Mega Man's Shield Damage and Pressure

[Blade Knight]

Mega Man has one very important and viable ability in SSB4 that few characters do, exceptionally high shield damage across a noteworthy amount of his moveset. Mega Upper, Crash Bomber, Spark Shock, and Charge Shot all do at least 1/2 of a shield's total health value on hit, though Charge Shot must be charged. Additionally Metal Blade, Slash Claw, and Hard Knuckle also dent shields pretty well. Combined with Mega Man's ability to trap opponents into negative situations with Crash Bomber, he can force opponents to chose between getting hit, or having thier shield broken by a combination of his abilities.

Personally, I believe this is a very potent part of his budding metagame, and feel that the Crash Bomber specifically is key to unlocking this potential. At maximum range, for instance, Crash Bomber+Charge Shot or Mega Upper are both safe, and if done properly will both break shields. If an opponent is on a platform above you, Spark Shock works well in combination with Crash Bomber as well for shield pressure, damage, and breaking ability.

A lot of you may have noticed this anyway, but I feel it's worth bringing up that Mega Man might be more suited as more of a trapping/situation setting character like Snake, rather than a zoning and explicitly long range character. How do you all feel about this ability of his?

 

[Abortion Doc]

While it is very satisfying to break an opponent's shield, I usually find that it's extremely situational. It usually only happens for me when I charge an F-smash on someone hiding in their shield from Crash Bomb. The act of shield breaking itself is of course, GREAT SUCCESS. However, I find it even more practical to try to predict my opponent's reactions to Mega Man's hard shield pressure. If you're spacing your lemons nicely, your opponent will have very limited options. I find that common responses to lemon barrages are (in no particular order) rolls, jumps, and slow advances in shield. You can try to notice the patterns that particular opponents/characters use to fight past your lemon barrages, and act accordingly.

Crash bomb makes shield pressuring even easier. Opponents know that they have non-negligible damage coming their way, and because CB seems to have a two-part explosion, taking to the air can be dangerous, and they must hold shield for a considerable amount of frames to block the entire attack. I have found thusfar that a very common response (if not the most common) to getting stuck with CB (from human players) is to roll toward Mega Man to lose the bomb. This is very predictable and punishable. If you have considerable distance between you, you can charge an Fsmash and be pretty safe. If you don't, you can grab and dthrow, usually the bomb will swap to you and back to them before you finish your throw, and tack on 13% while they are in hitstun from the throw. Alternatively, you can fullhop and space a hard knuckle over their shield, which will inflict good shield damage and is safe because the CB explosion will cover your landing lag. If they drop shield they will take about 25% damage from Hard Knuckle + CB.

I do feel that Mega Man is going to have an outstanding trap game. As with most trapping characters, success is going to be reliant on accurate predictions and capitalizing well on the traps that you set.

 

[Blade Knight]

For sure, some of my best combos come from crash bomb+grabs. You can get a cool 39%+ with the right setup and options, I've managed to get ~50% off a combo when I was willing to also take damage from the crash bomb since Mega Man SEEMS to get out of hitstun from his own bomb faster.It's a really great pressure tool no matter what and by itself forces opponents into a bad situation, though players will have to make sure not to over rely on it, just like any of his other tools.