Post by Wolfeye on Feb 26, 2016 18:17:08 GMT
Throughout my time playing, I've come to realize a great many things. Not the least of which, is that the end result of the physics engine makes there to be what I would essentially call "perfect" combat, and "imperfect" combat. There are motions that should be used, and motions that should never be used. There are specific ways to use them, and specific ways not to use them. The reason I believe this, is because the ranges and predictability of certain movements define what would be the basics of, say, a kata and a poke. A poke has longer range than a fast style kata, and the kata is easy to avoid. So, naturally, a poke will always win.
If that does not make sense, perhaps it will become more clear in the second half of the post where I explain my personal tactics. Do note, these are not meant to be fun and flailing, these are my fullest understanding of the engine to provide the most effective and lethal style. I'm not trying to say you can never do other things, and I'm not saying other things do not work, but I am saying that this would theoretically be the "perfect" style that would otherwise be unable to be defeated to the extent of my understanding of the game (hence why it is here in the words of wisdom. This is, for all purposes, a very shortened version of how I teach any of my students to fight. I've compacted it to this post for anyone who is interested).
Disclaimer #1: This post assumes you have already read and understood all combat-essential sections of the main database.
Disclaimer #2: This post is in no way criticizing anyone who does something other than what I say here. Like I said, it's how I base my fighting style and the most pure form of combat to my understanding of the game's mechanics.
Yes, this will be a long post, but you are welcome to skip to any of the sections (I feel like I label them pretty well, and the first sentence of paragraphs make it easy-ish to know where I'm going with them) and find whatever it is you came here for.
Single Saber: Strong Style
You have the most range and most damaging blows. Please take a moment to forget anything you know about damage. You should always assume you are playing against the best player the world has ever known, and play to make no mistakes. Your primary focus should be on not being hit, and connecting hits, not on spazz wiggling or spam parrying. Wiggling is fine, but wiggling is mostly based on the assumption that you have hit, and you have landed that hit long enough (the opponent made a mistake bad enough that you could stay in them extra long) to be able to wiggle. Never wiggle before a strike is landed, always pure swing until you connect.
Parrying requires that you allow yourself to make the mistake of being in the opponent's range during a swing, hoping you succeed at catching the block and making the parry (which, the best player will do their best to hit your opening and not your saber to prevent the block), and then striking with the parry that is, yes, faster than a normal swing, however it can still be dodged relatively easy if the opponent expects it. Against better players, parrying just creates new opportunities for them to strike. You give them a swing of your own in close proximity that they can now try to take advantage of. Not to mention the possibility of parry-parries.
Poking is good, but in my opinion, becoming outdated as well. All you really want is the very middle stage of a swing (single-stage wiggling, as it were). All other stages can be blocked or overwhelmed, and they also do less damage. The middle stage also carries far more range than the early stages, which makes it easier to keep distant if you only hit with the mid-stage. The ending stages are often met with a counter-attack from an opponent, which usually creates a block. In the perfect world, you should be able to exit with your footwork and not take damage, therefore, pointing the end stage at the opponent would be unnecessary to defend with. In fact, it tends to be counter intuitive because if the opponent blocks your end-stage swing as you retreat out, then you lose your ability to delay another swing. It is for this reason that I always start a poke, enter with A-movement to hit with the mid-swing, and exit with D-movement to keep the saber away from the opponent. Yes, my side is then open, but my footwork allows me to still keep distance. The only reason you would take damage, is if 1. you timed your retreat movement wrong or 2. the opponent was close enough to have taken damage from your mid-swing. In the event of #2, they should be dead if they stayed in long enough for you to wiggle and kill them, so it should not be an issue in the first place.
Delays should be used as often as possible, however, avoid 3-swing delays. The worst thing you can do for yourself is waste your third strike on air, because you'll generally be placed in a bad position with no way to defend yourself that the opponent can and should take advantage of. After two swings in your delay set, you should back off and restart with a new clean swing. Depending on the situation, you may wish to back off after your first swing and allow yourself to reset without using a delay at all. Avoid chains because they slow you, whereas delays allow you to regain standard speed in between each strike. The only time that third swing should be used, is when the opponent has made such a terrible mistake that they cannot evade it (e.g. they got in way too close).
Offensive lowjumps are only effective with strong style single saber. There is no other circumstance where you should be lowjumping toward the opponent. The only reason you would do so in this case, is because your saber possesses the ability to override any other saber and style, or tie with another strong style saber. The momentum you gain from a strafed low jump hop toward someone will increase the power of your swing and let you break through other strong style swings anyway, making it useful for offense.
Single Saber: Medium Style
Medium is one of the best styles in the game. You are fast, but still able to do a lot of damage. In any instance against strong style, you will win if you play it right, because strong style is too slow to be able to counteract medium's speed for hitting between strikes. Medium can even strike between chained strikes without taking damage. The only reason you should lose to a strong style opponent, is by them using unpredictable patterns and you making a mistake.
Movements should be restricted to A and D swings only. WA and WD slow you down, and W swings are beyond ineffective. A-swing strikes can be made more useful by opting to turn them into delays. Remember that any strike you use can have the end turned into a AW, A, or AS delay. Though, you will always want to use A because it is the quickest. Since A and D are both the same speed and other swings are just slower, I would generally advise A-A delays or D-A delays. Avoid chain strikes at all costs. Chain swings slow you down and nothing is more detrimental to medium users than being slowed.
Single Saber: Fast Style
Shortest range, least damage, but technically the quickest strike. Yes, this can be used effectively. However, because it is so easy to override fast, and because its range makes you almost have to be right on top of someone to hit them, it increases your probability of making a mistake.
You would essentially play fast exactly the same as you would medium.
Saber Staff
For all purposes, the staff is the best weapon in the game (I know, I know. I don't like it either, staff is so noobish. But I'm not gonna deny the facts). You have stronger block power than every saber except for single saber strong style. This means that in every situation, you override other sabers that make mistakes. You also have practically equal speed to a medium user, making you able to beat strong style in the exact same way: hit between swings, don't fall for stupid attempts at being unpredictable, and you will always win.
The best staffer should be unbeatable. Yes, I suppose it is possible if the opponent stays indefinitely passive or was the best in the world that it any duel could be an indefinite stalemate regardless of weapon, however, staff is the favored to win in every situation. The sole exception to the rule is the ability of medium style to delay through the staff. Since medium has a slightly lower range, they could technically use only delays and potentially beat the staffer. However, this is only truly effective in 1.00, as 1.01 block registry is too strong to use it effectively. It can be done in 1.01, but it becomes much harder to time and successfully break through the staff.
The same advice previously given to medium and fast apply here. A and D swings only with staff. No chains.
Switches are acceptable (more so in 1.01 than 1.00 because of sabergun) though they should never be relied on. The switch to medium increases your range slightly, which gives an edge. Generally speaking, the only way you should use a switch is to give increases range, or setup for a delay (You can swing with medium, then switch to staff for an A-delay).
Dual Sabers
Not much to be said about these. Their block rate is higher because there is more stuff to clash with, making you more likely to do just that. However, their actual block power is lower. Duals has a longer range than staff, making it also have a decent chance in a delay war when keeping distance just like medium. Against strong style, dual sabers are still quicker and can do the same as previous faster styles.
Dual sabers might as well be the "Mini Me" of staff. Their flailing-saber look makes it harder to cleanly hit someone without a block as opposed to a staff, and their block strength is reduced as well as their damage. It's like hardcore mode on a videogame: You're doing the exact same thing, except it takes a lot more effort. The only part that makes duals more effective than staff is the range, because you can play with a more comfortable distance from the opponent.
Switches with dual sabers should be avoided for the most part, for the same reason fast style should be avoided in general. Yes, they can work if timed right, but it opens you up to a higher probability of mistake making. You can, of course, use them for delay purposes.
General rules
These are just basic rules of types of actions you should and shouldn't do, as well as your basic approaches on things. Things that require the opponent to make a mistake for you to succeed are almost always a bad idea. Never rely on the opponent to make a mistake in order for you to survive. If you play a game of chess and see that the opponent can checkmate you but fails to do so, that doesn't make you a good player. That makes them a bad one. Always assume your opponent is the best!
Cartwheels: Never. A cartwheel is a slightly more effective kata. Maybe. It's like the politically correct way to kata that people wont get mad about. Lets review: It locks you in an animation, moves you in a predicable pattern (that you can guide, almost like a butterfly), and requires the opponent to screw up pretty badly in order to get hit. It also keeps you locked in the animation for a moment post-landing, much like most motion katas do. That's a really bad set of attributes for any movement. I'd honestly take a butterfly over a cartwheel any day.
Wall Delays: Yes, they look cool. But every wall delay (wall flip, wall run, wall grab) locks you in animations temporarily, and has a predictable movement. One of the things I teach my students right after teaching them how to do a wall delay, is how to anticipate and kill someone who uses it, just to show that they aren't useful. They may be fancy, and yes, against someone who doesn't see it coming, they may work. I've used some against staffers at times because the only way to kill them is through unorthodox movements. But the end result is that these are only as effective as your opponent is incompetent.
Glide Delays: If you have to use a fancy delay, this is the one to go with. You can start it anywhere you want, as it doesn't rely on environment. It does sort of lock you into an animation, but as long as you distance yourself correctly, this can be effective (it is usually part of my personal strategy against staffers).
Lunge, DFA, roll stab, and any generic kata: Never. Lunge is fast and fancy but it requires three components: You opponent to make the mistake of being predictable enough to get hit by it, you being good enough to be accurate with it, and that the opponent actually dies from it (Spoiler alert: If they survive the lunge, you probably wont). Rollstabs are kind of the same way. Once again, they rely on the opponent being incompetent and letting themselves be hit by it, and if the rollstabee survives, you as the rollstabber will not. DFA moves... I do them because I can get away with it and I like being able to say I can kill someone with it. It's one of those do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do things. In serious combat, you will never want to use it. Ever. As for all other katas.. Self-explanatory, I think.
Dual/Staff Hurricane: I've never personally found a use for it. I find that modern delays are far more effective than using hurricanes, and much easier to do. For this reason, I'd exclude them.
Positioning: Always keep your opponent on the left side of the screen (as a general rule. In reality, anywhere between dead center and the far left side is usually okay, but for entry purposes, you want them on the left so you can enter to attack with the A-key), and never out of sight. If your cg_fov isn't already 97, make it so! You're at a disadvantage if you have it at anything lower, because visibility is key to combat.
Jumping: Don't do it. Avoid jumping at all costs. The only situations you should jump in, are these: 1. You are in single saber strong style and doing a low jump offensive strike 2. Your opponent jumps in retreat and you follow 3. Your opponent high jumps and you go to aerial kill him 4. If you have absolutely no other option for survival. However, at that point, we're once again at the chess analogy. If you have to jump in order to survive, and your opponent fails to kill you when you jump, that means that your opponent failed to put you in checkmate when they had the opportunity. Never rely on jumping to keep you alive.
Movement: Always keep moving. Always. You never want to hold shift for any reason, because walking is just unnecessary slowed movement. The fact is, you need to be moving either faster than or equal to the opponent's speed in order to stay out of the way of their swings and be able to hit them with yours. If you walk, you either become an easy target, or your strikes become easy to evade. Never stand still, because you do not want the opponent able to catch you. Use only A, W, and D for movement, never S. Base-level teachings say that A and D are the fastest, but the reality is that on the ground (not in the air, in the air the physics change a bit), W is the same speed as A and D. S, however, is still far slower. The only time you should use S, is to draw in an opponent to hit them. Curved motions are almost always preferred in my book, however (this is a huge stipulation, pay attention), if the opponent can predict where you will be, your curved motion wont matter. This is because the curved motion will be faster, yes, but it travels in an in-direct path. Specifically on the ground, a straight motion from point A to point B will take the same amount of time as a curved motion from A to B because it is a more direct path even though it is slower. Use this information wisely. I usually try for very short curved motions in a less predictable pattern to avoid people taking a straight path and beating my speed.
In the air however, curved will always be better because JKA strafe physics get.. well, complicated (expect the strafe section of the database to get some more updates from me with a mathematical explanation of strafing...). So, whenever you're engaged in an air-based battle, always use the curved motions.
Wiggling: As stated above, this should not be such a crucial aspect. Some players in JKA are so purist that they never wiggle. The general rule with this, is that you should never wiggle until your saber connects with the opponent's body. This is to prevent getting blocked, but also, it is because you want to aim and hit and deal the damage in the first place. Spam wiggling is less likely to get you a hit, and more likely to let them escape. Aim. Strike. Connect. Wiggle. In that order. And unless your opponent makes a huge mistake, never full poke a swing. Hit with the mid-section-wiggle and retreat. Chasing and full poking will leave you open if the opponent doesn't die, so if you plan to full poke the hit out, then plan for the opponent to be 100% dead by the end of it.
Chains: Chains are okay for beginners, but they begin to lose value as you advance. The important thing to understand is that, during a strike, your movement speed gets slowed a LOT. During chain striking, your movement speed remains at that slowed value until the chain ends. Delay swings, on the other hand, are different. In between each swing of a delay, your movement speed spikes back up to standard non-swing speed. This means that, to compliment the core component of always-keep-moving, you should never chain, but rather, delay or start a new strike. I suppose everything has its place, and I often chain D-D so that I can draw people in and delay a WD strike into them, but once again going back to the best-player-ever presumption, chains are generally a bad idea. Please realize that this applies to all styles with the single exception of fast style (fast style, for some reason, is not hindered by the act of swinging at all). Sidenote: Funny thing, if you chain while holding shift, your movement speed gets so drastically reduced that it almost looks as if you're standing still in strong style.
Remember that these are simply my personal teachings and beliefs in terms of JKA's combat. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but this is what my time playing has led me to. I figured I'd toss this up in the words of wisdom for anyone interested in how I teach. Feel free to comment your thoughts, criticize things you don't agree with, support with a like, or ask questions. I may update this with pictures for reference or maybe even a video someday but for now this was solely to have all that I teach consolidated in one place. I will probably also update this with something else because there is a 95% chance that I left things out that I'd like to add, but that are not coming to mind at the moment.
~ Wolfeye Random
If that does not make sense, perhaps it will become more clear in the second half of the post where I explain my personal tactics. Do note, these are not meant to be fun and flailing, these are my fullest understanding of the engine to provide the most effective and lethal style. I'm not trying to say you can never do other things, and I'm not saying other things do not work, but I am saying that this would theoretically be the "perfect" style that would otherwise be unable to be defeated to the extent of my understanding of the game (hence why it is here in the words of wisdom. This is, for all purposes, a very shortened version of how I teach any of my students to fight. I've compacted it to this post for anyone who is interested).
Disclaimer #1: This post assumes you have already read and understood all combat-essential sections of the main database.
Disclaimer #2: This post is in no way criticizing anyone who does something other than what I say here. Like I said, it's how I base my fighting style and the most pure form of combat to my understanding of the game's mechanics.
Yes, this will be a long post, but you are welcome to skip to any of the sections (I feel like I label them pretty well, and the first sentence of paragraphs make it easy-ish to know where I'm going with them) and find whatever it is you came here for.
Single Saber: Strong Style
You have the most range and most damaging blows. Please take a moment to forget anything you know about damage. You should always assume you are playing against the best player the world has ever known, and play to make no mistakes. Your primary focus should be on not being hit, and connecting hits, not on spazz wiggling or spam parrying. Wiggling is fine, but wiggling is mostly based on the assumption that you have hit, and you have landed that hit long enough (the opponent made a mistake bad enough that you could stay in them extra long) to be able to wiggle. Never wiggle before a strike is landed, always pure swing until you connect.
Parrying requires that you allow yourself to make the mistake of being in the opponent's range during a swing, hoping you succeed at catching the block and making the parry (which, the best player will do their best to hit your opening and not your saber to prevent the block), and then striking with the parry that is, yes, faster than a normal swing, however it can still be dodged relatively easy if the opponent expects it. Against better players, parrying just creates new opportunities for them to strike. You give them a swing of your own in close proximity that they can now try to take advantage of. Not to mention the possibility of parry-parries.
Poking is good, but in my opinion, becoming outdated as well. All you really want is the very middle stage of a swing (single-stage wiggling, as it were). All other stages can be blocked or overwhelmed, and they also do less damage. The middle stage also carries far more range than the early stages, which makes it easier to keep distant if you only hit with the mid-stage. The ending stages are often met with a counter-attack from an opponent, which usually creates a block. In the perfect world, you should be able to exit with your footwork and not take damage, therefore, pointing the end stage at the opponent would be unnecessary to defend with. In fact, it tends to be counter intuitive because if the opponent blocks your end-stage swing as you retreat out, then you lose your ability to delay another swing. It is for this reason that I always start a poke, enter with A-movement to hit with the mid-swing, and exit with D-movement to keep the saber away from the opponent. Yes, my side is then open, but my footwork allows me to still keep distance. The only reason you would take damage, is if 1. you timed your retreat movement wrong or 2. the opponent was close enough to have taken damage from your mid-swing. In the event of #2, they should be dead if they stayed in long enough for you to wiggle and kill them, so it should not be an issue in the first place.
Delays should be used as often as possible, however, avoid 3-swing delays. The worst thing you can do for yourself is waste your third strike on air, because you'll generally be placed in a bad position with no way to defend yourself that the opponent can and should take advantage of. After two swings in your delay set, you should back off and restart with a new clean swing. Depending on the situation, you may wish to back off after your first swing and allow yourself to reset without using a delay at all. Avoid chains because they slow you, whereas delays allow you to regain standard speed in between each strike. The only time that third swing should be used, is when the opponent has made such a terrible mistake that they cannot evade it (e.g. they got in way too close).
Offensive lowjumps are only effective with strong style single saber. There is no other circumstance where you should be lowjumping toward the opponent. The only reason you would do so in this case, is because your saber possesses the ability to override any other saber and style, or tie with another strong style saber. The momentum you gain from a strafed low jump hop toward someone will increase the power of your swing and let you break through other strong style swings anyway, making it useful for offense.
Single Saber: Medium Style
Medium is one of the best styles in the game. You are fast, but still able to do a lot of damage. In any instance against strong style, you will win if you play it right, because strong style is too slow to be able to counteract medium's speed for hitting between strikes. Medium can even strike between chained strikes without taking damage. The only reason you should lose to a strong style opponent, is by them using unpredictable patterns and you making a mistake.
Movements should be restricted to A and D swings only. WA and WD slow you down, and W swings are beyond ineffective. A-swing strikes can be made more useful by opting to turn them into delays. Remember that any strike you use can have the end turned into a AW, A, or AS delay. Though, you will always want to use A because it is the quickest. Since A and D are both the same speed and other swings are just slower, I would generally advise A-A delays or D-A delays. Avoid chain strikes at all costs. Chain swings slow you down and nothing is more detrimental to medium users than being slowed.
Single Saber: Fast Style
Shortest range, least damage, but technically the quickest strike. Yes, this can be used effectively. However, because it is so easy to override fast, and because its range makes you almost have to be right on top of someone to hit them, it increases your probability of making a mistake.
You would essentially play fast exactly the same as you would medium.
Saber Staff
For all purposes, the staff is the best weapon in the game (I know, I know. I don't like it either, staff is so noobish. But I'm not gonna deny the facts). You have stronger block power than every saber except for single saber strong style. This means that in every situation, you override other sabers that make mistakes. You also have practically equal speed to a medium user, making you able to beat strong style in the exact same way: hit between swings, don't fall for stupid attempts at being unpredictable, and you will always win.
The best staffer should be unbeatable. Yes, I suppose it is possible if the opponent stays indefinitely passive or was the best in the world that it any duel could be an indefinite stalemate regardless of weapon, however, staff is the favored to win in every situation. The sole exception to the rule is the ability of medium style to delay through the staff. Since medium has a slightly lower range, they could technically use only delays and potentially beat the staffer. However, this is only truly effective in 1.00, as 1.01 block registry is too strong to use it effectively. It can be done in 1.01, but it becomes much harder to time and successfully break through the staff.
The same advice previously given to medium and fast apply here. A and D swings only with staff. No chains.
Switches are acceptable (more so in 1.01 than 1.00 because of sabergun) though they should never be relied on. The switch to medium increases your range slightly, which gives an edge. Generally speaking, the only way you should use a switch is to give increases range, or setup for a delay (You can swing with medium, then switch to staff for an A-delay).
Dual Sabers
Not much to be said about these. Their block rate is higher because there is more stuff to clash with, making you more likely to do just that. However, their actual block power is lower. Duals has a longer range than staff, making it also have a decent chance in a delay war when keeping distance just like medium. Against strong style, dual sabers are still quicker and can do the same as previous faster styles.
Dual sabers might as well be the "Mini Me" of staff. Their flailing-saber look makes it harder to cleanly hit someone without a block as opposed to a staff, and their block strength is reduced as well as their damage. It's like hardcore mode on a videogame: You're doing the exact same thing, except it takes a lot more effort. The only part that makes duals more effective than staff is the range, because you can play with a more comfortable distance from the opponent.
Switches with dual sabers should be avoided for the most part, for the same reason fast style should be avoided in general. Yes, they can work if timed right, but it opens you up to a higher probability of mistake making. You can, of course, use them for delay purposes.
General rules
These are just basic rules of types of actions you should and shouldn't do, as well as your basic approaches on things. Things that require the opponent to make a mistake for you to succeed are almost always a bad idea. Never rely on the opponent to make a mistake in order for you to survive. If you play a game of chess and see that the opponent can checkmate you but fails to do so, that doesn't make you a good player. That makes them a bad one. Always assume your opponent is the best!
Cartwheels: Never. A cartwheel is a slightly more effective kata. Maybe. It's like the politically correct way to kata that people wont get mad about. Lets review: It locks you in an animation, moves you in a predicable pattern (that you can guide, almost like a butterfly), and requires the opponent to screw up pretty badly in order to get hit. It also keeps you locked in the animation for a moment post-landing, much like most motion katas do. That's a really bad set of attributes for any movement. I'd honestly take a butterfly over a cartwheel any day.
Wall Delays: Yes, they look cool. But every wall delay (wall flip, wall run, wall grab) locks you in animations temporarily, and has a predictable movement. One of the things I teach my students right after teaching them how to do a wall delay, is how to anticipate and kill someone who uses it, just to show that they aren't useful. They may be fancy, and yes, against someone who doesn't see it coming, they may work. I've used some against staffers at times because the only way to kill them is through unorthodox movements. But the end result is that these are only as effective as your opponent is incompetent.
Glide Delays: If you have to use a fancy delay, this is the one to go with. You can start it anywhere you want, as it doesn't rely on environment. It does sort of lock you into an animation, but as long as you distance yourself correctly, this can be effective (it is usually part of my personal strategy against staffers).
Lunge, DFA, roll stab, and any generic kata: Never. Lunge is fast and fancy but it requires three components: You opponent to make the mistake of being predictable enough to get hit by it, you being good enough to be accurate with it, and that the opponent actually dies from it (Spoiler alert: If they survive the lunge, you probably wont). Rollstabs are kind of the same way. Once again, they rely on the opponent being incompetent and letting themselves be hit by it, and if the rollstabee survives, you as the rollstabber will not. DFA moves... I do them because I can get away with it and I like being able to say I can kill someone with it. It's one of those do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do things. In serious combat, you will never want to use it. Ever. As for all other katas.. Self-explanatory, I think.
Dual/Staff Hurricane: I've never personally found a use for it. I find that modern delays are far more effective than using hurricanes, and much easier to do. For this reason, I'd exclude them.
Positioning: Always keep your opponent on the left side of the screen (as a general rule. In reality, anywhere between dead center and the far left side is usually okay, but for entry purposes, you want them on the left so you can enter to attack with the A-key), and never out of sight. If your cg_fov isn't already 97, make it so! You're at a disadvantage if you have it at anything lower, because visibility is key to combat.
Jumping: Don't do it. Avoid jumping at all costs. The only situations you should jump in, are these: 1. You are in single saber strong style and doing a low jump offensive strike 2. Your opponent jumps in retreat and you follow 3. Your opponent high jumps and you go to aerial kill him 4. If you have absolutely no other option for survival. However, at that point, we're once again at the chess analogy. If you have to jump in order to survive, and your opponent fails to kill you when you jump, that means that your opponent failed to put you in checkmate when they had the opportunity. Never rely on jumping to keep you alive.
Movement: Always keep moving. Always. You never want to hold shift for any reason, because walking is just unnecessary slowed movement. The fact is, you need to be moving either faster than or equal to the opponent's speed in order to stay out of the way of their swings and be able to hit them with yours. If you walk, you either become an easy target, or your strikes become easy to evade. Never stand still, because you do not want the opponent able to catch you. Use only A, W, and D for movement, never S. Base-level teachings say that A and D are the fastest, but the reality is that on the ground (not in the air, in the air the physics change a bit), W is the same speed as A and D. S, however, is still far slower. The only time you should use S, is to draw in an opponent to hit them. Curved motions are almost always preferred in my book, however (this is a huge stipulation, pay attention), if the opponent can predict where you will be, your curved motion wont matter. This is because the curved motion will be faster, yes, but it travels in an in-direct path. Specifically on the ground, a straight motion from point A to point B will take the same amount of time as a curved motion from A to B because it is a more direct path even though it is slower. Use this information wisely. I usually try for very short curved motions in a less predictable pattern to avoid people taking a straight path and beating my speed.
In the air however, curved will always be better because JKA strafe physics get.. well, complicated (expect the strafe section of the database to get some more updates from me with a mathematical explanation of strafing...). So, whenever you're engaged in an air-based battle, always use the curved motions.
Wiggling: As stated above, this should not be such a crucial aspect. Some players in JKA are so purist that they never wiggle. The general rule with this, is that you should never wiggle until your saber connects with the opponent's body. This is to prevent getting blocked, but also, it is because you want to aim and hit and deal the damage in the first place. Spam wiggling is less likely to get you a hit, and more likely to let them escape. Aim. Strike. Connect. Wiggle. In that order. And unless your opponent makes a huge mistake, never full poke a swing. Hit with the mid-section-wiggle and retreat. Chasing and full poking will leave you open if the opponent doesn't die, so if you plan to full poke the hit out, then plan for the opponent to be 100% dead by the end of it.
Chains: Chains are okay for beginners, but they begin to lose value as you advance. The important thing to understand is that, during a strike, your movement speed gets slowed a LOT. During chain striking, your movement speed remains at that slowed value until the chain ends. Delay swings, on the other hand, are different. In between each swing of a delay, your movement speed spikes back up to standard non-swing speed. This means that, to compliment the core component of always-keep-moving, you should never chain, but rather, delay or start a new strike. I suppose everything has its place, and I often chain D-D so that I can draw people in and delay a WD strike into them, but once again going back to the best-player-ever presumption, chains are generally a bad idea. Please realize that this applies to all styles with the single exception of fast style (fast style, for some reason, is not hindered by the act of swinging at all). Sidenote: Funny thing, if you chain while holding shift, your movement speed gets so drastically reduced that it almost looks as if you're standing still in strong style.
Remember that these are simply my personal teachings and beliefs in terms of JKA's combat. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but this is what my time playing has led me to. I figured I'd toss this up in the words of wisdom for anyone interested in how I teach. Feel free to comment your thoughts, criticize things you don't agree with, support with a like, or ask questions. I may update this with pictures for reference or maybe even a video someday but for now this was solely to have all that I teach consolidated in one place. I will probably also update this with something else because there is a 95% chance that I left things out that I'd like to add, but that are not coming to mind at the moment.
~ Wolfeye Random
