soap
Smash Hero
Ive seen many posts claiming that sheik has a crappy un-useful dash dance, ive always been to lazy to express my views on it but right now id like to say that it is just different and in fact has many advantages over straight running back and wavedashes.
Firstly u have to know the right way to do it and that is the slower long dashes done by jamming the stick one way, release, other way release, as opposed to just ****** the stick and doing a tornado in place. long and quick ones to move the dash dance (same as every other dash dance, many of the things are the same save some unique properties)
the thing that sticks out is sheiks funky looking initial dash which most dash dances dont have, which may appear to slow u down but in fact gives some unique advantages.
Foxtrot vs. run
first i want u to try something, plug in an empty controller and stand right next to the marth, hit the stick away to start running away from the marth, then after a second hit pause. now look at the animation of sheik running, flat to the ground dragging her feet behind her.
now stand back next to him and this time jam the stick away from him and let go, hit pause. You will notice she goes into a fresh-looking jitterhop slide with her feet scooped nicely under her body.
now this is not only the animation, but ive experienced getting my tippy toes tipped while running away from a fsmash, and experienced the difference of foxtrot sliding just out of range of attacks
Foxtrot vs. wavedash
Now u can ask why not just wavedash back space, well the most obvious advantage is that wavedash induces a small amount of lag where u r vulnerable, especially if faster characters had accounted for your spacing, combine the fact that sheiks wavedash is relatively short compared to samus/marth and if you are like me i found myself getting falcon stomped out of backward wavedashes and such.
foxtrot can be instantly cancelled with a jump so u can always instantly just bair to stop just about any approach, and if ur like me i like to be facing away ready to bair quite a bit.
additionally, u can instantly turn around and dash the opposite direction without having to overcome the momentum from a wavedash in the opposite direction and can punish low lag tilts and jabs with a grab much easier. If u are comfortable enough u can even pivot out of this long foxtrot into jabs and ftilt or dsmash. although even i find it easier to WD back if i plan on spacing with a ftilt, it is much more consistent, if i plan on grab i use the foxtrots.
Combining them:
here is the downfall of the foxtrot, after u foxtrot away, it takes a good second for her to recover from her "sliding on a wood floor in socks animation" allowing u to repeat another foxtrot forward, if u attempt it too early u go into a weird acid trip dash. it is only instant to run back the other direction ( strangely enough it is the exact opposite in brawl, the forward foxtrot can be repeated at a much quicker rate, and u cant turn back at all).
now remember that u can jump whenevs so u can continue forward quickly and reset yourself with a wavedash, then be able to foxtrot away again or do a quick pivot to go back the other way for the grab. and this is the basis of general spacing.
So the general formula is foxtrot > wavedash > quick dash dance pivot.
i believe this covers the most distance the quickest giving u the most options during any step.
Hope u enjoyed the read, props to Nihonjin for being the first sheik that opened my eyes to the usefulness of her dash dance a couple years ago when i had simply discarded it after people telling me not to use it at all. Ive found some interesting things myself too from experimentation.
was thinking of recording some brief examples but i dont have my stuff with me, hopefully u can visualize everything. Instead i have a kinda old match where I applied alotta dash dancing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBXU_c8a714
its on FD so i didnt have my usual platform games and played with kinda defensive dash dance spacing, i prolly do it too much, but u get the idea of how it can be used.
Firstly u have to know the right way to do it and that is the slower long dashes done by jamming the stick one way, release, other way release, as opposed to just ****** the stick and doing a tornado in place. long and quick ones to move the dash dance (same as every other dash dance, many of the things are the same save some unique properties)
the thing that sticks out is sheiks funky looking initial dash which most dash dances dont have, which may appear to slow u down but in fact gives some unique advantages.
Foxtrot vs. run
first i want u to try something, plug in an empty controller and stand right next to the marth, hit the stick away to start running away from the marth, then after a second hit pause. now look at the animation of sheik running, flat to the ground dragging her feet behind her.
now stand back next to him and this time jam the stick away from him and let go, hit pause. You will notice she goes into a fresh-looking jitterhop slide with her feet scooped nicely under her body.
now this is not only the animation, but ive experienced getting my tippy toes tipped while running away from a fsmash, and experienced the difference of foxtrot sliding just out of range of attacks
Foxtrot vs. wavedash
Now u can ask why not just wavedash back space, well the most obvious advantage is that wavedash induces a small amount of lag where u r vulnerable, especially if faster characters had accounted for your spacing, combine the fact that sheiks wavedash is relatively short compared to samus/marth and if you are like me i found myself getting falcon stomped out of backward wavedashes and such.
foxtrot can be instantly cancelled with a jump so u can always instantly just bair to stop just about any approach, and if ur like me i like to be facing away ready to bair quite a bit.
additionally, u can instantly turn around and dash the opposite direction without having to overcome the momentum from a wavedash in the opposite direction and can punish low lag tilts and jabs with a grab much easier. If u are comfortable enough u can even pivot out of this long foxtrot into jabs and ftilt or dsmash. although even i find it easier to WD back if i plan on spacing with a ftilt, it is much more consistent, if i plan on grab i use the foxtrots.
Combining them:
here is the downfall of the foxtrot, after u foxtrot away, it takes a good second for her to recover from her "sliding on a wood floor in socks animation" allowing u to repeat another foxtrot forward, if u attempt it too early u go into a weird acid trip dash. it is only instant to run back the other direction ( strangely enough it is the exact opposite in brawl, the forward foxtrot can be repeated at a much quicker rate, and u cant turn back at all).
now remember that u can jump whenevs so u can continue forward quickly and reset yourself with a wavedash, then be able to foxtrot away again or do a quick pivot to go back the other way for the grab. and this is the basis of general spacing.
So the general formula is foxtrot > wavedash > quick dash dance pivot.
i believe this covers the most distance the quickest giving u the most options during any step.
Hope u enjoyed the read, props to Nihonjin for being the first sheik that opened my eyes to the usefulness of her dash dance a couple years ago when i had simply discarded it after people telling me not to use it at all. Ive found some interesting things myself too from experimentation.
was thinking of recording some brief examples but i dont have my stuff with me, hopefully u can visualize everything. Instead i have a kinda old match where I applied alotta dash dancing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBXU_c8a714
its on FD so i didnt have my usual platform games and played with kinda defensive dash dance spacing, i prolly do it too much, but u get the idea of how it can be used.
