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Official Competitive Character Impressions 2.0

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  • Total voters
    584

AlMoStLeGeNdArY

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Leffen's argument was basically that the game was too fast for snake to work the way he did in brawl and thought that Snake's very high landing lag would be too much for him to be good. While I think he's super wrong putting him low tier I think he does have a point and think Snake might fall off in the future. He also underrates Olimar too so I think you have a point with him underrating campier characters. I think Olimar is good, maybe top tier but probably not the best overall. I personally think Inkling is best right now.
I believe that type of thinking is wrong though. Snake isn't a character that should be judged on his aerial landing lag. Even though his dair seems weirdly good.

I think what's been missed with snake is that it's a lot harder to take advantage of his weaknesses now. I really question if some of these characters can take it to snake effectively. While their tools are strong I'm not sure if it's enough.
 

Modesty

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I believe that type of thinking is wrong though. Snake isn't a character that should be judged on his aerial landing lag. Even though his dair seems weirdly good.

I think what's been missed with snake is that it's a lot harder to take advantage of his weaknesses now. I really question if some of these characters can take it to snake effectively. While their tools are strong I'm not sure if it's enough.
Snake is a tough character to place because he requires so much set up to succeed, personally I think once the meta is more fleshed out it will be more difficult for him to do that. Historically characters with frame data like Snake's have a pretty poor track record in smash, so I really hesitate to think he will be top tier. I'm not saying he's bad per se but I don't really see a lot of upward trend with this character. I just think the game engine works too much in the favor of dash heavy characters with fast aerials who will likely be able to stop him from setting up.

Agreed. Snake is still a great character but today's showing may have been due to MVD's ability as a player. I still have no idea on what to feel about Olimar. As for Chrom, I am rather conflicted. I guess one scenario that I can see is the decline of Chrom's competitive viability largely due to people adjusting to his weakness and exploiting it. At that point, I would assume the rise of Roy, Lucina, or Marth will happen (most likely the former two as I believe Marth is the lesser of the three).

Side note: Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe I really saw too many FE swordsmen in today's major (Don't Park on the Grass). I find that rather odd, especially in the lack of Strong Chrom presence...which I assumed would've happened today in the major. Maybe the competitors simply dislike Chrom's rather poor off-stage capabilities already...which I hard to believe since he was being hyped up by some pros.
I think Chrom is really solid but him and other FE swordies are likely going to improve over time rather than be early tourney staples. They are likely to see better results when people have better match up knowledge and people are making use of new tech more. They all are just characters I feel don't have oppressive kits but rather will thrive in the new environment. A lot of the characters that placed high at DPOTG where those that have gimmicks for lack of a better word. Not that they are necessarily gimmick characters that won't be good in the future, but that they used strategies that won't get the same amount of mileage a year from now when people have a proper understanding of the game, the same way that Chrom's skill set is just pretty much universally good.
 
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Kellojolly

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Snake is a tough character to place because he requires so much set up to succeed, personally I think once the meta is more fleshed out it will be more difficult for him to do that. Historically characters with frame data like Snake's have a pretty poor track record in smash, so I really hesitate to think he will be top tier. I'm not saying he's bad per se but I don't really see a lot of upward trend with this character. I just think the game engine works too much in the favor of dash heavy characters with fast aerials who will likely be able to stop him from setting up.



I think Chrom is really solid but him and other FE swordies are likely going to improve over time rather than be early tourney staples. They are likely to see better results when people have better match up knowledge and people are making use of new tech more. They all are just characters I feel don't have oppressive kits but rather will thrive in the new environment.
I am just not sure how Chrom will be in the future with his off stage capabilities. At the moment, I understand he's very powerful. But I'm not sure as to how long that will last. For now, I'm just going to say I can see Roy in particular taking his place with a more aggressive play style (for obvious reasons) and better off-stage plays. Of course, I could be very wrong. I have not played with Marth or Lucina too much in Ultimate so I don't quite know their viability too intimately. But I can say Roy feels immensely strong (albeit less consistent than Chrom but isn't as matchup dependent).
 

Modesty

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I am just not sure how Chrom will be in the future with his off stage capabilities. At the moment, I understand he's very powerful. But I'm not sure as to how long that will last. For now, I'm just going to say I can see Roy in particular taking his place with a more aggressive play style (for obvious reasons) and better off-stage plays. Of course, I could be very wrong. I have not played with Marth or Lucina too much in Ultimate so I don't quite know their viability too intimately. But I can say Roy feels immensely strong (albeit less consistent than Chrom but isn't as matchup dependent).
Yeah Chrom's recovery is definitely a big liability in a game where so many characters have great recoveries. I think he has enough tools to still be top tier though, just probably not at the very top of the tier list. Roy is right up there with him, and I could see people dual maining Chrom and Roy for match up spread tbh. Lucina and especially Marth feel worse but still are fast with great aerial juggles and more and more dash tech seems to be coming out that will benefit this character archetype so strong chance they are high tiers.
 

Y2Kay

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I'm surprised nobody has mentioned how bad Snake's disadvantage is.

:150:
 

Kellojolly

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Yeah Chrom's recovery is definitely a big liability in a game where so many characters have great recoveries. I think he has enough tools to still be top tier though, just probably not at the very top of the tier list. Roy is right up there with him, and I could see people dual maining Chrom and Roy for match up spread tbh. Lucina and especially Marth feel worse but still are fast with great aerial juggles and more and more dash tech seems to be coming out that will benefit this character archetype so strong chance they are high tiers.
I can see that as well. For now, my general assessment is that Chrom is very strong but I can see people leaning towards Roy in future in tournaments mainly because of better recovery even with less offensive consistency. Lucina and Marth, I still have no clue about. I have heard top tier, I have heard high tier, I have also heard them belonging in somewhere in-between. For now, I'm sticking with testing out Chrom and Roy (along my mains lol). Either wya, I can definitely see the meta turning out to be as you said in regards to the aforementioned swordsmen.
 

Rizen

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The thing about Snake is he's a great camper but also has really freaking good frame data. F3jab, 4Ftilt, 6Utilt- that's all better than Wolf. Meanwhile Link gets an f8 jab. Snake can out button most characters in CQC.

Chrom's weak offstage but don't forget Cloud was too, although that was exaggerated. IMO he'll stay in top tier.
 

Modesty

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The thing about Snake is he's a great camper but also has really freaking good frame data. F3jab, 4Ftilt, 6Utilt- that's all better than Wolf. Meanwhile Link gets an f8 jab. Snake can out button most characters in CQC.

Chrom's weak offstage but don't forget Cloud was too, although that was exaggerated. IMO he'll stay in top tier.
Snake's frame data is weak where I think it will count though. While his jab and tilts are good, comparing them to Wolf's doesn't make sense as Wolf utilizes those moves differently than snake will. Generally what I think will be most important long term in the game is dash speed and aerials as is the case in most faster paced smash games. Again Snake could totally be an outlier to this (as there are in every game) because once he can set up he is incredibly strong, I'm just skeptical that he will be able to consistently setup his stuff in a game that will be this fast paced. I'm personally leaning towards him being high mid tier with maybe some strong counter-pick usage.

Agree 100% with your point on Chrom though I don't think his weakness off stage will stop him from being top tier.
 

J0eyboi

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Side note: Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe I really saw too many FE swordsmen in today's major (Don't Park on the Grass). I find that rather odd, especially in the lack of Strong Chrom presence...which I assumed would've happened today in the major. Maybe the competitors simply dislike Chrom's rather poor off-stage capabilities already...which I hard to believe since he was being hyped up by some pros.
There just wasn't a lot of rep. None of the good Roys, Chroms, Marths, or Lucinas really showed up, presumably because they live half a continent or more away. There were a couple of Ikes in top 24 though.
 
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PK Bash

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Here are my high tier sleeper picks:

Ness: His combos are really good, he's quick and has relatively good disjointed hitbubbles. PK thunder is harder to avoid with the new ADs and they help him dodge to the ledge instead of PKTing close to the stage. PK fire seems to work better in this engine; it's more spammable but you can escape easily. He maintains his strengths from previous games like Bthrow killing at good %s.

Pokemon Trainer: Switch has invulnerability and acts like Shulk's art change. Switching pokemon gets around individual pokemon's weaknesses and keeps them unpredictable. Each of the pokemon are good. Squirtle's quick, his squirt seems to push more, he has an armored side B (I think) and decent kill power. Ive can do things like combo leaf blade to upB and has enough disjoint to be hard to get in on. Charizard has the best recovery to make up for Ivy's, it seems more mobile than before and can switch to squirtle to help its disadvantage state.
Bless PK Thunder in this game. It's so good. You have to respect PKT1 more in this game and with the changes to airdodging you can often find up airs or other strong punishes if they airdodge around PKT near the top of the screen. And of course you can still trap airdodges into PKT2 like this!
I definitely agree on PK Fire, way more usable to just kind of throw out at range. It's not amazing, still very committal, but I like it more and the setups it creates are nice. Absolutely annihilates people who dash dance without purpose haha. Aerial PKF has very little landing lag now for some reason and that version tends to be harder to escape (more likely to hit the top of a character's body), it's more flexible to use than it had been.
He maintains his strengths but he also maintains his weaknesses. I feel like some (emphasis on "some") of his strengths are a little weaker and his weaknesses are a mixed bag, a lot of S4 stuff (mashing airdodge lol) is not good in this game but he has gained other options to handle thorny positions (PK Fire being better, PSIMag has more momentum mixups to land with, DAD to land and recover), nothing amazing but at least he has some stuff. Not being forced to land with an aerial almost all the time is nice.

PSI Magnet is groovy though. It's a really helpful and versatile movement option and has a lot of applications (combo extension, aid in disadv., useful in neutral) and top-level Nesses are already all over it. This move surprised me and I'm excited to see how it works out in the future. Down air is really good again now as well, excited about that move too.


I'm surprised nobody has mentioned how bad Snake's disadvantage is.

:150:
Hallowed be thy nades.
 

AlMoStLeGeNdArY

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Snake is a tough character to place because he requires so much set up to succeed, personally I think once the meta is more fleshed out it will be more difficult for him to do that. Historically characters with frame data like Snake's have a pretty poor track record in smash, so I really hesitate to think he will be top tier. I'm not saying he's bad per se but I don't really see a lot of upward trend with this character. I just think the game engine works too much in the favor of dash heavy characters with fast aerials who will likely be able to stop him from setting up.



I think Chrom is really solid but him and other FE swordies are likely going to improve over time rather than be early tourney staples. They are likely to see better results when people have better match up knowledge and people are making use of new tech more. They all are just characters I feel don't have oppressive kits but rather will thrive in the new environment. A lot of the characters that placed high at DPOTG where those that have gimmicks for lack of a better word. Not that they are necessarily gimmick characters that won't be good in the future, but that they used strategies that won't get the same amount of mileage a year from now when people have a proper understanding of the game, the same way that Chrom's skill set is just pretty much universally good.
I'm not really sure I follow what you're saying but snake was considered one of the best characters in brawl for a very long time and I don't believe his frame data has changed. Snake is a ground based character that doesn't rely on aerials or dash speed to win. He controls the ground and makes you come to him. Obscene damage obscene KO power and the ability to live to ridiculously high percentages. Snake isn't the perfect character and does have counters but with the absence of MK Marth chaingrabs it's going to be rough dealing with him. Also since the stage list is hazards off you don't even get the chance to counter pick him like you did in brawl.
 

Kairyu24

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In the results Shulk doesn't nearly seem as prolific as the FE gang, and Cloud is also still common.

As far as I'm aware he shares some of the overall buffs swordies got in his vanilla swordplay. How do his regular attack compare to theirs? His art system may take more time to figure out, as the proper usage of them seems overhauled. It's just early days, but it seems a bit quiet around him compared to the FE excitement.
 

S_B

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The Bayo discord is absolutely livid at the nerfs that she received. Everything that was good about her in smash 4 is gone now. Witch Time is absolutely useless as it both goes away too fast for her to do anything and lost intangibility. Her combo trees are chopped down to a stump. Her up air sends horizontally instead of vertically, garbage move now. Most of her aerials have more lag to them than before. Bullet Climax can't cancel by shielding unless fully charged and takes longer to charge. She's overall one of the worst characters in the game right now and it would have been fine to nerf some of her kit to be less broken. The problem is that they broke her in this game and not in a good way.
They'll buff her back up over time, as they will with a lot of characters, I'm sure.

MK arrived in 4 in a generally bad state compared to Brawl and crept back in over time.

And I frankly hope they release the DLC characters in a state where they're a bit more conservative about their strengths, then buff them over time as well. We don't need the FOTM rush to happen every time...
 

DavemanCozy

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The thing about Snake is he's a great camper but also has really freaking good frame data. F3jab, 4Ftilt, 6Utilt- that's all better than Wolf. Meanwhile Link gets an f8 jab. Snake can out button most characters in CQC.
Aside from D-tilt, Snake's range is subpar, nowhere near as good as what he had in Brawl. You are correct about his neutral being fast though. D-tilt in particular I find is very useful when playing the poking game. D-air coming out on frame 3 is useful as well particularly as an out of shield/parry punish.

His aerials having terrible landing lag is a shame when most characters don't have that much now. It does mean he relies on cancelling his aerials (at least all of them except B-air auto-cancel out of short-hop), or committing to the move entirely if he does not.

Snake is a tough character to place because he requires so much set up to succeed, personally I think once the meta is more fleshed out it will be more difficult for him to do that. Historically characters with frame data like Snake's have a pretty poor track record in smash, so I really hesitate to think he will be top tier. I'm not saying he's bad per se but I don't really see a lot of upward trend with this character. I just think the game engine works too much in the favor of dash heavy characters with fast aerials who will likely be able to stop him from setting up.
Only time will tell, but I do agree and predict the same outcome of Snake having difficulty as players get used to him (I'm noting most competitors did not play Brawl).

For such a trap heavy character though he can still manage switching to aggressive play thanks to his neutral. Like I said above, his d-tilt is a great spacing option and SH D-air/N-air for air approaches, he's also got dash attack with invincibility at the front beating most approaches, and clashing with everything else.

Where I think Snake struggles most is landing and recovering. He has a ridiculously hard time against fighters who can juggle and get disjoints. Cypher can now be destroyed too which means he's relying on C4 bomb jumps at that point, and they'll kill him if his percent is too high. His escape options out of juggles and edgeguards are limited to aerials with high landing lag, air-dodges, and grenade pulls for those explosive trades. All of them being risky and exploitable. That's where I think his biggest problems lie in.

EDIT: to clarify, I don't think Snake is going any lower than high tier imo, I definitely don't believe Leffen's opinion either that he's gonna be somewhere in mid lol especially when his zoning game and neutral are both good. But I do think that once players begin counter-playing his grenades (just like in Brawl) and understanding the speed of Nikita, we'll see the meta shift a bit less on his favor. Albeit I think he's still going to be very powerful.

But with swordies running everywhere in this game he's going to struggle in the cqc against them. But then again... parrying is a thing. If mastered, who knows? SH D-air looks freaken' scary. Never mind u-tilt which kills Bowser at ~110% lol
 
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Browny

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Inklings upb is unfair and might honestly need to be patched, and I have proof as to why.

I have watched far too many people play against inkling and fail repeatedly to 2 frame them and figured theres no way they miss it 100% of the time even when playing for hours, there has to be something up with this. Turns out, there is. Inklings upb grabs the ledge from an extremely low point that renders it impossible to clip with the vast majority of dtilts, dairs or smashes. I can't find any character who grabs the ledge from anywhere near as low as Inkling which makes their ledgesnap a clear cut above everyone else.

When characters enter their '2 frame' ledge grabbing animation, the transition from their usual upb into a reach where as the name implies, they hold that animation for 2 frames and are vulnerable. Every character, when in this animation hangs with their hand at least very close to the ledge, close enough to get clipped by dtilts. Some characters have much farther grab range than others, but they are still somewhat close. Here are examples of Fox, Ryu and Marths upb ledgesnap. Take note of how close their hands are to the ledge.

IMG_20181218_002946.jpg

IMG_20181218_002953.jpg

IMG_20181218_003609.jpg

IMG_20181218_003614.jpg

IMG_20181218_004839.jpg

IMG_20181218_004844.jpg

All of these are able to be safely clipped by incineroars dtilt without incineroar being hit, even marths which you might not expect given how far his hand seems to be away from it
IMG_20181218_010653.jpg

IMG_20181218_010709.jpg

And now, take a look at this nonsense which is Inklings
IMG_20181218_001303.jpg

IMG_20181218_001317.jpg

Where the gun of course, is not a hurtbox.

This means that for 1 of Inklings 2-frames of vulnerability, they are so low that they can not be hit by any grounded attack whatsoever, (except maybe full charge eruption) and for the second frame, they are still quite a way below the stage where they are completely immune to all but the largest of dtilt and dair hitboxes.

Do you think this lariat clipped Inklinks ledgesnap?
IMG_20181218_011934.jpg

IMG_20181218_011937.jpg

... of course not
IMG_20181218_011939.jpg

In the meantime, I encourage people to extensively lab their options to actually properly punish their upb. I have watched many people try to 2-frame inkling and it is a complete waste of time. Use drop down nairs, go for back air stage spikes. Even if they tech it 100% of the time, at least its damage you are putting on.

> Palutenas dtilt confirmed able to clip it.
 
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Modesty

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I'm not really sure I follow what you're saying but snake was considered one of the best characters in brawl for a very long time and I don't believe his frame data has changed. Snake is a ground based character that doesn't rely on aerials or dash speed to win. He controls the ground and makes you come to him. Obscene damage obscene KO power and the ability to live to ridiculously high percentages. Snake isn't the perfect character and does have counters but with the absence of MK Marth chaingrabs it's going to be rough dealing with him. Also since the stage list is hazards off you don't even get the chance to counter pick him like you did in brawl.
In Brawl being slow was way more acceptable than it will be in Ultimate. Movement options were super limited so a character like Snake was better. I was saying characters who have fast dash speed and strong aerials are generally strong in Smash games and Snake doesn't have these qualities. Fast characters and the game being faster in general might give him trouble in this game when the meta is better developed.
 

Guido65

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I don't know about the other characters but it's certainly not the fate of Link since his game plan changed significantly for the better and for the first time in Smash history his grab isn't so risky to use in neutral. I think that and more is worth sacrificing bombs that require less spatial awareness to combo with and a Tether Recovery and Zair.
Down throw not being weight dependent is honestly as big as the much safer grab. Now grab combos work regardless of a characters weight so now heavies and superheavies alike get hit by stuff off of grab instead of mainly lightweights. Really just links will have to adjust to a more offensive style of play instead of the way smash 4 link played out.
 

**Gilgamesh**

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Apr 10, 2015
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Snake's frame data is weak where I think it will count though. While his jab and tilts are good, comparing them to Wolf's doesn't make sense as Wolf utilizes those moves differently than snake will. Generally what I think will be most important long term in the game is dash speed and aerials as is the case in most faster paced smash games. Again Snake could totally be an outlier to this (as there are in every game) because once he can set up he is incredibly strong, I'm just skeptical that he will be able to consistently setup his stuff in a game that will be this fast paced. I'm personally leaning towards him being high mid tier with maybe some strong counter-pick usage.

Agree 100% with your point on Chrom though I don't think his weakness off stage will stop him from being top tier.
You can't just dash up and hit Snake shield for free unless you want to get blown up by grenades which happened in a ton of matches I saw with Ally or MVD. His Up-Tilt kills early (90-115% range for most characters), is an anti-air and it comes out F6 and have good range meaning around 100% YOU will need to respect his CQC options. F-Tilt is F4 and can be used as a mix-up after hit 1 as MVD shown against Esam. Nikita is literally abusive to anyone with a predictable recovery and still good vs characters with good recoveries. His biggest weaknesses will be his disadvantage state and just how easy it is for characters to hold him there. Snake Dash-Attack is also super good as well coming out Frame 5 with his Head and Arms Intangible: Frames 5-12 and can is a kill option at very high percents. His Dair is also an excellent OoS option that is further helped by the fact that Snake Jump-Squat went from F9 to F3 in this game drastically improving the speed of his aerials.
 
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DJ3DS

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Inklings upb is unfair and might honestly need to be patched, and I have proof as to why.

I have watched far too many people play against inkling and fail repeatedly to 2 frame them and figured theres no way they miss it 100% of the time even when playing for hours, there has to be something up with this. Turns out, there is. Inklings upb grabs the ledge from an extremely low point that renders it impossible to clip with the vast majority of dtilts, dairs or smashes. I can't find any character who grabs the ledge from anywhere near as low as Inkling which makes their ledgesnap a clear cut above everyone else.

When characters enter their '2 frame' ledge grabbing animation, the transition from their usual upb into a reach where as the name implies, they hold that animation for 2 frames and are vulnerable. Every character, when in this animation hangs with their hand at least very close to the ledge, close enough to get clipped by dtilts. Some characters have much farther grab range than others, but they are still somewhat close. Here are examples of Fox, Ryu and Marths upb ledgesnap. Take note of how close their hands are to the ledge.


All of these are able to be safely clipped by incineroars dtilt without incineroar being hit, even marths which you might not expect given how far his hand seems to be away from it

And now, take a look at this nonsense which is Inklings

Where the gun of course, is not a hurtbox.

This means that for 1 of Inklings 2-frames of vulnerability, they are so low that they can not be hit by any grounded attack whatsoever, (except maybe full charge eruption) and for the second frame, they are still quite a way below the stage where they are completely immune to all but the largest of dtilt and dair hitboxes.

Do you think this lariat clipped Inklinks ledgesnap?

... of course not

In the meantime, I encourage people to extensively lab their options to actually properly punish their upb. I have watched many people try to 2-frame inkling and it is a complete waste of time. Use drop down nairs, go for back air stage spikes. Even if they tech it 100% of the time, at least its damage you are putting on.
In my experience it's alright to edgeguard with a long lasting hitbox. I can edgeguard them reasonably consistently with drop down side B from ROB or drop down N-Air from K-Rool.
 

J0eyboi

Smash Ace
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Dec 28, 2017
Messages
573
Oh, Browny posted the Inkling thing on Reddit. That would explain the currently 288 guests in this thread. Hi everybody.

In Brawl being slow was way more acceptable than it will be in Ultimate. Movement options were super limited so a character like Snake was better. I was saying characters who have fast dash speed and strong aerials are generally strong in Smash games and Snake doesn't have these qualities. Fast characters and the game being faster in general might give him trouble in this game when the meta is better developed.
I have a bit of a hard time believing that when MVD just won Don't Park, beating numerous faster characters including ESAM's Pikachu, who should absolutely know the matchup. If Snake drops, it'll be because of his disadvantage being exploited, not his run speed.
 

Funen1

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Inklings upb is unfair and might honestly need to be patched, and I have proof as to why.

I have watched far too many people play against inkling and fail repeatedly to 2 frame them and figured theres no way they miss it 100% of the time even when playing for hours, there has to be something up with this. Turns out, there is. Inklings upb grabs the ledge from an extremely low point that renders it impossible to clip with the vast majority of dtilts, dairs or smashes. I can't find any character who grabs the ledge from anywhere near as low as Inkling which makes their ledgesnap a clear cut above everyone else.

When characters enter their '2 frame' ledge grabbing animation, the transition from their usual upb into a reach where as the name implies, they hold that animation for 2 frames and are vulnerable. Every character, when in this animation hangs with their hand at least very close to the ledge, close enough to get clipped by dtilts. Some characters have much farther grab range than others, but they are still somewhat close.
Except wasn't people spacing their up-Bs to avoid 2-framing also a thing in Smash 4? Exact differences between Inkling and the rest of the cast aside, people still missed 2-frames a lot in Smash 4 for one reason or another, usually people mixing up both their spacing and timing with up-Bs, so it never really has to be "simple" per se to 2-frame someone. What you suggested at the end of your post (labbing options) is an approach people should have anyway, regardless of who they're facing, and as people get more comfortable with edgeguarding in Ultimate, you'll see people go for those options more. At least Ness is off to a good start on that front thanks to his D-smash lol.
 

Doomblaze

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Oh, Browny posted the Inkling thing on Reddit. That would explain the currently 288 guests in this thread. Hi everybody.



I have a bit of a hard time believing that when MVD just won Don't Park, beating numerous faster characters including ESAM's Pikachu, who should absolutely know the matchup. If Snake drops, it'll be because of his disadvantage being exploited, not his run speed.
hi there

from what i read, part of esams problem was that electicity instantly blows up grenades, but you would think he would understand snake pretty well since he played brawl
 

KakuCP9

What does it mean to be strong?
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People can talk about dumpstering Chrom's recovery until the cows come home, but unless you figure out a way to contest his supreme ground game, mobility and aerials, that man ain't dropping off. Also Chrom players that adopt his ancestor's spacing style (Marth) rather than his echo fighter (Roy) are going to be way scarier.
 
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ProfessorVincent

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I'm very curious about how good Nikita edgeguards actually are. In Don't Park's Grand Finals, it seemed to me that MVD was edgeguarding Esam much more than the other way around. Pika was having a hard time edgeguarding snake, whereas snake was consistently edgeguarding pika, one of the best recoveries in the game, with Nikita. How the hell are characters with bad-avarage recoveries gonna get past Nikita???
 
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J0eyboi

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I'm very curious about how good Nikita edgeguards actually are. In Don't Park's Grand Finals, it seemed to me that MVD was edgeguarding Esam much more than the other way around. Pika was having a hard time edgeguarding snake, whereas snake was consistently edgeguarding pika, one of the best recoveries in the game, with Nikita. How the hell are characters with bad-avarage recoveries gonna get past Nikita???
It takes a while to set up Nikita, so the easiest way is to just recover before he gets to. Outside of that? Have a big brain ig

Edit: Just remembered this.

There was a problem fetching the tweet
 
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DavemanCozy

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I'm very curious about how good Nikita edgeguards actually are. In Don't Park's Grand Finals, it seemed to me that MVD was edgeguarding Esam much more than the other way around. Pika was having a hard time edgeguarding snake, whereas snake was consistently edgeguarding pika, one of the best recoveries in the game, with Nikita. How the hell are characters with bad-avarage recoveries gonna get past Nikita???
The nikita missile is busted in this game. You have way more control over its trajectory and it moves much faster. It's like sending Luma offstage except you control it and it explodes on contact.

Something else you can do is send it up and shield to drop it as a pseudo usmash missile. It applies pressure and corners the opponent.

Another great thing about how much control it has is that you can control it downards in a circle, so well you can move it in a 3/4 circle right near the ledge, it punishes anyone holding ledge too long.

And to answer your last question: they don't, unless they read where Snake is sending the missile. Consider anyone without a strong enough aerial game to deflect the missile or a reflector move fully screwed offstage.

This move is amazing in this game.
 
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Rizen

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In Brawl there was a meme about Snake being the "better Link", that's even more true with remote bombs. At the risk of a knee jerk reaction I'm going to say Snake's top tier. When I compared Snake's frame data to Wolf's that was to show it's better than a character with good frame data (-smashes and Bair now :urg:). Snake has very strong traps and can box in CQC. He's heavy and powerful enough to seal stocks.

Don't Park EZ Link.
 

ProfessorVincent

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At this point I'm more scared of snake than the Belmonts. As someone who doesn't know either character very well, it seems to me that the Belmont's zoning tools are super strong, but not surprising. They can catch you off guard in the sense that you may not foresee your opponent throwing them out in certain situations, but they behave the way that you expect them to.

Snake's tools, on the other hand, are so goddamn hard to keep track of. You can count grenades, try to notice when they drop a C4 from the air, wait for the upsmash to fall, then you think you can finally go in and your character just explodes out of nowhere and you're dead. Obviously it won't be so hard once we get used to what snake can do, but his tools just seem so versatile compared to the Belmonts'.

Also, MVD is amazing!
 
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Heracr055

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I'm surprised by how scarce discussion about Palutena is here (only a handful of posts mention her, never mind discussing how potent she may be). In Smash 4 her cons were her light weight, easily punishable normals (her excellent jab allowed her to not need them so bad), unreliable Smash attacks and a poor projectile. Everything else about her was solid to excellent (especially her partially invincible dash attack & bair, spammable fair and her absolutely frightening uair). Now she's back with a buffed Autoreticle in terms of success rate & lower cooldown, a potent punish tool/"do something" special in Explosive Flame, and a counter that serves as a reflector & counter (I believe this to be a buff but I could be wrong). And she lost...nothing, as far as I know. Did her Smash attacks become more reliable as well?
I see her ripping holes in heavies and light keepaway chatacters. Her mobility denies heavies their ideal range, and her killpower is able to eliminate their rage factor. Light keepaway characters are caught by her projectiles, she can actually keep up with them speedwise, and she can net the stock with ease. Easy high tier at worst imo.
 

Thinkaman

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I finally got some meaty hands on experience, and of course tourneys have happened so that was informative too. Time for a dump:

(Also, wishing the smilie char icons were in Canonical Numerical Order rather than alphabetical...)

:ultmario: Seems respectable. I have trouble seeing him lower than the median? D-throw nerfs and cast-wide landing lag decreases hurt him, but he appreciates the speed creep and doesn't mind doing non-grab OoS options. Speed creep also improves Fireball approach utility, and Mario probably benefits from the air dodge changes as much as it hurts him.
:ultdk: Thanks for putting him on our radar, Konga. What's a ding-dong? I think this maximally-armored-edition of DK will prove to be a lot more robust than the Smash 4 one-trick-pony. I feel like the air dodge changes help the absolute worst-juggled characters, actually. DK and DDD were already in never-ending disadvantage, multiple air-dodges or not. They'd much rather than a directional mixup--ANY mixup--than more airdodges that never did the trick in the first place.
:ultlink: No idea, no thoughts. I find myself missing hookshot, but that's obviously just habits and difficulty adapting.
:ultsamus::ultdarksamus: I'm... actually really enjoying Samus?!? She was one of my weakest and least-enjoyed characters in all previous games. It's charge shot. The ability to charge it faster and aerially, the absurd damage, the degree to wish it crushes a shield--it's now a truly satisfying centerpiece that her moveset can revolves around. Missiles feel a tad better too, for the same shield pressure reasons. (Parrying will limit this.) And the noticeable buffs to roll and grab mean that I no longer feel punished for playing a character who has to follow different rules than everyone else. I dunno how good she'll shake out, but she's my #1 most unexpected winner in terms of enjoyment.
:ultyoshi: Uhhh yeah so this character is good and everyone has figured this out by now. He's also fun!
:ultkirby: Also little idea. We saw some decent Kirby play, but I'm always skeptical of character lacking both speed and range.
:ultfox: No idea. I feel like I didn't glean much from the footage we got tbqh.
:ultpikachu: I mean ESAM put on the show we'd expect, especially in doubles where I felt like MVD was merely doing a A+ job of allowing ESAM to run train. Everyone knows this character is great, not much insight I can add.
:ultluigi: No idea. Tbqh I haven't touched him at all, nor seen a single game of footage.
:ultness: Look, you have to attack PKT. You just have to, air dodging is not a winning option. (For most characters) Ness looks really good, in spite of grab nerfs, but we'll see how his neutral holds up in the long run. Not surprised if PKT endlag gets nerfed.
:ultfalcon: Uhhh yeah that was a great set and very persuasive as to Falcon's love of this new environment, but how generalize are these combos? Confirmed knees on an Incineroar is one thing, but I want to see stuff working in bracket on a Pichu before I raise the Falcon flag on my ship. Still, this is clearly a good start to Falcon.
:ultjigglypuff: I've played a decent amount of Puff at this point and am not disappointed. Lots of stuff is just workable now, Rest is far more applicable, and damage inflation means stale moves is less of a huge deal for her. She cares less about air dodge nerfs than most, Pound is disgusting on shield now, it's good times. Captain L's team performance was very encouraging.
:ultpeach::ultdaisy: Another "you don't need me to talk about this really good character."
:ultbowser: New Bowser feels a bit more like DK to me--there's just a lot of power that is suddenly "on tap" and accessible to actually apply to pretty broad situations. I want to see more about just how consistent his neutral can actually be against electric rats and swords.
:ulticeclimbers: I have no idea and neither do you. It'll take a long time for the final equilibrium of Nana protection/assassination tech to be reached across the matchup chart, and everything hinges on that.
:ultsheik: It's hard to make this character bad, but this environment is certainly less to her strengths. I think without bouncing fish she'd legit be in trouble, and I do not expect her to be top or upper-high tier as she currently stands.
:ultzelda: Zelda's buffs have been overstated. Still, what a breath of fresh air to play Zelda and not feel like you're in 0% control of the match? Phantom isn't a panacea but is what the doctor ordered. I found myself being constantly reminded how good of a tool Nayru's is, and how solid it is to now be attached to a formidable character.
:ultdoc: This character is good and I love him. Really want to see people take this guy to the top. His recovery is still bottom-tier (improvements are overstated, however welcome), but all the buffs are meaningful and his playstyle benefits from speed creep perhaps the most of anyone in the entire cast??? I think parry optimization will also help him more than most, as doc should be able to consistently slap on a meaty little punish for parrying your dumb autopilot sword aerials.
:ultpichu: Yada yada he's-great-you-know-this.
:ultfalco: I heard a pockets of intense initial optimism and then radio silence. I haven't played him much myself. But hey, dair SH ACs, so that's fun?
:ultmarth::ultlucina::ultroy::ultchrom: Same thought for the whole gang: I'm reserving judgement at this point until I see MKLeo. I don't think they are comparable to For Glory Little Mac, but c'mon, all of our perceptions are really skewed right now. At the level they are being played online, nerfs would also not be surprising. Either way, I'm disinclined to talk much about them.
:ultyounglink::ulttoonlink: Both seems compelling? Want to see people parry harassment better before I jump to conclusions on heavy-harassment-based characters.
:ultganondorf: Definitely feels closer to Melee Ganon. I sort of don't know what to make of him? Verm's showing was good but ultimately not especially conclusive.
:ultmewtwo: I heard so much initial bullish predictions for Mewtwo that seem to have fallen off a cliff, as echoed in this thread. I was skeptical, as I doubted we'd see such a radical weight increase on Mewtwo (and Rosalina!) if the character had not been considered "in trouble" in development balancing. Still, Mewtwo seems far from bad? Shadow Ball doesn't have the terror that new Charge Shot does, but it's still spooky. I expect Mewtwo to be above the median.
:ultgnw: If you put a gun to my head, I'd point to G&W as worst character. A couple things are nice--u-tilt is surprisingly effective, somehow--but fair is the biggest disappointment of any move in the game. It sounds great on paper, until you see it lose to EVERYTHING in practice. Uair is underwhelming, turtle still functions but feels like it missed the memo on damage inflation and can't carry him. The d-throw game he relied on as a crutch is no longer there? Nair is still solid, at least. D-tilt feels like a travesty after Smash 4. Bucket reflection is a welcome QoL change but he still seems to be the only weak Smash 4 character who is now worse. I'd love to hear from anyone who thinks otherwise.
:ultmetaknight: No first hand experience, my MK is trash. Guess we'll see how the ladders shake out.
:ultpit::ultdarkpit: We've talked about these guys. Confirming for the 100th time that yup, they are the full package now.
:ultzss: Nothing to add here either. I do expect her to remain above the median.
:ultwario: Do we have any footage from Gluttony's event? That would matter more than any impressions I have.
:ultsnake: If MVD can handle ESAM's Pikachu, I don't buy that there will be a radical shift due to Snake's "setup time". (People seem to be forgetting that ESAM has had who-knows-how-many hours practicing against/with MVD's Snake already? He is probably the world's premier anti-Snake player at the moment!) Movement creep majorly helped Snake, what with his million-frame-jumpsquat and all, and we should all offer our finest calf as sacrifice that the developers had the balance foresight to take away his second banana proximity mine. Yes, MVD is a uniquely talented player, and yes, Snake dropped over the course of Brawl's lifespan, and yes, Snake's disadvantage state poses questions. 3f-jumpsquat-low-landing-lag Ultimate Snake is still looking like a top character.
:ultike: Literally forgot he was in this game. All the sword oxygen is being sucked up by the others.
:ultpokemontrainer: Repeatedly impressed by this character. Squirtle is much worse, we all know that, but I still feel so free and in control while playing as Squirtle in any matchup. (I just can't kill anymore) The virtues of Pokemon Change cannot be extolled enough, it's an amazing tool. I dunno what it is about Pokemon Change into Ivy fair, but I land it a magnitude more than I feel like I ought to? I suspect that changing into Ivy uair/dair for certain reads (both dodges and attacks) will prove to be a real tool, as well as Vine Whip and Razor Leaf, which both apply respectable damage threat in valued situations. It's wild just how diverse their off-stage toolkit is--nothing in Smash history is quite like it. Water Gun/Squirtle aerial into Razor Leaf/Vine Whip into Charizard stuff is most appealing, but any ordering works. (Vine Whip in particular really greases the possibilities) OoS nair meta? All the Pokemon shine, but Ivy nair is a special one. I find myself using Charizard for very brief amounts of time, but he can consistently find the kills. U-throw on battlefield and the invincible f-smash are as nice as ever, but I've been stunned how much Flare Blitz is better when we've just transitioned from Ivysaur. Working theory is that the mentality of dealing with Ivysaur's zoning crap (looking for a way to rush in) is exactly the options that Flare Blitz punches in the face. If Inkling could turn into Ganon, they'd both probably be better characters too. I really want Reflex footage!
:ultdiddy: Jtails did just fine with Diddy, and clearly would have beaten Konga if not for input errors. There's no way this character is not in the top quartile.
:ultlucas: Hard to evaluate. Doubtful how much super-scary PK Freeze will matter at high-level play, and doubtful that Lucas PKT has the air-dodge ruining pressure potential that Ness's has. Universal shield/grab nerfs are not in his favor, and of course his d-throw combos are neutered. Does it all just come down to how much low-lag nair enables him, or am I missing something else?
:ultsonic: No opinion, other than that he seems much less awful to play against. (Hope that holds!)
:ultkingdedede: Like I said with DK, I think one better airdodge is superior for characters with juggle problems. Big D's showing was impressive, but I really want to see how DDD deals with a broader range of matchups. The Inhale change is nice; it's applications are in some ways limited, but it's welcome to have a stable option NOT lose to projectile hazard on DDD.
:ultolimar: Obviously good character, want to see more matchup dynamics play out. Is Dabuz playing Olimar???
:ultlucario: No idea, but my Lucario-playing pal is very bullish.
:ultrob: Agree with sentiments in this topic. This is a great environment for ROB, and we should all be thankful his kill options are kinda limited. Top quartile?!?
:ultwolf: I am unconvinced. Good normals, but I feel like a lot of Wolf matchups in my early experience are just boiling down to "can they deal with lasers?" If Wolf can force approaches into his good normal options, he works fine; otherwise I haven't had much luck as him and have not struggled against him. Side-b is fun as it was in Brawl, but let's not pretend it makes the character tick. I've gotten plenty of off-stage kills against Wolf. I'd feel comfortable guessing a lower position for him as he stands today.
:ultvillager: Villager has to hate the speed creep, though he doesn't care about grab changes and welcomes shields being worse. As far as I can tell, Villager got nothing in compensation, quite unlike the other zoners. I am willing to bet that Villager has fallen to the bottom half.
:ultmegaman: Unlike Villager, he got this crazy pellets buff to fit into the new world. Landing lag changes are welcome on MM disproportionately as well, thank goodness they didn't include bair in the party. Holding f-smash longer is nice. Still, Leaf Shield is weird and kinda sad now, and with no dumb footstool shenanigans I'm not sure great pellets are enough to keep Mega Man in the upper echelons? I'm certainly not bullish.
:ultwiifittrainer: Holy crap. Am I the only one blown away by this character? 125% Deep Breathing damage more than makes up for speed creep making it harder to pull off. The speed increases and landing lag buffs make her previously lackluster buttons into accessible strings that do tons of damage. New max header angle is most welcome, and helps her achieve Samus-lite levels of projectile Shield Pressure. Even up-b is better! John Numbers doesn't owe us anything and should play whatever character he wants, but I'd love to see what he can do with her.
:ultrosalina: Haven't played a trained Rosa yet, so I'm clueless.
:ultlittlemac: Almost like ICs or Shulk, I think it will take much longer to suss out Mac than most characters. He's more robust though, even if he still can't jump onto Smashville's platform! The side-b change is simply huge, and KO Punch is so much better. But parrying will affect Mac more than most characters/matchups. Little Mac was the #1 benefactor of accidental powershields, as well as the person most punished by them. (So much of Mac's ground options depend on their implicit spaced safety--lose that and whelp.) I need to sink my teeth into parrying more to better extrapolite how it is likely to evolve, but I think it's a safe initial guess that it will be far harder to parry in-your-face 1-5f ground options from a Mac than swordsman SH aerials. Mac still probably prefers to OoS U-smash? All this grab nerf and jumpsquat buff nonsense is vaguely meaningless to him, in comparison to everyone else. And of course being able to do the world's-best-ground-moveset out of Little Mac runspeed is insane, but you already knew that.
:ultgreninja: Zero informed opinion, based on my time playing him. He feels the same???
:ultmiifighters::ultmiifighters::ultmiifighters:Brawler feels disappointing. Suplex is a gem--you first think it's good, then you think it's bad, then maybe it's actually good??? Swordfighter and Gunner having better recoveries is a huge sigh of relief, as mentioned. I remain unconvinced that Gunner can kill reliably, but it's clearly a better situation than before. (RIP fair though) I don't anticipate any of the Miis being in the upper half.
:ultpalutena: Uh okay so this character is great and getting lots of early results. Her nair is amazing, her tilts are zero-to-hero, her projectiles are great, Teleport is good as ever... A lot of Palutena seems well-suited to stuffing braindead SH stuff that everyone has now? But yeah my impressions of Palutena are not especially unique or controversial.
:ultpacman: Skeptical. He loves loves loves the worse shields, and also has a somewhat workable grab to boot. He also is fine doing fast aerials OoS, sure. But otherwise, this engine does not seem kind to this character, who would prefer to play as slowly as possible with as many air dodges as possible. Bottom quartile.
:ultrobin: Robin on the other hand I am very optimistic for, and have argued with people about. Yes, he lost checkmate, arcthunder combos, d-throw setups, arcfire safety, and even doesn't start the match with levin. Doesn't matter, the environmental changes are too huge. Rolling away from Robin is no longer a sustainable strategy, f3 shorthop is an ABSURD improvement for Mr. Levin (especially OoS), Levin Nair is great, Thoron is fantastic and worth the price of admission, Arcthunder still does great damage on its own, Elthunder forces that single air dodge, Thoron and Arcthunder poke shields very easily... And recovery is significantly better to boot! I felt vindicated by Deci's very strong showing at DPOTG, and think you will see more of this in the future.
:ultshulk: Like ICs, ask me in a year.
:ultbowserjr: Okay, so. I think Bowser Jr. is mediocre, but think the degree is being heavily overstated in a meme way and that the character is noteably better than Smash 4. He is an aerial-focused character who loves landing lag and jumpsquat changes, and remember how he had a super-high-damage-and-lethal jab with the little downside of it simply not working? Yeah, well, now it works. And then there's the biggest change of all, that the 0.88x damage hurtbox now takes priority over the 1.15x damage hurtbox. This is... one of the biggest buffs in Smash history, and it would be very hasty to dismiss it out of hand.
:ultduckhunt: He hates the speed creep more than almost anyone, and lost his cute little SH AC dair. But he got tons of toys as compensation! Truthfully, I'm still working out how to most capitalize on new gunmen, frisbee, and his recovery. All seem to help him a lot, but I'm having difficulty seeing how far they go. Worse grabs make him and his setups very sad, too. He's surely improved, but remains an enigma to me despite how much I play him.
:ultryu::ultken: I am the least qualified person in the universe to talk about these characters.
:ultcloud: It's so delightful that Cloud is actually fun to fight against now. There was something soul-crushing about having to fight a disjointed character better than you who--right as you are started to get frustrated with nair--gets limit. But now Cloud feels like just another good character. I think he'll be top quartile, but only barely if I had to gander a more specific guess.
:ultcorrin: Is getting overshadowed, but not the the extent of Ike. The character is worse off, but in a favorable environment? I can't see Corrin outside the top half.
:ultbayonetta: I have yet to play against or watch a single trained Bayonetta. How does she kill?
:ultinkling: Good character is good, no insights here. I actually, somehow, have the least first-hand impressions on Inkling of all the newcomers, despite Inkling appearing to be the obvious best.
:ultridley: I've focused a lot more on Ridley since posts here, and we got to see multiple good Ridleys do respectfully at DPOTG. Nair and d-tilt save the character, and f-tilt/bair seem critical as well. Ridley's recovery isn't that bad once you get used to it--the horizontal up-b angle seem random until you learn that it is perfect flying back to the stage after going seep off-stage with both double jumps. I feel like Ridley has a lot of potential for juicy 60% roll reads, particularly to the stage edge or perhaps from the ledge? Jab out of side-B break is an important design feature--are we certain it is true? Across the cast? Fireball is quite handy but I think people will get much better at dealing with it.
:ultsimon::ultrichter: I have heard the most polarizing opinions on these two, and feel it in my own gameplay. Sometimes, as a Belmont or their opponent, I find myself saying "wow, that was so good, they covered all the options"; other times they just feel like a sack of potatoes. I wouldn't be surprised if their matchups end up very polarized? Worse case, they are the Little Mac of these game, and we all just figure out how to deal with them and move on. I bet they don't like people getting better at parries.
:ultkrool: I've heard a lot of comparisons to Bowser Jr, saying he's a gimmick-focused character who is destined to go down. I can't disagree, but we all probably see eye-to-eye that he has the tools and numbers to have some baseline threat which he won't fall below. The armored attacks, reflector, and protected recovery make for a heavy who can better cope with historically abusive anti-heavy options.
:ultisabelle: My wife is pessimistic on Isabelle, and has a hunch Villager is better. I'm not quite sure I'm ready to take the opposite position, but I'm a little more bullish on the value of Isabelle's unique traits. Down-b is just too handy and synergizes with slingshot zoning too well. Smart people have been downplaying the Fishing Rod hype, but I think it's handy and actually fits into her zoning game pretty well once you get past the realization that it's not nearly as broken as your first impression. In the neutral, think of it as a call-out option like Flare Blitz, Wizkick, or Pit side-b. Sure, Fishing Rod doesn't have the reward of those options, but it better fits into her zoning game and beats all of those options to boot! (Nevermind the edgeguarding tomfoolery) I don't see Isabelle in the upper half, but she doesn't seem bad.
:ultincineroar: Incineroar is the new, much-better-designed Brawl/Smash4 Ganon. He's slow, his range is poor except for certain aerials, and he usually needs to call out exactly what you are doing to hit you. How is he playable? Well, let's count. His throws and side-b are far more rewarding and lethal than ol' Ganon. Lariat is a Good Button (tm) that actually beats stuff, which is like water in the desert to ol' Ganon. His recovery is lightly but meaningfully improved. And finally, most important of all, he has Revenge. Nobie is right, listen to him: Revenge is absurd, and if you are playing Incineroar without Revenge, you might as well be playing Shulk without Monado or Rosalina without Luma. It can easily double your damage, and shines the most against safe projectiles that would otherwise most abuse him. Listen, when you are Incineroar, Wolf needs to fear lasering you as much as he would a G&W, understand? Pichu isn't afraid of taking a couple percent to harass you, so why should Incinerator be afraid of taking a couple percent to deal 50% with a side-b? And camping doesn't really work, you aren't going to time out Incineroar's 60 second buff. Smash 4 Ganon is jealous of this guy, not Ultimate Ganon.
 

Kellojolly

Smash Cadet
Joined
Dec 16, 2018
Messages
59
Optimally utilizing the tipper mechanics has always been more theoretical and difficut to apply in actual practice. This will likely be more of a problem if Ultimate does live up to the expectations of having fast-paced gameplay. This is largely why I think Lucina will be the preferred choice over Marth. Even with a sweet/sourspot, I believe Roy will likely end up being more viable than both Lucina and Roy simply because of his better frame data and what not, which gives him better movement overall. Still, I'd like to see more major tournaments.

side note: regardless of their viability, I wouldn't be too surprised to see Chrom nerfs in particular in the near future with just how much people are hyping him up and what not. I think at this stage of the game, it would be very unfortunate to see such events take place.
 

J0eyboi

Smash Ace
Joined
Dec 28, 2017
Messages
573
I finally got some meaty hands on experience, and of course tourneys have happened so that was informative too. Time for a dump:

(Also, wishing the smilie char icons were in Canonical Numerical Order rather than alphabetical...)

:ultmario: Seems respectable. I have trouble seeing him lower than the median? D-throw nerfs and cast-wide landing lag decreases hurt him, but he appreciates the speed creep and doesn't mind doing non-grab OoS options. Speed creep also improves Fireball approach utility, and Mario probably benefits from the air dodge changes as much as it hurts him.
:ultdk: Thanks for putting him on our radar, Konga. What's a ding-dong? I think this maximally-armored-edition of DK will prove to be a lot more robust than the Smash 4 one-trick-pony. I feel like the air dodge changes help the absolute worst-juggled characters, actually. DK and DDD were already in never-ending disadvantage, multiple air-dodges or not. They'd much rather than a directional mixup--ANY mixup--than more airdodges that never did the trick in the first place.
:ultlink: No idea, no thoughts. I find myself missing hookshot, but that's obviously just habits and difficulty adapting.
:ultsamus::ultdarksamus: I'm... actually really enjoying Samus?!? She was one of my weakest and least-enjoyed characters in all previous games. It's charge shot. The ability to charge it faster and aerially, the absurd damage, the degree to wish it crushes a shield--it's now a truly satisfying centerpiece that her moveset can revolves around. Missiles feel a tad better too, for the same shield pressure reasons. (Parrying will limit this.) And the noticeable buffs to roll and grab mean that I no longer feel punished for playing a character who has to follow different rules than everyone else. I dunno how good she'll shake out, but she's my #1 most unexpected winner in terms of enjoyment.
:ultyoshi: Uhhh yeah so this character is good and everyone has figured this out by now. He's also fun!
:ultkirby: Also little idea. We saw some decent Kirby play, but I'm always skeptical of character lacking both speed and range.
:ultfox: No idea. I feel like I didn't glean much from the footage we got tbqh.
:ultpikachu: I mean ESAM put on the show we'd expect, especially in doubles where I felt like MVD was merely doing a A+ job of allowing ESAM to run train. Everyone knows this character is great, not much insight I can add.
:ultluigi: No idea. Tbqh I haven't touched him at all, nor seen a single game of footage.
:ultness: Look, you have to attack PKT. You just have to, air dodging is not a winning option. (For most characters) Ness looks really good, in spite of grab nerfs, but we'll see how his neutral holds up in the long run. Not surprised if PKT endlag gets nerfed.
:ultfalcon: Uhhh yeah that was a great set and very persuasive as to Falcon's love of this new environment, but how generalize are these combos? Confirmed knees on an Incineroar is one thing, but I want to see stuff working in bracket on a Pichu before I raise the Falcon flag on my ship. Still, this is clearly a good start to Falcon.
:ultjigglypuff: I've played a decent amount of Puff at this point and am not disappointed. Lots of stuff is just workable now, Rest is far more applicable, and damage inflation means stale moves is less of a huge deal for her. She cares less about air dodge nerfs than most, Pound is disgusting on shield now, it's good times. Captain L's team performance was very encouraging.
:ultpeach::ultdaisy: Another "you don't need me to talk about this really good character."
:ultbowser: New Bowser feels a bit more like DK to me--there's just a lot of power that is suddenly "on tap" and accessible to actually apply to pretty broad situations. I want to see more about just how consistent his neutral can actually be against electric rats and swords.
:ulticeclimbers: I have no idea and neither do you. It'll take a long time for the final equilibrium of Nana protection/assassination tech to be reached across the matchup chart, and everything hinges on that.
:ultsheik: It's hard to make this character bad, but this environment is certainly less to her strengths. I think without bouncing fish she'd legit be in trouble, and I do not expect her to be top or upper-high tier as she currently stands.
:ultzelda: Zelda's buffs have been overstated. Still, what a breath of fresh air to play Zelda and not feel like you're in 0% control of the match? Phantom isn't a panacea but is what the doctor ordered. I found myself being constantly reminded how good of a tool Nayru's is, and how solid it is to now be attached to a formidable character.
:ultdoc: This character is good and I love him. Really want to see people take this guy to the top. His recovery is still bottom-tier (improvements are overstated, however welcome), but all the buffs are meaningful and his playstyle benefits from speed creep perhaps the most of anyone in the entire cast??? I think parry optimization will also help him more than most, as doc should be able to consistently slap on a meaty little punish for parrying your dumb autopilot sword aerials.
:ultpichu: Yada yada he's-great-you-know-this.
:ultfalco: I heard a pockets of intense initial optimism and then radio silence. I haven't played him much myself. But hey, dair SH ACs, so that's fun?
:ultmarth::ultlucina::ultroy::ultchrom: Same thought for the whole gang: I'm reserving judgement at this point until I see MKLeo. I don't think they are comparable to For Glory Little Mac, but c'mon, all of our perceptions are really skewed right now. At the level they are being played online, nerfs would also not be surprising. Either way, I'm disinclined to talk much about them.
:ultyounglink::ulttoonlink: Both seems compelling? Want to see people parry harassment better before I jump to conclusions on heavy-harassment-based characters.
:ultganondorf: Definitely feels closer to Melee Ganon. I sort of don't know what to make of him? Verm's showing was good but ultimately not especially conclusive.
:ultmewtwo: I heard so much initial bullish predictions for Mewtwo that seem to have fallen off a cliff, as echoed in this thread. I was skeptical, as I doubted we'd see such a radical weight increase on Mewtwo (and Rosalina!) if the character had not been considered "in trouble" in development balancing. Still, Mewtwo seems far from bad? Shadow Ball doesn't have the terror that new Charge Shot does, but it's still spooky. I expect Mewtwo to be above the median.
:ultgnw: If you put a gun to my head, I'd point to G&W as worst character. A couple things are nice--u-tilt is surprisingly effective, somehow--but fair is the biggest disappointment of any move in the game. It sounds great on paper, until you see it lose to EVERYTHING in practice. Uair is underwhelming, turtle still functions but feels like it missed the memo on damage inflation and can't carry him. The d-throw game he relied on as a crutch is no longer there? Nair is still solid, at least. D-tilt feels like a travesty after Smash 4. Bucket reflection is a welcome QoL change but he still seems to be the only weak Smash 4 character who is now worse. I'd love to hear from anyone who thinks otherwise.
:ultmetaknight: No first hand experience, my MK is trash. Guess we'll see how the ladders shake out.
:ultpit::ultdarkpit: We've talked about these guys. Confirming for the 100th time that yup, they are the full package now.
:ultzss: Nothing to add here either. I do expect her to remain above the median.
:ultwario: Do we have any footage from Gluttony's event? That would matter more than any impressions I have.
:ultsnake: If MVD can handle ESAM's Pikachu, I don't buy that there will be a radical shift due to Snake's "setup time". (People seem to be forgetting that ESAM has had who-knows-how-many hours practicing against/with MVD's Snake already? He is probably the world's premier anti-Snake player at the moment!) Movement creep majorly helped Snake, what with his million-frame-jumpsquat and all, and we should all offer our finest calf as sacrifice that the developers had the balance foresight to take away his second banana proximity mine. Yes, MVD is a uniquely talented player, and yes, Snake dropped over the course of Brawl's lifespan, and yes, Snake's disadvantage state poses questions. 3f-jumpsquat-low-landing-lag Ultimate Snake is still looking like a top character.
:ultike: Literally forgot he was in this game. All the sword oxygen is being sucked up by the others.
:ultpokemontrainer: Repeatedly impressed by this character. Squirtle is much worse, we all know that, but I still feel so free and in control while playing as Squirtle in any matchup. (I just can't kill anymore) The virtues of Pokemon Change cannot be extolled enough, it's an amazing tool. I dunno what it is about Pokemon Change into Ivy fair, but I land it a magnitude more than I feel like I ought to? I suspect that changing into Ivy uair/dair for certain reads (both dodges and attacks) will prove to be a real tool, as well as Vine Whip and Razor Leaf, which both apply respectable damage threat in valued situations. It's wild just how diverse their off-stage toolkit is--nothing in Smash history is quite like it. Water Gun/Squirtle aerial into Razor Leaf/Vine Whip into Charizard stuff is most appealing, but any ordering works. (Vine Whip in particular really greases the possibilities) OoS nair meta? All the Pokemon shine, but Ivy nair is a special one. I find myself using Charizard for very brief amounts of time, but he can consistently find the kills. U-throw on battlefield and the invincible f-smash are as nice as ever, but I've been stunned how much Flare Blitz is better when we've just transitioned from Ivysaur. Working theory is that the mentality of dealing with Ivysaur's zoning crap (looking for a way to rush in) is exactly the options that Flare Blitz punches in the face. If Inkling could turn into Ganon, they'd both probably be better characters too. I really want Reflex footage!
:ultdiddy: Jtails did just fine with Diddy, and clearly would have beaten Konga if not for input errors. There's no way this character is not in the top quartile.
:ultlucas: Hard to evaluate. Doubtful how much super-scary PK Freeze will matter at high-level play, and doubtful that Lucas PKT has the air-dodge ruining pressure potential that Ness's has. Universal shield/grab nerfs are not in his favor, and of course his d-throw combos are neutered. Does it all just come down to how much low-lag nair enables him, or am I missing something else?
:ultsonic: No opinion, other than that he seems much less awful to play against. (Hope that holds!)
:ultkingdedede: Like I said with DK, I think one better airdodge is superior for characters with juggle problems. Big D's showing was impressive, but I really want to see how DDD deals with a broader range of matchups. The Inhale change is nice; it's applications are in some ways limited, but it's welcome to have a stable option NOT lose to projectile hazard on DDD.
:ultolimar: Obviously good character, want to see more matchup dynamics play out. Is Dabuz playing Olimar???
:ultlucario: No idea, but my Lucario-playing pal is very bullish.
:ultrob: Agree with sentiments in this topic. This is a great environment for ROB, and we should all be thankful his kill options are kinda limited. Top quartile?!?
:ultwolf: I am unconvinced. Good normals, but I feel like a lot of Wolf matchups in my early experience are just boiling down to "can they deal with lasers?" If Wolf can force approaches into his good normal options, he works fine; otherwise I haven't had much luck as him and have not struggled against him. Side-b is fun as it was in Brawl, but let's not pretend it makes the character tick. I've gotten plenty of off-stage kills against Wolf. I'd feel comfortable guessing a lower position for him as he stands today.
:ultvillager: Villager has to hate the speed creep, though he doesn't care about grab changes and welcomes shields being worse. As far as I can tell, Villager got nothing in compensation, quite unlike the other zoners. I am willing to bet that Villager has fallen to the bottom half.
:ultmegaman: Unlike Villager, he got this crazy pellets buff to fit into the new world. Landing lag changes are welcome on MM disproportionately as well, thank goodness they didn't include bair in the party. Holding f-smash longer is nice. Still, Leaf Shield is weird and kinda sad now, and with no dumb footstool shenanigans I'm not sure great pellets are enough to keep Mega Man in the upper echelons? I'm certainly not bullish.
:ultwiifittrainer: Holy crap. Am I the only one blown away by this character? 125% Deep Breathing damage more than makes up for speed creep making it harder to pull off. The speed increases and landing lag buffs make her previously lackluster buttons into accessible strings that do tons of damage. New max header angle is most welcome, and helps her achieve Samus-lite levels of projectile Shield Pressure. Even up-b is better! John Numbers doesn't owe us anything and should play whatever character he wants, but I'd love to see what he can do with her.
:ultrosalina: Haven't played a trained Rosa yet, so I'm clueless.
:ultlittlemac: Almost like ICs or Shulk, I think it will take much longer to suss out Mac than most characters. He's more robust though, even if he still can't jump onto Smashville's platform! The side-b change is simply huge, and KO Punch is so much better. But parrying will affect Mac more than most characters/matchups. Little Mac was the #1 benefactor of accidental powershields, as well as the person most punished by them. (So much of Mac's ground options depend on their implicit spaced safety--lose that and whelp.) I need to sink my teeth into parrying more to better extrapolite how it is likely to evolve, but I think it's a safe initial guess that it will be far harder to parry in-your-face 1-5f ground options from a Mac than swordsman SH aerials. Mac still probably prefers to OoS U-smash? All this grab nerf and jumpsquat buff nonsense is vaguely meaningless to him, in comparison to everyone else. And of course being able to do the world's-best-ground-moveset out of Little Mac runspeed is insane, but you already knew that.
:ultgreninja: Zero informed opinion, based on my time playing him. He feels the same???
:ultmiifighters::ultmiifighters::ultmiifighters:Brawler feels disappointing. Suplex is a gem--you first think it's good, then you think it's bad, then maybe it's actually good??? Swordfighter and Gunner having better recoveries is a huge sigh of relief, as mentioned. I remain unconvinced that Gunner can kill reliably, but it's clearly a better situation than before. (RIP fair though) I don't anticipate any of the Miis being in the upper half.
:ultpalutena: Uh okay so this character is great and getting lots of early results. Her nair is amazing, her tilts are zero-to-hero, her projectiles are great, Teleport is good as ever... A lot of Palutena seems well-suited to stuffing braindead SH stuff that everyone has now? But yeah my impressions of Palutena are not especially unique or controversial.
:ultpacman: Skeptical. He loves loves loves the worse shields, and also has a somewhat workable grab to boot. He also is fine doing fast aerials OoS, sure. But otherwise, this engine does not seem kind to this character, who would prefer to play as slowly as possible with as many air dodges as possible. Bottom quartile.
:ultrobin: Robin on the other hand I am very optimistic for, and have argued with people about. Yes, he lost checkmate, arcthunder combos, d-throw setups, arcfire safety, and even doesn't start the match with levin. Doesn't matter, the environmental changes are too huge. Rolling away from Robin is no longer a sustainable strategy, f3 shorthop is an ABSURD improvement for Mr. Levin (especially OoS), Levin Nair is great, Thoron is fantastic and worth the price of admission, Arcthunder still does great damage on its own, Elthunder forces that single air dodge, Thoron and Arcthunder poke shields very easily... And recovery is significantly better to boot! I felt vindicated by Deci's very strong showing at DPOTG, and think you will see more of this in the future.
:ultshulk: Like ICs, ask me in a year.
:ultbowserjr: Okay, so. I think Bowser Jr. is mediocre, but think the degree is being heavily overstated in a meme way and that the character is noteably better than Smash 4. He is an aerial-focused character who loves landing lag and jumpsquat changes, and remember how he had a super-high-damage-and-lethal jab with the little downside of it simply not working? Yeah, well, now it works. And then there's the biggest change of all, that the 0.88x damage hurtbox now takes priority over the 1.15x damage hurtbox. This is... one of the biggest buffs in Smash history, and it would be very hasty to dismiss it out of hand.
:ultduckhunt: He hates the speed creep more than almost anyone, and lost his cute little SH AC dair. But he got tons of toys as compensation! Truthfully, I'm still working out how to most capitalize on new gunmen, frisbee, and his recovery. All seem to help him a lot, but I'm having difficulty seeing how far they go. Worse grabs make him and his setups very sad, too. He's surely improved, but remains an enigma to me despite how much I play him.
:ultryu::ultken: I am the least qualified person in the universe to talk about these characters.
:ultcloud: It's so delightful that Cloud is actually fun to fight against now. There was something soul-crushing about having to fight a disjointed character better than you who--right as you are started to get frustrated with nair--gets limit. But now Cloud feels like just another good character. I think he'll be top quartile, but only barely if I had to gander a more specific guess.
:ultcorrin: Is getting overshadowed, but not the the extent of Ike. The character is worse off, but in a favorable environment? I can't see Corrin outside the top half.
:ultbayonetta: I have yet to play against or watch a single trained Bayonetta. How does she kill?
:ultinkling: Good character is good, no insights here. I actually, somehow, have the least first-hand impressions on Inkling of all the newcomers, despite Inkling appearing to be the obvious best.
:ultridley: I've focused a lot more on Ridley since posts here, and we got to see multiple good Ridleys do respectfully at DPOTG. Nair and d-tilt save the character, and f-tilt/bair seem critical as well. Ridley's recovery isn't that bad once you get used to it--the horizontal up-b angle seem random until you learn that it is perfect flying back to the stage after going seep off-stage with both double jumps. I feel like Ridley has a lot of potential for juicy 60% roll reads, particularly to the stage edge or perhaps from the ledge? Jab out of side-B break is an important design feature--are we certain it is true? Across the cast? Fireball is quite handy but I think people will get much better at dealing with it.
:ultsimon::ultrichter: I have heard the most polarizing opinions on these two, and feel it in my own gameplay. Sometimes, as a Belmont or their opponent, I find myself saying "wow, that was so good, they covered all the options"; other times they just feel like a sack of potatoes. I wouldn't be surprised if their matchups end up very polarized? Worse case, they are the Little Mac of these game, and we all just figure out how to deal with them and move on. I bet they don't like people getting better at parries.
:ultkrool: I've heard a lot of comparisons to Bowser Jr, saying he's a gimmick-focused character who is destined to go down. I can't disagree, but we all probably see eye-to-eye that he has the tools and numbers to have some baseline threat which he won't fall below. The armored attacks, reflector, and protected recovery make for a heavy who can better cope with historically abusive anti-heavy options.
:ultisabelle: My wife is pessimistic on Isabelle, and has a hunch Villager is better. I'm not quite sure I'm ready to take the opposite position, but I'm a little more bullish on the value of Isabelle's unique traits. Down-b is just too handy and synergizes with slingshot zoning too well. Smart people have been downplaying the Fishing Rod hype, but I think it's handy and actually fits into her zoning game pretty well once you get past the realization that it's not nearly as broken as your first impression. In the neutral, think of it as a call-out option like Flare Blitz, Wizkick, or Pit side-b. Sure, Fishing Rod doesn't have the reward of those options, but it better fits into her zoning game and beats all of those options to boot! (Nevermind the edgeguarding tomfoolery) I don't see Isabelle in the upper half, but she doesn't seem bad.
:ultincineroar: Incineroar is the new, much-better-designed Brawl/Smash4 Ganon. He's slow, his range is poor except for certain aerials, and he usually needs to call out exactly what you are doing to hit you. How is he playable? Well, let's count. His throws and side-b are far more rewarding and lethal than ol' Ganon. Lariat is a Good Button (tm) that actually beats stuff, which is like water in the desert to ol' Ganon. His recovery is lightly but meaningfully improved. And finally, most important of all, he has Revenge. Nobie is right, listen to him: Revenge is absurd, and if you are playing Incineroar without Revenge, you might as well be playing Shulk without Monado or Rosalina without Luma. It can easily double your damage, and shines the most against safe projectiles that would otherwise most abuse him. Listen, when you are Incineroar, Wolf needs to fear lasering you as much as he would a G&W, understand? Pichu isn't afraid of taking a couple percent to harass you, so why should Incinerator be afraid of taking a couple percent to deal 50% with a side-b? And camping doesn't really work, you aren't going to time out Incineroar's 60 second buff. Smash 4 Ganon is jealous of this guy, not Ultimate Ganon.
I can't really find a single major thing I disagree with in this post, save for one:

Nobie is right, listen to him: Revenge is absurd, and if you are playing Incineroar without Revenge, you might as well be playing Shulk without Monado or Rosalina without Luma.
Browny said that, not Nobie.
 

Nobie

Smash Champion
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I finally got some meaty hands on experience, and of course tourneys have happened so that was informative too. Time for a dump:

(Also, wishing the smilie char icons were in Canonical Numerical Order rather than alphabetical...)

:ultmario: Seems respectable. I have trouble seeing him lower than the median? D-throw nerfs and cast-wide landing lag decreases hurt him, but he appreciates the speed creep and doesn't mind doing non-grab OoS options. Speed creep also improves Fireball approach utility, and Mario probably benefits from the air dodge changes as much as it hurts him.
:ultdk: Thanks for putting him on our radar, Konga. What's a ding-dong? I think this maximally-armored-edition of DK will prove to be a lot more robust than the Smash 4 one-trick-pony. I feel like the air dodge changes help the absolute worst-juggled characters, actually. DK and DDD were already in never-ending disadvantage, multiple air-dodges or not. They'd much rather than a directional mixup--ANY mixup--than more airdodges that never did the trick in the first place.
:ultlink: No idea, no thoughts. I find myself missing hookshot, but that's obviously just habits and difficulty adapting.
:ultsamus::ultdarksamus: I'm... actually really enjoying Samus?!? She was one of my weakest and least-enjoyed characters in all previous games. It's charge shot. The ability to charge it faster and aerially, the absurd damage, the degree to wish it crushes a shield--it's now a truly satisfying centerpiece that her moveset can revolves around. Missiles feel a tad better too, for the same shield pressure reasons. (Parrying will limit this.) And the noticeable buffs to roll and grab mean that I no longer feel punished for playing a character who has to follow different rules than everyone else. I dunno how good she'll shake out, but she's my #1 most unexpected winner in terms of enjoyment.
:ultyoshi: Uhhh yeah so this character is good and everyone has figured this out by now. He's also fun!
:ultkirby: Also little idea. We saw some decent Kirby play, but I'm always skeptical of character lacking both speed and range.
:ultfox: No idea. I feel like I didn't glean much from the footage we got tbqh.
:ultpikachu: I mean ESAM put on the show we'd expect, especially in doubles where I felt like MVD was merely doing a A+ job of allowing ESAM to run train. Everyone knows this character is great, not much insight I can add.
:ultluigi: No idea. Tbqh I haven't touched him at all, nor seen a single game of footage.
:ultness: Look, you have to attack PKT. You just have to, air dodging is not a winning option. (For most characters) Ness looks really good, in spite of grab nerfs, but we'll see how his neutral holds up in the long run. Not surprised if PKT endlag gets nerfed.
:ultfalcon: Uhhh yeah that was a great set and very persuasive as to Falcon's love of this new environment, but how generalize are these combos? Confirmed knees on an Incineroar is one thing, but I want to see stuff working in bracket on a Pichu before I raise the Falcon flag on my ship. Still, this is clearly a good start to Falcon.
:ultjigglypuff: I've played a decent amount of Puff at this point and am not disappointed. Lots of stuff is just workable now, Rest is far more applicable, and damage inflation means stale moves is less of a huge deal for her. She cares less about air dodge nerfs than most, Pound is disgusting on shield now, it's good times. Captain L's team performance was very encouraging.
:ultpeach::ultdaisy: Another "you don't need me to talk about this really good character."
:ultbowser: New Bowser feels a bit more like DK to me--there's just a lot of power that is suddenly "on tap" and accessible to actually apply to pretty broad situations. I want to see more about just how consistent his neutral can actually be against electric rats and swords.
:ulticeclimbers: I have no idea and neither do you. It'll take a long time for the final equilibrium of Nana protection/assassination tech to be reached across the matchup chart, and everything hinges on that.
:ultsheik: It's hard to make this character bad, but this environment is certainly less to her strengths. I think without bouncing fish she'd legit be in trouble, and I do not expect her to be top or upper-high tier as she currently stands.
:ultzelda: Zelda's buffs have been overstated. Still, what a breath of fresh air to play Zelda and not feel like you're in 0% control of the match? Phantom isn't a panacea but is what the doctor ordered. I found myself being constantly reminded how good of a tool Nayru's is, and how solid it is to now be attached to a formidable character.
:ultdoc: This character is good and I love him. Really want to see people take this guy to the top. His recovery is still bottom-tier (improvements are overstated, however welcome), but all the buffs are meaningful and his playstyle benefits from speed creep perhaps the most of anyone in the entire cast??? I think parry optimization will also help him more than most, as doc should be able to consistently slap on a meaty little punish for parrying your dumb autopilot sword aerials.
:ultpichu: Yada yada he's-great-you-know-this.
:ultfalco: I heard a pockets of intense initial optimism and then radio silence. I haven't played him much myself. But hey, dair SH ACs, so that's fun?
:ultmarth::ultlucina::ultroy::ultchrom: Same thought for the whole gang: I'm reserving judgement at this point until I see MKLeo. I don't think they are comparable to For Glory Little Mac, but c'mon, all of our perceptions are really skewed right now. At the level they are being played online, nerfs would also not be surprising. Either way, I'm disinclined to talk much about them.
:ultyounglink::ulttoonlink: Both seems compelling? Want to see people parry harassment better before I jump to conclusions on heavy-harassment-based characters.
:ultganondorf: Definitely feels closer to Melee Ganon. I sort of don't know what to make of him? Verm's showing was good but ultimately not especially conclusive.
:ultmewtwo: I heard so much initial bullish predictions for Mewtwo that seem to have fallen off a cliff, as echoed in this thread. I was skeptical, as I doubted we'd see such a radical weight increase on Mewtwo (and Rosalina!) if the character had not been considered "in trouble" in development balancing. Still, Mewtwo seems far from bad? Shadow Ball doesn't have the terror that new Charge Shot does, but it's still spooky. I expect Mewtwo to be above the median.
:ultgnw: If you put a gun to my head, I'd point to G&W as worst character. A couple things are nice--u-tilt is surprisingly effective, somehow--but fair is the biggest disappointment of any move in the game. It sounds great on paper, until you see it lose to EVERYTHING in practice. Uair is underwhelming, turtle still functions but feels like it missed the memo on damage inflation and can't carry him. The d-throw game he relied on as a crutch is no longer there? Nair is still solid, at least. D-tilt feels like a travesty after Smash 4. Bucket reflection is a welcome QoL change but he still seems to be the only weak Smash 4 character who is now worse. I'd love to hear from anyone who thinks otherwise.
:ultmetaknight: No first hand experience, my MK is trash. Guess we'll see how the ladders shake out.
:ultpit::ultdarkpit: We've talked about these guys. Confirming for the 100th time that yup, they are the full package now.
:ultzss: Nothing to add here either. I do expect her to remain above the median.
:ultwario: Do we have any footage from Gluttony's event? That would matter more than any impressions I have.
:ultsnake: If MVD can handle ESAM's Pikachu, I don't buy that there will be a radical shift due to Snake's "setup time". (People seem to be forgetting that ESAM has had who-knows-how-many hours practicing against/with MVD's Snake already? He is probably the world's premier anti-Snake player at the moment!) Movement creep majorly helped Snake, what with his million-frame-jumpsquat and all, and we should all offer our finest calf as sacrifice that the developers had the balance foresight to take away his second banana proximity mine. Yes, MVD is a uniquely talented player, and yes, Snake dropped over the course of Brawl's lifespan, and yes, Snake's disadvantage state poses questions. 3f-jumpsquat-low-landing-lag Ultimate Snake is still looking like a top character.
:ultike: Literally forgot he was in this game. All the sword oxygen is being sucked up by the others.
:ultpokemontrainer: Repeatedly impressed by this character. Squirtle is much worse, we all know that, but I still feel so free and in control while playing as Squirtle in any matchup. (I just can't kill anymore) The virtues of Pokemon Change cannot be extolled enough, it's an amazing tool. I dunno what it is about Pokemon Change into Ivy fair, but I land it a magnitude more than I feel like I ought to? I suspect that changing into Ivy uair/dair for certain reads (both dodges and attacks) will prove to be a real tool, as well as Vine Whip and Razor Leaf, which both apply respectable damage threat in valued situations. It's wild just how diverse their off-stage toolkit is--nothing in Smash history is quite like it. Water Gun/Squirtle aerial into Razor Leaf/Vine Whip into Charizard stuff is most appealing, but any ordering works. (Vine Whip in particular really greases the possibilities) OoS nair meta? All the Pokemon shine, but Ivy nair is a special one. I find myself using Charizard for very brief amounts of time, but he can consistently find the kills. U-throw on battlefield and the invincible f-smash are as nice as ever, but I've been stunned how much Flare Blitz is better when we've just transitioned from Ivysaur. Working theory is that the mentality of dealing with Ivysaur's zoning crap (looking for a way to rush in) is exactly the options that Flare Blitz punches in the face. If Inkling could turn into Ganon, they'd both probably be better characters too. I really want Reflex footage!
:ultdiddy: Jtails did just fine with Diddy, and clearly would have beaten Konga if not for input errors. There's no way this character is not in the top quartile.
:ultlucas: Hard to evaluate. Doubtful how much super-scary PK Freeze will matter at high-level play, and doubtful that Lucas PKT has the air-dodge ruining pressure potential that Ness's has. Universal shield/grab nerfs are not in his favor, and of course his d-throw combos are neutered. Does it all just come down to how much low-lag nair enables him, or am I missing something else?
:ultsonic: No opinion, other than that he seems much less awful to play against. (Hope that holds!)
:ultkingdedede: Like I said with DK, I think one better airdodge is superior for characters with juggle problems. Big D's showing was impressive, but I really want to see how DDD deals with a broader range of matchups. The Inhale change is nice; it's applications are in some ways limited, but it's welcome to have a stable option NOT lose to projectile hazard on DDD.
:ultolimar: Obviously good character, want to see more matchup dynamics play out. Is Dabuz playing Olimar???
:ultlucario: No idea, but my Lucario-playing pal is very bullish.
:ultrob: Agree with sentiments in this topic. This is a great environment for ROB, and we should all be thankful his kill options are kinda limited. Top quartile?!?
:ultwolf: I am unconvinced. Good normals, but I feel like a lot of Wolf matchups in my early experience are just boiling down to "can they deal with lasers?" If Wolf can force approaches into his good normal options, he works fine; otherwise I haven't had much luck as him and have not struggled against him. Side-b is fun as it was in Brawl, but let's not pretend it makes the character tick. I've gotten plenty of off-stage kills against Wolf. I'd feel comfortable guessing a lower position for him as he stands today.
:ultvillager: Villager has to hate the speed creep, though he doesn't care about grab changes and welcomes shields being worse. As far as I can tell, Villager got nothing in compensation, quite unlike the other zoners. I am willing to bet that Villager has fallen to the bottom half.
:ultmegaman: Unlike Villager, he got this crazy pellets buff to fit into the new world. Landing lag changes are welcome on MM disproportionately as well, thank goodness they didn't include bair in the party. Holding f-smash longer is nice. Still, Leaf Shield is weird and kinda sad now, and with no dumb footstool shenanigans I'm not sure great pellets are enough to keep Mega Man in the upper echelons? I'm certainly not bullish.
:ultwiifittrainer: Holy crap. Am I the only one blown away by this character? 125% Deep Breathing damage more than makes up for speed creep making it harder to pull off. The speed increases and landing lag buffs make her previously lackluster buttons into accessible strings that do tons of damage. New max header angle is most welcome, and helps her achieve Samus-lite levels of projectile Shield Pressure. Even up-b is better! John Numbers doesn't owe us anything and should play whatever character he wants, but I'd love to see what he can do with her.
:ultrosalina: Haven't played a trained Rosa yet, so I'm clueless.
:ultlittlemac: Almost like ICs or Shulk, I think it will take much longer to suss out Mac than most characters. He's more robust though, even if he still can't jump onto Smashville's platform! The side-b change is simply huge, and KO Punch is so much better. But parrying will affect Mac more than most characters/matchups. Little Mac was the #1 benefactor of accidental powershields, as well as the person most punished by them. (So much of Mac's ground options depend on their implicit spaced safety--lose that and whelp.) I need to sink my teeth into parrying more to better extrapolite how it is likely to evolve, but I think it's a safe initial guess that it will be far harder to parry in-your-face 1-5f ground options from a Mac than swordsman SH aerials. Mac still probably prefers to OoS U-smash? All this grab nerf and jumpsquat buff nonsense is vaguely meaningless to him, in comparison to everyone else. And of course being able to do the world's-best-ground-moveset out of Little Mac runspeed is insane, but you already knew that.
:ultgreninja: Zero informed opinion, based on my time playing him. He feels the same???
:ultmiifighters::ultmiifighters::ultmiifighters:Brawler feels disappointing. Suplex is a gem--you first think it's good, then you think it's bad, then maybe it's actually good??? Swordfighter and Gunner having better recoveries is a huge sigh of relief, as mentioned. I remain unconvinced that Gunner can kill reliably, but it's clearly a better situation than before. (RIP fair though) I don't anticipate any of the Miis being in the upper half.
:ultpalutena: Uh okay so this character is great and getting lots of early results. Her nair is amazing, her tilts are zero-to-hero, her projectiles are great, Teleport is good as ever... A lot of Palutena seems well-suited to stuffing braindead SH stuff that everyone has now? But yeah my impressions of Palutena are not especially unique or controversial.
:ultpacman: Skeptical. He loves loves loves the worse shields, and also has a somewhat workable grab to boot. He also is fine doing fast aerials OoS, sure. But otherwise, this engine does not seem kind to this character, who would prefer to play as slowly as possible with as many air dodges as possible. Bottom quartile.
:ultrobin: Robin on the other hand I am very optimistic for, and have argued with people about. Yes, he lost checkmate, arcthunder combos, d-throw setups, arcfire safety, and even doesn't start the match with levin. Doesn't matter, the environmental changes are too huge. Rolling away from Robin is no longer a sustainable strategy, f3 shorthop is an ABSURD improvement for Mr. Levin (especially OoS), Levin Nair is great, Thoron is fantastic and worth the price of admission, Arcthunder still does great damage on its own, Elthunder forces that single air dodge, Thoron and Arcthunder poke shields very easily... And recovery is significantly better to boot! I felt vindicated by Deci's very strong showing at DPOTG, and think you will see more of this in the future.
:ultshulk: Like ICs, ask me in a year.
:ultbowserjr: Okay, so. I think Bowser Jr. is mediocre, but think the degree is being heavily overstated in a meme way and that the character is noteably better than Smash 4. He is an aerial-focused character who loves landing lag and jumpsquat changes, and remember how he had a super-high-damage-and-lethal jab with the little downside of it simply not working? Yeah, well, now it works. And then there's the biggest change of all, that the 0.88x damage hurtbox now takes priority over the 1.15x damage hurtbox. This is... one of the biggest buffs in Smash history, and it would be very hasty to dismiss it out of hand.
:ultduckhunt: He hates the speed creep more than almost anyone, and lost his cute little SH AC dair. But he got tons of toys as compensation! Truthfully, I'm still working out how to most capitalize on new gunmen, frisbee, and his recovery. All seem to help him a lot, but I'm having difficulty seeing how far they go. Worse grabs make him and his setups very sad, too. He's surely improved, but remains an enigma to me despite how much I play him.
:ultryu::ultken: I am the least qualified person in the universe to talk about these characters.
:ultcloud: It's so delightful that Cloud is actually fun to fight against now. There was something soul-crushing about having to fight a disjointed character better than you who--right as you are started to get frustrated with nair--gets limit. But now Cloud feels like just another good character. I think he'll be top quartile, but only barely if I had to gander a more specific guess.
:ultcorrin: Is getting overshadowed, but not the the extent of Ike. The character is worse off, but in a favorable environment? I can't see Corrin outside the top half.
:ultbayonetta: I have yet to play against or watch a single trained Bayonetta. How does she kill?
:ultinkling: Good character is good, no insights here. I actually, somehow, have the least first-hand impressions on Inkling of all the newcomers, despite Inkling appearing to be the obvious best.
:ultridley: I've focused a lot more on Ridley since posts here, and we got to see multiple good Ridleys do respectfully at DPOTG. Nair and d-tilt save the character, and f-tilt/bair seem critical as well. Ridley's recovery isn't that bad once you get used to it--the horizontal up-b angle seem random until you learn that it is perfect flying back to the stage after going seep off-stage with both double jumps. I feel like Ridley has a lot of potential for juicy 60% roll reads, particularly to the stage edge or perhaps from the ledge? Jab out of side-B break is an important design feature--are we certain it is true? Across the cast? Fireball is quite handy but I think people will get much better at dealing with it.
:ultsimon::ultrichter: I have heard the most polarizing opinions on these two, and feel it in my own gameplay. Sometimes, as a Belmont or their opponent, I find myself saying "wow, that was so good, they covered all the options"; other times they just feel like a sack of potatoes. I wouldn't be surprised if their matchups end up very polarized? Worse case, they are the Little Mac of these game, and we all just figure out how to deal with them and move on. I bet they don't like people getting better at parries.
:ultkrool: I've heard a lot of comparisons to Bowser Jr, saying he's a gimmick-focused character who is destined to go down. I can't disagree, but we all probably see eye-to-eye that he has the tools and numbers to have some baseline threat which he won't fall below. The armored attacks, reflector, and protected recovery make for a heavy who can better cope with historically abusive anti-heavy options.
:ultisabelle: My wife is pessimistic on Isabelle, and has a hunch Villager is better. I'm not quite sure I'm ready to take the opposite position, but I'm a little more bullish on the value of Isabelle's unique traits. Down-b is just too handy and synergizes with slingshot zoning too well. Smart people have been downplaying the Fishing Rod hype, but I think it's handy and actually fits into her zoning game pretty well once you get past the realization that it's not nearly as broken as your first impression. In the neutral, think of it as a call-out option like Flare Blitz, Wizkick, or Pit side-b. Sure, Fishing Rod doesn't have the reward of those options, but it better fits into her zoning game and beats all of those options to boot! (Nevermind the edgeguarding tomfoolery) I don't see Isabelle in the upper half, but she doesn't seem bad.
:ultincineroar: Incineroar is the new, much-better-designed Brawl/Smash4 Ganon. He's slow, his range is poor except for certain aerials, and he usually needs to call out exactly what you are doing to hit you. How is he playable? Well, let's count. His throws and side-b are far more rewarding and lethal than ol' Ganon. Lariat is a Good Button (tm) that actually beats stuff, which is like water in the desert to ol' Ganon. His recovery is lightly but meaningfully improved. And finally, most important of all, he has Revenge. Nobie is right, listen to him: Revenge is absurd, and if you are playing Incineroar without Revenge, you might as well be playing Shulk without Monado or Rosalina without Luma. It can easily double your damage, and shines the most against safe projectiles that would otherwise most abuse him. Listen, when you are Incineroar, Wolf needs to fear lasering you as much as he would a G&W, understand? Pichu isn't afraid of taking a couple percent to harass you, so why should Incinerator be afraid of taking a couple percent to deal 50% with a side-b? And camping doesn't really work, you aren't going to time out Incineroar's 60 second buff. Smash 4 Ganon is jealous of this guy, not Ultimate Ganon.
I think Mewtwo players are too used to having the specific tools it wielded in Smash 4, and have yet to fully appreciate where they've decided to shore up the character otherwise. I just noticed the other day that while up throw generally kills later due to higher ceilings, they actually made back throw stronger! A max rage Mewtwo at the edge can take out Mario at under 100%, so the character goes from having one really good kill throw + one okay one to two very good ones depending on the situation.

The switch from Confusion as movement option to Confusion as mixup tool is going to take a while for players to get a handle on. It's just so different in every way. But I believe the lack of a hop actually might make it easier to aim.
 

AlMoStLeGeNdArY

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Dabuz is playing olimar I believe all the top olimars are continuing to play him. Elegant is still playing luigi. I don't believe in m2 at all. Sorry and I don't see anyone that was good with him playing him now. So yeah.
 

NotLiquid

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This is apropos nothing but according to SourceGaming's translation of the online version of Sakurai's Famitsu Column, he actually didn't have a hand in balancing Ultimate, and is leaving that purely to a dedicated balancing team. I wonder whether that means we can expect changes to largely work as closely as possible in tandem with what we've already got, as opposed to something like "Sakurai saw Bayonetta kill Ridley / saw Meta Knight ladder a character, this is getting nerfed".
 

Thinkaman

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Browny said that, not Nobie.
Oops, you're right; everyone listen to Browny Browny , and feel free to ignore Nobie Nobie I guess.

The switch from Confusion as movement option to Confusion as mixup tool is going to take a while for players to get a handle on. It's just so different in every way. But I believe the lack of a hop actually might make it easier to aim.
Agreed; though ironically the anti-shield mixup would have been more valuable in Smash 4 and the movement mixup would have been more valuable in Ultimate.

Okay, everyone listen to Nobie as well.

This is apropos nothing but according to SourceGaming's translation of the online version of Sakurai's Famitsu Column, he actually didn't have a hand in balancing Ultimate, and is leaving that purely to a dedicated balancing team. I wonder whether that means we can expect changes to largely work as closely as possible in tandem with what we've already got, as opposed to something like "Sakurai saw Bayonetta kill Ridley / saw Meta Knight ladder a character, this is getting nerfed".
This requires some context.

Sakurai reportedly exercised complete control/responsibility over balance in 64 and Melee, and supervised a small group of skilled team members in Brawl. The team would submit proposals and Sakurai would approve them--so essentially this group balanced the game, with Sakurai having veto power on the specific changes being made. (Insisting that the characters remain unique, and that balance direction did not veer in the direction of favoring certain modes at the cost of others.) In Smash 4, Sakurai kept the same structure but used a much larger group.

After Smash 4 and its patches, Sakurai probably has confidence in this process and team members, and apparently doesn't feel the need to a wield an increasingly ceremonial veto. The 1v1 multiplier probably helps, as it reduces balance tension between different target contexts. (There's less fear of anyone wanting to double Ganon's damage and break the game for FFAs)
 
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Nidtendofreak

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You won't forget him when gets a guaranteed kill confirm off Nair. God normal.
I've only just now gotten a chance to start playing around with Ike (whenever I get a game I always clear off the single player content before touching the multiplayer, so my Ike experience is rather limited atm), but his Nair is.... potentially one of the best in the game? Dare in say actually in the running for best in the game? Huge range all around him with a good start up time, combos early on and into kill confirms, near-to-zero landing lag, actually usable off stage. Its bonkers. Which is good because yikes they did some tweaks to Ike and a number of them not for the better.

- His jab lost both damage and range, and his grab lost range as well. It feels like he has t-rex arms. And then he lost most (not quite all) of his throw combos and Dthrow went from "in case of emergency against fast-but-light characters" kill option to "ya no, not likely"

- His Utilt is now a combo, kill, and anti-air move thanks to its increased speed... but they moved the hitbox forwards and now it doesn't hit behind him at all and his hand/arm are just a hurtbox that can be poke which means he lost one of his few "get off me" moves from SSB4 if an opponent hits his shield from behind. Ftilt is fantastic and is basically a 4th smash attack but decently fast, Dtilt feels like how it did in 1.0.0 SSB4 (missing some much needed range, angle not ideal for long-term comboing. To be clear its not horrible by any means and you can still get some decent combos off of it but the angle isn't quite what I would like it to be). Would be a good option out of dash if it had a bit more range, a bit frustrating as is.

- Aether is looking pretty solid with super armour on F5 and aethercide being a real thing. Still can't grab the ledge if not facing the stage, still have regrab limits etc etc, at least its usable OoS now.

- Quickdraw is a bit faster/more usable. Not amazing, but I'll take any improvement on it. Seems to be less whiffs on it than in earlier games which is nice.

- Eruption is... improved but still only really useful in select matchups I feel. But man if you're one of the match-ups where we can safely use it for edgeguarding, RIP your stocks.

- Man Counter has some lag on it now if if whiffs. I mean it still can kill if it lands but boy they really didn't want Counter spam happening online anymore. Seems to be a universal change for all counters.

- Fair is still usable but it no longer auto-cancels and its angle is like pre-patched SSB4 again. New Uair is pretty fantastic, combos and kills. Bair unfortunately struggles to hit smaller targets and it feels like it should have better FAF frames than it does but is otherwise still pretty good. Dair is still "why won't you give him a proper meteor?"

- His Smashes... I'd say they overall got weaker. Again. Fsmash at least has a fast release once he's in the charge animation, this will catch people off guard particularly for catching them out of airdodges. Usmash just feel "bleh", Dsmash is faster but still not good enough.

- He loves the new squatframes, but his run actually got slower. Pretty much all other movement aspects got faster, but that hurts. Means Ike struggles more against projectile walls between the slower run and jab canceling out less of them. Physical projectiles Nair can probably handle, lasers and the like are going to be a pain.

I think right now for the swordies he actually has the 2nd most tournament results behind Chrom, which is definitely more than I was expecting? He has some very solid tools, but in terms of "feel", to me at least, it feels like he's fallen back towards the Brawl version where you have to rely on a smaller list of moves to carry you. Not quite that bad, and Nair is stupid good and will carry match-ups in of itself, but he doesn't feel as flexible to me as SSB4 Ike. Hard to say what will happen to him in the future, I want to see how parrying both helps and hurts him. If we can say, use it to land Aether as a punish consistently or Nairs into kill confirms more often then it gets us killed he's going to be very scary. But if it hurts Ike more than helps, he's going to struggle.

We'll see how many of these opinions stick as I get more experience of course. Would help if I didn't have to drive an hour away to get to even tiny tournaments...
 
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Mister M

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It's hard to explain but mewtwo just seems a lot less fun to play. He can still juggle and chase you round battle field with aerials up air and bair and Fair is still brutal. He's got plenty of strong kill options and retains his ground speed. With new dashes and good tilts, he should remain relavent.

But

The air dodge and confusion changes have slashed his aerial flexibility. And you've much less freedom charging shadow ball in the air too. This overall leads to his big ass hit box being a lot more exposed. I feel fat and vulnerable playing him.

He was fun because you could rip and zip about their air in neutral and avoid having to burn double jumps in disadvantage. That stuff was free before :(

He's still good though. Just quite different. The nuclear down smash is cool I guess.

Thinkaman Thinkaman
How can you not believe in the pk freeze cheese. It's honestly nutty. The way it goes up then down and weaves back and forth makes it perfect for tech chasing AND catching air dodges. Your reward is them dead or in a deep edge guard scenario. In situations where they've already used their double jump, only the best recoveries are making it back. That's if they don't pass the blast zone as a fat popsicle. It might be the best move in the game for reading an air dodge. I'm seriously wondering if there are any other contenders.

Oh! And as an edge guarding tool, it is downright devastating. It has a huge hit box and hits quite low below the stage. I'll need to test if it can two frame the inkling but I'm putting good money on it. He can do it from nearly full stage length. Hell, he can do it when he's being edge guarded himself and regain stage control before he's even grabbed the ledge. Like, this is not an exaggeration AT ALL. And if you miss, oh well. The punishes you'll get aren't worse than those you recieve for using your smash attacks. You can throw it out in the neutral if you want. The moves endlag and flexibility make kinda free.

I dunno man. Lucas is a stubby kid but I love this move. Maybe I'll just main him.
 

epicnights

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He loves the new squatframes, but his run actually got slower. Pretty much all other movement aspects got faster, but that hurts. Means Ike struggles more against projectile walls between the slower run and jab canceling out less of them. Physical projectiles Nair can probably handle, lasers and the like are going to be a pain.
A quick correction, Ike is not slower in smash Ultimate. He did, however, get the lowest run speed increase, going from 1.5 to... 1.507. An honestly negligible 0.47% speed increase from Smash 4 to Ultimate, when the average run speed increase across the cast was a 10% buff, leaves him at 66th in run speed. Still not good, but it’s at least not a speed nerf.
Edit: Credit to PushBlock Gaming for the stats, if you haven’t checked their videos then I highly recommend you do.
 
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