I'm a King main and decided to pick up Armor King as a second character, and it seems like it's a super steep learning curve. Some of the crossover is there - throw game inputs are similar if not identical, there is crossover with df1, b1, ff~2, db3, 2,1, 121 jab strings etc but it's like the philosophy behind the character is totally different.

What I mean by that is that King can be a counter fighter but I find he actually has some good pressure tools - ff1 is great for closing distance, his jabs, df1, df2, d1,2, 2,1 and so forth let you build a pressure game to put the opponent on the back foot and then you can start throwing them. Also his poking up close feels really strong. With Armor King I find I have way less approach tools from that mid range, or at least I feel less comfortable entering that closer range to get some throws off.

What I find is happening online is I'm getting pressured a lot (Vindicator rank currently) with mashers and close range poking and don't have any tools to get out of that situation. Whereas with King I feel really comfortable in close quarters with Armor King I'm struggling to retreat once I'm trapped in the poking game so I can use his range, and it never seems to be my turn because everything is super neutral with him. I find I'm making mistakes and getting punished huge for it.

Good news is that when I get some momentum I'm deleting someone's life bar. It's either I smash them or they smash me, no inbetween!

I've labbed him a in Treasure Battle and know some basic combos off launchers (mainly using hopkick and WS1, I've jet to cleanly hit Dark Upper off a whiff, I'm too slow) and I like that his moveset is quite small, and I've also watched a few guides from Lil Majin, JDCR, MainManSwe and ArmorKingTV and I understand everything that they're saying, but it doesn't seem to work against real humans.

TLDR; King main who has never played a Mishima before picks up Armor King, gets rekt, halp