A-sticking Ike's aerials

[JonaManatee]

Hello. I'm new to smashboards, but I figure I'd ask around here because I've been following the Ike boards for a while. The discussions here are great.

I've been trying to really get good with Ike, and something I've been spending a lot of time trying to get consistent with is a-sticking his aerials (c-stick set to attack), particularly his neutral aerial. I figure having full control of Ike's momentum would be great for his nair. However, I find that it's incredibly hard in the heat of a game to consistently input nairs with the c-stick, since the input area is so small.

So I was wondering, for you veteran Ike players, how do you input his aerials? Does anyone a-stick for neutrals as a default?

 

[Poopybutthole]

I'm someone that uses C-Stick for Attacks and I rarely use it for aerials honestly, I only use it for tilts to make Down Tilts / Forward Tilts easier for me to use. For the most part I input all of his aerials with the A button, in certain situations I will use C-Stick for Aerials like with Mario so I can do a standing in place Back Air but not sure how useful that'd be with Ike.

 

[Mario766]

Always attack stick. Always c stick aerials unless it's n-air.

 

[Arrei]

Although I still play with Tap Jump on, and execute his other aerials with the C stick except for when I'm trying to chase someone with Uair for the kill, continued difficulty with properly controlling my momentum with Nair forced me to learn how to use other buttons to jump and press A in order to pull out quick Nairs.

 

[underpowered]

I primarily use the c-stick for aerials to make sure I don't fast fall dairs over the edge or when I'm moving the opposite direction of the attack I want (retreating fair).

 

[qwillinallthefish]

I use default controls most of the time (though I'm working toward using c-stick for attack and maybe turning tap jump off but I don't know yet) and I do aerials a little bit weird. I use A when the momentum and the direction of the attack are the same direction and C-stick when they are in conflicting direction or when going for a spike. For instance if I ran toward them and Faired, I would use A. If I was jumping away and wanted to Bair, I would use C-Stick. I would also use C-stick for something like moving forward and Dairing.

 

[XDaDePsak]

What's the point of turning tap jump off?

 

[Poopybutthole]

What's the point of turning tap jump off?

Speaking from personal experience, incredibly easier to do Up Tilts and so that you don't accidentally waste your double jump whilst doing a Up Air or Up B. When turning off my tap jump once, I SDed a lot cause I never had my second jump because I would accidentally use it while Up B-ing as Mega Man.

 

[Arrei]

With Tap Jump off, you won't accidentally burn your second jump while trying to SDI upwards out of an attack, and it's much easier to use an Up B recovery without simultaneously burning your second jump if you still have it. For Ike, this holds a big benefit for him because he's so easily gimpable once he's lost his jump, so you definitely don't want to use Aether, get slapped out of it, and find you can't get back because you used up your double jump at the same time.

With Tap Jump on, it's much easier to execute OoS options, as you can Up B or Usmash out of shield by simply pressing up and your attack input, instead of having to hold up then press your chosen jump button and your attack buttons right after. Since Ike gains little from Up B and Usmash OoS, he doesn't gain much from having it on except for feeling familiar to control.

 

[Poopybutthole]

If I recall correctly too a lot of top players tends to use tap jump off, the only one I know who uses tap jump on is Nairo. Tap Jump On as Arrei says, makes Up B / Up Smash out of shield much easier and also apparently it allows for easier conversions if you have tap jump on in terms of combos (but may just be more of a personal feel thing to be honest). There's nothing wrong with Tap Jump On and in the end it's just a matter of preference.

 

[JonaManatee]

I have tap jump on, but it doesn't really factor into anything. Are there any combos or other moves easier using the tap jump?

 

[neil2020]

What's the point of turning tap jump off?

Sometimes you can accidentally get a little bit of lag when executing an up-b, bc your character will initiate a jump animation which will be cancelled by the up b. it's a slight difference of frames, but can be crucial especially when you want to upb oos or some such to punish.

*edit

Ike doesn't really suffer any disadvantage either way, but for other characters it could make a difference.

 

[Deleted member 269706]

I personally use c-stick for the majority of his aerials. Retreating Fairs or RARed Bairs are much easier with the c-stick, and in my opinion you have more control over the character when doing stuff like that. Not to mention I find it easier to autocancel short hopped aerials with the c-stick. I do have c-stick set to titlts as well, the only aerial I use A for is Nair.

 

[Mario766]

There's no reason for not tilt sticking on Ike.

 

[A2ZOMG]

tilt stick also allows you to autofastfall aerials, which is very useful for spacing B-air on short charactes. Hold down + tilt stick aerial.

 

[Hanku Hirru]

I C-stick all Ike's aerials except his Nair (I've tried to perform Nair consistently with C-stick, but I just throw out a Fair), but I've noticed C-stick is not a reliable button input if lag happens to spike, I tell you h'what.

 

[Arrei]

The stick has to fully return to neutral in order to accept a new input, so yeah, it's not really good for repeated assaults when you're on the ground. Losing too many punishes because Ike just stood there instead of tilting led to me using primarily the A button for tilts.

 

[Radiant Hero]

Excuse my naivety, but does setting the c-stick to attack remove Ike's potential to glide toss, or is there another input for that? I wanna set the stick to attacks for better aerials (which will help my other mains too I'm sure), but losing glide toss for Ike might effect some of my more common match ups in my area.

 

[neil2020]

Excuse my naivety, but does setting the c-stick to attack remove Ike's potential to glide toss, or is there another input for that? I wanna set the stick to attacks for better aerials (which will help my other mains too I'm sure), but losing glide toss for Ike might effect some of my more common match ups in my area.

You can use the Cstick for aerials regardless of what kind of attack it's set to. If you don't want to change your gameplay right now don't switch your controls. But if you want some easier punishes out of your glide toss, Cstick to attack is a quick way to get tilts out of the glide.

Have you seen MySmashCorner's video? Link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3_vOtY5kCc

 

[Radiant Hero]

You can use the Cstick for aerials regardless of what kind of attack it's set to. If you don't want to change your gameplay right now don't switch your controls. But if you want some easier punishes out of your glide toss, Cstick to attack is a quick way to get tilts out of the glide.

Have you seen MySmashCorner's video? Link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3_vOtY5kCc

Right, but the momentum halt when doing aerials with c-stick set to smash is much less desirable than when it's just set to attacks, which is very appealing to me.

And thanks for the link. That method (dash + jump then A) is different from the one I've been using (dash + smash c-stick up + grab), and I can't seem to replicate the same results with it. Is that just something with my timing, or is what I was referring to something different entirely?

 

[Zack117]

I've considered making a thread about this for a while.

Always attack stick. Always c stick aerials unless it's n-air.

I find n-air with c-stick to be very useful since it allows me to affect my momentum. It does also make retreating n-air much more easier and more comfortable to pull off, especially when running towards your opponent right before jumping.

 

[Mario766]

If you can do it consistently

Be my guest.