Help Against Pit

[Pharrox]

Okay, I've been playing Smash for a while but really just started playing competitively with Brawl, so I'm still learning some of the strategies. I also just started maining Pika (was Fox in Melee).

Anyway, I've had Brawl for a little while now and I've done pretty well in most matches, however my friend who mains Pit always seems to give me a hard time. He spends the whole match roll dodging to the different sides of the stage (or just plain running away) using his arrows. If I try using thunder jolt, he reflects it. So he forces me to come to him, and when I do he is usually able to hit me with one of Pit's really fast, good range attacks. If I make an aerial approach he'll start rolling to the other side and shooting arrows or use his usmash which can hit me before I hit him. i know there are obvious holes in his strategy, but I'm having trouble beating it. The problem isn't so much comboing him (when I do hit him I can do some good damage), more that he forces me to come to him has a counter to all my approaches. So I was just hoping someone could give me some good tips to use against Pit.

Thanks.

 

[green_tea]

when your friend uses pit use another character??

 

[Anther]

I'm starting to see a whole lot more potential in Pika's approach game in brawl that I thought he'd had. Number one is, try to reach him with forward airs. They're too good. Occasionally leading to a dsmash, usmash, neutral airs... but they're very likely to get through attacks and annoying for people to deal with.

Another good approach is if you can get a bead on his rolling, is to dash towards him, expect his roll, and grab where he's going to end up. You can then throw him and continue your chase.
Another option is to run into him and jump into a neutral air. This works a lot better at higher percents since it'll actually knock him off of the stage.

Other approaches you have are dashing and doing an upsmash so you kinda slide into him with an usmash.
Those are some appoaches you can try... Just remember that in competitive smash, you don't have to be in a rush to approach. Sometimes you can just sit back in spam jolts or dodge their projectiles until you can compose yourself....
Hopefully someone may be able to come in with some pit specific info though ..

 

[Gindler]

Well Pit is naturally one of pikachu's best counters, he has some good reflectors making thunder and thundershock nearly useless. I know this because the only time I use pit is when my friend who just spams thunder the whole game (extreme noob strategy), and he says he's cheap for having arrows and reflectors. I'm glad they made pit such a good pika counter, he may not have kill power but reflecting thunder power has some good knockback and is really annoying.

 

[Skazryk]

Well pika has trouble when it comes to approaching alot of characters, i would probly try and air dodge the ranged attacks and possibly when he trys to get you when your almost within range of him dodging and d smashing.

 

[ShuffleTrain]

Grab a Smash ball.

:D Just kidding

Yes, try anticipating where your "Pit" using friend will go when he starts to roll, follow him and grab him.

That's called tech chasing.

From here, you might have to experiment on comboing though or read some Pikachu boards fro good combo out of grab moves, because I'm not much of a Pikachu player.

 

[Pharrox]

Thanks for the replies. Been kinda busy and haven't had much of a chance to check here too often.

To the guy who said play a different character: sometimes I do, but I just wanted to see if anyone had any good tips because I prefer Pikachu.

As for everything else, that's basically what I try to do. Probably just need some more practice at it, that and be a little more patient before running in to attack. As far as tech chasing goes, I've tried it, but he always stands on the side of the stage and rolls the opposite direction of where I'd be coming from so I have a hard time with it. I could probably get him with a grab turn-around though, which is something I haven't really tried. The one thing that does seems to be pretty effective is dashing shield grabbing him into various combos, so I do that a lot.

And just out of curiosity, Anther, did you go to the Gamestop tournament or even just the midnight release and if so which one? Just wondering since your location says Ypsilanti and I was at the Ypsilanti Gamestop for the tournament.

 

[kitsuneboy_geoff]

I assume you play with items off? If not, try picking up a a Beam Sabre or Star Rod. Most of these can help you approach characters like Pit.

Personally, I prefer to approach Pit at a walking speed, shielding or point dodging arrows and just being ridiculously cautious. It seems kinda unimpressive, but, when facing Pit as Pika, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. If he begins to launch a fast attack, like that irritating forward-b, roll past him , grab, and go on the offensive. If he tries to roll past you, down smash or turn and grab. If he tries to jump over you and attack, u-air him and go on the offensive. If he just stands there and waits, f-tilt, f-smash or (if he predicted as much and shielded), use the ever-useful grab. Against pit, grabs are your friends.

That slow approach strategy works pretty well for me against people who try a defensive strategy like that. The key to victory while doing this is, of course, to dodge those projectiles! Oh, one more tip. Never try to point-dodge Pit's f-smash. It's two parts, and the second one will hit you right as you become vulnerable. It took me a few tries to get this one down-pat.

 

[Anther]

I was soo planning on stopping by that Gamespot tournament, but spent the day at a tournamnent in Ann Arbor to win a copy of Brawl and was exhausted by midnight. =[...

 

[JoeTang]

Try Crawling under his Arrows. It will force him to aim them lower, which can slow him down, or he won't be able to hit you at all. Approach with a Forward Air -> Down Smash, or just Crawl up to him and Down Tilt -> Smash.

 

[Metzger]

Pit is one of the harder characters to approach. Keep him guessing with Quick Attack cancels out of his range, and when you see a point where you want to move in jump out of QAC and QA down at an angle through him to get an opportunity to hit with an aerial out of the QA.

Like someone else mentioned, you can also duck under an arrow that isn't curved, so keep him guessing on his arrow game.

Since this generally turns into a defensive mindgame you need to capitalize on every opportunity to gimp his Up-B off-stage. Holding back on Thunder will allow you to surprise him if he tries to play his aerial advantage when recovering as well.

Keep low in close quarters. You can duck his F-Tilts and punish them easily enough.

 

[ishizzle]

I have a question: If you get caught in Pit's annoying forward B, whats the best way to DI out of it and/or counter?

I normally just try to get out of it by DI'ing away (i think) and then jumping over him and a dair.

 

[JoeTang]

DI Away from Pit, not towards. DIing towards gets you nowhere unless they let go, and they won't if you're DIing towards them.

 

[ishizzle]

Alright, thanks for the confirmation.

 

[Pharrox]

Another thing about Pit's forward b is that if you DI out reletively quickly you will be in range for a forward smash before his attack ends. You'll usually just hit with the tip so it won't be too powerful, but it's still another option and a practically gauranteed free hit.

I just started messing around with QAC's today, but I think that is exactly what I need because of the mindgames and different approach distances and angles. I'll also try the walking speed strategy, since it seems like it would be good for avoiding most of his attacks and would allow much better follow up when he tries to flee. As for crawling under the arrows, I do that a lot be he usually pretty guick to adjust (and acurate). Still good for throwing him off for a bit.

As for the Gamestop tournament, uhh, it was probably one of the worst you could go to (and I'm not even talking about the rules). They tell people to be there at 9:45, but don't actually do anything until 10:15. After that they realized that they got the number of players wrong (there were practically twice as many as allowed) and to be fair they sent someone to go get another tv and another Wii (took about half an hour). They waited until after they got that before they started taking names and signing wavers. The tournament didn't actually even start until close to 11:20 and they kept everyone standing out in the cold until then (and for a while after it began). Several people had friends at other Gamestops, and most were on the last round just as they started playing. Okay, I just needed to rant about that for a bit.