Hi. I have a very basic question. I'm a smash newb coming from the streetfighter world.
1) It seems like when you fast fall SH vs regular SH, there is more landing lag on the fast fall SH. If this is the case, why use FFSH at all as it is more unsafe? I see a lot of the top players Fast Falling most the time.
2) When people mentioning "teching" it is nothing but shielding X frames before you land right to reduce lag right? What is this about hitting a quick attack before landing to also reduce landing lag?
3) It seems like nothing is safe on block lol, making this a very defensive game. Or am i just playing wrong.
Thanks for the help.
1-) It depends. Landing from a FF without any action gives about 2-3 more frames of lag (depending on your character) but you reach the ground 40% faster (which for Roy would equate to about 6 frames since someone said he lasted 30 frames in the air. I am assuming it's 15/15 rise/fall) so the opponent has less time to reach you or punish you.
If on the other hand you perform an aerial you are going to suffer the lag the same landing lag for the aerial either way (it does not change whether you're fast falling or not).
Another thing to take into account is that an aerial only causes lag if you land before X frame of the attack (this is called the auto cancel frame), so sometimes Fast Falling will in fact cause more lag than just falling regularly. For these specific scenarios it's normally better to not Fast Fall.
As an example to illustrate this scenario say you have a char that spends 50 frames rise to land, has an aerial which auto cancels on frame 40 with a landing lag of 15. If you were to fast fall the aerial you would probably land before the auto cancel window and lag more than if you just fell regularly. Note that these values and example are not accurate to how the game behaves, I am just trying to explain a difficult concept in an easier to understand method.
In order to learn which aerials you should FF or not it's just about playing (or reading about it from someone experienced). As for Roy, the only aerial you shouldn't be FF is F-Air and that's because it's FAF (First Actionable Frame, or the first frame you can act after the move is done; how much it lags in the air. This is also known as IASA or Interruptible As Soon As Frame) is actually *lower* than it's auto cancel window AND Roy's jump frames. What this means is that if you land (either FF or not) Roy will land with lag, there's nothing you can do about it, but if you don't FF Roy can actually move before you land, allowing you to input another move right as you're landing.
2-) Teching is when you press the shield button when you're about to land from hitstun/tumble animation in order to instantly get up as you land (instead of landing with your character resting on the floor). It can also be done when you're launched into a wall/ceiling/floor and it ill stop your momentum (or severely diminish it) allowing you to survive attacks you otherwise wouldn't. When you tech you're given different options about how to stand up, your character might stand up in place or stand up while rolling forward or backwards.
There's also a significant "phrase" which people use that says "Tech chasing" this is basically pressuring your opponent by following his "escape options" as you're hitting him. This involves "chasing" someone who'se about to land on the floor and might tech the landing with one of the 3 options listed above. Tech chasing also involves just following and limiting your opponent escape options. If you launch your opponent in a certain way where he can only do certain actions and you follow him trying to limit those options and guess/predict which of his limited options he will take, it's still considered a tech chase.
2.5-) So remember when I said FAF and Auto Cancel frames and Landing Lag? Let me expand a bit on that:
Landing Lag is the lag you suffer from the last move you performed.
Auto Cancel Frame is the frame in which the last action you performed will not cause any lag anymore.
FAF is the first frame on which you can act after performing said action.
There are some aerial moves that have their ACF (auto cancel frame) after their FAF, what this means is that you can input another move before the move is "safe" from lag upon landing. If you land in the frames in between the FAF and ACF then you will suffer landing lag from the move you just performed. But as I said earlier, it is possible for you to perform another aerial before you land and if you do so then the Landing Lag you suffer will be that of this new aerial attack instead of the first one.
I'll try and illustrate with an example: Say you last 50 frames in the air and your F-Air has a landing lag of 30, FAF on frame 40 and ACF on frame 60. If you land after the F-Air you are suffering the 30 frames of landing lag, but if you input N-Air between frame 40 and 50 (after FAF but before you land) then you can replace those 30 frames of landing lag with N-Air's landing lag (which let's say it's less than 30), thus "speeding up" your landing.
3-) There certainly are attacks that are safe on block, but it's character dependent. Sheik and Luigi are the characters that most come to mind (although Luigi isn't exactly prone to approach aerially because of his aerial mobility). Most characters have attacks that are relatively safe (although not 100% safe like say, Sheik), which can only be punished if your opponent knows exactly what you're going for. Roy's N-Air is hard to punish if spaced correctly, and his F-Air can be cancelled with a jump which allow for "relatively safe" approaches.
Honestly I wouldn't say this game is defensive, but defense currently is stronger than offense.