Personal Ike Problems

[bob37898]

Alright. So I have been practicing with Ike obsessively and have come across these problems.

1. I almost never use my Counter. I can't seem to use it when it works so I usually just dodge. Any advice on when to use this (Besides the obvious opponent smash attacks)?

2. It seems that if I miss an aerial I have a TON of lag making it hard to recover when I am off stages. So if I use Nair and miss by the time I am able to Aether its too late. Any advice on how to fix this?

3. Grabs. I can rarely grab because it seems like Ikes grab range stinks just like C. Falcons. Any ways how to fix this?

4. Getting around. Alright. Ive tried the quickdraw way of getting around but it seems like moving around regularly might still be quicker because of the charge on quickdraw. Any experiments regarding this?


Thanks for any answers to these questions.

 

[Kimchi]

Please ask these questions in the Q&A Stickied Thread titled Ashunera's Library.

 

[theeboredone]

Welcome to the Ike community, and yea, Kimchi is just giving you a heads up. General questions like these should go into Ashu's Library.

 

[DOMON!!!]

1. Don't counter. Ever.

2.Don't nair off stage.

3.Don't suck.

4.Why are you quickdrawing in the first place?

 

[metroid1117]

1. Don't counter. Ever.

2.Don't nair off stage.

3.Don't suck.

4.Why are you quickdrawing in the first place?

Welcome to the Ike boards; it's great to see that you're trying to help out by answering this guy's questions. However, keep in mind that bumping dead topics is a bad idea (the last post was made almost a month ago) and that you should always try to back up your responses with reasoning. I, for one, disagree with some of your responses, and would like to hear why your stances are as such.

1. Counter is only good if you know for sure that the opponent will attack; it's very slow and the estimated activation time is about 10 frames. At the very most, use this only once match. This will raise Counter's likelihood of success since your opponent won't be able to tell for sure if you'll Counter, and it will also save you a stock if you get read. However, do NOT spam Counter; if your opponent is smart, then they'll punish you for it.

2. NAir'ing off stage is a lot harder to avoid than you might think; a lot of NAir suicides (which I think the OP may be referring to, but it's not explicit) happen mostly because you wanted to shield an attack and then jab or grab, but the attack you blocked pushed you back and Brawl's 10-frame buffer system registered your jab/grab as a NAir, since you're now off the ground. The only way to prevent this from happening is be very cautious whenever your back is to the edge and you're blocking an attack; it's better to be safe and pause for a moment to check if you'll be pushed off rather than take a risk and lose a stock. However, if you're starting off the ground, then the solution you suggested is completely valid - just don't NAir.

3. "Don't suck" is hardly a valid answer and does not give any advice on how to improve.

Ike's grab range is mediocre at best; thankfully, jabbing and following up with a dash grab works fairly well. If your enemy is in the air, you can also run under them and shield, then shield grab them when they land. You also have the option of running in with a spot-dodge or a shield then grabbing them. Ike's grab game, however, is not that good; the best option he has from a grab is to grab pummel and then BThrow -> dash attack. Even that, however, only works at certain %s; if you're not sure whether the dash attack will connect, then just run after them after the BThrow and see how they'll react.

4. QD is horrible as an attack, but it's decent if you're using it just to move around or to score some free damage when you have no other option. QD'ing without charging is much faster than running; however, be sure that your opponent cannot rush in with a spot-dodge or a shield, thus putting you at a severe disadvantage.