Advice on choosing (and sticking with) a main.

[Squirrell]

I need some serious help. I've been playing this game for about 2 years, give or take. I've been through Falco, Fox, Puff, Marth, Sheik, Falcon, and IC's. I love all of these characters and what they can do and I'm at least decent with all of them. This is because when I start liking a character, I go all out. I sit for hours and watch film of the greatest mains of that character. I sit in front of the TV for hours practicing the ins and outs of their moveset, playstyle, tech, matchups, everything. I love to train Melee, it's practically all I do anymore. My problem is, I just haven't been able to stick with anyone.

- I love Fox's crazy high ceiling, I love that I can sit and practice and practice and still know I can get better. But my fingers aren't fast enough for me to ever play him at a really high level.
- I love Falco's ungodly combo power, shield pressure, and neutral game. He's the character I've put the most work into, especially because for about a year I couldn't get his wavedash timing down, and he took the longest time for me to get good at.
- I love Puff's insane risk/reward, the satisfaction you get from landing a Rest or hitting that 5-hit WoP to the blastline. But I struggle with her neutral game a bit too much.
- I love Marth's focus on basics and spacing, and how amazing his combos feel to pull off. But I hate his recovery and I never feel like I'm improving with him.
- I love IC's insane punish game. I don't wobble (of course I would if I felt like I had to), but even without it, all of their changrabs and desync gimmicks are just amazing to pull off.
- I love Falcon's combo game, because well, who doesn't. His movement also feels really natural to me, and tech-chasing for regrabs is one of my favorite things to do in the game.
- I love Sheik because she's effing braindead. Needle-cancels into anything, everything combos into everything, you get to techchase and chaingrab, and you can gimp most characters effortlessly. She gives me the least satisfaction to play though, because while admittedly she's my best character, it all just feels too easy.

So if I really want to pick a main, and stick with it, how do I decide?
Also, would it be wise for me to dual-main or tri-main characters just so I don't get bored? Or should I tough it out and really try to master one character?

 

[EPsilon933]

Sounds like you get tired of the same stuff to practice and just switch for variety

You figure out your sole main on your own. Or just keep playing all of them. It's your choice, not ours

 

[Squirrell]

Sounds like you get tired of the same stuff to practice and just switch for variety

You figure out your sole main on your own. Or just keep playing all of them. It's your choice, not ours

I mean I do enjoy the way I do things, but only for myself. I guess what I'm saying is I don't wanna waste my time just sitting in my room and playing every character and then go to a tournament and get squashed because I haven't mastered anyone.

 

[Sudoi]

I would say go for either Falcon, or Falco. They seem to be the ones you're most comfortable with up to now.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

Ideally, you stick with whatever character you have the most fun playing. All of these are good choices to take you far if you play well. Only at national stage does it become questionable what character you play to try making top 8 routinely.

Otherwise, I would say an option for picking all characters is viable if it is the most fun. Which is true. I simply argue that your ceiling cap is lower due to the unfamiliarity you might be with all characters. A single one fosters much better consistency I feel over things like precision and memory.

 

[EPsilon933]

I mean I do enjoy the way I do things, but only for myself. I guess what I'm saying is I don't wanna waste my time just sitting in my room and playing every character and then go to a tournament and get squashed because I haven't mastered anyone.

Enjoyment is important. How will you be motivated if you're not having fun? Extrinsic reinforcers are terrible motivators

If you want to focus only on 1 character to improve as fast as you can, it's up to you to figure that out. Only you can feel who you're good with and enjoy playing as the most

 

[BEHR]

Falco.

get better with Fox if you can.

 

[20YY SS | Saiblade]

Falco looks like the best choice for you. Though, I'd say to keep experimenting with characters.

 

[SH1]

How much time do you have to sit down and practice the game or work on technical skill? Personally I had a ton of free time a few months ago and played spacies, however, I started my first day of college today and now I have a job. I picked up Puff because I don't have tons of time to grind tech skill or anything - also Puff compliments me because I learned competitive smash through Brawl which had a meta that required tons of patience.

1. How much time do you have?
2. Look at the matchups and see if you can work with the disadvantageous matchups (if there are any).
3. Do you like easy to control characters? If so try Puff, Marth, or Sheik.

The hardest thing about Marth is chaingrabbing, the hardest thing about Sheik is tech chasing, Puff has a really weird neutral and loses to campy characters so she requires patience.

To me it sounds like you like Falco, ICs, Sheik, and CF.

Falco and ICs are probably the hardest two of the four because of the tech that you need to grind while Sheik is the easiest (although her SH window is tight), and CF can have a huge punish game but his recovery is pretty bad.

CF is very mobile and can combo all weights very effectively, Sheik doesn't have fun vs puff and ICs but loves to chaingrab/tech chase and gimp, Falco is a glass canon, and ICs can wobble everything however the AI can cost you matches sometimes.

 

[Klemes]

Don't look too hard for a definitive answer, because it may turn to be not so definitive anyway.

Instead you could start by ruling out some of these if you think there are little chances that you end up choosing them in the end.
The way you talk about your makes me think you clearly don't have the same faith in them compared to your .
Why not chanel your efforts into a more reasonable set of characters ? You'll worry about your real main /dual mains later, but you won't feel like you're loosing your time nearly as much !

Proceed by elimination. If you start by dropping even one of them, you will have progressed towards settling with your real main. You just have to repeat until you're satisfied with the outcome.

 

[gmBottles]

Don't worry about Sheik feeling too easy if that discourages you, at a high level it is much more difficult to play Sheik well consistently. (just like any character, to be fair)

The main you choose should take into account a mix of who you have the most fun with, and who you do the best with. I won't say much more since every other response in this thread has said pretty much everything I would say already.

 

[Ladder]

Just pick one.

 

[Rachman]

yea you just gotta pick one and make yourself focus the majority of your time on them. I still play like 10-15 chars on the side (many good/experienced players do) but I spend most of my time on my Falcon.

 

[Ælude]

I guess what I'm saying is I don't wanna waste my time just sitting in my room and playing every character and then go to a tournament and get squashed because I haven't mastered anyone.

Theres so much wrong with this where to begin.

First off its not "wasting time" if you love the game and your having a blast. Maybe you should be honest with yourself why you play melee in the first place. Its been 2 years and you still havn't attended so much as a local? Why? If your honest with yourself is this something you actually want to even do? What do you have to prove and to who?

Secondly, you can practice 1 character or you can practice the whole cast it really doesn't matter. Going to tourneys and playing PEOPLE will make you good and no amount of youtube videos and training mode grinds or cpu battles or whatever the **** you do cooped up in your room is going to change the fact that your going to get rekt at your first one.. If you ever decide to go.

Face it, your a casual player ( i mean that in the sense that your not actively going to tourneys so your not a competitive player, not ment to be a diss) whos placing too much competitive pressure on yourself! Its supposed to be fun don't forget!