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Official 4BR Tier List v1.0 - Competitive Impressions

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aεrgiα

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See what I meant about Charizard?
I don't even know how I failed to mention him considering, while writing that post, I spent most of the time thinking about whether zard should go in the borderline or unviable category. But hey, at least I got a laugh out of it ;)
 

Emblem Lord

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Roy is not even close to being optimized.

Roy players don't even Blazer on reaction to SH approaches to seal stocks.

Such weakness imo
 

Planty

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Results are used to back up theory. Theory gets you to a rough point on the tier list, but you need results to prove the theory correct. Tier lists are after all, windows of the current metagame. If you aren't getting results in the current metagame, you can't exactly be high tier. The current metagame does not care about future potential: it isn't happening then.

Likewise, a character suddenly getting better tournament results means that their mains have figured out something about the character. Something clicked, and that click should be accounted for as long as its not just a flash in the pan. Something as different as a style change in how to play the character can make an impact. Which impacts the current metagame which the tier list is supposed to reflect. The character would move up accordingly.
Then let tier lists show the current metagame. But I want to know who is good at the moment, not who is used at the moment.

"If you aren't getting results in the current metagame, you can't exactly be high tier."
Let's take this statement. I'll start by saying that it is correct. Tier lists are representative of the metagame, which is, in a nutshell, tournament results. What I argue however is that tournament results are not necessarily correlated to how good a character is. It often is correlated, but not necessarily. So essentially a worse character can be higher on a tier list than a better one if they have results, as tier lists represent the current tournament's results, not theory.

The issue with using results to gauge how fundamentally good a character is (I avoid "viability" because everyone has a different definition) is that it falls apart under scrutiny. The use of results to judge how good a character is, is clearly based upon empiricism, that is, the idea that something needs evidence to be proven true. It is the cornerstone of the natural sciences, which is why we know its basics concepts even though we're not scientists. However, when performing an experiment, a scientist will eliminate as many variables as possible to get a conclusive and accurate result. For example, if one wanted to test how water mixes with oil at speed X for amount of time Y, it would clearly be better to have a specially built machine pour and mix than to have a human do it. A human for example might stir at speed 1.2X for time Y^2. The machine will be significantly closer to the intended speed X and time Y than a human would be, thus giving a more accurate conclusion. Simply put, unwanted variables are not wanted.

Using results to judge how good a character is simply leaves too many variables. These include major things like player skill and fatigue to silly things like people not picking Pikachu because they don't like hearing Japanese girls squeal. Maybe that's the reason Pikachu has bad results (I know it's not), he may (MAY, don't blow this up) be a great character, but he is unused for that silly reason. How many people don't pick characters because of their voices? I don't know. It could be none, it could be many. There is no data on it. That's just one example of a near infinite amount of variables involved in judging a character based on results.

I know this will probably never happen, but I believe the best way to judge how good a character CURRENTLY is would be through controlled tests. For example, we could have the best players of all the characters test their ability to hit the 2-frame ledge vulnerability by trying it 100 times against each character. The other character would recover at angles that they will commonly be sent out at in that matchup. Maybe Ike can get the 2-frame 65% of the time against Roy, but 10% against Sheik, and theory will be shaped around that. THAT'S what results should be.
 
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dakotaisgreat

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valakmtnsmash4

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As a shulk main I can confidently say that he is on the rise, but he needs a bit more push in terms of results to be considered a solid mid tier.
Shulk mains in the discord and on SB are constantly finding new techs and combo strings to deal with bad match ups. His camping game is also being developed with shield and jump art.
I'd say shulk isn't close to his peak yet.
 

UberMadman

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I think Shulk is kind of in the same boat as Palutena in that he's not actually a bad character, just a flawed/mediocre one with some good tools. It kind of pissed me off how for the longest time so many people would compare Shulk's moveset in a vacuum to other sword characters and completely ignore Monado Arts. Like no **** Shulk is worse in other regards compared to other swordsmen, his entire kit is balanced around the fact that he possesses one of the most overpowered moves in the game! Buster means his damage can be high even without needing combos or juggles, Jump means Shulk can go way deeper than any other swordsman for kills, Speed improves his ability to punish and evade certain characters, and Smash basically turns every move into a killmove while giving him actual killthrows, (and there is Shield mode too but it's pretty niche tbh, allows him to escape juggles at low percents and of course not die at death percents but because he's so slow people should learn just to lame this one out,) and of course he can choose which of these perks to abuse at any given time. I know that all of this should be obvious by now, but I still feel how this element of his gameplan is drastically understated by his detractors. Shulk is like no other character in this regard, and it's the reason he actually has a niche at all compared to other swordsmen. Of course vanilla Shulk is outclassed, but the problem is typically a good Shulk player aims to play as little vanilla Shulk as possible throughout the course of the match.
 

JustSomeScrub

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Not sure how people can say FE characters are on the rise.

Not a single solo FE player has made top 8 at a major in recent times afaik. Sure they've taken sets from top players here and there but never when it mattered the most and definitely not consistently. There's no evidence to suggest a solo FE character main can win big tournaments or even come close to it.

Besides,Cloud basically invalidates all of them. There's no logical reason to use any of the FE characters over him.
 

AxelVDP

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adding to this subject and well written post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qd3erAPI9w
is a thing to consider when handling and interpreting data, especially when dealing with small data samples

alsooo, I noticed that they uploaded GOML side stream matches so we can finally see alphicans, darkwolf, holy and istudying in action
(I just saw alphicans vs nairo match and, while incredibly hype and all, I can't help but feel like alphicans got a bit lucky that nairo knew very little on how to play the Mac matchup... not that the matchup is terrible for Mac, mind you, but he got away with a lot of stuff that should not have worked and nairo got himself punished lots of times for not respecting Mac's unique attributes like armored smashes
still, it was a great display and a very fun match to watch)

yeahh, sorry for going a little off topic :048:

tfw nobody replies to my posts
 

Nidtendofreak

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Not sure how people can say FE characters are on the rise.

Not a single solo FE player has made top 8 at a major in recent times afaik. Sure they've taken sets from top players here and there but never when it mattered the most and definitely not consistently. There's no evidence to suggest a solo FE character main can win big tournaments or even come close to it.

Besides,Cloud basically invalidates all of them. There's no logical reason to use any of the FE characters over him.
By that logic, no reason to use anyone beyond Diddy/Sheik/Cloud/ZSS/Rosalina really

There was Ryo at MLG with top 8. Still less than a year ago I believe. Not many characters period can boast getting top 8 at a major solo in SSB4's lifespan (not even Mewtwo technically unless a tournament in Japan was large enough to qualify. MK showed his head for one match, ain't a solo run). I'll take it.
 
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JustSomeScrub

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adding to this subject and well written post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qd3erAPI9w
is a thing to consider when handling and interpreting data, especially when dealing with small data samples

alsooo, I noticed that they uploaded GOML side stream matches so we can finally see alphicans, darkwolf, holy and istudying in action
(I just saw alphicans vs nairo match and, while incredibly hype and all, I can't help but feel like alphicans got a bit lucky that nairo knew very little on how to play the Mac matchup... not that the matchup is terrible for Mac, mind you, but he got away with a lot of stuff that should not have worked and nairo got himself punished lots of times for not respecting Mac's unique attributes like armored smashes
still, it was a great display and a very fun match to watch)

yeahh, sorry for going a little off topic :048:

tfw nobody replies to my posts
Little Mac might be underrated. It seems even top players can't punish rolls no matter how predictable he is with them. At least not consistently.

I think Nairo would have definitely lost this set if just one game of it that he won was on FD instead of a stage with platforms. He definitely got a lot of clutch, early uair, up B kills off that saved him.
 

Aaron1997

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Nicko Shulk.png


Nicko's Match-up Chart for Shulk. This is A little old (pre 1.1.6) but since Shulk has been on the rise I thought this would be a good time to post this.
 

PK Gaming

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Not sure how people can say FE characters are on the rise.

Not a single solo FE player has made top 8 at a major in recent times afaik. Sure they've taken sets from top players here and there but never when it mattered the most and definitely not consistently. There's no evidence to suggest a solo FE character main can win big tournaments or even come close to it.

Besides,Cloud basically invalidates all of them. There's no logical reason to use any of the FE characters over him.
Ryuga placed 2nd landlocked and Earth/YOC have had a few top 8 placings in Japan as well. Ryo placed 9th in a national and that definitely shouldn't be discounted.

In any case, your argument doesn't make any sense to me. Why play any character that isn't high tier? Or top for that matter? People play who they're comfortable with. Characters that they have a passion for. That's why I can't buy the argument that Cloud "invalidates" other FE characters. His play style might seriously just not click for a given player.
 

Knife8193

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Ike / Fire Emblem Discussion? Let me weigh in on a few things...

Corrin:
Along with counterplay, Corrin received these subtle nerfs to his mobility:
  • Walk Speed: 1.2 -> 1.15
  • Run Speed: 1.5 -> 1.45
  • Air Speed: 1 -> .97
It doesn't seem like much, but run and air speeds were reduced to Ness levels, but with average aerial acceleration. Corrin's defensive ground movement is still awesome with superior dash->shield and average fox trot frames, but Corrin has less control over space than she would like. SideB also has worse frame data than once thought and recovery is merely average or slightly above.

Corrin still has a lot of great things, but once you play people, you have to put in quite a bit of work for the win. Corrin's still great, but he has to work more than what was previously thought, and that mobility can be used against him.

Marth vs. Ike:

Marth is probably better than Ike. He is just more well rounded vs. more of the cast. Ike has more volatile MUs, reminiscent of DK and Bowser due to the way they all punish and fish for grabs.

Ike's worst MUs are:
:4sheik: (uphill neutral) :4diddy: (uphill neutral)

We know it's Ike's disadvantage:
:4fox: (zone breaking, strong kill confirms) :4mario: (dangerous gimmicks, zone breaking) :4rob: (zoner + grappler mixed) :4ryu: (out-rewards, good vs single hit characters)

Even Ike's worst MUs are "heavy MUs" where Ike can still obtain occasional confirms and good reward when the opportunity arises, since he can frontally combat most hitboxes directed at him if read.

Probably Ike's disadvantage:
Most zoners depending on how you look at it, :4greninja: (dangerous gimmicks) :4zss: (out-rewards) :4dk: (out-tanks and rewards), :4metaknight: (zone breaking)

Ike is not good at lower levels of play and doesn't have as obvious a learning curve. Players will need to be consistent with some odd tech such as the footstool combos and dtilt->bair, combat walking autocancel quick draw, etc.

Ike with his fair buff a few months ago hasn't been explored much by the top Ike players (or only Ryo now) until more recently, and it was admittedly large to his metagame and viability.

Marth has way more rep at mid level, similar rep from high level mains, and way more rep from top players as secondaries (Ally, Leo, False, and Nick Riddle just off the top of my head)

Results that I know of (minus Japan):
Corrin: Cosmic Cosmos wins almost every Texas Challonge that I see, he's dominant over there and I think this is probably understated. You see him as secondaries all over. Ryo can pull out Corrin for more favorable/stable MUs and take sets off players like MVD, though his overall results solo haven't been able to match solo Ike just yet, and has been used much better as a secondary. Vapour in Canada upset Ontario's Blacktwins at EGLX. John #s and other tristate people use Corrin every now and then as well.

Marth: Mr. E, Pugwest, and farther down the line due to split usage, False. Mr. E took a set off Nairo and all 3 continue to beat high level players. I haven't seen much of Pugwest outside of his region, but he can take sets off Marss and beat everyone else in his region. Also took a set off PikaPika where Mr. E lost.

Ike:
Ryo still beats many good players, though he is getting upset more often. You can still see him take sets off M2k, K9, or Scatt here and there, though it's not a consistent win rate of course.
There are some Hidden Bosses that perform decently in tournaments, such as Yoh and Jage in Europe, or Justice in Oregon.
Waldo from NYC has started to get more top 8 placings in his region and took sets from players like Marss and Pugwest.
I've been to a few larger tournaments recently, being able to take sets off of Pugwest, V115, Chrim Foish, and Holy, though the latter 3 have beaten me in sets before as well.
Rango still has taken sets off players like 6WX and reflex, does OK in his region.

It's consistent with other mid-tier characters, but Ike's average rep is still very low. Ryo is Ike's only top player rep right now with Ryuga gone and the rest below him getting decent/improving results.
Just to clarify one thing, Cosmos only wins TLOC brackets in Dallas (which are fairly stacked with some of Dallas's best players, but I wouldn't say it represents to absolute top level in TX, considering its a Dallas weekly). Right now we don't know how he'd measure up to the other parts of the TX, he doesn't travel. His Corrin is fairly dominant though, ever since he dropped Pikachu and started using Corrin, he's gotten much better results (his Pikachu is still very good).
 
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Shaya

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Marth has more range on many normals (but less disjoint), damage per hit and mobility over Corrin.
Such traits are often pretty strong qualifiers for a character to be better than another.

We're seeing a lot of sporadic success from Marths but nothing consistent from the players who use him. It's hard to find big name take downs for Marths at large tournaments.
Something I've said at least once before (here, on the Marth boards earlier on a gazillion times), "no one actually needs to know or learn the marth match up to beat him, don't rate first time successes that highly". Now that isn't the case and I wonder how much his success hinges on the newgens not knowing, or older players forgetting, the most staple smash match up across 2 and a half games at a competitive level.
Marth is great, don't get me wrong, but he really pales in comparison in essentially every department to Mewtwo and still has no reason to believe he has feasible match ups with any top tier at top level barring maybe ZSS. Most mid level players believe Cloud/Marth is evenish and it's feasible but at the same time I doubt it on a few key points of Marth's intrinsic weaknesses, and aside from that one time Rain was a buster I'm not aware of much success here. Results against Sheik, Diddy, Sonic, Fox, Ryu, Mario, MK etc are still outright awful as well. Until that changes I'm going to remain wary of Marth hype


Sounds awful easy to bait out... By the time you've "reacted" they could of drifted or jumped away and Roy's eating a hard punish, by my count.
Poor Emblem Lord, forgetting characters have aerial deceleration because Ryu is all that matters.
But blazer is pretty good at calling out most of the non-weaving low short hop/non floaty characters, as it can beat jumping away, and won't necessarily result in death if they jump air dodge. Shame there aren't that many good characters with which this description fits.
It does also apply to the PK-team, their mid air double jumps takes roughly 5 frames to start rising drastically (not too many people abuse this yet on Mewtwo, such as short hop fair to double jump fair, even though both fairs will hit a lot of the cast on the ground, you can also immediately cancel the jump momentum with wave-bounce away shadow ball charging).
 
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Krysco

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Referring to things a couple pages back since I just caught up with the thread (wasn't able to go on during breaks).

In regards to the whole talk of heavies, I find it interesting that people were willing to go as far as considering :4lucario: a heavy. On Kuroganehammer, he's the lightest character in the heavyweight category and only a single unit heavier than :4corrin::4drmario::4mario:. Notably, the following characters that are heavier than Lucario were not listed: :4charizard: (already mentioned and just seems to be general forgetfulness since he's 4th heaviest). :4samus::4shulk::4yoshi::4miibrawl::4miigun::4miisword:. It's to my understanding that weight isn't the only qualification for being deemed a 'heavy' since Samus is often deemed a 'floaty' which I'm pretty sure is due to her low gravity and/or fall speed. Just interesting since heaviness is an actual, measurable thing but the term 'heavy' usually requires more than that.

:4link: was discussed a few pages back to and seems to be a reoccurring character to talk about. One thing often brought up is his poor framedata and poor options up close. That leads me to a minor point I'd like to bring up and something to ponder. Minor point being that :4link:'s item toss is tied for best for forward and 2nd best for up and back (randomly, :4yoshi: has first for the latter two). :4tlink: is often mentioned to be threatening with a bomb in hand since it allows followups but since he loses his grab while holding it and bombs don't do anything to shields, he 'loses' to shields. I'm just sitting here wondering if more bomb use from :4link: could yield him better results. He also gets follow ups from bombs, after throwing it, it's hitbox becomes active on frame 7, the same as his jab and with an faf of 21 which is faster than his jab. He can also use it while moving be it walk, run, airborne, dicit, jcit or pp. The shorter fuse has to be kept in mind and obviously the lower mobility and :4link: also loses access to his grab when holding a bomb but unlike :4tlink:, he can drop them safely on the ground (C4 being the term often used) which allows him to easily regrab it or use his grab, granted the fuse will be shorter from that and it can't be moved much afterwards.

The ponder thing is that with one of :4link:'s weaknesses being poor options when the enemy is in his face, I wonder, has there ever been a top or high tier character in any Smash game with that weakness? It seems like a pretty crippling weakness for viability. I'm not familiar enough with the frame data of the previous Smash games and the best example that comes to mind for Sm4sh is :4mewtwo: but even then, dtilt and jab are faster than anything Link has (if only by a single frame in certain cases).

TL;DR 1. :4samus::4shulk::4yoshi::4miibrawl::4miigun::4miisword: aren't listed as heavies despite weighing more than Lucario. 2. More bomb use from :4link: perhaps? 3. Any high or top tiers in any Smash game with the weakness of poor cqc? Best that comes to mind is :4mewtwo:.
 

Mazdamaxsti

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Can we all take a moment to appreciate Ontario's character diversity? Ontario is already a strong region, showing diverse regions can still be good. The new PR has (only counting primaries)

:4cloud:,:4zss:, :4sheik:, :4diddy:, :rosalina:,:4luigi:, :4lucario:, :4palutena:, :4yoshi:, :4sonic:, :4ganondorf:, and :4bayonetta:. If we're counting secondaries, we also have :4mario:, :4metaknight:, and :4dk:. Then theres some talent that fell out of the PR, like :4lucina: , :4shulk:, and :4fox:.

Ontario is a big example of a strong region with character diversity, one of the regions to break out of the trap that you can either be good or diverse. Good on ya', Ontario.
 
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AnEventHorizon

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more rules for my point system to make it a little more reliable

-Adding to the above, secondaries will not be counted if the player won a game with a character, but ultimately lost the set.


Basically more measures taken to prevent inflation
I've been meaning to respond to this, I've only just had the time. I've shortened the quote to the part I think you should reconsider. Mainly, I definitely feel like someone having success with a character outside of pools should be counted.

One example I feel the rule as you have it could lead to - In a hypothetical scenario Larry Lurr Loses Game 1 in a best of 5 set with his Fox. He then plays DK the rest of the set, but loses 2-3. Does his DK not count here?

Or Leo switching to Marth and winning a game with him as he did at GOML. Its one of the characters Leo has used several times in Mexican tournaments before, why should his success with the character not count toward its results at all? I can understand possibly lowering the number contributed if its literally one game one, but I can't agree with acting like they didn't win with/use the character at all.
 

Nobie

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Shulk:

I watched the match between Nicko and K9'sBruce. I'm no Shulk expert by any means, but I think what keeps Shulk in contention is that he has his own share of decent matchups, and his bad matchups arguably get exaggerated.

As an example of the former, I think Shulk does decently against Mewtwo. The different Monado Arts can really screw with Mewtwo's game plans and Smash Monado is super dangerous for Mewtwo, who can die to a random tilt at pretty low percents.

As an example of the latter, I'm pretty sure everyone agrees that Sheik has an edge over Shulk even though Nicko won. However, you could see how smart Monado usage could make things more difficult for Sheik. Speed to run away. Jump to avoid edgeguards. There's arguably no character more affected by Shield Monado than Sheik, and it showed throughout that matchup; often times Bruce could only get a kill by attacking right before Shield Monado would activate. If he was off by a step, it became another game of hitting a brick wall with a wet paper towel.

Sheik wins neutral against Shulk for sure, just as she does against most of the cast. However, Shulk's Monado Arts make it so that she has to win neutral twice as often compared to many other characters, and this increases the chances of rage building up and causing a potential upset. When Sheik is at 80% and Shulk is at 180% but Shulk somehow has a better chance of killing on hit, you know something is up.
 
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As a past Ike main I feel as though they improved him quite a bit. He feels more fluid now, if that makes sense. In Brawl Ike had felt too slow to me, now he feels a lot better. I think I might bump him up to one of my secondaries. If only a rugged young gentleman like Nidtendofreak Nidtendofreak could help me out? ;3

Ike is now viable in high level play (praise Ryo) and that is my opinion.
 

Aaron1997

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People underestimate how Strong Shulk is with Rage. I've Seen People die at 90% to rage Shulk B-air IN SHIELD MONADO. Add on to the fact a simple Monado Purge read could kill most Characters around 50/60%.....
 

dakotaisgreat

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I didn't list the Mii's, Shulk, and Samus when talking about heavies because they kind of suck. Mii Brawler would be viable though if Mii's didn't have their **** banned out, which I will say once again is stupid. I'm still going to consider Lucario a heavyweight, the lightest of the heavyweights sure, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Having the 18th heaviest weight out of 55 characters is still definitely on the heavy side.

I honestly just forgot about Yoshi, but yeah he is good too. And Captain Falcon and Wario are also good.

Okay, I'll just redo the whole list, down to Lucario. In order from heaviest to lightest, in case your definition of heavy differs from the one I'm going with.

Viable Heavies:
Bowser
DK
Ike
Wario
R.O.B.
Captain Falcon
Yoshi
Ryu
Megaman
Unlocked Mii Brawler
Cloud
Lucario

Not a bad number to choose from if you specifically want to main a beefier character.
 
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dakotaisgreat? More like dakotaisbae :3

I need to learn my Mario more so I have a quick character instead of running The True King and Te Friend Fighter.
 

C0rvus

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Lucario is a heavy how, exactly? And are you referring to a large Mii Brawler? Noone ever plays that kind.

Anyway, today I was struck by how many similarities Corrin and Ness have. They run about the same speed, have a so-so projectile that immobilizes the opponent (though rarely long enough to net a good follow-up), their ground normals are largely worse than their air normals, they both have good ledge pressure and mediocre, easily interrupt able recoveries. Both play a similar turtling style and are quite good at it. Both have not so great theory as of late, or at least so I've noticed. Perhaps they don't make a great main duo, unless the player excels at that style and really likes it. The two have fairly different MU spreads, so maybe it could work.

Not gonna lie, I am a Ness doubter. Always have been, despite being a Ness main at launch. I feel he's capped out and is too straightforward for his own good. Still, FOW and Shaky come out and play, and do well with the character. So I must be wrong. Or perhaps what he has is good enough. The question then is, will he last? Took him for a spin a bit today and still did well enough with the basics. Do top Ness players just ride on fundamentals? Is he just that solid?

I dropped him for scrubby reasons way back when. Maybe I should figure out the answers to those questions myself.
 

Krysco

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I was mostly nitpicking at the term 'heavies' since weight isn't the only factor when labeling a character as one. When heavies are brought up, people will often mention the top 5 along with Jr, Megaman, Ryu, Link, Falcon, Wario and Ike and yet not Samus, despite her weight being the same as Jrs. If by 'heavy' we mean large weight and combo fodder, then it seems counter-intuitive to want a 'good heavy'.

As for the Miis, at guest size, they share the same weight as Cloud who had his name tossed around here a bit during the heavy discussion.
 

Emblem Lord

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Marth has more range on many normals (but less disjoint), damage per hit and mobility over Corrin.
Such traits are often pretty strong qualifiers for a character to be better than another.

We're seeing a lot of sporadic success from Marths but nothing consistent from the players who use him. It's hard to find big name take downs for Marths at large tournaments.
Something I've said at least once before (here, on the Marth boards earlier on a gazillion times), "no one actually needs to know or learn the marth match up to beat him, don't rate first time successes that highly". Now that isn't the case and I wonder how much his success hinges on the newgens not knowing, or older players forgetting, the most staple smash match up across 2 and a half games at a competitive level.
Marth is great, don't get me wrong, but he really pales in comparison in essentially every department to Mewtwo and still has no reason to believe he has feasible match ups with any top tier at top level barring maybe ZSS. Most mid level players believe Cloud/Marth is evenish and it's feasible but at the same time I doubt it on a few key points of Marth's intrinsic weaknesses, and aside from that one time Rain was a buster I'm not aware of much success here. Results against Sheik, Diddy, Sonic, Fox, Ryu, Mario, MK etc are still outright awful as well. Until that changes I'm going to remain wary of Marth hype




Poor Emblem Lord, forgetting characters have aerial deceleration because Ryu is all that matters.
But blazer is pretty good at calling out most of the non-weaving low short hop/non floaty characters, as it can beat jumping away, and won't necessarily result in death if they jump air dodge. Shame there aren't that many good characters with which this description fits.
It does also apply to the PK-team, their mid air double jumps takes roughly 5 frames to start rising drastically (not too many people abuse this yet on Mewtwo, such as short hop fair to double jump fair, even though both fairs will hit a lot of the cast on the ground, you can also immediately cancel the jump momentum with wave-bounce away shadow ball charging).
Fam sometimes......you just gotta do it. Mindgames and baiting options be DAMNED!!!!
 

Nysyr

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Lucario is a heavy how, exactly? And are you referring to a large Mii Brawler? Noone ever plays that kind.
Lucario dies a lot later than some of those above him due to his Gravity being lower. His frame data is very heavy-like, and his damage likewise without accounting for Aura modifiers. Gotta draw the line somewhere.
 

Shaya

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It's cost me a tournament before (against non-limit Cloud mind you, Fsmash killing at 70% before I grabbed the ledge, bueno).
At the same time it's gotten me many a KO many many times. Just when you say reactively, I go "yeah, those specific chars are the reliable reactive punish tier", the rest are a lot more riskier and it'll get you killed. Good DI on blazer often doesn't kill early enough (especially without super high rage) unfortunately, proper DI centre stage on light characters can see them live at 150%

If Roy wasn't generally super-undertuned in damage values he'd be an entirely different monster.

But yeah, I've blazer'ed through Ryu's focus,shoryus and fair/bairs so many times to the extreme chagrin of his players, it's a beautiful thing.
The amount of hit lag Ryu/Roy suffers is long enough for me to say GG before the final hit~
 
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Ffamran

The Smooth Devil Mod
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Is the Ally vs ZeRo set up on youtube (link)?

What are people's thoughts on :4samus: now? She seems much better post-buff but IDK much about her MUs.
Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7W7ET0idq8. What a simple search on YouTube can yield. :p

I think all of the streamed matches of GOML 2016 might be on that channel, https://www.youtube.com/user/EGEofficialTV/videos, but I'm not sure -- Melee and Smash 4 probably, but not Brawl which is uploaded on LogicGateStudios: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0QiL3dXFKh3_q5XjRtlm8w.
 

Kofu

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People underestimate how Strong Shulk is with Rage. I've Seen People die at 90% to rage Shulk B-air IN SHIELD MONADO. Add on to the fact a simple Monado Purge read could kill most Characters around 50/60%.....
Shield has some sort of mechanic that offsets the damage lowering that Shulk deals; you kill at basically the same percents as you would in vanilla.

But Shulk is okay. I think he struggles with getting in though Jump and Speed help considerably.
 

C3CC

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I wonder why :4yoshi: doesn't get represented more. He's such a great character. I always feel comfortable when playing as him, I feel like I have no real difficulty against any character.
 

HeavyLobster

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I didn't list the Mii's, Shulk, and Samus when talking about heavies because they kind of suck. Mii Brawler would be viable though if Mii's didn't have their **** banned out, which I will say once again is stupid. I'm still going to consider Lucario a heavyweight, the lightest of the heavyweights sure, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Having the 18th heaviest weight out of 55 characters is still definitely on the heavy side.

I honestly just forgot about Yoshi, but yeah he is good too. And Captain Falcon and Wario are also good.

Okay, I'll just redo the whole list, down to Lucario. In order from heaviest to lightest, in case your definition of heavy differs from the one I'm going with.

Viable Heavies:
Bowser
DK
Ike
Wario
R.O.B.
Captain Falcon
Yoshi
Ryu
Megaman
Unlocked Mii Brawler
Cloud
Lucario

Not a bad number to choose from if you specifically want to main a beefier character.
Note that when most people say heavyweight, they usually mean a power character archetype. Mega Man or someone like that tends to compete with other zoners when it comes to appealing to certain types of players, so it's better to discuss things in terms of the power character archetype specifically. Conventional power characters generally have high kill power, above average weights, middling or worse overall mobility, strong punish games relative to their neutral games, and are primarily melee-oriented fighters as opposed to ones who are more projectile oriented. The main characters who fit this archetype are Bowser, DK, D3, Ganondorf, Zard, Ike, and Ryu, though there are others who fit less cleanly into the power character mold. DK, Ike, and Ryu are fairly viable, Bowser is sort of viable, and the others are marginally viable at best. Ryu is honestly probably the only one with a decent chance of winning a national, and he has built-in technical barriers to mitigate the skill curve issues that would arise were the others made similarly powerful. Actually none of these characters period outside of Cloud and Ryu have much shot at winning it all at a national, so really the pickings are kind of slim if you're talking strictly high-to-top tier heavies, no matter how generously you define the term.
 

ARISTOS

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:4ness:'s kit means that even with some weak mobility and neutral tools, his sheer damage output and kill potential means he can just ~win~ games, even in situations where it looks like he should lose. That's why it's hard to rank him
 

Trifroze

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I didn't list the Mii's, Shulk, and Samus when talking about heavies because they kind of suck. Mii Brawler would be viable though if Mii's didn't have their **** banned out, which I will say once again is stupid. I'm still going to consider Lucario a heavyweight, the lightest of the heavyweights sure, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Having the 18th heaviest weight out of 55 characters is still definitely on the heavy side.

I honestly just forgot about Yoshi, but yeah he is good too. And Captain Falcon and Wario are also good.

Okay, I'll just redo the whole list, down to Lucario. In order from heaviest to lightest, in case your definition of heavy differs from the one I'm going with.

Viable Heavies:
Bowser
DK
Ike
Wario
R.O.B.
Captain Falcon
Yoshi
Ryu
Megaman
Unlocked Mii Brawler
Cloud
Lucario

Not a bad number to choose from if you specifically want to main a beefier character.
I'd say only Cloud, Ryu and Mega Man are truly viable out of those, probably Yoshi, Falcon and Lucario as well at least if your definition of viable is more lenient (it's hard to say because not every character has similar representation). Mii Brawler's source of reference is too tiny to say anything, while ROB, DK, Ike and Bowser get wrecked way too hard in some matchups to do anything without considerable help from a secondary. Wario was considered a high tier early on, but then he faded into completely obscurity barring Japan where seemingly any character can top 8 a national.

The term "viable" gets thrown around too freely, probably partially because it lacks any context. Viable in what? Locals, regionals, nationals, supermajors? There are probably less than 15 characters who can win a supermajor barring a godlike player plowing through with an obscure character and partially riding on the matchup inexperience of their opponents. Not to take too many dreams away from Mewtwo players, but Abadango at Pound 2016 probably fits this picture to an extent.

Getting top 8 at regionals is way easier in comparison, and probably half the cast or more can do this. Yet, is there an aspiring competitive player with the fire burning in them whose ultimate aim is a top 8 at a regional? A viable character should be one that can win, not almost win but then die.

Actually viable is probably more like: :4cloud: :4diddy: :4fox: :4mario: :4megaman: :4mewtwo: :rosalina: :4ryu: :4sheik: :4sonic: :4zss:
Large pool of "who the hell knows": :4bayonetta: :4falcon: :4lucario: :4marth: :4metaknight: :4ness: :4pikachu: :4tlink: :4villager: :4yoshi:

The main difference is that the characters in the upper category have actually shown stuff whereas the lower ones haven't, and most of them probably never will considering they've already had pretty long for that (1.1.5 or just sudden attention to a specific sleeper character could still potentially create something though). and in case anyone is wondering, mega man can't be ignored because kamemushi

Villager and Pikachu had a lot of hype at one point due to ESAM and Ranai doing very well, while Bayonetta is a ??? but probably still at least decent, maybe even viable. The likes of Peach, Greninja and Corrin have a lot to show before they should even be considered in my opinion, meanwhile Emblem Lord Emblem Lord has explained well why the Pits aren't that good, and to be fair, someone could probably whip one up for most of these.

Considering Ness' hype and success and then gradual but clear decline, it paints a good picture of how hard it is to actually win large things even in Smash 4. If I had to pick which character of the lower character pool had the strongest case to be in the upper one, I'd say aeiou

Regardless, there are 6 characters who can barely be called heavy, unless you really want to make a clear distinction between superheavy and heavy in which case it becomes a bit more plausible. Perhaps that's decent, but the "fatty" design of being an actual heavy is completely missing and seems to be pretty much doomed.

I think this isn't a pessimistic view but a realistic one. Interesting to see what happens though.

Also, Ike's recovery is ****ing terrible and it ruins the character
 
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Cereal Bawks

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This form of thinking is quite odd. Results should not be viewed so one-dimensionally ( no results -> many results). Doing so excludes all possible variables, the major one in this case being that most people don't want to drop their main for Corrin, a new character. Results are a way of obtaining clarity on a character's viability, but they're hardly scientific like so many people on this thread believe they are.

Characters don't become better if they get better tournament results. They stay the same. No matter how many nationals a character wins, it remains identical. It's just perceptions of the character that change. If literally everyone picked up Dedede tomorrow, would he become a better character? Absolutely not. He would remain EXACTLY the same, just with better results and probably some new things used more, that always existed.

The insistence on results being the great and powerful determining factor to how good a character is can easily be interpreted as fallacy of the single causation or affirming a consequent. In fact, it probably is. Results are definitely a great guide to character viability, but there's just too many variables to make them as important as many believe them to be.
I think the main problem is putting a character at a really high spot in the tier list when the only thing they can use to back up it up is theory. Sure the character can be good, but in my opinion, if they haven't shown it, they don't deserve that high of a spot.
 

Nobie

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The issue with results is that they can quickly swing people's opinions disproportionate to how much meaning they should have. Mewtwo taking Pound 2016 is one thing, but it's since been supported by Abadango getting top placings at other tournaments. Now, there's an argument for Mewtwo being a top character.

I'd argue that it's possible for a character to be viable without actually winning anything big, just due to the sheer size of the roster. We might act like we've been playing this game for so long now (not really), and the internet + # of tourneys makes information disseminate much more quickly than in previous generations, but there's a process of building knowledge upon knowledge that can't be rushed. In a game as gigantic as Smash 4, you'll frequently find tech buried in forums, facebooks, youtubes, etc. that somehow don't reach the limelight until much later when it's used on a grander stage.

A question I'd like to throw out is more of a thought exercise: For characters that can only infrequently make Top 8 at majors and above, what is holding them back from doing so more consistently? They have the "results" to a certain extent, so what's keeping them from the top in terms of consistency?

-Is it a lack of player representation?
-Is it that they rely on bracket luck too much?
-Are they commonly forced to fight a series of minor bad matchups, or one or two major ones?
-Has the character not been pushed as far as they could go?
-Is there any clear evidence of either lack of optimization or lack of versatility in the players themselves (e.g. one really good player uses Character X aggressively, while another really good player uses the same character defensively, but the ideal player would be able to do both and switch between them)?
 
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