Once upon a time, I could beat fm

[Uhx]

Aaaaaaaaaand now I can't. wtf. Did they get buffed or something? Are you guys having a harder time against them lately? 

[Shuchin]

It might be helpful to know what PvP mode and ranking we are talking about. Also how many FMs you have gone up against unsuccessfully (maybe you just had bad luck and ran into two or three good ones on their way up?) and if you have any HM skills yet.

If you are struggling against low silver FMs in 1v1 then you should definitely be able to improve that, likely just with a few better skill choices.

skill checklist:

 

Do you have ice guard specced to remove ice and root?
Do you have any type of HM counter or failing that, stage 4 "resist one attack on successful counter"?
Do you have Avenging Fist specced to remove block approach and give you iframes?
Do you have escape from grab specced on second wind?
Do you have smite specced for follow up on avenging strike?
Do you have one point in SS?

 

If all that is set, you should be able to have an easy time against unskilled FMs.

 

Opener is easy because you can either flurry or just counter. Get some knockup in and stun them on dropping down, then dodge their tab. If they don't tab soften them up with knockdowns, X > X, more knockups. Once they tab just use tremor for 3 second stun and finish them off.
If they freeze you too much just use ice guard. Keep countering sensibly and use all your gap closers. If they use defense breaking stuff too much switch to elbow smash. ^_^

[Lee Ryu]

On 9/29/2016 at 11:50 AM, Shuchin said:

Opener is easy because you can either flurry or just counter. Get some knockup in and stun them on dropping down, then dodge their tab. If they don't tab soften them up with knockdowns, X > X, more knockups. Once they tab just use tremor for 3 second stun and finish them off.
If they freeze you too much just use ice guard. Keep countering sensibly and use all your gap closers. If they use defense breaking stuff too much switch to elbow smash. ^_^

Except you forgot the part where FM uses his second escape :) they have an ice dash too

[Shuchin]

that is true, though half the silver rank FMs I met don't use it - maybe they naively think a shorter cooldown on SS makes up for the lack of trinket effect.

The basic strategy is the same though, you just need to repeat it twice. With proper countering, freeze removal and gap closing you can even win without ever stunlocking. Air combos are slow but will shift the situation to your advantage over time.

Also PvP searing palm is really good to make them panic now, as we have so many more ways to shorten the cooldown.

[Uhx]

Hey, thanks for the replies guys and sorry for my late response. Life aggro is too op these days.

 

On 29/09/2016 at 7:50 AM, Shuchin said:

Do you have ice guard specced to remove ice and root?
Do you have any type of HM counter or failing that, stage 4 "resist one attack on successful counter"?
Do you have Avenging Fist specced to remove block approach and give you iframes?
Do you have escape from grab specced on second wind?
Do you have smite specced for follow up on avenging strike?
Do you have one point in SS?

Of those, I don't use 1 point for SS. Neither Smite specced for follow av. strike.

Also, I don't have any HM counter right now. I'm level 50, Hm5.

How does their guard break works?

 

I don't what's happening, these silver fms have HM skills on silver rank right now. wth are they doing on silver yet, lol.

My bigger issue with them is that they seem to zip on my back way too often. I don't know much about their freeze status thingie (the ones which you get rooted after you get 3x the debuff). 

 

Again, thanks for the replies and excuse my english.

 

[Lunakitty]

28 minutes ago, Uhx said:

I don't what's happening, these silver fms have HM skills on silver rank right now. wth are they doing on silver yet, lol.

The ranks reset lately so there might be diamond/platinum/gold ranked FMs in silver right now.

[Shuchin]

@Lunakitty Actually only 3v3, 6v6 and ToI reset recently. 1v1 is still ongoing and pretty late into the season too. The reason those FM are down in silver even with HM skills is because they run into KFMs like me who win against them but lose against SF and some SINs, BDs, BMs. ;)

 

@Uhx

1 point in SS is good for three things: Fast Flying Slam after air combo, getting completely out of AoE damage area and increasing running speed 50% which is huge to stay in melee range. It's also worth more distance if you use it backwards to Tiger pounce them if they try to make for opposite corner. 1 point well invested imo.

 

Smite after Av. Fist is very good in 1v1: It can give you time for cool downs, a breather for checking said cool downs, and a good starting position to do a follow up combo. You only need good control during your 3RF so you do not accidentally launch them.

 

If you have no HM counter, go with the PvE counter (stage 4). That way you can counter and get one more additional resist per counter. If the FM is a little experienced against KFM they will block defense skills, though. Then you have no choice but to use regular Elbow Smash.

Once you have HM counter, which is high priority for PvP, you are much better off.

Basically all three options (stage 1, 2 and 4) are great:

 

Stage 1 and 3 both give you 1 sec immunity on counter, making you last much much longer while waiting for Av. Fist or SS to come out of cool down.

Stage 1 has very small heal but 2 seconds stun/daze immunity, Stage 3 has a stronger heal. Choice is up to you but I favour the 2% heal.

Stage 2 (Elbow Smash) is the real treasure if you don't just spam it but can use it reactively. It's offensive-defense so not affected by their defense block or break skills. HM version also does massive damage, increases your crit for an Av. Fist + Smite follow up and adds 1 additional resist like the regular stage 4 counter does. That's on top of the usual defense increase and focus recovery.

[Uhx]

I'm starting to get slowly better against FMs. Those tips were really useful. Thank you for this, I aprecciate it.

[Aloth]

On 13/10/2016 at 9:34 AM, Shuchin said:

Stage 2 (Elbow Smash) is the real treasure if you don't just spam it but can use it reactively. It's offensive-defense so not affected by their defense block or break skills. HM version also does massive damage, increases your crit for an Av. Fist + Smite follow up and adds 1 additional resist like the regular stage 4 counter does. That's on top of the usual defense increase and focus recovery.

I started using Elbow Smash against a lot of the ranged classes (and assassins) as I don't have HM Counter. It makes them think twice about spamming me with abilities and some of the bad ones even kill themselves on it. I like it so much that I'm curious how big of a damage increase the HM version offers.

[Shuchin]

The damage increases from 3.5x base to 6x base with Blazing Twin Cobra. Also the crit buff that you get changes from 10% crit for 1.5 sec to 15% crit and 10% crit damage for 3 seconds, which is a huge boost for follow ups.

 

Another advantage is the 1x resist you get on counter, which offsets the 1.3 sec cooldown of HM Elbow Smash well.

 

It also seems to me that Blazing Twin Cobra does not generate a missile that can be used for deflects or stealth procs. Have to check again if the animation for non-HM is the same, though.

[KurooSakura]

No, we didn't get buffed, you just need to gitgud. 

 

Edit: Were you the KFM I was against yesterday in 1v1? I was the fm with the cool red hair. 

[Uhx]

14 hours ago, KurooSakura said:

No, we didn't get buffed, you just need to gitgud. 

 

Edit: Were you the KFM I was against yesterday in 1v1? I was the fm with the cool red hair. 

Yes I do actually need to get better, that was the whole purpose of my post. And so far far people were actually helping me.

And I don't know if that was you, I don't really care much about the hairstyle of my oponents.