Amazed by Diddy (newbie's first impressions)

[Tidal]

I'm new to Diddy and pretty new to Brawl in general.
Today I tried out Diddy's moveset in training mode, did some 1/2 speed combat with a level 7 and then went to do Classic mode on normal, and was pretty amazed by Diddy's characteristics.

When watching videos with Diddies in them I always thought of him as the banana guy, the character that has his high tier spot due to his slip tricks. But I saw that his moves have great range for such a small character, rivalling Marth's range. Also nearly every move he has is fast, and to tip it off his damage really surprised me, a light character with a 16 Dsmash and a 18 Fsmash seems to be an exception. He also jumps very high and has good vertical maneouverability, enhancing his air game.

A combination of speed, range, and power is much sought after I think, and Diddy has it all. Maybe I see this wrong but wouldn't Diddy be an amazing character even without his banana ability? What's the weak spot that forces him to focus so much on stage control?

 

[PortCity]

Maybe I see this wrong but wouldn't Diddy be an amazing character even without his banana ability? What's the weak spot that forces him to focus so much on stage control?

There is no "glaring" weakness. Bananas are just the quickest, fastest way to make Diddy effective. Diddy is better than most of the cast even without the bananas. The catch is not many Diddy players take the time to learn to fight as him without them.

 

[AvaricePanda]

It's nice to see that you enjoy Diddy, and welcome to the Diddy boards!


As Port said, it's not so much of a weakness so he has to use bananas to compensate, but it's that bananas are a good buff to his already decent arsenal of attacks. Bananas are very effective, especially when combined with a moveset that not only is already good, but compliments bananas probably better than anyone else in the cast. He has good banana tricks with his specials. He can easily follow up trips with his dash attack, which is not only great for picking up bananas, but it has very small ending lag, can be hard to punish, and sets up combos with his other attacks like F-air, U-air, B-air, U-tilt, and D-tilt, his aerials are good for catching bananas, etc. etc. I can't really name all of the things he can do with bananas in one post without boring anyone.

The point is, bananas are the perfect compliment to his already good moveset, and because of that, both his banana game and his normal moveset get large buffs.

 

[fource]

Waits...for the dude with all the baddest babes...Lol.


Diddy is a pretty good character overall, but since he doesn't have a weapon or magic that means he's a hand to hand character. This also means his priority is very small so when he clashes with swords he loses and since he's a monkey he doesn't win the clashes with a lot of hand to hand characters.

Diddy also has a lot of delay/lag behind most of his kill moves so at higher percents he's easily open to damage if he can not land those critical banana hits.

 

[Tidal]

Thanks, that last post was just what I was asking about.
Since Diddy is so fast, can he not outspeed other's attacks to avoid priority as a whole?
And does Diddy really have such low priority compared to the rest of the cast? I know G&W has exceptional priority for a hand to hand character, but is that the case with most of the rest, too?

 

[GooseMainsDiddy]

Diddy is mid tier at best without the bananas. He has a gimpable recovery, predictable kill moves, decent grabs, and okay priority. His moveset is only great when it is complemented with bananas. His somewhat laggy kill moves become useful after a GT'd banana. It would be hard to kill other wise.

 

[DFEAR]

confirmed banana hits make diddy beast. nuff said. :3