More tips on SC4 Ivy; includes tips against online mistu and seigfred

Couple things i have now found – well more like i can now do since i have left the ranking of a beginner – that greatly improve my game play.

Again, I am going to explain use the numpad keys as form of a representation of directions on the controller. Therefore, 3A stand for lower right plus the horizontal attack.

First of all i found remapping the keys helps out exceptionally. I use PS3 so i map A+G to L1, B+G to L2, A+K to R1 and B+K to R2. This make moves a lot easier and does wonders with Ivy. The reason is 90 percent of ivy moves allow for change of stance when instead of inputting the command A or B you place A+K or B+K.

This leads to a whole new level of possibilities as you will realise there are some unlisted moves that occur because of switch in command. Example would be the Whip 6AA attack, where swings the whip and barrels forward with whip flaying everywhere. Another way to perform this attack is in coiled stance. simple press 6A,A+K, which will not only perform the move but also leave you in whip stance. It also makes for a great opener.

Learning to juggle stances in between moves is a must for Ivy players. This is why. One combo that ivy has is in coiled stance, where you input 6A,K – stunning the opponent – then 4B, which knocks the opponent to the ground and spins him giving another second to get another move. If you stay in coiled stance the highest damage you get is 59-68.

ok. Now if we tweak it a little bit. Do coiled 6A,K; 4B, A+K (while she is doing the 4B attack) switching to whip stance and then 66 A+B (the move where she sends the sword into the ground and pops out four times) the damage rises up to 94-100. combing moves in this manner makes life much easier.

Sword Stance is DIVINE. Small hard hitting punishing move specially 6(hold B) and 3B, after which you perform any type of juggle. My personal favorite in sword stance is the 6(hold B) stun jab, then the punishing 3B bounce ‘em attack after which i follow up with a 4B, 4K then either 8B+k or 1 B+k.

The biggest problem i face online is seigfred and Misturugi, best thing in sword stance i found against them is spaming, while crouching 3B in sword stance, while rising AA in coiled, coiled 6B and whip 3A.

These two characters give me the most trouble and there are too MANY people playing these two. Mistu most of all is a pain in the ass. His vertical attacks home like no other so side stepping is a pain. Whip stance is risky against these two because once they start rushing they will rip you to shreds. Whip just doesn’t have fast enough attacks to counter the two.

I found out that 75% of mistu’s attacks hit mid and online these very same attacks are mixed with lows to make a deadly combo. The best way to defend against them is using low guard impact (3,G) which now blocks both low attacks and mid attacks. Since Mistu and Seigfred are just notorious about spamming low and mid attacks at amazingly ridiculous speed this is a must learn if you going to have a chance to survive.

The two ways i trained to improve my impact skills, were in training mode. First i would switch the setting to command playback mode and select either mistu or seigfred. Then i would start recording with taking two steps back, after which i would start performing all the moves that i would come across online and spam them in this long 60 second burst. Afterwards i just keep pressing the start playback option and all i’ll do is try to impact all of em. Once you have gotten to the point where you can do both high and low guard impacts on at least 90 percent of the attacks you are ready to switch to the next level.

You switch the training setting to vs. cpu with the difficulty at very hard or edgemaster, and try to do a crictal finish on the computer, with minimal attacks. The impact moves do the most damage to the soul gauge, with the soul repel (the red flash parry) having the ability to instantly cause a soul crush when the gauge is blinking.

I personally have not been able to pull this part of but it has improved my ability to do impacts online significantly. Takes about an hour, or two, to get to the point where doing the impact move is instinctive.