talented players of the series don't give a rats as. s anymore.

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Congratulations....to me!

You totally misunderstood my request.

First of all I 'm not ridiculing anyone. People that play this game allot, probably do so, because they like it. Just like me. I just find it a little overly difficult and asking for some help, so I can be better at it.

"The poor geek" is a certain Tomonobu Itagaki, who made the series. No offence... But he is imo.

As for the people with lives -comment: That was meant as a semi-joke. It's no big secret that some people take these games a little too seriously, and tend to prey on others that haven’t spent nearly as much time, playing the game. Some even tend to only play vs noobs, because they don't like losing.
I'm not saying that is the case with everyone, and I don't know if that is the case with people playing DOA4. I just don't want to waste my time with someone that don't really want to teach me something, but only want to show off, by defeating a noob.  (Yes some people are like that. If you never encountered someone like that, you’re lucky and I envy you.)

So to elaborate:
If someone could give me some pointers to this game, maybe online in-game? That would be grand.

Oh and Aksion. Take it easy man. It’s just a game. No need to get all bent out of shape. Even if the game has been around for 5 years, it shouldn’t mean that there’s no room for new players, right?

Skirt wearing rabid fanboys full of poorly thought out assumptions aside, Aksion had one valid point in his banter.

The game is too old for new players. Wait for a new one (probly years down the road) or bite the bullet and play till you get good, all the energy was sucked out of the game years ago.

Have fun tho, with what is left.

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Midway used to have talent.

Retired account.

all that can say counter more and block add if you add me if want to play

The thing is that by this point "all the tricks" have been done in this game.   Most of the really good players tend to do only private rooms for a variety of reasons I won't get into here since they've been mentioned at nauseam by this point.  I disagree with one of the above posters though, there is "energy" since this game still has quite a few people on it online.  I can point you to a few sites that may help, & beyond that I always say to look for this players who use "your" characters really well.  Play them or ask them to teach you some things, the worst things they can do are ignore you or say "no". 

As for the  sites: 

• DoAC:  The default DoA site. 
  
• OLGP:  not a dedicated DoA site per se, but they are much more open with what info they do have. 
  

There was also Xdests DoA+,  but I don't think that's around anymore. 

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That which is manmade has within it the seeds of its own destruction.

That "geek" prolly made more money off the DoA series then you ever will in your life time. I really hate people that pull the geek and no life cards.

DoA4 is the scrubbiest version of the DoA series. If anything, this version should appeal to scrubs. The problem is, even though doa2 was online first, most of the spike of players popped into doa4 and got their asses handed to them and felt the game was to difficult.

Not to say DoA4 doesn't take skill, but its definitely the easiest in the series to get good at.

DoA3.1 > All

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Integrity First
Service Before Self
Excellence in All We Do

If you wish to learn DoA, my friend, study DoAU. There is a website in which is dedicated to the DoA series -- www.doacentral.com -- that will help a little. However, mind you that no amount of book-reading beats life experience. Feel free to pop on Ultimate and find a match. You don't even have to play, just watch some of the fighters. If that doesn't work, do send a FR; I can show you.

Learning Ultimate is the route you need to take; it is where the depth began. Then, just apply that to DoA 4. Although 4 is mashy potatoes, you'll have some credability about how things operate. Then, you will say, "DoA 4 is horrid, I will stick with Ultimate."

That has to be some of the most horrible advice I have ever read.

Why on earth would you tell someone to pick up DOAU2 and apply that to DOA4?

Most likely because you yourself didn't exactly learn how to play 4 at all.  You just stuck the the mentality of so many other DOAU2 players that because DOA4 took a step backward in the progression of the game mechanics -- that it is utter trash and then proceed to bash it every chance you get.

Great.  Good job.  Original.

If you really want to talk to someone that dislikes DOA4 even more than I do and knows more about the entire series -- talk to Raansu.  DOAU2 is fine and dandy -- but you may as well just treat it as a completely different game from 4.

Terrible, terrible advice.

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Congratulations....to me!

Go into sparring mode with your opponent as a popular character like Ryu Hayabusa. Set the Com 1st action as a combo. Start with the first one. Learn to stand there and block. Imagine it's a real person. Be relaxed. Once you feel relaxed enough, counter it midway. Once again imagine it's a real person and that you've just upset their plan. Do it again and again. Even though you know what's coming, you will probably be hit a few times. If you can't pull off these counters naturally and without error in sparring mode, when you know exactly the sequence that's coming, you won't be able to do them well at all in a real fight. Go through each combo sequence and practice blocking and countering. Get a feel for the movements of these popular characters. The Xbox controller isn't a very good one, let's be honest. So you have to get a feel for the controller and pressing the buttons well. You don't want to be blaming the controller mid-fight. Stay relaxed. DOA4 is a very fast-paced fighter, faster than Virtua Fighter and way faster than Soul Calibur. Much of your strength will come from prediction and your greatest weakness will be your predictability and/or slowness to adapt.

Countering is about the last thing you even want to try and master. Countering in any DoA game is a last resort simply because of the fact that countering is a guess, and most of the time, your opponent is baiting for that counter. The risk/reward factor just isnt good enough.

As for as defense go's, learning to block well is important. Blocking well leads to a better offense. Eventually you will move on to proper spacing. The better you get, the less youll be blocking, the more youll be spacing and forcing your opponent to miss attacks. You want to bait them in for whiff punishments.

Guaranteed whiff punishment > 50/50 defensive hold.

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Integrity First
Service Before Self
Excellence in All We Do

Countering shouldn't be a first resort of course, even though in previous DOA games they could be relied upon for a great deal of damage, but they should be there for you as a beginner, since some rank A-hole (or as it may happen, another beginner) will try to push you around with just one move over and over again. A seasoned player can space correctly, but until then you should be able to break a combo that's beating you up, especially when you see it coming.

 Koleax wrote:

Countering shouldn't be a first resort of course, even though in previous DOA games they could be relied upon for a great deal of damage, but they should be there for you as a beginner, since some rank A-hole (or as it may happen, another beginner) will try to push you around with just one move over and over again. A seasoned player can space correctly, but until then you should be able to break a combo that's beating you up, especially when you see it coming.

Countering did horrible damage in doa3, and if you missed, you got destroyed.

Anyways, as far as doa4 go's, you need to learn how to block and punish first. Relying on counters is going to cause you to spam and get you into a bad situation. Learning how to block and slow escape properly is not only the basics of defense, but a must before you move onto anything else. If you look at the majority of good players, they rarely counter unless they know they can catch it, or they are in to deep of a stun and they need to counter to pull them out of the stun. It's risky, but sometimes you just count slow escape fast enough to get out of a heavy stun.

If some scrub is spamming the same string over and over again, you need to know how to block it and punish it before you try to risk countering, specially if someone is doing that to bait you into a counter. Then guess what? You just got thrown for 150% dmg.

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Integrity First
Service Before Self
Excellence in All We Do

It seems there's all kinds of ways I can get better at this game. I appreciate all the help and/or advice you people have given me. I probably wont go online with this game as imo its just not worth it for new players like me. Plus I don't play it as much anymore anyway.

I'll try practicing them blocks and counters, and hope for a miracle so I can land that last Hayate throw "raijin" in practice mode. XD

Use both joysticks for Hayate's raijin, believe me, it makes life much easier.

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Integrity First
Service Before Self
Excellence in All We Do

 RogueDK wrote:

It seems there's all kinds of ways I can get better at this game. I appreciate all the help and/or advice you people have given me. I probably wont go online with this game as imo its just not worth it for new players like me. Plus I don't play it as much anymore anyway.

I'll try practicing them blocks and counters, and hope for a miracle so I can land that last Hayate throw "raijin" in practice mode. XD

best way is to go through the command list.  Apart from learning new combos & moves, you'll unlock voices (big wup!)

I've stopped playing this terrific game online.  Lag, even milliseconds is lag and spoils.

The first thing you need to do is pick one character, go to training, learn ALL it's moves so that you can do them without thinking, and then apply them in combat. If you go and don't know the moves of your character there's no point in trying to get good at all..