>>718068998
>Do I have to buy a stick?
Absolutely not, controller or keyboard is fine
>How do I become proficient at this?
You can play the arcade mode if you want
If you just want to hop online, follow these instructions
>pick a character that looks cool
>go to training mode (optionally do some character tutorials)
>press all his buttons
>find an attack that goes really far forward, typically MK or HK or HP - this is your "footsies" attack
>find an attack that punches or kicks upwards - this is your "antiair" attack
>if your character has a projectile special move, learn this
>understand the concept of "blocking" i.e. holding back or downback to defend attacks
>go online
>your goal is to walk forwards and backwards just out of range, and land your footsies attack
>if your opponent jumps at you, try to land your antiair
>if your opponent is far away, throw your projectile
>if your opponent does something big that you block or misses you, land your footsies attack
Now you just play the game and have fun
BUT, and this is important
>whenever you get blown up by something new and crazy, stop and go look it up, then spend <5mins practicing against it in training mode, then keep playing
This is literally how you get better at the game, just 5 mins checking out something when you see it, repeated over and over
When I started I picked Guile, and all I did was sobat kick, cr.MK and sonic booms, and I had a lot of fun, and even won matches here and there. Then I gradually started learning more stuff ("they keep jumping at me" - learned to antiair, "I need to do more damage when I get a chance" - learned a simple punish combo, etc.) and I got better and better, and it was still fun the whole time
The whole "you must spend over 9000 hours in training mode to have fun" is bullshit and cope