Ehh I'm gonna have to dispute that. She gets a decent amount from customs besides a cheesy grab.
Explosive Flame is a great long-distance poke / damage-dealer that pierces shield on the last frame, essentially making it (to quote a user on this very site that I can't for the life of me recall) a "ranged command grab".
Super Speed is very difficult to intercept and sets up for follow-ups with her dash, (pivot) grab, n-air, f-air, d-air, b-air and u-smash.
Jump Glide allows her to control the stage from any angle and get some pretty nice setups going on with her aerials and jab.
Yeah, all of her good customs are essentially variations on the theme of "set up and go ham", but it at least offers her versatility and an abundance of approach options, which she just doesn't have in her default set.
EDIT: ffs people you type fast
or i guess i just type slow
Mix it up. You can't afford to be predictable in this situation; trying for a d-air every time, for example, is a surefire way to get shield-grabbed.
Understand how your opponent will react, condition them if you can. Try for a d-air occasionally, and then if you see them shielding on reaction, fastfall and dash / pivot grab. N-air can work to play keepaway if they try for a jump at you, while b-air will usually sweetspot if you're at a safe enough distance to fall to the side and get them to chase you.
<- called it a ranged command grab earlier in this thread
Agree that with Palutena you have to mix things up, apart from her lightweight dash grab her kit is really easy to counter if she gets predictable. Jump glide helps with that, and it's great when you're in lightweight cool down snail mode and you've used super speed too.
Explosive flame is also underrated, it adds a lot of threat in a form which she simply doesn't have otherwise. It's extremely underused because of how punishable it is if it misses owing to its monstrous endlag. Moreover the startup is such that it isn't easy to land either.
However, auto reticle also suffers from start and end lag to a lesser degree. But unlike EF its unpredictable, not rewarding, never changes a matchup, and doesn't add the constant threat of a ranged command grab.
Explosive Flame has a ton of boons to make up for these weaknesses unlike auto reticle:
- allows Palutena to maintain threat at midrange, making matchups against characters which keep just far enough away to react to super speed while they pressure Palutena with ranged attacks or scout for a chance to get in close and wreak havoc (such as Diddy, Sheik and Fox) a bit more doable.
-has several niche areas of usage in which it is REALLY good
-edgeguarding: linear horizontal recoveries get outright destroyed, allows Palutena to punish a lot of attempts to get back on stage from up in the corner even without lightweight in ways she can't else wise, covers a ****ton of ledge option with its long lasting hitbox, the same long lasting hit box pwns anything which doesn't sweet spot the ledge, it can catch people lingering while simultaneously removing most of their ledge options, and finally specific recoveries are not good against it (tethers, aethers among others).
-great at punishing landings, this cannot be stressed enough
-palutena has grabs and attacks which put people in perfect positions for hitting them with EF (f-throw, fair, bair, nair etc, I like nair>second jump>EF), this becomes a big deal if you know how to use relevants at's cpmbining these with lightweight and super speed, more on this later
-adds lots of new options making Palutena less predictable increasing the effectiveness of her other moves
-if you hit someone with it while you have lightweight on (easier than you think because people don't expect it) it puts the opponent into a godawful position which can be converted into a kill
-the moves kills at reasonable percents if landed on an opponent who is far enough above the stage
-eats air dodges and spot dodges for breakfast
The problem is it takes a lot of practice to use EF to its fullest. When used at its fullest it's waaaaay more effective than if not.
There is tons which needs to be learned. First of all, all the reverse AT's including wavebouncing need to be mastered, secondly doing these out of super speed and out of quick jumps, dashes, and dashes to jumps of all kinds while in lightweight without losing accuracy is also crucial.
When you have that down the effective range of EF doubles, it's reward doubles, the number of situations in which it can be effectively used doubles which in turn makes it easier to not use it predictably and risk a punish.
In my opinion a true Palutena main needs EF, I don't know what the hell Aerolink is doing, either he just doesn't get just how badass the move becomes when combined with AT's and super speed+lightweight or he's just lazy.
Seriously quickly dashing and rar double jumping while in lightweight into a wavebounced EF to kill an opponent who was far away up in the air at a seemingly safe distance and whose air dodge failed to save him or her, that's satisfying as hell.
EF is the real deal if mastered, it adds to the already absurd range at which she can dangerous with her customs, it makes her a lot more volatile, and auto reticle sucks.
Palutena mains stop using AR and get to work.
