Aerial Force Palm

[Zoa]

Hey guys. I was just hitting up the lab to test out the properties of AFP follow ups on FD. Here's what I got out of it:

AFP starts producing no hitstun on the the entire cast at 30%. It just starts producing knockback the opponent can begin teching.

A character's fall speed and damage determines how much hitstun they incur from a short hop AFP. I tested this on another Luc, Mario, and Luigi the first time. Luc almost instantly jumped out of the short hop AFP while Mario and Luigi had a large amount of hitstun for a follow up. I then tested it on ZSS and Pit. Both have a weight of 85. Pit suffered far more hitstun than ZSS due to his much slower fall speed. So it's best to nab floaties with a short hop AFP for a follow up.

Characters that are small with fall speeds too fast can be tech chased starting at 30% from a short AFP. Characters like ZSS, Fox, Wolf, Falco, etc. This really works on the spacies from a Usmash.

Heavier characters with faster fall speeds among the cast, like DK and Bowser, seem like they are harder to tech chase from AFP. I've had some success from full hop AFP, but nothing out of short AFP if they tech roll away. Missed techs or techs in place are different entirely.

 

[Risky]

Short hop AFP seems dubious. I suppose it makes sense after a Fair/Dair on their shield. Nice info about the fall speeds.

I personally dislike setups on Lucario that force techs out of your opponent, as I feel like he should be able to fully combo almost any character without ever allowing them the chance to tech. Why AFP a spacie after Usmash instead of juggle them with tilts/aerials/throws?

 

[Zoa]

The spacies don't start tumbling from utilt until 40-50%, so it's really hard to combo them effectively outside of Usmash set ups or uthrow -> ASC -> uthrow for me at least. If you have any good combos, then I'm all ears. Their fall speeds are tough to get used to with Luc's low knockback growth on his tilts.

And thanks for the compliment. I think AFP could be really big in Luc's set up game for combos on most of the cast. It's incredibly strong and puts the opponent in a very rough position.