Gliding Elwind Spikes Twice, Soaring Elwind Doesn't Spike

[Mac2492]

I did some testing today.This move might be god tier.
BOTH hits of Gliding Elwind spike!
Landing the spike is the same as with standard Elwind. Hit very near the hand. The first wind blade goes diagonally but it still launches the enemy straight downward. The second wind blade is used identically to the first hit of a standard Elwind. On top of this, the diagonal trajectory gives you more options. You can face away from the stage for effectively two chances at spiking or face towards the stage to spike with the first hit and easily recover. It's incredibly safe to attempt spikes with this custom due to the horizontal movement. For example, at the ledge just short hop off and Gliding Elwind back towards the stage. Easy spike and you land near the ledge even if you miss.

NEITHER hit of Soaring Elwind spikes.
I'm not as confident about this statement because I cannot absolutely prove it, but I've been spiking with Elwind and Gliding Elwind for the past hour and I have not been able to spike even once with either hit of Soaring Elwind. This move seems to be purely for recovery.

Gliding Elwind is by far the best offensive option. Soaring Elwind is purely for recovery. Elwind is a fair middle-point. IMO Gliding Elwind is now the overall best with this discovery, even taking account its tendency to slam your head into the bottom of the stage. Pair this up with Firewall and there is no safe place to be against Robin.

 

[Ultimastrike]

It's not really a thing if it can spike twice...considering the fact most of the time Robin's in 1v1 Default Elwind gets the job done. The thing with Gliding Elwind is that the spike's sweetspot is the same as Default. Downside here is that Gliding removes Robin's high recovery option, so it's more of a diagonal recovery. I'd still think that IMO Default is the best Elwind since you don't need two spikes(not like it'll happen except in FFA or Team Battles).

 

[Mac2492]

The benefit in spiking isn't purely from the fact that it spikes twice. It's also from that horizontal movement and the lack of vertical movement. I agree that Elwind is reliable and superior for recovery. The thing is that Elwind launches you really high up quite slowly while Gliding Elwind quickly pushes you in two different directions. This makes it much more difficult to punish on a miss. The second spike is also makes off-stage edge-guarding pretty potent since you can spike both far and close to the stage depending on how your opponent reacts. (if they beeline for the ledge you can still get hit with the second spike)

I'm going to play some matches to see how this pans out in practice and whether the difference in vertical recovery is worthwhile or not.

 

[Xerox the beautiful]

I still think I'm going to stick with the default it's one of the best recovery moves I've ever used and even when not hitting the meteor it's still an amazing offensive option. I could be convinced otherwise after I test it out a bit but at the moment gliding elwind feels much less versatile.

 

[Mac2492]

I've been using this move more recently. Suicide rate has almost hit zero. I'm not sure if the backwards ledge grab fix affects Gliding Elwind but at the very least using it in the right direction helps (>___>). I know ya'll love your default Elwind but I'm starting to swear by this move. I love Elwind, but the things you can do with Gliding make Robin absolutely vicious off-stage. Elwind is a safe recovery and an occasional spike. Gliding Elwind is an in-your-face off-stage aggression tool that might get you killed.

Another use for the second spike is counterspiking your opponent's off-stage edge guard. Did your opponent just jump off the ledge to edgeguard you? Are they about the same height and an Arcfire width away? Gliding Elwind and show them who's boss.

The second wind blade is particularly good for gimping even if you miss the spike, as it knocks them away from the stage. As long as you aren't significantly lower than your opponent it is usually safe to go for the Gliding Elwind off-stage followup. It's difficult to punish when they have to focus on recovering and landing it will often net you a kill.

If you space your Gliding Elwind perfectly you can spike an opponent holding onto a ledge with no invulnerability using the second hit. This isn't a common occurrence but it's pretty satisfying.

This last point I can't confirm, but the second hit of Gliding Elwind has a slightly longer distance where the wind blade spikes in comparison to default. Based on my experiences, the effective meteor box of Gliding's second hit reaches farther down than the meteor boxes of either move's first hit.

I'm not trying to get everyone to stop using default Elwind. Just trying to share my positive experiences with Gliding Elwind because I feel people are holding on too tightly to the safe option without giving other moves a fair shot. I think I've made a pretty thorough case for why the move at least has potential, but so far every single response (in several threads) has been about how reliable default Elwind is. There is no questioning Elwind's reliability and it is always a solid choice. Now how about Gliding Elwind? In the end my goal is to explore Robin's potential with this community and it's really too soon to be discarding options.

 

[PK Gaming]

I've been using Gliding Elwind as my go-to Up B special since I got it. It goes without saying, but horizontal recovering is much easier with it. It also makes it risky for the opponent to mess with you from below, but in exchange, it's harder to from below the stage, and your vertical range is poor.

It think it will be matchup dependent down the line.

 

[Pazzo.]

Interesting. I'll have to experiment with Gliding Elwind then!