Hey all. I just wanted to introduce myself. I've been playing Smash for a bit, but I've never posted on SmashBoards before. I've started really getting into Melee and actually want to improve a lot. I typically top 8 at my locals, but that's not good enough for me. I put all my free time into practicing Melee and I do see improvement, but yeah, it's slow.
So, I'll start by posing some questions that have been bothering me that I haven't been able to solve myself.
- While dair chaingrabbing, when should I short hop, full hop, move forward, and do it in place? Most of the time, the all work, but I imagine that some versions are harder to SDI out of, which is hard to test.
- Currently, I jump with X, WD, L-Cancel, and shield with L. From here, is it worth the effort to learn to claw? I already know the pros and cons, however does anyone have testimony that it actually makes a difference or is it more of just a placebo?
- And finally, when I'm playing, what should I really focus on?
- I'm just here to talk about claw
reverse SH dair chain-grabbing is guaranteed on some characters (Ganon and Falcon IIRC), but I'm sure you want more info then that, so I'll leave it to the experts
- The whole claw vs. non-claw debate is kind of silly IMO. When I first started out in smash I couldn't short-hop, so rather than taking the M2K approach and grinding it out, I googled and found out that the index finger is naturally faster than the thumb and switched over to claw. I
needed to switch because I physically couldn't do something at the time.
Since I've always done claw I can't really compare the two, but since then I have found some player's technical troubles rather silly. SHDL with Fox, shine OoS, Shine-grabs, AC SH Upairs with ICs, Nanapults etc. these are all techniques that seem much easier with the claw grip, and there are no downsides IMO. The obvious downside is that it takes quite a while to learn/relearn all the muslce memory, I can't really say how long since I started with it =S
All that being said, I would not recommend switching to claw. Although I do think claw is the "most efficient" way, there's no point in switching
if you can do everything you need to. Fly has stated that he thinks he can get his aerials out close to frame perfectly IIRC, and many ICs are able to AC SH Upair using up on the stick + A or Z. If you've learned how to do things one way, and are consistent, there's no point in switching, you'll just set yourself back.
Kind of a sidenote but I noticed you mentioned that you WD with L. It actually shouldn't matter whether you use R or L or both, as there is no benefit one way or the other. I would urge learning to L-cancel with light press though, or Z if you can't manage it.
- Focus on the opponent (and Nana sometimes, we all know what Nana can do on her own V_V). Try to take note of what options they use in certain situations, what tech they opt for, what they do to get up from the ledge, what they use to combo, what they use to initiate and so on. Basically just note their options. There are very few times where one can cover every option, but if you take note, you can cover the relevant ones.
Not sure if that's what you were asking, if you meant something else, my B.
