Luigi Q&A - Ask your Luigi questions here!

[Pakman]

Pakman: Are you sure Sheik is Luigi's worst matchup? I don't seem to have too much trouble with her

Falco and Sheik are the only match ups that give me serious trouble. I can usually beat most peaches, foxes, falcons, and marths. I have problems with Jiggly but I think that is more of a personal weakness them a match up issue. There aren't many good active puffs in Philly.

Who would you consider harder than sheik?

 

[Smash G 0 D]

I agree that Falco is a difficult matchup for Luigi. Lasers are death.

I'd say Marth is up there; his disjointed hitbox and range really aren't great for Luigi. Once you learn the matchup, he's less of a problem, but I think he's more difficult than Sheik.

 

[Omni_Smash]

..Why would you walk off Nair a Falco?

Falco's lasers are death. Do your best not to get hit by them. Waveshielding is nice.

Well it's actually more of a habit from Samus, because falco's fire lacks the hitboxes that Fox does so if you want to gay him then walk off to nuetral with Samus or really any good nuetral works well.

 

[Osman]

Thanks for the reply .

Any tips concerning Falcon?

 

[Smash G 0 D]

Omni Smash: The Samus drop-off Nair is more understandable. With Luigi, however, I'd recommend something safer like a Bair.

Osman: Dsmash. Fair. Uthrow. DthrowDsmash. The works. Make sure you don't get Nair'd or Uair'd though, if you do then you're pretty much screwed. Oh and don't forget the knee.. and Bair and Dair. Yeah don't get aerial'd by Falcon. Use Nair's priority and combo breakability to your advantage and play it safe. Once Falcon is off the stage, the game is yours. Bair, Dair, Fair, whatever you want. Personally, I'd go with Bair because it's safer yet efficient, but it's whatever you feel comfortable with.

 

[soap]

walk off weak nair to fair, rapesies... i actually dont even know if that works

 

[Tyser]

How do you sweetspot the Ftilt? I swear whenever I wavedash into Ftilt it just slumps out on me and they get no knockback. Help pwease.

 

[Pakman]

You can aim your tilts up and down. For some reason, the forward tilt downwards has like 0 knockback. The problem is that when you wavedash your control stick is positioned so that the forward tilt is aimed low.

I made a post in a Luigi moves thread about the usefulness of the forward tilt upwards. You lose a little on range when you aim up, but you gain a lot. I catch marth and spacies jumping out of shield and nairing with ftilt upwards in situations where the ftilt wouldn't hit.

So instead of attempting to wavedash ftilt. Actively try to wavedash ftilt upwards. Then if you don't tilt up enough you do a normal ftilt.

 

[Tyser]

Thanks bro.

 

[cykofox]

here is a useful combo I did on ganondorf the other day.

d-smash jab
d-smash jab
d-smash grab
d-throw fair

 

[Tero.]

Thats not anywhere near a sure combo, you can di the dsmash to get away or sdi the jab

 

[Pakman]

In my experience, combo's are reactions and not simple button inputs. Many things in smash are not "guaranteed" but you have time to react to DI and make the smart move. Hell a bunch of the combos I do are to trick their tech and get them to miss it so I can jab reset and get a free grab. You can roll after the jab and tech correctly to get out of that set up, but most people don't.

 

[Smash G 0 D]

I get so sick of saying this word..

Situational.

Everything in Melee ^

 

[cykofox]

hey smash GOD whats a good way to practice the down-b recovery?

 

[Smash G 0 D]

Sit there and press B really, really fast. Do that every day. For a while.

One thing people don't realize is that getting the tornado recovery isn't only about pressing the B button fast. Once you do it, you might go into some sort of spazzy state because of its intense-osity. So, another suggestion I have for you is to use it a lot in friendlies when you can. That way you'll get more used to it, then when you're using it for realz, you'll be more relaxed. Relaxation is key.

A trick I know some people use is pressing the B button with their index finger. I don't do this, but it works for some people. Do what's most comfortable for you.

Practice practice practice is key


P.S. NEVER use the tornado recovery if you aren't good enough at it yet to actually gain some vertical distance, rather than just losing it. that's bad, if you didn't know

 

[Pakman]

Yeah I am not KaMaster or PimpUigi with that mashing, but I can gain a fair amount of height. Enough to get an extra forward B without using my jump. My technique is to pinch your thumb and fore finger together, lay the controller on your lap and sort of twitch your hand. It sounds weird but it works pretty well.

 

[cykofox]

LOL spazzy state.

I make more of a ruckus with my body than with my hands. lolz

 

[ppa0]

hey pakman, i just watched ur combo vid, it was tite dude

 

[Smash G 0 D]

Ppa0 has revealed himself!

 

[Pakman]

hey pakman, i just watched ur combo vid, it was tite dude

Thanks, man. If the West Coast has a big Melee tournament anytime soon, I wanna fly out with some people from, tristate (PA, NY, NJ). I really wanna play some of the people from the mushroom kingdom.

 

[ppa0]

yea I heard you wanted to play Ka-master from someones, so maybe if uz show up here u and i can get some matches in too

 

[Dn4]

Hi im luigi player so idk !
what a good tactic beside wavedashing!

 

[Smash G 0 D]

Lcanceling! Read the past few pages and see what you can learn

 

[nytcrawler]

Hey Im a norcal luigi and i was wondering whats the best way to edgeguard falcos and also how generally to play against samus. also, whts a good counterpick stage against peach. i wanted to try corneria for low up-smash and up-b kills. is that a good idea? anyways any commentary will be great. thx. - nytcrawler

 

[Pakman]

Hey Im a norcal luigi and i was wondering whats the best way to edgeguard falcos and also how generally to play against samus. also, whts a good counterpick stage against peach. i wanted to try corneria for low up-smash and up-b kills. is that a good idea? anyways any commentary will be great. thx. - nytcrawler

Falco has a few recovery options. I can't give you the "best way" because different falco's do different things. Here are the things I go for.

Hitting falco with a fireball make falco drop below the forward B sweet spot and forces them to use their up B. A falco Up+B below the stage is like a free dair which is almost always a kill. I do this a lot. Stay on stage unless they are using up+b. If falco has the ledge and you are offstage you die. I use ftilt for forward bs and above stage up+b's. Occasionally you can catch a forward B with a dtilt and then combo into ftilt. edge guarding falco is all about making him Up+B below the stage.

Fighting samus is about avoiding missiles, edge guarding, and spacing. Avoiding missile is easy enough, dodge, jump, waveland. Also you can surprise the girl out of samus by downb-ing through missiles and getting a quick ftilt dsmash, or grab. The missile will bring you out of your down B. My favorite thing to do against samus is shield her dash attack and UP+B out of shield. I know samus' recovery is ridiculous, but don't always go for that killing attack. Just keep her offstage and rack up damage. Ftilt fireball and f-air to keep her off stage. When you are recovering remember that charging your forward B slows your fall and use that to avoid missiles off stage rather than your jump.

Peach can camp that corner better than Luigi on Corneria. If you are confident you can get an early lead Corneria should be alright, because peach can't force you to that corner, but if you do lose the lead you are fighting an uphill battle. I actually like FD against peach. No platforms means no gay downB stuff and makes it easier to upsmash. Peach is another one that gets up-b'ed out of her dash attack.


EDIT: I just put up a more detailed guide for fighting samus in my match up thread.

 

[Oracle]

Luigi has a great aerial game, but also some great uses of his tilts. Should I use him more on the ground or in the air?

 

[Pakman]

I have seen aerial based and ground based Luigis. Both are viable options, but I find the ground game to be a little more important. Ground game involves wavedashing, grabs, and basically all of your combo starters aside from nair.

My generic advice is to stay on the ground unless you are comboing or are guaranteed a free hit. There are plenty of exceptions to this rule. Many Luigi mains live by the double aerial. I like to single aerial waveland most of the time, because it is a little safer. Another decent use of aerials are the double spaced back airs. Fair, dair and nair are very hard to space to avoid getting shield grabbed. Bair is a little easier.

Conclusion: You need a good aerial game for finishing/continuing combos and a good ground game for starting them and getting those precious grabs. You can have an aerial heavy Luigi if you spacing and wavelanding is good.

 

[Blistering Speed]

Pakman, what's your favourite/best Shoryuken set ups, as the more I use Luigi the more important that move is becoming to my game.

 

[Pakman]

Well I have a few favorites.

Up+b out of shield is probably the most useful. Many characters can caught with this out of thier dash attack.
I have recently been catching foxs who DI up throw behind Luigi with a ftilt. They always miss the tech and I wavedash in and up B. My recent matches versus Jman have a few.

 

[Blistering Speed]

Haha I didn't just watch those matches, I studied them.

Lets go, Lets go, LETS GO, LETS GOOOOOLKAEP:E@AWL:F:!!?!!!111

Finally, whats your favourite aerial? Not best, just your favourite because everyone seems to be different.

...<3 D Air

 

[Pakman]

I like the up air. It's not as useful as the other ones but it catches people more often. I usually end a double aerial with a nair or upair.

 

[Omni_Smash]

hmm... cool. What is the Luigi Vs. Kirby matchup look like from this end lately?

 

[C 3]

Luigi's ground moves for the most part are great launchers that set up into his aerials, so being strong on the ground and in the air are essential. Spend the time to learn the %'s and know when you can do Dmash to Dair, or when you need to throw in an extra Utilt to send them higher for example. Luigi's 2x aerials are a big part of his game, along with single aerial/waveland. 2x aerials MUST be L-cancelled and single aerials should almost always be wavelanded. Cover your 2x aerials with jabs/tilts, your opponent will 9/10 times try to attack after you 2x aerial, so you can catch them with a tilt or jabs, and then go from there.

2x aerials aren't that unsafe as long as you L-cancel and cover them with jabs, tilts or shield dashing. Approaching with an aerial mentality might work a little better because u have more options (single aerial/waveland, 2x aerial/cover moves, single aerial/waveland/grab, etc.) It comes down to reading your opponent and seeing which game works best against them, try not to go into a match with a strict plan already, all players are different.

Up B is not a strong plan at all, unless you're edge guarding sheik. Yes, it's strong and flashy, but there are too many downsides to that move for it to be a recommended strat. If you miss it against a good opponent, you are sure to take a good 20 - 30% in damage, not to mention being knocked off to be edge guarded, or just die altogether. Dealing 1% and taking 20 - 30x that much percent is not a good trade. If the Up B is blocked Luigi goes flying away fromt he opponent, and can be hit right after. Another common situation is if you see an opportunity to use it, and you miss by accident. Not only do you deal only 1%, but you reset your opponent while you're in the air, and you're in trouble. Doing an aerial/smash is MUCH safer and efficent.

 

[C 3]

hmm... cool. What is the Luigi Vs. Kirby matchup look like from this end lately?

Luigi ***** kirby. Luigi is faster, has more range, more priority..... it's a kirby nightmare. The only thing things to "worry" for are Kirby's Bair and him trying to kirbyside you. Retaliate to his Bair with yours, and properly spaced it should beat his, not to mention doing 2 of them. To avoid kirbyside, stay away from the ledge when he tries to camp it. Shoot fireballs, practice techniques, anything you want to show the kirby that you're not falling for it.

 

[cykofox]

I think pakman is up there with KA in terms of luiginess.

 

[C 3]

I think pakman is up there with KA in terms of luiginess.

Not even close. Ka is by far the best and most successful Luigi around, the next would probably be ROFL (if he still plays).

 

[WIGI]

pakmans one of the most entertaining to watch, but yes ka is the beset. i dunno if roffl is betetr or not. i think pakman is better than roffl. papa0 is on the list of good luigis too.

 

[C 3]

I retract my last statement. DJ Combo and DJ Nintendo should be up there before ROFL imo. ppa0 is good, imo the most techniqual Luigi right now.

 

[WIGI]

never even heard of dj combo or dj nintendo.
|
and ka master is mroe tehcnical athan any luigi player.. sumhow

 

[Pakman]

DJ Nintendo isn't playing much Luigi anymore. He actually has been using a lot of mario and Marth. His bowser is still sick though. I think he probably has the best bowser hands down.