At what point should you stop focusing on your character diversity and start focusing on your depth?

[SuperDavio]

I'm sitting on three characters I feel I can use pretty well, all with diverse playstyle. I'm looking to add a 4th, but I'm wondering if I'd just be better off focusing on the three I have. My local competition isn't too great, and the online environment doesn't really prep you for tourney situations. I feel like I hit a cap on what I can do unless I'm challenged more directly (not bragging, but conflict brings progress; that's a fact). How many characters do you all bounce between for tournaments? Do you feel like all your bases are covered with those, or just don't feel like learning a new character?

 

[Pyr]

3 at most for tournament play. Main, Secondary, and Pocket.

As for your question, all the time is the best time to work on depth, at least from a fundamental standpoint. If you have a favorite set of characters, play them and get good with them 6k matches between 4 characters will do more then 6k between 10 characters.

 

[Jebus244]

Tournies I stick to 1 with a second. But I think learning many characters is advantageous to any player. Especially if the characters you learn are ones that get used in tournies, except sonic. F*** sonic.

Edit: I used to play sonic, I just don't have fun with him and have never had fun fighting against him.

 

[SuperDavio]

3 at most for tournament play. Main, Secondary, and Pocket.

As for your question, all the time is the best time to work on depth, at least from a fundamental standpoint. If you have a favorite set of characters, play them and get good with them 6k matches between 4 characters will do more then 6k between 10 characters.

I have Robin, Shulk, and Mac as my main 3, in the order you've put them as. It's been pretty solid for me, but due to our small bracket size (15 last week, and that's the most we've had), I'm trying to find more characters to throw off players I play often.

I'd love to play more matches, but competition is scarce for Smash 4 at the local level. And online can honestly hurt my ability; the lag and (sometimes) lack of skill from the opponents can rub me the wrong way. Not that level 9 CPUs are much better, but... eck. I just wish this game had more players here at WVU.

Tournies I stick to 1 with a second. But I think learning many characters is advantageous to any player. Especially if the characters you learn are ones that get used in tournies, except sonic. F*** sonic.

Edit: I used to play sonic, I just don't have fun with him and have never had fun fighting against him.

Sonic is a pain to fight, and I have a friend trying to learn him. He's a super touch match for Robin and Shulk (especially the latter for me), so I've been forced to Mac in these matches. I worry he'll learn his advantages soon, hence my wanting to look around some. Maybe just practice the match more with Robin, I dunno. Times like these I wish I lived in SoCal or something, so there'd be people to practice against.

 

[ぱみゅ]

I've been doing the other way around.
I approached the game by figuring/learning about it, the mechanics, the characters (mostly by picking random and watching videos), stages, and certain gimmicks, and after playing a lot, picking a character I'm comfortable with, stick to it and practice.

It may take more time to polish your character, but the acquired depth is priceless, as you're likely not to be surprised by anything in the game.

 

[SuperDavio]

I really should spend some time learning the best characters in the game for matchups. My best competition at locals is a Rosalina/Fox player. Since I don't enjoy those characters, I haven't really interacted with them.

@ ぱみゅ , you seem to focus solely on MK. How has that worked for you?

 

[ぱみゅ]

I really should spend some time learning the best characters in the game for matchups. My best competition at locals is a Rosalina/Fox player. Since I don't enjoy those characters, I haven't really interacted with them.

See? that's the problem with that method:
You get to know your character back and forth, but you are clueless about your opponent, begin practicing matchups just to encounter obscure characters and lose to their different playstyle (see: Mew2king in Brawl, like, at every major).
Again, sticking to a character, or a couple of them, may take more time to get results but at least you know what your opponent might try.

@ ぱみゅ , you seem to focus solely on MK. How has that worked for you?

lol, I don't use solely MK, I actually use a lot of characters: Lucina, MK, DDD, Villager, Marth, Zelda, DH, ZSS, Robin, WFT, Jigglypuff and Megaman. Ones more than others (the first three are actually the ones I use the most, and the ones I've used for tournaments), and have slowly realized specifics about them, but I have the gist of virtually every matchup, and most strategies are not new or too surprising for me.

 

[Octagon]

Focus on the three you have. The more time you spend with a character the better you'll get with him or her. So instead of being okay with a lot of characters, you can be extremely well with one, two, or at max three characters

 

[Budget Player Cadet_]

I'd say the moment to stop focusing on diversity is the moment you find a character without a bunch of hard counter matchups that you genuinely enjoy playing, or a small squad (2-3 tops!) of complementary characters who cover each other's weaknesses, each of which you enjoy playing. That's when you say, "Okay. I can see myself winning tournaments with this char." And then you do that.

 

[Raijinken]

I feel like you should always* focus on diversity in Smash4, as matchups are more relevant since there are far fewer techniques to further divide the tiers.

*At least until you've got a character you feel is favorable for every matchup, or can play most characters that fit your playstyle.

 

[Sodo]

I never was the type to play just one character. Like any fan of the game, I went through and played with every character on the roster to see what I liked/disliked. It helped me become more proficient in my fundamentals from playing a lot, as well as learning the ins and outs of each character. I think the idea of a main, a secondary, a pocket/tertiary, etc. is based entirely on the person playing. I know that M2K picked up MK in Brawl because that character gave him the best chance to win money. Likewise, Kage mains Ganon because he likes the way the character plays and because people think it's impossible to win with him.

I "main" DHD because I like his playstyle (defensively based), but I also play Mario because I've played with him since Smash 64. I still use Olimar, my Brawl "main", from time to time. Of course, with the release of Smash 4, I picked up Villager because I thought he was a unique and interesting character. There's no reason to stop at just one character, in my opinion. But, then again, I'm not playing anywhere close to a competitive level so my opinion is going to be different from someone who is playing to win all the time.

 

[DarkDeity15]

I'd say the moment to stop focusing on diversity is the moment you find a character without a bunch of hard counter matchups that you genuinely enjoy playing, or a small squad (2-3 tops!) of complementary characters who cover each other's weaknesses, each of which you enjoy playing. That's when you say, "Okay. I can see myself winning tournaments with this char." And then you do that.

Says someone who mains Little Mac. Lol.

 

[Budget Player Cadet_]

Says someone who mains Little Mac. Lol.

Haven't updated that in a while. Little Mac is for weird counterpicks, and I mostly main ZSS now, and play Mac when I want to enjoy myself throwing out stupid **** that shouldn't work but still somehow does. Previously, he was there to stave off the "OHMYGODPIKACHUCANNOTKILLWORTH****"-induced depressions from maining Pika.

 

[Code Bread]

It's always good to have three characters. One main, one secondary, and one Ganondorf that you can switch to in friendlies for janky jank jank.

 

[Amazing Ampharos]

The more you focus on one solid character the better a player you will be. Having one still solid but perhaps more wild counterpick character to deal with specific things can be very handy. Adding more characters beyond that is often a huge risk; when toying around in friendlies, sure, play 20 characters, but focus your serious practice on one or two (or three tops!) if you really want to elevate your game. You can only play one character at a time in tournament, and as nice as being able to cp match-ups is, it's more powerful to have an initial threat that is as dangerous as possible especially in a pretty well balanced game like this where the stronger characters are going to be very hard to counter character.

 

[Shaya]

I may have a contrasting opinion here than most, but
This game is different to the other smashes.

There may be a few exceptions to the rule, but most characters in this game have similar option spreads and aren't technically intensive. Unique mechanics (usually in burst movement options like Pikachu's Up-B, Sheik's bouncing Fish, etc or SHULK) do take time a lot of effort to get used to for sure but are few and far between.
This game focuses on smarts and knowing what your own character and opponent's character can do. Playing everyone (or a lot of characters) seems to be the best means of improving in this game at this stage of the meta; ZeRo will attest to this. Learning the weaknesses and punishment windows of a character comes best from playing them yourself and that knowledge is easily applied throughout your character choices (due to similar option spreads).

This doesn't mean to say that who you use in tournament will be one of 50 characters, you should be confident in your pick and second guessing ever is detrimental. Towards the end of Brawl I would rarely if ever play my main (Marth) outside of tournament, but when it came down to it I wasn't bringing out my Falco (much), MK, ZSS, Fox, Dedede, TL, G&W, Sheik, Lucario ever, but to me it was more important to be comfortable with all the different options that existed in that game and apply them as necessary with my main (it's easy to be like "well my best move is fair, dancing blade, I don't ever need to shield, roll, spot dodge or whatever other options; because those unique options are better in those situations!" of course that isn't entirely true though).

However, I say this is effective for me and others because we already have a solid grasp on Smash and it's fundamentals that have ported over. We understand stage positioning, punishing, timing, patience and how various options work/how to use them, control and execution issues are usually minor. When new to the game/competitive scene, you're likely to find sticking to the single character and using them as a lens to view the game will be most comfortable for you, when asking for help a person may advise "do this instead in that situation" and while you may not question the implication of why that option was better than another, eventually the logic behind all these things come as straight forward (it's just about performance on the day of a tournament at that point).

 

[Holla@ChaBoi390]

I stick to two characters and a third just in case. The more characters you use = less experience with each one.

 

[Vincent21]

@ SuperDavio aka OP

This is Smash 4, not Melee. Fundamentals and technical depth knowledge and expansion come from learning a variety of characters. Because this game lacks barrier-of-entry style advanced tech like Melee, and rewards you for having a strong read game, strong fundamentals, and strong characters knowledge, all things built on merely by playing, you literally development your fundamentals by playing characters.

This might be a new concept to people, but the players who are going to be good at this game are the ones who take the old M2King route of learning everyone until they can character transition like silk. Because the majority of the cast has value merely for enhancing your own knowledge, and because the fundamentals of this game don't require lab training or specific dedications. They're easy as hell and you just literally pick these things up by playing them. The more various situations you enter, match-ups you engage in, and new problems you force yourself to solve the better your Smash 4 fundamentals become. And those three things occur when you play more characters.

Having said that, you will find a cadre on the roster you consistently come back to more than anyone else. And that's normal.

 

[TheHypnotoad]

In terms of characters to really focus on, I would say limit yourself to three, one main and two secondaries. Try to vary the characteristics of each character, so that you have a good choice to switch to in certain matchups. For example, I main Robin, who is very slow and focuses heavily on zoning. My two secondaries are Captain Falcon and Zero Suit Samus, who are very fast and focus on close combat and grab followup combos.

 

[Octagon]

It's always good to have three characters. One main, one secondary, and one Ganondorf that you can switch to in friendlies for janky jank jank.

Everyone's got that Ganondorf

 

[|RK|]

Whenever you find a character that suits your playstyle, honestly. I used to go for Lucario, but people complain about his Aura too much. So now I've been focusing on my Kirby, so my wins aren't contested. As a result, my Lucario game has fallen off. It was still a valuable experience, and I'm pretty good with the Aura Sphere copy now. So there's that.

 

[MarioFireRed]

I say that, in Smash 4 anyway, at least play every character in the roster (including all 3 Mii types) to get a feel on how they play and what they can and can't do. This can vary around 5-10 matches depending on the character's skill floor.

Once you do that continue playing with the characters you enjoyed using and whittle down your numbers from there. Maybe you play them because you love the playstyle or maybe you have a personal connection with a character and want to make them work for you. Either way your finalized list will end up varying between one to four/five characters you can confidently use to play to win. I say this because there are some people content with just one character to achieve success with(Diddy/Sheik mains are the most common example), but there are also others such as Nairo who became proficient with about four characters (five if you count both Pits as being different enough).

In your case, assuming you already stuck to those characters, just focus on the ones you have with you right now and try to advance your skill with them. However also check back with the rest of the roster every once in a while with your improving skill to see if someone else clicks to you better than your current list of characters. This has happened to me once every three weeks since 3DS launch by switching around 20 characters around that I can use decently until I have this current list of four (Shulk, Sonic, Mario, and Luigi) to finally settle down with 6 months after the game's release.

TL;DR Improve with your current list and try out other characters, shortening or increasing your list in tandem

 

[SphericalCrusher]

I'm sitting on three characters I feel I can use pretty well, all with diverse playstyle. I'm looking to add a 4th, but I'm wondering if I'd just be better off focusing on the three I have. My local competition isn't too great, and the online environment doesn't really prep you for tourney situations. I feel like I hit a cap on what I can do unless I'm challenged more directly (not bragging, but conflict brings progress; that's a fact). How many characters do you all bounce between for tournaments? Do you feel like all your bases are covered with those, or just don't feel like learning a new character?

This sounds A LOT like me to be honest. For tournaments, I usually just use one though... but I alternate 3-4 characters and working on more. I am usually way too nervous to switch characters... although I was 2 matches up in a best of 5 set and switched for fun.

 

[SuperDavio]

I've been finding that the order of Robin > Shulk > Mac works best for me. The pocket Mac is simply great at some matchups, and Shulk is a good change of pace whenever Robin just isn't getting the job done. I will say Robin is definitely my strong point, though.

 

[DavemanCozy]

You should have one main. The rest is just optional and should complement your main if you choose to have more characters.

Personally, I picked a secondary that plays differently from my main because I think it's important to explore what you might be able to do with a different playstyle, you might learn things about yourself and your style that you didn't know and how they can help you vs different players. Other things to consider when picking other characters to play are people you have trouble with as your main.

Obviously make sure you also have fun playing that character too. After all, this is a game and games are about having fun too.

 

[Vincent21]

I was going to elaborate, but I remembered I actually talked about this prior.