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Custom Monado arts (Neutral B) Custom neutral B (2): Decisive Monado arts - You can't switch out of your current monado stance however, it lasts longer by 2 seconds and all buffs are slightly increased. Takes longer than usual to activate (~1.5 seconds) Custom neutral B (3): Hyper Monado arts - Monado arts have amplified buffs and debuffs. Lasts for 6 seconds
Custom back slash (Forward B) Custom forward B (2) Back slash leap - Shulk leaps high then descends downwards. Bad horizontal leap but great vertical leap. Damage output is similar to default back slash Custom forward B (3) Back slash charge - Shulk charges forward and slashes the target. Has super armor and great horizontal leap but poor vertical leap. Damage output is weaker than default back slash
Custom air slash (Upward B) Custom upward B (2)- Shulk slashes upwards. The second slash sends him forward. Deals slightly more damage than normal air slash Custom upward B (3)- The first slash reaches for much higher distances BUT the reach of this attack is much shorter. Deals a lot of damage
Custom vision (Downward B) Custom downward B (2) Dash vision - Shulk counters and dashes forward for the slash. Much faster than normal vision but deals weaker damage overall Custom downward B (3) Power vision - Shulk counters and delivers a powerful slash. Timing of the counter is much stricter if used consecutively. Slower than normal vision but deals a ton of damage and has significantly more knockback
Decisive Monado Arts' main issue is the simple fact that you have to commit to an art for a massive 21 seconds after selecting it, which alone invalidates its use in a competitive setting where Shulk really NEEDS to be switching between his arts relatively quickly as being able to switch between them gives him better control of the momentum of the match. The most prominent and obvious example would have to be with Decisive Shield. Getting knocked off stage while in Decisive Shield basically means death as you're unable to switch to Jump or anything else that would otherwise save you. The other prominent example would be with Decisive Smash. If you get the kill with a solid read you're then stuck with your opponent at a percent where they most definitely will not die and you're not only dealing half as much damage to them but fewer of your early percent combo setups work.
They do have some neat uses in some other modes though. For instance I feel that they're great on Smash 3DS' Smash Run. Decisive Speed and Jump allow you to better navigate the map while Decisive Buster is fantastic if you're on a tear through a lot of enemies. But overall I'd definitely rank it as the worst of the three neutral Bs.
The only real reason I could see Decisive used in tournament is to just stick with Speed mode, as it probably has the least notable drawbacks of any art (damage reduction isn't horrendous and lower jump height is offset by better air speed). MAYBE you could swing using Jump with it as well, but being stuck in any of the other modes is asking for it. Definitely my least favorite Shulk Special.
The only real reason I could see Decisive used in tournament is to just stick with Speed mode, as it probably has the least notable drawbacks of any art (damage reduction isn't horrendous and lower jump height is offset by better air speed). MAYBE you could swing using Jump with it as well, but being stuck in any of the other modes is asking for it. Definitely my least favorite Shulk Special.
This. Monado Speed is good for recovery any ways, so there's never really any need to switch out of it. Also, it increases benefits of arts without making the worse parts worse. So decisive speed has even better recovery than normal monado speed.
I think it should also be looked at across different match-ups. For instance, decisive Jump can be good for match-ups like Link since Shulk wants to stay in that art. It may even be good for Jiggs and staying in Monado Shield (just avoid getting knocked off the stage).
Decisive buster should not actually be that bad as long as you use it from 0% (at 0% use d-throw combos). If you get the opponent to kill range before the art runs out (you must have been playing really well if you're able to do that in 21 seconds), then I guess either get them to even higher damage (more damage still helps) or stall if you need to.
Decisive smash though... probably not a good idea unless you know you can stall the person out once they have died.
edit: Oh wait, decisive smash would be perfectly fine on the last stock of a match.
edit2: Yeah, I'm really liking this custom now. Just get used to using Buster, Speed, Jump (more for projectile users), and on the last stock Smash. Smash is really worth it on that final stock because kills are pretty early.
Custom Monado arts (Neutral B)
1) Decisive Monado arts - You can't switch out of your current monado stance however, it lasts longer by 2 seconds and all buffs are slightly increased. Takes longer than usual to activate (~1.5 seconds)
2) Hyper Monado arts - Monado arts have amplified buffs and debuffs. Lasts for 6 seconds
Custom back slash (Forward B)
1) Back slash leap - Shulk leaps high then descends downwards. Bad horizontal leap but great vertical leap. Damage output is similar to default back slash
2) Back slash charge - Shulk charges forward and slashes the target. Has super armor and great horizontal leap but poor vertical leap. Damage output is weaker than default back slash
Custom vision (Downward B)
1) Dash vision - Shulk counters and dashes forward for the slash. Much faster than normal vision but deals weaker damage overall
2) Power vision - Shulk counters and delivers a powerful slash. Timing of the counter is much stricter if used consecutively. Slower than normal vision but deals a ton of damage and has significantly more knockback
Custom air slash (Upward B)
1) Advancing air slash- Shulk slashes upwards. The second slash sends him forward. Deals slightly more damage than normal air slash
2) Mighty air slash- The first slash reaches for much higher distances BUT the reach of this attack is much shorter. Deals a lot of damage
Custom Monado arts (Neutral B)
1) Decisive Monado arts - You can't switch out of your current monado stance however, it lasts longer by 2 seconds and all buffs are slightly increased. Takes longer than usual to activate (~1.5 seconds)
2) Hyper Monado arts - Monado arts have amplified buffs and debuffs. Lasts for 6 seconds
Custom back slash (Forward B)
1) Back slash leap - Shulk leaps high then descends downwards. Bad horizontal leap but great vertical leap. Damage output is similar to default back slash
2) Back slash charge - Shulk charges forward and slashes the target. Has super armor and great horizontal leap but poor vertical leap. Damage output is weaker than default back slash
Custom vision (Downward B)
1) Dash vision - Shulk counters and dashes forward for the slash. Much faster than normal vision but deals weaker damage overall
2) Power vision - Shulk counters and delivers a powerful slash. Timing of the counter is much stricter if used consecutively. Slower than normal vision but deals a ton of damage and has significantly more knockback
Custom air slash (Upward B)
1) Advancing air slash- Shulk slashes upwards. The second slash sends him forward. Deals slightly more damage than normal air slash
2) Mighty air slash- The first slash reaches for much higher distances BUT the reach of this attack is much shorter. Deals a lot of damage Custom sets (Project)
Looks like I have to master at switching Monado arts and choose wisely, I can actually guess each of the Monado art's power by just looking at the Monado word/font from the meaning. And here's a small trivia about the Monado arts for you guys to know. As you guys may know, the each Monado's character that Shulk uses, of course, are called "Kanji"(漢字), which actually means "Chinese character", Japanese started to imitate Chinese character and evolve it into Japanese "Kantakana" (Taken from Chinese regular script character) and "Hiragana"(Taken from Chinese cursive character[Yes, Chinese also has cursive, but we use brush pen to write cursive]) , in Japanese, Kanji mostly uses in names, and some of the sentences. So Chinese can actually guess the sentences meaning by just look at the Kanji, or we can speak the Kanji in our language. For example, "日本" is pronounce "Nippon" in Japanese, but in Chinese is pronounce "Ri- ben".
So Shulk's "Speed"(疾)Monado, and "Smash"(擊) Monado are actually have the same pronunciation in Chinese, both pronounce "Ji"
Here's the compare: 翔(Jump): Japanese:Shō
Chinese: Xiang 疾(Speed):
Japanese:Ha-ya
Chinese: Ji 盾(Shield):
Japanese:Ta-te
Chinese:Dwin 斬(Buster):
Japanese:Ki
Chinese:Gian 擊(Smash):
Japanese:De-ki
Chinese:Ji Now here another question, which Monado arts did Shulk activates in his trailer?
Okay I dig this. First of all it's notable to mention that Decisive Arts' drawbacks are on the same level as the default Monado Arts, but check out these stats from this table if you haven't yet:
Anyways, the words of wise for using Decisive Arts is that you should decide on an Art to commit to hard & fast. Have ideas of what Arts you'll use most of the match because you're going to be stuck with them. And when you're being launched by an attack whether it be a tilt, smash, or throw, always think about cycling to the Art you want to use AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (as in, immediately as you're hit). You must not wait for the hit-stun to finish in order to cycle to an Art that helps you recover such as DJump or DSpeed because DMArts take 1.5 seconds to activate, so by the time you wait for hit-stun to wear off while you attempt recovering back, you're probably on the verge of getting edge-guarded already & by that time you could basically be boned later on if you don't recover safely.
This is the one thing I feel people should worry about the most when they don't have the Art on before being launched. As far as DShield goes, I'd say it's not as a bad for DShield to be active while being launched since the drawbacks about DShield are the same as Shield mode, & because we're heavier than Shield mode, it ties in with taking less knockback which means we're not launched as far, & acting out of hit-stun quicker to do an airdodge or Vision countering the move if you're getting combo'd off-stage.
EDIT:
Oh, & to clarify after doing stop-watch testing, Decisive Monado Arts last for ~20 seconds, not 21, which saddens me.
Okay I dig this. First of all it's notable to mention that Decisive Arts' drawbacks are on the same level as the default Monado Arts, but check out these stats from this table if you haven't yet:
Anyways, the words of wise for using Decisive Arts is that you should decide on an Art to commit to hard & fast. Have ideas of what Arts you'll use most of the match because you're going to be stuck with them. And when you're being launched by an attack whether it be a tilt, smash, or throw, always think about cycling to the Art you want to use AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (as in, immediately as you're hit). You must not wait for the hit-stun to finish in order to cycle to an Art that helps you recover such as DJump or DSpeed because DMArts take 1.5 seconds to activate, so by the time you wait for hit-stun to wear off while you attempt recovering back, you're probably on the verge of getting edge-guarded already & by that time you could basically be boned later on if you don't recover safely.
This is the one thing I feel people should worry about the most when they don't have the Art on before being launched. As far as DShield goes, I'd say it's not as a bad for DShield to be active while being launched since the drawbacks about DShield are the same as Shield mode, & because we're heavier than Shield mode, it ties in with taking less knockback which means we're not launched as far, & acting out of hit-stun quicker to do an airdodge or Vision countering the move if you're getting combo'd off-stage.
EDIT:
Oh, & to clarify after doing stop-watch testing, Decisive Monado Arts last for 20 seconds, not 21, which saddens me.
That reminds me that it is possible to multi-task those moments where we're hit from an attack. We're able to DI properly while mashing the Specials button to get to DJump or DSpeed asap, but it can be tricky at first if we're not used to it.
Decisive arts is pretty mixed for me. Once you commit to an art, you have to play it right or you're ****ed. Decisive speed benefits the most from decisive arts because it practically has no weaknesses. Recovery is better because of the additional air mobility you get from speed. Your damage output is basically 1.03 Vanilla Shulk. You become insanely good at punishing and dash grab/boost pivot grab is godlike. Did I mention pivot speed f-tilts? Yeah, those are good. Decisive speed is REALLY good.
Decisive buster is also great. Increased damage output? Nice. Increased safety on shield? Amazing. And the debuff isn't even increased. You still take 13% additional damage. You still need to play buster correctly to truly appreciate decisive buster. Decisive jump is pretty good too. Not much to say about it. The defense debuff still sucks though. Decisive shield and smash are scary to use.
I think the safest way to use decisive arts is to simply commit to speed or buster or switch between both of them. I'd take hyper arts over decisive arts personally.
Since decisive smash is fine on the last stock of a battle, You would get more opportunities to use decisive smash with 2 stock matches than 3 stock matches. That makes two stocks sets just a little better for decisive than three stocks sets.
Should also add (If I didn't) but decisive speed is fairly decent for KO'ing. I'm talking about u-smash here since dash u-smash will probably be your main KO tool with speed activated.
Customs are legal. Can we move on to hyper arts now?
Hyper Smash:
You'll be amazed at what kills. For kill percents, I like to do things on Shulk because it helps me really understand the knockback (as I'm used to taking multitudes of hits from various opponents as I play Shulk myself)
K, so no rage (training mode), opposing Shulk (CPU set to stop) is in training mode spawn point, Hyper Smash, Kill percents:
Tipped Nair - 103%.
Untipped Nair - 114%
D-throw - 76%
Uncharged F-smash - 54%
Uncharged F-smash tilted up - 48%
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What's the catch? If we're to flip it so that the Shulk in hyper smash is the one taking the hits, he dies at very early percents too.
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Neutral Shulk attacking hyper smash Shulk:
Tipped Nair - 113%
Untipped Nair - 127%
D-throw - 91%
Uncharged F-smash - Null (hyper smash Shulk is consistently hit out of F-smash's second hit by the first hit)
Uncharged F-smash tilted up - 45% (Wow, actually takes more knockback than he deals here).
--------
Hyper Smash is great when you are at low percents and opponent mid-high. However, it gets risky very quickly depending on the match-up.
Ever saddened by how your attack could not follow up with an aerial because Jump Shulk still just could not get to them in time? Well, say hello to Hyper Jump Shulk. Nair -> Fair -> Fair true combos at many percents. If it does not, then at least Nair -> Fair will, and maybe Air Slash can be put at the end too.
normal Jump Shulk travels at the same air speed as his run speed. Therefore, Hyper Jump Shulk now travels faster in the air than on ground.
Like Smash, this art is great for killing. So many true death combos. However, when this should be used is inverse of when Smash should be used. This has the negative effect of making your damage intake 146.4% of what it normally is. Using this when at lower percents can give the opponent a very fast lead on you, while Smash would normally do the trick of getting the kill. At higher percents, when it's more about avoiding dying than not taking damage, is when this art is better than Smash.
Hyper Speed is... really fast. Hyper Speed is so fast that it can actually look like teleportation to opponents at first (the person using it doesn't get the effect though, as being the controller lets your brain know where and when the character is going to move).
Damage output, at 63%, is almost twice as nerfed as normal Monado Speed's, at ~80%.
Due to this, I see the main use of H. Speed is to overwhelm and to punish opponents.
Pivot grabs have a very large range where using them can snatch the opponent.
Be wary of the lowered jump height. Recovering from high angles with speed is not bad, but at lower angles you might not make it. Also, a full hop no longer lands you on the bottom platforms of Battlefield.
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Hyper Shield:
Even later death percents, even less damage dealt.
Hyper Shield has very late death percents, but... it's very easy for opponents to simply stall out. I don't think pure survival is what hyper shield is all about.
Hyper Shield should actually be pretty good at low percents or in the neutral game. Let me explain.
>>> You're at 0%, in Monado Shield, crouching, and the opponent comes up to you and uncharged up smashes you. Do you care? No.
You take half damage and barely flinch. You're still on the ground. Now, while your opponent is finishing his move, you have an opportunity to do whatever you want to him-- probably a forward smash or something.
Another way to use hyper shield is as a mind game. You've noticed that the opponent likes to stall you out by running to the edge whenever you go to hyper shield. Well, now you have an easy way to get your opponent to the edge. You can switch into Shield to bring them to the edge and then switch into Smash or Jump to move in for the early kill.
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Hyper Buster:
Unsafe on hit until later percents. Does not work the same as normal Buster. More research is needed on when this art is safe and what to use when it is. Hopefully, this can be treated like normal buster when the opponent is at higher percents. There probably some interesting combos at lower percents that are impossible with normal buster (like D-throw -> Jab combo for 32% damage).
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About hyper arts in general:
I've done some tests and found that the Hyper Arts activation duration is actually 6 seconds, not 5 seconds. I've tested this three times using 1/4x speed training mode to help nullify reaction time, each time getting 6 seconds.
Further evidence for this is that the flashing monado art on Smash Wii U happens when you have 5 seconds left, no matter the type of monado art you are in. As it turns out, there's a 1 second gap between when hyper monado arts are activated and the symbol starts flashing. @Masonomace
this needs to be changed in the metagame thread . The cooldown is still 15 seconds, though.
Anyways, with such short activation duration, you're either going to be very dynamic with your arts or not using many of them. Also, with such a long cooldown period, you need to be careful that you are not wasting your arts.
edit: @Berserker.
the op still says decisive monado arts
Oh yeah, I'll fix that. Although, I think you're mistaken. To clarify, it's the person in hyper smash receiving a forward smash from another Shulk, so it works in favor of the person using hyper smash. A general rule of thumb is to always tilt F-smash upwards when using it against a hyper smash Shulk.
I really need to give Hyper arts a try. In my head it sounds gimmicky and 6 seconds really isn't that long especially with Shulk's generally low mobility, but in practice might be another story (Hyper Smash sounds so tempting...).
Anyway, hyper arts (imo) is Shulk's better neutral B custom. I'll explain the functions of the art. Basically, hyper arts lasts for 5 or 6 seconds. This main seem to be a problem but in practice, it's actually easy to get around. Each art radically changes. The buster guide I made essentially becomes mostly irrelevant, unfortunately. I'll go into each hyper art and talk about when and how to use them:
Hyper jump
When to use:
- Recovering
- Off-stage edgeguarding
- KO'ing the opponent
The air mobility you receive with hyper jump is INSANE. Your ability to recovery becomes god like and you can literally go ANYWHERE with hyper jump. Your fast falling speed and air speed are drastically increased so basically, n-air, f-air, and b-air become MUCH more deadly on stage and off stage. The increased air mobility and jump height also allows for some combos like n-air > f-air > f-air to be usable at even higher percentages than default jump. I should also note that air slash's recovery distance is also massively upgraded in hyper jump.
There isn't really much to say how this improves your recovering and off-stage edgeguarding. Increased jump height and increased recovery height? Nice. That's all I need to say. Using N-air off-stage is still dumb though in this art especially with the increased falling speed in hyper jump. You remember those combos at the combo thread? Yeah, you can gimp and easily combo opponents off-stage to net early kills. This coincides with hyper jump being good for off-stage edgeguarding btw since combo'ing an off-stage f-air into another f-air is WAY easier in hyper jump
Since you only have 6 seconds with the art, the best and safest way to use it is when you're recovering or when you're going off-stage to edgeguard. I'd say that using jump art is alright for gaining control of the match but with the art duration and the defense debuff, it's probably not a great idea. You're taking 44% more damage in the art. If you take 9% damage in jump art, it will be inputted as 12.96%. Yikes. Hyper jump should NOT be used for damage racking. Ever. You have better arts for this like hyperbuster
Hyper speed
When to use:
- At neutral
- Positioning yourself
- Breaking into zones
- As a filler
- At the start of a match
Holy crap the speed. The speed increase in hyper speed is.... just amazing. Hyper speed dash to shield confirmed for best zone breaker (Exaggerating). Anyway, take note that your jump height is REALLY decreased here. You can't land on BF platforms with one FH. The best way to recover with hyper speed is by recovering from high or at front. Recovering from a low position will probably get you killed. In default speed, it was still good enough for edgeguarding but due to the severely nerf'd jump height, it's not a good idea anymore T^T
What makes hyper speed really good is how amazing it is ON-STAGE. Despite the significant damage nerf (0.63 damage multiplier), your SH approaches are still effective as ever and boost pivot grab just becomes MUCH better with hyper speed's dash speed buff It's a lot easier to hit shorter opponents with RAR B-air thanks to the nerf'd jump height. Anyway, I really want to talk about how HSpeed's mobility is SO GOOD. You can get into anyone's zone so easily.
Yet again, there isn't much to say about hyper speed. It still seems like the utility is similar to speed art except you can't go off-stage that much but hey, your mobility is a much bigger asset now. Love your mobility. Learn to abuse it
Hyper shield
When to use it:
- When you're at a disadvantage
- Safety measures
- When you don't give a ****
You only start getting knocked around at ~180% iirc. Using this for survivability is pretty much useless since opponents can just time out Shield easily. You're better off using hyper smash at higher percentages due to the possibility of getting a cheap rage KO. At lower percentages (0%), you take absolutely nearly NO hitsun so there's that. You can set up for punishes by taking hits at low percentages. The utility of hyper shield doesn't really change that much. It's really great to use if you find yourself at a disadvantaged state in a match
~~~
Anyway, HBuster and HSmash will come up another time. Those two arts need to be discussed thoroughly
General
Previously mentioned by the bronados here, the Hyper Arts' duration is 6 seconds & their cooldown is 15 seconds. These Custom Arts exponentially enhance the increased & decreased stats, but the increased stats doesn't always mean a better outcome which goes the same way for the decreased stats not always leading to a worse result. Here's a spoiler containing the Monado Arts Increased / Decreased stats table for a reference:
Hyper Jump (HJump) --Jump height HJump's jump height in comparison to Jump & DJump is barely noticeable if not practically the same height for his Short Hop, Full Hop, & his Doublejump.
One issue with HJump though is when we're on the ledge & choose to do the Ledge-jump option. Despite that the height of the ledge-jump option is increased from all 3 Jump Arts, HJump's ledge-jump option doesn't reach as high as the other Jump Arts do. For a moment like this, you take advantage of HJump's superior air speed & instead drop away or down from the ledge (If you do drop down from the ledge.....please be careful because the input is treated as fast falling, & Hyper Jump Shulk from what I've discovered recently falls faster than Fox & he falls the fastest in the roster) & use your Doublejump in a quick manner with an aerial like N-air , F-air, or B-air while drifting towards the stage's center so that you're even safer by sliding across the floor with your landing aerial.
--Air speed
Noted by @erico9001
earlier in this thread, HJump Shulk travels faster than Vanilla Shulk running which can mean that we're wasting HJump's potential of positioning & movement if we're mostly on the ground. In case we're stuck in a bad place where jumping toward them might be a risk (probably not), we can SH or FH backwards then Doublejump forward & fast fall until landing to the ground with an aerial (preferably N-air or B-air, or F-air if you RAR'd yourself to face away & then Doublejump backwards). The massive increase of air speed also increases your combo potential even further so that you can lengthen a combo string of aerials > Air Slash if desired. Just know that our air speed cannot be factored alone. Falling speed will be there too.
--Falling speed HJump slightly differs in jump height because it's falling speed is drastically higher than Jump or DJump. This could be an advantage if you wanted to jump through semi-soft-platform stages (stages you can jump through from below like Kongo Jungle 64 / Delfino Plaza / Halberd / etc.) or platforms & then tap down to fall quicker, landing onto that floor (Btw, the moment we're higher than the platform or stage floor, it's okay to do an aerial & then fast fall because we won't fall through the platform). This can make HJump land barely faster from regularly jumping over the other Jump Arts while getting to that position you want. In any case we commit to a move that may be punishable on landing (& getting punished is very painful for almost taking 50% more damage. . .), tapping down to fast fall to the ground or falling towards a nearby ledge without fast falling can make you safe from punishment. Other than that, falling down to get to the stage after jumping around can really mess with someone approaching your landings because:
Your air speed & falling speed combined to Shulk's overall movement is hard to follow unless the opponent is a fast grounded character
The landing slide we get from falling to the floor with said aerial on top of the increased air movement makes it even harder
One setback I haven't explored but am certain of with falling speed is that it affects combos, especially those that launch you up. Depending on the character & their combo-game, the falling speed factor may be more of a hindrance to Shulk. In this case, deactivate the HJump Art & continue on if needed.
--Air Slash height
This one's a keeper. Sometimes when it really comes down to the wire, a basic & very effective usage with HJump is to utilize the massive increase to the height of Air Slash / Advancing Air Slash / Mighty Air Slash. While using any of the Air Slash moves, we can delay the 2nd slash by holding to the left or right in order to get an extra squeeze of distance, which is improved even further thanks to the drifting air speed & height from HJump. Anywho, here's a spoiler showing a table I posted for the heights that I got from testing on a custom stage designed for testing heights:
Even without this table, we know how great a Jump Art can be for augmenting the 3 Air Slash moves, but did we know that the vertical hit-box of any Air Slash move is increased too? The 1st rising hit of Air Slash's hit-box is extended, reaching & hitting foes even higher with HJump than you can imagine. This especially means that any combos that get lead into using Air Slash from F-airs hitting them too high will still reach & possibly KO much earlier than a Jump-augmented Air Slash would. This also means that if you bait someone using an airdodge while you Fast Fall down, you can punish it with Air Slash from a much lower height, & I'm not even talking about Mighty Air Slash . Find some creative ways of using Air Slash with this Hyper Art!
--Defense (The only decreased stat as far as we know)
As far as the glaring weaknesses of an Art goes, this is by far the worst aspect about using HJump. In retrospect we considered Jump mode safe despite taking more damage because we had the air mobility & extra good things (such as sliding across floor while landing) about the Art that could keep us safe from being hit in the first place. Though mistakes can happen, like per-say we recover to the ledge or on top of the stage & we get launched away from a edge-guarding situation a couple of times (or even lose our stock because the damage taken from a move made the attack too strong). Especially when you get combo'd heavily by a throw into aerials or a smash attack, it's best to just deactivate the Art by rapidly tapping B immediately after being thrown to avoid taking too much damage. Some combo examples:
Disclaimer: I did not apply DI
Multi-hitting combo : D-throw > U-smash = 16% in Training Mode
Against HJump, MK's combo deals 24%.
*EDITED*: Mach Tornado (max damage) = 22% in Training Mode
Against HJump, MK's Mach Tornado deals 32%.
: D-air (as many hits I can dish = 13) = 32% in Training Mode
Against HJump, Yoshi's D-air combo doing 13 hits deals 47%.
Two / Three / Four-hit combo : D-throw > U-air = 20% in Training Mode
Against HJump, Mii Swordfighter's combo deals 29%.
: D-throw > U-air > U-air = 23% in Training Mode
Against HJump, Diddy's combo deals 33%
: D-throw > U-air > U-air > U-air (humor me) = 31% in Training Mode
Against HJump, Diddy's combo deals. . .45%
=============================================================================================
I'll talk about HSpeed & HShield another time. I feel that discussing about 1 Hyper Art at a time is better for fleshing out that Art fully.
Max hits from Mach Tornado should do 22% in training on artless Shulk, just putting that out there. If you're going to use it as a comparison point you should make sure you're getting a consistent number of hits.
Max hits from Mach Tornado should do 22% in training on artless Shulk, just putting that out there. If you're going to use it as a comparison point you should make sure you're getting a consistent number of hits.
Apologies. I went back & was able to get the max damage dealing 22%, but I've gotten a equal mix of the following results: 19, 21, & 22.
. . .
So, what do you think of Shulk's Monado Art Customs?
Alriiiight. So here are my thoughts on hyper buster. I was expecting a big write up but based from what I've played, I didn't even use hyper buster a LOT.
The thing with hyper buster is the decreased knockback. Most or every move from Shulk becomes unsafe and your defense is horrible (Takes 35% more damage). The only attacks that are safe are his throws. Really, I only go for b-throw or f-throw or d-throw>f-smash/f-tilt with HBuster then I immediately switch out. Anyway, hyper buster should only be used if you're at an advantage. If you feel like you've gained the momentum, feel free to enter buster mode BUT avoid using his tilts and smashes. They all become safe. Spaced aerials are much safer as far as I know
Yeah, that's pretty much it. There isn't much to say about buster. It's not that good imo. It's too unsafe.
Alriiiight. So here are my thoughts on hyper buster. I was expecting a big write up but based from what I've played, I didn't even use hyper buster a LOT.
The thing with hyper buster is the decreased knockback. Most or every move from Shulk becomes unsafe and your defense is horrible (Takes 35% more damage). The only attacks that are safe are his throws. Really, I only go for b-throw or f-throw or d-throw>f-smash/f-tilt with HBuster then I immediately switch out. Anyway, hyper buster should only be used if you're at an advantage. If you feel like you've gained the momentum, feel free to enter buster mode BUT avoid using his tilts and smashes. They all become safe. Spaced aerials are much safer as far as I know
Yeah, that's pretty much it. There isn't much to say about buster. It's not that good imo. It's too unsafe.
Let's see if I can figure out how to translate Buster percents into Hyper Buster percents.
Here are some (Hyper Buster) D-throw -> Air Slash ending percents:
Donkey Kong (50% in normal buster) 122% in hyper buster
Bowser (40%) 110%
Mario (35%) 105%
ZSS (31%) 84%
DDD (30%) 92%
Fox (30%) 83%
Pikachu (30%) 91%
Toon Link (12%) 63%
Rosalina (2%) 46%
The starting percent for Fox's D-throw -> Air Slash was 4% with normal buster and now is 50% with hyper buster
It seems like what would be 0% in normal Monado Buster can be treated as ~45% when in hyper buster (for d-throw at least).
Mario normal Buster Nair -> Jab combo starts true comboing at 10%. Hyper Buster Nair -> Jab combo starts true comboing at 40%. Continues working until 110%.
Mario Nair -> F-tilt start percent (49% in normal buster) is now 91%
Seems like Nair combos start a bit sooner.
Here's a few percents for the new combo: Hyper Buster D-throw -> Jab Combo for 32% damage
Mario: 0-12%
Charizard: 10-51%
ROB: 0-50%
Shulk: Does not work
Zelda: 0-2%
I'm a fan of 3113 in general, but like the above, I tend to steer away from Hyper Buster since it's less safe. Really, in that, I stick to Speed and Jump, with Smash thrown in as a kill gamble.
I used to use hyper monado arts, but later ive grown to dislike why?
even though the strengths of each monado art are stronger, remember the drawbacks are too. using hyper smash is very unsafe because unless at a lower percentage, your opponent can easily KO you just as much as you can. hyper smash is too risky.
while hyper shield makes you VERY KO resistant, you move way too SLOW, so your opponent can probably camp until the art ends.
the other arts are good, but the short time limit ruins it, in fact it kinda ruins the other arts I mentioned above. you only have 6 seconds to make use of each art, so when an art is activated it makes me play too offensive, because I only have 6 seconds to make the best of the art.
what makes hyper monado arts even worse is that the recharge time for each art is longer, it's 15 seconds and that really sucks. and combined with the short time limit of 6 seconds, I feel VERY pressured during each art.
if the time limit of each art was increased by maybe 3 or 4 seconds, hyper arts would probably be as good or better than the default but right now hyper arts kinda suck, but that's just me. ill stick to the default. decisive arts are better than hyper and I may try it out in the future. it REALLY sucks u cant cancel the arts, but decisive buster and speed don't seem too bad and those 2 are my favorite ones to use with the default monado arts.
I used to use hyper monado arts, but later ive grown to dislike why?
even though the strengths of each monado art are stronger, remember the drawbacks are too. using hyper smash is very unsafe because unless at a lower percentage because your opponent can easily KO you just as much as you can. hyper smash is too risky.
while hyper shield makes you VERY KO resistant, you move way too SLOW, so your opponent can probably camp until the art ends.
the other arts are good, but the short time limit ruins it, in fact it kinda ruins the other arts I mentioned above. you only have 6 seconds to make use of each art, so when an art is activated it makes me play too offensive, because I only have 6 seconds to make the best of the art.
what makes hyper monado arts even worse is that the recharge time for each art is longer, it's 15 seconds and that really sucks. and combined with the short time limit of 6 seconds, I feel VERY pressured during each art.
if the time limit of each art was increased by maybe 3 or 4 seconds, hyper arts would probably be as good or better than the default but right now hyper arts kinda suck, but that's just me. ill stick to the default. decisive arts are better than hyper and I may try it out in the future. it REALLY sucks u cant cancel the arts, but decisive buster and speed don't seem too bad and those 2 are my favorite ones to use with the default monado arts.
That makes a lot of sense, but honestly if I weren't using Hyper, I'd probably just use default. Another thing I've kinda gotten used to with Hyper is just staying in neutral until I need a kill or recovery or whatever, and then swapping forms. Using them as the temporary and situational buffs they are, instead of spending most of a match in them, works pretty well with Hyper.
That makes a lot of sense, but honestly if I weren't using Hyper, I'd probably just use default. Another thing I've kinda gotten used to with Hyper is just staying in neutral until I need a kill or recovery or whatever, and then swapping forms. Using them as the temporary and situational buffs they are, instead of spending most of a match in them, works pretty well with Hyper.
I see your point. it really just depends on how much you use monado arts and your playstyle. I like using them almost the whole match, so hyper doesn't appeal to me. a person who doesn't use monado arts a whole lot should probably go with hyper.
Well, my write up about HSmash pretty much fell off my radar. Um.... ANYWAY, I've been messing around with Mighty Air Slash and I've got a lot to say about it. It's going to be the next custom to discuss after Hyper Arts
Hyper smash basically... you just need to land u-tilt, u-smash, d-smash, f-smash, b-air, vision, b-throw, or d-throw to KO. For his throw KO's, shield grabbing is the easiest way to perform throw kills. As for the rest... You'll need to strictly time the activation at the moment when the opponent is at a disadvantageous position (most likely above Shulk or off-stage). With vision, hyper smash KO's at low percentages and with POWER VISION, you can KO opponents at insanely low percentages. Whatever you do, DO NOT use hyper smash at neutral. Shulk is REALLY easy to KO in hyper smash and bear that in mind all the time. Using it when you're at an advantage is the safest way to use it and the best way of actually maximizing HSmash art usage
Imo, Hyper Buster from my experiences is more of a bully Art that rewards better for hitting shields & trading damage favorably if it comes to that. Despite the huge decrease to our move's knockback, spacing is still a huge part of playing any Buster Art in the first place. What I feel is the best time to put up HBuster is when you have complete stage control over the opponent (Ex: You're on the stage zoning the ledge while they're recovering & have grabbed the ledge). You activate HBuster & read what your opponent might do, such as doing some SH > N-airs, D-tilt, Pivoted F-tilt, U-tilt for that ledge-jump option, or if you wanna ledge-trump someone & get on the stage you can wait for them to re-grab the ledge so you can punish with F-smash angled down to deal good damage (19% from just the 2nd hit of F-smash). What your main objective for zoning the ledge IMO should be reading their ledge-climb option & punish it with D-smash. A HBuster D-smash can be the greatest thing, as the 1st hit on block eats so much of their shield that the 2nd hit or both 2nd & 3rd hits will either shield-stab them, or even break their shield possibly. And when you think of your smash moves being unsafe on block, remember that HBuster deals HUGE amounts of shield damage & sends them sliding so far backwards. This becomes even greater of a stage-controlling factor when you're up against characters with low traction like Luigi because they slide veeeeeeeeery far in shield-stun, making it almost impossible for them to punish your F-smash's endlag.
However, every Buster Art's two primary weaknesses besides their own knockback & decreased defense, are perfect shields & crouching. HBuster's huge decrease of knockback on-hit on top of a character crouching against HBuster makes it even more unsafe than you can imagine. And using HBuster to create stage control by indirectly punishing someone's defensive game does do nicely, but perfect shields still ruin HBuster, so watch out for that.
EDIT: Conclusion / TL;DR: HBuster's attacks on shields (not perfect shielded) are much safer than they are on hit, & can create their own space by the shield-stun dealt. You have the potential to break shields or at the very least wear their shield down to the extent they won't usually try approach with shield at all (which is something seen quite commonly). HBuster F-tilt is awesome. F-throw B-throw & D-throw are appreciated.
It is to my understanding that the Monado Arts' purpose are to accelerate the game state; Hyper Arts, in theory, accelerate faster than the others, and therefore serving our purpose even greater. Of course, this leads to a greater chance to mess up, but I don't believe lack of ability to execute is a very valid argument.
A possible counter argument to using Hyper Monado Arts was that it left you without that Art for at 16 seconds, an eternity in a fighting-style game; however, the Arts are flexible. To achieve damage, Speed and Jump can be used in place of Buster, and Jump / Vanilla can be used in lieu of Smash.
Essentially, what I'm saying is that HMA simply does what we want better - to put ourselves way ahead of our opponent via acceleration of the game state. Wearing off faster isn't such a big deal when the other arts can cover the time before you need it again. If worse comes to worse, the mobility arts (most notably Jump) can stall if you absolutely need a certain art, such as at high percentages when you want to use Shield.
Speaking of which, Hyper Monado Arts also increase the value of an almost-taken stock; whether you use Shield or Buster to maximize the stock, it does its job better than the originals. It goes without saying that doing more damage is better than not when it comes to being at 100+%; by being in Hyper Buster, you put your opponent in a more pressurized position if you have the stock lead by a small margin, since they have to approach you, lest the timer runs out and you have the lead, or risk an approach (a dangerous option in Sm4sh). If they get hit, then you've done your job - accelerated the game state.
The same can be said by alternating between Hyper Jump/Speed and Shield; even if your opponent is successful in their approach, Hyper Shield is ridiculously hard to KO, and Jump / Speed ensure that you can continue to wall up. Furthermore, Hyper Shield is more of a risk to approach than in normal Shield when both your opponent and yourself are at high percentages, since you'll be more likely to survive with the benefits of Rage, while the opponent's Rage is mostly nullified by the stronger Art.
After playing more with the Hyper Arts I feel that it's better activating an Art for multiple purposes rather than one purpose. For an example, my Shulk was taking heavy shield-damage while being at high percent & needed to disengage so that I could cycle to HShield & activate it. I could of cycled to HSpeed for the higher traction & greater movement speed to capitalize on punishing, or HBuster since I had Rage & could of poked down their bubble shield to create my own space, but I opted for HShield for several reasons:
Regenerate my bubble shield as quickly as possible (my shield was on the verge of being broken)
Tank my stock reliably for 6 seconds (percentage was well over 100% & Rage compensates well if I see an opening)
Have no fear & reengage the enemy (massive hit-stun decrease & knockback defense feels better on my conscious)
Since I find myself dashing-shield often on top of the current situation I was in, HShield was the greatest chance at that moment. Had I used regular Shield or DShield, I might not have turned that match's tide.
When to use:
- At neutral
- Positioning yourself
- Breaking into zones
- As a filler
- At the start of a match
Holy crap the speed. The speed increase in hyper speed is.... just amazing. Hyper speed dash to shield confirmed for best zone breaker (Exaggerating). Anyway, take note that your jump height is REALLY decreased here. You can't land on BF platforms with one FH. The best way to recover with hyper speed is by recovering from high or at front. Recovering from a low position will probably get you killed. In default speed, it was still good enough for edgeguarding but due to the severely nerf'd jump height, it's not a good idea anymore T^T
What makes hyper speed really good is how amazing it is ON-STAGE. Despite the significant damage nerf (0.63 damage multiplier), your SH approaches are still effective as ever and boost pivot grab just becomes MUCH better with hyper speed's dash speed buff It's a lot easier to hit shorter opponents with RAR B-air thanks to the nerf'd jump height. Anyway, I really want to talk about how HSpeed's mobility is SO GOOD. You can get into anyone's zone so easily.
Yet again, there isn't much to say about hyper speed. It still seems like the utility is similar to speed art except you can't go off-stage that much but hey, your mobility is a much bigger asset now. Love your mobility. Learn to abuse it
A point relating to Neutral, positioning, & breaking into zones, HSpeed punishes very well out of shield due to the huge traction increase, which is what I've come to find recently really effective for the Speed Arts. This definitely helps Shulk get into the better position by walking dashing or full running so much that we can be anyplace on the stage we want. Perfect Pivoted grab is awesome btw. Heck, a simple walk approach to grab reminds me of HJump landing with an aerial sliding across the floor, & we know Shulk doesn't have the best standing grab range, so why not make that better with a huge walking speed & distance to improve thtat grab approach?
For approach options, a good amount of times I'd approach with HSpeed active, I'd Reverse Aerial Rush a Short Hop + N-air & use the amazing air speed to drift past them in order to land behind them & watch their reaction. As for a drive-by pivoted F-tilt or F-smash, it goes without saying that they're amazing but as a surprise to me, a pivoted F-smash is spectacular when timed right. A well-spaced pivoted F-smash angled or not could actually be safe on shield. That's all I have to say about HSpeed for now
Essentially, what I'm saying is that HMA simply does what we want better - to put ourselves way ahead of our opponent via acceleration of the game state. Wearing off faster isn't such a big deal when the other arts can cover the time before you need it again. If worse comes to worse, the mobility arts (most notably Jump) can stall if you absolutely need a certain art, such as at high percentages when you want to use Shield.
Anyways, in reference to your paragraph about maximizing stocks, the shorter time which the arts stay activated is important to look at. While Hyper Shield is better at those higher percents, you have much less of it. The same goes for Buster. While the opponent must inevitably approach you at some point in the game, he can simply hold off for a few seconds so that Buster is gone. Once Buster is gone, it will be gone for a harsh amount of time.
Although, now that I think of it, hyper buster is really unsafe on hit against opponents who are low damage. That makes it risky for furthering your advantage after removing the opponent's stock. I wouldn't do that.
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I want to finish a thought I had earlier about when to use what arts.
You and opponent both at very low percents:
Hyper Shield - good option. Gets you out of combos, has really strong shield and other benefits
Hyper Speed - good option. This art is usually good.
Hyper Jump - risky. Vanilla Shulk may be a better option.
Hyper Buster - most likely risky. Sometimes you can benefit because of D-throw -> jab combo true combo. Not usually, though.
Hyper Smash - Depends. Might get out of some combos (MU dependent)
You and opponent both at mid percents
Hyper Shield - worse. At this point, you might be starting to get stuck in combos.
Hyper Speed - again, good option.
Hyper Jump - okay option. More combo opportunity.
Hyper Buster - not so risky anymore. Treat ~40% as normal Buster's 0%... but with a much slower increase in knockback (so you still combo into 100% and later)
Hyper Smash - Against light characters, you might want to switch to this now.
You and opponent at mid-high percents
Hyper Shield - You're probably in combo range
Hyper Speed - I can't think of when this art is bad
Hyper Jump - Good. Combos. Don't do anything too risky, though.
Hyper Buster - Good. Combos.
Hyper Smash - Good. You can kill now, but may want to save it for a bit later. Be aware of your lightness, too!
You and opponent at high percents
Hyper Shield - Good. You can avoid dying for some time.
Hyper Speed - Yep, probably still good
Hyper Jump - Excellent. Bring that opponent off stage and go get him.
Hyper Buster - Still good. Still comboing.
Hyper Smash - Bad. It's not 50-50 like sudden deaths. You have terrible shield pushback and are unsafe on shields. This is a good way to get yourself killed. Only use if you think it's the only way.
You are low percent, opponent high percent (you died)
Hyper Shield - Good. You avoid combos.
Hyper Speed - Good
Hyper Jump - Okay, but it's better to use hyper smash (spoiler!)
Hyper Buster - Nah.
Hyper Smash - Best option
You are high percent, opponent low percent (they died)
Hyper Shield - Good. You avoid dying.
Hyper Speed - Good.
Hyper Jump - Good for stalling.
Hyper Buster - Unsafe on hit.
Hyper Smash - Worthless.
Cooldown is 15 seconds long and starts when your art ENDS. With a 6 second activation time, and a .8 second minimum between when arts can be active, you can fit two full uses of different monado arts in the time you are waiting for the one to come back. Two full uses of hyper monado arts allots to a 13.6s minimum time. Since we take time to start activating arts and also to get to the arts we want, it may look more like 15s in a real match.
Anyways, what all that is for is to show that if we want to avoid using vanilla Shulk, we can cycle between 3 different arts. But what do you cycle through at the different situations listed? Looking above... at times there aren't many options. When both opponents are at low percents, Speed and Shield are good, but that's really it. In this situation, it may be better to just alternate between Speed, Shield, and Vanilla.
I haven't tested Hyper Arts, but has anyone explored MALC with the different activation timing? The default timing has some reasonable windows to hit with. Is it harder with Hyper Arts? Easier?
I haven't tested Hyper Arts, but has anyone explored MALC with the different activation timing? The default timing has some reasonable windows to hit with. Is it harder with Hyper Arts? Easier?
The timing for MALLC'ing with Hyper Arts is the same as the regular Arts, so it's neither harder nor easier. I'm not aware of the amount of invincibility between Hyper Arts & regular Arts, but other than that, both of them activate in the same way.
