Be the aggressor?

[SuperLevel]

So I naturally play really reactively, but that obviously can only get me so far (especially against other defensive players). Is there any way to be aggressive with pit? or keep up the pressure?

For example; How Pikachu can quickly cover some falling ariels into jabs, etc.

Or do I have to keep playing the spacing and running away game with him?

 

[knepsis]

You can certainly go in, and should be in certain match ups, especially against other zoning characters like dhd. Yo try to go in use jab, sh dair, and rar shff bair, ac nair, and occasionally dash attack but more importantly grab and pivot grab. You have amazing grav followups, use them.
Zone against slow characters, but go in against characters with better zoning

 

[SatsumaFS]

I find it a bit hard to approach aggressively as the Pits. It's certainly possible to play a very fast paced game, but it's not really a "in-your-face" kind of fast play. Dash attack and b-air are the only moves that make use of your good disjoint while being fast at the same time, but DA is unsafe and b-air is a good kill move so you might not want to stale it. Like knepsis said, grab follow-ups are really good, but that's more like a punish option than an approach I think. Arrow approach is a bit too slow.

When I approach with Pit, I generally try to poke with f-air a lot by default. There's a bit of startup, but once it's out there aren't a lot of characters that can beat it unless you go in too close. You can do many things, like short hop forward then retreat f-air, neutral jump (then retreat if needed) f-air, or even jump back then advancing f-air. The last one is a pretty good mix-up, especially if your opponent wants to close distance, but don't do it too often since advancing f-air is never safe. If your opponent is starting to challenge your f-air with their fast aerials, try jumping in deeper and using n-air instead if they look like they wanna do it again.

If your f-air hits a shield, you generally have time to land before the enemy can punish, unless they have a tether grab or something (mainly Lucas, since his tether is fast). I don't know the specific frame data, but from my experience they can act out of shield before you can do anything; but, if you spaced properly, the distance between you two means your disjoint can still be an advantage in some matchups. I tend to use jab or f-tilt right after landing, but sometimes a defensive option like shielding or just jumping away might be better. You can even do jump back advancing/retreating f-air I guess.

Keep in mind a lot of these things might not work in some matchups...like ROB. But the general rule of 1) f-air 2) grab still stands.

 

[SuperLevel]

I find it a bit hard to approach aggressively as the Pits. It's certainly possible to play a very fast paced game, but it's not really a "in-your-face" kind of fast play. Dash attack and b-air are the only moves that make use of your good disjoint while being fast at the same time, but DA is unsafe and b-air is a good kill move so you might not want to stale it. Like knepsis said, grab follow-ups are really good, but that's more like a punish option than an approach I think. Arrow approach is a bit too slow.

When I approach with Pit, I generally try to poke with f-air a lot by default. There's a bit of startup, but once it's out there aren't a lot of characters that can beat it unless you go in too close. You can do many things, like short hop forward then retreat f-air, neutral jump (then retreat if needed) f-air, or even jump back then advancing f-air. The last one is a pretty good mix-up, especially if your opponent wants to close distance, but don't do it too often since advancing f-air is never safe. If your opponent is starting to challenge your f-air with their fast aerials, try jumping in deeper and using n-air instead if they look like they wanna do it again.

If your f-air hits a shield, you generally have time to land before the enemy can punish, unless they have a tether grab or something (mainly Lucas, since his tether is fast). I don't know the specific frame data, but from my experience they can act out of shield before you can do anything; but, if you spaced properly, the distance between you two means your disjoint can still be an advantage in some matchups. I tend to use jab or f-tilt right after landing, but sometimes a defensive option like shielding or just jumping away might be better. You can even do jump back advancing/retreating f-air I guess.

Keep in mind a lot of these things might not work in some matchups...like ROB. But the general rule of 1) f-air 2) grab still stands.

I have the same problems. I am actually planning on dair'ing a lot less now.

Do you feel like you have to be able to predict your opponent to some extent in order to be aggressive with pit?

I am spamming fairs right now as well. You brought up a good point that I can try mixing up my momentum with it though, and can catch them off guard! It does feel like that's his only move to be aggressive with though. Nair is too easily beat, and his only ground move that doesn't have lag (and is usable) is his down tilt and jab. (Forward tilt has lag + all smash attacks aren't safe).

Like you said, I think I just have to try to mind game .

Thank you!

 

[SatsumaFS]

I have the same problems. I am actually planning on dair'ing a lot less now.

Do you feel like you have to be able to predict your opponent to some extent in order to be aggressive with pit?

I am spamming fairs right now as well. You brought up a good point that I can try mixing up my momentum with it though, and can catch them off guard! It does feel like that's his only move to be aggressive with though. Nair is too easily beat, and his only ground move that doesn't have lag (and is usable) is his down tilt and jab. (Forward tilt has lag + all smash attacks aren't safe).

Like you said, I think I just have to try to mind game .

Thank you!

I think that applies to all characters; mindless rushdown is rarely ever a good strategy, even if you're Sonic.

D-tilt is pretty good too, mostly safe on shields I find, and can lead into other things. It also has deceptive range. F-tilt might have lag, but the range it covers is pretty ridiculous, and can even function as an anti-air at some ranges. It's not super slow to start either. Regular Pit's f-tilt sweetspot is safe on shield because of the reach, shield damage and pushback, but Dark Pit's is less safe of course. I like to use f-tilt a lot when playing regular Pit.

Glad to have helped. If you come up with something new, make sure to share it with all of us.

 

[MKchouy]

I have the same problems. I am actually planning on dair'ing a lot less now.

Do you feel like you have to be able to predict your opponent to some extent in order to be aggressive with pit?

I am spamming fairs right now as well. You brought up a good point that I can try mixing up my momentum with it though, and can catch them off guard! It does feel like that's his only move to be aggressive with though. Nair is too easily beat, and his only ground move that doesn't have lag (and is usable) is his down tilt and jab. (Forward tilt has lag + all smash attacks aren't safe).

Like you said, I think I just have to try to mind game .

Thank you!

Dairing is AMAZING with the pits, great neutral tool and honestly imo they have the second best dair in the game only to Cloud.
It's actually great Oos and the back hit of it especially comes out very fast. It's the pits best combo starter besides grab, you hit someone with the back hit you can dair->bair, true combo (23%) hit someone with the later part of the swing and you can dair->dair->nair true combo (29%). At lower percents dair leads to some high damage footstool shenanigans. You can SH airdodge into someone's shield and rising dair out of the SH poking shield safely and cross their shield with a safe bair. Dair jab resets.

I could go on more about Dair, but keep using it in neutral it's their best aerial by far imo.

 

[SatsumaFS]

D-air is still a good tool, but I wouldn't really use it as my main approach because it's rather unsafe on shields.

 

[MKchouy]

Retreating back hit of dair out of short hop is safe on shields and full hop dair is safe on shield.

 

[ZobmieRules]

Huh... I've only ever thought of their DAir as a dunking move. I never thought to see how good the "scoop" of it is. I'll have to try that out!

 

[Smilker]

Honestly, I never saw the two angels to be any good at aggressive play, at least not usually. They're more meant for zoning others out and baiting approaches and making the most of the other's mistakes. Generally, you should just shoot arrows and wait for them to approach you and just keep fighting until they make a mistake you can get a decent punish on, which is when you should be aggressive.

 

[MKchouy]

Depends on the MU imo. Some characters he can't really rush down, but other MUs such as villager I think we benefit a LOT by playing hyper aggressive.

And yeah, dair may not be as effective against short characters in which case you should stick to more dash attack, down smash and grabs, but against medium and tall characters dairing in neutral is amazing if used right.

 

[LancerStaff]

The Pits can certainly play aggro, but most of the time playing defense is better. Right off the bat you can see they've got a combination of a good dash grab and a safeish dash attack (on cross-up) or safe aerials to approach with.

Earth usually approaches with walking jabs. Actually he just walks 99% of the time, so there's probably something to be said in that.

 

[SatsumaFS]

The Pits can certainly play aggro, but most of the time playing defense is better. Right off the bat you can see they've got a combination of a good dash grab and a safeish dash attack (on cross-up) or safe aerials to approach with.

Earth usually approaches with walking jabs. Actually he just walks 99% of the time, so there's probably something to be said in that.

Hm, that sounds interesting. I think I might give that a shot.

 

[Red Pittoo ~ Rekt]

I personally like to play a very passive-aggressive Pit or a patient Pit. When you know you can go in on someone, I do it. For example, when someone is shielding a lot, I love to go in with a grab and get juggles or edge guards going and maintainting stage control through pressure, hence, being offensive. As pretty much everyone else here has said, jabs are great for approaches due to their safeness. We have a great dash attack that's safe on crossup, as Lancer said. We can apply tons of pressure with nair, fadeback nair, crossup nair, fade back fair, d smash, arrows, dair, sh ff bair, jab, d tilt and stuff. Some matchups like Mega Man and ZSS a lot of the time require us to be offensive