How do you DI?

[oats_]

Ill admit it, I don't know anything about DI. It's been something that I've been meaning to learn for a long time, but I've never actually sat down and taken the time to learn it.

My question is, how exactly does one go about learning to DI effectively? From my understanding, you need to be holding the direction immediately when you get hit, so how does one go about predicting that the other player will throw out a forward smash, for example, and adjust their DI accordingly? Is it all based on reading and predicting? Or is there some strategy to it.

Also, I'm curious as to what the actual inputs are. I know that this is extremely varied, depending on the situation and the move hitting you, but are there general stick positions when trying to do survival DI or combo DI? I haven't been able to find a guide like that, except...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNNe3aR5bGc

I found this one guide for brawl, but I'm not sure if it differs from DI in melee, as I don't play brawl.

If anyone could give some tips or a guide, that would be great! Thanks.

 

[mimgrim]

http://smashboards.com/threads/a-gu...-teching-and-crouch-cancelling-updated.60218/

^That's probably the best thread for you. And can probably explain it better then other people could.

 

[SAUS]

My question is, how exactly does one go about learning to DI effectively? From my understanding, you need to be holding the direction immediately when you get hit, so how does one go about predicting that the other player will throw out a forward smash, for example, and adjust their DI accordingly? Is it all based on reading and predicting? Or is there some strategy to it.

The link mimgrim gave will help you a lot in knowing how to input DI, but I want to answer this part.

There is not really any prediction or reading with DI (there can be, but it's rare, and usually it is the attacker that tries to make you DI poorly). It's not about having insane reflexes and reacting to a hit or somehow knowing your opponent will forward smash. It's about knowing when you are going to get hit. It's one of the most beautiful things about DI - you have to know when you've messed up, and when your opponent will punish you. You have to understand your opponent's character's moves so that you can use the most-likely-correct DI when your opponent moves in. This varies heavily based on moves, and even varies depending on your damage.

There is also a lot of 'just in case' DI where you start a move and just input DI that will save you if you trade (ie you are both forward smashing or kneeing or soemthing). Often, especially with Marth, I will be holding away after all my moves so that if my opponent hits me, I will DI away and be a little safer.

Important tips for learning DI:
- Always be mindful of DI. Try to have an input for all attacks made against you, and see how they affect different moves. At first, you can try it yourself just to see how it works.
- Pay attention to how it affects you during a combo/kill move. Did you get combod harder? Did you survive that super strong move somehow?
- Keep in mind for the next time a similar combo starts up, that you should try some different DI to see if it helps you escape at all.
- While getting combod, you usually want to try to get away from them. While trying to not die from a strong move, you usually want to try to stay closer to them (and the stage).

Just keep in mind that DI takes a while to learn properly. Similarly to other things in melee, it is a simple concept (like dashdancing or wavedashing), but applying it correctly takes tons of experience and knowledge. I wrote all this assuming you learned how to actually input DI from the other thread, so hopefully you can make sense of it :D good luck!