Differences between marth and roy?

[ChaosNoobSlayer]

Im a marth player and Im also trying to pick up roy. They seem so different. I have a decent marth but when I try to use the same tactics as roy they dont work. Ive been practicing advanced techniques for awhile now and I can consistently shffl, R cancel and wavedash. Only problem is I havent had much time to experience all the characters since the game came out lol.

So Im asking how do you play roy? Is it even worth my time or should I just stick with marth and find another counterpick?

 

[EPsilon933]

Im a marth player and Im also trying to pick up roy. They seem so different. I have a decent marth but when I try to use the same tactics as roy they dont work. Ive been practicing advanced techniques for awhile now and I can consistently shffl, R cancel and wavedash. Only problem is I havent had much time to experience all the characters since the game came out lol.

So Im asking how do you play roy? Is it even worth my time or should I just stick with marth and find another counterpick?

If you're going to be a low tier main, it's good to have a high/top tier secondary in case ****'s about to goes down.

Roy's sweetspot is at the center of his sword whereas Marth's is at the tip. This changes Roy's spacing game very differently. But sadly (for Roy) the tip is a much better place for a sweet spot than the center.

Roy's attacks have a lot less hitstun than Marth's, so your combo game won't be as good. He can still combo, just very differently from Marth.

Just a warning; Roy gets comboed super easily. He has one of the dead worst recoveries and he's light weight. He's also everything Marth is except bad. If you only look at his strengths, he seems like he should be at the top of low tier, but you should not be denying your character's flaws, you should accept them and figure out how to avoid them or even enhance them and use them to your advantage. This applies with all characters. Also, a general low tier advice; be able to take free liberties to hurt your opponent. Like say if I as Zelda grabbed someone that wasn't a fast faller. If they didn't know they should be DI'ing as far behind me as possible to avoid a toe, I could abuse that and get my free dthrow to toe combo (and possibly kill them).

Also. I don't know much about Roy.

 

[INSANE CARZY GUY]

abuseing lack of info is a bad plan when it's simple metagame. But roy does have 2 things on marth, his d-tilt and hair.

really I think you have to movement space with roy more than anything. But yeah besides d-tilt and hair and you can think of it marth has it better other maybe sheild lag I think marth takes 1 more frame to get out of his sheild.

 

[edgeluca]

Forward B a lot and don't get hit or you're dead

 

[darkoblivion12]

I believe we were having a discussion in another thread in these boards about the playstyle differences between roy and marth. Things to remember:
1. Marth is good.
2. Roy is bad.
3. Learn to avoid Roy's bad ****.

In order to play Roy effectively, you need to accept he is bad and move on from there. He has very few good matchups, and of those, you will rarely see them in tournament play. Now that we've accepted the badness, we're going to examine it. First step: why is he bad? List: Lack of hitstun, spacing game is inherently worse than marth, seemingly random/dead hitboxes, and no aerial priority. Second Step: Bad matchups. Fox, Falco, Marth, peach, jiggs, ganon, shiek, samus. Wait, what?! Yep, that's the whole top tier plus most of the high tier. Of those, I find shiek, jiggs, and peach the worst. Falco is really hard until you learn to powershield pew pew.

So he's bad, how do I play him?
Well, that comes with plenty of trial and error. But what you need to know is that fsmash is your best friend. Side B is your most useful attack in your arsenal, often putting people in places where they can be fsmashed. Side B(DED) has so many uses, its ridiculous. Lastly, the combo move: dtilt. This move puts people into fsmash position, so make sure you have plenty of WD to dtilt skill. Am I forgetting something??? Hmm... Oh right. GRAB. If you're used to whoring it up with marth's magnetic homograb, then you're not going to miss much. Roy's grab (as far as I can tell) is almost as good as marth's with some small directional changes and slightly less range. Other useful moves that aren't as good as those other ones:
neutral B (flare blade), dair, uair, fair and nair?

Good stages?
Your preference really, I <3 FoD and FD. I </3 battlefield. Dreamland is my most neutral stage. With YS coming in at a very small positive for me. I hear a lot of Roy players really like FoD for the sweetspot fsmashes on platforms.

What do I do if I play shiek/peach/jiggs/*disliked matchup*?
Get another main. You will not beat most competent players that know how to beat roy. If you're really stubborn, go get *****, and get *****, and get ***** again. You'll know the matchup after a while of that (I know the ganon matchup really well). Orrrrrrrrrrr.... you pick up another character with good matchups vs your bad ones. For example, I also play fox and Zelda. Fox deals with the awful shiek matchup that both Zelda and Roy offer. While Zelda takes care of most of the other bad floaty matchups, such as Peach and Samus and Metaknight.

Closing notes:
CC>Roy
Use your sideB to fix anything you're having problems with.
Roy combos are sexy.
Tires don exits
Fire>>>>>>>>Everything

 

[wooha]

Is Roy's dash faster than Marth's?

 

[darkoblivion12]

I don't think so, his fail definitely is though. Also his shffl is faster. umm... I think that's really all that's faster.

 

[EPsilon933]

Is Roy's dash faster than Marth's?

http://www.gamefaqs.com/gamecube/516492-super-smash-bros-melee/faqs/16680

Someone calculated running speeds.
Marth: 40.7
Roy: 33.9

Falling speed
Marth: 117%
Roy: 128%

Percents are when Mewtwo's up throw kills them on Finals Destination ignoring stale moves and DI.

 

[Davo dopo]

In terms of ssb4 there are several differences

The most discernible is their differing sword mechanics. Marth has a tipper mechanic and Roy has a reverse tipper mechanic meaning that marth's sword does the most damage and knockback at the tip while Roy's does more damage/knockback at the hilt or closer to him. This is one of the main reasons marth is better than Roy as he can space much better and doesn't have to risk getting as up close to attack. His tipper is a little stronger than Roy's reverse but in either case being hit by their respective ideal sword spaces spells trouble for any character but is typically harder to land roys having to be up close and makes it riskier as characters can attack him easier if whiffed unlike marth's tipper spacing. This also makes roys sword unsafe from afar on shield while the opposite is true of marth
Roy has more trouble with spacing because he has to get pretty close to his opponent to inflict a lot of damage. Marth can out space roy as a result
Marths aeriel game is far superior. He's floatier so his jumps are less committal meaning he has more approach options as he doesn't have to immediately retreat or proceed toward his foe with his jump. He can mix up his aeriel movement. His aerial attacks are stronger especially at the tip where Roy's are stronger closer to him, but even so his aeriel moves (save his d-air) are weaker regardless. Roy's fast falling speed also makes him more susceptible to combos than marth
Thanks to his superior spacing, marth has much better approaches as he can stay further away from his opponent than roy
Marth also has a better gimping game thanks to his aerial prowess ie better aerial movement and moves. Roys fast falling speed makes gimping fairly difficult and his moves are worse in the air making it less worth it anyway. Although Roy's neutral special is a better edge guarding move than marth's as it hits in front and on the ground and can charge for longer. Approaching recoveries (especially from below) are fairly susceptible to this whereas marth's shield breaker can not function in this fashion
Marth's neutral is considered better though with its shield breaking ability. However, roys is ultimately stronger and it can one hit ko if fully charged (though it does take an absurd amount of time and spacing not to mention it does do 10% damage to roy).
Roy is faster than marth. He doesn't walk as fast but dashes faster
I hear that marth's frame data ie attack speed is generally faster
Roy's got a better counter. It does more damage (I think 1.35 vs 1.2) and it's duration is shorter. This means though he has less time for his counter window, he's not left vulnerable as long
Roy's up smash is also better. It's not tipper based, does more damage and has a longer duration
Roy (I think) has better throws. His up throw is the same and his other throws leave the opponent closer to him which is more conducive for follow ups. Marth's send the foe further away, yet are not ko throws and his slower speed makes follow ups pretty difficult. At low percents it's fairly easy to do a fwd throw with roy and run fwd and dash attack the opponent unless they tech upon landing
Speaking of Roys dash attack it is far better. It's faster and stronger and at very high percents can kill. Marth's is slower and less powerful and not a viable ko move
I hear Roy's grab range is shorter than marth's but both are very short regardless
I think Roys recovery is better but it's debatable and most disagree. Sure his neutral special can't help him in recovery nor his double sword dance able to stunt his fall. Marth does have better recovery mix ups. However roy's up special is better. It's not as vertically inclined as marth's, but is much better for horizontal distance and still grants decent vertical space. This means that marth in general has more trouble with horizontal recovery. In order to benefit from shield breakers horizontal propulsion, marth must charge for awhile which is not helpful when he doesn't have the vertical height to give him charge time. Roy can more easily recover from horizontally farther away while marth is only slightly better with vertical recovery. To boot dolphin slash is worse than blazer. Blazer can kill at high percents on the ground and makes for a great out of shield option while dolphin slash though good with regard to out of shield options, does not sport the ko potential blazer does