Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!
You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!
It appears that you are using ad block :'(
Hey, we get it. However this website is run by and for the community... and it needs ads in order to keep running.
Please disable your adblock on Smashboards, or go premium to hide all advertisements and this notice. Alternatively, this ad may have just failed to load. Woops!
One tiny little thing, if an opponent is way above you in like a u-throw, high percent uptilt scenario, and you are in jump, I've been playing around a little bit with great success with with a bair Di'ing into their body, they will usually always airdodge, then you can input a turn around air slash that will kill over the top in a frame trap scenario. Any move that could even have the frame data to come out before air slash probably won't be able t reach you.
I'm working on better ways to set that kind of vertical distance, but a lot of people will fall for it if you aren't a jump monado up throw DJ uair guy, since most people see Shulk as a horizontal killer. I hope that all made sense, its 4:30 AM :|
Back Air
At the beginning of Smash 4 on the 3DS, I admired B-air because the hitbox starts becoming active in front of Shulk. Figuring that out was a thing of beauty. The move still astounds me considering that the move starts being active in front of Shulk, diagonally below but still in front of, directly below Shulk, & finally extending outward behind Shulk followed by the later Beam hit. Most of the move is Blade-worthy & it's the most common aerial to MALLC with good reasons. Overall the move has many applications that Berserker already covered.
B-air with any Art is good. Jump's slide landing feature is a nice touch for falling B-air to the ground. Speed & Shield's reduced jump height makes it easier to hit with the move. Buster increases the shield damage & shield knockback by a large margin to the point that they can't punish you oos with even a dash grab, which leads to a Buster F-smash in the face. And Smash makes this move KO quite early (Today I KO'd my friend's Peach with Smash Art B-air in between the center & ledge area around ~90% & that included him DI'ing it.).
I don't think it's that important, but since B-air has the 361° angle which is the Sakurai Angle, that makes B-air a prime move to use for EdgeSlip locks with the Buster Arts. So yeah.
I finally had a nice, long run on FG today so I could practice my Shulk against spammers people, and I must agree: BAir IS a gift from the Bionis. It certainly does catch a lot of players off guard with that range, though I'm guilty of whiffing it a bit too much. However, I did not have much luck using it against characters with multi-hit anti-air attacks, like Pit's USmash or Lucas' USmash. Pit in general was trashing my Shulk with those multihit aerials... Regardless, I really enjoy using BAir, and definitely will try to learn it better.
I need to learn how to properly use Jump for other things than recovery or edgeguarding...
I went against a Dark Pit recently. Just once though, but b-air handily beats Pit's aerials. Make sure you FF b-air if you whiff it tho because Pit's aerials have a pretty good AC window. If you whiff b-air, you're ****ed upon landing. Then again, you should be in-point most of the time when aiming with b-air
Not sure why you'd call UAir "Gale Slash" when it's more of a thrust attack... But anyway.
UAir is one of my favorite aerials among Shulk's set of no-nonsense air attacks. Then again, none of his air attacks are bad, per se. It's still easier to hit with than DAir, imho.
UAir is very hard to hit, especially on skilled foes. It isn't hard to air dodge it, but if you can link into it with a true combo, or fake out opponents and hit them when they least expect it, the kill potential is too good to pass up. (Up? Get it? No? My bad.) I'm not really into all the stats and frame data, though, so I can't say much on that end. Seems like in a battle between your UAir and their DAir, Shulk tends to lose a lot, however. For example, trying UAir on Link could very well end in you getting spiked downward instead of KOing him off the top. On shorter range DAirs, however, you get the range advantage. UAir seems to have the worst range out of all Shulk's aerials, though it could be tied with DAir.
U-air
Ahh, my favorite aerial. There's a lot of reasons this move doesn't get a good rating besides using it with the Jump & Smash arts, but it's a decent move I'd say. Real fast, my ratings:
普: 3/5 翔: 4/5 疾: 3.5/5 盾: 2/5 斬: 3.5/5 撃: 4/5
The move's frame data on paper looks bad. . .who am I kidding, it is bad. Both hits of U-air only last for one frame yet both hits look like they would last longer, but they don't sadly. The move's hitbox in front & behind Shulk isn't that impressive, BUT a nifty discovery about the move that I just learned from messing around with the move is that the hitbox area behind U-air reaches farther than in front of Shulk. Now that's educational to know, maybe now it's more beneficial to be drifting U-air backwards to hit opponents drifting toward our backside to land instead of using the front-facing direction.
Another neat thing about this is that I'm noticing hitbox differences between the front & backside of U-air. By setting a Crate / Barrel on one of BF's platforms above Shulk while I'm running towards the platform's edge & falling through to input quick Short Hop U-airs, I see that U-air's two hits from behind both show a glancing blow spark indicating that they're both close. However, when I roll back towards the platform's edge & fall through to input quick Short Hop U-airs, the 1st hit requires the Crate / Barrel to be closer but only the 1st hit shows a glancing blow, not the 2nd hit. This leads to believe that the 1st hit of U-air from the front has more horizontal range than the 2nd hit from the front.
But let's get to the best part of U-air. . .the vertical range! You guys are missing out if you're not using this move enough for aerial skirmishes, especially if we have the Advantage by getting the opponent above us. Let me say that a Short Hop U-air using the Hyper Speed art (that jump height is extremely short, like that's one of if not thee shortest Short Hops in this game) pokes above Shulk so high that it outclasses U-TILT & U-SMASH. . .U-TILT. It's easy & effective to walk around U-tilting, but Short Hop drifting U-airs in the same manner is better for vertical range despite U-air's very pinpoint hitbox area. U-air & F-air both have 17 frames of landing lag, but if you have two Shulks input Short Hop F-air vs U-air side-by-side simultaneously, you'll see that U-air puts up shield right before F-air. So technically, U-air is Shulk's 2nd least landing lag aerial.
Finally, the 1st hit having set knockback based by weight allows us to actually combo with just the 1st hit if we happen to MALLC U-air into U-Tilt, jumping up & footstooling into D-air locking their tumble, Air Slash, or whatever you can come up with. And although it's difficult to MALLC with U-air, performing that quick Short Hop U-air & MALLC'ing it can be done in several ways:
Short Hop > Cycle to Jump > U-air = decent MALLC
Cycle to art > Short Hop > U-air > Fast Fall immediately = A better MALLC than the previous
Short Hop > Cycle to art > U-air > hit someone on a platform with either 1st or 2nd hit only = Solid MALLC
Short Hop > Cycle to art at the very apex of your SH > U-air > hit someone on a platform with both hits = Dabess
Seems like in a battle between your UAir and their DAir, Shulk tends to lose a lot, however. For example, trying UAir on Link could very well end in you getting spiked downward instead of KOing him off the top. On shorter range DAirs, however, you get the range advantage. UAir seems to have the worst range out of all Shulk's aerials, though it could be tied with DAir.
I'm gonna disagree with ya on this. The sheer vertical range U-air has with the very end of the 2nd hit's Beam sourspot is so good when properly timed for challenging moves coming on the way down that Link's D-air couldn't contest it. I do agree that U-air has the worst horizontal range in front of & behind Shulk out of his 5 aerials, but vertical range it is simply the best. Even D-air has more horizontal range than U-air.
U-air is pretty good for juggling but it comes out at frame 14. That's like, my issue with it when it comes to using it the same way we use u-tilt. Then again, the range of u-air is surprisingly really good, so it's a good idea to mix it up every now and then with walking u-tilt or drifting u-air
As far as stages with platforms go, relying on a combination of U-tilts & SH N-airs surely make our opponent respect our position at the Advantage. U-air however, is a bit more effective since it is two hits. Buster U-air deals around 21%, plus, the shield damage & knockback of both hits makes U-air totally safe while taking a chunk of their bubble shield's HP.
Speed art's 2nd hitting Beam sourspot of U-air out of a Short Hop pokes high enough through the upper top platform on Battlefield, something that neither U-smash nor U-Tilt can do. We can also quickly input Full Hop U-air as Vanilla, Buster, or Smash art & be able to cancel U-air's landing lag with a special aka Air Slash.
Oh. I almost forgot my rating for u-air. I think this aerial is hard to land but the reward for landing it is neat. Still, the fact that it's hard to land pretty much gives me not much reasons to use it outside of jump art or smash art. Maybe speed too
Saving grace is the sheer damage and KO potential. I guess
One more thing I forgot to mention: Like F-air D-air & N-air, I enjoy coming back to the stage with Jump art & doublejump towards the ledge while rising with U-air underneath the stage's lip / surface to poke the opponent through the stage. Whether both hits or just the 2nd hit connecting doesn't matter, as long as they get hit or respect my ledge-space I don't mind. That's all I can think of atm.
I love this move more than I should, but that's most likely because I mainly play doubles. U-air is a great move for kill setups in doubles and can be done off of a plethora throws/moves in a 2v2 match. But, this isn't about doubles, so I'll address it's usefulness in singles for now. Though, right off the bat I will say I think the move is a good juggle tool
Jump-4/5- Honestly, U-air can net you some disgustingly early kills in jump if you can catch your opponent too close to the top of the blast zone. It can be even deadlier if you set it up with an up-tilt and bait/read an early air dodge. U-air is also a great move for a mix up due to it's lower (still not that amazing, though) landing lag compared to our other aerials and because most opponents are expecting a spaced N-air, F-air or B-air in Jump, so it can catch your foe off guard. I won't lie though, the move is hard to hit.
Speed-3.5/-I actually kind of find U-air useful in this Art as well, but I'll admit a lot of it's uses are a bit situation. For me, I like to SH FF a U-air in Speed and land after on hitting the first hit of the move on certain characters. In my experience, the other play hasn't been able to act out of it fast enough and I've been able to connect low-startup moves (such as d-tilt, jab or a quick grab if they get forced to land in front of me.) I, once again, find this forced to the ground setup to be especially useful in doub tes, but it can still have it's use in singles. Of course, MALLCing the landing makes this work on pretty much the entire roster, but it's no easy task (though, you can get the timing down eventually.) Perhaps I am wrong and this whole SH FF U-air setup doesn't work without being MALLC'd, but I have gotten it to work without MALLCing it before, however this could have been from my opponent not reacting fast enough. Two last things on the SH FF U-air setup is that the target will often be forced to the ground behind you and that you can use a defensive option of the first hit (such as shielding, spot dodging, rolling or retreating. I find that retreating away after this set-up in Speed can be good for some mind games and some space.)
Shield- 2/5- Not really seeing the use for this move in Shield. Even when they're above me, I usually can't reach up to the area which would get me an early kill with U-air, but maybe there is something I'm missing here.
Buster-3/5- Though it's KOing ability is kind of gone now (I think I've gotten one kill with it in Buster before and I was practically in the blast zone with the person, as if I was giving them a lift there) damage is damage. There's also a decent amount of shield push with this move in Buster (not Buster f-tilt level or even close, mind you, but nothing to completely over look.) so I'll give this one a average rating.
Smash-4/5- So take the 'disgustingly early kills' I mention in Jump and now make it so that can happen from about anywhere in the air. Yeah, Smash can make this move pretty devastating, but it also loses the shield push & damage output from Buster as well as the mobility from the Jump and Speed Arts, but I almost feel like this move makes up for it in raw power. I've KOed people at around 65% in this Art when I wasn't even aiming the KO the target, I was just trying to set up for a juggling opportunity. Though, I highly recommend using this move scarcely if you plan to use it for kills, as the move (like plenty of my fellow Shulk mains have mentioned above) has a lot of start-up. But when it happens, when you catch that poor unsuspecting person with the U-air, you may be shocked to see how early it can KO.
Vanilla-2/5- I definitely don't think it's useless in Vanilla, but I feel that the Arts really improve this move's versatility. Then again, maybe I just haven't found the right use for it in my gameplan for Vanilla Shulk, but for now it's a 2/5 for me.
Although we're going to discuss d-air next, I'll just make a quick rundown of the upcoming discussions (schedule will vary due to laziness :<)
1) D-air : ?? (no name yet)
2) Neutral B : Jump
3) Neutral B : Speed
4) Neutral B : Shield
5) Neutral B : Buster
6) Neutral B : Smash
7) Side B : Back Slash
8) Up B : Air Slash
9) Down B : Vision
10) Grab+Pummel
11) F-throw+B-throw
12) U-throw+D-throw
Feel free to re-discuss any move you feel like talking about
Although we're going to discuss d-air next, I'll just make a quick rundown of the upcoming discussions (schedule will vary due to laziness :<)
1) D-air : ?? (no name yet)
2) Neutral B : Jump
3) Neutral B : Speed
4) Neutral B : Shield
5) Neutral B : Buster
6) Neutral B : Smash
7) Side B : Back Slash
8) Up B : Air Slash
9) Down B : Vision
10) Grab+Pummel
11) F-throw+B-throw
12) U-throw+D-throw
Feel free to re-discuss any move you feel like talking about
D-air - Bionis' Meteor jk, I don't know what name is in store.
I have to say that D-air is a somewhat situational move. Its narrow, vertical hitbox means you can only use it when your opponent is either directly below you or soon to be so, and the startup for the move means you have to be careful to time it correctly. In my experience, people see it coming from miles if you don't do it unexpectedly or at the last moment. However, one incentive for using it last moment is that the first hitbox has a strong meteor effect, noticeable even at low percents. Easily gimped recoveries could very well be sent into the abyss if you're there at the right time. However, I would not say that this spike is any easier to land than, say, Robin's Elwind spike.
If you use this to guard your landing when reaching the center of the stage rather than grabbing a ledge, foes often get a chance to roll or shield out of the way. And since the attack doesn't have much horizontal pushback, it isn't that safe on shield at all. However, if you do land it, you probably will force the opponent to either tech or bounce on the stage floor.
However, I haven't tested it in every art extensively, so I can't really rate it. I'd say it's your least used aerial, however... Or at least it is for me.
I rarely use this aerial. It has too much landing lag to use on-stage, and to top it off, it's even hard to land off-stage. Hitbox is too narrow, comes out at frame ****ing 14, but at least the damage output is great but it isn't enough though. This move is okay against catching air dodges but well, that's about it. You can combo d-air off from n-air in jump art though, so there's that.... but that's about it. I guess. Not really a useful aerial.The meteor effect is stronger with smash art though (?) but eeeh
Dair isn't a very good move, but it isn't unusable in any way. It serves it's purpose as a spike, and it's a moderately powerful one at that. A big issue it has is that it can be hard to hit with due to the narrow hitbox, and that's why it won't be used a lot. The effects the arts have on dair are: Jump, where you can pseudo-combo into it with nair > dair, Speed with fair > dair, Buster with fair > dair, depending on what your opponent does (dair is still decently powerful in Buster), and Smash makes it kill earlier. Dair is situational, but it was designed to be a spike, and it does exactly that
Well, if there was a good way to summarize how the move functions, it's sort of basically (not really) a vertical f-smash that's done in mid-air. Comes out at frame 14, deals 15% damage if sweetspotted and it has surprisingly insane amount of knockback if you land it. The landing lag of u-air lasts for 17 frames which is bad. This move also lacks a horizontal range or at least, its horizontal range is severely lacking, but it's vertical range is NUTS. It even outranges u-tilt's vertical range
U-air's main saving grace is the reward for landing it because holy crap it deals a lot of damage and it kills at surprisingly fraudulent percentages even without smash art. Its range is also deceivingly amazing vertically. You can contest any aerial with u-air because of this. Anyway, the first hit of u-air has fixed knockback so if you manage to land this (somehow) without landing the second hit, you can combo off from the first hit. With MALLC, you can obviously combo off from u-air even if you connect both hits. U-air is a capable juggle tool but it requires muuuch more precision than u-tilt.
The issue with u-air though is that its frame speed is absolute garbage and it's hard to land unless you're in jump or speed art since you have the air speed to somehow land this but even then, it's still quite hard to land. Horizontal range is lacking, comes out too late (frame 14), and basically, it's horrible if you whiff it. Even worse than f-air since you have to be close to the opponent to land this or below the opponent but even if you whiff it below the opponent, they can FF and punish Shulk easily
With jump art, u-air becomes scary because with your jump height and air speed, you can throw and possibly land u-air out of no where and kill them from high up the stage boundary. You can also set up into u-air from jump art u-throw. Speed art, u-air is easier to land against grounded opponents thanks to the increased air mobility and shortened jump height. Shulk also has slightly better (but still bad) air acceleration which also helps, so yeah. Shield art, basically it's a worse vanilla u-air but whatever. Buster art u-air is basically vanilla too but it's a direct upgrade since well, sure, it doesn't kill but that damage is INSANE. Shield pushback and shield damage of u-air is also nuts, and that's what makes buster u-air actually not that horrible. Smash art u-air is disgusting. Hard to land, akin to buster and vanilla u-air, but the reward is arguably more insane since you can end stocks easily at really low percentages
Basically, u-air is a situational aerial. You won't find yourself using this as much as b-air, n-air, f-air, d-tilt, etc. It's pretty good for juggling, and that's one of its solid uses. You can combo with u-air but it's quite difficult to pull off a combo from u-air since you need to either MALLC or strictly land the 1st hit only. Hard to land, good reward, but you won't use it a lot, unless maybe if you're in jump art
An art mainly used to maximize advantage, whether it be juggling or edgeguarding opponents with average to poor recoveries
(Smash works better if their recoveries are really good), the severely increased damage you take makes using this in neutral
a far riskier prospect than speed or buster, despite the new combos that can be initiated with it and it's use there is highly dependent on what stage you're on. It's pretty limited on Final Destination for example, but on stages like Town and City or Delfino Plaza the air mobility can be used to great effect to maneuver around the platforms or thwart attempts to flee towards outer platforms.
Also useful for recovery of course, provided you can preserve your second jump. Jumping high towards the stage is pretty much the only real mixup he has in recovery without customs (where he could use Hyper Speed to, well... speed himself past his opponent).
Alright, Monado Jump. Long story short, it's amazing. It might be the most versatile of all the Monado Arts. At first glance, its primary use is for recovery, which it definitely excels in. When used in conjunction with Monado Shield, you can live to insane percentages.
Recovery is just one application of Jump, however. The insane air speed this special grants you can make you very unpredictable. You can essentially jump around and throw out aerials. For example, you can over the opponent and throw out back air. In addition, just jumping around your opponent is a good option if you want to regain stage control.
One of the greatest things about Jump, however, is the true death combos you can land at mid-high percents. Nair -> fair -> fair/air slash starts working at ~45% and stops working at ~80% on Dark Pit. One successfully landed fast fall neutch near the ledge can mean a quick and stylish KO. Another example is backwards nair into back air.
Another way to seal a stock with Jump is through edgeguarding. Simply put, Jump brings Shulk's edgeguard game to a whole new level. You can go super far off stage with fair or bair and still make it back.
Jump does have some downsides, however. You receive more damage while in this Art, so I don't recommend using it while you are at low percents. The other problem is that Jump has weaker throw followups compared to other Arts. That's not to say throws are useless in Jump mode, though. Up throw -> is a great unexpected option, though it's certainly not guaranteed. I also find that forward throw sends opponents off at a better angle than down throw for Jump followups.
The best times to use Jump in my opinion are when your opponent is at ~50%. I also tend to go to Jump when I have failed to take a stock with Monado Smash.
In conclusion, Jump is a fantastic, fantastic Monado Art. I may like it more than Speed to be honest. Be wary of its shortcomings, however.
Alright, Monado Jump. Long story short, it's amazing. It might be the most versatile of all the Monado Arts. At first glance, its primary use is for recovery, which it definitely excels in. When used in conjunction with Monado Shield, you can live to insane percentages.
Recovery is just one application of Jump, however. The insane air speed this special grants you can make you very unpredictable. You can essentially jump around and throw out aerials. For example, you can over the opponent and throw out back air. In addition, just jumping around your opponent is a good option if you want to regain stage control.
One of the greatest things about Jump, however, is the true death combos you can land at mid-high percents. Nair -> fair -> fair/air slash starts working at ~45% and stops working at ~80% on Dark Pit. One successfully landed fast fall neutch near the ledge can mean a quick and stylish KO. Another example is backwards nair into back air.
Another way to seal a stock with Jump is through edgeguarding. Simply put, Jump brings Shulk's edgeguard game to a whole new level. You can go super far off stage with fair or bair and still make it back.
Jump does have some downsides, however. You receive more damage while in this Art, so I don't recommend using it while you are at low percents. The other problem is that Jump has weaker throw followups compared to other Arts. That's not to say throws are useless in Jump mode, though. Up throw -> is a great unexpected option, though it's certainly not guaranteed. I also find that forward throw sends opponents off at a better angle than down throw for Jump followups.
The best times to use Jump in my opinion are when your opponent is at ~50%. I also tend to go to Jump when I have failed to take a stock with Monado Smash.
In conclusion, Jump is a fantastic, fantastic Monado Art. I may like it more than Speed to be honest. Be wary of its shortcomings, however.
I don't find Jump leads to incredible mixups in neutral on it's own, Shulk's air friction is still pretty bad and his aerials are no less
punishable on landing than before without good spacing. It is with platforms that Shulk can truly exercise mindgames with this, via
sharking among other things.
The increased damage can also lead to an early death (not as early as Smash, but still), making it risky at high percents too.
I dunno, sure Jump's payoff can be incredible if you play it well but the increased damage and Shulk's innate aerial limitations
make it more than a little situational. You just can't go Jump at the flip of a hat unless you have absolute confidence in your Shulk
skills or that it won't immediately blow up in your face.
/5 since for what it does well, it does REALLY well, but it's shortcomings are just a bit too big to ignore.
As one of Shulks two mobility arts (the other one being Speed) it allows Shulk to have free reign over the air and heavily dominate with his long reaching aerials. The best applicants are Nair, which just becomes this ginormous hitbox circle that covers a great deal (provided you don't fastfall with it offstage), and Fair (SHFF Fair more or less covers Shulk's entire front side but he still receives the endlag). His other aerials benefit as well but not as much as those aforementioned: Bair is a great poking tool, Dair provides an alternative edgeguarding tool if you condition your opponent to airdodge your Fair early, and Uair chases opponents above you to potentially kill off the top blastzone.
Of course there's no need to mention that this is Shulk's best art at recovering (possibly the only good way you can recover high against certain characters) what with the greatly boosted jump height and air speed as well as edgeguarding since he can go deep and gimp virtually anyone save those with ridiculous recoveries like Villager.
Any stages with platforms (notably Battlefield and maybe Smashville/Town&City, should check later on those) help Shulk take advantage of Jump Art since he is able to get on top of them with an easy SH/FH and take control of them away from his opponent.
There are two downsides to Jump however. The first is that Shulk receives more damage while in this art, moreso than Buster, and thus more knockback which leaves him susceptible to both combos and kill moves (every other art only has him worry about one of the two) which can greatly turn the battle against you if you're not careful. The second is the art's very predictable gameplan: 9 times out of 10 the opponent will know that you will spend a lot of time in the air or around platforms and can easily shieldgrab your aerials if you misspace them and play more defensively against you overall.
Tl:dr I give Jump: /5 Shulks
Overall the key thing to note about Jump is that while it does allow Shulk the best air mobility of the five arts to dominate the air and offstage game, spacing fundamentals are still important if not the most important while using this art.
A lot of things covered here. I'd give Jump art a 4/5 for sure. For all its recovering, amazing mobility options and godlike advantaged state, it does tend to be really risky and at the same time, predictable. This art is crucial to Shulk's disadvantaged state since it's one of his options to escape the disadvantage
I'm not saying that we should analyze all of the custom arts alongside the Monado arts, but it would be cool to do is all. Eventually I stopped rating moves with custom arts but anyways, I'll leave a spoiler about D-air because I missed out on rating that move. I'll type up something about Jump art by editing it in this post or in the next post in case others post more. I MAY do Decisive Jump & Hyper Jump because I feel they're radically different enough to talk about them as well.
D-air
The move used to be my favorite aerial, but I find myself not using it as much lately now that I utilize more N-air & F-air & the occasional B-air poking. Formalities aside, this move can be something. The first hit having very small horizontal & vertical range makes this move's execution kinda terrible yet the link to both hits can be very rewarding. And like U-air, D-air's second hit possesses glorious vertical range going downward which has several applications.
What I do with this move
D-air can serve me well in several instances, one mostly being able to Full Hop D-air quickly on a flat stage & cancel D-air's landing lag by using the FAF that is 61 with a special move such as Back Slash, Air Slash, or Vision. Most of the time I do this to bait players running towards my location thinking that I'll suffer from D-air's landing lag when really I input Air Slash & punish them. I advise to sparingly use this because the opponent could catch on & adapt to it by running & shielding, but if you decide to use this tactic offensively, your second hit will hit their bubble shield if they're a moderately tall character.
D-air's first hit coming out on Frame 14 is not too good, but then again N-air is Frame 13 along with F-air & U-air coming out of Frame 14 so whatever, right? From the plethora of out of shield options Shulk could choose from, I like to oos Short Hop D-air when my opponent's grounded to go for the double hit punish regardless of the current art active.
Fun facts to help rate this move good or bad
D-air's first hit doesn't have a Blade or Beam hitbox. Instead, it's dependent on whether the opponent is grounded or airborne. So if the opponent is grounded, D-air's first hit deals 7%, and if the opponent is airborne then it deals 5%. The second hit has a Blade & Beam rule to it though, in which the middle of the blade can meteor someone downwards. The other likely Blade hit knocks them away at a 361° angle aka the Sakurai Angle.
D-air's second hit dealing the vanilla 11% that doesn't meteor smash is the hitbox having the Sakurai Angle. Actually, out of Shulk's entire move-set, D-air's second hit has the largest percentage gap for Floor Locking the opponent which is most notable with the Buster arts. Iirc, the 11% meteor smash can also Floor Lock but it seems certain that the Meteor will surely cause the opponent to bounce off of the floor.
You can Short Hop D-air nearby the ledge & use the second hit to poke from underneath the stage's lip area in order to edge-guard your opponent. Even the Hyper Speed art's Short Hop D-air will meteor someone hanging on the ledge with the second hit.
When you're hanging on the ledge & you notice your opponent runs in to try going for a punish via read they predict, let them make the mistake so that you can drop from ledge & input a second jump & D-air together. When this happens, the first hit connects essentially "bringing" them closer to your second hit & then they get meteor'd downwards. It's quite a sight.
EDIT: Like N-air & F-air used to clip people from underneath while landing on a platform above the opponent, D-air does it best with the nice vertical downward range from the second hit. It's not that surprising to try D-air & landing to the platform to stab anyone who's underneath the platform; this can look nice with the Jump & Speed arts because you can drift from one end to the other with little controlling effort or drift completely off the platform.
I Feel like Jump is one of shulks under utilized arts. While the move is probably the most dangerous if misused it gives us alot of aerial mobility. We can SH, FH, Fade in and out and because of his large jumps and his long lasting aerials we can control the pace of the match, similar to Jiggles, Kirby or even D3. Next there is the obvious edge guard potential that, when mixed with shulks aerials, we can set up a KO or a gimping situation. Then of course we have the basic recovery uses which almost a requirement due to Shulks Up-B having a obvious distance leading us to possibly be stage spiked.
Now going off on the whole "controlling the pace" idea is that Shulk's specials are timed. Each art lasts 16 seconds and requires 10 seconds of recovery before being used again. What we can do is that if we really need to use an art can cannot afford to be hit we can switch to the Jump art for the required 10 seconds and switch it off to allow us to go to our desired art. Such an example is if I am at 130% as shulk and just used shield Monado. If I need to get the KO or rack up that Extra credit I'm gonna need shield to tank some more hits. So switching to Jump gives me the ability to dodge my opponent for 16 seconds and get back shield. Sure I can use speed but eve then Im limited to staying on the ground and on the stage. With jump I can go anywhere in the air and buy myself time. only issue with this idea is if I get knocked off the stage in Shield and I need Jump art to get back but you get the idea.
Jump, to me, is the best art for when you need to use another Monado on cool down and need to create distance and control as well as recovery. However since we take so much damage with it we need to play an insane hit and run game if we are actively attacking our opponents. You cannot mis-space an aerial or you will take a good chunk of damage.
With the aforementioned weaknesses and strengths I mentioned I rate the Jump art
.5 / 5
Also for Decisive Monado I feel it might be our worst art. We are stuck in this state for 20 seconds and cannot switch. This means you're probably gonna be running around for 20 seconds poking with aerials, maybe getting a tomahawk but thats about it. If you can avoid switching to it I would. Im not gonna rate it since it's customs but just becareful.
Hyper Monado is similar to the normal version except due to the 15 seconds of waiting per Art vs the Normal 10 and the Duration of each art is 6-7 seconds versus 16 means you can only use it to recover or buy 7 seconds off a monado art you want to use. Obviously we take even more damage and thus KB meaning this is our most dangerous art in this form, in terms of risk V reward.
I think Jump art can still function in omega stages. You're just somewhat limited with your mix-up options. Don't be afraid to hit shields with b-air unless you spaced it poorly. You can jump then land b-air while you're behind your opponent. Or you can FF into a grab, d-tilt, or jab, or air slash if they're at kill percentage.
Based on experience, I'd use jump art when...
- Buster or speed art are on cooldown (mainly if buster is on cooldown)
- If I need to recover or escape from juggle set-ups
- If I need to kill time for shield to come back up
- If I want to get an early kill
The last idea basically suggests that jump art is a usable art at an advantage and it is due to its combos. You can buffer into a deactivation then switch quickly into jump then combo into some f-airs or air slashes. Like.... n-air > deactivate > quickly ready jump > u-throw/d-throw > f-air if d-throw or even u-throw is used, air slash if u-throw was used > f-air if f-air was used after d-throw. Just throwing out examples but you know what I mean. Jump art is great for the two states. It would be fantastic at the neutral state if only it weren't so damn risky. Jesus, +22% damage? Man, you have to be careful with this art. Exploit that mobility of yours and use it to escape tight situations
So yeah. ALSO, the sliding mechanic with jump. Take advantage of that with some sliding u-tilts, sliding d-smashes. Good stuff Empty hop > sliding d-smash/u-tilt. Yeah. noodLes
Options at mid-range with jump art:
- B-air if spaced decently
- Cross up n-air
- Empty hopping into anything
- Tomahawking into a grab/dash grab
- B-air from behind
- Retreating f-air/n-air
I wouldn't stick too long with jump art though at the neutral because I fear that I might get hit :<
I'll stick to 4/5
---
Any final word on Monado Jump?
and I'll start making a write-up for d-air soon. I haven't done anything yet. Lmao
Well, you remember u-air's data right? Well, d-air's frame data is sort of the same. Only thing different is the damage output, and the KB angle (for obvious reasons), the landing lag. There are also some other minor differences that don't matter anyway such as the 1 frame difference between the frame speed of the 2nd hit of d-air and the 2nd hit of u-air (d-air's being faster). The fixed base knockback of d-air is 20 while u-air's is 60. Despite this, the move pretty much functions the same way as u-air, except it has a chance of meteor smashing. D-air's damage output is dependent on whether the opponent is grounded or air borne
On-stage, d-air barely has any uses. One nifty idea with d-air is to FH with it to bait a reaction from your opponent. If they rush at you to attempt to punish your landing lag, you can surprise them by immediately using air slash, back slash (to be honest, using this is a bad idea) or vision. Be warned though that if they adapt to this strategy, it's best that you sparingly use d-air on stage. Another situational use for d-air is to use its vertical range to poke through thin platforms. You can catch opponents by surprise by doing this but be wary of the landing lag
Off-stage, it's basically your meteor smash although due to its lacking horizontal range and slow start-up (for an aerial), it's hard to land. There are creative ways on how to land d-air though off-stage. When you're on the ledge and your opponent's hurtbox stretches a bit off the lip of the stage, you can drop from the ledge then hop then use d-air. The first hitbox will drag them near the blade then the second hit will send them downward to their death (if their percentage is high enough). Another way of landing d-air is to combo it off from n-air in jump art. Yep. Jump art n-air > d-air is a true combo
D-air's utility is more notable with jump and speed art. In jump art, you can throw out d-air while fast falling in hopes that the 2nd hit will manage to reach the opponent and meteor him. You can basically catch them by surprise when you're doing this but don't try attempting it THAT much. You also have to time to right (the 2nd hit in particular). As said earlier, you can combo d-air off from n-air. In speed art, the lower jump makes its ability to poke through thin platforms and stage lips easier to aim and exploit. Shield.... uh. Buster art amplifies the damage dealt by d-air which also helps in shield safety but if you don't special cancel d-air, shield safety won't matter at all. Worse, if the opponent manages to react to your special, you're gonna get punished. You have better options for spacing so you won't use d-air that much in buster but it is a slightly direct upgrade from vanilla d-air. Smash art basically amplifies the meteor smash effect of d-air and... that's about it. Nothing much to note about it. It's basically vanilla d-air with more knockback
D-air has its uses but honestly, it's not really a move you'll use a lot. If you're thirsty for the meteor, this is definitely your go-to move because, well... it's your only move that meteor smashes. It has its uses though even on-stage but the frame data and the atrocious landing lag make this move ultimately situational to use
Speed is a staple art for Shulk in neutral, so much so that some people consider running Decisive Arts just so that they can use it more. The increased walking, running and air speed (though not as much as Jump) give him more approaching options and punish potential, and the "drawback" of lower jump height is really a mixed curse: sure you can't chase air opponents as high and it might mess up your recovery (though the higher air speed and the fact Air Slash height is unaffected seldom makes this a factor unless it's Hyper Speed), but it allows Shulk to pressure ground opponents with aerials more easily.
What makes Speed so appealing to use in general is that unlike Jump or Buster it provides increased maneuverability with no defensive penalties, so there's rarely a "bad" time to use Speed, even at higher percents for both you and your enemy. Against speedy aggressive opponents in particular this art is important to help keep pace with them and prevent them from abusing Shulk's poor frame data too much.
The only real drawback to Speed is the lowered damage output, and while this is somewhat mitigated by the new combos made possible by the increased mobility at lower percents as well as the general greater ease of hitting, relying too much on this art can
drag out opponent's stocks longer than they should. Though using it at kill percentages is not bad at all since knockback is only marginally decreased so it might be just what you need to help seal the deal.
I'll give it /5 since it really is his most versatile art that can help in all sorts of situations including approaches, comboing, trapping and even killing and all without compromising Shulk's safety too much (only suffering from slightly less shieldstun), but at the same time you can't let this versatility blind you to other arts that may be even more helpful in some situations.
Speed is the to-go option against the mayority of the cast, and for some reason that thing makes shulk more sneaky and safe, whatever use I may give it like running when the opponent has intentions of getting too close or whenever you are at the advantage and can follow the opponent to wherever you launch them. It pressures them and puts them in an awful position because speed is so deep that with perfect pivoting U-tilts and the occasional n-air the opponent will have trouble landing and no matter how much of a coward creep they are with bouncing fish, karate monkey or illusion fox because shulk is just so fast that he can be under them at almost any time. He in forces airdodges which can be punished and even more if they are close to the ground. He can juggle for days, and even more thanks to his mobility.
Another particular use when attacking is such that when a string/combo lands, they take the opponent to the other side of the stage and that by itself is already incredible because of his good gimping capabilities forcing characters to take risks early in the match. In higher percents it is useful and sometimes I use it a lot because you can grab, attack or getting out in a blink and the safeness it gives shulk helps him a lot when trying to land something. U-smash comes to mind, for example I stay out of the range of what could be a get up attack or an aerial out of the ledge and being far enough were I can punish the ledge roll so when they get up just running to the edge of the stage and up smash have worked many times for me, somehow.
With MALLC its incredible that it is the second art in the cycle and since I usually use the landing lag cancel mostly to approach if something does land I can do some follow ups or just get away if something fails.
Sad part is that the art is so incredible it may found abuse and that is bad when you land a toncrap of attacks, then look at the damage done and fall in depression.
But anyway how can a character not be incredible when you can be anywhere on the stage on any instant when you alternate between jump and speed *looks at frame data* Oh... "I see this isnt pushin you at all"
On previous topics
Jump is beautiful no doubt but it would be perfect if the damage taken was less than buster, but anyway when shulk can jump out of anyone reach in a blink it doesn`t matter that much. Also in low ceiling stages what I usually do with Jump is do the u-throw or u-tilt and then jump usually my opponent dodges or jumps thinking I will attack and then do a raising nair in case they jump and even if they airdodge it hits and kills them from time to time. Airdodging I usually punish it with fair or air slash. Its like one of those 50/50.
I usually input D-air so when the first hitbox comes out I inmediately fast fall. Then if they dont die just footstool (have not tried this last one yet but sounds good)
Disclaimer: I may sound like a broken record with everything that I'll be saying in this post.
Monado Art |
Increased stats
|
Decreased stats翔(Jump)
|
Jump height, Air speed, Fall speed, Air Slash height
|
Defense
Known Pros:
-Air speed
-Fall speed
-Jump height
-Air Slash height
-Insert other pros here
Known Cons:
-Defense is reduced, meaning he takes more damage from attacks
-Insert other cons here
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Pros Air speed Jump art increases Shulk's air speed by so much, that his Vanilla air speed value is boosted to a value above Yoshi's 1.28 air speed value. . .and Yoshi has the highest Vanilla air speed. Jump Shulk drifting towards a direction is great & with air speed like his it's no wonder Shulk has one of the easiest times recovering back to the ledge. The huge increase of drifting potential affects almost every little instance Shulk is in while recovering, & that all ties with every Pro on this list. Overall, air speed by itself is a solid & strong recovery option for the Jump arts but in combination with all of the other Pros, his air speed proves to be phenomenal in more ways than one.
Another great thing about what the Jump art does for Shulk is the landing friction that takes place upon landing on the ground with drifting air speed prior to it. Iirc, using an aerial while landing & holding towards a direction makes Shulk slide farther across the floor than if he were to regularly drifting & airdodge or do an empty jump. I don't know if fast falling while drifting creates a larger slide though.
One major problem with possessing this great amount of air speed however is the fact that Jump Shulk still seems to have terrible air acceleration. If you try to drift one way & think, "Now I'll keep them guessing by shifting my drift the other way", then you're quite mistaken. Jump Shulk has a little amount of airborne mixup tools to confuse our opponent from reading our positioning from a very high altitude, so we're stuck using the very few options we have in the air such as: continue drifting one way, doublejumping backward with the great air speed, using an aerial for cover or for upon landing with the landing friction, or deactivate Jump & cycle to a new art quickly to B-Reverse it.
Fall speed & Gravity
Falling speed + Gravity test: Jump Shulk dies before Falco, but Jump Shulk dies after Captain Falcon. Decisive Jump Shulk dies before King Dedede, but Decisive Jump Shulk dies after Fox. Hyper Jump Shulk dies before Fox.
Fast Falling speed test: Jump Shulk dies before Falco, but Jump Shulk dies after Captain Falon Decisive Jump Shulk dies right before King Dedede, but Decisive Jump Shulk dies after Fox. Hyper Jump Shulk dies before Fox.
Shulk's fall speed for the Jump arts are still unknown, so there's a quoted post above that I did for a different thread. Aside from that, Vanilla Shulk's fall speed ranks him around the same fall & fast fall speeds as Mewtwo, Mario, Dr. Mario, & Robin, but all of them have different gravity values. Additionally, gravity is also a factor to consider, & Shulk's gravity value is very close to Donkey Kong & Lucario.
Here's a neat post Erico made talking about fall speed better than I could atm:
Fall speed makes you more menacing in the air, because you can more quickly swoop down with an attack to hit your opponent. Like, being below a faster faller is more menacing than being below a slow faller, because if you use your U-tilt or other anti-aerial at the wrong time they can be down on the ground faster to punish it. Another positive aspect of faster falling is it allows you to get to low edgeguards faster, giving the opponent less time to react or putting you at the position you want to be sooner. Defensively, the fall speed does affect your kill percents. Of course, you do stay in vertical combos longer.
So needless to say, having a higher fall speed is great for mainly two reasons:
1. More airborne mixups from jumping high up or falling down quickly to the ground to confuse your opponent
2. Resisting against vertical knockback more easily
However, the second reason can be a double-edged sword as the fall speed does help resist against vertical knockback from moves despite that the reduced defense means Shulk takes more damage which affects the knockback formula. So basically, you'd want to be launched vertically in the Jump art & not get launched horizontally for you'll suffer a knockback angle with an arch you can do little about, even with good Vectoring / DI.
Jump height
Jump Height Table (WIP) I created several custom stages to assist me in testing vertical heights. Know that I used stages that consisted of platforms stacking on top of each other 1 grid unit high at most 27 platforms high. Whichever platform Shulk landed on with said option / move is how high he reached from the ground or the air.
DISCLAIMER: This was all done with platforms to measure the very apex height of said option / move. Take Mighty Air Slash's 1st hit for example: SH = Short Hop
FH = Full Hop
DJ = Double Jump
LJ = Ledge Jump
SBJ = Shield Break Jump (when your shield breaks)
TFJ = Tapped Footstool Jump (when you only tap the jump button during the footstool)
HFJ = Held Footstool Jump (when you hold down the jump button during the footstool)
It is without a doubt that the Jump arts increases the height to Shulk's Short Hop, Full Hop, Doublejump, & Ledgejump.
The other options in the jump height category that the Jump arts decrease are footstool jump, shield break jump, & tech wall jump.
Jump Shulk's Short Hop is arguably the highest among the other Vanilla characters, even higher than Zero Suit Samus.
Jump Shulk's Full Hop is the highest among the other Vanilla characters, even higher than Falco.
Jump Shulk's Doublejump is arguably one of the highest among the other Vanilla characters, even higher than Falco.
Jump Shulk's Doublejump is basically about the same height as YOSHI'S DOUBLEJUMP. Wow!
Jump arts do indeed improve Shulk's jump height, but to me & many of us I'm sure, we may have thought, "jump height? Isn't that a bit too broad of a stat?". When you really think about the phrase "jump height", what exactly is increased? So I went about it & tested almost each & everything that could be considered in the broad "jump height" stat above in the spoiler.
The major increase of jump height allows Shulk to leap over anything in Neutral while remaining unscathed, that is, as long as you airdodged or did whatever you had to do to avoid the U-air or any move that's anti-air. Playing by jumping around with safety is a nice thing to possess but naturally when you activate one of the Jump arts, your opponent will think that 8 times out of 10 you're going to be jumping. Jumping around can be quite the commitment to choose so be mindful & careful of each Short or Full Hop you perform on-stage.
Air Slash height
When Facing Left
When Facing Right
AS1 = 1st hit of Air Slash
AS2 = 2nd hit of Air Slash
AAS1 = 1st hit of Advancing Air Slash
AAS2 = 2nd hit of Advancing Air Slash
MAS1 = 1st hit of Mighty Air Slash
MAS2 = 2nd hit of Mighty Air Slash
The Monado's Maximum Vertical Range Note: Instead of a numbers list going from the longest to shortest range, I'll rate a move's MVR by stars. 1★ means the 1st platform, so the more stars a move has beside it, the higher the MVR. I used a stage I created to help test the MVR along with using the Barrel item that I would set on top of a platform to designate as the "sandbag" to hit. Shulk for most of this experiment will be starting from the stage's floor while trying to hit the Barrel above on a platform, but I'll include a bonus MVR showing the moves Shulk can hit below him too. Note: The Jump Art, Decisive Jump Art, & Hyper Jump Art all increase the vertical height of the Air Slashes therefore increasing the vertical hit-box range of Air Slash, Advancing Air Slash, & Mighty Air Slash. So don't be surprised to see Hyper Jump Shulk's Mighty Air Slash possessing the greatest MVR. Note: When a move has the word "Floor" beside it, this indicates that the move can hit characters even crouching lower than 1 star aka the 1st platform. Characters like Mr. G&W, Jigglypuff, Kirby, & Wii Fit Trainer are all characters worthy of crouching lower than the 1st platform. Air Slash 1st hit = Floor – 10★
Air Slash 1st hit (Jump) = Floor – 12★
Air Slash 1st hit (Decisive Jump) = Floor – 13★
Air Slash 1st hit (Hyper Jump) = Floor – 13★ (It's odd because Hyper Jump Shulk can land on the 14th platform)
Air Slash 2nd hit = 6★ – 13★
Air Slash 2nd hit (Jump) = 9★ – 16★
Air Slash 2nd hit (Decisive Jump) = 10★ – 17★
Air Slash 2nd hit (Hyper Jump) = 12★ – 18★
Advancing Air Slash 1st hit = Floor – 10★
Advancing Air Slash 1st hit (Jump) = Floor – 12★
Advancing Air Slash 1st hit (Decisive Jump) = Floor – 13★
Advancing Air Slash 1st hit (Hyper Jump) = Floor – 13★ (It's odd because Hyper Jump Shulk can land on the 14th platform)
Advancing Air Slash 2nd hit = 2★ – 8★ (You can hit the Barrel on the 1st platform if you delay the 2nd slash)
Advancing Air Slash 2nd hit (Jump) = 4★ – 11★ (You can hit the Barrel on the 3rd platform if you delay the 2nd slash)
Advancing Air Slash 2nd hit (Decisive Jump) = 6★ – 12★ (You can hit the Barrel on the 5th platform if you delay the 2nd slash)
Advancing Air Slash 2nd hit (Hyper Jump) = 8★ – 13★ (You can hit the Barrel on the 7th platform if you delay the 2nd slash)
Mighty Air Slash 1st hit = Floor – 10★ (MAS can hit crouched characters when both are on the Floor, but Shulk cannot hit when he's standing on the 1st platform)
Mighty Air Slash 1st hit (Jump) = Floor – 11★
Mighty Air Slash 1st hit (Decisive Jump) = Floor – 11★ (Yet DJump Art + MAS can land on the 16th platform)
Mighty Air Slash 1st hit (Hyper Jump) = Floor – 12★ (Yet the HJump Art + MAS can land on the 17th platform)
Mighty Air Slash 2nd hit = 9★ – 14★
Mighty Air Slash 2nd hit (Jump) = 12★ – 18★
Mighty Air Slash 2nd hit (Decisive Jump) = 13★ – 19★
Mighty Air Slash 2nd hit (Hyper Jump) = 15★ – 21★
Jump arts + Air Slash notes:
The vertical height of the three Air Slash variants are heavily improved thanks to the Jump arts. Although, the increased fall speed puts kind of a damper on them if you're trying to delay the 2nd slash.
As well as increasing the vertical height of the Air Slash variants, the Jump arts also extend the vertical hitbox range of them too. It's not too much of a stretch to go for kills off the ceiling blastline with a Jump art augmented Air Slash.
Delaying the 2nd slash while there's a great amount of Ether surrounding the Monado is a great indicator for when you want to input the move. Doing so while drifting in the direction you want to travel recovers in the most vertical-favoring way.
Another great thing the Jump arts increase, our Up special move. Both the 1st & the 2nd hits are vertically improved, which is a huge relief to say the least. When going for the utmost vertical recovery height, delaying the 2nd slash will depend on timing the move, but this way it fully optimizes the move vertically.
The trouble with a Jump Air Slash is that the height & the speed you're traveling upward is increased, making it harder to use when snapping on the ledge. The other similar troubles that make a Jump Air Slash more harder to use include things like: Hitting a heavy character that takes less knockback since they might not get launched high enough for the 2nd slash to hit them, overshooting the distance of the 1st slash causing Shulk to pop himself too high over the ledge's ground level leading to a hard punish, things like that. All I can say is to get comfortable with how you're recovering from very low & if you still overshoot the ledge, prepare for the worst.
Cons Defense This is one of Shulk's few if not the only Con from the Jump arts. However, just because it's the only known Con doesn't mean it's that light of a burden to bear. The Jump & Decisive Jump arts make Shulk take +22% aka 1.22x the damage received, while the Hyper Jump art makes Shulk take 46.4% aka 1.464x the damage received. That alone really hurts & can potentially put Shulk in a terrible place within a single moment from being juggled in a combo or the like.
A controversial Con that can go hand in hand with reduced defense can be the Jump art's fall speed / gravity increase because a character like Jump Shulk becomes more prone to being combo'd in the air more easily. So, taking just one throw into an aerial or two can deal so much damage that getting grabbed as Shulk with any of the three Jump arts becomes a liability especially Hyper Jump *shudders*. The biggest piece of advice is to obviously not get grabbed or as Issai would say, "Don't get hit".
Speed art is Shulk's safest art, and its buffs make it pivotal to Shulk's neutral. I'll just add things that some people may or may have not mentioned yet:
- Speed art is the go-to art (imo) for dealing with projectile spam. Dash grab in speed art is really good
- Shulk's walking speed is amazing. He's the fastest walker in the roster with speed art. Walking and tilting is much easier to space and use because of this buff
- Speed pivot f-tilts are amazing for tech chasing and ledge trapping. RAR b-air is an amazing tool against campers. It's also much easier to space with b-air in speed art due to the lowered jump height
- Boost pivot grab is a great offensive mix-up. Your best throw in speed art is d-throw since you can link f-air from d-throw. You can also perform MADTD to increase your damage potential
(Directly ripped from the metagame thread):
In speed
- Retreating b-air is safe on shield
- Retreating FF f-air is safe on shield
- Retreating n-air is safe on shield
- RAR tipped b-air is safe on shield (?)
Disclaimer: I may sound like a broken record with everything that I'll be saying in this post.
Monado Art |
Increased stats
|
Decreased stats翔(Jump)
|
Jump height, Air speed, Fall speed, Air Slash height
|
Defense
Known Pros:
-Air speed
-Fall speed
-Jump height
-Air Slash height
-Insert other pros here
Known Cons:
-Defense is reduced, meaning he takes more damage from attacks
-Insert other cons here
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Pros Air speed Jump art increases Shulk's air speed by so much, that his Vanilla air speed value is boosted to a value above Yoshi's 1.28 air speed value. . .and Yoshi has the highest Vanilla air speed. Jump Shulk drifting towards a direction is great & with air speed like his it's no wonder Shulk has one of the easiest times recovering back to the ledge. The huge increase of drifting potential affects almost every little instance Shulk is in while recovering, & that all ties with every Pro on this list. Overall, air speed by itself is a solid & strong recovery option for the Jump arts but in combination with all of the other Pros, his air speed proves to be phenomenal in more ways than one.
Another great thing about what the Jump art does for Shulk is the landing friction that takes place upon landing on the ground with drifting air speed prior to it. Iirc, using an aerial while landing & holding towards a direction makes Shulk slide farther across the floor than if he were to regularly drifting & airdodge or do an empty jump. I don't know if fast falling while drifting creates a larger slide though.
One major problem with possessing this great amount of air speed however is the fact that Jump Shulk still seems to have terrible air acceleration. If you try to drift one way & think, "Now I'll keep them guessing by shifting my drift the other way", then you're quite mistaken. Jump Shulk has a little amount of airborne mixup tools to confuse our opponent from reading our positioning from a very high altitude, so we're stuck using the very few options we have in the air such as: continue drifting one way, doublejumping backward with the great air speed, using an aerial for cover or for upon landing with the landing friction, or deactivate Jump & cycle to a new art quickly to B-Reverse it.
Fall speed & Gravity
Falling speed + Gravity test: Jump Shulk dies before Falco, but Jump Shulk dies after Captain Falcon. Decisive Jump Shulk dies before King Dedede, but Decisive Jump Shulk dies after Fox. Hyper Jump Shulk dies before Fox.
Fast Falling speed test: Jump Shulk dies before Falco, but Jump Shulk dies after Captain Falon Decisive Jump Shulk dies right before King Dedede, but Decisive Jump Shulk dies after Fox. Hyper Jump Shulk dies before Fox.
Shulk's fall speed for the Jump arts are still unknown, so there's a quoted post above that I did for a different thread. Aside from that, Vanilla Shulk's fall speed ranks him around the same fall & fast fall speeds as Mewtwo, Mario, Dr. Mario, & Robin, but all of them have different gravity values. Additionally, gravity is also a factor to consider, & Shulk's gravity value is very close to Donkey Kong & Lucario.
Here's a neat post Erico made talking about fall speed better than I could atm:
So needless to say, having a higher fall speed is great for mainly two reasons:
1. More airborne mixups from jumping high up or falling down quickly to the ground to confuse your opponent
2. Resisting against vertical knockback more easily
However, the second reason can be a double-edged sword as the fall speed does help resist against vertical knockback from moves despite that the reduced defense means Shulk takes more damage which affects the knockback formula. So basically, you'd want to be launched vertically in the Jump art & not get launched horizontally for you'll suffer a knockback angle with an arch you can do little about, even with good Vectoring / DI.
Jump height
Jump Height Table (WIP) I created several custom stages to assist me in testing vertical heights. Know that I used stages that consisted of platforms stacking on top of each other 1 grid unit high at most 27 platforms high. Whichever platform Shulk landed on with said option / move is how high he reached from the ground or the air.
DISCLAIMER: This was all done with platforms to measure the very apex height of said option / move. Take Mighty Air Slash's 1st hit for example: SH = Short Hop
FH = Full Hop
DJ = Double Jump
LJ = Ledge Jump
SBJ = Shield Break Jump (when your shield breaks)
TFJ = Tapped Footstool Jump (when you only tap the jump button during the footstool)
HFJ = Held Footstool Jump (when you hold down the jump button during the footstool)
It is without a doubt that the Jump arts increases the height to Shulk's Short Hop, Full Hop, Doublejump, & Ledgejump.
The other options in the jump height category that the Jump arts decrease are footstool jump, shield break jump, & tech wall jump.
Jump Shulk's Short Hop is arguably the highest among the other Vanilla characters, even higher than Zero Suit Samus.
Jump Shulk's Full Hop is the highest among the other Vanilla characters, even higher than Falco.
Jump Shulk's Doublejump is arguably one of the highest among the other Vanilla characters, even higher than Falco.
Jump Shulk's Doublejump is basically about the same height as YOSHI'S DOUBLEJUMP. Wow!
Jump arts do indeed improve Shulk's jump height, but to me & many of us I'm sure, we may have thought, "jump height? Isn't that a bit too broad of a stat?". When you really think about the phrase "jump height", what exactly is increased? So I went about it & tested almost each & everything that could be considered in the broad "jump height" stat above in the spoiler.
The major increase of jump height allows Shulk to leap over anything in Neutral while remaining unscathed, that is, as long as you airdodged or did whatever you had to do to avoid the U-air or any move that's anti-air. Playing by jumping around with safety is a nice thing to possess but naturally when you activate one of the Jump arts, your opponent will think that 8 times out of 10 you're going to be jumping. Jumping around can be quite the commitment to choose so be mindful & careful of each Short or Full Hop you perform on-stage.
Air Slash height
When Facing Left
When Facing Right
AS1 = 1st hit of Air Slash
AS2 = 2nd hit of Air Slash
AAS1 = 1st hit of Advancing Air Slash
AAS2 = 2nd hit of Advancing Air Slash
MAS1 = 1st hit of Mighty Air Slash
MAS2 = 2nd hit of Mighty Air Slash
The Monado's Maximum Vertical Range Note: Instead of a numbers list going from the longest to shortest range, I'll rate a move's MVR by stars. 1★ means the 1st platform, so the more stars a move has beside it, the higher the MVR. I used a stage I created to help test the MVR along with using the Barrel item that I would set on top of a platform to designate as the "sandbag" to hit. Shulk for most of this experiment will be starting from the stage's floor while trying to hit the Barrel above on a platform, but I'll include a bonus MVR showing the moves Shulk can hit below him too. Note: The Jump Art, Decisive Jump Art, & Hyper Jump Art all increase the vertical height of the Air Slashes therefore increasing the vertical hit-box range of Air Slash, Advancing Air Slash, & Mighty Air Slash. So don't be surprised to see Hyper Jump Shulk's Mighty Air Slash possessing the greatest MVR. Note: When a move has the word "Floor" beside it, this indicates that the move can hit characters even crouching lower than 1 star aka the 1st platform. Characters like Mr. G&W, Jigglypuff, Kirby, & Wii Fit Trainer are all characters worthy of crouching lower than the 1st platform. Air Slash 1st hit = Floor – 10★
Air Slash 1st hit (Jump) = Floor – 12★
Air Slash 1st hit (Decisive Jump) = Floor – 13★
Air Slash 1st hit (Hyper Jump) = Floor – 13★ (It's odd because Hyper Jump Shulk can land on the 14th platform)
Air Slash 2nd hit = 6★ – 13★
Air Slash 2nd hit (Jump) = 9★ – 16★
Air Slash 2nd hit (Decisive Jump) = 10★ – 17★
Air Slash 2nd hit (Hyper Jump) = 12★ – 18★
Advancing Air Slash 1st hit = Floor – 10★
Advancing Air Slash 1st hit (Jump) = Floor – 12★
Advancing Air Slash 1st hit (Decisive Jump) = Floor – 13★
Advancing Air Slash 1st hit (Hyper Jump) = Floor – 13★ (It's odd because Hyper Jump Shulk can land on the 14th platform)
Advancing Air Slash 2nd hit = 2★ – 8★ (You can hit the Barrel on the 1st platform if you delay the 2nd slash)
Advancing Air Slash 2nd hit (Jump) = 4★ – 11★ (You can hit the Barrel on the 3rd platform if you delay the 2nd slash)
Advancing Air Slash 2nd hit (Decisive Jump) = 6★ – 12★ (You can hit the Barrel on the 5th platform if you delay the 2nd slash)
Advancing Air Slash 2nd hit (Hyper Jump) = 8★ – 13★ (You can hit the Barrel on the 7th platform if you delay the 2nd slash)
Mighty Air Slash 1st hit = Floor – 10★ (MAS can hit crouched characters when both are on the Floor, but Shulk cannot hit when he's standing on the 1st platform)
Mighty Air Slash 1st hit (Jump) = Floor – 11★
Mighty Air Slash 1st hit (Decisive Jump) = Floor – 11★ (Yet DJump Art + MAS can land on the 16th platform)
Mighty Air Slash 1st hit (Hyper Jump) = Floor – 12★ (Yet the HJump Art + MAS can land on the 17th platform)
Mighty Air Slash 2nd hit = 9★ – 14★
Mighty Air Slash 2nd hit (Jump) = 12★ – 18★
Mighty Air Slash 2nd hit (Decisive Jump) = 13★ – 19★
Mighty Air Slash 2nd hit (Hyper Jump) = 15★ – 21★
Jump arts + Air Slash notes:
The vertical height of the three Air Slash variants are heavily improved thanks to the Jump arts. Although, the increased fall speed puts kind of a damper on them if you're trying to delay the 2nd slash.
As well as increasing the vertical height of the Air Slash variants, the Jump arts also extend the vertical hitbox range of them too. It's not too much of a stretch to go for kills off the ceiling blastline with a Jump art augmented Air Slash.
Delaying the 2nd slash while there's a great amount of Ether surrounding the Monado is a great indicator for when you want to input the move. Doing so while drifting in the direction you want to travel recovers in the most vertical-favoring way.
Another great thing the Jump arts increase, our Up special move. Both the 1st & the 2nd hits are vertically improved, which is a huge relief to say the least. When going for the utmost vertical recovery height, delaying the 2nd slash will depend on timing the move, but this way it fully optimizes the move vertically.
The trouble with a Jump Air Slash is that the height & the speed you're traveling upward is increased, making it harder to use when snapping on the ledge. The other similar troubles that make a Jump Air Slash more harder to use include things like: Hitting a heavy character that takes less knockback since they might not get launched high enough for the 2nd slash to hit them, overshooting the distance of the 1st slash causing Shulk to pop himself too high over the ledge's ground level leading to a hard punish, things like that. All I can say is to get comfortable with how you're recovering from very low & if you still overshoot the ledge, prepare for the worst.
Cons Defense This is one of Shulk's few if not the only Con from the Jump arts. However, just because it's the only known Con doesn't mean it's that light of a burden to bear. The Jump & Decisive Jump arts make Shulk take +22% aka 1.22x the damage received, while the Hyper Jump art makes Shulk take 46.4% aka 1.464x the damage received. That alone really hurts & can potentially put Shulk in a terrible place within a single moment from being juggled in a combo or the like.
A controversial Con that can go hand in hand with reduced defense can be the Jump art's fall speed / gravity increase because a character like Jump Shulk becomes more prone to being combo'd in the air more easily. So, taking just one throw into an aerial or two can deal so much damage that getting grabbed as Shulk with any of the three Jump arts becomes a liability especially Hyper Jump *shudders*. The biggest piece of advice is to obviously not get grabbed or as Issai would say, "Don't get hit".
Disclaimer: I may sound like a broken record with everything that I'll be saying in this post.
Monado Art |
Increased stats
|
Decreased stats翔(Jump)
|
Jump height, Air speed, Fall speed, Air Slash height
|
Defense
Known Pros:
-Air speed
-Fall speed
-Jump height
-Air Slash height
-Insert other pros here
Known Cons:
-Defense is reduced, meaning he takes more damage from attacks
-Insert other cons here
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Pros Air speed Jump art increases Shulk's air speed by so much, that his Vanilla air speed value is boosted to a value above Yoshi's 1.28 air speed value. . .and Yoshi has the highest Vanilla air speed. Jump Shulk drifting towards a direction is great & with air speed like his it's no wonder Shulk has one of the easiest times recovering back to the ledge. The huge increase of drifting potential affects almost every little instance Shulk is in while recovering, & that all ties with every Pro on this list. Overall, air speed by itself is a solid & strong recovery option for the Jump arts but in combination with all of the other Pros, his air speed proves to be phenomenal in more ways than one.
Another great thing about what the Jump art does for Shulk is the landing friction that takes place upon landing on the ground with drifting air speed prior to it. Iirc, using an aerial while landing & holding towards a direction makes Shulk slide farther across the floor than if he were to regularly drifting & airdodge or do an empty jump. I don't know if fast falling while drifting creates a larger slide though.
One major problem with possessing this great amount of air speed however is the fact that Jump Shulk still seems to have terrible air acceleration. If you try to drift one way & think, "Now I'll keep them guessing by shifting my drift the other way", then you're quite mistaken. Jump Shulk has a little amount of airborne mixup tools to confuse our opponent from reading our positioning from a very high altitude, so we're stuck using the very few options we have in the air such as: continue drifting one way, doublejumping backward with the great air speed, using an aerial for cover or for upon landing with the landing friction, or deactivate Jump & cycle to a new art quickly to B-Reverse it.
Fall speed & Gravity
Falling speed + Gravity test: Jump Shulk dies before Falco, but Jump Shulk dies after Captain Falcon. Decisive Jump Shulk dies before King Dedede, but Decisive Jump Shulk dies after Fox. Hyper Jump Shulk dies before Fox.
Fast Falling speed test: Jump Shulk dies before Falco, but Jump Shulk dies after Captain Falon Decisive Jump Shulk dies right before King Dedede, but Decisive Jump Shulk dies after Fox. Hyper Jump Shulk dies before Fox.
Shulk's fall speed for the Jump arts are still unknown, so there's a quoted post above that I did for a different thread. Aside from that, Vanilla Shulk's fall speed ranks him around the same fall & fast fall speeds as Mewtwo, Mario, Dr. Mario, & Robin, but all of them have different gravity values. Additionally, gravity is also a factor to consider, & Shulk's gravity value is very close to Donkey Kong & Lucario.
Here's a neat post Erico made talking about fall speed better than I could atm:
So needless to say, having a higher fall speed is great for mainly two reasons:
1. More airborne mixups from jumping high up or falling down quickly to the ground to confuse your opponent
2. Resisting against vertical knockback more easily
However, the second reason can be a double-edged sword as the fall speed does help resist against vertical knockback from moves despite that the reduced defense means Shulk takes more damage which affects the knockback formula. So basically, you'd want to be launched vertically in the Jump art & not get launched horizontally for you'll suffer a knockback angle with an arch you can do little about, even with good Vectoring / DI.
Jump height
Jump Height Table (WIP) I created several custom stages to assist me in testing vertical heights. Know that I used stages that consisted of platforms stacking on top of each other 1 grid unit high at most 27 platforms high. Whichever platform Shulk landed on with said option / move is how high he reached from the ground or the air.
DISCLAIMER: This was all done with platforms to measure the very apex height of said option / move. Take Mighty Air Slash's 1st hit for example: SH = Short Hop
FH = Full Hop
DJ = Double Jump
LJ = Ledge Jump
SBJ = Shield Break Jump (when your shield breaks)
TFJ = Tapped Footstool Jump (when you only tap the jump button during the footstool)
HFJ = Held Footstool Jump (when you hold down the jump button during the footstool)
It is without a doubt that the Jump arts increases the height to Shulk's Short Hop, Full Hop, Doublejump, & Ledgejump.
The other options in the jump height category that the Jump arts decrease are footstool jump, shield break jump, & tech wall jump.
Jump Shulk's Short Hop is arguably the highest among the other Vanilla characters, even higher than Zero Suit Samus.
Jump Shulk's Full Hop is the highest among the other Vanilla characters, even higher than Falco.
Jump Shulk's Doublejump is arguably one of the highest among the other Vanilla characters, even higher than Falco.
Jump Shulk's Doublejump is basically about the same height as YOSHI'S DOUBLEJUMP. Wow!
Jump arts do indeed improve Shulk's jump height, but to me & many of us I'm sure, we may have thought, "jump height? Isn't that a bit too broad of a stat?". When you really think about the phrase "jump height", what exactly is increased? So I went about it & tested almost each & everything that could be considered in the broad "jump height" stat above in the spoiler.
The major increase of jump height allows Shulk to leap over anything in Neutral while remaining unscathed, that is, as long as you airdodged or did whatever you had to do to avoid the U-air or any move that's anti-air. Playing by jumping around with safety is a nice thing to possess but naturally when you activate one of the Jump arts, your opponent will think that 8 times out of 10 you're going to be jumping. Jumping around can be quite the commitment to choose so be mindful & careful of each Short or Full Hop you perform on-stage.
Air Slash height
When Facing Left
When Facing Right
AS1 = 1st hit of Air Slash
AS2 = 2nd hit of Air Slash
AAS1 = 1st hit of Advancing Air Slash
AAS2 = 2nd hit of Advancing Air Slash
MAS1 = 1st hit of Mighty Air Slash
MAS2 = 2nd hit of Mighty Air Slash
The Monado's Maximum Vertical Range Note: Instead of a numbers list going from the longest to shortest range, I'll rate a move's MVR by stars. 1★ means the 1st platform, so the more stars a move has beside it, the higher the MVR. I used a stage I created to help test the MVR along with using the Barrel item that I would set on top of a platform to designate as the "sandbag" to hit. Shulk for most of this experiment will be starting from the stage's floor while trying to hit the Barrel above on a platform, but I'll include a bonus MVR showing the moves Shulk can hit below him too. Note: The Jump Art, Decisive Jump Art, & Hyper Jump Art all increase the vertical height of the Air Slashes therefore increasing the vertical hit-box range of Air Slash, Advancing Air Slash, & Mighty Air Slash. So don't be surprised to see Hyper Jump Shulk's Mighty Air Slash possessing the greatest MVR. Note: When a move has the word "Floor" beside it, this indicates that the move can hit characters even crouching lower than 1 star aka the 1st platform. Characters like Mr. G&W, Jigglypuff, Kirby, & Wii Fit Trainer are all characters worthy of crouching lower than the 1st platform. Air Slash 1st hit = Floor – 10★
Air Slash 1st hit (Jump) = Floor – 12★
Air Slash 1st hit (Decisive Jump) = Floor – 13★
Air Slash 1st hit (Hyper Jump) = Floor – 13★ (It's odd because Hyper Jump Shulk can land on the 14th platform)
Air Slash 2nd hit = 6★ – 13★
Air Slash 2nd hit (Jump) = 9★ – 16★
Air Slash 2nd hit (Decisive Jump) = 10★ – 17★
Air Slash 2nd hit (Hyper Jump) = 12★ – 18★
Advancing Air Slash 1st hit = Floor – 10★
Advancing Air Slash 1st hit (Jump) = Floor – 12★
Advancing Air Slash 1st hit (Decisive Jump) = Floor – 13★
Advancing Air Slash 1st hit (Hyper Jump) = Floor – 13★ (It's odd because Hyper Jump Shulk can land on the 14th platform)
Advancing Air Slash 2nd hit = 2★ – 8★ (You can hit the Barrel on the 1st platform if you delay the 2nd slash)
Advancing Air Slash 2nd hit (Jump) = 4★ – 11★ (You can hit the Barrel on the 3rd platform if you delay the 2nd slash)
Advancing Air Slash 2nd hit (Decisive Jump) = 6★ – 12★ (You can hit the Barrel on the 5th platform if you delay the 2nd slash)
Advancing Air Slash 2nd hit (Hyper Jump) = 8★ – 13★ (You can hit the Barrel on the 7th platform if you delay the 2nd slash)
Mighty Air Slash 1st hit = Floor – 10★ (MAS can hit crouched characters when both are on the Floor, but Shulk cannot hit when he's standing on the 1st platform)
Mighty Air Slash 1st hit (Jump) = Floor – 11★
Mighty Air Slash 1st hit (Decisive Jump) = Floor – 11★ (Yet DJump Art + MAS can land on the 16th platform)
Mighty Air Slash 1st hit (Hyper Jump) = Floor – 12★ (Yet the HJump Art + MAS can land on the 17th platform)
Mighty Air Slash 2nd hit = 9★ – 14★
Mighty Air Slash 2nd hit (Jump) = 12★ – 18★
Mighty Air Slash 2nd hit (Decisive Jump) = 13★ – 19★
Mighty Air Slash 2nd hit (Hyper Jump) = 15★ – 21★
Jump arts + Air Slash notes:
The vertical height of the three Air Slash variants are heavily improved thanks to the Jump arts. Although, the increased fall speed puts kind of a damper on them if you're trying to delay the 2nd slash.
As well as increasing the vertical height of the Air Slash variants, the Jump arts also extend the vertical hitbox range of them too. It's not too much of a stretch to go for kills off the ceiling blastline with a Jump art augmented Air Slash.
Delaying the 2nd slash while there's a great amount of Ether surrounding the Monado is a great indicator for when you want to input the move. Doing so while drifting in the direction you want to travel recovers in the most vertical-favoring way.
Another great thing the Jump arts increase, our Up special move. Both the 1st & the 2nd hits are vertically improved, which is a huge relief to say the least. When going for the utmost vertical recovery height, delaying the 2nd slash will depend on timing the move, but this way it fully optimizes the move vertically.
The trouble with a Jump Air Slash is that the height & the speed you're traveling upward is increased, making it harder to use when snapping on the ledge. The other similar troubles that make a Jump Air Slash more harder to use include things like: Hitting a heavy character that takes less knockback since they might not get launched high enough for the 2nd slash to hit them, overshooting the distance of the 1st slash causing Shulk to pop himself too high over the ledge's ground level leading to a hard punish, things like that. All I can say is to get comfortable with how you're recovering from very low & if you still overshoot the ledge, prepare for the worst.
Cons Defense This is one of Shulk's few if not the only Con from the Jump arts. However, just because it's the only known Con doesn't mean it's that light of a burden to bear. The Jump & Decisive Jump arts make Shulk take +22% aka 1.22x the damage received, while the Hyper Jump art makes Shulk take 46.4% aka 1.464x the damage received. That alone really hurts & can potentially put Shulk in a terrible place within a single moment from being juggled in a combo or the like.
A controversial Con that can go hand in hand with reduced defense can be the Jump art's fall speed / gravity increase because a character like Jump Shulk becomes more prone to being combo'd in the air more easily. So, taking just one throw into an aerial or two can deal so much damage that getting grabbed as Shulk with any of the three Jump arts becomes a liability especially Hyper Jump *shudders*. The biggest piece of advice is to obviously not get grabbed or as Issai would say, "Don't get hit".
Something I would like to say about when a character is going to combo you while you're in Jump is: Just press B 3 times, or spam it if you need to. Also, wow, great post. It seems like it should be the op of a thread dedicated to Monado Jump!
Disclaimer: I may sound like a broken record with everything that I'll be saying in this post.
Monado Art |
Increased stats
|
Decreased statsSpeed
|
Ground speed, Air speed, Traction
|
Damage dealt, Jump height
Known Pros:
-Ground speed
-Air speed
-Traction / Friction
-Insert other pros here
Known Cons:
-Damage dealt on-hit & on-shield
-Jump height
-Insert other cons here
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Pros Ground speed
When Shulk activates Monado Speed his mobility in the air & on the ground becomes immensely greater than before, & it gets even better with Decisive Speed or the fabled Hyper Speed. Looking at "ground speed" by itself kind of reminds me of the Jump art's "jump height" stat in that both sound a bit broad, but perhaps I'm overthinking it. So in order to distinguish what exactly ties in with "ground speed", let's list off some movement options that are improved on the ground:
Basic movement options
√ Walking
√ Dash
√ Running
√ Pivot
-Insert other options here
Other movement options
√ Dash Turn
√ Slingshot
√ Stutter Step
√ Skid
√ Foxtrotting
√ Dash Dancing
√ Slow Run
-Insert other options here
Advanced movement options
√ Perfect Pivot
√ Turnaround Cancel
√ RAR = Reverse Aerial Rush
√ Dance Trotting
-Insert other options here
Of these movement options, most of them vastly improve as far as distance traveled goes. For starters, Speed Shulk possesses:
the fastest max walk speed (faster than Marcina & even Giga Mac), the longest Initial Dash (farther than Captain Falcon or Little Mac), run speed faster than Captain Falcon, & an exponential pivot used in many applications.
A long distance Dash Turn, greater usage for Slingshotting, better reaching Stuter Step, longer Skid animation, faster & more drawn out Foxtrots, & obviously faster Slow Run that competes with Fox or ZSS running.
The longest Perfect Pivot, greater Turnaround Cancels for F-tilt & F-smash, sweeter RAR usage, & longer Dance Trots.
The only drawback to the increase of ground speed would be lack of control over it. If you're not in control of any stat change that a Monado art increases or decreases, practice Speed's usage of speed going from the simplest options like walking & dashing to the more advanced options like dance trotting & perfect pivots.
Air speed
Like Monado Jump, Monado Speed also increases our air speed but compared to Monado Jump it's not in the same league. From some rough testing with tanooki suit, it would seem that Speed Shulk has a slightly higher air speed than Yoshi but I can't say for sure without actual numbers. Nonetheless, increased air speed is basically the icing on Shulk's mobility cake especially when you're the kind of Shulk player who likes to transition from the ground to the air with a Short Hop aerial towards a direction. And while Monado Speed is not as fantastic as Monado Jump in terms of recovery, Speed Shulk's recovery still fairs quite well for himself in case Monado Jump is on cooldown. Since there's no fall speed increase from the Speed arts, they excel more at recovering in a horizontal angle pattern than a vertical one albeit isn't a hard task for Speed Shulk to come back from mid-low effectively.
But like Monado Jump's problem, Monado Speed also shares this issue in that Shulk's air acceleration isn't improved. This pretty much means the Speed arts can only rely on the same options the Jump arts have except that Speed arts don't have faster fall speeds. This makes the Speed arts more predictable with their air speed yet still difficult to keep up with obviously.
Traction / Friction
Also known as friction, traction in smash bros is identified as a measure of resisting a sideways force when grounded. A common example of traction is the kind of terrain played on throughout different stages, such as grass which increases friction & reducing pivoted distances found on some stages like Mario Galaxy. Another terrain albeit is more uncommon would be ice which heavily lessens friction & increasing pivoted distances found on a few stages like Pokemon Stadium 2's Ice transformation. In any case, Speed arts granting higher traction to Shulk means having better control over our ground-game which adds to already having improved movement speed. This doesn't always seem to be the case in every instance you'd expect a friction increase, but in most cases it feels correct.
Some examples that display the increase of friction:
taking shield knockback
running to shield or spotdodge
running U-smash
landing on the ground with drift speed
the ground release from mashing out of a grab
Back Slash Charge's Landing phase hitbox
flinching from knockback at early percentages (when you slide across the ground & not lift off the ground)
Cons Damage dealt on-hit & on-shield Monado Speed's damage multiplier used to be around Monado Shield until the Version 1.0.4 patch happened. Going from 0.72x to a 0.80x damage multiplier was quite a helpful buff considering that Vanilla Shulk also got a slight damage buff to most of his move-set, making Speed Shulk & Decisive Speed Shulk that we play now being the Version 1.0.4 Vanilla Shulk. Even the Hyper Speed art's old 0.575x multiplier jumped to 0.64x now. Regardless of the damage reduction, this con is outweighed by the other pros that increase air & ground speed. These pros allow Shulk with the Speed art or the Decisive Speed art to space his moves more safely to hit bubble shields from a farther distance using pivots or his drifting. The only exception I feel this con would be Hyper Speed art since the damage reduction is too high despite that you're so fast & it only lasts 6 seconds.
Jump height
Jump Height Table (WIP)
DISCLAIMER: This was all done with platforms to measure the very apex height of said option / move.
SH = Short Hop
FH = Full Hop
DJ = Double Jump
LJ = Ledge Jump
SBJ = Shield Break Jump (when your shield breaks)
TFJ = Tapped Footstool Jump (when you only tap the jump button during the footstool)
HFJ = Held Footstool Jump (when you hold down the jump button during the footstool)
AS1 = 1st hit of Air Slash
AS2 = 2nd hit of Air Slash
Even though I don't have AS AAS & MAS listed within the table spoiler, the first hit of AS AAS & MAS for all three Speed arts list as a 9, but the Monado Speed art absolutely does not affect the vertical height to the first & second hits of AS, AAS, & MAS. This means that having the Speed art activated automatically optimizes whichever Up-B move you're using because the vertical height is not reduced, but the horizontal drifting ability greatly improves. Decisive Speed & Hyper Speed reduce the height of any Up-B, but at least it's compensated by greater horizontal drift ability.
Decisive Speed & Hyper Speed decrease the vertical height of the first & second hits within AS, AAS, & MAS.
The Speed & Decisive Speed arts do indeed have different jump heights spread throughout Shulk's jumping options even though they list having the same numbers. The Hyper Speed art makes Shulk have one of if not thee most lowest jumping heights in Smash 4.
I haven't recorded footstool heights yet, but Speed slightly decreases them while Hyper Speed heavily decreases them almost as much as Jump art. This is the same for Shulk's wall tech jump.
This con is an iffy, but most look at the jump height reduction as a buff in some or most cases. On one hand, the Speed art improves Short Hopped & Full Hopped aerials / airdodge in any state of the game's pace. On the other hand, it reduces our doublejump's vertical height despite the increase of drift speed for recovery. Therefore, the Speed art seems to feel more dominantly ground-based due to this con, but still, the drift speed basically nullifies the jump height con when it comes to Speed Shulk edge-guarding off-stage or recovering from off-stage. One of the few instances it's dangerous to go alone off-stage is with the Hyper Speed art because the vertical height of Shulk's doublejump & the second hit of AS AAS or MAS are heavily decreased by so much that it becomes detrimental coming back grabbing the ledge after performing a run-off laggy aerial like D-air. Fast falling with a Speed art can be risky but as long as you have a safe & assured state of mind, making the most of Speed anywhere is possible.
I don't have any more final words, but I took the spoiler tag off because my post for the most part is finished.
Oh wait I do. --- So we know that DACUS is forever gone yes? Well, we probably have been replacing that lost feeling by inputting running Up smash, or, a jump canceled Up smash during our Dash or Run sequence. So what I've been experimenting with lately in regards to Speed's movement options is skidding.
"What, why?" --- Shulk's skid becomes longer & more drawn out when a Speed art is active, (when Speed & DSpeed both simultaneously dash & get a run going, I make them skid. They both act out of skid at the same time except DSpeed travels slightly farther thanks to the slightly greater ground speed. HSpeed acts out of skid slightly quicker but ofc travels more distance) which means Speed Shulk acts later out of a skid than Vanilla Shulk.
What we can do is running > skid > jump cancel Up smash. The distance traveled & the reach we achieve doing this goes beyond running Up smash & even a jump canceled Up smash. The only problem is that we're not able to skid during the initial dash & since Speed Shulk has a longer initial dash sequence than Vanilla Shulk, it's clearly not the same as DACUS out of a standing position. Still, I feel this looks kinda clean but tell me what you think about it.
It's easy & effective to walk around U-tilting, but Short Hop drifting U-airs in the same manner is better for vertical range despite U-air's very pinpoint hitbox area. U-air & F-air both have 17 frames of landing lag, but if you have two Shulks input Short Hop F-air vs U-air side-by-side simultaneously, you'll see that U-air puts up shield right before F-air. So technically, U-air is Shulk's 2nd least landing lag aerial.
