Tips for Practicing Solo?

[Rendanian]

I've been into competitive Smash for about 3.5 years now, but I've only really had the chance to practice Brawl and Smash 4 with actual people due to wifi, so I never really had the chance to get into Melee since, as far as I'm aware, I don't live near any competitive players.

I do, however, really wish to learn Melee, as it's just so impressive to watch people play it so fluidly, and it just looks incredibly fun to be able to have such mastery over a game. I realize that a lot of it comes down to patience and practice and research, but when you have nobody to give you input on exactly what you're doing wrong or should start doing, it's incredibly difficult to really get an initial foothold on the game. I mean, I can practice L-cancelling and wavedashing all day, but that still doesn't get me accustomed to using them in the context of a match, so it doesn't really feel like I'm progressing that much.

I have tried to look for local tourneys where I could potentially find people to practice with, but so far the closest one I've found is an hour away, which is just an impossible trip to make until I get a car.

So basically all I'm asking is, aside from JUST itemizing and practicing each tech skill one by one (which I admittedly still need to do a lot of), how can I figure out how to apply them and begin to form a fluid playstyle without a human partner to train with?

 

[EPsilon933]

You probably can't

You could try playing Smash 4 online to help learn more strategic skills like prediction. There's a good degree of skill overlap between the 2 games. Play with a wired connection to reduce the lag

 

[Rendanian]

Ya, I've been playing Smash 4 a lot lately and really gotten a hang of the mental aspects of the game. I guess I'll just keep up with that until I can manage to get out to a tournament, and practice tech skills regularly till then as well.

 

[Spak]

If you do play Sm4sh online, don't get used to rolling too often or their airdodging mechanics. Another option is meet other players online and use netplay if you have a USB GC adapter (I know there is a driver for the Nintendo Wii U adapter here (it only works if you have Windows) and one of my friends has a Mayflash adapter that works just fine). There will be slight lag because of internet connection and a flatscreen monitor (I seem to be the only person who has one of their computers hooked up to a CRT monitor anymore), but I think netplay is still better than no Melee whatsoever.

 

[Rendanian]

Hm, I never knew about that; I don't know that I'll be able to get it set up, but I'll definitely give it a shot, thanks.

And ya, in Smash 4 I don't have too many bad movement habits, and I never really airdodge without thinking about it first, so I don't think that'll be much of an issue for me in Melee.

 

[JoeTango]

You probably can't

You could try playing Smash 4 online to help learn more strategic skills like prediction. There's a good degree of skill overlap between the 2 games. Play with a wired connection to reduce the lag

How do you play smash 4 with a wired connection? I thought Wii U had no ethernet port

 

[EPsilon933]

How do you play smash 4 with a wired connection? I thought Wii U had no ethernet port

Wii U LAN adapter http://www.amazon.com/Support-Utech...er+wii+u&pebp=1421711534522&peasin=B00F41TWAO

 

[JoeTango]

Wii U LAN adapter http://www.amazon.com/Support-UtechSmart-Ethernet-Chromebook-Specific/dp/B00F41TWAO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421711509&sr=8-1&keywords=lan adapter wii u&pebp=1421711534522&peasin=B00F41TWAO

Ah cool, I think I'll look into this. Will it prevent framerate stuttering online or just input lag?

 

[Sir Bubbles]

Ah cool, I think I'll look into this. Will it prevent framerate stuttering online or just input lag?

It isn't guaranteed to prevent online stuttering or input lag, but it will significantly mitigate those issues to the point where those issues are most likley the fault of your opponent.

 

[The Carpenter]

As far as stuff to do on your own, I've been doing that a bit myself lately. The thing I found best to practice first was wave landing on platforms, up from the ledge, and just when landing on the ground. I found that very useful because once I started playing more after that, I now feel comfortable doing all those things in a match whenever I need to. Also maybe do some stuff that's specific to your character(s.) As far as learning the combos you like use a lev 5-7 CPU. CPUs are not optimal but lev 5-7 have pretty normal DI (unlike lev 9s) and you will adapt to logical DI that way. Note however that they will probably be very easy to combo, so don't expect it to be so easy against real players and be ready to change plans accordingly. The CPU is strictly for figuring out what combos work and how you would like them to play out in an ideal situation (and gain the ability to do so in an instant.) Also definitely fight characters that are in the S tier as you will be seeing them constantly in competitive play, so knowing how to edge guard them and stuff like that is essential.

 

[Sir Bubbles]

As far as stuff to do on your own, I've been doing that a bit myself lately. The thing I found best to practice first was wave landing on platforms, up from the ledge, and just when landing on the ground. I found that very useful because once I started playing more after that, I now feel comfortable doing all those things in a match whenever I need to. Also maybe do some stuff that's specific to your character(s.) As far as learning the combos you like use a lev 5-7 CPU. CPUs are not optimal but lev 5-7 have pretty normal DI (unlike lev 9s) and you will adapt to logical DI that way. Note however that they will probably be very easy to combo, so don't expect it to be so easy against real players and be ready to change plans accordingly. The CPU is strictly for figuring out what combos work and how you would like them to play out in an ideal situation (and gain the ability to do so in an instant.) Also definitely fight characters that are in the S tier as you will be seeing them constantly in competitive play, so knowing how to edge guard them and stuff like that is essential.

Falco/Fox cpus aren't good to learn from when it comes to edgeguarding, because the CPUs will always Up B, and never use Side B

 

[The Carpenter]

True, but when you have nothing else at least it prepares you somewhat for one option.

 

[The Prince L]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbgR29W_X_o

You should try to do this. Probably the greatest tutorial on how to practice alone (I know the title is "How to train your Falcon", but
this doesn't work only for Falcon, just to all the characters).

 

[Neville]

I have the same problem, where anyone competitive lives roughly 45 minutes away. I practice my tech skill every day though. It's fairly nice to have, but sm4sh is probably gonna be your best bet for learning how to bait. Just remember the 2 games are a lot different from each other, and not to get too used to the mechanics.

 

[N0PE]

I would suggest looking into 20XX for practicing solo.

One thing I use it for tech and combo practice, set the game to Teams mode and force start a game against a CPU teammate. They won't attack you but they will still DI out of your attacks so you can practice semi-realistic comboing.