Help with Roy neutral, punishes and pressure

[Creeeamy]

Hey all.
I've been a Roy main since the day he was released, but only recently, after a close tournament, I've considered playing comp, my Roy is alright, I understand punishes, combos and a lot about his neutral, but I have been noticing a lot of punishable and predictable habits.

I understand that the neutral is very individual, and develops as the player develops and cannot be taught, but some advice would be very much appreciated. When it comes to my neutral I consider myself to be somewhat defensive, relying on baiting and punishing as my main form of basically anything.

So the things I could use help with are

• Approaching: At the moment, my approach is as bad as a stereotypical for glory Roy, I rely way too heavily on nair, though I also like to approach with bair (Spaced of course) and sometimes fair, I also find myself relying way too much on grab without baiting some sort of set up, leaving me very open doing stupid dash grabs, or being punished for repetitive tomahawk grabbing. One of the other options I'll use is double edge dance.
• Stage Pressure: Stage pressure is something I consider big for both Roy and my play style, just recently I've notice people seemingly not feeling my pressure, I like to try and dominate the stage, and if there's platforms, to pressure from below. Usually I'd use Roy's amazing mobility and quick moves to keep opponents moving, and if I can manage to fake something, I'll try safely throw out a powerful move to try condition people into expecting a hard punish so I can try bait out a grab or combo starter.
• Edge Guarding: I understand all of Roy's off stage options, but I could just use some help covering options, just the best moves to cover certain options.
• On Shield Pressure: I feel like this is my biggest let down with Roy, the only tools I can manage to use correctly on shield is down tilt and forward tilt, and I can't normally find a way to pressure the shield in a way it becomes risky to use and might force to opponent to play without using it for a bit.
• Spacing: I understand Roy has the worst spacing of all the swordsman, but my spacing right now is just awful, Bair, down tilt and f tilt are the only moves I can space properly with, and just need to know if there are any other effective spacing tool.
• Killing: I rely way too much on rogue smashes, I rarely manage to land kill confirms, most of the time I'll try bait a bad habit, but some times, I just throw out forward smash at random, or really stupid up b's, and could use some help with kill confirms, or good safe moves to seal off stocks.

Thanks in advance, any help at all would be really appreciated, and hearing from other Roy's and what options they choose would help greatly.

 

[DMan64]

I don't play Roy that often, but I understand the character enough to hopefully give some insight.

First and foremost, keeping a defensive neutral is good if it works for you, since Roy has quick frame data and can smother his opponents once he gets an opportunity. That said, Roy's neutral in many ways his defined around his opponent and their use of shield. You want to dance around the opponent and make them scared of you by utilizing his movement and quick frame data on his attacks to fake out the enemy and create one opening to get in, and from their get in as much damage as you can and cover their options without overextending.

Approach - First thing you need to understand is that Roy's approach is bad in general, and learning how to approach with Roy is perhaps the most important thing to do if you are going to play as him. His movement is his biggest strength, so it is important to learn extended dash dancing, pivoting, B-reversing, and fox trotting to mix up your movement, and to utilize his aerial mobility in conjunction with aerials other than nair more often. If you do use nair, either space with the second hit, or cross-up so you hit with both hits on shield and land behind them, then intercept any possible aggression with a grab, Double-Edge Dance, or jab. Also utilize his aerial mobility in conjunction with his attacks that way you make the opponent unsure of whether or not you'll come down with an aerial, or grab. Another trick you can do is to short hop fair, and as soon as it ends, start up Double Edge Dance as you can safely land without the landing lag of fair, though only do that if you feel comfortable doing so. Also try to land behind them with Up Air since opponents sometimes won't expect it and it can start a combo. Against characters that can zone him out, such as MegaMan, Robin, Corrin, etc, this is even more important since you now must move around the attacks they throw at you.

Stage Pressure - You are definitely correct in that stage pressure is important for Roy, since it gives him more room to utilize his biggest strength, being his movement. That said it is usually best to go for quicker and safer options to keep pressure on the opponent and possibly bait them into an aggressive options for you to turn the tide. If anything use pressure to make them nervous around you and limit their movement options. If you are on the other end however, it can be tricky, but if you know how to properly utilize Roy's movement options, then you can be clever about finding a way to dominate the stage once again. Against projectile heavy characters this can be harder since they are effective at keeping stage pressure, but unlike Roy, they don't have the speed or frame data to get it back as easily, though Roy can also struggle to get back stage pressure against some characters.

Edge Guarding - Generally speaking, you should go off stage often with Roy, since that can put Roy in a very bad position if the opponent expects that. Most of the time, it's better to keep them off-stage covering get up options, then, when the time is right, strike them with an aerial like fair. I personally like to run off and fast-fall fair if the opponent goes low since I can still recover and it can happen so fast that the opponent won't expect it.

On Shield Pressure - I hinted at this back when I covered approaching, but Roy's shield pressure is incredibly risky, given that you have to be near point-blank range to space the hilt and deliver safe pressure, that said, d-tilt, f-tilt, jab, and a slightly charged Flare Blade can offer safe shield pressure on the ground since they come out fast, have relatively little lag, and push the opponent away just enough for Roy to use another option. As for aerials, as I stated earlier, spacing or crossing up with nair is vital, landing behind your opponent with Up - Air is good, and Fair can also be safe as well. Just remember, you don't always want to pressure the shield, but rather, pressure shield just enough so that you can dance around your opponent and make them nervous to throw out shield so you can get a grab, then mix it up and make them expect a grab so you can get an attack.

Spacing - I personally don't find bair to be the safest option against many characters in the game, and Roy does struggle with spacing a good bit, but as I said with nair, space the second hit or cross up, and use safer moves like dtilt, ftilt, jab, back hit of up air, and movement to space around opponents. Coming down with a slightly charged Flare Blade on shield is effective because it has very little lag and it can push the opponent away a bit and keep them in shield-stun long enough for you to be safe, plus it has no sweet or sour spot, so you can space best at the tip of the attack.

Killing - Netting a KO with Roy is all about set-ups. Fox trots and extended dash dancing after a f-throw can be used in a tech chase situation to get a foward smash. D throw followed by a short up to bait out an air dodge, in which case, fast fall and followup with a foward smash. At higher percents jab can connect with Blazer if the opponent doesn't DI away and it can KO, and Roy's fair and bair can KO off-stage if your opponent doesn't expect you to attack.

All in all, you should play Roy in the mindset of just dancing around your opponent to find an opening to strike. If you want more details, I strongly recommend checking out Izaw's video Art of Roy, as he goes in depth on what Roy can do and what to look out for when playing as or against him. Also look up videos of Hyper Kirby and Ryo's Roy, as they both are incredible and provide great examples of how to play Roy at a high level.

Hopefully this helped out a bit. Like I said I don't usually play Roy, but I've seen quite a bit to understand what you want to do with the character.

 

[medofbr]

Also on getting kills FF nair 1 can confirm into ftilt and uptilt for a ko. don't just throw out nair 1 its best to punish landings.

 

[Flow297]

I'm just going to comment on Spacing and Approaches, I'd recommend using tilt stick to better space out nair. Bair is really unsafe for approaching, so I'd recommend using jab, double edge dance, and a spaced nair for good approaches. Jab leads into numerous follow-ups depending on how you space it, and is an overall safe move, while DED is a quick poking move that can be used to wall out opponents. Nair is the most common approach that can easily be punished if misused, but is also an important move in Roy's kit.