As someone who plays sheik fairly regularly, I don't think sheik really needs the fsmash buff at all. Even if it is true that it can be shieldgrabbed easily, that doesn't change the fact that it is now one of her most reliable kill moves, which goes almost entirely against her character. The first kick may not be lightning, but it's certainly fast enough to catch someone in their lag as a punishing move, proceeding into the second to kill them (assuming they had already hit killing percents). It is not a hard move to land, no matter how "awkward" some people will say it is, and it seems too much like a cop-out at times when you should have taken the chance to get a gimp earlier, but instead are rewarded with a kill anyway, even though you screwed up and let your foe live to 130%+. It's not meant to be just thrown out there, but it gets the job done as a reliable punisher that kills. It's not broken (I'm well aware that it won't KO until ~130% with good DI), but it acts as a crutch for when she fails at doing her job, which is gimping people before they hit ridiculous percents.
Though after what some other members of the WBR want to do with her fair and uair, this has kinda hit the back burner for me while arguing about something considerably more gamechanging. Some of you may have seen my arguments with ryoko in the irc about her fair speedup and how ryoko would rather see the change applied to uair. While the fsmash makes killing for her easier if she fails her core game, this completely changes her core game - her combo structure, her stage preferences, and her gimp potential, which almost seems like it's trying to make the fsmash change justified, by changing the archetype of her game.
I suppose a little background is in need for why the fair change was initially put in place. The fair change was implemented after we had started to play around with increasing her fair's power, both as a way to further define her established character and to help a character which at the time was somewhat lacking. It was originally raised from 108 to 135 growth (its 9 damage, 0 base, and 30 degree angle were left alone), which proved too powerful, and borderline broken. So, instead, we opted to raise the fair's overall utility without raising its power too much. It was given 120 growth, a modest increase over the original, and had five frames cut off of its aerial endlag, which didn't affect the autocancel frame. This did several things, mostly revolving around rising fairs. First, it made it so that at low percents, if she attempted to do dthrow -> fair, she would be able to fair again before the opponent broke out of hitstun, as opposed to receiving a kick in the face from characters such as luigi simply because she landed her extremely low kb attack. Second, it gave her the ability to perform a FJ fair -> nair or bair (and then land on a platform immediately afterward) reliably on platform stages such as battlefield. This creates both frame traps (for techchasing situations) and bolsters her combo ability on platform stages, being able to fair -> nair, land, and continue her combo. The third effect was that it helped her gimping game by allowing her to act sooner when chasing people offstage with fairs. If you'll notice, this fair edit was done explicitly buffing her strengths, as opposed to improving her weaknesses.
Now that that's out of the way, here is her vbrawl frame data (brackets indicate the autocancel frame):
Forward Air
HIT: 5
END: 28 {14}
LAND: 15
Up Air
HIT: 4
END: 42 {29}
LAND: 30
The currently implemented fair edit causes the move to end on frame 23 instead of 28. The uair edit being discussed would cause the uair to end on frame 31 instead of 42 and autocancel frame 24 instead of frame 29. Note that the same amount of time that is taken off of the fair's aerial endlag (not landlag) is what is taken off of the uair's AC timing, with a much greater reduction in the uair's aerial endlag.
For those familiar with the current sheik (you'd better be if you're arguing about her, and the same goes for any character discussed in this thread), you would know that her current game revolves largely around comboing and gimping, usually putting her in a greatly disadvantaged situation if she doesn't get a gimp (unless she manages to land that fsmash you all have been talking about for the past page or so, that is). Comboing takes on a variety of forms, while gimps tend to come most often from fair (and often assisted by her chain edgehog). Her combos are largely horizontal, only occasionally taking the form of uair juggles, but usually making great use of her grab, ftilt, fair, nair, and bair, occasionally using dair as a mixup. Her combos are particularly noteworthy on platform stages, often being a mix of comboing and platform techchasing, with the platforms not only acting as a potential frame trap for her opponent, but also enabling her to do things like rising fj fair -> nair -> land immediately afterward and run off to continue the combo, as I mentioned earlier. This is her established character. It's the sheik that sheik has been since the very early plussery sets, and besides the introduction of the fsmash, she has largely been left alone.
Removing the frame speed change on fair and placing it on uair (frame 19, 2x speed) results in a juggle-happy sheik that now uses vertical combos/strings far more than ever precedented for her. Her gimps are less effective, so it's less worthwhile trying to gimp them from a combo. Her horizontal combos themselves are less effective, meaning it's harder to get them into a position you can gimp them in from a combo. Instead, her most damaging combos end up juggling her foes upward, which ultimately ends up in her playing the "airdodge game" with her opponents, where her uair ends long before the foe's AD does, and even if they AD, she still easily hits them with another uair before they land, putting them back into the air. Only characters with a good hitbox below them or some form of counter even have the means to escape it when properly set up. She could technically do this before against most characters, with the uair having 38 frames of lag, ending just before the shortest airdodge in the game of 39 frames, but she had to attack near the beginning of the AD (making it a very very "almost combo" in the first place, with the frame trap not even working at all on characters with particularly short ADs), and you had to be high enough in the air that you could finish the animation and throw out another before you land (not just autocancel... outright finish the animation, which happens 13 frames after it begins to AC). With the speedup applied, it finishes frame 31, giving plenty of room for error on every AD in the game, as well as giving her many more situations which she can set up this frame trap in, due to being able to execute it closer to the ground and still have enough time to get the second uair out.
If you hadn't noticed yet, sheik's entire strategy has just changed from something that at first seems like it's only taking away a little utility from one move and adding it to another. In fact, one of the main reasons for wanting this change is that it makes her fair gimps less effective and encourages more diversity in her moveset. No. That is not what this does. It actually causes less diversity in her moveset, by giving her a consistently good option after mid-percents against almost everyone, which outright destroys many characters.
Sure, she can still gimp with the fair/uair swap, but not as well. Sure, she can still use horizontal combos with the fair/uair swap, but not as well. Sure, she can still use platform stages with the fair/uair swap.......... but not anywhere fricking close to how fricking well she can use flat stages now. When you have a frame trap with that much room for error that is used to keep the foe in the air, sheik will do best on flat stages that keep maximum distance between the foe and safe ground.
It completely inverts her playstyle. With fair sped up, she loves platforms, horizontal combos, and gimps. With uair sped up instead, she loves flat stages, vertical combos, and simply keeping a helpless foe trapped in the air until she can kill them.
