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Official Character Competitive Impressions - Tourneys, Tiers, Theories, Tactics

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wedl!!

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So... just jump away? Mario can't punish that as well as an airdodge. Airdodging at 100% against Mario near the ground is asking to die to begin with. His aerials aren't really going to kill you (besides bair at like 140%).
 
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DunnoBro

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You're going to have to define KO confirm because you literally once tried to tell me Mario D-throw -> U-smashing an unnecessary airdodge is a KO confirm, in spite of the fact Mario literally can't force the airdodge due to none of his aerials actually killing at reasonable percents.
Kill confirm just means "If I confirm this happens, I kill" that's all. As unnecessary as you THINK the air dodge might be, if they air dodge they do die. (It also beats out dragon punches which is very important)

Note: this isn't to be confused with 50/50s which mean there are kill confirms to cover all options.

It isn't reliable, but it is a confirm. A VERY important confirm that makes people AFRAID to air dodge and lets mario gets the damage he needs to do so he can then kill with his typical stairway combos, bthrow, or usmash.

Air dodge punishes are almost always stronger because air dodging needs to be read thus the reward is greater. Not sure why you think this is some unique phenomena with mario.

Regardless, DHD's confirms on light fast fallers are as simple as they get. Dthrow > Uair for no air dodge options and Dthrow > Fsmash for air dodge. (At higher percents, bair is needed for no air dodge and usmash for air dodge.)

(Of course, the issue with them is that the animations take so long and those characters land so quickly that I guess wrong I can die, unless they're sheik. Not really fair considering how late they kill to begin with)
 
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Dre89

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Bowser can't frame trap people in the air properly, and his edgeguarding is very limited. His best reward comes from edgetrapping or generically catching landings with SideB, which is less effective depending on the matchup.

Bowser only kills well if you're a character with very limited options to avoid his super specific situations where he can hit you. Link actually can get super massive reward in multiple situations, while Bowser has like...2 situations where he gets good reward that are extremely obvious.

Also uh, he definitely has basically the worst landing options with his landing lag and inability to really change his horizontal momentum meaningfully. At least Ganon Down-B is good at striking blindspots when he desperately needs to challenge juggles, but Bowser has nothing like that which can't be easily outspaced in most situations.
What are these super specific situations where Bowser can hit you? He has a dashgrab that can outspace hitboxes because of it's absurd range. Pivot grab can do the same and is very safe/ He has a long range unreactable dash attack, and decently fast aerials to catch jumps with.

Bowser can get massive reward in any situation except for edgeguarding. You kill people at 80% out of a long-ranged frame 7 jab if you have any rage at all, which you will if we're talking about top level play. He's like the best character in the game at getting kills from disadvantage because of how many options dair covers, and ff klaw onto someone trying to shield punish his landing.

On the ground he has frame 11 downb, which can combo from frame 7 jab, which in turn is quite safe if perfect pivoted. He has sideb, which kills early on platform stages, and usmash which isn't quick but is safe on aerial opponents if spaced correctly. If he has rage then all his tilts become kill moves.

In the air you have frame 9 bair, uair for catching double jumps, dair if they get too close, downb if they try pivot grab your landing, and sideb if they try shield it. With rage frame 11 fair also becomes a reliable kill option.

Also his best reward isn't punishing landings with sideb. If you're going to commit to a read like that, you might as well downb, which is only 3 frames slower, but does 24% and kills a lot earlier.

And no, Bowser does not have the worst landing options. His landing options are objectively better than Ganondorf's and DKs. Most characters can just shield against Ganondorf and even if they don't get a punish off it, at worst he'll reset to his terrible neutral.

There is also no way his landing options are worse than DK's. DK is pretty much always forced to face away from his opponent so he at least has the threat of spacing a bair, otherwise it's a completely free punish. At lower percents you don't get this luxury so you take a ton of damage. He's also way worse at the ledge. The only disadvantaged state where DK is better off is recovering.

There is no one option that is safe against Bowser because dair will beat anything that isn't like a Link upair, and shielding can be sideb'd, pressured with a firebreath landing, or even be broken with late downb. Yes, downb is an effective landing mix up in some scenarios, if you anticipate someone trying to pivot grab your landing or just dash-shield.

That's why Bowser is genuinely threatening this game, and is a solid mid-tier. Whether it be neutral or even Bowser's disadvantage, there is no one option that is always safe against him, and he has the ability to kill you with unreactable options even if you shield.
 
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DunnoBro

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Yea bowser's landing options are very radical, but much better than ganon or dks.

I don't really know how good he is overall but he very clearly has more options than ganon or dk while landing.

Dair/Bair + Slam means he can counter the traditional landing killing coverage options(anti-air smash/shield grab) with killing options of his own at absurdly low percents.

Like just the fact Bair/Slam kill so soon with rage, and then dair hits people charging smashes to kill around the same percents makes me feel like his landing options were very intentionally worked on to compensate for his natural weakness.
 
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Dre89

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Yea bowser's landing options are very radical, but much better than ganon or dks.

I don't really know how good he is overall but he very clearly has more options than ganon or dk while landing.

Dair/Bair + Slam means he can counter the traditional landing killing coverage options with killing options (anti-air smash/shield grab) of his own at absurdly low percents.

Like just the fact Bair/Slam kill so soon with rage, and then dair hits people charging smashes to kill around the same percents makes me feel like his landing options were very intentionally worked on to compensate for his natural weakness.
The range on the landing hitbox for dair is absurd too. Pretty sure the sour spot can shield poke. I know that you if dair onto the side platforms on BF it'll sourspot characters beneath them.
 

Skeeter Mania

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So... just jump away? Mario can't punish that as well as an airdodge. Airdodging at 100% against Mario near the ground is asking to die to begin with. His aerials aren't really going to kill you (besides bair at like 140%).
I swear, Mario is so overrated it's not even funny. I know this has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but I fail to see how he's anywhere within Top 5 with disadvantages like these.
 

Zelder

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I don't think people putting him in top 5, when he's probably about...8...on the tier list is terribly overrating him. It feels like this topic comes up every 3 pages. He's top tier, but what exact granular distinction in the top tier is both widely influenced by player perception/experience (like Anti and Esam having him in top 5, whereas I believe Dabuz had him sitting at 7) and also super unimportant to discussion, in my personal opinion.
 
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Mario766

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Did I just hear Bowser having halfway decent landing options?

Excuse me while I laugh myself into a coma.

Having better landing options than DK or Ganon means you're the best of the worst.

Which is still terrible.
 
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Skeeter Mania

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I don't think people putting him in top 5, when he's probably about...8...on the tier list is terribly overrating him. It feels like this topic comes up every 3 pages.
I'm mostly talking about certain people like those on r/smashbros. Some even argue that he's Top 3 even though I (and mostly likely most of us here) have zero reason to believe that, especially with inferior results.

On their most recent community tier list (which I also voted on), I placed Mario in A tier. His large representation, excellent combo game, and amazing frame data have convinced me that he's a Top 10 character, but outside of Pikachu, he doesn't really win against any other character commonly perceived to place that high. The final result put him in A+ behind Sheik, Rosa, ZSS, and Pikachu, something I will never understand to this day.
 

Zelder

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I'm mostly talking about certain people like those on r/smashbros. Some even argue that he's Top 3 even though I (and mostly likely most of us here) have zero reason to believe that, especially with inferior results.

On their most recent community tier list (which I also voted on), I placed Mario in A tier. His large representation, excellent combo game, and amazing frame data have convinced me that he's a Top 10 character, but outside of Pikachu, he doesn't really win against any other character commonly perceived to place that high. The final result put him in A+ behind Sheik, Rosa, ZSS, and Pikachu, something I will never understand to this day.
Getting mad at r/smashbros for having an inaccurate tier list is like getting mad at an ant for not understanding the world doesn't end at the colony.
 

Mario766

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The only ones who actually know half a thing about the game who overrate Mario is Japanese.

They also run off an entirely different meta.
 

Zelder

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I don't get it.
I had this whole long thing written out but I realized that I'm in a bad mood and being generally unfair to r/smashbros, so I'm gonna drop the overly long and verbose point I had. But I will say, that even in your example, you placed Mario in A rank, and the final tier list ended up with him being in A+ tier list - which doesn't seem too far off from your beliefs. Overrated yes, but it's not like you had him in D tier and then r/smashbros placed him in A tier (*LOUD COUGH*ROY*LOUDCOUGH*)
 

Rizen

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Link doesn't get guaranteed kills off of dthrow on lightweights, at least not on ZSS who's a fairly fast falling lightweight, so I highly doubt he gets them on the rest of them either. It's a 50:50. Jab 2 sets up for nothing on fast fallers, possibly not others either if you SDI the jabs down/up depending on whether going for mid-air jump or trying to hit the ground and shield is faster for that particular character.



And no, fair doesn't work either, airdodge avoids both hits.



ZSS' grab also has roughly 3 times the active frames of Link's, her dashgrab covers nearly half of an omega stage, and she has far better mobility and pressure to force the opponent to sit in shield and be vulnerable for her grabs. Their cooldowns are also very similar which is the most important part. Link's standing grab has a clear edge due to being able to shieldgrab some crucial things ZSS can't, but then again they both have a frame 4 up b OoS so it's irrelevant in most cases.

ZSS doesn't have a single rising aerial but she has good autocancels for air to air and her mobility and dash grab force people to jump around more, while her nair and zair outperform Link's disjoints in the air horizontally. Nair and uair also set up for death combos at 30-90% and can't be shieldgrabbed on landing before ZSS' jab comes out, and zair sets up for grab which sets up for the same death combos at the same percentages. Bair is a kill move that's as safe as nair and uair except jabbing isn't as useful afterwards due to requiring a turnaround. Link's autocancels on the other hand are non-existent unless you're going to be relying on bair a lot, and his falling aerials don't have nearly the same safety or reward as ZSS' do, and his jump squat is also very slow.

You can't compare the two just because they both have a tether grab and a bad rising aerial game. Even if we only consider these two factors without all the other massive differences, ZSS' grab is quite good for a tether grab due to her dashgrab and active frames, her grab reward is as overtuned as possible without being broken and her falling aerial game is the safest and most rewarding in the entire cast (with Ryu as a relatively close runner-up in my opinion). Link's grab reward is only decent to good (dependent on the opponent's weight) and his falling aerial game is meh.
You're mostly right but a few things are off. Link's standing, dash and pivot grabs have 7, 6, and 13 frames less cool down (edit, I mean IASA frames) than ZSS' and all start sooner so that's considerable. Link's ground upB is frame 8 not 4.

Link's falling aerials (except Uair/Dair) do have reward off reads and are safe if spaced right due to the increased shield stun. Link has low landing lag at frame 10 Nair, 12 Fair, 10 Bair and 8 Zair. He can Nair/Fair>arrow lock and chain the listed aerials into other attacks depending on the %. ZSS is obviously better but Link has a good falling aerial game. He can also Zair drop bombs like Brawl Snake's grenades for added safety.

Other than that I agree.
You literally have a GIF showing you this isn't the case. (characters can fall below Link, or just fade away with their faster aerial mobility, or possibly go past him too)
No, provided Link reads the DI properly the sour Uair is guaranteed. The gif didn't buffer dash before jumping.
 
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DunnoBro

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No, provided Link reads the DI properly the sour Uair is guaranteed. The gif didn't buffer dash before jumping.
I believe the issue is, in that scenario too, Air dodging inward (or against Link's current momentum) would let them avoid it.

I'd imagine it works better with rage/on slower fall speed characters.

Only thing that might help is a buffered SH Uair (double stick method), to come out quicker/lower and then fast fell to catch the air dodge.
 

Firefoxx

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Ordering characters within tiers is a fools errand.

Partially related to this Mario talk: Since September 14th only Sheik has made more reported top 8's in non-locals than Mario has.

Another fun fact about that arbitrary time period: Diddy (32) has more wins in non-locals than Sheik (31) does.

Edit: In terms of raw numbers, Mario has taken pre-patch Luigi's place as 3rd most used character in tournaments.
 
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TTTTTsd

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Ordering characters within tiers is a fools errand.

Partially related to this Mario talk: Since September 14th only Sheik has made more reported top 8's in non-locals than Mario has.

Another fun fact about that arbitrary time period: Diddy (32) has more wins in non-locals than Sheik (31) does.
Honestly at this point I agree. Look at the SIZE of our roster. The most we could do is like, reliably Top 5 and Bottom 5 and even then it's hard for a lot of people.

We have a roster the size of MVC2 if you include all Miis and Cloud, and it's only getting bigger in December. I think it's legitimately impossible to order them as a community in this thread (maybe the backroom could, power to them if they're able) but like, yeah. If we get 4 more we'll match KOF2k2UM at SIXTY, and even if we only get 2-3 that's still GIGANTIC. Ordering requires matchup knowledge relative to the whole cast once you start ordering in the lower tiers outside of the higher ones because their MU with the tops are (generally) a given, and then the rabbit hole just gets deeper. That's not even counting the patching we have going on too.

I've given up at this point, I can only speak to how viable (ideally usable/secondary usable) characters I know about are.
 

Rizen

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In this gif ZSS' hurtbox is in the Uair hitbox.

This is from Brawl but most attacks' hitbubbles are the about same:
https://youtu.be/Wb5amTV1fuc?t=95
Uair has decent side reach and is partially on Link's arm too.
I believe the issue is, in that scenario too, Air dodging inward (or against Link's current momentum) would let them avoid it.

I'd imagine it works better with rage/on slower fall speed characters.

Only thing that might help is a buffered SH Uair (double stick method), to come out quicker/lower and then fast fell to catch the air dodge.
That doesn't let them escape because Link can simply read their movements and react accordingly.

If Link has rage and/or a staled Dthrow it does make the combo easier.

SH Uair doesn't work because if the opponent air dodges Link lands before the airdodge ends. Uair's only good if the opponent is sent far enough that a full jump is required to reach them.
 
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Mazdamaxsti

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Kill confirms are more common than one thinks. Puff, Kirby, Wii Fit, and even Ganon have some sort of confirm/50:50 on some characters, but it doesn't make them good. One of the reasons I advocate for Luigi still being really good (but not top tier obv).
 

Trifroze

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You're mostly right but a few things are off. Link's standing, dash and pivot grabs have 7, 6, and 13 frames less cool down than ZSS' and all start sooner so that's considerable. Link's ground upB is frame 8 not 4.
You're talking about the overall durations of their grabs, but Link's actual cooldowns are 50/52/52 and ZSS' are 53/56/63, or 45/47/47 vs 40/43/51 if you count the cooldown from where their grab hitboxes completely end instead of where they actually come out. Was wrong about Link's up b though, good to know.

Link's falling aerials (except Uair/Dair) do have reward off reads and are safe if spaced right due to the increased shield stun. Link has low landing lag at frame 10 Nair, 12 Fair, 10 Bair and 8 Zair. He can Nair/Fair>arrow lock and chain the listed aerials into other attacks depending on the %. ZSS is obviously better but Link has a good falling aerial game. He can also Zair drop bombs like Brawl Snake's grenades for added safety.
Landing lag is an important factor but not enough alone to make something safe. Bair does very little damage because it's a multi-hit and you can only land with either of the hits, fair comes out slow so it can be punished upon startup or powershielded relatively easily, and nair/uair/dair all put Link close to the opponent despite doing good damage and are particularly punishable if spotdodged, nair much less so though. Zairs on the other hand are always good, so that one and nair are the only good falling aerials I'd personally admit Link to have. Very importantly as well, Link doesn't have any fast ground options to cover himself or frametrap the opponent after hitting a shield, in fact all his options for this are among the slowest in the game along with the likes of Ganondorf and Palutena, and his slow mobility and jump squat don't help him with that either. I think Link's ground game is still a much stronger part of him than his aerials.
 

meleebrawler

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Kill confirms are more common than one thinks. Puff, Kirby, Wii Fit, and even Ganon have some sort of confirm/50:50 on some characters, but it doesn't make them good. One of the reasons I advocate for Luigi still being really good (but not top tier obv).
Other "low tiers" with notable kill setups include Lucas, Mewtwo, Robin and Bowser Jr.
 

Rizen

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You're talking about the overall durations of their grabs, but Link's actual cooldowns are 50/52/52 and ZSS' are 53/56/63, or 45/47/47 vs 40/43/51 if you count the cooldown from where their grab hitboxes completely end instead of where they actually come out. Was wrong about Link's up b though, good to know.



Landing lag is an important factor but not enough alone to make something safe. Bair does very little damage because it's a multi-hit and you can only land with either of the hits, fair comes out slow so it can be punished upon startup or powershielded relatively easily, and nair/uair/dair all put Link close to the opponent despite doing good damage and are particularly punishable if spotdodged, nair much less so though. Zairs on the other hand are always good, so that one and nair are the only good falling aerials I'd personally admit Link to have. Very importantly as well, Link doesn't have any fast ground options to cover himself or frametrap the opponent after hitting a shield, in fact all his options for this are among the slowest in the game along with the likes of Ganondorf and Palutena, and his slow mobility and jump squat don't help him with that either. I think Link's ground game is still a much stronger part of him than his aerials.
My bad in phrasing. The IASA frames are important on wiff though.

It's about spacing. You have to treat Link as a defensive zoning character. If Link SHs Fair he can drift away and the range lets him be relatively safe on shields due to the increased shield stun. Link is much safer than he was before the patch. Fair/Bair hit twice so they're harder to PS unless the first hit wiffs. Link usually does not want to get close with his aerials but rather wall the opponent at a distance. If the opponent's in his happy bubble he does suffer. If spaced from the tip, Fair/Bair/Zair are safe because the disjoint.
Nair's a sex kick that has attack from frames 7-31 and 10 frames landing lag. It's not an approach/walling move but can be a good chain breaker/lag punisher, paired with Link's 3rd fastest FF speed. It's not safe on shield but really wasn't meant to be used that way. The disjoint around Link's entire lower body is surprisingly good but it doesn't reach too far forward.
I agree Uair/Dair were not meant to land with.
 
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A2ZOMG

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What are these super specific situations where Bowser can hit you? He has a dashgrab that can outspace hitboxes because of it's absurd range. Pivot grab can do the same and is very safe/ He has a long range unreactable dash attack, and decently fast aerials to catch jumps with.

Bowser can get massive reward in any situation except for edgeguarding. You kill people at 80% out of a long-ranged frame 7 jab if you have any rage at all, which you will if we're talking about top level play. He's like the best character in the game at getting kills from disadvantage because of how many options dair covers, and ff klaw onto someone trying to shield punish his landing.

On the ground he has frame 11 downb, which can combo from frame 7 jab, which in turn is quite safe if perfect pivoted. He has sideb, which kills early on platform stages, and usmash which isn't quick but is safe on aerial opponents if spaced correctly. If he has rage then all his tilts become kill moves.

In the air you have frame 9 bair, uair for catching double jumps, dair if they get too close, downb if they try pivot grab your landing, and sideb if they try shield it. With rage frame 11 fair also becomes a reliable kill option.

Also his best reward isn't punishing landings with sideb. If you're going to commit to a read like that, you might as well downb, which is only 3 frames slower, but does 24% and kills a lot earlier.

And no, Bowser does not have the worst landing options. His landing options are objectively better than Ganondorf's and DKs. Most characters can just shield against Ganondorf and even if they don't get a punish off it, at worst he'll reset to his terrible neutral.

There is also no way his landing options are worse than DK's. DK is pretty much always forced to face away from his opponent so he at least has the threat of spacing a bair, otherwise it's a completely free punish. At lower percents you don't get this luxury so you take a ton of damage. He's also way worse at the ledge. The only disadvantaged state where DK is better off is recovering.

There is no one option that is safe against Bowser because dair will beat anything that isn't like a Link upair, and shielding can be sideb'd, pressured with a firebreath landing, or even be broken with late downb. Yes, downb is an effective landing mix up in some scenarios, if you anticipate someone trying to pivot grab your landing or just dash-shield.

That's why Bowser is genuinely threatening this game, and is a solid mid-tier. Whether it be neutral or even Bowser's disadvantage, there is no one option that is always safe against him, and he has the ability to kill you with unreactable options even if you shield.
A few things. Bowser first off can only really hurt you when you are either next to him or on the ledge. Being above him is not that scary when he had no high hitting options that are not super telegraphed. It's generally more trouble than it's worth for Bowser to try to chase people in the air minus specific matchups, meaning as I stated, the two obvious situations where he can hurt you are when he's next to you, or edgetrapping.

DownB is not always consistent depending on DI or position, and SideB is still more consistent due to being a grab and faster, which isn’t exactly a small difference. There's ultimately a lot more situations where SideB is the optimal punish for obvious reasons.

Bowser does have a decent dashgrab but if that's the only thing he can reach you with to punish, you aren't dying. Bowser still has to be fairly close to you to get justifiable reward.

Another thing is that all of Bowser's landing options basically have like 20+ frames of startup or something. You don't really have a lot of reason to get hit by his landing options as long as you don't overcommit when he's barely above double jump height above you. That is obviously the case for most heavies but Bowser in particular commits a lot and is really wide. Good luck landing against projectile traps or Rosa like that.

Now DK is definitely awful at landing, but full charge Giant Punch is armored and safe on block, and he has more air mobility than Bowser which by it self does plent more wor for resetting. Turning around with Neutral B charge is also a thing last I checked, which at higher altitudes let's DK prepare Bairs. Also his Dair is not THAT slow in this game, making it a reasonably non telegraphed option to throw in with fast falls. Ganon landing options are mostly aerial Wizkick and his aerials which are not always unsafe on block. He sucks vs juggles, but aerial Wizkick is both faster and more versatile than Bowser's options due to the angle it goes at, which is harder to explicitly out space as Ganon is trying to force people to not chase his landing. If your spacing is good, it's easier to stay next to Bowser's landing options in contrast, and he's generally weaker air to air than Ganon.

Bowser vs Ganon in terms of viability is somewhat debatable, but what results does Bowser even get? Ganon still has several mains who place top 8 or better in stacked events. They both have dumb matchups against certain top tiers, but I'm almost certain Bowser has more explicit unwinnable matchups due to his aerials generally being worse and due to his size.
 
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LancerStaff

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Real talk, can we even say we have a bottom tier in this game? I've heard that every "bad" character besides like Zelda and Puff has some sort of redeeming quality that keeps them from being useless, and even if we do have a bottom tier, who can we say is definitely there? Because if Bowser and Duck Hunt or whatever aren't bottom tier then we're running out of options pretty quick.
 

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Does their meta really have anything to it that would make Mario better though?
I'd say no because I believe that, in this game, Mario and Captain Falcon are the two characters that are pretty much built from the ground up by fundamentals. If you have a good grasp of competitive Smash, these characters will serve you well. Success with these characters largely boils down to spacing and knowing how to follow up attacks because, all in all, neither character really has anything special about them. Aside from Mario's cape and FLUDD, both characters have a low learning curve and are pretty straight forward. This all being said, unless there's some new advanced technique that's applicable for both of them or they get some buffs in a future patch, I think they're as good as they're going to get.

Real talk, can we even say we have a bottom tier in this game? I've heard that every "bad" character besides like Zelda and Puff has some sort of redeeming quality that keeps them from being useless, and even if we do have a bottom tier, who can we say is definitely there? Because if Bowser and Duck Hunt or whatever aren't bottom tier then we're running out of options pretty quick.
Not in the same sense as the last three games because, kind of like you imply, there's nobody in this game that is Melee Kirby or Brawl Ganondorf levels of hilariously bad. The patches have also saved more than a dozen characters from become total lost causes. This isn't to say that this game doesn't have unviable characters but there really isn't anyone that you'd simply select if there was an enormous skill difference between you and your opponent and you just wanted to show off. At this time, I think Samus and Zelda are the worst but they're not totally unredeemable. Like :4dk::4wiifit::4metaknight::4robinm::4link: in the past, both of them are maybe one buff dump away from being back on the right track.
 
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Spinosaurus

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I think its harder to have an agreed upon worst character/bottom 5 and such is because there's so many characters in the game there's more competition for the title, rather than because each character has a redeemable quality.

Like, just to use an example. In MvC3 the worst character was obviously Hsien Ko, but UMvC3 rolled in with more characters and nobody could decide between Hsien-Ko, Phoenix Wright, Tron (after the assist nerf) and Nemesis, at least early on.

Basically it speaks more for the quantity of the characters rather than the balance.
 
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AnEventHorizon

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I had this whole long thing written out but I realized that I'm in a bad mood and being generally unfair to r/smashbros, so I'm gonna drop the overly long and verbose point I had. But I will say, that even in your example, you placed Mario in A rank, and the final tier list ended up with him being in A+ tier list - which doesn't seem too far off from your beliefs. Overrated yes, but it's not like you had him in D tier and then r/smashbros placed him in A tier (*LOUD COUGH*ROY*LOUDCOUGH*)
I know people here love to hate on r/smashbros, and thanks for realizing you had been a bit unfair. Just to clarify though, the r/smashbros tier list put Roy in B, not A.

I'm still unsure why however. He's basically been put in the same spot since he was released as DLC with everyone else moving around him. I guess people just don't see Roy actually getting played and trashed enough to lower the general opinion of him.
 
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Zelder

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Smash 4 really needs a Pichu-esque joke character* for clowning on opponents. Though I understand why Smash doesn't have a consistent Dan-esque character - it's hard to designate one character, presumably a new character, as a joke character without making it disrespectful to the creator of said character or fan's of said character.











*aside from zelda ayyyyyy lmao
 

LancerStaff

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Smash 4 really needs a Pichu-esque joke character* for clowning on opponents. Though I understand why Smash doesn't have a consistent Dan-esque character - it's hard to designate one character, presumably a new character, as a joke character without making it disrespectful to the creator of said character or fan's of said character.

*aside from zelda ayyyyyy lmao
Glass Joe? Mac's air game, Puff's ground game, and gets OHKO'd if you hit him at the right time at the end of a taunt.
 

PND

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Smash 4 really needs a Pichu-esque joke character* for clowning on opponents. Though I understand why Smash doesn't have a consistent Dan-esque character - it's hard to designate one character, presumably a new character, as a joke character without making it disrespectful to the creator of said character or fan's of said character.

*aside from zelda ayyyyyy lmao
Honestly, I say this as someone who REALLY wants to main Jiggs. . . it kind of feel like Jiggs is that way. She was good in Melee and decent-ish in 64, but she's god-awful in Brawl and in Smash 4. . . I'd eliminate the "god" and just put her at "awful"

I feel it's more mechanical changes than anything else, but I can't help think that Sakurai is molding her into the joke character archetype.

Seriously Sakurai, why. I WANT TO MAIN JIGGLYPUFF. WHY WON'T YOU LET ME HAVE NICE THINGS? You took away my Snake and Ice Climbers and made Jigglypuff terribad.
 

DunnoBro

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The only thing that could advance mario's meta significantly and artificially at this point is the ability to have both consistent frame perfect sh uairs (tap/shoulder jump + c-stick attack to allow buffering) and consistent pivot usmashes/dair > dsmash (shoulder jump + smash stick) in one control scheme. I've yet to meet a mario player not hindered by his controls one way or another.

Gotta choose between either Perfect Stairway combos or Smash Punishes/Follow-ups. (Also if you try to use tap jump + c-stick attack you will need to be frame perfect about sjp every single time you have a jump left and not overshoot the ledge and get killed)

Smash stick is also not a very common optimal setting for top tiers so it hurts investment into him overall.
 
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Fatmanonice

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Smash 4 really needs a Pichu-esque joke character* for clowning on opponents. Though I understand why Smash doesn't have a consistent Dan-esque character - it's hard to designate one character, presumably a new character, as a joke character without making it disrespectful to the creator of said character or fan's of said character.











*aside from zelda ayyyyyy lmao
Waluigi is probably the only character that could get away with this without pissing off too many people because, I mean, that kind of is his character: a perpetual loser who blames everyone else for his faults. I dunno, I've always seen Jiggs as a joke character if only because the instant death on a broken shield is the dumbest concept ever added to a Smash game.
 

ParanoidDrone

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Real talk, can we even say we have a bottom tier in this game? I've heard that every "bad" character besides like Zelda and Puff has some sort of redeeming quality that keeps them from being useless, and even if we do have a bottom tier, who can we say is definitely there? Because if Bowser and Duck Hunt or whatever aren't bottom tier then we're running out of options pretty quick.
Only in the sense that any sorted list will have something on top and something on the bottom, so whoever's at the bottom of the tier list can be considered "bottom tier". But compared to Melee or Brawl, being "bottom tier" doesn't mean quite as much, although the stigma still lingers.

I prefer the term "low tier" for this reason, it doesn't carry quite the same connotation.
 
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A2ZOMG

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The only thing that could advance mario's meta significantly and artificially at this point is the ability to have both consistent frame perfect sh uairs (tap/shoulder jump + c-stick attack to allow buffering) and consistent pivot usmashes/dair > dsmash (shoulder jump + smash stick) in one control scheme. I've yet to meet a mario player not hindered by his controls one way or another.

Gotta choose between either Perfect Stairway combos or Smash Punishes/Follow-ups. (Also if you try to use tap jump + c-stick attack you will need to be frame perfect about sjp every single time you have a jump left and not overshoot the ledge and get killed)

Smash stick is also not a very common optimal setting for top tiers so it hurts investment into him overall.
Disagree.

The real thing that will advance Mario's meta significantly is Perfect Pivot U-smash OOS. It's not exactly hard to buffer D-smash in D-air combos, and frankly A+B can cover most of the situations where you'd want to F-smash smoothly on demand.

Serious question. Why has there never been a focused discussion on Perfect Pivot -> Shield? It's easily one of the most underrated universal options in the game, though admittedly it's somewhat pointless if your perfect pivot doesn't go very far (and/or lack good backwards oos options).
 
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DunnoBro

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Disagree.

The real thing that will advance Mario's meta significantly is Perfect Pivot U-smash OOS. It's not exactly hard to buffer D-smash in D-air combos, and frankly A+B can cover most of the situations where you'd want to F-smash smoothly on demand.

Serious question. Why has there never been a focused discussion on Perfect Pivot -> Shield? It's easily one of the most underrated universal options in the game, though admittedly it's somewhat pointless if your perfect pivot doesn't go very far (and/or lack good backwards oos options).
Oh sorry, I thought I included a "that I can think of" in there. I didn't mean it to sound like there's absolutely no other avenues of meta advancement.

Though I also don't really see the point of PP Usmash OoS when you can normal pivot just as well. Does it come out any frames sooner? Dsmash on the other hand...

Also, I really don't think you can buffer dsmash while still true comboing off dair. You need to hit with the aerial hitbox, not landing. Try buffering it and you'll input another dair, you need to return the control stick to neutral, wait for the landing, then smash it and the a button back down. You can also use A+B to not need to smash, but that's still 3 inputs vs 1 (which is the same as your previous input) Which irrefutably comes with less consistency.
 
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A2ZOMG

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Oh sorry, I thought I included a "that I can think of" in there. I didn't mean it to sound like there's absolutely no other avenues of meta advancement.

Though I also don't really see the point of PP Usmash OoS when you can normal pivot just as well. Does it come out any frames sooner? Dsmash on the other hand...

Also, I really don't think you can buffer dsmash while still true comboing off dair. You need to hit with the aerial hitbox, not landing. Try buffering it and you'll input another dair, you need to return the control stick to neutral, wait for the landing, then smash it and the a button back down. You can also use A+B to not need to smash, but that's still 3 inputs vs 1 (which is the same as your previous input) Which irrefutably comes with less consistency.
Perfect pivot means you aren't committing to your full initial dash animation while getting momentum facing backwards. This is one of the best ways to aggressively perfect shield in neutral or to stay mobile with shield. Yes normal turnaround JC U-smash is the usual practical option, but PP -> Shield has very unique applications.

And especially if you have good backwards facing OOS options, this is Mario's best way of forcing people to be more respectful about throwing pokes to stop him from fishing for U-smash.

PP -> Shield isn't just good on the Marios though. Someone like Marth who has a very long initial dash animation commitment benefits from this a lot as a way to shield faster with dashing momentum. Unfortunately this is less seriously good on heavies who often don't have great PP distances, meaning it's not really noticeably better than simply walking and shielding (imagine Bowser with a good PP and being able to use that to perfect shield projectiles).

And the only time you wouldn't be able to buffer D-smash out of D-air is if you needed to do a turnaround first, but D-air confirms are kinda iffy anyway. Not a big enough deal to warrant Smash stick.
 
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DunnoBro

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Honestly I just think perfect pivoting is wildly overrated. For an awkward 1-frame input that can get you killed but doesn't really secure you stocks itself doesn't seem worth it. Only character it does is little mac because it offers him kill confirms with utilt > upb and he's a very grounded character anyway who has little reason to approach with shield.

I remember ESAM raved about pp utilt with pikachu for a while and now just roll > utilts anyway. In this situation, you try to perfect pivot power shield and fail, you're now in a positional disadvantage because you're in shield, facing away from your opponent(can't grab or jab to stuff their grab), and just moved in towards them. You essentially just rolled into them.

That doesn't seem like a meta-changing approach to me. But feel free to keep thinking such.
 
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A2ZOMG

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It's not strictly the ultimate movement option like people tried to hype it as during early meta as good players usually can counterpoke overzealous approach attempts whether they're behind a perfect pivot or not, but perfect pivot shield on several characters is really robust when it effectively can let you shield with dash momentum but without the huge commitment of initial dashes. And it's safer than rolling into someone because shielding is less punishable than dodging overall.

When I play vs Marios, I usually D-tilt to stop him from fishing for U-smash, but PP Shield would be a safe and powerful response for Mario to work around this as it would effectively let him fish for a sliding perfect shield that's unlikely to get stuffed by a poke.
 
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