Fight Sticks, Dpads, and Gates

I have observed the fighting game scene from afar over the years, really only playing MK games and NEVER online, and am wanting to get more serious with them.

I've been having a blast with MK11 and the tutorial system is awesome for newcomers like me. I've already seen numerous Fighter Buzzwords such as "Frame Data", "Zoning", and "Getup Attacks".

So I'm looking to some of the community who are more familiar with the various controlling mechanics for fighting games to get some opinions.

Obviously, fight sticks are the "go-to" input method. I am familiar with the different gates, which let the stick lock into more positions. However, I've also read that for some games Square gates are preferred to Octagonals. I've seen MK specfically cited as one of the games where some people prefer square since the inputs are more directional vs circle motions. So my question with this is, if this is the case, why use a stick over the dpad? Is it just that the inputs are more snappy? Sort of like mechanical KBs vs membrane?

Any help people can provide over this and the pros and cons of various input methods in general would be greatly appreciated!

Since the inputs for MK are just dialing in directions as opposed to the smoother motions of other fighting games, I don't know that stick is necessarily better than d-pad.
I believe most MK players actually play on pad.

What it really comes down to is preference. Whatever you feel comfortable playing on and get accurate inputs on should be the priority.

Its a matter of habit, mostly. I have some experience with arcades, so I can handle sticks, and I was used to the d-pad on Sony consoles; but since I switched to the PC, and the 360 controller as my default controller, I have been forced to using sticks since the dpad there suuuucks...

In my experience, dpad work better for games with fewer circle or charge motions, since performing those moves can do some work on your fingertips after some time. Moves like Guile Ultra in SF4 are quite harder to perform with dpads. Also, sticks are better for 3D fighting games for obvious reasons. In that sense, MK is a good option for those that prefer dpad, compared to SF or Soul Calibur.

In terms of controller vs arcade sticks, many people prefer arcade sticks for fighting games with more than 4 buttons, since it is more natural to control than having some moves associated to the triggers and the combos can be performed more easily. There are ways to mitigate that difference, but I find the claw grip extremely unnatural. This has been specially true in the previous generations, where the triggers had a very different tactile ease than the bumpers and the face buttons, with some controllers' triggers being of very poor quality.

So to add to this, any tips from those using dpad for mk? Specifically ps4.

Not sure if its just not having the muscle memory down but I'll routinely miss specials. Especially ones that are B-F or F-B

I can see how a stick might be better for defense based movies that rely on the triggers. I was having some trouble with the perfect block timing for sure.

I wouldn't say that arcade sticks are the "go-to", especially for MK. It's a game that is designed to work well on a controller and has lost almost all of its arcade DNA by this point. But even if you do prefer an arcade stick, I don't think the shape of the gate would matter since you're mostly pushing up down left and right. A square gate is handy for street fighter, but at the end of the day it's really all about what you're comfortable with. I want to say all the recent NRS games have an input option for arcade style control. Like D, F would become quarter circle forward; F, B would become half circle back, that sort of thing.

Pad is perfectly fine for MK, but one thing I do like about sticks is being able to hit the buttons a lot faster with your other fingers than solely using your thumb. A few characters have strings that you need to hammer pretty fast to get to come out, and it feels easier to me to get the rhythm down on stick.

Sticks are not the go to controller for fighting games, however they are for a certain generation.
You'll see a lot of the popular fighting game pros using sticks because they grew up in the arcades, that's where they first played fighting games, pretty much all the pros from Japan use sticks because arcades are still alive there, and their high level use has definitely inspired people to use sticks.

I come from the UK, i went to arcades as a kid but i don't think i ever saw a fighting game there, Jeff and Brad talk about how blown away they were seeing Mortal Kombat 2 and 3 in arcades (hence why they like sticks), but for me that game was House of the Dead. My first fighting game was Tekken 2 on PS1, a few years ago while watching loads of Cross Counter videos on youtube i decided to get a stick, it's one of the worst purchases i have ever made, it is so completely foreign to me that i abandoned it on day one.
There is no advantage to using a stick over a pad, it's entirely user preference, however i imagine it's easier to find a stick that works well over a pad that works well, i went through about 10 xbox360 controllers with bad d-pads but that was a common problem with that controller, despite using a Playstation d-pad for multiple generations i still have trouble hitting diagonals, Xbox One controllers are the best for me.

Personally I think there's quite a number of techniques that are considerably easier to do with a stick than with a pad. In Vs. and ArkSys games in particular there's a lot of things that require hitting multiple buttons at once and I need more than just my thumb to do those (Trying to hit X+B or A+Y at the same time on a pad is a little clumsy for me). A lot of it is certainly preference but I think it's a bit dismissive to say there are NO advantages to using a stick just like I'm sure there's plenty of advantages to pads.

Nowadays I mainly play with a HitBox which uses buttons for the four cardinal directions rather than any kind of joystick so it takes care of hitting any wrong inputs between back and forward lol

@musclerider: Those combinations are certainly easier on a stick from the get go, but i've had to use them enough in KOF and Tekken that it's not a problem for me any more, but having large hands helps.

@musclerider: Playing more MK, and getting my butt handed to me by Ben on the stream(I was the Noob Saibot with 0-3 record that gave him his first win hahaha), I've realized this.

Particularly back forwards are hard for me to do quickly. Combos as well can be awkward depending on the pattern. Granted, I haven't played a fighting game reguarly since Deadly Alliance. I've dabbled in all the MKs but never played them seriously and never played injustice so I'm sure part of it is just muscle memory.

I was actually going to post this same thing as a fighting game noob looking for a bit of help. When I try the back-forward motion, I keep hitting either down or up when going back and forth. I've tried picking my fingers up more, but then I feel like I can get the input fast enough unless I'm kind of sliding things. The game mentions a bunch of options to fiddle with like "clean input" or whatever it is, but I'm unclear on what those do.

Anyone have any suggestions?

@reap3r160: @therealturk: you could try playing with the control options in practice mode to see what feels right.
I forget what it's set to by default, but you might want to start by changing the 'Input window timing' to Long at first, just to see if you have an easier time getting the specials out. Most people have it set to Medium, I believe, to prevent getting occasional errant specials.

The other thing to note is that specials in this game don't behave the same as most other fighting games. I had an instance where I thought I could walk backwards, thinking I could quickly transition into pressing forward and the attack button to get my special move, but it would never come out.
All inputs for specials need to be pressed within a fairly short window of time before they will register. So just don't be like me and try holding the first part of the special move.

And if you're curious about the other control options, this video goes over what most of those options do:
https://youtu.be/f9862gTsAKg?t=291

@cikame: @reap3r160: @therealturk:

A lot of it does come down to practice ultimately. Back-Forward is definitely a tough one to do on a d-pad without hitting any extra directions. Especially since there's also a bunch of moves that go Down-Back-Forward. Easier on an arcade stick and easiest on a keyboard style controller like a Hitbox

All you can really do is go to training mode and turn on input display and see what other directions you're hitting going from back to forward. I know I get the jitters a bit in the middle of a combo and might drop it because of errant inputs but you just gotta get that muscle memory.

So as to not clutter up the forum, I can turn this into a general tips thread if people want to ask for tips from the community.