Does R.O.B. need any major changes?

[robosteven]

...or is he perfect as he is right now?

R.O.B. is one of my worst characters, but I do enjoy playing him when I do end up using him. I've been thinking a whole bunch about general balancing of PM, and while I do think R.O.B. has a very unique/strange moveset, I feel like it's pretty damn good. I'd like to hear what the actual R.O.B. players think though. What do you think of him? Does he need changes? If so, what changes in particular would you make to him?

also what's your favorite move of his? I like his new uair.

 

[Dandizzle]

If by major you mean getting rid of this move or etc. than no but yes there is a lot of things R.O.B doesn't have that others get as a given. But people ignore this whenever it's talked about how good he his because 1. It's pretty hard to see a character's weaknesses through watching him so it's hard to get people to understand. 2. His pros are really good but his cons are very crippling. Probably the worst things about him on the top of my head would be he doesn't have a decent oos/get off me button, you can DI out of Dsmash easily which is huge, his shield is laughably small, and of course he doesn't get his recovery back from ledge. Some of these flaws are warranted because R.O.B does have really good stuff but to what extent? Dsmash is his best defensive option and you can just say "uh, no" get outta it, so much for R.O.B's cc and tech chase game. And his fair comes out frame 8 which is one of your quickest moves, I think Upair comes out sooner but the hitbox is really high, and fair his only high and in front making juggles and cross ups pretty free. Bit too free, it shouldn't be hard to do stuff like this to R.O.B but it's so simple to pull off. I can write more later but basically R.O.B lacks some...essentials in a way.

 

[DrinkingFood]

Fair is frame 7 (uair is 8) but that is still pretty slow when so many characters have gtfo me aerials that hit starting frames 3, 4, or 5. Even bowser has nair frame 5.

The single best change (design-wise, not buff-wise) I can think of for ROB would be Dsmash being harder to hit but more rewarding on hit. There are a few ways to do that but here's mine. I would make it hit frame 6 (currently it hits frame 5), which would be a start-up pre-charge hitbox like his usmash, but it would be a weak inward spike instead. The hitbox would be on his arms but his arms would be bent upward similarly to his dsmash charge animation, so the first hitbox on frame 6 would also have worse horizontal reach than his current dsmash hitbox on frame 5, but it would also have more upward reach. After that first hit he would only have 4 remaining hits, 3 multi hits and the launcher. The multi hits would have a slightly higher angle (by like 5-10°) and standardized SDI multiplier (1.0x), so it would be easier to escape. However the hits would have higher base knockback, so that he'd always be at a frame advantage once they escape, and because of the low angle of the multi hits it'd be close to a shine in terms of how it would send them offstage, were they to be sent in that direction close to the edge. Additionally, his torso would move upwards slightly during the multi hits so it wouldn't be THAT much easier to escape. The last hit would have an over-the-should angle (akin to other similar dsmashes like samus or peach) and during the hitbox would have his arms go from fully extended outwards as they currently are to bent at the elbow as in his dsmash charging animation, so that interpolation would stretch the hitbox for a frame, so that the final hit has better upwards coverage in addition to horizontal coverage. I'd also reduce the multi hits damage to 1 (from 2) and increase the final hit in damage (dunno how much) meaning they take less damage if they escape but the move is one or two frames safer on shield.

 

[robosteven]

Yeah, I thought he had some pretty slow aerials. I mean, his fair does seem somewhat fast, but I've always felt that most other aerials beat it. Now I know why.

 

[BBOY15]

A nice change for ROB would be making his grounded side-B reflect projectiles. The match up against Falco seems pretty rough right now. ROB just needs a little more oomph in him to make him a tad better. Maybe make his gyro move faster when shot? I'd love to FLING that thing. Also, I kinda miss the delay on his Bair and Dair in Brawl (I'm pretty sure there was a lot more startup lag anyways). It felt really gangster to land them cause you had to use a bit more prediction. It'd be great if we brought the startup lag back but made those two moves do a lot more damage. We'd still have the quick Uair and Fair.

 

[robosteven]

A nice change for ROB would be making his grounded side-B reflect projectiles.

wait it doesn't already do that in 3.5?

 

[BBOY15]

wait it doesn't already do that in 3.5?

Does it? Shoot, I feel dumb. Guess I didn't try it after I thought I tried it and failed once.