Where do I start, as a beginner?

[ukeguy]

I've been practicing wave dashing and l canceling by myself, but I'm not sure how to apply them and I still can't manage to best my friends who just spam f smash and grab. Sorry if this is an over asked question, but how can I apply these techniques and get better?

 

[9bit]

This is the playlist I recommend to new players: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7FLjIqPbmhWNfClQTNg_rZTMIq-yW8w

 

[Sweaty Yeti]

Just gotta be patient. The only way to get better is continue to play. Practice advanced techniques in your spare time and play against other people as much as possible. Playing against bots will end up giving you really bad habits that are hard to break. Just keep playing against your friends and you will get better. Practice makes perfect.

 

[Y-L]

If they're just f smashing and grabbing you have to avoid it. I'm guessing you're like wow I can wavedash and L cancel so I'll destroy them. Well good tech skill can only get you so far.

The application of L canceling is obvious, use it every time you do an aerial. Make sure you fast fall too for quick aerials, with proper timing you should be able to use an aerial before you get f smashed.

If however they use fast f smashes then you need to work on your spacing and punish game. That's why you keep getting grabbed too. I'm guessing with tech skill you just go full rush down because you can do quick aerials. You have to practice spacing. Try to get your aerial to hit outside of their grab range. Bait and punish is just as important. Practice dash dancing (dashing to the point where you can turn around without entering the turnaround animation) so you can weave in and out of their comfort zone and bait them into doing attack where you will dash away them dash back and punish their miss.

As for incorporation of wavedashing, I feel there are a few applications where it is most noticeably useful to new players. Try approaching your opponent, then wavedashing backwards such that their counterattack will miss you, then you can do an f smash or grab to punish them. So let's say you dash towards your friend, he will probably panic and f smash, so you realize this and wavedash backwards as soon as you get close to his f smash range then after he f smashes run up and punish him. I feel wavedashing backwards to avoid attacks and be in a quick situation to punish (as opposed to rolling which is much slower). Other really basic uses of wavedashing is wavedashing out of your shield when you are being pressured, and wavedashing onto the ledge to edgehog. I also often wavedash to reset my character from running so I can instantly dash dance again without having to stop. Overall, wavedashing is about spacing and mind games.

tl;dr: space better, and bait & punish to not get f smashed and grabbed

Hope this helped.

 

[Exodo]

My tip is to play with your friends as much as you can, and try using all characters alot until you manage to understand each one and then discover your best one, the perfect fit for you and then train with it.
Edit: So yeah im not new to this game, been playing since the n64 when i was 2 ( yes literally) but im not the most professional player, so here is my question, if i dont have frienda to play with at the time what is the best way to train, i have heard that fighting level 9 even if its challenging is not good.

 

[mtmaster]

I've been practicing wave dashing and l canceling by myself, but I'm not sure how to apply them and I still can't manage to best my friends who just spam f smash and grab. Sorry if this is an over asked question, but how can I apply these techniques and get better?

Practice makes perfect. Practice by yourself for awhile, then practice against computers, and then when you feel confident then try against your friends. As someone else said, do so as often as you can as as you learn your friends habits you will be able to figure out how and when to pull off wave dashing and other techniques.

 

[theONEjanitor]

The number 1 piece of advice from the legendary smasher "isai" is "don't get hit".
This seems obvious but I distinctly remember being in your position. Where I could wavedash and l-cancel but I still couldn't beat any of my friends. once I internalized the message "don't get hit" i saw massive improvement.
So you have to be more thoughtful about what you're doing. you have to think about why you're getting hit and then stop doing those things. Like are you throwing out unsafe smashes and getting punished? don't do that. Are you doing random aerials into people's shields? don't do that. are you not taking into account how much range your opponent has? don't do that. once you realize what you're doing, it becomes really easy to beat scrub players. just run away until they do something and then punish it, or bait them into doing what you want them to do and then punish them. And really this is what high level players are doing too, it's just more complex and hard to pull off because both players are aware and are playing mental chess.
and just keep practicing of course. you won't master it over night.

 

[Sour Supreme]

The best way to practice is to turn on coin battles, put the score limit to unlimited, turn in three level nine Jigglypuffs, and go to Rainbow Cruise.

Insta-good.

 

[Bozo302]

About the thing with your friends spamming f smash, just dash dance to bait his f smash out and then punishing. Also you should practice short hopping. It feels reall hard at first but after practice it comes naturally.

 

[Marikunos]

Thanks, found this helpful too :D

Regards!

 

[Raijinken]

Don't start with the advanced, start with the basics. If L-canceling and wavedashing won't help, maybe focus on point-dodging and counterattacking during their lagtime. Play like it's Brawl, in other words. Wavedashing and L-canceling are typically aggressive. So until you can learn to be more precisely aggressive, try being better at defending and punishing.

 

[Celestis]

Fundamentals first! Fancy stuff later. Its all already been said above..

 

[Raijinken]

My tip is to play with your friends as much as you can, and try using all characters alot until you manage to understand each one and then discover your best one, the perfect fit for you and then train with it.
Edit: So yeah im not new to this game, been playing since the n64 when i was 2 ( yes literally) but im not the most professional player, so here is my question, if i dont have frienda to play with at the time what is the best way to train, i have heard that fighting level 9 even if its challenging is not good.

Without friends around, I just turn on multiple L9s and practice dodging and whatnot. There's a risk of developing bad habits, I guess, but no worse than by playing with predictable friends, in my opinion.

 

[Exodo]

Without friends around, I just turn on multiple L9s and practice dodging and whatnot. There's a risk of developing bad habits, I guess, but no worse than by playing with predictable friends, in my opinion.

Hmmmm good point, thanks!

 

[Binary Clone]

As has been said above, don't get hit. Learn how all the other characters work, what their moves are. You need to know more than your own character, you need to know the others. A major part of the game is knowing what you're up against.

Before trying to up your technical skills, start playing smart. Be patient, watch closely. Trick enemies into throwing out slow/laggy moves and then punish them for it. Marth can't do anything for a bit after his fsmash, and you can take advantage of that. Lucas's upsmash takes ages. Take advantage of it. Use your dodges, and focus on using all of the tools available to you. When I started out, I neglected my aerials and tilts a lot. I pretty much just spammed smashes. If you can't shorthop, that's one tech you should focus on first.

I think once you start using everything available to you and just get more comfortable with your character, your play will get a lot better. That's how it worked for me, at least.