A question about how L canceling works

[rushinigiri]

Hi, this is my first post on the forums, I am very new to Melee. I'm sorry if this isn't the place to ask this sort of questions, but I went over the first page and it didn't seem too off...

I'm playing Fox, and can SHFFL "in the air" really easily. My problem is that I always mess it up when my nair/drill actually hits an opponent. I know the timing is supposed to be different for hitting nothing/shield/opponent, but I'm having some trouble understanding how I should change my inputs. When I do it without hitting, I SH and immediately nair, then quickly after I FF. Then I just L when I see myself about to land, which is almost the same time as I FF. When I try to SHFFL next to a CPU though, my nair (or drill...) immediately hits - so when do I FF? Am I supposed to FF before/while connecting the attack somehow? Or straight after he's knocked away and we are "disconnected"? Understanding how it works would really help me, I'm usually not very good at just memorizing different timings mindlessly.
Sorry for the noob question, and thanks!

 

[Stride]

You have to delay your fastfall because of the hitlag (the way you freeze for a few frames when you hit something), but the L-cancel is still at the same timing relative to the fastfall.

Jump->aerial->connect with opponent/hitlag->fastfall->L-cancel input->land

Also, hitlag is the same on shield as it is on hit; it wasn't clear whether you thought otherwise from the way you wrote "nothing/shield/opponent".

 

[rushinigiri]

You have to delay your fastfall because of the hitlag (the way you freeze for a few frames when you hit something), but the L-cancel is still at the same timing relative to the fastfall.

Jump->aerial->connect with opponent/hitlag->fastfall->L-cancel input->land

Also, hitlag is the same on shield as it is on hit; it wasn't clear whether you thought otherwise from the way you wrote "nothing/shield/opponent".

Alright, that's what I thought but I started to think I might be wrong. Just need to grind more... Thanks a ton!
And yeah, for some reason I remembered that hitting a shield delays your landing even more than an opponent, so thanks for clearing that out.

 

[-ACE-]

Also feel free to hit R or L as many times as you want to get the cancel. If you go for an aerial against double shielding IC's you can double tap R to basically guarantee the cancel.

 

[rushinigiri]

Also feel free to hit R or L as many times as you want to get the cancel. If you go for an aerial against double shielding IC's you can double tap R to basically guarantee the cancel.

I actually never played against Ice Climbers before, none of the friends I practice with as of now play them, but thanks for the tip, i'll practice that. I can double click the "light" L (the input you get when pulling it down almost until the end) in this scenario, right?

 

[tauKhan]

I can double click the "light" L (the input you get when pulling it down almost until the end) in this scenario, right?

Yes, you can spam any input which registers l-cancel as many times as you like. It's preferable to light l-cancel especially if you o multiple inputs, so you don't make yourself unable to tech.

 

[rushinigiri]

Thanks everybody!

 

[rushinigiri]

So I've been doing some practicing and I have a couple questions about the nair. i'll bump this thread with hope that someone enters again.

I've noticed that while shffling nair, whether I hit something or not, I ff really quickly - very often you don't see Fox's leg stick out firmly as it does when you nair during a full hop. It's more like a motion of coming out and quickly disappearing. When I shffl nair and hit someone, it's really easy to miss the animation, but it comes out for sure, since they do get hit. Watching some other Fox's shffl nair on Youtube, it seems like they hold their nair longer... Does it mean i'm pressing A too late during my jump, or that I fast fall too early? Is it even possible to ff too early, given that I do ff...?

Also, I usually get successful nair shffl's on hit when I'm slightly delaying my attack, and not ff into L cancel, I think. It feels like if I take a brief moment before hitting A instead of doing it immediately, and then do Down > L as soon as I attack, I get it right. Am I just nairing too late, leaving myself exposed? I just wanna make sure the adjustment I need to make from shffling in the air is to wait a bit before hitting down > L, and not anything else.