Patrick Roy said:
What the fu... I can't even f**kin' block properly!
I am constantly getting put into air combos and the only way I can get out is by doing a mega crash. When I try to get close to my opponent to attack - same shit happens again. In no time, both my characters are dead.
Came oh soo close to throwing my arcade stick across the basement yesterday :lol
Long combos are ESSENTIAL to mid level TvC play. You cannot miss opportunities to use long combos to deal damage or you will lose every match.
A few tips to help you beyond combo execution:
LEARN TO BLOCK. Being able to block everything you see is half the battle. All characters, with the exception of giants, in this game have great high/low mixups and the best characters have either special crossups (Tekkaman Blade, Polimar), or high priority/ ambigious air crossups (Tekkaman, Tekkaman Blade, Casshan w/ Friender etc...)
Don't Mega Crash every time you are caught in a long combo. It's usually best to do it either at the very beginning of a combo or when your character is near death. If you still have your partner, swap him in to recover your red life.
Use Advance Guard wisely. Always use Advance Guard when blocking Hyper Combos on the ground and never use it when "floating" on top of a beam Hyper (ie Ryu's Shinkuu Hadouken, Frank West's The Real Mega Buster, or Tekkaman's Voltekka). In addition, a few opposing characters gain a better advantage than you off of being Advance Guard blocked as opposed to being blocked normally.
Learn other characters' most common blockstrings. Unlike most fighting games, most C normals and some B normals are unsafe on block, so watch out for them as that would be a perfect opportunity to counterattack.