Also, Falco's landing hit needs to be removed. There is no reason, no justification at all for it to have a landing hit since he doesn't do anything; Falco just lays there and there's this inexplicable hit. It's letting him get away with stuff and was probably even why it was buffed and nerfed; in 1.0.4, it was buffed to 5% making it the 2nd strongest tied, with Toon Link's Dair, landing aerial hit at the time - not counting Special landing hits which are stronger. First goes to ZSS's 5.5%. Now it goes to Pikachu's Bair and Dair and Wario's Dair at 4% and maybe someone else. Why was it buffed from 2%? I think it was to cover the nasty landing lag, but even then, why not just reduce it? Which they did and also nerfed it from 5% to 3%, but there's this other problem... If the landing hit was always there to cover the extreme landing lag which lead it being buffed to protect Falco even more which made it really stupid which then lead to Fair being re-tuned and having the landing lag cut down... What's the point of the landing hit? It's not a move that's supposed to be used low to the ground which is why Sonic gets punished if he does so and lands badly or even Pikachu, especially before 1.1.1 since electrical moves on shield were absolutely horrendous. The landing hit basically lets Falco get away with something he shouldn't and Falco's gotten away with a ton of **** in Smash as a whole. I actually feel like his Fair's landing hit contributes to degenerate play and over-reliance on it because it's a safety blanket. You can easily tell if a Falco is good or not by how Fair is being used. If Fair's being used in neutral and landing into shield, that's a bad player. If Fair's being used sporadically so you don't expect it, from setups, and/or mostly in the air, that's a good player. It and dash attack, a common move thrown out by rookies, are 2 moves rookie Falco players throw out way too much. For Fair, it's because they can get away with it when they shouldn't while dash attack is just a lack of control and lack of understanding that Falco is way too damn slow to use dash attack in neutral.
There are times when nerfs are actually good. This is one of them. It's one that will force Falco players to not rely on Fair's landing hit to save them. It's also good for other players since it's frankly stupid for a landing hit to look like that. If Falco flipped while landing so his beak was still spinning sort of like Sonic's Fair landing animation, then sure, but he's not; Falco's just on the ground staring at the dirt wondering how low he had to stoop to land a measly hit. There's also a nerf people who don't understand will end up crying, but for the people who do, it's definitely a blessing: increasing Blaster's startup to match Melee's. Total frames don't change at all which means Falco ends up with on the ground a frame 23 Blaster with 58 total frames. That's 36 recovery frames from his current 48. Problem would be aerial Blaster since currently, it's got 41 recovery frames and if you up the startup from 9 to Melee's 13, Falco ends up with 37 which is more than on the ground when it should be the opposite... They could reduce the total frames from Smash 4's 49 to Melee or Brawl's 42 or 41, respectively. Going with Melee, he would have 30 recovery frames while Brawl's would be 29 with Melee's startup. If we're going with Brawl's startup which is 10, he'd have 31... It's minor, really, in the differences. Hell, with his current frame 9 startup which would be wacky cause aerial is 9 while ground is 23, it would still be below the 35 range. The other option is also increasing the startup to say, 17, and leave the total frames alone, but that kind of would kill his combo extensions with lasers... Anyway, with 36 recovery frames on the ground, Falco would rival Mario's Fireball in recovery frames. Mario's Fireballs are by no means bad projectiles, but they're also not phenomenal projectiles. With a linear, thin projectile like that, it's pretty perfect for just taking relatively safe pot shots. In the air, he would rival Fox and Wolf's 29 recovery frames. Scary? Not really since like Fox, his momentum is stalled while using Blaster unlike Wolf who can and with superior air speed, gets to drift around in a way Falco dreams of. Also, Falco fires slower and his lasers travel shorter than Fox's so he won't be able to put up a larger, far-reaching wall. Assuming higher startup, Falco's going to be noticeable.
Oh, but these are competitive changes... Not really. People do realize how annoying Falco's Blaster is right? It's annoying in a sense of you're getting interrupted by these pathetic lasers preventing you from doing much. Falco's Blaster right now is like the prick who even a bedridden war veteran can knockout by breathing on him, but that prick's persistent so you beat him up even more. Higher startup just makes it less annoying for everyone. Also, people do realize that out of the projectiles that do cause hit stun, Falco's is tied second fastest fastest at frame 11 or 9 with Fox and Robin. Fox's can't do hit stun, so he kind of needs that speed while Robin's work under a durability mechanic, so she can't really liberally use them without screwing herself over. Following, if you count Luma's Star Bits as projectiles, then it's frame 13, then Lucario Aura Sphere's is at frame 14, then it's Yoshi's at frame 15 and that travels slower and can't be fired continually. Mega Man's Metal Saw and Samus's Charge Shot follows at frame 16 where in their case, they're not going to use fire them constantly; Mega Man's looking for weird angles and more likely to throw it down, pick it up, and start item shenanigans while Samus is going to charge, make you feel threaten, and fire when you least expect it. Then it's the Mario Bros.'s Fireballs and Robin's Arcfire at frame 17 and theirs goes nowhere compared to Falco's. Point is that almost all hit stun capable projectiles aren't cowboy quickdraw fast and if they are, they are limited to something like Mega Man's is his jab, Ftilt, and Nair which lose considerable knockback at range or Villager's is tied to her Fair and Bair. They also don't have a lot of range. Mii Gunner's Fair range and momentum change? Oh, yeah, low knockback. So, there's kind of no reason why Falco needs a fast projectile or one that fires continually since everyone else is taking pot shots or threatening with strong projectiles. Falco can't do that and his Blaster is more harmless than a mosquito that isn't carrying malaria. Fox needs to fire fast and continually because without hit stun, it's dangerous, so he needs to be able to rack up damage fast and threaten you with high DPS. In FFA, he needs to have that fast trigger finger to tag someone and kill steal. What's Falco going to do? Prevent kills since he stops people's momentum?
Oh, and if anyone's wondering who's the fastest, it's Sheik. She's busted so... Thing is she needs to have uncharged Needles to do this, to throw at frame 5. Otherwise, she's throwing at frame 11 with 6 Needles in hand. The other problem is that you need to throw one measly Needle with a small hitbox and deal with 43 frames of recovery. On the flipside, with it's derpy, high knockback growth, 180, it becomes stupid at high percents if she hits you. That and because it's fast and difficult to see, it's not really a problem for her; for us, it is a problem.
And I agree that Ness's is silly in comparison. In regards to his neutral I find spaced Fair to be useful when they start closing in a bit. It was pretty safe BEFORE its landing lag was reduced this last patch.