• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

Official Competitive Character Impressions 2.0

?


  • Total voters
    585

MG_3989

Smash Lord
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
1,130
Location
New Jersey
Switch FC
SW-8397-3391-6411
I honestly don’t think anyone is going to agree on the Ness argument and he seems like the most polarizing character in the meta right now. At this point we’re rehashing the same points in different ways. It’s ok for everyone to have their individual opinion on the character but right now his results and kit show a high tier. Yes he has weaknesses. Yes he could drop but so can any character. I think we should just put this to rest for now and revisit it in a couple months
 

Heracr055

Smash Ace
Joined
May 27, 2015
Messages
712
Location
Buena Park, CA
I'm sorry but I really don't care what Ness "might" be in the future, I care about what he and everyone else is like right now.

I think the majority of people honestly do believe Ness to be High Tier, with all the results to back it up. But if what you say is true, detractors are basing their points not on how current Ultimate Ness is doing, but apparently how old Smash4 Ness did and making biased claims that well of course Ultimate Ness must follow that format.
First point: if you don't care about future results, perhaps this isn't the thread for you. Strictly because we're trying to use data collected from the current results, as well as prior trends in previous games, to determine where characters will ultimately end up. This is why I tend to ask people to wait until at least May before we give tourney results greater weight.

Second point: Using previous trends from earlier games to make a prediction on how a character does in this new title does not make a claim biased; it makes it scientiffic, since we're using data collected over a variety of titles to predict Ness' future, especially considering how relatively little he's changed.

That is all.
 
Last edited:

peekpeek

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jan 17, 2019
Messages
61
Name me the number of "expected" Mid Tier characters that have even half the results Ness has gotten.

Sorry but there's a big difference between a Mid tier winning 1-2 tournaments and a Mid tier winning 15-25. If Ness is only a Mid Tier, his results are shockingly skewed to show a primarily higher result than what he should naturally be getting.
Yeah, I think calling him mid is at kind of egregious. I don't think people are accounting for how many characters there are. Ness will show up in most "Top 25" lists, i.e. the Top Third, which to me places him distinctly out of "mid". Naming the first 12 that beat him out for top third may seem easy, but the next 12 gets a lot harder.
 
Last edited:

fozzy fosbourne

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
102
What does it even matter if he is called "mid", "high", or "top"? What is the difference between someone being "High" and being "Mid" if there are 12+ characters in front of them?

It seems like everyone is arguing over terms without definitions right now.
 
Last edited:

Jotun873

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jan 18, 2019
Messages
43
What do people think of bowser atm? I have asked people on discord and gotten answers anywhere from middle to low. He seems at one of his best incarnations with firebreath actually being worth using and his recovery gets him suprisingly further than expected but he lost his Uthrow confirms and most characters seem to be able to juggle him to ~50.

And i havent played bowser in past games myself to really pass much judgement beyond brawl probably being his worst iterarion ever
 

MG_3989

Smash Lord
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
1,130
Location
New Jersey
Switch FC
SW-8397-3391-6411
What does it even matter if he is called "mid", "high", or "top"? What is the difference between someone being "High" and being "Mid" if there are 12+ characters in front of them?

It seems like everyone is arguing over terms without definitions right now.
Exactly I think this is a useless argument right now and I think it’s going in circles

So on the topic of Ness but not discussing his tier placing do you guys think Inkling or Pichu would be a better secondary? Still can’t find that character I wanna secondary and these are two candidates

What do people think of bowser atm? I have asked people on discord and gotten answers anywhere from middle to low. He seems at one of his best incarnations with firebreath actually being worth using and his recovery gets him suprisingly further than expected but he lost his Uthrow confirms and most characters seem to be able to juggle him to ~50.

And i havent played bowser in past games myself to really pass much judgement beyond brawl probably being his worst iterarion ever
I think he’s really strong and very intuitive. It took me like two matches to pick him up and start playing him relatively well. He takes up so much space and on smaller stages he’s really oppressive. His side b, fair, and nair are really good and his down b breaks shields easy

He’s still a heavy and he’s still combo food but he’s not a bad character at all
 
Last edited:

Lore

Infinite Gravity
BRoomer
Joined
Mar 5, 2008
Messages
14,135
Location
Formerly 'Werekill' and 'NeoTermina'
Yeah I definitely feel that Bowser is underrated atm. I'm not sure if he's the best heavy (not counting Ike), although I'm leaning that way.

His Neutral B is insane. It just absolutely wins some matchups. Plus his utilt is great too.

Like just adding those two to your list, MG, we have side b, neutral b, fair, nair, utilt, and down b as great pieces of his kit. That's a solid character right there, even before you account for the ftilt killpower buff.
 

Rizen

Smash Legend
Joined
May 7, 2009
Messages
14,920
Location
Colorado
When I play against Isabelle it feels like she is undertuned. If she killed 30% earlier and did more damage she'd be a good character. Maybe a few other tweaks like to loid mines but that's not the point. :ultness: is the exact opposite. His kill potential is great, he has good zoning options with things like Fair and PKFire, Dsmash is useful in situations like edge guarding, PKThunder harasses really well and can PKT2 kill if you're not careful, and Ness generally has good buttons. His air movement is good, Fair helps him wall and the new airdodges disproportionately aid his recovery. Unlike the Belmonts, he doesn't have a terrible recovery. He works well with Ultimate's engine. Ness is a high tier.
 

Foie

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Nov 19, 2007
Messages
79
Are we still talking about Ness? I'm pretty sure half this thread is ness-talk lol. Ness is a very strong character with exploitable weaknesses, somewhat like chrom, can we move on?

What are people's thoughts on :ultfalco:? I've been playing him a decent bit lately. He has some great strengths and a solid combo game, but I feel he is being held back by difficulty approaching, lack of horizontal air speed and acceleration, and struggles killing. Uair was nerfed as a kill move (but combos better), and he seems to rely on edgeguarding or fishing for bairs at high percent half the time.

I can't help but feel he is upper-mid at best, he has the tools to almost be oppressive but is best played in a defensive manner, and his blaster isn't strong or fast enough to camp out most of the cast.
 
Last edited:

MG_3989

Smash Lord
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
1,130
Location
New Jersey
Switch FC
SW-8397-3391-6411
Even I’m annoyed at the Ness talk at this point lmao

And I think Falco has a really good air game and a decent combo game. Once he gets you in the air and offstage he has a good chance to KO. I just think he’s overshadowed by Wolf and Fox although he’s a completely different character. I don’t think he’s bad by any means though
 

Frihetsanka

Smash Champion
Joined
Apr 26, 2016
Messages
2,247
Location
Sweden
Regarding results: Ness had fairly good results in Smash 4 as well (18th best near the end, ROB 19th best), yet both were considered mid tiers back then (see: https://smashboards.com/threads/tournament-placing-database-scoring-project.437773/). Mega Man, a high-mid tier, got the 16th best results at that time. This shows that good results do not necessarily mean that a character is high tier. Ness was overrated for a long time in Smash 4 and he might be in Ultimate as well, time will likely tell.

Although according to the latest list I saw, Ness was on the border between "C" and "B" and as far as I'm concerned "B" is essentially "High Tier."
On the latest official list, Ness was at the bottom of C tier, #28th in the game. #28th isn't that close to high tier. I think he might be a bit better in this game (relative to the cast) but I'm still skeptical of him being high tier. Players like FOW and Shaky and Awestin are very good though, and Ness might be at the top of high-mid even (which makes this discussion somewhat silly I guess, since the difference between the top of high-mid and the bottom of high tier isn't exactly huge).

What are people's thoughts on :ultfalco:?
Mid-mid at best, probably low-mid. As far as I know, he still has most of his Smash 4 flaws, and his up-Smash hitbox is worse. Keitaro does not seem to have much faith in him, and I think AC (now Armando) dropped him? Actually, I looked it up and he posted this a few hours ago:


It'll be interesting to see what he can do with Falco.

So on the topic of Ness but not discussing his tier placing do you guys think Inkling or Pichu would be a better secondary?
Ness probably loses to swords, right? And many people seem to think Pichu also struggles with swords, so Inkling might be the better choice (though it's possible Inkling, too, struggles with swords, I haven't looked into Inkling's matchups as much as Pichu's).
 

NotLiquid

Smash Lord
Joined
Jul 14, 2014
Messages
1,345
There's not much point in using Inkling as a secondary for Ness given that she too will occasionally struggle with range. Granted, Cosmos made the sword matchup look like swiss cheese several times during Genesis 6, but that may be more on account of him just being a damn amazing player.

If all you're looking for is to cover your own weaknesses then you preferably want someone with good range and good neutral, like Lucina.
 
Last edited:

Ziodyne 21

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 11, 2016
Messages
1,681
I just find it interesting how certain characters can still exceed with bad recoveries and some are falling off.


Look at Chrom, just before release and when most people only had pre-release footage to go by, everyone was saying, "oh lolz how bad his recovery is, he is going to be garbage". Then the first week or so it was "OMG Chrom is so OP even with his recovery, he is like the best swordie, maybe the best character in the game!!" Now when we have some actual tournament data and results to go on, people are like...um Ok Chrom maybe is not THAT great, maybe he is high-tier or worse.
 
Last edited:

MG_3989

Smash Lord
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
1,130
Location
New Jersey
Switch FC
SW-8397-3391-6411
Regarding results: Ness had fairly good results in Smash 4 as well (18th best near the end, ROB 19th best), yet both were considered mid tiers back then (see: https://smashboards.com/threads/tournament-placing-database-scoring-project.437773/). Mega Man, a high-mid tier, got the 16th best results at that time. This shows that good results do not necessarily mean that a character is high tier. Ness was overrated for a long time in Smash 4 and he might be in Ultimate as well, time will likely tell.

On the latest official list, Ness was at the bottom of C tier, #28th in the game. #28th isn't that close to high tier. I think he might be a bit better in this game (relative to the cast) but I'm still skeptical of him being high tier. Players like FOW and Shaky and Awestin are very good though, and Ness might be at the top of high-mid even (which makes this discussion somewhat silly I guess, since the difference between the top of high-mid and the bottom of high tier isn't exactly huge).

Mid-mid at best, probably low-mid. As far as I know, he still has most of his Smash 4 flaws, and his up-Smash hitbox is worse. Keitaro does not seem to have much faith in him, and I think AC (now Armando) dropped him? Actually, I looked it up and he posted this a few hours ago:


It'll be interesting to see what he can do with Falco.

Ness probably loses to swords, right? And many people seem to think Pichu also struggles with swords, so Inkling might be the better choice (though it's possible Inkling, too, struggles with swords, I haven't looked into Inkling's matchups as much as Pichu's).
Ness loses to swords for the most part. He doesn’t lose hard but they’re definitely his most difficult matchup. Yeah that’s why I was thinking Pichu might not be the best choice because he has similar matchup problems. Idk how Inkling does against swords but I like playing him. I should probably just pick up a pocket heavy even though I hate playing heavies

There's not much point in using Inkling as a secondary for Ness given that she too will occasionally struggle with range. Granted, Cosmos made the sword matchup look like swiss cheese several times during Genesis 6, but that may be more on account of him just being a damn amazing player.

If all you're looking for is to cover your own weaknesses then you preferably want someone with good range and good neutral, like Lucina.
I was thinking Lucina she’s just such a cookie cutter character that doesn’t interest me that much. Wolf interests me tho

Thanks for the input guys
 
Last edited:

Foie

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Nov 19, 2007
Messages
79
Mid-mid at best, probably low-mid. As far as I know, he still has most of his Smash 4 flaws, and his up-Smash hitbox is worse. Keitaro does not seem to have much faith in him, and I think AC (now Armando) dropped him? Actually, I looked it up and he posted this a few hours ago:


It'll be interesting to see what he can do with Falco.
Yeah, I agree there. He has pretty much the same game plan as smash 4, but a stronger advantage state and a handful of questionable nerfs. I feel all he needs to be great is autocancelled lasers and maybe a faster dtilt or fair.

It's sad when Tink and Yinks arrows are a better falco laser than falco's lasers.
 
Last edited:

bc1910

Smash Lord
Joined
Dec 26, 2013
Messages
1,915
Location
London
NNID
bc1910
3DS FC
1478-6611-0182
What are the thoughts of Diddy in Ultimate currently? I see him place higher in local tournaments now than in the early days of Ultimate. So guess what I said was true, that people will realize quickly he isn't all that bad. I still don't see him being more than a niche pick though, because he's clearly outclassed by Fox, Greninja and Pichu in terms of what he can deliver, but his neutral is significantly better than them, or so I feel.
Diddy is largely the same as S4 but a little worse at some stuff, in a game where most other characters are better. Diddy is still really strong in neutral, it’s his disadvantage state and kill power that took the hits. His recovery is meaningfully weak now and Monkey Flip through the air -> B-reverse popgun cancel is awful with the new airdodges. His damage output is roughly the same and still good, but his kill potential is much worse simply because his smashes (which remain confirmable) seem much weaker? I’ve hit midweights from centre stage at 150 and they’ve survived all three smashes. The weakening of vertical KO power hurts Diddy a lot when Usmash used to reliably kill at 120ish from anywhere. He also lacks an aerial kill move besides Dair; this is a big deal, it was arguably Pikachu’s biggest weakness in S4 and why Heavy Skull Bash helped him out so much when it was legal.

Diddy being worse isn’t a surprise when you consider the changes to the engine. Ultimate is still a neutral-heavy game but puts a LOT more emphasis on disadvantage and advantage states than S4, both of which were never as strong as Diddy’s neutral and both of which he’s now worse at than in S4. He can win neutral more than characters like Fox, Greninja and Pichu (I wouldn’t say his neutral’s “significantly” better than those 3 though, all 3 have good neutral) but lacks explosive power when he does win neutral, whilst being easier to juggle and edgeguard than all 3.

I would describe Diddy as “solid” overall but he’s competing with a lot of top tiers who have worse neutral with incredibly powerful compensating attributes, and other “solid” characters (Wolf, Palutena, maybe Peach) who are simply more powerful and have more kill power. I think Diddy would be much more threatening simply with knockback buffs to his smashes, Uair and Fair. He doesn’t need anything crazy, just enough to bring his kill power closer to par.
 

Ziodyne 21

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 11, 2016
Messages
1,681
Ness loses to swords for the most part. He doesn’t lose hard but they’re definitely his most difficult matchup. Yeah that’s why I was thinking Pichu might not be the best choice because he has similar matchup problems. Idk how Inkling does against swords but I like playing him. I should probably just pick up a pocket heavy even though I hate playing heavies


I was thinking Lucina she’s just such a cookie cutter character that doesn’t interest me that much. Wolf interests me tho

Wolf actullay has someting in common with Lucina is looking like a pretty effective secondary/pocket character in general, as we saw at Genesis 6. They are both fundamentals based and pretty easy to pick up and play I picked up :ultwolf: since as an :ultpalutena: user I feel he does well against a few characters she stuggles with. :ultfox::ultinkling::ultwario: for example

The electric rats are a major pain for both Palu and Wolf though..
 
Last edited:

MG_3989

Smash Lord
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
1,130
Location
New Jersey
Switch FC
SW-8397-3391-6411
Wolf is looking like a pretty effective pocket character in general, as we was at Genesis 6. I picked up him since as an :ultpalutena: user I feel he can do pretty well vs a few characters she stuggles with. :ultfox::ultinkling::ultwario: for example
I’m definitely gonna look at picking him up. If he vibes with my play style he seems like the best choice
 

Diddy Kong

Smash Obsessed
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
25,983
Switch FC
SW-1597-979602774
Diddy is largely the same as S4 but a little worse at some stuff, in a game where most other characters are better. Diddy is still really strong in neutral, it’s his disadvantage state and kill power that took the hits. His recovery is meaningfully weak now and Monkey Flip through the air -> B-reverse popgun cancel is awful with the new airdodges. His damage output is roughly the same and still good, but his kill potential is much worse simply because his smashes (which remain confirmable) seem much weaker? I’ve hit midweights from centre stage at 150 and they’ve survived all three smashes. The weakening of vertical KO power hurts Diddy a lot when Usmash used to reliably kill at 120ish from anywhere. He also lacks an aerial kill move besides Dair; this is a big deal, it was arguably Pikachu’s biggest weakness in S4 and why Heavy Skull Bash helped him out so much when it was legal.

Diddy being worse isn’t a surprise when you consider the changes to the engine. Ultimate is still a neutral-heavy game but puts a LOT more emphasis on disadvantage and advantage states than S4, both of which were never as strong as Diddy’s neutral and both of which he’s now worse at than in S4. He can win neutral more than characters like Fox, Greninja and Pichu (I wouldn’t say his neutral’s “significantly” better than those 3 though, all 3 have good neutral) but lacks explosive power when he does win neutral, whilst being easier to juggle and edgeguard than all 3.

I would describe Diddy as “solid” overall but he’s competing with a lot of top tiers who have worse neutral with incredibly powerful compensating attributes, and other “solid” characters (Wolf, Palutena, maybe Peach) who are simply more powerful and have more kill power. I think Diddy would be much more threatening simply with knockback buffs to his smashes, Uair and Fair. He doesn’t need anything crazy, just enough to bring his kill power closer to par.
I completely agree honestly. However, F Smash seems to kill pretty well honestly. I can KO King Dedede from a Omega stage from roughly around the middle, around 150%. Diddy lost good stuff as D Tilt to U Smash, it takes very good prediction to kill with that reliably. U Air is about as "strong" as it was as the final patched version of Smash 4, so am used to it being underwhelming, but yeah if they would kindly buff F Air and U Air that would be amazing.

Dash attack is improved however, and almost always leads to another F Air or B Air. Rocket Barrel Blast is now a reliable way to build damage and surprise KOs, at least, am having tons of fun with it, and due to the increase of the range of the Banana throw, it's a good punishing tool, even if it's a little predictable at times. But that's why you gotta play evasive, bait a lot, dash around a lot, confuse them. The Monkey Flip nerf is a shame yes, but it's possible to kill with the move again, and it's a good mix up especially on shields. I have KO'd people near the edge when they shield and left me open to Monkey Flip their shield.

You gotta work a whole lot harder with Diddy yes, but I don't really think it's terrible. Am having a good time at least.

Also I noticed Pikmin don't like the Peanut Popgun, so that might be a thing that's gonna help Diddy in the future.
 

Envoy of Chaos

Smash Ace
Joined
May 9, 2016
Messages
737
Location
Rock Hill, SC
Are we still talking about Ness? I'm pretty sure half this thread is ness-talk lol. Ness is a very strong character with exploitable weaknesses, somewhat like chrom, can we move on?

What are people's thoughts on :ultfalco:? I've been playing him a decent bit lately. He has some great strengths and a solid combo game, but I feel he is being held back by difficulty approaching, lack of horizontal air speed and acceleration, and struggles killing. Uair was nerfed as a kill move (but combos better), and he seems to rely on edgeguarding or fishing for bairs at high percent half the time.

I can't help but feel he is upper-mid at best, he has the tools to almost be oppressive but is best played in a defensive manner, and his blaster isn't strong or fast enough to camp out most of the cast.
Tbh I don't see what Falco does that Wolf doesn't do but better. Wolf's blaster controls the pace of neutral better than Falco's lasers do. Wolf has the potent air game that Falco is supposed to have to compliment the ground control his blaster gives. Wolf has a potent ground game as well as a bonus that Falco doesn't really have. Both characters not necessarily being that fast on the ground but Wolf has the advantage of being much faster in the air than Falco does. Hell they both even have about the same subpar recovery options (Falco has an slight edge thanks to his double jump height).

I don't really see a purpose for Falco to exist when Wolf essentially does what Falco wants to do but better. Maybe someone with more Falco insight can elaborate more can shed more light on the difference in each other's gameplans because I don't really see it.
 
Last edited:

Gearkeeper-8a

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Feb 12, 2018
Messages
198
Pocket Characters are tricky topic, are People using wolf because he a gatekeeper? or because he's a character that make good use of fundamentals?, or because he resembles smash 4 sheik?, when your character is in the spotlite more people will try to exploit the weakness of that character, is wolf strong enough to have good matchup spread against mid tiers, low tiers or high tiers? Is he a sheik or more of a smash 4 cloud?
 

Rizen

Smash Legend
Joined
May 7, 2009
Messages
14,920
Location
Colorado
Tbh I don't see what Falco does that Wolf doesn't do but better. Wolf's blaster controls the pace of neutral better than Falco's lasers do. Wolf has the potent air game that Falco is supposed to have to compliment the ground control his blaster gives. Wolf has a potent ground game as well as a bonus that Falco doesn't really have. Both characters not necessarily being that fast on the ground but Wolf has the advantage of being much faster in the air than Falco does. Hell they both even have about the same subpar recovery options (Falco has an slight edge thanks to his double jump height).

I don't really see a purpose for Falco to exist when Wolf essentially does what Falco wants to do but better. Maybe someone with more Falco insight can elaborate more can shed more light on the difference in each other's gameplans because I don't really see it.
Fun fact: Falco's blaster fires frame 8 of 41 total (7 and 38 in the air) and Wolf's fires 15 of 49. Wolf's blast is bigger and has a bayonet to be fair. Wolf is the better character due to movement and reach overall but he's different enough from Falco to not be a better version.

This brings up that several characters can out-spam Wolf's blaster. Robin's uncharged thunder, YL's arrows, Samus' uncharged beam and Mewtwo's uncharged SB come to mind. I've seen Robin and YL do this but not the others. Players need to stop letting Wolf monopolize projectile zoning.
 

Jgod

Smash Cadet
Joined
Oct 4, 2014
Messages
46
Minor impression or just ruminating on PT.

Squirtle isn't really that good. Possibly a contentious statement.
I think many shy away from Charizards value because of pre-conceived notions about heavys. Charizard may miss Rocksmash but, obviously, he gains more then he loses by having his other friends as options. His OoS options are still good.
Not to say Squirtle doesn't have its advantageous, water gun is niche but certainly solid where it is relevant. His Air movement is strong overall which frankly just makes up for him being the most stubby of the three, but it is certainly nice against zoners. Squirtle also has low % combos which is the main draw.
What happens a lot of the time is "start with Squirtle for low combos, and then dump it for Ivy/Zard" because overall Squirtle doesn't hold as much weight.

There are reasons to swap to it even outside of water gun, Withdraw provides another landing option.
Ivysaur and Charizard are very strong in advantage, Ivysaur lacks OoS options, but Charizard is not lacking there at all.

Where am I going with this? In the end, I think Squirtle is going to be seen *less* and become even more situational as the meta develops. Switched to for the sake of Withdraw landing and his few specific MU advantages. Squirtle has faster tilts/aerials and air accel for being worse than Zard at everything else which may seem like "fast normals are great" but meh. Zards great ground speed, grab range, weight, recovery, OoS options, range, horizontal KO power/edgeguarding, etc. You can keep him in for low %'s but you are trading Ivys zoning and disjoints to hopefully land that 30 or 40% combo. It's not all that worth it given the damage Zaur and Ivy put out themselves is already high.

Even if I'm correct (im just practicing a lot of squirtle atm, and might feel better about him later) Im not encouraging neglecting squirtle, just that he is more niche than his current use may imply. Squirtle is more of a "secondary" within PT itself where Ivysaur and Zard are the "real" character. There's still times it will be easier to just keep squirtle in.
My current opinion is that Ivysaur is a worthwhile trade for Rock Smash, and squirtle is not :p.

Each pokemon basically represents an archetype (fast lw, hard hitting heavy, disjointed spacer) and I think squirtle is mediocre at his
 

Diddy Kong

Smash Obsessed
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
25,983
Switch FC
SW-1597-979602774
Squirtle is just as Pichu, but lacks the sheer power and projectile spam, and even combos and gimps are less viable. Squirtle seems just like.. a smaller Ultimate / Brawl Sheik honestly. Without the Needles. Maybe Jigglypuff minus the floatiness and aerial combos is a better explanation? Anyway, he's kinda underwhelming for his archetype.

Ivysaur has been explored greatly, and I think currently, Ivysaur carries the other 2 Pokemon, but Charizard is huuuuugely underdeveloped, and that's a shame. Charizard is more than a 'last resort, **** it all, I'mma Flare Blitz till I get **** on' - character. And I haven't seen even one Pokemon Trainer main that starts out with Charizard, or uses him as much as Squirtle and Ivysaur.
 
Last edited:

Gleam

Smash Ace
Joined
Apr 7, 2008
Messages
654
Location
Burlington, NC
I honestly don’t think anyone is going to agree on the Ness argument and he seems like the most polarizing character in the meta right now. At this point we’re rehashing the same points in different ways. It’s ok for everyone to have their individual opinion on the character but right now his results and kit show a high tier. Yes he has weaknesses. Yes he could drop but so can any character. I think we should just put this to rest for now and revisit it in a couple months
I think its very clear what the problem is and it's that people are utilizing too much "impression" of a character, especially outside of the context of Ultimate without expressing what the results actually are. In other words, people have formed an opinon that directly contrast with the results thus shown. Sometimes you need to form an impression especially if there's no results to back it up. But that impression should be used to prove your point, to show the results of your opinion.

As an example, will take :ultpiranha: as an example. Plant is such a new character with so little results under him, that the only thing we can do is make an impression. Some say his specials provide an excellent way of spacing, mixing and edgeguarding. Others claim his poor neutral game and recovery hurts him way too much to be good. He's got a few tournament results, even a win in one case but one could just as easily claim this is due to a lack of knowledge on Plant. As time goes on, we will get more results about Plant and have a firmer idea of where to put him. Don't have much of a choice but make an impression and the idea is we'll use that impression to prove whether we are right or wrong.

:ultlittlemac: is another character we can do such a thing with, in this case his recovery. There used to be two impressions, one was that his recovery was much better than in Smash4, gave him multiple options and some even declared him a good character now. The other side of course said that, even if it might have been technically better, it was still heavily flawed and it wasn't going to help him much, if at all. You had two different impressions but one of them, the "Little Mac sucks off stage" crowd was right. Because they had the results to back up their claim. By the end of the day, it was proven that Little Mac still suffered from the same thing he did before.


We all got to start out with some kind of impression, especially when there's not enough results to back up a claim. However when a character has nearly 100+ placements and over 25+ first places spread out across several tournaments, people, places and months. Results that match up with other acclaimed "High Tier" characters and someone's going to say...

"He's probably only Mid Tier..."

Much less the "garbage" some players have indicated and I go look at this child with all these results and I'm just going to look at the person in question and say...

"What the heck are you talking about?"

Here's the thing, if someone believes Ness might fall because they believe people will be able to exploit his weakness more, that's fine. However, that's a future thought and requires results of some sort to back up. Right now, with what he's shown, Ness is a high tier character and he's not going to stop being one because of what people "think" he might be in the future. He'll stop being one when people prove it and show that their results are right.

I will repeat the exact same thing from my earlier post. Based upon Ness's current results, if he really is only Mid Tier, much less worse than it means either two things.

1.) People are wrong and Ness really is as good as his results claim.
2.) People are bad and have yet to find a way around this apparently simple character.
 

Gleam

Smash Ace
Joined
Apr 7, 2008
Messages
654
Location
Burlington, NC
My apologizes for a potential double post but in a TL/DR moment, I'll simplify my comment into.

If Ness isn't as good as people claim, isn't meant to be in "High Tier..."

Prove it.

Show us, directly via videos, tournaments, etc and not just hypothesis from a previous game. Do that and if I or other people see Ness drop radically in his tournament standings, you will have evidence of your claim and impression. When people do that, when they can point to results and speak of how Ness had dropped then even if their reasons are wrong, at least they'd have some tangible proof.

Because if in the next month or so, Ness only gets a few results, I myself who once claimed him to be high tier am going to have to stop, look and re-evaluate my thoughts on Ness since by that point he's clearly not showing the results of a "High Tier" character.
 

Rizen

Smash Legend
Joined
May 7, 2009
Messages
14,920
Location
Colorado
I want to rant about how underdeveloped the stage counterpick game is. I had a Roy player CP TnC against my YL; that's a terrible choice vs someone who out-camps you. Similarly I saw a Ganon player keep taking Link back to PS2, where boomerang, bomb and arrow camping is effective, rather than Lylat or BF. People go to stages they're comfortable with rather than ones that are strategic.
If your character isn't hindered by slops, make friends with Lylat, CS and YI because several campers are weaker there. Don't just default to SV. Campers, learn the pokemon leagues' layouts and go for the best choice. There are better stages for keepaway than PS2.

I g2g but will post more later.
 

Diddy Kong

Smash Obsessed
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
25,983
Switch FC
SW-1597-979602774
To be simple, and draw a conclusion about this whole :ultness: thing:

-He's good, and definitely improved from 4
-He's got results
-He's not a Top Tier

We are just all probably conservative to call him "high tier" because of what happened in Smash 4. Not knowing that every character has the potential to rise and fall, and that's even without talking about patches.
 

Nidtendofreak

Smash Hero
Joined
Feb 10, 2006
Messages
7,265
Location
Belleville, Ontario
NNID
TheNiddo
3DS FC
3668-7651-8940
Food for thought when acessing character viability for the future:

In Genesis 6, PS2 was played in ~66% of the sets played according to the numbers from here: https://twitter.com/Jaaahsh/status/1092821153348026369?s=19 The largest legal stage out of the whole lot, played at near Smashville in SSB4 numbers, this early into the game already.

You better be playing a character that likes large stages with large blastzones, because we're apparently already spiralling down to "everyone plays primarily on one stage and reluctantly on a handful of others".
 

Envoy of Chaos

Smash Ace
Joined
May 9, 2016
Messages
737
Location
Rock Hill, SC
Fun fact: Falco's blaster fires frame 8 of 41 total (7 and 38 in the air) and Wolf's fires 15 of 49. Wolf's blast is bigger and has a bayonet to be fair. Wolf is the better character due to movement and reach overall but he's different enough from Falco to not be a better version.

This brings up that several characters can out-spam Wolf's blaster. Robin's uncharged thunder, YL's arrows, Samus' uncharged beam and Mewtwo's uncharged SB come to mind. I've seen Robin and YL do this but not the others. Players need to stop letting Wolf monopolize projectile zoning.
A big difference between Wolf and Falco's laser is the damage and knockback however. Wolf's blaster deals around 8-9.6 percent depending on when it hits, 15 if you hit the bayonet hitbox as well, it also deals knockback to further push opponents away. Falco's while better frame wise deal only around 3.8% and just make you flinch, if your opponent jumps in on you as your firing Falco's lasers you can be punished for it while with Wolf you'll get launched due to the bayonet. They both cover the roughly the same distance and they both cannot clang with hitboxes (Which is why it's more effective of a zone move than say YL's arrows.) You have to either jump over it which Wolf can cover easily with his great aerials and fast air speed, shield it, parry it which is risky of course or dodge through it which stales your defensive options. I don't think it's that people are letting Wolf get away with blaster zoning more rather it's legitimately good when used properly and many characters have to deal with it if they don't have a way to negate it (Ness, Lucas, G&W, etc) or don't have to play with it thanks to their own projectiles, reflect or good air stats that make jumping over it more of an option. (Fox, Wario, etc.)
 

The_Bookworm

Smash Master
Joined
Jan 10, 2018
Messages
3,211
I don't really hear anyone talk about the Miis anymore. :ultswordfighter: had some brief discussion because of the discovery of his silly KO confirm, but that is it. :ultgunner:is a big question mark, and I am not sure if the buffs in 2.0.0 will bring :ultbrawler: out of low tier (ZeRo thinks so, but he tends to underrate/overrate the effect of a balance change). What are your guys thoughts on the Miis?

Another character that is a big question mark is :ultmetaknight:. Curious on your guys thoughts on him as well.
 

ZephyrZ

But.....DRAGONS
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
10,680
Location
Southern California
NNID
AbsolBlade
3DS FC
4210-4109-6434
Switch FC
SW-1754-5854-0794
And I haven't seen even one Pokemon Trainer main that starts out with Charizard, or uses him as much as Squirtle and Ivysaur.
I consider Charizard my personal strongest of the three and let me tell you, there's very good reasons not to start out with Charizard.

The obvious one is that he's combo food. At low percents switching to Squirtle is safe so juggling isn't an issue, but that won't protect him from true combos so he'll take a lot more damage compared to his partners.

The second is that his neutral is very committal, and bait and punish based. While he does get an amazing reward off of it his playstyle is also on the risky side, especially early in a match where you haven't downloaded or conditioned your opponent yet. Squirtle meanwhile has a much safe neutral thanks to his small size and frame data, and is also extremely rewarding at low percents thanks to his combos.
 

Phosphophyllite

Smash Cadet
Joined
Dec 4, 2018
Messages
29
:ultbowser: absolutely has the chance to take the crown of best heavy in this game, it's like the whole "Momentum" thing with :ultganondorf: where once they get into the advantage state you can find yourself in big trouble if you don't get them out of it, but with Bowser it's even more scary with how fast he is and the armour buffs he's gotten. Even with Bowser's awful disadvantage, it's nowhere near as bad as it was before since now it's no longer "Make a wrong move and you get ladder combo'd to death at 90%" and for offstage, the overall buff to up B moves linking can make Bowser a little tricky to intercept without getting hit and dragged into the move for a good chunk of damage.

:ultdk: still has the potential to outpace him though, both of them got their grab games toned down but DK's is a whole lot more varied and threatening then Bowser's, plus he got a lot of the same good changes Bowser got along with the overall fear factor of Giant Punch being a big help. It'll probably be a long while before we get a definite answer on which bests the other overall.

Bonus Heavyweight note: Just to add another knock against :ultkrool:, I just found out today his crown can be straight up destroyed. Kirby and Wario can outright eat the crown and oddly enough, if the crown is reflected too much it just completely disappears and you have to wait for it to respawn again. I swear someday there's going to be a dedicated K.Rool player who'll actually use him to his fullest and not rely on the gimmicks but I'm not holding my breath.
 

fozzy fosbourne

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
102
:ultbowser: absolutely has the chance to take the crown of best heavy in this game, it's like the whole "Momentum" thing with :ultganondorf: where once they get into the advantage state you can find yourself in big trouble if you don't get them out of it, but with Bowser it's even more scary with how fast he is and the armour buffs he's gotten. Even with Bowser's awful disadvantage, it's nowhere near as bad as it was before since now it's no longer "Make a wrong move and you get ladder combo'd to death at 90%" and for offstage, the overall buff to up B moves linking can make Bowser a little tricky to intercept without getting hit and dragged into the move for a good chunk of damage.

:ultdk: still has the potential to outpace him though, both of them got their grab games toned down but DK's is a whole lot more varied and threatening then Bowser's, plus he got a lot of the same good changes Bowser got along with the overall fear factor of Giant Punch being a big help. It'll probably be a long while before we get a definite answer on which bests the other overall.

Bonus Heavyweight note: Just to add another knock against :ultkrool:, I just found out today his crown can be straight up destroyed. Kirby and Wario can outright eat the crown and oddly enough, if the crown is reflected too much it just completely disappears and you have to wait for it to respawn again. I swear someday there's going to be a dedicated K.Rool player who'll actually use him to his fullest and not rely on the gimmicks but I'm not holding my breath.
On both of the results sheets I follow, Dedede is ahead of both. 22nd on one, 30th on another, with bowser/dk 5-8 spots behind. He probably needs to be part of the best heavyweight discussion, although gordos took a little bit of a hitbox nerf.
 

The_Bookworm

Smash Master
Joined
Jan 10, 2018
Messages
3,211
Just in case no one knows yet, but the next 2GG event is here.


Finally going to get the spicy rep the Metroid series characters needs. Choco's second event in America maybe?
 

fozzy fosbourne

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
102
Also, which characters have a +2 matchup vs sword characters (Lucina, Ike)? +1? Anyone?
 
Last edited:

Rocketjay8

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Sep 14, 2018
Messages
370
On both of the results sheets I follow, Dedede is ahead of both. 22nd on one, 30th on another, with bowser/dk 5-8 spots behind. He probably needs to be part of the best heavyweight discussion, although gordos took a little bit of a hitbox nerf.
The change is so insignificant that it doesn't really change Dedede's Gordo game. There is also new Gordo tech with c stick set to special.
 

Jgod

Smash Cadet
Joined
Oct 4, 2014
Messages
46
Squirtle is just as Pichu, but lacks the sheer power and projectile spam, and even combos and gimps are less viable. Squirtle seems just like.. a smaller Ultimate / Brawl Sheik honestly. Without the Needles. Maybe Jigglypuff minus the floatiness and aerial combos is a better explanation? Anyway, he's kinda underwhelming for his archetype.

Ivysaur has been explored greatly, and I think currently, Ivysaur carries the other 2 Pokemon, but Charizard is huuuuugely underdeveloped, and that's a shame. Charizard is more than a 'last resort, **** it all, I'mma Flare Blitz till I get **** on' - character. And I haven't seen even one Pokemon Trainer main that starts out with Charizard, or uses him as much as Squirtle and Ivysaur.
I agree with the Sheik comparison (atleast for now).

With Ivysaur as the occasional exception, a lot of players (Im guilty) play a % game with the pkmn and it turns into a flowchart.

I don't think flare blitz is what most people use zard for though. As a general trend, it feels like the general (more mid-level) flow chart is
1. They are low, let me squirtle.
2. I did 60% damage or my squirtle has lost neutral three times because he gets blocked and outranged half the time.
3. 60% plus or, Squirtle was sucking so let me Ivysaur until Im about to die.
4. Im at a very high %, zard is heavy so I will probably live and get the kill.

I think the better people get the more they value Charizard because he's not just a character you swap to for weight.
Compared to Ivy Zards toolkit is better for dealing with people that are already in your face and for whiff punishing but he is easy to combo.

I think Squirtle is also underdeveloped mind you, but I do believe overall Charizard is a "stronger" character that's not showing up as much as he should in PT play.
To be more indepth, the more players play PT the less it will be a flowchart of opponents % or your own % and more about what that character does in the MU. Which will mean probably mean Zard shows up more and I think squirtle will show up less.
Ivysaur takes off the pressure Zard had as a solo character in smash 4.
 
Last edited:

Ziodyne 21

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 11, 2016
Messages
1,681
Just in case no one knows yet, but the next 2GG event is here.


Finally going to get the spicy rep the Metroid series characters needs. Choco's second event in America maybe?

The "Saga Curse" will be reborn to crush dreams for a whole new era.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom