Opinion on playing more than one character?

[AirFair]

Just want some opinions.

Some say that you should play characters other than your main so that you have something to play when you are frustrated with progress.

Others (ex. Umbreon's stickied post) say that it's important to just focus on one character, because if you try to play different characters, you may end up switching or not playing your main as well, hurting your progress.

Thoughts?

 

[EPsilon933]

you can only play 1 character at a time. Perfect it. you're only as good as your best character

 

[The Soap]

I like messing around with Fox, Falcon, Sheik and various other characters, but I've recently started playing exclusively with Falco and put myself on a training regimen to master every possible Falco tech I could think of. My mindset is that mastering my techskill will allow me to become the best player I can possibly be with Falco, and time put into other characters is taking away time that I could be putting work into him, as well as throwing off my game with him.

 

[ECHOnce]

In Melee, there's really no need to main more than your best character, and maybe one other as a secondary to cover 1 or 2 MUs if you find that you really struggle with. Focus on your main in tournament, and only bring that secondary out that one MU if you're confident that works best for you. There's no need to restrict yourself in friendlies - we all have pocket mains lol, and that's a safe environment in which you can learn more about MUs by playing the opp. side's character - but you'll be hindering your improvement otherwise.

 

[EddyBearr]

I main Sheik, but I play Young Link in his viable high tier matchups because I love Young Link and he kinda covers Sheik's weird matchups.
There are costs and benefits to it.

Benefits:
Might cover matchups easier
Will likely be better at adapting due to having to adapt so often
Might have more fun (like I do).

Costs:
True main might be slightly lacking due to lost time/devotion.
Can get you stuck in counterpicking situations (especially if your secondary is one that sucks against the 5 most popular characters in the game, like mine).

Whether you perform better or worse in tournament depends on brackets and character pool, but in a tournament composed of only... Falco? (everyone goes even against Falco lol) then you'll probably perform slightly worse.

 

[gmBottles]

I main Puff, but I have several other characters I play. Mostly just for fun, but being able to pull out Luigi or Falcon randomly to throw off the opponent is nice. I mostly have Falcon for floaty MUs, Luigi is just for fun.

 

[Sir Bubbles]

Focus on one character. Quality over quantity.

 

[_A1]

I use multiple characters because it nice to mix things up for fun. I'm not gonna quit Falco just because I want a more optimized Fox.

 

[vynleren]

For bracket, I would pretty much stick to one character, maybe two. However, there's nothing wrong with being able to play many characters well - it's fun for friendlies, and it deepens your knowledge of the game.

 

[Clint Jaguar]

I used to play as solely Marth for a long time. He's my main because I enjoy his playstyle and he's the character I have the most confidence with. Still, there's a reason I started adopting new mains. I started playing as Captain Falcon after I watched the Smash Brothers Documentary and saw what a legend Isai used to be with the character. Then after seeing how amazing other players are with the character like Mango, Darkrain, Silent Spectre and Scar, I was convinced that Falcon could be the best character if I could hone that combo ability. I haven't got there yet of course, but it's become my new goal as a Smasher.

I later started playing Sheik just because of how good her edge guarding is and how other Marth players (like M2K & KDJ) also use the character. I'm probably the least experienced with this character, but if I keep practicing, I'm sure she will become a powerful asset.

Before I even knew about the competitive side of Melee, I used to play as Mario a lot. I haven't played as him in a while now, but I still enjoy his playstyle, so I adopted to play as Doc Mario. His slower but more powerful playstyle fits me a lot better than Mario's which requires a lot more work to get good at. Doc isn't really someone I'd use for tournaments though, unless I someday get ridiculously good and I'm feeling cocky. For now, I just play as him in friendly matches.

Personally I think having a small selection of characters to main is a good thing since now, you can change the matchup whenever you feel appropriate. By only having one main, it will be very easy for players to learn your playstyle and use it against you.

 

[Haaaaadoken]

Having a primary main that you are very comfortable with is not a bad idea at all. But I feel if you practiced another character and had a solid secondary is the more optimal choice, it allows for more versatility. I would only recommend you start messing with more than one character though once you have a good grasp on one character and basic mechanics.

 

[Jiggsbomb]

I find it not necessary to main more than one character. I spend all my time with Jigglypuff. I've played Jigglypuff in melee for a little more than 9000 h.
So i don't find it necessary, focus on one character.

 

[R2_GP]

Sounds very 20xx but i feel like everybody should have a decent Fox

 

[gmBottles]

Sounds very 20xx but i feel like everybody should have a decent Fox

I disagree with this. I would say that having a Fox would help with some matchups, but some people, myself included, don't like the way Fox plays. For me, it has nothing to do with the tech, its just his moves and stuff don't fit my playstyle.

 

[Neville]

I main Falco because of how powerful he is, and I love his speed, even though it's not the fastest, it's manageable that it doesn't require as much tech skill as Fox. For some reason I just can't play Fox. I've tried playing very technically, and none of it makes sense to me.

I also play as Sheik for a secondary in some MUs I feel weird as Falco, and I have a Marth I almost never use, unless it just feels like a Marth kinda day. Whenver I play for solely fun and with no competitive thought in my mind, I play Falcon or Mario.

Local tourneys I go to I'll joke around in Friendlies with my secondaries and fun characters, but when it comes to play serious, it's always Falco.

 

[Ting Sing]

I go Falco mainly nowadays, and Puff/Marth on the side. I don't believe that your skill is divided by the amount of characters you have (not literally). It might be different per person. I even think that you can develop your skill with multiple characters at the same time. However my friend (a very technical Lucas main in PM,) he can't go a match with another character without saying something like "Crap thought I was Lucas for a second" or "That's right, I'm playing ___" So I guess it really just depends on the person.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

Just want some opinions

Some say that you should play characters other than your main so that you have something to play when you are frustrated with progress.

Others (ex. Umbreon's stickied post) say that it's important to just focus on one character, because if you try to play different characters, you may end up switching or not playing your main as well, hurting your progress.

Thoughts?

Well, the thing that pops into mind to me is being fooled by artificial success by changing characters. Often times I feel people are in a position where their skill level is not high enough to overcome the natural tools a character simply has given too them.

For example, changing from say Mewtwo to Falco will often show better results for the person changing to Falco. I have known some people to think they are better with Falco or some other character when really it is the character and not really the person that makes all the difference. Falco lasers are much easier to use than they are to counter for example.

However, eventually you might reach a point where you keep thinking that counter-picking will save you form a person's character they are playing. When in reality there is generally someone much better than you who will beat you no matter your character selection. At that point what is limiting you is probably your individual talent at the game. Dividing your time across multiple characters does not give you the execution practice you need to stay at your best.

My thought is pick a singular character and stick with them. Your individual talent will show more with a singular character than with multiple. For more credence to the idea of a singular main take look at the overall better players. They all stick with relatively one character. You can say M2K uses Fox/Marth, but how often do you really see those characters? When I see like top 4 matches going into round 3 and greater all of the players go with their main.

Mango - Fox
M2K - Sheik
PP - Falco
Hbox - Jiggs
Armada - Peach

 

[Massive]

I'm going to disagree a bit with Xeylode here.

Most top players got to the top because they were able to successfully pivot from one main to another until they attained a successful playstyle/strategy. There is no time wasted practicing another character in melee (aside from super gimmicky stuff), especially if you're already technically proficient with your main.

Being able to play another character means you are going to inherently know what that character needs to do in situations to be successful. You will be able to read your opponent more intuitively if you know what you'd do in their place. There are many times you can overcome skill deficits just by being able to predict your opponent or understand their strategy enough that you can counter it. Gaining deep matchup knowledge like that is incredibly hard to do by just sticking to a single character, but almost trivially easy if you play both characters.

There are obviously limits to this, but I've always maintained that you come out better for it in the long run.

 

[TheKobanator]

I've struggled a lot with this question as well. Back in the 'Hyrule with all items on high' days I would main Link. When I came back to smash about 9 months ago I used Marth because my buddys older brother would always beat us in a 2 v 1 with Marth. Got into/found out about the competitive scene shortly after. Learned marth was actually good. rocked Marth for a few months. I learned all of my fundamentals and AT with him.

Tried out sheik about 3-4 months in and loved her. I started to main her and did well with her, slightly (in some cases a lot) better than my Marth, despite the obvious difference with experience. Ended up dropping her because I stopped finding her fun to play as. Picked the Marth back up.

More experimenting came, this time in the form of space animals. Fox is by far the character that feels like how melee should be played to me, but after many MANY times practicing, I dont feel consistent/comfortable with him. Then there's falco. I can handle him, and quite comfortably.

So, as it stands, I claim myself to be a Marth/Falco main. Marth being the more 'main' of the two. Falco has won me matches my Marth couldnt and vice versa. I practice with fox every now and then since I see him to be my 'ideal' character. But am quite happy and satisfied with my characters as it is.

I can easily switch between the two, not missing wavedashes, ledge dashes, l cancels, etc.

I find it extremely important that I had to go through a few characters to find what I feel comfortable with and most importantly, who I have fun with.

tl;dr - do whatever you need to do to keep the game fun and exciting for you.

 

[Im Fragbait]

Just want some opinions.

Some say that you should play characters other than your main so that you have something to play when you are frustrated with progress.

Others (ex. Umbreon's stickied post) say that it's important to just focus on one character, because if you try to play different characters, you may end up switching or not playing your main as well, hurting your progress.

Thoughts?

This is what you need...

Perfect your character LEARN EVERYTHING YOU CAN ABOUT THEM... i like to think of it as like my first string character, its going to be your best and you should focus most of your time on that character, however you also need a second string because you may find yourself in a situation where lets say your first string character is not gonna work, your opponent has the match-up on lock down, This is when you pull out your second string character, a character you've put a decent amount of time into but basically you trained this character for this moment when there's no way in hell your gonna be winning the match-up you lost in game 1.

Dont know if people agree with this but hey ive found it works for me :D

 

[AirFair]

Yeah, I'm pretty much just going to get a really good Marth first. I just want a secondary Falco for Marth's bad MU's like Sheik. Thanks for all of the feedback so far.

 

[JoeTango]

Reality tells me I main Fox. My heart tells me I main Luigi.

 

[dan smith]

playing more than one character regularly won't negatively effect your competitive abilities at all assuming you are one of the top 50 players in the world.

i think playing multiple characters over the course of time is good but to me switching characters between matches is usually a hinderance. different people are more or less capable of pulling it off (massive does it really well) but at least for me personally i find it to be a detriment.

 

[Roukiske]

Its fun to play other characters no doubt, play em all if you'd like. As far as training competitively I would try to get a high level main before finding someone else to play. I don't want to say you should master your main first since that can take your whole life or you could get bored before that could happen.

 

[Mastodon]

you can only play 1 character at a time. Perfect it. you're only as good as your best character

I think this is somewhat true, but only somewhat.

I think you should master one character before moving to others...but as long as you've mastered one, I'd imagine adding another character to your roster would help to give you another option if need be.

 

[WolfieXVII ❂]

Always keep a pocket spacie

 

[fatman667]

I went back and forth between Marth and Falco, it didn't really hurt too much, my tech skills are pretty good for both characters, but if you're new I'd strongly advise start using only one character before moving onto the next. In Melee you can definitely get away with two mains, maining the second one after I'd say after you've gone to a good amount of tournaments and get really good.

Playing only one character is sometimes NECESSARY to be good at some fighting games, so if you ever plan on playing another fighting game like Guilty Gear, at least you have the habit of not switching around too much. I had to learn switching around often is a bad idea the hard way, but luckily it was early on.