Othayuni
Smash Apprentice
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2014
- Messages
- 87
- 3DS FC
- 0061-1205-7394
Grenades are sometimes undervalued, and I'm here to value them.
Since they're slow and unlikely to hit with, I've seen at least one criticism of sheik's grenades. Since I've fallen in love with them and relished exploring their usefulness with a zeal emphasized by the uselessness of the move it replaced, I thought I'd share my thoughts here. To me, the grenades represent the crux of sheik's new crowd control game. They're disruptive and cumbersome, and the chief misunderstanding I see about them is people who think too much about the damage they do (inconsistently any) moreso than the behaviors they cause (consistently tons).
First, do no self-harm
Getting the most out of grenades is all about learning when it's safe to put them down. They have a long startup time, but you have relative control over when you pull the pin and regain control quickly afterwards, so it can be easy to set a grenade where and when you want it while something is keeping your opponent indisposed. Once the string is pulled, it's like a free action: something in a place you picked on the stage is sucking air and blowing up, and that causes all kinds of disruption for, thanks to your shrewd judgment, no self-cost. When it's safe to put grenades down varies wildly from situations so all I can say is experiment and use your judgment. Seek, and ye shall find. Some characters create fewer openings than others. But any time you can find a time to put the grenade on the field for "no cost", it creates chaos you can use to your advantage of the sort I will describe hence. I put "no cost" in quotes because putting a grenade down must usually be done in favor of -some- action or another as a strict principle of time management, but I like it for its capability to take control of the battlefield when more directly aggressive actions don't feel safe.
One of my favorite techniques for creating a safe zone to put grenades down is to pop people who are over 100% with a single needle and throw a grenade down while they're recovering from it. It's an extremely easily acquired opportunity to make their life more difficult.
Crowd control: Pressure
There's a whole world of grenade use that has nothing to do with damaging your opponent with them. Once the string is pulled and you're free to move, every reaction your opponent makes to the grenade works to your advantage. Look, one characteristic of smash is that it's impossible to defend one way without opening yourself up in another. A popular response to grenades being dropped right on someone is throwing a shield up, and this is a perfect opportunity to grab them. An advancing roll can be punished, and a retreating roll can be used as an opening to refill a hand of needles. Jumping out of the way can be intercepted. And so on. Just watch out for direct charges and make sure you put the grenade down when and where it's hard for them to retaliate thus. It's hard to quantify, but I'd put it like this: the grenades give them something they have to deal with while your hands are free, and you get to take advantage of how they deal with it. Remember, you were clever and put the grenade down when they can't use it as an opening to attack you, so you're forcing them to deal with something annoying for free while you stand at the ready to capitalize.
Crowd control: Disruption
The vacuum does a lot of weird ****. Since it's chaotic it tends to disadvantage players affected by it by causing them to do something not exactly like they meant to, one way or the other. It's hard to make a list of this since it's so unpredictable, but grenades are generally about taking advantage of whatever comes. I've had fighters sucked backwards narrowly miss smash attacks, creating openings. I've had grenades pull fighters doing low recoveries away from the ledge, causing them to accidentally pop up in to the sky instead of grab the ledge, where they could be struck. You never know what the vortex will do, but again: Remember! You've learned to throw grenades out when it's safe to do so. They're like a free action, and you can use whatever pleasant surprise they bring to your advantage.
It should also be noted that the grenade itself striking for 1% when it comes out can be a funny interrupt that then causes the grenade to be unpinned directly on top of them. I've had quite a few people try and grab or attack me after they were hit directly with the grenade, only for it to subsequently blow up on them. That said, throwing a grenade directly at someone is NOT completely safe, and is against my main thesis about when to use grenades, so tool around with caution here.
Sometimes it DOES do actual damage
As I've mentioned before, the grenade's a gift box. You never know exactly how it's going to benefit you. Using it as often and disruptively as I do, it's not unusual that eventually someone just gets sucked in and blown up. That's all I can say. It happens. You never know. Like everything else about the grenade, use it to your advantage. Sometimes I'm predicting people will shield the blast so I run up to grab them, but they don't even shield correctly and end up getting blown up by the grenade directly in to my hands for me to pummel. It looks sick. I never know when it's going to happen, but it happens.
I hope this has helped change the way somebody thinks about grenades!
Since they're slow and unlikely to hit with, I've seen at least one criticism of sheik's grenades. Since I've fallen in love with them and relished exploring their usefulness with a zeal emphasized by the uselessness of the move it replaced, I thought I'd share my thoughts here. To me, the grenades represent the crux of sheik's new crowd control game. They're disruptive and cumbersome, and the chief misunderstanding I see about them is people who think too much about the damage they do (inconsistently any) moreso than the behaviors they cause (consistently tons).
First, do no self-harm
Getting the most out of grenades is all about learning when it's safe to put them down. They have a long startup time, but you have relative control over when you pull the pin and regain control quickly afterwards, so it can be easy to set a grenade where and when you want it while something is keeping your opponent indisposed. Once the string is pulled, it's like a free action: something in a place you picked on the stage is sucking air and blowing up, and that causes all kinds of disruption for, thanks to your shrewd judgment, no self-cost. When it's safe to put grenades down varies wildly from situations so all I can say is experiment and use your judgment. Seek, and ye shall find. Some characters create fewer openings than others. But any time you can find a time to put the grenade on the field for "no cost", it creates chaos you can use to your advantage of the sort I will describe hence. I put "no cost" in quotes because putting a grenade down must usually be done in favor of -some- action or another as a strict principle of time management, but I like it for its capability to take control of the battlefield when more directly aggressive actions don't feel safe.
One of my favorite techniques for creating a safe zone to put grenades down is to pop people who are over 100% with a single needle and throw a grenade down while they're recovering from it. It's an extremely easily acquired opportunity to make their life more difficult.
Crowd control: Pressure
There's a whole world of grenade use that has nothing to do with damaging your opponent with them. Once the string is pulled and you're free to move, every reaction your opponent makes to the grenade works to your advantage. Look, one characteristic of smash is that it's impossible to defend one way without opening yourself up in another. A popular response to grenades being dropped right on someone is throwing a shield up, and this is a perfect opportunity to grab them. An advancing roll can be punished, and a retreating roll can be used as an opening to refill a hand of needles. Jumping out of the way can be intercepted. And so on. Just watch out for direct charges and make sure you put the grenade down when and where it's hard for them to retaliate thus. It's hard to quantify, but I'd put it like this: the grenades give them something they have to deal with while your hands are free, and you get to take advantage of how they deal with it. Remember, you were clever and put the grenade down when they can't use it as an opening to attack you, so you're forcing them to deal with something annoying for free while you stand at the ready to capitalize.
Crowd control: Disruption
The vacuum does a lot of weird ****. Since it's chaotic it tends to disadvantage players affected by it by causing them to do something not exactly like they meant to, one way or the other. It's hard to make a list of this since it's so unpredictable, but grenades are generally about taking advantage of whatever comes. I've had fighters sucked backwards narrowly miss smash attacks, creating openings. I've had grenades pull fighters doing low recoveries away from the ledge, causing them to accidentally pop up in to the sky instead of grab the ledge, where they could be struck. You never know what the vortex will do, but again: Remember! You've learned to throw grenades out when it's safe to do so. They're like a free action, and you can use whatever pleasant surprise they bring to your advantage.
It should also be noted that the grenade itself striking for 1% when it comes out can be a funny interrupt that then causes the grenade to be unpinned directly on top of them. I've had quite a few people try and grab or attack me after they were hit directly with the grenade, only for it to subsequently blow up on them. That said, throwing a grenade directly at someone is NOT completely safe, and is against my main thesis about when to use grenades, so tool around with caution here.
Sometimes it DOES do actual damage
As I've mentioned before, the grenade's a gift box. You never know exactly how it's going to benefit you. Using it as often and disruptively as I do, it's not unusual that eventually someone just gets sucked in and blown up. That's all I can say. It happens. You never know. Like everything else about the grenade, use it to your advantage. Sometimes I'm predicting people will shield the blast so I run up to grab them, but they don't even shield correctly and end up getting blown up by the grenade directly in to my hands for me to pummel. It looks sick. I never know when it's going to happen, but it happens.
I hope this has helped change the way somebody thinks about grenades!
Last edited:
