Hitting with the Down Air's sour spot

[Ref]

It's not that bad. The key is knowing how to do it.

First things first. It's the aerial with the most knock back...

It knocks Bowser into the blast zone at 85% from the edge of final destination. That is sooner than the Back air and back throw.

If you didn't know that now you do.

I takes lots of timing to hit with it. The hit box seems to come out a little after Ness makes a sound. Sometimes Ness doesn't make a noise though.

Most of the time you hit with it not meaning to. It does 9%. The opponent will fly almost completely horizontal.


When you Down air it's usually because you're going for a meteor smash. You may mistime and hit with the sour spot instead. Sometimes this causes you to miss a KO.

If you missed and hit with this a lot learn to time your spikes better...


Sure it sucks when you are going to that Spike and you Miss it and get this cheap horizontal Knockback and don't get the KO....


However what if we learned to use it to knock our opponents off the stage at a horizontal angle with a powerful knock back? It'd be a good thing. It can set certain characters at a position not to recover.

The timing is hard but you have nothing to lose from learning it anyway, yet you have a lot to gain.

 

[Uffe]

I've done this a few times by accident. It's funny you brought up Bowser. The reason is is because while playing against my friend, my brother was watching and I used my dair on Bowser but it didn't spike him. My brother said, "that was gay." Both of us saw Bowser fly into the blast zone and died. My brother then said, "nevermind." I'd rather not learn this though it may become handy. I think the way to do this is use Ness' dair in between the character which then will knock them to the side instead of straight down. I'm not sure if that's actually how it works. Of course there could be using your dair too early to where it will knock the opponent to the side instead.

These aren't facts, just theories.

 

[Masky]

Nice information, didn't know that it had more horizontal knockback than bair, but...

When you Down air it's usually because you're going for a meteor smash.

This quotes makes me cry. Now I really will get some good videos up

 

[Ref]

To hit with the sour spot all you have to do is time it. There's no trick to it. And Yes masky My quote may have made a lot of spikers cry.

Short hop D air to sour spot is fun. Once you start practicing.

 

[Masky]

That's not why that quote made me cry... Dair is just as useful on stage as it is off stage. I'm just sad that other Ness mains don't use it.

 

[Ref]

Ah. People are upset because of it so... I thought that's what makes you cry.

 

[panique365]

I've gotten a couple of kills with the sour spot, it's awesome

 

[Gaussis]

Heh, I love the sourspot. I rarely kill with it though, but I usually follow up a shield let go too early (which is when I land it most of the time). It is difficult to get the sourspot on the ground, but in the air, it's as easy as sweetspotting bair (its sourspot lingers long enough to make a hit off an airdodge or something). I just hope it's not Meteor Cancelable (now that would suck).

Note: Since it has a high amount of hitstun, I wonder if we can use it to combo?

 

[Gindler]

I've only done it on accident. Usually off stage and when it kills I'm just like, well that works too i guess.
Using on stage spikes are fun too as people don't really expect it to be coming.

 

[FifthRise]

i've managed to somehow do it several times.
but they're just accidents, since i'll be going for a dair off stage.
but i know it has horizontal knockback if you don't hit with the initial hitbox.
so, it's just a really good move to use off (and on) stage.

 

[ColinJF]

That's not why that quote made me cry... Dair is just as useful on stage as it is off stage. I'm just sad that other Ness mains don't use it.

Down air is definitely my most used aerial on the stage (or close to it)... it's Ness's best approach against many characters. It may be his second best move after pk thunder.

 

[PKSkyler]

Down air is definitely my most used aerial on the stage (or close to it)... it's Ness's best approach against many characters. It may be his second best move after pk thunder.

Dairs not THAT good O_o

 

[Masky]

It actually is... though I would disagree that it's good as an approach. I used to think that, but once people adapt to it it can easily be shielded and then punished. It's main use should be to shorthop it in order to counter ground-based attacks and spotdodges. It's also good for spacing.

Here's a video how dair can be abused against someone who can't adapt to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk8WRQpa7JQ

 

[kennypu]

i've done it a couple of times. I think the timing is roughly a second after he performs his dair(not when u push a down, but 1 second after he puts his feet out). Since I go after them to spike them instead of gimping, sometimes I would miss the spike but the sour hit will kill them at low percentage since they are all the way at the end. quite funny. Since they do fly quite far, I think if mastered can be used for quick finishes like gimping them close to the edge, and doing the sweet spot to finish.
Ken

 

[Earthbound360]

Dair's hitstun is amazingly long, but I never realized it was THAT strong in terms of knockback. I knew it outclassed a sweetspotted nair and sourspotted bat, but never a sweetspotted bair!

I love using this as an edgeguard honestly. I jump under and opponent, double jump and dair early. THey get hit by the dair's weak hitbox on the way up. The knockback is actually very effective for KOing off the sides near the blastzone in the same sense the nair is. For me, hitting with a dair offstage no matter what results in a KO most of the time.

SH dair approach is good for the skittish and the defensive characters (Ike and ROB I use this a lot on since thye have dodging built into their playstyles). The dair's hitbox is huge and it lasts long. The delay can throw off timings of dodges also. Ive even hit people out of rolls with it.

 

[PMKNG]

I've been able to use this a bunch. Typically by accident while going for a spike. But I usually will follow up with a pk thunder if I know my opponent is able to recover back just to get a few % in, or pk flash to pressure them back.

But I definitely works on vertically challenged players like bowser, ike and dk.

 

[1337-Zero]

'Bout time this thread got made... Dair sourspot is really awesome. I get more KOs than with the spike because most people don't expect to get sent horizontally. ( Is that spelled right?)

 

[Man of Popsicle]

That's not why that quote made me cry... Dair is just as useful on stage as it is off stage. I'm just sad that other Ness mains don't use it.

I use it.
10ness'

 

[PKNessEB]

That's not why that quote made me cry... Dair is just as useful on stage as it is off stage. I'm just sad that other Ness mains don't use it.

I know I use it too,alot!

 

[xoxokev]

i suppose its good, but its way easier for your opponent to shield grab... i prefer fair ftw

 

[Gaussis]

They won't shieldgrab if you retreat it or land behind them.

I started using dair again. I forgot how good it was .

 

[Cyndi]

I tend to get hit with this a lot -_- I'll have to be more watchful when I play Bowser so I don't get nailed.

 

[thesage]

dair has too much startup lag for me to be used on stage.

 

[Ref]

Sage when you short hop D air you will land laglessly because Ness finishes it and goes into this twirl animation. That twirl animation lands laglessly...

And the start up lag is not too bad...

 

[Wave⁂]

I don't think it's too bad.

 

[Levitas]

I think hitting with the sourspot while scotu's in a firebird below the edge at battlefield is a bad idea, because he techs and spikes you.

 

[Ref]

Hit with it the other way. He can't tech off the air...

 

[thesage]

And the start up lag is not too bad...

Yes. Yes it is.

 

[Ref]

It has it's other advantages, it can shield stab pretty well and pops opponents up for your aerial attacks. Out of a short hop it lands laglessly

It's not that bad learn to use it properly...

 

[kennypu]

yes, the lagless landing I love it. people always get caught to a dair->a button 3 times thingie xD. they block the dair usually, but don't expect the lagless neutral air attacks. or if you can dair->side tilt, is faster.

 

[FuPoo]

haha i love using it as an approach

it will either sourspot or spike the quick aerial people into a jab lock most of the time

 

[Uffe]

Sweet or sour spotting this attack, I don't care. I've been using dair for a bit now and I can't believe how many times I'm able to hit with that! I have to thank Criosphinx, NeoMagic and Ref for that!

 

[Wave⁂]

If only it was as awesome as in Smash 64...

 

[FlashGamma]

I've had quite a bit of practice with Ness's spike, and I've accidentally KO'd my brother's PT w/ the sour spot more than a few times. It would be pretty interesting to see it's purposeful utilization in combat.