Here's a weird property I couldn't find anyone talking about, and was what prompted me to make this thread.
if you're buffering A, and input just Z on one frame and the L/R trigger on the next, you actually stagger your powershield window. This makes the 2f window (the green shield bubble is your powershield bubble) come out after one frame of light shield.
note: you can also do this with an analog press on your other trigger instead of Z, you just need to make a light shield.
Staggering your powershield window can even happen with a single trigger press outside of any ADT shenanigans. If a player fails to press down on their trigger fast enough, the game will read a lightshield input; if it only registers lightshield for 1 frame and then hard press, you get your PS bubble for what would be 'frames 2-3'. If you lightshield for 2 or more frames, you're locked out of powershielding.
This is something Hax warns about in his video linked in OP, concerned that the polling rate of controller inputs creates an element of 'randomness' for this, and advocates an easy solution of removing the springs of your powershielding trigger of choice to make light shielding impossible.
There are several other methods to avoid single trigger powershield staggering, it's well-known that in order to parry more consistently with yoshi, aMSa plugs in his controller with the trigger fully pressed, removing its ability to light shield.
Another method that doesn't involve removing springs is opening your controller, setting the analog slider all the way up, and when you put the controller back together hold down either trigger that you want to disable as you fit the controller together again.
In regards to ADT, I think it's important for players experimenting with new, frame tight tech to know what the consequences of missing it will be. In order to get the most out of ADT-PS, it should effectively be treated like a frame perfect tech. You
have to input Z and L/R on the same frame.
- If you Input L/R before Z, you get a normal powershield size for the regular 2 frames.
- If you input Z before L/R by 1 frame, you will perform this staggered powershield after 1 frame of light shielding.
- input Z before L/R by >=2f and no powershield at all, just transitions from light shield to hard shield.
It might seem appealing to delay your powershield to frames 2-3, or not that big of a deal, but consider how much shield stun you'll be stuck in if the approaching attack hits your light shield. Your light shield and powershield bubbles aren't superimposed like they are in a proper ADT-PS, and since the lightshield area is much larger than the subsequent powershield area, the area you can effectively cover is less than the punishable area you take up. As an analogy, take mewtwo's tail during back air. The hitbox bair creates covers a good distance, it comes out quickly, and it doesn't have a lot of ending lag. But when mewtwo extends his tail to hit with bair, the
hurtbox of his tail is always extended further than any hitbox. If you try to use bair as a wall in neutral or to stuff an opponent's approaching attack, your very punishable tail hurtbox is what will reach the incoming attack first, not the hitbox you're trying to use to cover space. In this same manner, the unwanted lightshield extends you to a greater punishable range than that which you will cover with your powershield.
