101 help

[rags93]

Hello everyone I'm a very casual player, never really play competitively or online as I always saw smash as a party brawler than a technical fighting game like SF or MK. I have read a lot of the guides and watched ZeRo and other pros tips for getting better with characters, but I cant say i understand fully what they mean most of the times. What I'm trying to paint here is the picture that I am not a competitive player never was never will be so I would appreciate if you will advise me in how to pass the following hurdles without recurring to the usual noob calling or hater monocles I want to get better or rather good enough so that I dont get pinballed around the stage from 0% to 80% and give my friends who are more technical and albeit infuriating erratic players a better fight so I have 4 main characters i struggle against and i would like to know either how to efficiently beat them with any character (preferably Cloud, Robin, C Falcon, Chrom, Donkey Kong, D Samus, Ike, or Ken which are the characters I primarily play best) or who are my best match ups for these characters and what to do

1. Marth/Roy/Lucina I usually play Chrom against them and they just wreck me on the air I don't know why but even when it seems we launch our attacks at the same time it just seems they theirs releases faster than mine and I get hit but if i attack too early they hit me instead either way this is specially tough with roy because i dont know if its just me imagining things but when i try to guard punish his smash forward with a side a my attack doesnt reach but after i go back to my original position he sides a and he reaches so i dunno if he has a tad more range than chrom but it feels that way and with any other character i use they outspeed me hardcore both on ground and air

2. Little Mac please dont say another noob hater i just want to know how to properly beat this character because it is a nightmare given we only play in FD. I am not an aerial player (again I'm not a technical player) and spamming him just seems cheap with cloud or D Samus so i usually go with C Falcon to have a fist fight but i just cant challenge his super armor and when he forward smashes it pushes me away that i cant shield grab him. I have practiced parrying but it works rarely so i dont know what else to do here against him

3. Wolf his neutral b is annoying and i go against a guy who all he does is spam it and shield grab (honestly i hate that strategy) so i dont know how to play agressively without getting shield grabbed any tips?

4. PIkachu/Pichu how do you punish them on the air? I have tried countering them with Chrom and Ike and they manage to dodge the attack with their nair and their b distracts so much when trying to predict their next attack

 

[GhostM]

Because you are a casual player, stepping into the competitive world may be difficult. I understand that you don't want to be involved in the competitive scene, meaning that you won't play in tournaments, but you want to have game knowledge that the usual casual player wouldn't know. Before reading any competitive guides by characters just note that certain terms that they will be using can be confusing. I too was like that before not knowing certain terms like 'hitstun' and 'oos', so if I were you I would quickly look up those terms to understand what these pro players are talking about. It's better to understand than to stay confused at what they're saying. I know it sounds really dumb but it will help you understand the game and your character a lot more.

The one thing to keep in mind is to practice, but don't solely practice against CPUs. CPUs tend to do silly mistakes that no human would do, so practicing with friends and playing the online mode will help you out. Just note that you will not improve overnight, and it will take a while before you start to get the hang of it. Many pro players have been playing the game for years, years worth of knowledge of their characters, and experiences from winning and losing. Start slowly by getting used to your controls and practice using your characters to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and the most important part is spacing. Don't run blindly towards your opponent and attack since this is linear movement that is easily predictable for anyone. Learn to space yourself from your opponent and attack when you can predict their movement or if you know you can punish them. This is the best way to learn, by experimenting with your characters. You can read tips and watch videos of your character to learn, but you will learn more from playing with them, and you will overtime become comfortable utilizing them.

1. Chrom is a decent character but I believe that Roy/Marth/Lucina overall have faster attacks (I might be wrong about this), so spacing and timing your attacks is important. Marth utilizes a tipper, or more damage on the tip of his sword, while Lucina overall has balanced damage on her sword, so no matter where you hit, you'll deal the same damage as long as it's not a weak hit, and Roy is a good character who can rack up damage quickly. I assume since you are stepping into new territory and no longer being considered a beginner, practicing your aerials using the C-Stick is important. The C-Stick will allow you to input aerials more smoothly and you'll have more control over them than just tapping the A button. You can also change your C-Stick in the settings to 'Tilt Attacks', and many players like ZeRo will use them, but it might be difficult to get accustomed to if you use the C-Stick often for smash attacks.

2. I can see why Little Mac can be difficult to deal with, but some of his crippling weaknesses is that he has no sort of power in terms of aerial attacks. Little Mac is very good on the ground but is considered to be awful in the air, and his recovery is the worst part about him. Learning to hit Little Mac offstage is the best position you can place yourself, since he cannot recover very far towards the stage if you knock him off far. His speed in terms of being on the ground is very good, so you'll want to position yourself and space yourself. Little Mac's archetype is hand to hand combat, and characters with range such as Chrom/Roy/Lucina/Marth can outrange him because of their sword, and characters with projectiles such as Samus/Snake/Robin can control the ground better than Little Mac because he has no projectile. Projectiles overall are very good in this game, so utilizing them can be difficult for anyone who doesn't have a strategy to beat you.

3. If you notice that a Wolf is constantly spamming their laser, you can bait it out and punish them if you know that they are going to spam use of their projectile. Be patient. Remember if you block or avoid his lasers he's not doing any damage. Walk forwards or use platforms to get stage control so he can't start running in and lasering. Once you're in range to attack, wait for an opening and attack. See how they try to avoid and counter the attack and try to counter that next time. If they instead try to run away, see how he does it and punish that next time. It can be frustrating to deal with, but learning how to predict their movements will help you. If you notice that they shield a lot, you can bait an attack or wait for them to spot dodge in place or predict a roll to punish them. If they just stand still, a grab will always be useful to punish someone who stays in their shield a lot, or if you're daring you can utilize certain moves that do a lot of damage towards their shields to shield brake them, which will open up to an endless possibilities on the ways that you can KO them.

4. Pikachu/Pichu are extremely difficult characters to face off against because of their fast attacks and overall great combos that rack up damage quickly. One thing with both of these characters is that they also have the same archetype of hand to hand combat, meaning that they have to get up close and personal to deal damage, but characters like Chrom and Ike have a sword, which gives them range to deal with these characters. The weakness with Pichu is that he is a light character, meaning that he will get KO'd from attacks at a lower percent because of his weight. Ever since patch v3.1.0, they have nerfed Pichu and made his attacks deal more damage to him. If you can control the stage and end up being a stock or 2 ahead, it is very difficult for Pichu to catch up since he damages himself. Both Pikachu/Pichu have little range, which again, a sword character can easily out match them. Spacing is very important in here since blindly running up towards them will cause you to become a punching bag for combos, and if you can predict that any of these two characters are using nairs often, you can bait it out and punish them. Instead of just spamming nair, try to mixup your movement to become unpredictable. Practicing your movement and tactics to bait will help you deal with these characters more easy.

The final thing I will say is to practice. You won't become a pro overnight, but make sure to learn from your losses. Don't set high expectations for yourself only to become frustrated when you lose. Take that loss as a learning experience and figure out what's causing you to lose, and develop new skills and techniques to overcome these flaws in your gameplay. Again, it will take a good amount of time before you start becoming more efficient in your gameplay.