Social Anything Can Change! - The Chrom Social Thread (Now with a Proper Victory Theme!)

[Red Dead Redeemed]

So reading a few early takes on Chrom now that the game is actually out, I feel very vindicated in my defense of Chrom despite all the naysayers going "Lol bad recovery = bottom tier."

I've said this before in this thread but the Little Mac comparisons were based on a very shallow belief that Little Mac struggled purely because of his bad recovery as well as the typical ****-riding that comes whenever any of the pros come out with their latest hot take*. Little Mac's recovery only exacerbated his main problem in Smash 4, that he was railroaded into only one very specific strategy by his moveset. I'll just quote what I said earlier on in this thread:

I think the Little Mac comparisons are apt except for one crucial detail. Little Mac wasn't rated so low in the tier lists just because his recovery sucked, tons of characters have sucky recoveries but still end up doing decent. Little Mac's problem was that his hyper specialized fighting style railroaded him into only one type of play. Feet stuck on the ground while spacing and playing defensive only. He had literally only one viable strategy and the second an opposing player knew how to handle it he was in for a very uphill fight.

Chrom so far (it's only been out for a day so I'll fully take the L if I get proven wrong later) has played much as I predicted him. He dances on the knife's edge with his poor recovery but in exchange he has incredible versatility for someone with no projectiles or special gimmicks. His frame data is very impressive for a swordsman and his balanced Falchion lets him both space and rush as needed while still retaining the ability to do some serious damage.

Chrom overall feels like somebody that needs a player with both confidence and a good read on their opponent's current state to play him effectively. Chrom absolutely must switch tactics on the fly. Space when needed, the millisecond their opponent gets used to that, rush suddenly, when they prepare themselves for the rush, space again.

His poor recovery leaves little room for error, and that will likely keep him out of top and high tier, but if you're a fidgety player that sweats the second you put Chrom at the edge of the stage, you've probably already lost. Your advantage as Chrom is that you have both an excellent ground game and air game, and while you should absolutely be cautious and aware of his weaknesses at all times, he still requires boldness to play effectively, and you should not be afraid to go for an opportunity when you see it strike. Chrom has enough power behind his swings to make risks worth it (within reason and the specific scenario of course, all games are different)

Funny enough, I'm probably not gonna make a good Chrom player cause of my own fidgety-nes and my utter lack of spacing skills, but once I get the game I'm absolutely gonna try my best to main or secondary him. Mixed bag characters that dance on the razor's edge can be a real blast to play.

*not throwing shade at the pros, they know the game better than anyone else and earned their cred, my beef is more so at their followers that take their word as gospel

 

[Fastblade5035]

gonna repost this here too

Chrom is great. He doesn't really have a single wasted move except like, Counter. It's actually kind of insane.

His jab is super safe, fast, leads to follow ups at a lot of percents. Great to dash cancel with because you can get a fair out of it before high percents to rack up more strings and stage control. Ftilt is fast and can kill, has a great hitbox that can catch people trying to go over it. Dtilt is a good poke tool from dash cancel and up tilt leads to great strings of up tilt -> up tilt -> up air. Speaking of, his up air is just incredible. That thing juggles so well, is stupidly fast and safe, to the point where many of my biggest advantage points in games come from having my opponent in the air over platforms so I can wail on them with uairs.

Fsmash is honestly one of his most stupid moves. It hits above on battlefield platforms, for some reason. It has really incredible range. Can't tell you how many times I've dashed back pivot Smash charged Fsmash near ledge and caught people's ledge getups from distances even I didn't think would work. It kills stupidly early too. This thing right here ruins characters like Puff and Pichu.

Flare Blade or whatever Chrom's is called is also super good. I've charged from a distance near ledge and it catches ledge getups just as well as Fsmash, but you can also whiff it intentionally and whip out an ftilt or jab almost instantly to catch people trying to punish your whiff. It also can be reversed so if im charging near ledge, and someone tries to jump over or something I can catch them behind me too. It kills with even the slightest charge very reliably so I almost always use it on ledge.

Up B everyone already knows, this thing is busted. Which is good, because it's also his biggest weakness. His recovery horizontally may be weak, but Up B is a potent move in just about every regard. In a disadvantage state? Try up b, either on or off stage. What's the worst that could happen? Off stage, youll probably die anyway, so if you land it you just got a free stock trade. On stage, I use it very often. Landing it in neutral nets you a ton of damage and stage control. It can be used on Battlefield to get out of bad situations from say Isabelle or Simon and wait on the top platform. It's very solid even without the spike shenanigans.

Also, I wanna say in regards to his recovery. I honestly haven't had that bad a time with it. Granted this is just my experience but if you air dodge immediately after launch and know when to up b to recover from high or low then it's not quite as bad. Still extremely exploitable, that's undeniable. Counters will always **** him up bad but airdodging at the right time and knowing the best time to use up b is key to recovering with Chrom.

And for what it's worth. I'm 100% a Chrom main now. No doubt about it in my mind.

 

[migul]

gonna repost this here too

Chrom is great. He doesn't really have a single wasted move except like, Counter. It's actually kind of insane.

His jab is super safe, fast, leads to follow ups at a lot of percents. Great to dash cancel with because you can get a fair out of it before high percents to rack up more strings and stage control. Ftilt is fast and can kill, has a great hitbox that can catch people trying to go over it. Dtilt is a good poke tool from dash cancel and up tilt leads to great strings of up tilt -> up tilt -> up air. Speaking of, his up air is just incredible. That thing juggles so well, is stupidly fast and safe, to the point where many of my biggest advantage points in games come from having my opponent in the air over platforms so I can wail on them with uairs.

Fsmash is honestly one of his most stupid moves. It hits above on battlefield platforms, for some reason. It has really incredible range. Can't tell you how many times I've dashed back pivot Smash charged Fsmash near ledge and caught people's ledge getups from distances even I didn't think would work. It kills stupidly early too. This thing right here ruins characters like Puff and Pichu.

Flare Blade or whatever Chrom's is called is also super good. I've charged from a distance near ledge and it catches ledge getups just as well as Fsmash, but you can also whiff it intentionally and whip out an ftilt or jab almost instantly to catch people trying to punish your whiff. It also can be reversed so if im charging near ledge, and someone tries to jump over or something I can catch them behind me too. It kills with even the slightest charge very reliably so I almost always use it on ledge.

Up B everyone already knows, this thing is busted. Which is good, because it's also his biggest weakness. His recovery horizontally may be weak, but Up B is a potent move in just about every regard. In a disadvantage state? Try up b, either on or off stage. What's the worst that could happen? Off stage, youll probably die anyway, so if you land it you just got a free stock trade. On stage, I use it very often. Landing it in neutral nets you a ton of damage and stage control. It can be used on Battlefield to get out of bad situations from say Isabelle or Simon and wait on the top platform. It's very solid even without the spike shenanigans.

Also, I wanna say in regards to his recovery. I honestly haven't had that bad a time with it. Granted this is just my experience but if you air dodge immediately after launch and know when to up b to recover from high or low then it's not quite as bad. Still extremely exploitable, that's undeniable. Counters will always **** him up bad but airdodging at the right time and knowing the best time to use up b is key to recovering with Chrom.

And for what it's worth. I'm 100% a Chrom main now. No doubt about it in my mind. View attachment 182459

Just to add on to this, I think one thing that will become huge in Chrom (and Roy's) metagame is his INCREDIBLE dash dance. Maybe this is just my Melee experience, but his dash animation is amazing. It should allow for a lot of baits and mixups when approaching/fighting close quarters. It even has a bit of a distance variation, just like in Melee. I can see this really being Chrom's sort of crutch in neutral, where he uses a combination of dash dancing and jab/other normals out of it to create a lot of opportunities to take the advantage.

One thing I do think will cause this character to trend downward somewhat is when people really figure out how to consistently kill Chrom offstage. Up-B is very exploitable and vulnerable, and when people learn to take advantage, Chrom will become a big, big, big glass cannon.

That said, Chrom's great. He's incredibly natural for me. I don't think there's any way for this character to be bad with the kind of neutral and advantage state he has. His mobility is OD, his normals are awesome, and his ability to create pressure is amazing. I fell in love with this character when I started playing, and I can be certain I'm a Chrom main.

 

[Red Dead Redeemed]

One thing I do think will cause this character to trend downward somewhat is when people really figure out how to consistently kill Chrom offstage. Up-B is very exploitable and vulnerable, and when people learn to take advantage, Chrom will become a big, big, big glass cannon.

I agree. I would also like to add that I believe that both Chrom and Roy will go down in the tier lists eventually (though certainly not to low or bottom tier). What's happening right now is the same thing that always happens. Chrom and Roy are terrific heavy hitters that are easy and intuitive to use and that lets them dominate the early meta. Once the meta starts to settle though and everyone else's metagame (including the mechanically complex and not necessarily intuitive characters) really develop, guys like Roy and Chrom tend to drop down from their pedestal.

That said, Roy is my boy and Chrom is the friggin man, I'm sticking by them no matter what. And as you said, with a base kit so strong it's almost impossible for them to be bad unless they get nerfed into oblivion.

 

[Bluekirby2]

Really glad Chrom is playable and I'm kind of enjoying him. However I'm not very good at staying on-stage and Chrom's recovery only makes things bad for me. I just wish you could at least move Chrom's aether a little bit further forward or something, I'm only humiliating myself online

 

[Rich Homie Quan]

After playing Marth since 2003, since I was 8, I’m switching to Chrom.

I think his ability to space is being overlooked. In a very bizarre way, I feel like I can play him like melee Marth. Quickly go in and out, space, combo, kill.

Roy HAS to go in, HAS to get up close to the opponent to do optimal damage. I think that’s why they gave him such quick run and air speeds in Smash 4. Chrom has all of that mobility but can space if he wants to. This - his ability to damage and kill at the tip - in combination with him having roy’s mobility makes Chrom feel amazing to play.

 

[Red Dead Redeemed]

After playing Marth since 2003, since I was 8, I’m switching to Chrom.

I think his ability to space is being overlooked. In a very bizarre way, I feel like I can play him like melee Marth. Quickly go in and out, space, combo, kill.

Roy HAS to go in, HAS to get up close to the opponent to do optimal damage. I think that’s why they gave him such quick run and air speeds in Smash 4. Chrom has all of that mobility but can space if he wants to. This - his ability to damage and kill at the tip - in combination with him having roy’s mobility makes Chrom feel amazing to play.

Seriously dude. I know it would be nice if his recovery had at least a little horizontal movement, but could you imagine how busted Chrom would be if his recovery actually was decent? When you look at the sheer amount of tools he has, if Chrom wasn't preemptively nerfed with Aether than he would be almost at Melee Fox levels of amazing and would make Roy utterly pointless by comparison.

 

[Rich Homie Quan]

Seriously dude. I know it would be nice if his recovery had at least a little horizontal movement, but could you imagine how busted Chrom would be if his recovery actually was decent? When you look at the sheer amount of tools he has, if Chrom wasn't preemptively nerfed with Aether than he would be almost at Melee Fox levels of amazing and would make Roy utterly pointless by comparison.

Agreed. And it’s not like recovery is horrible. At least, edgeguarding Chrom just seems like risky business lol.

I can see Chrom have trouble with zoners, but that’s nothing new to the Marth moveset cast. His amazing ground and air speed should help get around that.

I can’t think of many other glaring weaknesses besides that. He’s tall I guess? Idk, he feels fantastic.

 

[slamallama]

Quick question from a scrub who doesn't have the game yet: Chrom's Down-B is a counter, right? I assumed it was, but just today realized I've watched a lot of Chrom matches and never seen anybody use it, and it's not listed on Smashpedia.

 

[Opossum]

Quick question from a scrub who doesn't have the game yet: Chrom's Down-B is a counter, right? I assumed it was, but just today realized I've watched a lot of Chrom matches and never seen anybody use it, and it's not listed on Smashpedia.

Yeah, Chrom has Counter.

 

[Rich Homie Quan]

Is anyone going to make a Chrom discord? We could lab together.

I can make one if y’all would like

 

[Opossum]

Is anyone going to make a Chrom discord? We could lab together.

I can make one if y’all would like

I think there's already one. Fell God made it I believe.

 

[Fell God]

I think there's already one. Fell God made it I believe.

There is another, larger one than mine, and further still there is a Roy/Chrom discord that is considered "official" because echoes don't get to be treated like their own fighters I guess. Although I was removed from the former and I'm not sure why.

 

[Arthur97]

Well, I'm glad that people have come around to Chrom. Personally, his recovery isn't even my least favorite. That dishonor goes to Luigi (if only his tether recovered).

 

[Red Dead Redeemed]

Hilariously, after so many dismissed Chrom as bottom-tier because they were dickriding on ZeRo's (very justified, no hate here) concern over his recovery, this just happened:

Spoiler: Hail to the King baby.

 

[slamallama]

Anyone else noticing Chrom's dialogue gets a bit funky during his Final Smash? I don't have the game yet, but in some videos I've seen, he kind of pauses in the middle of "aether," making it sound more like, "Now I'm mad! AETH......ER!"

 

[Izanagi97]

Anyone else noticing Chrom's dialogue gets a bit funky during his Final Smash? I don't have the game yet, but in some videos I've seen, he kind of pauses in the middle of "aether," making it sound more like, "Now I'm mad! AETH......ER!"

Yeah, that pause is a weird choice.

 

[Opossum]

Anyone else noticing Chrom's dialogue gets a bit funky during his Final Smash? I don't have the game yet, but in some videos I've seen, he kind of pauses in the middle of "aether," making it sound more like, "Now I'm mad! AETH......ER!"

I have no way of proving it, but maybe it's a quirk based on how the line is delivered in Japanese. Their word for the move may have included a more natural pause, but because they can't outright change the amount of sound clips in the dubbed version, it led to delivery weirdness?

 

[Bluekirby2]

Anyone else having an issue where say you try to use Chorm's neutral special but somehow end up doing it twice? I think this is really gonna screw me over.

 

[Opossum]

Make sure to give Chrom some love in this poll, guys!

 

[Arthur97]

Looks like he's doing fairly well.

Also, as of this post, the plant is beating Joker.

 

[Opossum]

Also I've added a very important poll to the thread.

 

[King9999]

The Incineroar matchup sucks for Chrom. Anytime Chrom is recovering to the stage, all Incineroar has to do is keep using Revenge to stuff the up B. Eventually you die because Revenge pushes Chrom out too far to grab the ledge.

 

[Arthur97]

I don't like fighting Incineroar in general. Mainly that side special makes me wary.

 

[infiniteV115]

Roy and Chrom can force platform tech chase situations with dthrow! They both have the exact same dthrow so percents are identical on every character

Here's a handy graphic for forced techchases on BF side platform (dthrow them from under the platform)

Spoiler: Graphic

I haven't tested followups yet but I'm p sure all aerials (maybe not dair at some %s) are guaranteed, prob also utilt/usmash if the positioning is right

I tested the %s, Poke (@TheVonDK on twitter) made the graphic

 

[Whitephoenixace]

How do u change midair with chrom ? Cause his up b doesnt seem to grab the ledge when facing opposite direction. Sometimes im able to do so but im not sure what turns me around

 

[Arthur97]

How do u change midair with chrom ? Cause his up b doesnt seem to grab the ledge when facing opposite direction. Sometimes im able to do so but im not sure what turns me around

Well, back air turns him around.

 

[Dialga Time Lord]

Does anybody have a Gif of Chrom using Soaring Slash? I need it for Smashpedia.

 

[slamallama]

I think somebody already posted this here awhile back, but in the spirit of the season, here it is again. Happy Holidays, fellow Shepherds!

 

[roymustang1990-]

Do Roy and chrom have same data frames?

 

[Flik]

Does anybody have a Gif of Chrom using Soaring Slash? I need it for Smashpedia.

Is that his Up+B?
(A Link because the picture doesn't show up)

 

[Dialga Time Lord]

Is that his Up+B?
(A Link because the picture doesn't show up)

Yeah it is.

 

[slamallama]

I just yesterday finally got my hands on Ultimate, and unlocked Chrom today. I have to say, the Awakening trio together on a team victory screen is one of the most satisfying things I've ever seen in Smash.

 

[Mr Gentleman]

anyone figure out who each of Chromn's colors are supposed to reference?
I've figured out Kallem, Owain, Henry, and maybe Stahl. but the rest I'm not sure about. was kinda hoping one would be a Gregor or Fredrick color. or at least one for Virion

 

[slamallama]

anyone figure out who each of Chromn's colors are supposed to reference?
I've figured out Kallem, Owain, Henry, and maybe Stahl. but the rest I'm not sure about. was kinda hoping one would be a Gregor or Fredrick color. or at least one for Virion

There's a lot of could's in this list...

Green is a pretty generic color scheme, but it could be Gregor- the color of the cape especially is reminiscent of his outfit.
Red is also pretty generic, but might be Walhart, especially because of the black cape. The purple highlights kind of throw off this theory though.
Black/blue/purple could be Brady, but who knows. Smashpedia says it's Lon'qu, but with Lon'qu's red/blue/gray scheme, I don't see it.
Black/blue/gold could be Gerome, or less likely Yen'fay.

As for Frederick and Virion, their color schemes are already white/blue, so they would've looked too similar to Chrom's original colors imo. Nice catch with Henry, don't think I would've realized that one.

 

[KakuCP9]

Yo. Anyone know what Chrom can get from tipper jab/d-tilt and what ranges the stuff work at?

 

[Arthur97]

He doesn't have a tipper.

 

[KakuCP9]

I know that, but relative to Roy, he might as well. What I want to know is what he gets from the max range of his moves.

 

[Opossum]

I know that, but relative to Roy, he might as well. What I want to know is what he gets from the max range of his moves.

I'd actually like to try to figure this out too. I'd imagine maybe Fair could connect from jab at certain percentages, but I'd need to test it.

 

[slamallama]

Welp, the infamous "Chromikaze" has been nerfed. Just gotta make sure you're a stock up on your opponent now. Shame, it was soooo much fun to get people with.

Edit: it's a bit more tricky to pull off than a simple suicide, but after launching an opponent, I've been waiting for them to get back close to the ledge, then I fall off past them and reverse Soaring Slash up into them, so I recover back to the ledge and they still get spiked.