Now that we're a month into their release, what's y'all's bread and butter game plan when using Byleth? Combos you try to fish for? Preferred ways you approach and try to maintain advantage state? Mixups to compensate for Fair/Bair approaches being very obvious with very specific spacing, and being vulnerable to parries?
I still feel as though I'm not learning anything when using them. I'm no stranger to spacing aerials, and that's all well and good but sweetspot Fair and Bair won't lead to any followups themselves. Most of my combos come off of Utilt and Dtilt into Uairs which only gets me so far since Byleth can't keep chasing down an opponent for long. Nair keeps surprising me with unexpected whiffs, fall-outs, or wrong knockback directions so I never feel ready to go for a followup, and I never feel like going for Up Special due to its positioning hangups after a successful 50+% hit. I've started to get a feel for menacing landings and defensive play with grounded Side Special, but still don't really know when I should go for aerial versions outside of those moments when I suddenly can see the Matrix and realize my opponent's been floating away from my aerials right into the perfect spot to catch them with it. But when I win, I often feel as though my opponent messed up instead of me playing correctly, and I think it's because my kills are mostly from stray hits instead of setups.
I've been doing fairly well. I've already gotten two upsets in bracket this past week. I feel pretty comfterble with the character, but that also has to do with the fact I've gone as far as to pretty much solo Byleth, even when my main is actually Zelda.
I don't think anything is really too complex, and there are rarely any situations where I'd feel Byleth needs to be better at a certain aspect for me to feel content with the character. Spacing Fairs & Bairs and some grabs (namely, tomohawks) are pretty much where I feel it's at. It's not largely different than other spacing characters (I'm not calling Byleth a swordie because it's literally a lance and axe more than an actual sword). And I see what you mean at this narrow gameplan being succeptible to parries, but it's not like you can't mix it up with said grabs. Our grab is fairly decent, at least in terms of frame data and follow-ups. You can get D-Throw > Fair up until around mid percents, and if anything, DI away helps getting the tipper. I've landed a couple of D-Throw > Bairs at 50 at the ledge, and they actually killed. DI inwards can somewhat lead into Uair, or at least into some sort of tech scenario when platforms are involved.
I don't struggle with combo'ing, but that has to do a lot with Nair. Nair dragdowns lead to combos, but they're not always straightforward. If you hold inwards too much, they might land behind you (not hard to control, though). I haven't fully practiced all variations on weight/fallspeed, but I've done some pretty cool stuff with it.
The better I get with Byleth, the more I realise how inconsistent stuff like FSmash is. I find far more uses in U-Smash & D-Smash. U-Smash is a surprisingly solid OoS, and one of the best anti airs. Kills far earlier than it looks. D-Smash doesn't feel nearly as inconsistent as it looks. People pretty much have to jump out of or respect it altogether. People aren't safe to roll, spotdodge, or even hold shield.
