How are you developing as a player?!

[DerpaDoo]

So since playing the new smash I find that this game has been thoroughly tested and debugged. When Brawl came out everybody was on the forums trying to break the game to make it more like Melee and now I can't find very many useful AT's akin to wavedashing/dashdancing/l cancelling/etc.

So. I was wondering what techs (if any) players are incorporating into their playstyle/metagame. I am aware of the lag cancel item throws (link/peach) but I haven't heard of it being exceptionally effective. I feel that what we see with this game is largely what we get. The reason Smash64 and Melee were conducive to tournaments was because the game had a high skill ceiling so that playing Melee at 1/4 speed showed how fast a character could actually perform waveshines/thunders/dashdancing in succession of each other. Playing smash4 at 1/4 speed is playing the game really really slow.

 

[chainmaillekid]

Currently, I'm focusing only on the basics.

I am going through and playing 25 FG matches with each of the characters in turn, to ensure I'm a a more rounded player.
Having to start from ground zero every 25 matches has put a drastic focus on developing my fundamental gameplay. Far from applying ATs, I can hardly make use of ANY of a characters move set until the 25 matches are nearly up.

So, yeah.
To answer your question, I'm ignoring techs at the moment.

I'll leave finding Pikachu techs to Esam.

 

[Deleted member 278362]

[ removed ]

 

[ewic]

It's really hard for me to decide on a main/secondary right now, so I've just been playing a handful of characters (sometimes go random). I also don't have the Wii U version yet so I'm not focusing as much on tech, but rather strengths/weaknesses of each character as well as reading/punishing skills.

 

[Cpt.]

I'm pretty much just trying to watch what the pros are doing and learning off of that. Mega Man has turned from one of my least favorite characters to one of my mains because of it.

 

[ChronoPenguin]

Lol spend half my time conditioning myself to not dash. Which I've gotten noticeably better at which has allowed me to properly punish trap and follow up on a more consistent manner.

Plus Kirby's pivot walk animation is the best taunt in the game.

 

[Cpt.]

Lol spend half my time conditioning myself to not dash. Which I've gotten noticeably better at which has allowed me to properly punish trap and follow up on a more consistent manner.

Plus Kirby's pivot walk animation is the best taunt in the game.

Um, Jiggle's pivot dance is actually the best taunt.

On a serious note not dashing is mad hard to do. There is always that slight hope I have that I can dash dance well and I just can't do it consistently

 

[Johnknight1]

I try to learn the match ups for the 2 primary characters I'm sticking with for now (Lucina and Toon Link), trying to get timings down, trying to figure out small things, working on my timings and techniques, and trying to find ways to use and abuse various small things on all the legal stages with them (specifically using platforms and ledges, and soon I'll venture into advance stage defense and how to counter it).

I'm also trying to condition myself to proper spam the multiple air dodge mechanic (which requires a lot more precision than Brawl's), figuring ways to counter each of my few local opponent's moves, and working it all into a complex read-based game that I am trying to iron out.

Honestly it's going a lot better than Smash 3DS where that gamepad was just ughhhhhhh and prevented me from having precise movement.

 

[slimjim]

1) Well the lag-cancel item toss got removed in the latest patch.
2) If you want to practice ATs, practice dash dancing as it IS useful in this game for some characters (not as a movement option but as a mindgame and mixup), practice roll-canceled grabs, turn-around forward smashes, running pivot up-smashes, z-drop instant-throw shenanigans, wave-bouncing, edge-trumping, and/or shield-dropping and platform canceling.
3) You don't need ATs, and neither does the game in order to have a high skill ceiling.

The player with advanced strategy and basic techniques should always triumph over those with advanced techniques but basic strategy. The skill ceiling in this game is based more around manipulation of your opponent, and from the mouth of quite a few top players: Smash 4 has a higher mental speed requirement with a lower hand speed requirement than melee. If you want to see drastic improvements in your play, do the following:

1) Find the best people in your area, or if you have to, use online or at the very worst, For Glory and play 20ish games with every character starting from Mario. Try your best to win.
2) Pick the 2-3 of them you like best, and play each for about 200 hours.
3) At this point, you will come relatively close enough to having "mastered" those characters that they will feel like an extension of your hand and you will be able to manipulate their spacing and make proper option select choices during competitive games without using much mental energy.
4) Now you can start to actually play the true game of smash, or more accurately, you can start to play your opponent instead of playing the game. This is where the true fun begins, as you can learn and implement mindgames, conditioning, Yomi-style "Leveling/Reading", and truly start to out-play your competition.

 

[chainmaillekid]

1)
1) Find the best people in your area, or if you have to, use online or at the very worst, For Glory and play 20ish games with every character starting from Mario. Try your best to win.
2) Pick the 2-3 of them you like best, and play each for about 200 hours.

Do you have any idea how many years that would take me?
I bet I have less than 500 hours in brawl total, meaning In 6 years I would have accumulated less than 300 hours for each of my mains.

50 hours should be enough to start competitively applying your character, to reach the stage you describe in step 4.

 

[8-Bit Brawler]

I'm pretty much just trying to watch what the pros are doing and learning off of that. Mega Man has turned from one of my least favorite characters to one of my mains because of it.

Can you point me towards some good videos / pros to watch?

That sounds awesome.

 

[Cpt.]

Can you point me towards some good videos / pros to watch?

That sounds awesome.

The only tournaments I've seen so far have been VGBootCamp's YouTube for Wii U and Tourney Locator's for 3DS and Wii U

 

[kyxsune]

I'm getting "very" good with ZSS, now I can actually "feel" what pace i need to set or respond with to punish with her. (though for some reason my off stage game is sub par?)

With zelda....I may be getting worse.

 

[SphericalCrusher]

I have never been a pro level player, but I've been playing Smash since 64... so for me, I'm developing pretty much everything. Working more on my main character as well as my secondary and just trying to get better. I feel that I've been getting better as some of the close matches I have with friends, are no longer close anymore. I'm trying to learn more about other characters and also about myself as a player - just trying to improve everywhere I can.

 

[madworlder]

I've been playing Smash about a week. I'm starting to understand strong options in this game, but I'm still not totally used to what opposing characters do. I'm not totally settled on a character, I enjoy WFT a lot but players that know a lot more than me don't seem to see potential in that character, and I'm quickly becoming more successful with Dog Hunt.

 

[JJpalmer]

lol ive hit a roadbump i cant seem to get any better ill save it till i get wii u all these sonics lately have been wrecking me in FG there so annoying to fight

 

[8-Bit Brawler]

The only tournaments I've seen so far have been VGBootCamp's YouTube for Wii U and Tourney Locator's for 3DS and Wii U

Thanks. Found a good set of tourneys vids by vg.

That is eye opening for a new smasher. The road is long, the struggle is real.

 

[shapular]

I'm maining a character that I hardly used at all in past games, so I've just been getting acquainted with his moveset, approaches, combos, followups, edgeguarding, punishes, matchups, etc. Since the Wii U version came out I've been trying to practice all the viable competitive stages and seeing what he can do on them (which is hard when your opponents keep picking Omega stages ). I've been slowly adapting to the game mechanics as well, trying to use my shield effectively and master my pivot tilts/smashes/grabs. Eventually I'll try to start working on this perfect pivot stuff, but my main priorities right now are trying to figure out some of the seemingly tougher matchups, getting my combos tighter, approaching effectively, and recovering.