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Trying to Pick a Main

Princess_Emilu

Smash Cadet
Joined
Feb 11, 2015
Messages
27
The title says it all. Well, not really.

I thought I had my main all picked out. Rosalina and Luma. I'm borderline obsessed with her as a character, I love playing as her, I can win with her, and I think she is very viable overall.

The thing is... I love playing with a ton of characters. Playing with the same character over and over, and studying all of the character's techniques is kind of boring to me. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the technical side of things- its just I don't enjoy studying just one character.

And the thing is... its not like I have a single runner-up, I have a large pool of other characters that I like playing as, can win as, and that are viable. I honestly have different 'moods' when I hop online to play FG or with friends. Heck, just yesterday I picked up Little Mac for the first time ever, and found it really fun to play around with his mechanics.

I guess I'm looking for...advice? Insight? Thoughts? Whatever. I guess having a 'main' doesn't mean I'm locked to that character, but with how frequently/how much I enjoy the runner ups. it really makes me want to re-consider if Rosalina really should be my main focus. For those curious, here is a list which roughly shows characters that I am best with/enjoy most (those two factors usually go hand-in-hand).

1. Rosalina/Luma
2. Mr. Game and Watch
3. Mario

4. Yoshi
5. Duck Hunt
6. Ness
7. Captain Falcon

8. Sheik
9. Lucina
 

Raijinken

Smash Master
Joined
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I'm the same way. At different points in my Smash4 career, I've already called myself a Robin, Pac Man, Marth, Falco, Megaman, Captain Falcon, Ness, Shulk, Dr. Mario, Link, Ike, and Luigi main.
 

Timbers

check me out
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It seems more like you don't really want a "main," which is fine. Of that list, RosaLuma and Mario seem to not only be the characters you enjoy/are good with, but are also strong and viable picks as well.

I don't know what else I can really say, you seem to have answered your own question in that you don't want to stick with only one character.
 

MarioFireRed

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I'd say in Smash 4 just go for it and play all those characters. Even if you don't end up using most of them in the long run you still have the general character knowledge on each of their strengths and weaknesses that you can then use for those few characters you end up sticking with (from your list the most likely are Rosalina, Game and Watch, and Mario).

For example I've tried out every single character in the roster and switched around mains back and forth. However I always kept Shulk as my real main and can use the knowledge I gained from playing everyone else and adapt accordingly for the win.
 

Princess_Emilu

Smash Cadet
Joined
Feb 11, 2015
Messages
27
It seems more like you don't really want a "main," which is fine. Of that list, RosaLuma and Mario seem to not only be the characters you enjoy/are good with, but are also strong and viable picks as well.

I don't know what else I can really say, you seem to have answered your own question in that you don't want to stick with only one character.
I'm guess I'm stuck on the idea that I've been reading/picking up that is you 'need' a main character if you want to get serious with the game. Maybe that's just not true, I'm not sure.
 

Timbers

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I'm guess I'm stuck on the idea that I've been reading/picking up that is you 'need' a main character if you want to get serious with the game. Maybe that's just not true, I'm not sure.
It depends how much time you want to put into the game, really. Most characters in this game are honestly not that deep, and benefit primarily from the player's own fundamentals, reads, and ability to condition another opponent. If you want to devote the time into becoming efficient with many characters, then no one will fault you for it and you'll likely be a formidable force with plenty of character counterpicks.

Naturally, focusing your time on only one character (and that character is also good) will get the most bang for your buck, but you shouldn't force yourself to play a single character if you legitimately don't enjoy it.

Similarly, there are plenty of character mains who find enjoyment in playing a character that may not actually be good in the competitive scene, but they make it work. It may be an uphill battle sometimes, but the player prefers that uphill battle with a character they enjoy, rather than switching for another character that they simply have no joy in playing.
 

Yori12

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I am the same way. I tried sheik for a while as she is my melee main but I think no offense she is just terrible compared with her melee adaptation. I have switched to Z-suit samus now and she is great but has some terrible matchups. (villager,ness)
 

ZephyrZ

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Any character I don't have time to main, I just play casually.
Competitively, you'll mostly just be seeing me use Charizard, Pit/Dark Pit, Link, Lucario, and (recently) Pikachu.

But in less serious matches, I might use Sonic, Robin, Lucina, Kirby, Alph, Greninja, Jigglypuff, Shulk, Mega Man, Palutena, Bowser Jr, Dr.Mario, Ganondorf, and Duck Hunt(and I'm surprisingly good at Sonic compared to my other "casual" picks). I don't have enough passion for these characters to truly main them, but I like playing them, so I still find time to do it every now and then.
 
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Labyrinthian3D

Smash Rookie
Joined
Dec 9, 2014
Messages
4
There is nothing wrong with using all of those characters. If you ever go against any of those characters in a tournament, you will have a general understanding of how beat them. however, My advice is that if you plan on entering tournaments, limit yourself to have one main character or two,and one or two side characters that could catch people off guard and. This also helps because it gives you more time to learn the characters at a higher level.
I main :4luigi::4pit:/:4darkpit: and my side characters are :4palutena: and :4lucina:
Hope this helped. :)
 

RedNova

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I think I get you. I main:4kirby: myself, and its always a lot of fun, because even if I'm playing seriously, I can always find a way to play differently every time.

But when I play with my friends, who are just starting to learn, I don't use him so much. That's because I also enjoy using all the other characters, and try to find a way to win with them. For example, I recently tried using Jigglypuff, and it's hilarious to see their reactions when I Rest in their faces.

You don't have to main one character. And even if you do, you don't have to be locked into that one character. Just have fun!
 

Iceweasel

Smash Ace
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Jan 19, 2015
Messages
855
To start with, I'd learn just one or two of those characters. Preferably two that can counter different characters/playstyles. Once you have those down really well, learn other characters. If you're good with every character, you know what to expect in certain matchups. That said, if you don't play your main enough, you'll get bodied by people who know their main inside and out.
 

Funkermonster

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I have same problem as you do, I too have a habit to playing so many characters and I can't control it. My definite main is Greninja, but I'm having a hard time picking even my secondary. I love Sonic, but I'm starting o like Mega Man, Pac-Man and Duck Hunt just as much if not more; and playing them takes away time I could be using to perfect my Greninja and kinda damages me as a player overall. I also have a lot of pocket characters and can't quit playing them, 3 of them are even characters I even want to start using in Tournaments:

:4robinf::4shulk::4palutena: Trying to use for tournaments

:4pit::4charizard::4yoshi::4bowser::4bowserjr::4lucina: (used to have her as my tertiary, I don' play her as much as before but I don't wanna let my training go to waste)/:4marth::4littlemac::rosalina::4peach::4ness: I don't think I'll be using any of these guys and gals in a tournament anytime soon and I can control myself enough to use them strictly for casual play, but its still at least slightly harmful because I still play them a lot when I'm not serious.

Honestly, someone who sticks to just 1-2 characters ends up being the strongest. There's nothing really wrong with taking multiple characters seriously, but doing so can slow down your progress in the game immensely an you'll ed up leaving your main undercooked. You can be a jack of all trades, but a master of nothing, and you may find yourself losing a lot to people that are masters of their own characters. I hate being a downer, but that's how I see it, and I think I am being affected by this a bit myself. Ask yourself this: Do you want to be decent at many characters, or do you want to be GREAT at 1 or 2? The latter is more fun, but the former is more effective. It is possible to achieve both, but it'll be very time consuming and rather hard to do.

However, in spite of my character-jumping habit, I actually placed really far in a tournament in December, placed 5th place out of 35 people and did pretty well in friendlies even with my pocket characters. Besides my character habit, I was actually super surprised I was ranked this high for a number of reasons:
  • That was only my 3rd time coming to a tournament for Smash 4 and the first time on Wii U. Even though I always had a win rate of 75% on For Glory,I got completely wrecked in the 3 previous times I went.
  • I was using a Gamecube controller. Even though I used it a lot when playing other Smash games, I don't have an adapter at home and that was the very first time I used that controller for this game.
  • I have very little competitive experience with other Smash games, and have only recently gotten into Melee a week before Smash 4's release on 3DS. Prior to this, the rest of my 'competitive' experience was basically just me beating up CPUs with no items on and people online in Brawl.
For someone who doesn't have much experience and plays way too many characters, I did pretty damn well and I think I've made a good impression on some players in my local scene, nobody really knew who I was at first, by since then people start to recognize me as this 'mysterious character with a janky playstyle' and more people there are seemingly starting to know my name. Once again, I'm really surprised to have gotten that far, I expected I wouldn't place any higher than the middle of the road. I've gone to 3 more tournaments in the past couple of weeks and got at least 7th/42, 21/43, and 9th place (tied with 3 other people) out of 60 something people. I'm kind of disappointed about the 21th place, but its mostly because all the really good people showed up that day, and even 21th place is still technically on the upper median side of everybody.

Maybe I'm kind of overestimating my character-jumping and it's not cracking my shell as much as I think it is, and maybe the same could end up for you too (I still think that if I just kept playing Greninja and Sonic the entire time, I might have been able to do even better, though). If you wanna play more characters though, I would suggest mastering your main first before doing so, to keep your progress at a decent level of speed.
 

KittyKyat

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Play 'em all if ya wish, but I'd recommend only focusing on a few characters if you want to win a bit of matches or tournaments consistently. For instance, I love playing Shulk, Fox, Falcon, Villager, Mac, and a few others, but I mainly (currently) focusing on my Shulk, Fox and Villager. Heck, you don't have to be that great at someone to main them, just play who you have fun with and only consider a main when you have like most of your game time playing a certain character(s)
 
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misterbreadcrum

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So I think the word main means two different things depending on the group of people you're talking to. Since everyone is serious about Smash here, I will divide the two into those who go to tournaments, and those who do not (regularly) go to tournaments. For tourneys you really do need to pick a character, and study their match-ups because if you don't, others will generally know the match-up better than you do and will probably beat you. When choosing a main, I tend to dissuade against the use of obviously lower tier characters. In the early stages of Smash 4 I was a Samus main, hoping to discover that perhaps she wasn't so terrible! This was not the case - she's pretty bad. Although I do still switch to her in For Glory sometimes because the zair combos really well into the charge shot, and people almost never see that coming.

So I switched to Ness who was infinitely better, and turns out to be incredibly viable. The more I played him however, the more I realized how poorly I would do in several key match-ups. I really enjoyed him, but I found I had plateaued pretty heavily. Eventually I found that out of all the high-tier characters, Fox was my man, and I have a pretty solid win-rate with him so far. He may not be my last main, but for now he is serving quite well.

Just keep in mind that you never sign a contract when you decide to main a character. The only thing holding you back from calling yourself an X main is the perception of how good you are in relation to other X mains, and there is almost always someone better than you.
 

Patrick Ray

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I think every character you listed is fun to play except for Duck Hunt.

1. Rosalina is a fun and interesting character that is great for mix ups and long range. Her mid range and short range game is ok and her recovery is fantastic. A very strong competitive choice.

2.Game and Watch is a fun character to me. He has funky moves and is awkward to fight against which may throw off your opponent. However his moves do not combo practically at all and because his moves are strange it makes starting out with him a bit of a pain. If you stick it out he may be a great choice but in the long run I personally don't believe it will become your best pick. That aside his close range game is strong and can be unpredictable with moves and has a very good recovery.

3.Mario in this game.is probably the strongest he's been since smash64. His close range is incredible and his cape makes him huge for dealing with some of the current top tier characters. His recovery is not the best but is not bad by any means. Out of your top 3 I think Mario would be the best choice but that may be based off how I personally play.

You do need to come.down to what kind of character you really want to play and that can narrow it further. Mario and Rosalina are not even in the same realm of fighter. I would take time to narrow your choices even further and please talk to me if you want.me to go over characters in depth.
 

GhostUrsa

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The thing with 'picking a main' isn't that you have to search the entire roster for that one character, but overtime you'll find that one character that just works for you. You are enjoying playing with multiple character. Keep doing that. Overtime, your attention will eventually narrow down the list to a handful that you truly enjoy and you'll have a top spot. It takes time and experience to know who that will be, and you're in the lucky position to be able to take your time and have fun finding out.

I haven't been able to say the same thing in about 15 years when the original Smash 64 was released. Every release allows for some new characters, but I'm approaching the game from a veteran's view instead of the limitless possibilities a newer combatant will have.

TL:DR, enjoy the ride and everything will fall into place with time.
 

E.Lopez

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Princess_Emilu, your thoughts in the OP echo mine actually! In all my years playing the Smash games (never competitively), I would just play with different characters I liked but never would be able to have a definite 'main.'

The thing with 'picking a main' isn't that you have to search the entire roster for that one character, but overtime you'll find that one character that just works for you. You are enjoying playing with multiple character. Keep doing that. Overtime, your attention will eventually narrow down the list to a handful that you truly enjoy and you'll have a top spot. It takes time and experience to know who that will be, and you're in the lucky position to be able to take your time and have fun finding out.

I haven't been able to say the same thing in about 15 years when the original Smash 64 was released. Every release allows for some new characters, but I'm approaching the game from a veteran's view instead of the limitless possibilities a newer combatant will have.

TL:DR, enjoy the ride and everything will fall into place with time.
I like this train of thought. There are actually six characters right now that I have been practicing with just due to me liking the character and the kinds of moves they have:

Bowser Jr.
Charizard
Greninja
Mega Man
Palutena
Samus

and I think I'm really enjoying using Mega Man for now, but I'm not ready to say he's my main or anything. I think I'll just keep playing with all these characters and see who I really end up going with, perhaps based on my play style?
 

Sodo

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Dec 1, 2014
Messages
274
Do you have a preferred playstyle? Do you like offensive or defensive characters? Would you rather rushdown, zone, or do a little bit of both? Do you like to style or play in a mostly orthodox manner?

My advice to you is to play characters at the opposite of each spectrum, and then kind of work your way through the rest of the roster to see how you like them. I play a fairly straightforward Mario with a few gimmicks (I use FLUDD a ton) and I also play an extremely defensive/campy DHD (as most people play him). I use Captain Falcon and Ganondorf for style, and I play Game and Watch rather conservatively because I'm not as familiar with him.
 

Rugal Cuttah

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The title says it all. Well, not really.

I thought I had my main all picked out. Rosalina and Luma. I'm borderline obsessed with her as a character, I love playing as her, I can win with her, and I think she is very viable overall.

The thing is... I love playing with a ton of characters. Playing with the same character over and over, and studying all of the character's techniques is kind of boring to me. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the technical side of things- its just I don't enjoy studying just one character.

And the thing is... its not like I have a single runner-up, I have a large pool of other characters that I like playing as, can win as, and that are viable. I honestly have different 'moods' when I hop online to play FG or with friends. Heck, just yesterday I picked up Little Mac for the first time ever, and found it really fun to play around with his mechanics.

I guess I'm looking for...advice? Insight? Thoughts? Whatever. I guess having a 'main' doesn't mean I'm locked to that character, but with how frequently/how much I enjoy the runner ups. it really makes me want to re-consider if Rosalina really should be my main focus. For those curious, here is a list which roughly shows characters that I am best with/enjoy most (those two factors usually go hand-in-hand).

1. Rosalina/Luma
2. Mr. Game and Watch
3. Mario

4. Yoshi
5. Duck Hunt
6. Ness
7. Captain Falcon

8. Sheik
9. Lucina
Try Ike, he seems very rewarding playing defensively and very unique specials. Not mention his final smash resembles cloud s omnislash. He has armor on his shouryuken too.(dont know armor is active at though.) Unless you hate slow,damaging close range characters. Bowser is also fun with hugo grab and flame thrower. Bowser quake is very dangerous and fast now too.(bowser quake can break shield easily too and daze block crazy foes for the kill.) But he is another slow character in movement though.
 

DavemanCozy

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Well, everyone's thrown out their own input, which is perfectly fine. There are many perspectives and goals you can approach Smash Bros with. My input:

It all depends on your goals as a Smasher. Do you want to become a serious competitive player who enters and travels to tournaments and win as much as possible?

If yes, then I fully believe that you need a main character that you feel the most comfortable with. Having a main does not mean you can't have secondaries: what you said about "having a main doesn't mean I'm locked to that character" is completely true, and many players have their own set of secondaries and counterpick / pocket characters.

To me, a main is a character that you:
  1. like to play as and love them as a character,
  2. spend time learning their techniques, move set data, meta-game match-ups and testing things out with them, and
  3. know you are the most proficient with that character in a tournament setting.
In other words, your main is the character you enjoy playing as and winning as the most, be it a top, middle, or low tier.

It seems to me like you've already got 1 with Rosalina, you clearly seem to like her as a character and enjoy playing as her.

If your goal is similar to mine (becoming a tournament player), then you're going to have to do 2 with her. If you're finding it boring to do that, then you might want to consider doing research with other characters to see if you like that more. Remember it's perfectly fine to have secondaries as well. You can also do research and dedicate time to other characters; in fact, if you plan on having secondaries or counterpicks to specific matchups, you definitely need to do 2 with them as well.

Many players have their own sets of characters that they play, but - whether they realize it or do it subconsciously without noticing - these players also have a character(s) they find themselves picking more often than the others, usually being the character they find themselves enjoying the most and being very comfortable with overall. I suggest looking back on your serious matches or past tournament(s) and reflecting on the last thing I said: which of these characters do you find yourself enjoying the most and being the most comfortable with?

^This is actually how I found the answer to number 3: I love Shulk and Fox as characters, and enjoy playing as both of them in this game. My first Sm4sh 3DS tournament got me creamed going Shulk though, and I found myself drifting towards Fox more and more for most of my matches. This is when I realized that this character would be my main for this iteration of Smash Bros. That said, I still like playing Shulk, and there are certain matchups where I find his range and offstage game to be useful.

This game has a roster of 50+ available characters: you should definetely tinker around with all of them so that you don't end up surprised at a tournament, but also make sure to keep focus of your character and secondaries. But more than that: this is a game, and games are meant to be fun. I think it's great that you love all these characters so much, so go for it and enjoy playing them, whether it's strictly for fun or want to include them as possible secondaries, pocket characters, or even a potential main.

tl:dr; Your main should be a character that you:
1. Like to play as and win as
2. Are willing to devote time into
3. You feel the most comfortable playing as seriously.
 
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Octagon

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Plain and simple, play with who you have the most fun with
 

GhostUrsa

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Try Ike, he seems very rewarding playing defensively and very unique specials. Not mention his final smash resembles cloud s omnislash. He has armor on his shouryuken too.(dont know armor is active at though.) Unless you hate slow,damaging close range characters. Bowser is also fun with hugo grab and flame thrower. Bowser quake is very dangerous and fast now too.(bowser quake can break shield easily too and daze block crazy foes for the kill.) But he is another slow character in movement though.
I'm not so sure. I'm an Ike main as well, and like most of his Fire Emblem brethren he's a fairly technical close ranged fighter. The OP does seem to like technical characters, since Rosalina is currently top on his list. But they are ranged combatants, and Ike is very unique with his lack of speed, strong attack power but requirement to spacing. (Seriously, he's almost got Marth's tipper quality with his sweetspots) The closest character he's got to Ike on his preferred list currently is Lucina, and she's at the bottom of the list. His character focus seems to be on people with zoning capabilities and/or characters with a good mixup game. Ike doesn't have the capabilities to handle zoners as well as Lucina and Sheik with their speed, counter like Mario or meat shield ranged attacks like Rosie can.

Not saying the OP couldn't excel at Ike. I'd love more Ike players to make the rounds. It just that from past experience, Ike will be pretty jarring compared to his previous characters.
 

Rugal Cuttah

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I'm not so sure. I'm an Ike main as well, and like most of his Fire Emblem brethren he's a fairly technical close ranged fighter. The OP does seem to like technical characters, since Rosalina is currently top on his list. But they are ranged combatants, and Ike is very unique with his lack of speed, strong attack power but requirement to spacing. (Seriously, he's almost got Marth's tipper quality with his sweetspots) The closest character he's got to Ike on his preferred list currently is Lucina, and she's at the bottom of the list. His character focus seems to be on people with zoning capabilities and/or characters with a good mixup game. Ike doesn't have the capabilities to handle zoners as well as Lucina and Sheik with their speed, counter like Mario or meat shield ranged attacks like Rosie can.

Not saying the OP couldn't excel at Ike. I'd love more Ike players to make the rounds. It just that from past experience, Ike will be pretty jarring compared to his previous characters.
I dont worry I will always keep playing him no matter what worse he gets. With that sol badguy look going for him, i hope he stays a main roster staple.

Hmmm....Im thinking I know another character that maybe up your alley. Greninja hes a fast character with a great hold range attack and has a unpredictable counter that can appear anywhere, that counter is hard to punish. His normals are fast but have limited range, has good air normals too. Thats probably my last suggestion if your will to try greninja. Shulks very adaptive too with his stat adjust special.
 

Shadow7474

Smash Rookie
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Feb 5, 2015
Messages
21
I can see it two ways:

One way is to pick only a few characters to play (1 or 2 as a main and maybe a few as pocket characters) and become really in depth with them, which in your OP would pry be boring to you which is not necessarily a bad thing. I play like this because I really like only a few characters and like learning more and more about them. With this scenario, you would can play a character well enough to beat match ups that most people may say your character loses in and that may make you feel great. A possible down side to this would be the limitation of options if you are up against a wall.

The second way would just to main as many characters as you see fit and become good or even great with them. Yes, you may not be the best "insert character name here", but if you want to switch characters for a favorable matchup you can because you have plenty of characters to choose from. This strategy would keep you opponents on their feet because they would never know who you would pick next. By reading your OP this is the way I think you would enjoy more. The downside to this is that you may not know any specific character as well and could easily slip up when playing.

So play as who you want as long as you see success and enjoyment out of the characters you play, no matter the number. There are pros and cons to any strategy, but what I read from your post is that you want a large arsenal of characters at your disposal.
 

TTYK

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If at some point you imagine yourself at the tippity top of the major tournaments E.X. Top 32 - Apex, you have to have a single main. You can't have more than like three if you want to perform the combos and not learn too many playstyles.
 

xCerealSoup

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Make your main the character you have the most fun typically playing as, or the character you're consistently best with. I like using Fox and Lucina the most, so they're my mains interchangeably. I would say pick 1-3 characters you really like and develop your skills with them, learn how to play as them and be good at using them, thus making them your mains.
 

Princess_Emilu

Smash Cadet
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Feb 11, 2015
Messages
27
Hello everyone, thank you for your input.

After continuing to play around, reading your posts, and reading/watching more and more videos, I think I can confidently say that Rosalina is my main. The way she feels- her physics, her movements, her attacks etc. just feel so right. I undoubtedly win the most with her, and I feel as though she has a lot of options.

I've found that while playing 'seriously' if you can call my playing serious, I do the best by reading/adapting to my opponent's strategy. Opponents usually get to pummel me for a bit while I try and get their angle. Just earlier, I was playing against a Captain Falcon who had me at 72% on my last stock before I took his first. He respawned, and I proceeded to wipe him our without taking any damage at all. Granted, he wasn't really a 'great' Captain Falcon, but the point is I needed that time to read him and learn his patterns and develop what worked against him.

I've found that my biggest weakness are faster/rushdown characters. I have to focus too much on defending and have a much harder time reading/adapting. Sonic/Sheik are characters I usually have a tough time against.

I feel as though if I ever do get around to getting serious and start studying up on the metagame and matchups, I'd improve a lot. Certain characters (at least right now) seem to not have more than one main strategy/combo, or at the very least, they don't have a lot that people use. I think being able to say "Hey, it's Diddy Kong, I have a rough idea of what's going to happen, so here's how I'll start out" would probably be my best strength.

As far as other characters, I've been thinking about the idea of 'what if I did have to pick just one'. I've found that I really, really like Sheik, but Sheik has such a high skill floor/skill ceiling that he would probably be better suited as a main. I also like Mario a lot, mainly because he plays very differently than Rosa, but he still feels really easy to control.

Phew, lots of words. Thanks for reading, thanks for the replies. PS, I'm definitely not a he, to you silly geese who think otherwise.
 

Probalo

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I had the same problem you did for a long time. I was stuck between Kirby, Fox or Diddy Kong. One day I just decided to play Kirby and not change characters, no matter what. After playing Kirby for 2 months straight, I couldn't go back to anyone else. I've started to learn Fox better while still keeping my Kirby good.
 
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Lime Cultivist

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It's interesting, you have the exact opposite problem that I have with choosing mains. I can't handle having more than one character as my main in any smash game and it makes me happy to just "lock onto" one character, and if I want to switch I have to drop the previous character. I would work with your liking multiple characters to counterpick matchups that you like, if you're really trying to win, and if not just have fun with the character diversity.
 

Vincent21

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If you feel you want/need the high tier edge, decide which of the top 3 or 5 you think are, logically, the best, and learn them. Playstyle is just another word for "comfort zone." Anyone can adapt their playstyle to be anything, and then move on to become the best at said thing. They just need to put in the work.

If you disagree with the current assessment of character strengths entirely, or don't feel that edge will be necessary to win, pick whoever you do best with and are most uncomfortable, and then put yourself in as many uncomfortable matchups and situations as possible in order to learn them to maximum intimacy.

But regardless what you do, don't stop playing other characters. put reasonable time into the whole cast, match-up knowledge is one of the most important things in this iteration of Smash, and you can't turn down possible information like that.
 
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E.Lopez

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But regardless what you do, don't stop playing other characters. put reasonable time into the whole cast, match-up knowledge is one of the most important things in this iteration of Smash, and you can't turn down possible information like that.
I agree with this, which is why I consistently find myself wanting to spend time with new characters and learning their strengths and weaknesses. I mean, there are just so many great characters, there's just no way I can definitively pick one and say, yep, that's the one.

So far I've been practicing with and really enjoying the following 12 characters:

Charizard
Greninja
Ike
Little Mac
Luigi
Mega Man
Palutena
ROB
Samus
Shulk
Sonic
Zelda

On the other hand, I really would like to have a rough idea of who my main is, for the simple matter of really wanting to dive deep into that character's potential and master the details that I would otherwise miss if I'm spreading myself too thin across a broad spectrum of characters. And I still can't narrow down who that character is! Not even a smaller subset of the 12 I just mentioned. Hmm...
 
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