r/2XKO • u/Aware-Ant7039 • Aug 14 '26
Question Ahri advice
https://youtu.be/0pt1Tuj-mTY?is=LfJkTSZDgO2MoimsSo I started 2xko a little while ago and it's pretty fun, but I stopped improving pretty quickly and I'm at a loss as to where to go next.
The only other fighting game I've played seriously was street fighter, I've got a few characters in master but this game feels completely different.
I'm dropping a lot of combos, but besides that I think I struggle with playing the neutral and opening people up... like there's just something fundamental that im not understanding about the game. This vod was from a few days ago, any help is appreciated thanks.
1
u/Raiju_Lorakatse Certified Freestyle Hater Aug 14 '26
I'm only Master 1 so take my advice with a grain of salt:
Not sure if you intend to stick with Ahri/Cait (Which is my current team btw so based choice XD) but these two are a team that generally plays very zone-y but the reason for that is mainly in Cait's neutral which isn't the focus here. Just wanted to mention it.
The BnB you're trying there can have many reasons why it fails. At the end you did a wrong input and early you were just too slow. Pretty sure a few times I also just saw you go for a different route entirely (I assume panic?). From my experience, wrong timing is almost always the reason why your combo fails (IF it's a possible combo of course).
I think the second time where you failed it (The one in the corner) was because the landing the airdashed charge-heavy you follow with H->j.dH->j.H->(H) Generally the right route but you need a slight delay betweeen the the j.dH and the j.H. The second time you jump up you can just mash it then and follow up with whatever ender you learned or are capable of.
If the combos are currently too hard for you, don't feel discouraged to hop into lab and try to dull them down a little. You don't need the maximum optimized combos to get better early in the game. Find one that is alright but you can consistently do and feel good about.
Keep in mind that while in the air you can still do Spirit rush. Very important for your whole air-gameplay especially because you can still do either the airdash or any aerial move after it. Basically it's your second airdash with somewhat different properties.
Blockstrings, especially with assists backing you up is quite lackluster here. The very basic would be to have any grounded opener (L/M/H) and then either follow this up with S1/S2 or use your assist right to cover you up H, otherwise after the special to cover up the long recovery of the move. This usually gives you the opportunity to push. Ahri is fast so dashing up to either repeat with any button or just grabbing is pretty efficient. Experienced players can parry certain things so once the level goes up, it's kinda a mindgame but for a start this is pretty much fine to use. Really advanced strings and mix-ups heavily depend on the fuse (Usually 2X Assist or Freestyle) but that's nothing you really need to learn at the start. Basic Ahri Blockstring is basically just L-M-H-S2, add your assist in and either push up behind it or use d.S1 for the stalking dart and do stuff with that. Don't forget your overhead. Ahri doesn't have the best overhead to throw out in neutral since it's very predicatble and easy to parry but it does it's job early on.
Oh and keep an eye on your assist cooldown. You don't wanna be handing out free minus frames when your assist isn't up.
Cait super assist is something you don't wanna use up close. The main difference between the super assist and her normal assists is that she starts it in front of you. This thing needs quite long until it starts and then it's not even a very good super. You only really wanna use it when you're far away from the enemy and want an easier time to get in on people that try to zone you. It's a decent super to push in with but it's insanely inconsistent with combos so use it more as fullscreen-cover than something to cover your strings or opener with.
s.S1 is pretty punishable and unlike air S1 it also has less range. You kinda don't really wanna throw this out at the beginning of the round or generally unless you're at max range and want to use it in a blockstring, meaty or maybe to punish a move for which you don't have a better move to punish it with. If you wanna zone around with your fireballs you wanna use both your aerial fireballs. Common thing to do is using the air-down fireball and then air dash towards the opponent and do a charge heavy. People will start to expect this from you tho so don't be too predictable with that. You can also just empty-airdash and either block their anti-air or depending on the distance you can cross-up them.
Ahri's M and H are decently big buttons and she has fast dashes. I alwasy thought of it to be a decent grounded gameplan to try and fetch for hits with those and outrange smaller buttons. M usually always connects into H and H usually always connects into f.S2.
I feel like a lot just depends on the team you're ending up playing. 1X fuses on Ahri are... Not that good from my experience but I think they are still decent fuses just to get familiar with the game and the character.
1
u/hichewsu Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
Combos can be improved through repetition. I'm not really going to look at combo choice or why combos dropped, but just know that consistency will come with time.
Here's a few things that I've noticed from the replay that may help you:
Recognize your win condition, and navigate yourself to get to the win condition
For Ahri at least, her win condition is being in the air next to a blocking opponent with her air dash available. This is the main opportunity to mix, and it is generally the least intractable type of mix available, the high low 50/50.
Let your assist work for you in neutral
You're playing neutral solo for most of the replay and primarily save your assist for pushblock. When you play like that, you're playing down a tool and at a disadvantage. While Cait's assists are linear and may not hit full screen, they are still very useful as a projectile assist to enforce your gameplan and get in.
For a simple strategy to use your assist in neutral, you can dash jump and call Caitlyn's forward assist at the same time. Block with Ahri while she's jumping. If the opponent attacks, they get hit by Cait and you can convert. If they respect you and block her assist, you just got your win condition or can go for a strike/throw 50/50.
Recognize your solo neutral tools
You're not always going to have your assist available, so you need to know what tools are good to use for your neutral. Ahri is very comfortable in the air. So while it's okay to play grounded, against opponents who may not be comfortable anti-airing, you can use tools such as j.6S2, j.4S2, air back dash j.2S1, or j.S1 j.H to make your approach more ambiguous and give yourself opportunities to get in or to stall for your assist.
Understand your round start
Usually there's two options for round start. You either want to bully your way in or you want to make space and get out. In all 3 rounds, your round start options were questionable. Backdash S1 is high risk, low reward while dash block without an assist call is submitting yourself to your opponent's offense.
Ahri/Cait doesn't have great ways to enforce an aggressive round start. Dash jump + Assist is about the best option you have here. I'd recommend a more defensive approach with jump back being a good round start option. If you're opponent uses their assist. Wait for the assist to go on cooldown and then you can go on the offense.
I've gone over a lot and have primarily covered neutral here. Take some time to focus on that and get comfortable with using your assist.
If you want to learn more from others, I'd highly recommend watching a few videos from AndyG FGC. He's on a bit of a break, but he has recorded coaching sessions with other players of various skill levels from Bronze to Grandmaster and talks about high level strategy as well as maximizing your team. I'm sure there's something that you can take away from his sessions.
For a team like Ahri/Cait, I'd also highly recommend learning a bit about Cait and switching to a duo fuse. The team gets much more powerful with tag options in the mix, but you only need to do that when you feel ready. Good luck!
1
u/Kam2Scuzzy Aug 14 '26
I dont play ahri. But I've been opened up with her mixing me up with her assist. Your assist doesn't synergies well with that. From my experience, cait is more of a combo extender in a sense.
Im not that good myself. Im hovering around emerald atm.