Le_THieN
Smash Lord
I had a Smash-fest run from 5 PM 'til 6 AM this morning, and both AlphaZealot and ChromePirate's most recent new topics (one noting the struggles of the D3 match-up, the other lamenting the uselessness of N-air) and the last portion of CP's commentary reminded me of something I wanted to touch base with you all for several weeks now:
So, as Diddy mains, we are observing two prerequisites that we more or less are required to observed in order to maximize our success ratio in all matches that we play:
Part of the problem in the case of Diddy is that the majority of his moves tend to have generally low damage output in the first place. The two moves that deal the most damage (F- and D-smash) also happen to be your two best KO moves, and also happen to suffer from a great deal of decay (lower damage and smaller knock-back) by their second and third successions. Obviously, Diddy Kong matches simply cannot be approached with the mentality to deal as much damage as possible in the span of one move. So what do we do instead?
We combo.
Um. How do we combo?
We turn to moves that may be low on damage output, but house properties that allows us to meet the damage output prerequisite nonetheless over a span of multiple moves. The most critical aspects of these moves is that they are both quick and disruptive.
Glide-tossing is obviously the primary candidate that exemplifies both these qualities. Item-throwing is fast, and having the ability to trip opponents is generally disruptive. Following up with jab-canceled D-tilts, grabs, pummels and throws can lead to a cool and breezy 30% without the opponent ever knowing exactly what the hell happened.
In order to properly approximate N-air's worth, you simply cannot approach its value from a damage outpput standpoint. As ChromePirate previously mentioned, it only deals 6%; by standards, that is pretty terrible. This is one of the main arguments people use whenever they explain they are deterred from using a move like N-air, and it's a wholly understandable one. Think about N-air's properties though:
Diddy is simply not known for dishing out a ton of damage on a move per move basis. This notion should be modified or abandoned completely. Diddy can be primed into a burst of unstoppable offense because of the sheer speed at which he can rack up damage across a succession of fast moves with low damage output at a generally uninterrupted pace. This is why, in the midst of the character's overall tournament success, there exists a strong argument for Diddy Kong's tier list rank to be bolstered by casual and professional Smashers alike.
We don't talk about why we love moves such as D-tilt or B-air or U-tilt because they do a lot of damage; we love them because they are fast moves that are easy to chain or follow up with (either with the exact same move or another move entirely). We treat them as access points: moves that eventually allow Diddy to literally open the floodgates and unleash a giant can of whoop-*** on our opponents in the breath of multiple moves. N-air should be no different. Whilst it's not the single game-breaking move that snaps your opponent in half, it can potentially be a move that becomes the foot in the door to a surprising amount of damage with the proper and necessary applications.
On a related note, it is also due to the insanely fast start-up and relatively nonexistent cool-down of these precise moves that lets us avoid prematurely degrading the strength and knock-back of F- and D-smash all together. A carefully premeditated salvo using all these moves in appropriate mix-ups and cross-ups will predominately become one of the safest and most efficient strategies you offensively deploy as a Diddy main. The mark of discipline becomes very evident if you can't even remember if you F-smashed twice or even D-smashed at all in your two-stock **** of an opponent in tournament.
...and it is at this point in the development of your personal meta-game that you realize how much you don't miss F- or D-smashing immediately out of a forward glide-toss.
The outcome of a match (i.e. whether or not you are victorious) should be your primary concern as opposed to how much damage you deal on a move per move basis.
If there is no one here besides NinjaLink who is not creative enough to integrate N-air into their ground-to-air (or vice versa) game in light of these facts, then there is absolutely no hope for the Diddy Forums. =)
Don't forget to tilt.
And U-smash.
Anyway, it's not bad if this is the mindset that you've developed in Brawl (deal as much damage to your opponent as possible at every available opportunity). There is, however, conflict of interest that arises when you take into account external factors that influence the outcome of a match – most notably move decay and Diddy's inability to reliably KO. If you're looking to keep your F- and D-smash fresh at all times, then you are effectively removing these two most damaging moves (when fresh) from the repertoire of moves you use in order to fulfill this.It's like, EXTREMELY situational I guess... The only thing I've found it good for is for a lagless hit when you're falling to the ground since fair is laggy, and bair doesn't hit in front of you. Am I missing something? It's not like it's good on damage either, only 6%...
So, as Diddy mains, we are observing two prerequisites that we more or less are required to observed in order to maximize our success ratio in all matches that we play:
- maximize our damage output
- preserve our two most viable KO moves until opponents are shifted into appropriate KO percentages
Part of the problem in the case of Diddy is that the majority of his moves tend to have generally low damage output in the first place. The two moves that deal the most damage (F- and D-smash) also happen to be your two best KO moves, and also happen to suffer from a great deal of decay (lower damage and smaller knock-back) by their second and third successions. Obviously, Diddy Kong matches simply cannot be approached with the mentality to deal as much damage as possible in the span of one move. So what do we do instead?
We combo.
Um. How do we combo?
We turn to moves that may be low on damage output, but house properties that allows us to meet the damage output prerequisite nonetheless over a span of multiple moves. The most critical aspects of these moves is that they are both quick and disruptive.
Glide-tossing is obviously the primary candidate that exemplifies both these qualities. Item-throwing is fast, and having the ability to trip opponents is generally disruptive. Following up with jab-canceled D-tilts, grabs, pummels and throws can lead to a cool and breezy 30% without the opponent ever knowing exactly what the hell happened.
In order to properly approximate N-air's worth, you simply cannot approach its value from a damage outpput standpoint. As ChromePirate previously mentioned, it only deals 6%; by standards, that is pretty terrible. This is one of the main arguments people use whenever they explain they are deterred from using a move like N-air, and it's a wholly understandable one. Think about N-air's properties though:
- it has a lingering hit-box
- the hit-box has almost a 360° radius
- due to this, you will almost always be in position to use N-air
- it will always deal 6% damage the entire time the hit-box is active during Diddy's aerial rotation
- it has low vertical knock-back
- proper vertical spacing eliminates a significant portion of the landing lag
- follow-ups can be quickly segued into in order to take advantage of low knock-back
Diddy is simply not known for dishing out a ton of damage on a move per move basis. This notion should be modified or abandoned completely. Diddy can be primed into a burst of unstoppable offense because of the sheer speed at which he can rack up damage across a succession of fast moves with low damage output at a generally uninterrupted pace. This is why, in the midst of the character's overall tournament success, there exists a strong argument for Diddy Kong's tier list rank to be bolstered by casual and professional Smashers alike.
We don't talk about why we love moves such as D-tilt or B-air or U-tilt because they do a lot of damage; we love them because they are fast moves that are easy to chain or follow up with (either with the exact same move or another move entirely). We treat them as access points: moves that eventually allow Diddy to literally open the floodgates and unleash a giant can of whoop-*** on our opponents in the breath of multiple moves. N-air should be no different. Whilst it's not the single game-breaking move that snaps your opponent in half, it can potentially be a move that becomes the foot in the door to a surprising amount of damage with the proper and necessary applications.
On a related note, it is also due to the insanely fast start-up and relatively nonexistent cool-down of these precise moves that lets us avoid prematurely degrading the strength and knock-back of F- and D-smash all together. A carefully premeditated salvo using all these moves in appropriate mix-ups and cross-ups will predominately become one of the safest and most efficient strategies you offensively deploy as a Diddy main. The mark of discipline becomes very evident if you can't even remember if you F-smashed twice or even D-smashed at all in your two-stock **** of an opponent in tournament.
...and it is at this point in the development of your personal meta-game that you realize how much you don't miss F- or D-smashing immediately out of a forward glide-toss.
The outcome of a match (i.e. whether or not you are victorious) should be your primary concern as opposed to how much damage you deal on a move per move basis.
If there is no one here besides NinjaLink who is not creative enough to integrate N-air into their ground-to-air (or vice versa) game in light of these facts, then there is absolutely no hope for the Diddy Forums. =)
Don't forget to tilt.
And U-smash.