Help/Advice against high 300/mid 400 ranked bots

Scymon

This is mainly to ask for strategies against higher ranked bots who usually just continually backstep when you try to attack and they will counter immediately after you try to close the gap to engage. So how would I go about counteracting this kind of strategy that the AI takes up? It primarily happens to me in arena, but occasionally does happen in story.

lilbeastie

try to mix it up a little - if you continually try punch-punch-punch-heavy the AI will get out of the way every time. The less predicatable you are the more likely you'll get your hits in.

Countering is also usually more effective to cause damage - wait for a bot to charge you, then sidestep and counter rather than dashing in on him.

Scymon

@lilbeastie I do get where you're coming from with changing up what I do, which I will take note of and follow through with. My problem is that the AI will usually do this "avoidance strat" almost form the get-go. I'll string maybe 1 or 2 combos, and it will immediately back away multiple times. I try to charge and it shoots me (even when I'm right in their face). The problem with countering (though I do it plenty) is that it requires the AI to initiate an attack on you. But if they're avoiding you from the start, waiting for them to initiate would take too long, if not never happen.

But I will try changing up my combos and what I do and see if that changes anything. Thank you.

Trailfire

If you're fighting bots tougher than your own bot, I usually end up doing more counter attacks than leading attacks. Meaning, I dance around a lot shooting off 1-2 ranged attacks, waiting for them to either attack me so I can sidestep and counter, or better yet, fail to intercept or evade my ranged, so I can charge and combo.

Some bots need to use lots of heavy attacks. Bots like BC, Bee... to a lesser extent Rhinox who gets that sweet power block... I usually try to mix up the number of hits I put in a combo before I use a heavy. I'm not 100% sure this helps, but it seems like if you use a lot of heavy attacks in a consistent patter, the AI learns to dodge it very quickly.

Watch some gameplay vids on youtube. iNightSkies has quite a few that are really good. And keep trying different things. I'll tell you, it's possible to regularly beat bots more than twice your level without taking any damage (not easy, but possible). So keep trying stuff and watching what other ppl do until you're better