Beginner question about Wavedashing

[Hunter Nance]

Hey guys,

So I've been a sm4sh main for a while, but decided that melee was the game I really wanted to devote my competitive time to. I picked up wavedashing pretty quick, but I'm not entirely sure how to use it, I guess. I know how to do it, and have gotten pretty consistent with hitting it every time, but I just do not know when I'm supposed to use it. I will randomly remember that I know how to do it, but then when I do, I never see the benefit. I know it's meant to help with speeding up my movement, so could someone explain kind of the situations where wavedashing is clearly the best option?

 

[necroTaxonomist]

Good uses of wavedashing:

• Wavedash backwards to grab the ledge. It's a little bit faster than jumping.
• Wavedash to dodge an attack. There are probably a lot of situations when you have been rolling when you could have been wavedashing. A wavedash is a less committal maneuver than a roll, so it's good for a situation when you need to dodge an attack, but don't need to go as far as a roll would take you.
• Wavedash to space an attack. Sometimes, you may be just a teensy little bit out of range for that ftilt. Wavedashing is helpful in those situations, because you don't need to break into a full dash.
• Wavedash out of shield. Always nice to have another OoS option. Wavedashing out of shield can be used to avoid a shield grab, or to help space a ground attack. Or just to mix things up.
• Wavedash to mix up your movement. You'd be surprised how much harder it is to read an opponent who wavedashes and dash dances back and forth. I like to do the thing where you run at them like you're about to do an attack and then you wavedash back. Catches people off guard sometimes.

Truth is, don't worry about it too much. At some point you will begin to feel constrained by conventional movement options and you will start to do it more and more until it's just normal.

 

[Hunter Nance]

Hey, thanks! I didn't even realize that you could wavedash off of an edge, I thought the edge would stop you. And I think part of the issue is just breaking out of the basic movement habits that we all learn right away (i.e rolling and jumping often), like you said at the end.

 

[Mr Snak3_]

Also with grabbing ledges learn the PC drop, good mix up