C_Pain posted...Change the C stick to tilt attacks. Control stick up for jump is also helpful. Pick one or two characters and play online with them as much as you can. You just need experience.
Control stick up for jump is occasionally useful for certain (often character-specific) techs, but in general having the option on is detrimental because it will cause you to accidentally burn your double jump, and using it exclusively is a HUGE limiter on your ability to quickly use specific aerials immediately after jumping. In general, you never want to be using the control stick to jump unless your right thumb needs to be on the special button or C-stick while you are jumping for a specific reason.
Being good at the game is generally mostly a matter of learning movement and defensive options (especially when to shield--most very new players do not shield NEARLY as much as they should, and intermediate players may shield too much). Learning how to recover safely (almost always from below the ledge, NEVER above unless your opponent commits to low or you have a teleport) is a huge part of the game. Finally, you have to identify which moves each character has as useful tools in neutral for a given situation: which projectiles provide useful pressure or help you approach, which aerials are good for spacing and are safe enough to throw out in neutral, which grounded options are useful out of a run-in (tap down to cancel your dash to be able to use attacks other than dash attack), which moves are good punishes when reading rolls and jump-ins.
One you have that basic understanding, you need to learn how to use movement to bait attacks and whiff punish slower characters, or space attacks against faster characters so you either beat them or trade favorably. You learn how to get combos at low percents and juggles at mid percents so you can convert inspanidual tilts and throws into a lot more damage, keep your opponent pressured at the ledge so they don't have a good way to get back to center stage, and preserve your momentum as long as possible.
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"That is why war is so tragic. To win means to make victims of your opponents and give birth to hatred." - Kratos Aurion, Tales of Symphonia