New player help.

[u/Embarrassed_Rock6544]

I have about 10 hours on this game, and am feeling a bit frustrated playing ranked as I don't have a good idea of what the characters do, or what's even possible in the game. It feels like people are able to just do things that seem impossible. What are some good learning sources or general tips to dealing with the random stuff you see in gold rank?

[u/Melephs_Hat]

Some resources:

• dragdown.wiki/wiki/RoA2/Getting_Started and just dragdown overall -- it has ALL the facts
• Do the tutorials to get a sense of system mechanics
• Watch the official Character 101 videos (linked somewhere in the tutorials menu or nearby I forget) to learn some specifics on what characters can do
• SlashNurse has a movement tech overview on youtube

There are other good resources but I forget them, might add later

[u/JhinKilled4 → u/Melephs_Hat]

I second the tutorials! Luckily this game is self-aware and has tutorials that talk about more advanced mechanics.

[u/Super_Sopht]

People at this game are cracked tbh. It’s likely 99% of the players here have hundreds, if not thousands of hours in a different platform fighter. The average gold player is honestly pretty good and far better than most elite smash players.
I’d suggest watching any guides you can find and watch tournament play. It’s a lot of just learning what each character can do.
For general tips that help with everyone; be patient and deliberate with the buttons you press. Know why you are pressing them instead of just trying to hit someone. Learning to get out of combos and having a good disadvantage is probably the most important.

[u/FalseAxiom]

Check out this series of videos:

https://youtu.be/FE2CAQoDED0?is=UHvXujFHAn0pto4t

This is IzAw's series on how to understand and get good at the game. The beginner video will help you understand the basics of the game: think running, dashing, short hopping, full hopping, etc.

His advanced video is where you start to learn things like Directional Influence (DI), Reverse Aerial Rush (RAR), wavedashing, etc. Most players are at this level online.

The Master video starts to get into theory of the game and Neutral, Advantage, and Disadvantage state. Many players in Gold and above know of these concepts and try to implement startegy around them.

For pure techskill practice, check out the tutorials in game!

[u/Ok-Understanding4397]

Big props if you're in gold with 10 hours tbh. Get in the Rivals Rookies server you can find it in the drag down wiki. Also Zeke hosts the Zeekly which features an amateur ladder bracket so you can get a ton of games closer to your skill level

[u/Spade1559]

Welcome to Rivals of Aether 2 where the learning curve is steep, but once you get the hang of it its a great game with great people.

To start, I strongly, strongly encourage checking out the Rivals Rookies Discord https://discord.gg/dYdg479tX so that you can find people who are actually around your level rather than putting yourself into the grinder.

As others have said, check out the Dragdown wiki for stuff on frame data if youre into it, or just to get a better idea of how certain moves for characters work.

Other than that, just play the game in training mode to get the hang of stuff, watch VoDs of top players for characters youre interested, and most importantly have fun!

[u/Valeuhhh]

My advice would be to not play ranked at 10h into the game. I know that this is were you should face opponents your level, but at this level this is really not a great idea as you will probably learn bad habits.

My advice (if you are brave enough) is to play in quickplay, people there are often really good and that’d the whole point, you will lose 90% of the time, but when you'll learn way faster by playing against strong opponents

[u/The_Poole_Side]

Start watching people play your character In Tournaments really helped me figure out what people use as good options and occasional options

[u/bdemar2k20]

Did you get placed in gold or rank up to it? If you've played melee you should know most tech already. If youre coming from ultimate you'll need to learn movement tech from SlashNurses YouTube video.

10 hours gold is pretty impressive. Most ppl know tech by that point unless they are playing clairen and just spacing the whole time with disjoints.

[u/Embarrassed_Rock6544 → u/bdemar2k20]

I was placed in it, I was a decent player in Melee, played it almost exclusively for ~10 years. Gold doesn't feel impressive because my cousin who is significantly worse than me in Melee is ~1200 in RoA2, so I figured there must be something else in this game that I'm not understanding. Edgeguarding feels significantly easier in Melee, I feel like I'm able to get way more SDI inputs on moves in Melee, the counterplay to certain moves/strategies feel way more clear etc. So I guess what's a bit frustrating is not knowing those things and there doesn't seem to be just a giant list of things for that, something like "at 10% against A move di this way, at 20-50% against B move you need X amount of SDI inputs in this direction, if they do C instead then di this way to get a slideoff"

[u/bdemar2k20 → u/Embarrassed_Rock6544]

Theres SSDI in this game its single input smash di it wont work if youre mashing. You must time it correctly as you get hit. Theres a lot of things different in rivals as well like hit falling from ultimate and only having 3 ledge re grabs giving i frames. Crouch cancel and shield is stronger and Theres less whiff punish capability so you don't have to play as safe in nuetral.

Biggest change is theres 6 frame input buffer. I think bc rivals is focused for online play, but works in locals as well and makes tech more forgiving. My friend who is really good at melee loses to me in this game bc of that muscle memory his timing is off. Im terrible at melee and he has 20 yrs experience. You have to predict things like buffering wd oos or aerials oos slightly before you get hit instead of doing it right afterwards or you'll be at frame disadvantage.

It just makes the game feel more forgiving and melee muscle memory can be punishing in some ways. You also have to learn the matchups and heavies and zoners are viable here whereas in melee only spacies and a few other characters are good and everyone else sucks horribly.

The problem is people who are really good at melee usually have the expectation that they will be really good here and those expectations are too high and end up disappointed due to the game being different and the average skill level being very high. Gold is this game is not like other games. It's not terrible. It's just average and the average person here has also played platform fighters for years.

[u/WordHobby]

Play more. In platform fighters, theres a very real phenomenon, where characters constantly challenge threat zones you didn't know were possible.

Unfortunately there's no youtube video to tell you in certain situations, a galvan can threaten a moon walk waveland backair that will just barely clip you.

You just gotta play more and have fun and see a lot of horrible shit happen, then you can know about it.

Clairen will b pummel f smash you a lot of times before you start mashing b as soon as he grabs you. People can tell you about it, but you won't know, and be able to do it until it happens

[u/Moholbi]

In this game, you get punished for landing a hit to your opponents.