Things to practice by yourself - ICs Edition

[InterimOfZeal]

Okay, so I got this idea to make a mega-guide on how to step up your game when you have no one to play with.

Now, obviously for tech-skill, you can go into melee vs comp, set their ratio to .5 with a 1, 9 handicap (you having the 1, obviously), and then just wail on them as Fox. I'll put this part more in-detail on the Fox boards (and I stole the idea from RaynEx, so credit where it's due.) In less than 3 days, I went from missing l-cancels and having sloppy waveshines to being able to do the walking waveshine with reversals in it, as well as double shining and ending it with almost any option.

What I'm wondering is, how can I step up my Ice Climbers game like this? I really have no idea what to practice with ICs nowadays, and I think that efficient training is more important than learning every single trick a character has (at least initially.)

I want people's tricks for leveling up their tech-skill, combos, and chases. Give me all the info in da world. I plan on eventually making a megaguide with all the info I gain from each character specific board, so we can further raise the general level of players across the country (obviously, I don't mind getting better, myself.)

I'm only going to make this thread for a few characters right now (Fox, Marth, Sheik, Peach, and ICs or CF), but as things fill out, I may end up doing it for more characters, going in the order of what's needed/what I want to learn.

Soyeah, spill your secrets. I'm particularly interested to learn what top-level Marths practice. I know the best practice is vs people, but sometimes, you just don't have that luxury.

Thanks in advance! :D

 

[Construct]

You wrote top level marths, not ICs, in your second to last sentence

Anyways, good things to practice by yourself are the handoff, wobbling, some of the different desynchs (rather than list them all here just check Fly's awesome guide) and some of the different desynch applictaions (nanapult, ice block chasing, etc.). Those are just a few of the things to practice, but they're the foundation of a character that has ridiculous depth.

 

[InterimOfZeal]

Yeah, I copy-pasted that **** to various boards, sooo... lol

KK, sounds good. Any particular tricks you have for learning them ASAP, or stages your recommend practicing on as ICs?

 

[Shai Hulud]

I'm not a top level IC by any means but I can nonetheless give you some advice about practicing solo. ICs best stage is probably FD, but BF is the best for practicing IMO. The platforms are the right height for some useful ice block techniques, but you still have enough room to move around unlike YS.

At the moment I play exclusively by myself, and if I want to practice desynchs I first put in an empty controller to practice them, and then try them in practice against Level 1 CPUs and sometimes Level 4. Level 1's are good because they won't jab you out of stuff you are trying to practice, but their DI is not realistic. Level 4's DI the best, I believe. This advice is intended mostly for how to advance your tech skill and not about what to do against various characters, general strategies, etc.

My general advice would be to go to BF against an empty controller and just mess around trying to figure out desynchs. For the most part they are not hard to discover and you can figure out some pretty obscure ones. Try different methods for getting into desynchs and then try different things you can do from the desynch. What you can do from one desynch may vary dramatically from what you can do in another. Some desynchs are "buffer" desynchs in which you can hold an attack and Nana will do it when she is available. With other desynchs you have to input the command at the right moment. There are a lot of desynchs, most of them useful to some degree, some much more than others. When considering their usefulness you should consider how quickly they come out, how difficult they are to do, whether Nana or Popo attacks first, and whether they are well-known. Attacks that come out quick, are easy, and are not well are the most useful. Attacks with Popo vs. Nana are both useful and you should know some of each.

Desynch methods I know:

1) Roll (can buffer)
2) Spot dodge (can buffer)
3) Dash dance (run one direction, then the other, then hold down, timing is odd at first but easy to learn)
4) Pivot to Standing - Popo will attack out of this but not Nana, if you do it quickly. Can't do some attacks from this like B attacks or jump (you can jump but not desynched)
5) Pivoted Jump - Very hard, 1 frame timing, Nana will jump by herself
6) Pivoted Jab (can be done by pivoting to stand, DA dash method) / Dash Attack - Popo jabs, Nana dash attacks. You can do desynched dash attacks very quickly from this, which is awesome.
7) Pivoted Fsmash with A Button - Somewhat hard, Popo will Fsmash, Nana dash attack
8) Empty SHFFL - Short hop fast fall then flick up on the control stick when landing. If timed right just Popo jumps. Not hard to do consistently and you can SH or FJ, very useful.
9) BAIR / UAIR - Do a SH BAIR or UAIR with no fast fall, and hold up on the control stick before you land. Nana will jump as long as you hold the control stick. Pretty good IMO.
10) SHFFL - Hard to do, if you jump at the right point when landing, just Nana jumps. I can't do this consistently.
11) Shield Belay - Belay while in shield, Nana jumps by herself while Popo is in lag. Okay IMO.
12) Reverse Ftilt - While standing do a turn around Ftilt. If timed right one IC jabs and the other Ftilts and you can do stuff with Nana, including Nanapults if entered quickly enough. Awesome desynch.
13) Platform waveland - Don't know if this works from above platforms but if done from below, and timed right, you can shoot an ice block in either direction with Popo after the waveland. This leads into desynched attacks with Nana.
14) Whiffed grab - Miss a grab then Nana can attack in the lag.
15) Wavedash to spot dodge - Really just the spot dodge desynch but you can buffer it from the wavedash with the C stick, it ends while you're still sliding, great for backing away from opponent while preparing a desynch

Things to do from Desynchs

1) C-stick smashes, can be buffered sometimes. If you roll in a direction with the C-stick and then C-stick a smash in the same direction it may not work, not sure why.
2) A button smashes, these can be buffered and then Nana will charge while you can move around (but not attack). Interestingly you can shield while Nana is charging a smash attack. If you roll with the Control stick and then Smash in the same direction with A button it may not work, not sure why.
3) Hold the jump button to get a buffered jump with Nana from desynchs that support buffering. Or just hit jump with the right timing for other desycnhs. From jumps ice blocks and blizzards are very useful. Practice desynched jumping ice blocks and Nanapults.
4) Alternating Smashes
5) Charge forward smash to waveland edgehog from roll / spot dodge, pretty sick edgeguard
6) Nanapults! Figure out which desynchs let you do fast Nanapults
7) Blizzards
8) Ice blocks
9) Solo Popo Squall Hammer, you can drag Nana with you and do attacks including charge smashes, this only works from some desynchs
10) Have Nana grab while you are shielding.
11) Alternating dash attacks. If done quickly it's pretty great.
12) Various tilts
13) Various continuous desynch attacks

Other things to practice

1) Dthrow -> Dair CGs
2) Wobbling
3) Dthrow -> Dair -> Wobbling
4) Edge handoff CG
5) Doing fast and perfect wavedashes
6) Hitting B really fast for squall hammer recovery
7) Platform Wavelanding
8) SHFFLing Aerials though this probably won't require practice
9) Waveshielding and Wavedash out of shield

I suggest practicing a few techniques against empty controller and then when they are mastered try using them again CPUs. Then go learn more techniques, try against CPUs, and repeat.

I am probably forgetting some things but this is most of the stuff I practice.

 

[Smasher89]

So you put your goal high. Theres one not used but if you master it extreemly good useful technique. Desynch dsmash/ bairpressure on shield. If you can get that situation in real games you´ll quickly advance the ICs metagame.

 

[Grim Tuesday]

Nah, advancing the ICs meta-game is less shield pressure and more:
-Comboing everything into a grab
-Perfect anti-shield-pressure

Shield pressure is still good, but those are the main things imo

 

[knightpraetor]

can anyone care to tell me some ways to set up nanapult? all I use at the moment is spotdodge, ice block to nanapult...i'm guessing there must be faster/better ways to do it since everyone is raving about it.

 

[InterimOfZeal]

Awesome, Shai. That's a nice chunk of things to learn.

Sorry I forgot about this thread. Life has been a bit crazy, lately.

 

[Shai Hulud]

can anyone care to tell me some ways to set up nanapult? all I use at the moment is spotdodge, ice block to nanapult...i'm guessing there must be faster/better ways to do it since everyone is raving about it.

To Nanapult Popo needs to be doing something after a desynch which is why you can't do it directly out of spot dodge, roll, etc. The fastest ways to do it would be desynchs that make Popo attack first, and there aren't many. I think the quickest way is the reverse ftilt method (Popo ftilts one direction, Nana jabs another). You can input a Nanapult if you are quick enough, but it has to be in the direction Popo is facing after turning around. So, backwards from the direction you were initially facing. Otherwise Nana will just jump and blizzard in place. It's another reason why approaching backwards with ICs is awesome.

 

[Grim Tuesday]

You don't generally want to nanapult as fast as possible, I usually just nanapult during ice block/blizzard camping if I see an opportunity.