What tech should I master while first learning fundamentals?

[circuspig]

I'm fairly new to the SmashBoards community and competitive Melee as a whole, and I believe that solid fundamentals can go a long way for someone starting out. I was wondering what tech I should definitely get down to help me get started. I figured movement is the most important factor to learn as a beginner, so I thought that I should learn:

• L-canceling
• Wavedashing
• Wavelanding (really need to practice this!)
• SHFFLing
• Dashdancing
• Chaingrabbing (playing Marth)

In my little experience the second most important thing is probably not dying. Starting out should I learn to SDI as well as DI? Are there any other recommended survival techs to learn as a beginner?


I agree that scheduled training is the best way to quickly improve on your own, and I have been following this smasher's regimen: http://preview.tinyurl.com/albertfalco

I sat down and put a lot of thought about what I should learn for a while now, and I just wanted another opinion. Thanks for your time!

 

[20YY SS | Saiblade]

What's up, Circus? I definitely agree with fundamentals. Make sure to learn Survival and Combo DI, as well as ASDI and SDI. Scheduled training is great, but you should go above and beyond that. When moving, make sure to move with a purpose, don't move just to move.

 

[AirFair]

Learn basic tech, and DI as well first. You should learn more about your character as well, strong and weak points.

 

[circuspig]

Learn basic tech, and DI as well first. You should learn more about your character as well, strong and weak points.

Elaborate, if you wouldn't mind.

 

[EarthCrash]

I would greatly recommend learning on how to do various options "out-of-shield". Just try to avoid grabbing out of shield, since it's very easy to read that tactic and punish you as a result.

Elaborate, if you wouldn't mind.

You should know your main like the back of your hand, essentially.

 

[circuspig]

I would greatly recommend learning on how to do various options "out-of-shield". Just try to avoid grabbing out of shield, since it's very easy to read that tactic and punish you as a result.

Thanks. I used to do this a lot (and continued to since it worked against my friends). I've heard Marth doesn't have the best OOS options, how good is wavedash oos?

You should know your main like the back of your hand, essentially.

I meant what tech and what DI he/she is talking about.

 

[EPsilon933]

Learn all of the general ATs. If you get bored of practicing 1 thing, Practice something else. Keep your mind active. Give yourself a few breaks to let your mind absorb the stuff you're learning for muscle memory

 

[circuspig]

Learn all of the general ATs. If you get bored of practicing 1 thing, Practice something else. Keep your mind active. Give yourself a few breaks to let your mind absorb the stuff you're learning for muscle memory

Oh boy hi EPsilon!
Thanks, yeah I like the schedule I have setup because it's pretty short and let's me take a nice break and I have plenty of time to practice what I want and mess around afterwards because I'm not burned out.

 

[mrdoingboing]

Seeing as how you're playing Marth, dash dancing and wavedashing should be your top priorities. Marth really gets a lot off of his throws, so be sure you get the timing down on jump canceling his grabs out of a dash dance. SDI and DI are both really important, but I would try to get survival and combo DI down before SDI. Marth's large hurtbox and his fallspeed makes him pretty easy to combo, so doing everything you can to get out of it really goes a long way.

Also, learning basic stuff you can do out of a short hop with Marth could definitely be beneficial. Autocancel nair can be extremely useful and is pretty easily performed. Double fair can be tricky at first, but it's a really effective way of walling people out. Instead of going for the second fair, you can also choose to up air, waveland toward your opponent to try and grab them, or away to reset the neutral. Also imo first hit dancing blade is amazing, so don't be afraid to use it liberally when you're on the ground.

Can't really think of too much more off the top of my head, hope I helped a bit ^^

 

[circuspig]

-snip-

Thank you!

 

[pagedMov]

Chaingrabs on FD are going to be your primary answer to spacies. You should really practice these well. I recommend the 20XX hack pack because it provides CPUs that DI randomly, providing the most authentic scenario possible for practicing chaingrabs. Note that at lower percents you have to dash dance jump cancel grab spacies because Marth's turnaround animation lasts ten years.

 

[-ACE-]

Nothing is more mandatory than L-cancel.

 

[circuspig]

I'm actually really surprised that I lcancel a lot more consistently. It's obviously not a bad thing, but it's really neat because I always had problems with it until I started practicing on a schedule.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

I'm fairly new to the SmashBoards community and competitive Melee as a whole, and I believe that solid fundamentals can go a long way for someone starting out. I was wondering what tech I should definitely get down to help me get started. I figured movement is the most important factor to learn as a beginner, so I thought that I should learn:

• L-canceling
• Wavedashing
• Wavelanding (really outta practice this!)
• SHFFLing
• Dashdancing
• Chaingrabbing (playing Marth)

The most important fundamental is control. The pieces which act out the fundamental of control are a few of the things you listed here. However, the list is much, much larger than this and you might be surprised how often some of these things slip you up that you might not notice. A very key element being timing. How often do you think you have messed up overshooting an aerial. Completely missing your target. Doing a 2nd jump Uair when you simply wanted Uair. Your jump cancel grab turns into a dash grab. You light shield and get messed up over the delay. Perhaps you try to punish something with a move that was the wrong choice.

All of these things I think are way more fundamental than some of these items you selected. They are important yes, but there are other things which are a bit more key. If you cannot even space your aerials right, then l-canceling means nothing. If you cannot even choose the right move to use with your wavedash you might as well not even bother using wavedash.

The point I am getting at is not to get so narrowly focused on these overrated terms that players have often focused on. The areas you mentioned are what make Melee unique. You want fighting game fundamentals with melee attributes thrown in. Not to focus on the melee features and ignore what makes Melee a fighter.

In short, you want to work on execution of your regular attacks such as Fair, Jab, Ftilt, Dash Attack, Grab, specials, etc. Whatever your character you chose you should be able to use them in the right setting, right timing, and right precision.

The articles you brought up such as wavedashing extend the reach of several things such as wavedash out of shield is faster than dropping shield. Wavedash helps you change direction out of a run. You can get onto the stage faster with a wavedash than any other standard ledge option. It allows you to remove the jump lag time by wavedashing into a platform to get the right height more quickly. However, there is always more than simply those things you mentioned.

 

[circuspig]

neat post

Amazing response Hexen!

I agree that knowing what to do and being able to reliably do it should be part of fundamentals. When I created this thread I was specifically talking about the technical aspect of fundamentals, but I still really appreciate your post.

Hey, do you know where I could read up on the things you mentioned? In my post I said that I have been playing Marth. Sorry if it is too much trouble, I could probably find it myself lol.