What Would You Consider Robin's Strengths and Weaknesses?

[Steamblown]

I'll start off with:

Pro: She has a very good mix of melee and range, from the powerful Levin Sword to the Thunder spells to the damaging effect of Elwind offstage.
Con: Thunder, one of his main moves, is easily shielded/reflected, and Thoron is the only storable one, and even then I'm pretty sure the charge disappears when you are hit.

 

[LIQUID12A]

+Great zoning game
+Respectable close combat
+Fullscreen projectile
+A move that recovers health

-Breakable weapons forces careful thinking
-Becomes significantly weaker with each tome broken
-Loses defensive presence when the Levin Sword breaks
-Recovery move is hard to land

 

[Fire Tactician]

I'll start off with:
Thoron is the only storable one, and even then I'm pretty sure the charge disappears when you are hit.

All of them are storable- you just need to roll or shield out of the charging animation.

Small Glow- Thunder
Medium Yellow Glow- Elthunder
Orange Glow- Arcthunder
Auto-Finish- Thoron

 

[Ignoth]

Robin is great at zoning and has decent close combat. Thing is though, the guy/gal always needs a healthy amount of time and space to throw around Arcfires and and to charge his Thunder tome.

From my experience, the best way to play against Robin is with:

A. Characters who have superior close combat playing hyper aggressively.

OR

B. Characters with superior and spammable projectiles constantly harassing him.

 

[Ultimastrike]

As for Pros:

+ Powerful Thoron that can deal 19% at full blast on contact(provided every hit connects)
+ Levin Sword provides great air game and KO power
+ Has Nosferatu for healing occasionally
+ Throwable Tomes and Levin Sword once Durability runs out
+ Arcfire allows for zoning and spacing

o Elwind is useful for edge guarding and has a meteor smash effect, but risky

- Durability System forces Robin to adapt, making him lose the tome he's currently using or the Levin Sword, restricting his game until it regenerates
- Somewhat slow movement
- Vulnerable to quite a bit of Rushdown at the start against fast characters like Sonic
- Can't use recovery once Elwind runs out(until regeneration)

 

[Coq1]

I also find that her sword moves have narrow hitboxes and are hard to land

 

[Steamblown]

I also find that her sword moves have narrow hitboxes and are hard to land

Hmm? Narrow how? Aren't most of them swipes? Though I do know her U-smash is akin to WFT's in the fact that both have atrocious horizontal HBs.

 

[[ & ]]

Though I do know her U-smash is akin to WFT's in the fact that both have atrocious horizontal HBs.

About that U-smash... I know that the LS U-air is absolutely amazing, so would the ideal replacement for the U-smash be a short-hop into LS U-air? Or is there a better move that can be used to hit descending opponents?

 

[PK Gaming]

+Most Levin Sword normals are exceptional (Uair, Fair, Downsmash)
+Good KO potential (in a game where KOing is difficult)
+Solid projectile game. Can control space at mid and long ranges.
+Thoron is an incredible all-purpose move. Punisher, killing tool, damage builder... this move has it all.
+Can heal with Nosferatu.
+Solid recovery. 2 high jumps, great forward aerial mobility and Elwind makes it easy for him/her to get back on the stage
+Tombs/LS breaking grants you an item that you can throw OR it can potential save you from an opponent's attack if it hits them after breaking

-Short hop is too high, making sh aerials not very ideal.
-Has slight trouble getting enemies off him/her.
-Struggles to KO when the LS breaks, meaning you have to wait until it respawns.
-Can't zone as well when Thunder breaks.
-Doesn't have a way to reliably hit enemies who are below him/her: Dair is too slow and Nair has abysmal vertical range.
-Grab range is short.

 

[~Radiance~]

About that U-smash... I know that the LS U-air is absolutely amazing, so would the ideal replacement for the U-smash be a short-hop into LS U-air? Or is there a better move that can be used to hit descending opponents?

Uair oos doesnt connect on most shorter characters (possibly on none, havent really checked). doing an usmash oos with levin sword active is a pretty good punish though. robins grab range is pretty bad, so most times unless someone is so up in your business that you know you can grab them, usmash oos is pretty safe (and seems to be one of his few safe oos options outside of nair, which is really awful and rarely hits anyway)

 

[SphealWithIt]

-Doesn't have a way to reliably hit enemies who are below him/her: Dair is too slow and Nair has abysmal vertical range.

I've actually found that Elwind does a great job of this since it hits below you with great range and good enough knock back to disrupt the opponent and allow you to land safely.

 

[DiamondDust]

Pros
-Female Robin!!!
-Levin Sword is amazing.
-Recovery is great. Good jumps and Elwind is an awesome Up-B
-NOSEFERATU!!!
-Bronze Sword isn't that bad actually. F-Air is a good gimping move offstage.

Cons
-Okay, Bronze Sword isn't that good either. Hard to get kills with it besides gimping.
-OoS options aren't that great.
-I find he/she has a somewhat bad approach. N-Air is bad for approaching.
-Because of this, I feel Robin loses to characters like Duck Hunt or people with better projectiles.

 

[PK Gaming]

I've actually found that Elwind does a great job of this since it hits below you with great range and good enough knock back to disrupt the opponent and allow you to land safely.

It's too risky. If they block it, you can potentially eat a smash attack (or worse; Wario Waft, Nosferatu, etc). And i'm mostly referring to air to ground scenarios (as in Robin is in the air while the opponent is on the ground).

 

[SphealWithIt]

It's too risky. If they block it, you can potentially eat a smash attack (or worse; Wario Waft, Nosferatu, etc). And i'm mostly referring to air to ground scenarios (as in Robin is in the air while the opponent is on the ground).

Very true. What I've found through (minimal so far) online testing is that if it's used sparingly it is not frequently blocked. And though it is risky, it allows you to play mind games with your opponent when you're in the air and they're on the ground, sometimes giving you safe landings you wouldn't have previously had due to then trying to block instead of attack. While it is a risky option, I would say it's well worth it.

 

[Remzi]

Pros:

-Strong, varied projectile game. Can combo off elfire.
-Very strong edge guarder
-Dthrow is a great setup
-Nosferatu is a very good punish
-Levin fair and uair are both fantastic. Big, sweeping hitboxes that are fast and kill EARLY.

Cons:

-Poor aerial mobility
-Very slow on the ground
-Poor landing options
-Mediocre recovery

 

[Sahfarry]

Only weaknesses that come to mind is the recovery running out, narrow smash hbs, cant handle fighters agressive and up front, slow dash and short grab range.

 

[Blueman12]

Pros:
+ Levin Sword aerials and smashes KO early and have decent (dsmash) to great (FSair, BSair, USair) range
+ Great air game because of the above ^
+ Can heal his own damage percent through the command grab (which scales btw... more damage you have, the more it heals, default special only the other two customs don't )
+ Great zoning potential with thunder moves, great launch power and combo potential with arcthunder and thoron
+ Arcfire allows great mindgame potential and onstage control
+ Great Pivot Grab range, decent follow ups off dthrow
+ Pretty long recovery aided by low falling speed

Cons:
- Slowwww dash.
- Poor grab range/cooldown outside of pivot
- Levin sword restricted to 8 uses, hit or not, before it breaks and takes time to respawn (can be used as a one time throw weapon which helps very slightly), bronze sword not good at KOing at all
- specials limited by use as well and can break, forcing you to think carefully about how you spend your uses while taking respawn time into respect (like the sword though books can turn into a one time use throw item)
- aside from dthrow throws have no real followup potential
- lightish side of middle in terms for weight

 

[N7Kopper]

Pros:
+ Great combination of projectile zoning and close-up pressure to be swapped at the will of a great tactican
+ Good aerial mobility and the only character in Smash history to have aerial smashes via Levin Sword
+ Healing command grab that scales based on damage differential between Robin and target when using standard move
+ High killing power in a game where kills are hard to eke out
+ Thrown swords and books have good damage and kill potential for what they are
+ Good foxtrot smash potential
+ Male Robin

Cons:
- Jack of all trades, master of none in both projectiles and melee
- Uses "durability" (more like MP) system before non-Bronze Sword items have to recharge, including recovery move
- Regen times for all four tomes and Levin all different, harder to keep track
- MP cost of standard and custom moves, jab finishers, and lightning charges that use the same tome are all different (hence why MP is more appropriate than a more consistent durability) - harder to keep track
- Slowest dash in the game, with no real mobility improvement
- Female Robin

 

[Xerox the beautiful]

+ More options when it comes to aerials because of the Levin sword
+ Can kill fairly early
+ Huge hit boxes on Levin sword attacks
+ multiple versatile projectiles
+ Amazing recovery with good offensive capabilities
+ A command grab
+ A sword
+ Quick tilts with decent range and knock back
+ Awesome Nair perfect for gimps
+ Dacus

- Extremely slow
- Limited use on specials and smashes
- Few options when above foes
- Charge projectile does not retain charge in between levels if canceled
- Bad grab with underwhelming throws
- Limited options for getting out of pressure partially fixed custom moves specifically Fire Wall
- Blind spots particularly directly above and in front fixed by custom moves specifically Fire Wall
- Susceptible to camping partially fixed by custom moves specifically Speed Thunder

 

[Trifroze]

+ Some of the most useful aerials in the game, uair probably the best uair in Smash 4
+ Kills early and reliably because of fast aerials and thoron
+ Good reach and priority
+ Nair and upb very good for gimping characters without great recovery
+ Strong projectiles that can setup kills and combos

- Horrible tilts with uair and fair having deadzones
- Slowest running speed in the game
- Not much out of shield options
- Short grab range with huge lag if whiffed

As a result Robin is very much a control character, you can easily pressure out opponents that aren't really fast and/or have no projectiles, but at the same time rushdown characters, especially ones with projectiles of their own, will give you a pretty rough time. I really hope they do something about Robin's grab considering how important grabs seem to be becoming in Smash 4 metagame.

 

[Folt]

+ Male Robin
+ Green and White Mage Robin
+ Projectile versatility, with many strong projectiles that can setup kills and combos (and in the case of Thoron, can kill)
+ Levin Sword d-smash and aerials are good moves, particularly uair
+ Tilts work fine for keeping people off of Robin
+ More mage than swordfighter (spells and the magic Levin Sword are his best assets, and the Levin Sword makes his otherwise lacking swordplay dangerous since it buffs his smashes and aerial moves and adds certain properties to certain moves)
+ Reach and priority is good.

- People who can Rushdown, get into his range, or has better projectiles will give him hell.
- Slowest running speed in the game
- Grab range is poor
- More mage than swordfighter (if he loses his spells his options become limited, and if he loses his Levin Sword his lack of sword skill becomes really apparent, his smashes lose reach and power, and so do his aerials... basically, each time Robin loses a magic aspect of his moveset, he becomes worse until he gets them back)