A use for sheik's dair?

[Mokumo]

We're all awesome at smash, we know it. But no matter how awesome you are, you still get hit by Marth's fsmash, and you'll still get comboed off the stage. I think everyone knows that with proper DI, even in brawl, you can make these attacks send you UP as well as away, which helps your recovery a lot.

I'm sure everyone has noticed Sheik's new down-aerial. She shoots DOWN for a period of time, and if/when she hits the ground there's a lot of lag so everyone hates it. BUT I think I found out something useful last night whilst playing Sheik. In brawl (I think in the other smash games too, but not so much), you're able to do aerials while you're still flying away from the stage...

If getting attacked sends you UP, and Sheik's dair sends her DOWN, if you use her dair while she's still flying away it will cancel the knockback. It actually looks like she's doing her dair from melee, because she isn't rocketing downwards. I'm actually doing equilibrium in physics right now, so if you can think of it like that it might help you.

Also, her dair on pokemon stadium II when it's in wind mode is a godsend.

[MysteriousSilver]

In addition to that, I think it has a use in protecting her from attacks from below. In melee I would have a hell of a time fighting a Marth who managed to get under me because I simply didn't have anything that could effectively cut through his attacks from below... I hated Sheik's dair.

Now, while i's not exactly a good idea to spam it all the time, I'm willing to bet you can use the increased movement to throw off an attackers timing from below an put an end to a deadly combo by slamming though them as they come up. Seemed to work for me.

[Tristan_win]

Another thing that should be noted about Sheik dair is that it can be canceled with her ^B. I really don't know how much time it takes yet, but I've done a full jump on the edge of final Destination and been able to cancel it just before I went out of ^B range.

[Greenpoe]

This works great...in my experience, it works when you're being shot straight up, up and diagonally to the right or left, and, strangely enough, when I was hit at a very low angle, primarily horizontally, it still worked! It didn't shoot me down, but just canceled the knockback. This should also work with other characters that have trajectory altering moves, right? Lucario's dair, ZSS's dair, G&W's dair, etc.

[Mokumo]

^Yeah, those should definitely work. Should this be called momentum canceling or something like that?

[Myg0t.]

actually u can cancel it with a or any other button really just make sure u jump u haven't used your 2nd jump u just go on a edge jump Down A - A - Jump - Up B and there ya go.

[A2ZOMG]

Footstool jump to D-air anyone? Sheik probably has one of the better ones. If you do it right, your opponent can't block or evade it.

[Kricu]

I'm going to disagree with the idea. I know of the technique and have tried it as both sheik and sonic. It really depends on how much damage you have, how fast you are going etc. When you are flying up and use the dair, your momentum doesn't stop. You still travel up while doing that. It may slow your rise but only to a small degree. I constantly tried to use that technique but it really didn't help too much. I did learn something about the dair though. There is a way to make it behave like the dair from melee. I'm not sure how it happened but in matches I have done it a couple times. I'll try and find out how I did it and post instructions along with a video so you know I'm not making this up.

[Sheik_Pwns]

OMG Welcome to Deez Nuts

[Cobra]

I've seen this before when you start moving then do a DAir and it looks like her old DAir, only you don't go anywhere. Actually the first time I saw it I was amazed and was convinced there was a way to do it normally, but then after learning of the Brawl physics, I was quickly disheartened.

...However, if this could prove to work consistently and not plummet you to your death over the edge, it could be a very nice saving tactic vs Vertical kills and such. I'll test some options later.

^Yeah, those should definitely work. Should this be called momentum canceling or something like that?

Lol...I'm so glad you did try to call it something like Mo-Cancelling, because it totally would have fallen into the category of things that don't need to be named after people, but in your case would have actually fit since its MOmentum canceling. Rofl, I'm probably the only one to make that connection there...I'll stop, I apparently spend too much time in the tactical forums.

Not that it needs a name, but momentum canceling works, because technically that's what seems to be what's happening.

[TrikELotus]

So that does work? I've been trying that here and there, and wasn't sure if it was saving me or not because most of the time I used it when I was shot pretty high (although I usually lived, so whoo!)

Thanks for the confirm, guy :D

[Ankoku]

Doing any aerial dissipates momentum. Total momentum shifting aerials like Sheik/ROB/Sonic/Toon Link dair do not have their usual effect if you use them immediately after getting sent flying. Any living longer by using them is simply the fact that all aerials will reduce your momentum.

[FrozenFire13]

Doing any aerial dissipates momentum. Total momentum shifting aerials like Sheik/ROB/Sonic/Toon Link dair do not have their usual effect if you use them immediately after getting sent flying. Any living longer by using them is simply the fact that all aerials will reduce your momentum.

So, in Sheiks case, would it be better to air dodge and DI after being hit, or would doing an fair be more useful, since it's the fast aerial she has?

[Ankoku]

Air-dodge doesn't do as much as an aerial, when getting launched upward. I haven't tested how horizontal works, yet.

[Mokumo]

It looks like we have some geniuses here to clear things up. After another month of two of brawl experience, I figure doing shiek's/sonic's/anyone else's dair doesn't change the character momentum as much as I hoped.

Besides that, the dair seems like a pretty useless move at first and I appreciate all the things that people have found out regarding it. The footstool to dair seems like a cool technique, and when I get the chance I'll find out if thats a legit technique. Regarding making sheik's dair look like her move from melee, I think that has a lot to do with the so-called "momentum cancel" that I tried to make up a few months ago.


Lol...I'm so glad you did try to call it something like Mo-Cancelling, because it totally would have fallen into the category of things that don't need to be named after people, but in your case would have actually fit since its MOmentum canceling. Rofl, I'm probably the only one to make that connection there...I'll stop, I apparently spend too much time in the tactical forums.

LMAO I never even thought about that!

[Ankoku]

Just a random note that dair immediately cuts your jump off, so it's useable as a quick aerial out of shield when both of you are standing next to each other shielding.

And that's a situation that comes up kinda often.