I normally do not bother with these topics anymore. But Strongbad recently expressed to me that topics like these are actually looked at, even if the BR doesn't post in them, so I'll give everyone the long version.
Overview:
Ness is a fighterjet in the air. By design, he has amazing aerial options and momentum control, allowing him to combo opponents supremely with grabs, DJC and smart aerials. On a secondary level, he has tricky gimmicks to keep his opponents off kilter. PKfire traps, DJC, Magnet momentum shifting all lead to a strong bait and punish game. The key with ness is converting a single hit into long links, and using a strong bait and punish game to create the opportunity to get that first hit in.
By design, Ness is also an incredibly weak character. He is hindered by poor range, and a lack of space control, two of the most treasured traits in the game. He has a slow jump and some bad aerial/ground mobility that makes it hard for him to get to characters that control space better, and play patiently. Often, when I am facing a patient Marth/Link/Ivysaur/Shiek, I find myself attempting to approach and evade various options, slow jumping and DJCing forward only to be knocked away over and over again. It forces me to stand at the edge of my range and pkfire––convert with a pillar, and go in to cause havoc and damage.
I think every good Ness player will tell you, pk fire is arguably the best/safest/most rewarding option in neutral Ness has. I can't even begin to emphasize how many interactions I have had where I failed at an approach against a patient enemy, and deferred to pkfire to fill in the gaps. This wouldn't be so bad, if the move wasn't so boring. Think about it: its not that laggy, every Ness is almost equally good at using it, It puts Ness in a better position on shield or unshielded, and it can often lead to insane damage––but Ness needs it in his current iteration to keep up, because his traits aren't especially good in neutral at setting up his ideal game.
Recommended Changes:
Let's start with
Important changes.
Space control and range are meant to be an issue for Ness, no doubt. But Fox also lack those things and succeeds. Everyone says Fox has the best neutral in the game. It is partially due to shine, nair priority, and lasers. But most of all, Fox overcomes his range by exploiting mobility, allowing him to assert control through movement, and teasing out the weak angles.
Ness's design could learn from Fox's.
My suggestion? Up Ness's mobility. This could happen in a few ways:
+Giving him a faster run speed, dash speed, or dash length would help and should be considered.
But Ness, unlike Fox, is an aerial character first and foremost. He shouldn't really be on the ground that much. That's why, I think they need to work on his air mobility. They can do this by:
+increasing his horizontal air mobility,
But I would like to see more of a buff on his magnet. Most people are using Magnet as an aerial wave shine, extending combos while providing tricky movement mixups in neutral. Currently, Magnet stops your vertical altitude and carries a
bit of your horizontal momentum for a few seconds through space to stall out an opponent's shield or give you tricky movement options (especially when b-reversed).
I think the BR should play with some variables to
+tailor his magnet better for aerial movement. Maybe make it so the magnet actually doesn't preserve a
bit of your aerial momentum, and instead preserves all of it or even accelerates it. Imagine if Ness could go into magnet to move faster through the air, and jump out of it when he wanted to? Voila: he'd still have low range, he could still be kept out, but he'd have an interesting way to control how he travels through space that plays well into his "psychic wierdo technical" play style. Ness would be the low range comboer who can affect the height and speed of his jumps when he wants to, without having to rely on traditional methods of space control like lasers, boomerangs, razor leafs, or a goddamn pillar of fire that can combo into anything.
I wouldn't call the next suggestion necessary:
just good.
Ness is meant to be a combo house, but his comboability is pretty weight dependent.. It seems like Ness can do really well on heavy/fast fallers, but when he is forced to combo lighter opponents, he can't chase them all that well vertically. This of course, is because of his slow jumps. I think Ness could benefit with a
+slight speed boost to his second jump. This way, wavelanding on platforms and chasing an opponent in hitstun seems worth it, because you can actually reach the enemy before he shakes it off. It might also indirectly buff his horizontal mobility, because DJCs would be faster/might reach further than they currently do. It would also buff his edge play, making it so when you punish a recovery like Sheiks by hanging on the edge, you can get back on the stage to actually hit her.
The next set of suggestions I would classify as
nice but neither necessary or all that important.
+
improve utilt. Right now, there aren't that many distinguishing reasons to use utilt over DJC uair. I think DJC uair is slightly slower, but it does more damage, sets up a better combo angle, and has better coverage.
-I would like to see a range improvement on utilt to have a hitbox not only infront of him, but also behind him.
-or have it lower in its power so you can combo out of it easier with DJC uairs
-or have it increase in its vertical range so it contend with opponents coming down.
+
speed up usmash: This move is so situational, its almost pointless. And there's nothing wrong with situational moves, but this one could be a little less situational. It seems like its supposed to be a keepout (since it doesn't reliably combo into anything, its range is far outclassed by dsmash, and it doesn't kill all that well). But it doesn't keep out all that well, probably because its so slow to come around. I think it should be faster, more reminiscent of smash 64 usmash, with a wind up and a quick rotation around Ness.
+make dair fulfill some of its Melee purposes: I wish there was a way to have the sick melee dair properties while having the 64 properties. Just watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=oz_wMI2NXcs&t=25
Because of DJC, the 20 or so startup frames of dair, and the autocancel frames at the end, Melee Ness could DJC his dairs and apply vertical pressure with them while coming safely to the ground. The melee dair and the PM dair have 8 active frames (i think), but the melee dair has the startup that can be used get to the ground fast without floating to the ground with your hitbox gone. If they extended the dair hitbox to be much longer, you could theoretically get the benefit of both dairs (although that would make some stuff REALLY easy, like rising dair edgeguards). Still, I think it would be pretty sick as an option, and Ness already can do those ridiculous edgeguards with good timing (so you don't risk hurting game balance too much by lengthening his hit box duration).
Lastly, here's a buff that would be
zany but probably not that important. Credits to Mofo for this one.
It would be cool to
+hit L to lose control of pk thunder, sending it in the trajectory it was set to before you let go of it. Doing so would put you in special fall, or if on the ground, put you in the "shakeoff" animation. This change would let Ness refresh invincibility frames on the edge by getting off, and shooting a pkthunder and immediately letting go of it. Furthermore, this change would let Ness exert more space control in a weird way. Imagine shooting a pkthunder on Final Destination, aiming it at your opponent, "letting go of it" and chasing behind it for a follow up (like wolf's blaster). The process would take too long to be used in the heat of a battle, but its a nice mixup at a distance.
Thanks for reading.