More thoughts after playing people.
This is probably even more of a strategic character than any I've used, even more so (ironically) than Robin. More than anything it's because of the fact that
- Most of her moveset has considerable lag when compared to others. She's not slow, but what makes her feel slow is that it takes a bit after every move to be able to react. I played a lot against Little Mac right now and he's like the opposite where every move feels super fast and he goes from and to jabs and titls and smashes back and forth without blinking. Meanwhile, almost all my moves, from dash attack to smashes, and ESPECIALLY tilts, have tremendous lag. Basically: if you use it, make sure it will hit or you WILL get punished, sometimes horrendously.
- Warp can actually be extremely helpful, but again, as I feared, it's exactly like Melee Mewtwo's. Where if you land of the ground, stupid lag and punish. Land a bit above it, and it's a faster process. What helps is that the omega stages feel larger than FD felt to me for some reason, so that's good news for warping around.
Other specials are very conditional, and yes, laggy. Reflect is very very particular, it's soo hard to use it well especially when people expect it. Good pay off though. Same with counter, which I've landed less times than Lucina's for some reason. But when you do, like countering a Mac punch or a Ganondorf, or even a Cpt. Falcon knee (xD) it's worth it. Auto-reticle is also actually pretty good at keep away, but if something blocks the reticle or the opponent dashes while the start up lag happens, it's extremely punishable.
- The aerials are her best bet by far, but because of everyone who plays palutena being sooo paranoid of Up Smash, it takes a lot of predicting to make sure a constantly dodging opponent gets to feel the pain from the aerials. Best is when you manage to connect a string of Nairs or Uairs, racks up damage. Fair seems like the fastest move in her arsenal, reminds me of Wolf's Bair although perhaps not as constantly reliable.
A lot of people expect Palutena to do crazy stuff in the air, and I've seen competent players dodge almost everything. What wound up working the best for me is baiting the dodge by pretend jumping, then punishing with Down or Forward Smash.
Then again, that was just one person I played over and over and over again, so I'm not sure if it's a well-known thing for people to avoid air Palutena.
tl;dr: Powerful character with a lot of options, but thanks to so many moves that leave you open for disaster, as well as opponents knowing she works in the air (and being wary of the Up Smash) you need to be really thoughtful when using her and make every move count.
Oh yea, her jab. Amazing. Afraid of Little Mac? The jab stops his approaches, and lacks the super lag of the tilts. I was so happy when I realized this. Probably other people did within the walls of posts I avoided before the game's release.
