G13_Flux
Smash Lord
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2013
- Messages
- 1,076
Introduction:
So atm, Ridel has posted a guide that really breaks down GWs moveset and explains very well the details behind a lot of his tools. For those of you reading this right now who are relatively new or still working on developing your basic GW play, I would definitely recommend that you read through his beginners guide to solidify your feel for how GWs moves perform and their various attributes. This guide, however, will serve for those who have a good feel for GWs moves, and are looking to advance their play further with him and stay up to date with all the latest tricks and tactics that the current metagame understands. Primarily, this guide will outline the general mindset of play you should have with GW and discuss his most efficient tools for dealing with various the various stages of any given match, but here we can also discuss small tricks, mind games, and subtle tactics that would become apparent and useful PAST the beginner level, in actual tournament play against a relatively smart and skilled player. i will be discussing a lot of things that really can apply to every character (they will be general in game mindsets), however i will be doing so specifically in relation to GW, constantly referring to how these things apply to him and his main tools and attributes that influence the situation. I will discuss the format for this guide in the next paragraph.
In any given melee/PM match, there are essentially four stages to taking a stock, and becoming efficient at progressing through these stages is the key to taking stocks quickly, and thus, winning the match. The progression of these stages is as follows:
1.) neutral game > 2.) approach and pressure > 3.) combo/tech chase/staggered play (one of you is in unfavorable positioning relative to the opponent) > 4.) kill (combo finishers and edgeguarding)
To each of these four stages, i will dedicate an entire section to discussing the most efficient tools GW has to deal with each stage. additionally i will add one more section for completeness: 5.) general defense (dealing with pressure, teching, DI, recovery, etc.)
I encourage everyone to offer your thoughts on any of the sections discussed, or even on the general layout of the guide (ie. if you think there is another sections that should be present or something like that). Even if you arent an advanced GW player (or dont even play GW and are just trying to understand him for MU purposes) and have questions about things, there are a lot of people that can answer your questions, so please, for the sake of the metagame, share your thoughts! GW is still not too highly though of across the board as a result of people having sour feelings about him from melee; however, he is a VERY different character in PM and there isnt too much representation from him, so its in both the game, AND the character's best interest to have a place where the more advanced details of GW can be discussed to unveil the true potential he possesses, and shed light on what makes him such a great character. so lets begin:
some terminology:
DD = dash dance
WD = wave dash
SHDB = short hop double bacon
1.) Neutral Game:
The neutral game is essentially any point where neither character is at an advantageous position relative to the other, and each are attempting to plan out an approach, or bait out and punish an approach from the opponent. This will be a relatively short section, as it is best understood in conjunction with typical approach and punish tactics, and players dont tend to spend a lot of time in the neutral game. Regardless, the neutral game consists of a lot of DDing and WDing typically. GW used to have a rather short DD, but in 3.0 he has been blessed with a buff that gives him a pretty long, lengthy, and quick initial dash, making his DD extremely effective. what the DD does for GW (and really any character) is that it makes it such that you dont have to commit to an approach. you can utilized the back and forth motion to weave in and out of range of an opponents attack, creating possible tension (as they dont know when you will attack, if you decide to). it will allow you to dash back in and punish after they wiffed an attack thinking you would stay within a close enough range that they could possibly attack you. WDes can be used to a similar extent, as the maneuver allows you slide across a rather long range quickly and can be used out of any point in a run, not just the initial dash (GW has a pretty long WD, it is above average compared to everyone else). the other thing that is frequently seen out of the neutral game is projectiles. to sum it up, baiting and punishing, planning approaches, and projectiles are really the three big things that arise from the neutral game, which is where we will transition to the next stage.
2.) Approaching and Pressure
out of the neutral game, GW has a few very solid options if he chooses to take action and make an approach. The first tool i will discuss is neutral b, chef. SHDB is an extremely versatile move, however, its use is not so straightforward and simple as something like falcos laser approach, since the bacon bits travel in arcs launched somewhere around 40-50 degrees. In fact, those who attempt to use SHDB like you would if you were falco will often find themselves punished for it. the correct use of SHDB is to manipulate the space above and in front of you such that one or some of your opponents options is covered, or to force a reaction out of your opponent such that you can make a read and attempt to punish them. throwing out two bacon slices from the neutral game introduces two lingering hitboxes that can prevent your opponent from advancing on you, allowing you to advance on them further, and thus making yourself all that closer to gaining positional advantage. If, however, your opponent happens to be caught in the line of trajectory of the projectiles, then they are forced to shield, roll, run away, or make some action to avoid them, and if they fail to do so, you are netted a free punish.
Aside from his SHDB, GW can make use of his grab and ranged tilts and smashes to approach on the ground. His grab is much more useful for punishing whiffed attacks, since it has only average range and slide from a jump cancel. Attacks such as ftilt, dtilt, and fsmash have large, disjointed, and lingering hitboxes that are extremely effective at out-prioritizing/clanking others attacks (at least, those without swords or some form of other abnormally large disjoint). If spaced, these attacks are all pretty safe (MU dependent in some cases), and dont possess that much end lag. Dash attack is not terribly disjointed, and doesn't slide very far, leaving it with minimal range, and likewise, it cannot really be spaced; however, It does come out extremely quick (within a few frames i believe), deals a good amount of damage such that its great at beating/clanking with other attacks, and the hitbox lasts for a long time. Its also good to note that the beginning of his dash attack can cancel into a grab (if you happen to hit a shield), or into his up smash for a gatling combo. His DACUS on its own is not a reliable approach, as it can easily be stuffed with projectiles, or quick, spaced hits, but when used sparingly as a surprise approach, it has the possibility of being an effective mix up.
In addition to GWs projectile approach and ground approaches, he has very effective aerial approaches as well. both his fair and his bair can be spaced on shield, or they can be SHFFLed and followed with a jab, spot dodge, or an up B to avoid shield grabs. When aerials are spaced, following with dtilt is a great option because its speed, range, and great use as a set up. When using them to supply pressure, note that his fair and bair are not necessarily advantageous on block, but rather, you have attacks that will come out quicker than a shield grab; likewise, fast OOS options can punish you. If an opponent has a quick OOS option that can escape your pressure, you can always perform a quick dash back to avoid their punish, and make a punish of your own using your great DD. Using Bair as a RAR is especially potent due to its range, multi-hit nature, and landing hit. If approaching from above, or punishing from a full hop, GW is gifted with a very versatile dair. it has a lot of range below him, so it will beat out many up tilts and smashes. Dair also possesses a landing hit in addition to bair, helping it to supply similar shield pressure that can be followed with a jab or up b for safety, and the landing hit on its own is a great set up that pops opponents up right above you. In addition to his fair, bair, and dair, the frying pan hit from chef is actually quite useful from a SH for pressure due to it causing only 4 frames of landing lag (just like fox and falco's lasers), and it sends at a semi spike angle.
Overall, GW has a very good variety of approach options. He has several good options on the ground from his dtilt, ftilt, fsmash, dash attack, and grab; he also has a varied arsenal coming from the air, whether its his fair, bair, dair, or frying pan, all of which give access to either shield pressure or spacing capabilities. In addition to all of this, he has a very effective projectile that is great at forcing reactions, and helps supply enough pressure to the opponent to work efficiently and often, when used and acted out of intelligently.
3.) Combos, Tech Chasing, and Staggered Play:
Once you make your transition from pressuring the opponent, and have landed a hit on them to put them in an unfavorable position, you now enter to be what i see as one of three categories of game play: combo play, tech chasing, or general staggered play. Comboing is the type of play where you have your opponent in an attack sequence that, provided you can make proper reads on DI, is a guaranteed sequence of moves used to rack up damage, work your opponent up or offstage, or both; Tech chasing is when your opponent is forced into a limited option situation on the ground or a platform after having been knocked down from attack (ie. they must tech in place, tech to either side, or miss the tech and then get up, perform a get up attack, or roll to either side); and staggered play is when your opponent is at an unfavorable position relative to you, but is not necessarily locked into a combo or tech chase situation (they may be above you in a potentially escapeable aerial juggle, or coming off of the ledge such that they could easily be pushed back off). Details for all three of these subsections are listed below.
A.) Combos:
GW's combos involve a lot of aerial juggles. things like dtilt, utilt, bair, dair, up B and all of his throws except dthrow are typical set ups due to the vertical nature of the KB of these moves. His up B is an extremely versatile set up because of its use on shield for applying pressure (this gives GW a great transition from pressure to combo). Its extremely high vertical range also makes it a go-to for extending and continuing combos. It is an integral move to GWs ability to rack up damage and segway directly into kills. Once an opponent is launched into the air literally all of his aerials and all of his specials except for down B (or up B if you already used it) play an important part depending on what you are trying to do. uair is an extremely quick single hit that weakly pops the opponent upwards, which is perfect for the purpose its supposed to serve (a simple mid combo extender). Uair is also one of the three aerials that GW has that possesses a landing hitbox that pops opponents up (the others are bair and dair), which in this case, makes it great for pressure on a platform, say, if GW is coming up from below. Mid combo, things like uair or bair can be used while falling after an up B to re-pop the opponent up, land, then go for another up B to continue the string. Dair can also be used while falling to meteor smash the opponent downwards, which can be useful to set up for a tech chase or, if they miss the tech, the landing hit will pop them straight upwards (provided you land soon after the initial meteor hit connects). If an opponent is knocked too high upwards to continue any combos, tossing up a few bacon bits can actually catch them while they are falling, allowing it to act like a combo extender. Additionally, its good to know that the soft hit of fair can combo back into fair, and a number 5 hammer is a good combo set up as well. Having a knowledge of the properties that all of these moves possess is important to understand how to maximize the length and damage output of your juggles, and smart use of GWs double jump (since he can use it after his up B if he didnt beforehand) helps to do the same. The combo finishers will be discussed in the Killing section.
B.) Tech chasing:
Next on the list is tech chasing. While damage output from tech chasing is not something that is possibly guaranteed, like with combos, it is still an extremely important part of your overall game, since GW has some great set ups for tech chasing, and often times combos and tech chasing become intermixed (like when you juggle into a falling dair to spike your opponent down onto the platform beneath you). Tech chasing is great since it forces your opponent into a situation where their options are drastically reduced, and you can use a good combination of reaction and prediction to capitalize on this fact. Dthrow is extremely notable for being a guaranteed tech chase set up on everyone. GW can also set up for tech chases with dair (everyone), or bair and dash attack on fast fallers. When it comes to the tech chasing itself, GW has several important punishes that make his tech chasing game very effective and rewarding in the hands of the right player. The most obvious of his options is so follow a successful read with a grab, which leads directly into combos, more tech chases, and kills with GW. With a long WD, traversing across ground space quickly is not too difficult, so in addition to his grab, he can utilize wave-tilting and wave-smashing (which works extremely well since almost all of his tilts and smashes have great horizontal range). The other important tech chase that I will just mention now and discuss later is his DACUS, which in my eyes, is absolutely integral to any GW player wanting to become serious about playing him.
C.) Staggered Play:
For the final type of situation you can encounter, there is not too much of a science behind this one. Staggered play is where one opponent is in a limited option situation, but not quite as limited as tech chasing. They are still free to perform whatever normal attack they please, they are just in a relatively unfavorable position. This form of play should be familiar to any and all brawl players, where virtually no combos existed, tech chasing was extremely rare, and you had to make successful reads just to get one hit. I'm not going to cover too much info on this, since there's not much to discuss. You basically just have to do whatever you can to keep your opponent in the unfavorable position, while making successful reads to garner the hit to do so. This might occur when the opponent is at too high of a percent to combo, or if you have them cornered near the edge.
4.) Killing:
Finally, and probably the most important of the stages, we are now at the point to discuss how GW finishes off his opponent, and believe me, he has plenty of ways to do it.
I will begin with typical combo finishers. GW has a few good options to end all of the aerial juggles that he can perform, the notable ones being his nair, fair, side B, and possibly down B (if you are in a MU where the opponent has energy projectiles). Nair im pretty sure is the most powerful neutral aerial in the game, and one of the most powerful aerials in general. it has a massive hitbox above GW and is so easy to combo into from his throws and up B. This is GWs staple killing move from melee, and returns probably still as the move where he gets the highest percentage of his KOs from. Fair can be used in most of the situations where nair can be used, and it would be used where a little more speed is required, where a little more horizontal reach is required, or if you desire a far more horizontal trajectory (nairs trajectory is more diagonal, and as such, could be DIed to survive in certain situations, where fair would not be survivable). As mentioned earlier, the soft hit of fair can combo into the strong hit, and it can generally be used to follow up a SHFFLed bair, and most of his other set ups and combo extenders. Side B is GWs potentially most rewarding move. The 9, 8, 7, 6, and 4 hammers are all possible killing numbers listed pretty much in order from highest to lowest killing potential. If you are reading this guide I hope you know what all the numbers do, as Im not really going to cover in detail their attributes. The hammer itself is sorta slow to start up, and has mediocre range in comparison to the rest of GWs move. While there is risk involved, there is really only a 1/9 chance you will get something unfavorable (the 1.. lol), and there is a 5/9 chance that you will get a potential kill move. In relation to his nair and fair, there is about a 2 to 3 out of 9 chance that you will get something more rewarding than those two aerials (Being 9, 8 if youre close to the edge for a spike, and potentially 6). Those are pretty good odds to me, and I often go for the hammer as a result. Some choose not to because of the uncertainty involved, but I feel that it pays itself back pretty well. Those 9's always excite me.
Aside from direct kill combos, GW can kill from tech chases. A WD or a run > Dsmash is very effective because of its range, speed, and power. Dsmash also has two hitboxes, both convient for kills. One horizontal angled killer (the close hitbox), and the very powerful sweetspot that kills vertically at the tip. You can also substitute this move for an fsmash if you judge that based on your position, the stage blast zones, or if you predict a spot dodge or something. The real breadwinner here though is GWs DACUS. This move is soooo good. Its the perfect distance to chase down any length tech roll, and the move is so powerful that its easily the most rewarding kill move to land other than the 9 hammer. For those really looking to advance GW in serious manor, I cannot stress learning to control this move enough. In addition to just the DACUS, you can connect with the initial hit of the dash attack which will often hit the opponent right into the up smash. Such a combo could be used out of a missed tech from the dthrow or from a natural approach in general.
Lastly, there is edge guarding. GW has a great edguarding game due to his great recovery, and strong, large, and disjointed hitboxes. Dair, fair, and surprisingly nair are all great and safe moves to throw at a recovering opponent offstage. If you are onstage, fsmash, dsmash, ftilt, dtilt, and down B can all punish missed sweetspots very well, all of which have some combination of range and power or range and lingering hitboxes.
5.) General Defense:
GW's overall defensive game has always been his main flaw. A combination of light weight, short rolls, laggy ground attacks, and few OOS options really hurt him in melee. In Project M however, he has been given a few very important tools that help patch up his defensive play:
-first of all, he is now fox's weight, at 75. up from 60 in melee. This is actually a pretty significant change in my eyes, as it helps his survivability a lot. Granted hes still relatively light, but compared to how it was in melee, GW will be surviving a good amount longer.
-As far as ground attacks go, dtilt offers an excellent ranged option that can be used to great extent with CCing, and to set up for combos, as we know. In additon to this, his ftilt has been given a pretty significant buff. Its slightly slower to start up and less ranged than dtilt, but it offers fairly good horizontal KB, the hitbox lingers for quite awhile, and its has more vertical range, making it quite effective at stuffing opponents approaches. Ftilt also has relatively good IASA frames, making it not as easily punishable. GW also has his fsmash, which can be used similarly to ftilt in some circumstances because of its powerful lingering hitbox (it is a tad more punishable though). The last one ill mention here is his jab. Its not the quickest of them (4 frames), but it has above average reach and disjoint for a jab, and 4 frames is still pretty fast compared to most attacks (the quickest jabs are 2 frames). Its good at linking into grabs and ditlts, and jab 2 can offer some shield pressure if needed. All of these moves can be used relatively well in conjuntion with SHDB, or WDes backwards to try and give yourself some breathing room.
-GW now possesses a fantastic OOS option in his up B. It comes out in one frame, and leads directly into combos and kills. The hitbox is rather small, but even you miss, it will shoot you upwards out of harms reach for the moment. Careful use of this move is key: if you start to develop the habbit of constantly up B'ing OOS and getting to predictable with it, your opponent will start to get good at anticipating it and punishing you for putting yourself above them. GW does have a dair that gives him great coverage below him, but its not going to save him all the time from well executed baits. Other OOS options that GW has are his fair, dair, and bair. These options are much more situational. One would use bair or fair when range is desired, but an extremely quick attack is not exactly neccesary given the lag of the opponents attack. Dair has much less horrizontal range than vertical; however, its reward is much higher than fair or bair usually since it's such a great combo set up.
-Another extremely important change that is apparent in some MUs is the buff to his down b, bucket. You can now prematurely release charges by tapping b while the bucket is held out. This takes certain MUs like falco, lucas, mario, ZSS, and many others and gives GW an whole new dynamic to how he deals with certain approaches and pressure tactics, as he can quite quickly interrupt things like a SH laser approach. There are lists available in other threads in the GW page that give info on which projectiles are absorbable. Its also relatively common sense, pretty much anything "energy based" can be absorbed, like fire, lasers, stun, electric, and shadow/aura type articles.
-Something subtle, but still worth mentioning is that all of his tech rolls look the same. In other words, whether GW is teching in place, left, or right, the beginning animation to the tech will look the same making it very hard to read until he actually starts rolling. While this still doesnt remedy his short and slow regular rolls, it gives him a better fighting chance at escaping tech chases.
-As far as DI goes, there isnt anything too specific with GW as opposed to the general cast. The only thing that is notably specific to GW is bucket braking. While it isnt really performed the same way as in vBrawl, it can still save you from certain attacks for quite awhile with good reaction. The technique is as follows: for attacks that have at least mostly horrizontal KB, you can DI yourself downwards into the ground to escape hitstun, and follow with a down B to cancel all of your momentum. Granted you could have teched when you hit the ground, but the timing is not as stringent with this technique, and offers a good fail-safe. Using the bucket can also help you out in those instances where you barely would have died. In other words, when you get out of hitstun just barely before crossing the blastline, such that you can even begin a jump and still die from your existing momentum. This situation comes up more often than one would think, and truly can mean the difference of a stock.
So atm, Ridel has posted a guide that really breaks down GWs moveset and explains very well the details behind a lot of his tools. For those of you reading this right now who are relatively new or still working on developing your basic GW play, I would definitely recommend that you read through his beginners guide to solidify your feel for how GWs moves perform and their various attributes. This guide, however, will serve for those who have a good feel for GWs moves, and are looking to advance their play further with him and stay up to date with all the latest tricks and tactics that the current metagame understands. Primarily, this guide will outline the general mindset of play you should have with GW and discuss his most efficient tools for dealing with various the various stages of any given match, but here we can also discuss small tricks, mind games, and subtle tactics that would become apparent and useful PAST the beginner level, in actual tournament play against a relatively smart and skilled player. i will be discussing a lot of things that really can apply to every character (they will be general in game mindsets), however i will be doing so specifically in relation to GW, constantly referring to how these things apply to him and his main tools and attributes that influence the situation. I will discuss the format for this guide in the next paragraph.
In any given melee/PM match, there are essentially four stages to taking a stock, and becoming efficient at progressing through these stages is the key to taking stocks quickly, and thus, winning the match. The progression of these stages is as follows:
1.) neutral game > 2.) approach and pressure > 3.) combo/tech chase/staggered play (one of you is in unfavorable positioning relative to the opponent) > 4.) kill (combo finishers and edgeguarding)
To each of these four stages, i will dedicate an entire section to discussing the most efficient tools GW has to deal with each stage. additionally i will add one more section for completeness: 5.) general defense (dealing with pressure, teching, DI, recovery, etc.)
I encourage everyone to offer your thoughts on any of the sections discussed, or even on the general layout of the guide (ie. if you think there is another sections that should be present or something like that). Even if you arent an advanced GW player (or dont even play GW and are just trying to understand him for MU purposes) and have questions about things, there are a lot of people that can answer your questions, so please, for the sake of the metagame, share your thoughts! GW is still not too highly though of across the board as a result of people having sour feelings about him from melee; however, he is a VERY different character in PM and there isnt too much representation from him, so its in both the game, AND the character's best interest to have a place where the more advanced details of GW can be discussed to unveil the true potential he possesses, and shed light on what makes him such a great character. so lets begin:
some terminology:
DD = dash dance
WD = wave dash
SHDB = short hop double bacon
1.) Neutral Game:
The neutral game is essentially any point where neither character is at an advantageous position relative to the other, and each are attempting to plan out an approach, or bait out and punish an approach from the opponent. This will be a relatively short section, as it is best understood in conjunction with typical approach and punish tactics, and players dont tend to spend a lot of time in the neutral game. Regardless, the neutral game consists of a lot of DDing and WDing typically. GW used to have a rather short DD, but in 3.0 he has been blessed with a buff that gives him a pretty long, lengthy, and quick initial dash, making his DD extremely effective. what the DD does for GW (and really any character) is that it makes it such that you dont have to commit to an approach. you can utilized the back and forth motion to weave in and out of range of an opponents attack, creating possible tension (as they dont know when you will attack, if you decide to). it will allow you to dash back in and punish after they wiffed an attack thinking you would stay within a close enough range that they could possibly attack you. WDes can be used to a similar extent, as the maneuver allows you slide across a rather long range quickly and can be used out of any point in a run, not just the initial dash (GW has a pretty long WD, it is above average compared to everyone else). the other thing that is frequently seen out of the neutral game is projectiles. to sum it up, baiting and punishing, planning approaches, and projectiles are really the three big things that arise from the neutral game, which is where we will transition to the next stage.
2.) Approaching and Pressure
out of the neutral game, GW has a few very solid options if he chooses to take action and make an approach. The first tool i will discuss is neutral b, chef. SHDB is an extremely versatile move, however, its use is not so straightforward and simple as something like falcos laser approach, since the bacon bits travel in arcs launched somewhere around 40-50 degrees. In fact, those who attempt to use SHDB like you would if you were falco will often find themselves punished for it. the correct use of SHDB is to manipulate the space above and in front of you such that one or some of your opponents options is covered, or to force a reaction out of your opponent such that you can make a read and attempt to punish them. throwing out two bacon slices from the neutral game introduces two lingering hitboxes that can prevent your opponent from advancing on you, allowing you to advance on them further, and thus making yourself all that closer to gaining positional advantage. If, however, your opponent happens to be caught in the line of trajectory of the projectiles, then they are forced to shield, roll, run away, or make some action to avoid them, and if they fail to do so, you are netted a free punish.
Aside from his SHDB, GW can make use of his grab and ranged tilts and smashes to approach on the ground. His grab is much more useful for punishing whiffed attacks, since it has only average range and slide from a jump cancel. Attacks such as ftilt, dtilt, and fsmash have large, disjointed, and lingering hitboxes that are extremely effective at out-prioritizing/clanking others attacks (at least, those without swords or some form of other abnormally large disjoint). If spaced, these attacks are all pretty safe (MU dependent in some cases), and dont possess that much end lag. Dash attack is not terribly disjointed, and doesn't slide very far, leaving it with minimal range, and likewise, it cannot really be spaced; however, It does come out extremely quick (within a few frames i believe), deals a good amount of damage such that its great at beating/clanking with other attacks, and the hitbox lasts for a long time. Its also good to note that the beginning of his dash attack can cancel into a grab (if you happen to hit a shield), or into his up smash for a gatling combo. His DACUS on its own is not a reliable approach, as it can easily be stuffed with projectiles, or quick, spaced hits, but when used sparingly as a surprise approach, it has the possibility of being an effective mix up.
In addition to GWs projectile approach and ground approaches, he has very effective aerial approaches as well. both his fair and his bair can be spaced on shield, or they can be SHFFLed and followed with a jab, spot dodge, or an up B to avoid shield grabs. When aerials are spaced, following with dtilt is a great option because its speed, range, and great use as a set up. When using them to supply pressure, note that his fair and bair are not necessarily advantageous on block, but rather, you have attacks that will come out quicker than a shield grab; likewise, fast OOS options can punish you. If an opponent has a quick OOS option that can escape your pressure, you can always perform a quick dash back to avoid their punish, and make a punish of your own using your great DD. Using Bair as a RAR is especially potent due to its range, multi-hit nature, and landing hit. If approaching from above, or punishing from a full hop, GW is gifted with a very versatile dair. it has a lot of range below him, so it will beat out many up tilts and smashes. Dair also possesses a landing hit in addition to bair, helping it to supply similar shield pressure that can be followed with a jab or up b for safety, and the landing hit on its own is a great set up that pops opponents up right above you. In addition to his fair, bair, and dair, the frying pan hit from chef is actually quite useful from a SH for pressure due to it causing only 4 frames of landing lag (just like fox and falco's lasers), and it sends at a semi spike angle.
Overall, GW has a very good variety of approach options. He has several good options on the ground from his dtilt, ftilt, fsmash, dash attack, and grab; he also has a varied arsenal coming from the air, whether its his fair, bair, dair, or frying pan, all of which give access to either shield pressure or spacing capabilities. In addition to all of this, he has a very effective projectile that is great at forcing reactions, and helps supply enough pressure to the opponent to work efficiently and often, when used and acted out of intelligently.
3.) Combos, Tech Chasing, and Staggered Play:
Once you make your transition from pressuring the opponent, and have landed a hit on them to put them in an unfavorable position, you now enter to be what i see as one of three categories of game play: combo play, tech chasing, or general staggered play. Comboing is the type of play where you have your opponent in an attack sequence that, provided you can make proper reads on DI, is a guaranteed sequence of moves used to rack up damage, work your opponent up or offstage, or both; Tech chasing is when your opponent is forced into a limited option situation on the ground or a platform after having been knocked down from attack (ie. they must tech in place, tech to either side, or miss the tech and then get up, perform a get up attack, or roll to either side); and staggered play is when your opponent is at an unfavorable position relative to you, but is not necessarily locked into a combo or tech chase situation (they may be above you in a potentially escapeable aerial juggle, or coming off of the ledge such that they could easily be pushed back off). Details for all three of these subsections are listed below.
A.) Combos:
GW's combos involve a lot of aerial juggles. things like dtilt, utilt, bair, dair, up B and all of his throws except dthrow are typical set ups due to the vertical nature of the KB of these moves. His up B is an extremely versatile set up because of its use on shield for applying pressure (this gives GW a great transition from pressure to combo). Its extremely high vertical range also makes it a go-to for extending and continuing combos. It is an integral move to GWs ability to rack up damage and segway directly into kills. Once an opponent is launched into the air literally all of his aerials and all of his specials except for down B (or up B if you already used it) play an important part depending on what you are trying to do. uair is an extremely quick single hit that weakly pops the opponent upwards, which is perfect for the purpose its supposed to serve (a simple mid combo extender). Uair is also one of the three aerials that GW has that possesses a landing hitbox that pops opponents up (the others are bair and dair), which in this case, makes it great for pressure on a platform, say, if GW is coming up from below. Mid combo, things like uair or bair can be used while falling after an up B to re-pop the opponent up, land, then go for another up B to continue the string. Dair can also be used while falling to meteor smash the opponent downwards, which can be useful to set up for a tech chase or, if they miss the tech, the landing hit will pop them straight upwards (provided you land soon after the initial meteor hit connects). If an opponent is knocked too high upwards to continue any combos, tossing up a few bacon bits can actually catch them while they are falling, allowing it to act like a combo extender. Additionally, its good to know that the soft hit of fair can combo back into fair, and a number 5 hammer is a good combo set up as well. Having a knowledge of the properties that all of these moves possess is important to understand how to maximize the length and damage output of your juggles, and smart use of GWs double jump (since he can use it after his up B if he didnt beforehand) helps to do the same. The combo finishers will be discussed in the Killing section.
B.) Tech chasing:
Next on the list is tech chasing. While damage output from tech chasing is not something that is possibly guaranteed, like with combos, it is still an extremely important part of your overall game, since GW has some great set ups for tech chasing, and often times combos and tech chasing become intermixed (like when you juggle into a falling dair to spike your opponent down onto the platform beneath you). Tech chasing is great since it forces your opponent into a situation where their options are drastically reduced, and you can use a good combination of reaction and prediction to capitalize on this fact. Dthrow is extremely notable for being a guaranteed tech chase set up on everyone. GW can also set up for tech chases with dair (everyone), or bair and dash attack on fast fallers. When it comes to the tech chasing itself, GW has several important punishes that make his tech chasing game very effective and rewarding in the hands of the right player. The most obvious of his options is so follow a successful read with a grab, which leads directly into combos, more tech chases, and kills with GW. With a long WD, traversing across ground space quickly is not too difficult, so in addition to his grab, he can utilize wave-tilting and wave-smashing (which works extremely well since almost all of his tilts and smashes have great horizontal range). The other important tech chase that I will just mention now and discuss later is his DACUS, which in my eyes, is absolutely integral to any GW player wanting to become serious about playing him.
C.) Staggered Play:
For the final type of situation you can encounter, there is not too much of a science behind this one. Staggered play is where one opponent is in a limited option situation, but not quite as limited as tech chasing. They are still free to perform whatever normal attack they please, they are just in a relatively unfavorable position. This form of play should be familiar to any and all brawl players, where virtually no combos existed, tech chasing was extremely rare, and you had to make successful reads just to get one hit. I'm not going to cover too much info on this, since there's not much to discuss. You basically just have to do whatever you can to keep your opponent in the unfavorable position, while making successful reads to garner the hit to do so. This might occur when the opponent is at too high of a percent to combo, or if you have them cornered near the edge.
4.) Killing:
Finally, and probably the most important of the stages, we are now at the point to discuss how GW finishes off his opponent, and believe me, he has plenty of ways to do it.
I will begin with typical combo finishers. GW has a few good options to end all of the aerial juggles that he can perform, the notable ones being his nair, fair, side B, and possibly down B (if you are in a MU where the opponent has energy projectiles). Nair im pretty sure is the most powerful neutral aerial in the game, and one of the most powerful aerials in general. it has a massive hitbox above GW and is so easy to combo into from his throws and up B. This is GWs staple killing move from melee, and returns probably still as the move where he gets the highest percentage of his KOs from. Fair can be used in most of the situations where nair can be used, and it would be used where a little more speed is required, where a little more horizontal reach is required, or if you desire a far more horizontal trajectory (nairs trajectory is more diagonal, and as such, could be DIed to survive in certain situations, where fair would not be survivable). As mentioned earlier, the soft hit of fair can combo into the strong hit, and it can generally be used to follow up a SHFFLed bair, and most of his other set ups and combo extenders. Side B is GWs potentially most rewarding move. The 9, 8, 7, 6, and 4 hammers are all possible killing numbers listed pretty much in order from highest to lowest killing potential. If you are reading this guide I hope you know what all the numbers do, as Im not really going to cover in detail their attributes. The hammer itself is sorta slow to start up, and has mediocre range in comparison to the rest of GWs move. While there is risk involved, there is really only a 1/9 chance you will get something unfavorable (the 1.. lol), and there is a 5/9 chance that you will get a potential kill move. In relation to his nair and fair, there is about a 2 to 3 out of 9 chance that you will get something more rewarding than those two aerials (Being 9, 8 if youre close to the edge for a spike, and potentially 6). Those are pretty good odds to me, and I often go for the hammer as a result. Some choose not to because of the uncertainty involved, but I feel that it pays itself back pretty well. Those 9's always excite me.
Aside from direct kill combos, GW can kill from tech chases. A WD or a run > Dsmash is very effective because of its range, speed, and power. Dsmash also has two hitboxes, both convient for kills. One horizontal angled killer (the close hitbox), and the very powerful sweetspot that kills vertically at the tip. You can also substitute this move for an fsmash if you judge that based on your position, the stage blast zones, or if you predict a spot dodge or something. The real breadwinner here though is GWs DACUS. This move is soooo good. Its the perfect distance to chase down any length tech roll, and the move is so powerful that its easily the most rewarding kill move to land other than the 9 hammer. For those really looking to advance GW in serious manor, I cannot stress learning to control this move enough. In addition to just the DACUS, you can connect with the initial hit of the dash attack which will often hit the opponent right into the up smash. Such a combo could be used out of a missed tech from the dthrow or from a natural approach in general.
Lastly, there is edge guarding. GW has a great edguarding game due to his great recovery, and strong, large, and disjointed hitboxes. Dair, fair, and surprisingly nair are all great and safe moves to throw at a recovering opponent offstage. If you are onstage, fsmash, dsmash, ftilt, dtilt, and down B can all punish missed sweetspots very well, all of which have some combination of range and power or range and lingering hitboxes.
5.) General Defense:
GW's overall defensive game has always been his main flaw. A combination of light weight, short rolls, laggy ground attacks, and few OOS options really hurt him in melee. In Project M however, he has been given a few very important tools that help patch up his defensive play:
-first of all, he is now fox's weight, at 75. up from 60 in melee. This is actually a pretty significant change in my eyes, as it helps his survivability a lot. Granted hes still relatively light, but compared to how it was in melee, GW will be surviving a good amount longer.
-As far as ground attacks go, dtilt offers an excellent ranged option that can be used to great extent with CCing, and to set up for combos, as we know. In additon to this, his ftilt has been given a pretty significant buff. Its slightly slower to start up and less ranged than dtilt, but it offers fairly good horizontal KB, the hitbox lingers for quite awhile, and its has more vertical range, making it quite effective at stuffing opponents approaches. Ftilt also has relatively good IASA frames, making it not as easily punishable. GW also has his fsmash, which can be used similarly to ftilt in some circumstances because of its powerful lingering hitbox (it is a tad more punishable though). The last one ill mention here is his jab. Its not the quickest of them (4 frames), but it has above average reach and disjoint for a jab, and 4 frames is still pretty fast compared to most attacks (the quickest jabs are 2 frames). Its good at linking into grabs and ditlts, and jab 2 can offer some shield pressure if needed. All of these moves can be used relatively well in conjuntion with SHDB, or WDes backwards to try and give yourself some breathing room.
-GW now possesses a fantastic OOS option in his up B. It comes out in one frame, and leads directly into combos and kills. The hitbox is rather small, but even you miss, it will shoot you upwards out of harms reach for the moment. Careful use of this move is key: if you start to develop the habbit of constantly up B'ing OOS and getting to predictable with it, your opponent will start to get good at anticipating it and punishing you for putting yourself above them. GW does have a dair that gives him great coverage below him, but its not going to save him all the time from well executed baits. Other OOS options that GW has are his fair, dair, and bair. These options are much more situational. One would use bair or fair when range is desired, but an extremely quick attack is not exactly neccesary given the lag of the opponents attack. Dair has much less horrizontal range than vertical; however, its reward is much higher than fair or bair usually since it's such a great combo set up.
-Another extremely important change that is apparent in some MUs is the buff to his down b, bucket. You can now prematurely release charges by tapping b while the bucket is held out. This takes certain MUs like falco, lucas, mario, ZSS, and many others and gives GW an whole new dynamic to how he deals with certain approaches and pressure tactics, as he can quite quickly interrupt things like a SH laser approach. There are lists available in other threads in the GW page that give info on which projectiles are absorbable. Its also relatively common sense, pretty much anything "energy based" can be absorbed, like fire, lasers, stun, electric, and shadow/aura type articles.
-Something subtle, but still worth mentioning is that all of his tech rolls look the same. In other words, whether GW is teching in place, left, or right, the beginning animation to the tech will look the same making it very hard to read until he actually starts rolling. While this still doesnt remedy his short and slow regular rolls, it gives him a better fighting chance at escaping tech chases.
-As far as DI goes, there isnt anything too specific with GW as opposed to the general cast. The only thing that is notably specific to GW is bucket braking. While it isnt really performed the same way as in vBrawl, it can still save you from certain attacks for quite awhile with good reaction. The technique is as follows: for attacks that have at least mostly horrizontal KB, you can DI yourself downwards into the ground to escape hitstun, and follow with a down B to cancel all of your momentum. Granted you could have teched when you hit the ground, but the timing is not as stringent with this technique, and offers a good fail-safe. Using the bucket can also help you out in those instances where you barely would have died. In other words, when you get out of hitstun just barely before crossing the blastline, such that you can even begin a jump and still die from your existing momentum. This situation comes up more often than one would think, and truly can mean the difference of a stock.
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