How Did You find a Main in Melee?

[Joeyd123]

I'm relatively new to Melee and I am really struggling with finding a main. I have been bouncing around the top 8, besides Ice Climbers because I just find Wobbling dumb, and even some other characters like Pika and Luigi. I just can't find a character that clicks. How did you guys pick your main? Did you bounce around like me or did you just force yourself to stick with one character. The only thing I have found so far is that Fox, Peach, and Jigglypuff really don't feel natural to me, so I don't think I will be maining them. Would you guys offer me some help? as I am really struggling at the moment

 

[Spak]

I just bounced around until I found a character that I absolutely loved, My first Melee main was actually Roy (at a casual level for 8 years) until I discovered that he was kinda horrible. I still have him as a secondary, but then I switched to Falco at a noobish competitive level until I discovered that Falcon was more suited to my playstyle, and I absolutely LOVE playing Falcon now. He feels the best to control, his speed doesn't bother me, and I like his combo game.

All in all, just find a character that suits you.

 

[EPsilon933]

Before I played competitively, I just tried half of every character in the top half of the tier list. I still had that habit when I got into the scene, but I slowly had to narrow my choices of characters to Fox and Falco, which lasted for a month, before focusing exclusively on Fox since I became noticeably better as him. 2 months later, I gave Peach a try and she instantly fit me. 4 months later, I started maining her exclusively

Just keep trying characters, ideally the tournament viables, until you're certain about which character fits you best. Don't worry if it takes a long time to figure it out. In a sense, ever since I started playing competitively, it took me a year to learn that Peach is the best character for me

 

[pershona]

Just tried most of the top tiers and after lot of switching discovered how much fun spacies are.

 

[Pachinkosam]

I loved samus but you don't have samus in the poll :C

 

[Joeyd123]

I loved samus but you don't have samus in the poll :C

I knew I was forgetting someone I meant to have Samus and not Ganon :/

 

[Shadow Light Master]

My first actual main was Link, but I guess my first serious main was Sheik.

Anyway, I ask myself "Who does what I want them to the easiest?"

 

[20YY SS | Saiblade]

Falco, he's fast, fun awesome, and just perfect for anyone.

 

[AirFair]

I picked Marth because I really enjoyed watching good marths play and the level of control you could have.

Plus moving with marth looks hella crisp

 

[seabeds]

I think I am going to main Marth but I am still not sure. After using falcon for so long, I am growing bored of him and pikachu is pretty cool too. So Maybe, maybe not.

 

[JoeTango]

I was a sheik main, then got bored of dash attacking and f tilting. Switched to Falcon and got b-o-d-i-e-d at my first tournament. I was pretty good too, hit all my L cancels and what not. Realized I don't have what it takes to be swagtastic, so I switched to a less swagtastic but still pretty damn swagtastic character: Falco. Also I play Fox when floatys mess me up..

swagtastic

 

[Modesty]

Played competitive brawl before competitive melee, and mained Icies. It felt wonky to main them at first in melee, so I tried a bunch of other characters and peach was the hottest was the most fun to play for me.

 

[_Snover_]

I played around with the whole cast. I decided to go with the character I had the most fun with and felt the most comfortable playing: Ness.

After going to my first tournament, I quickly found out how horrible he was in comparison to the rest of the cast. I persisted for a while, but tried some high tier characters until I finally found that Ice Climbers worked best for me.

So my advice is to just try out all the characters until you determine the one you like playing the most.

 

[Joeyd123]

Falco, he's fast, fun awesome, and just perfect for anyone.

Falco is definitely my number 1 right now.

 

[20YY SS | Saiblade]

Falco is definitely my number 1 right now.

Awesome! I'm in the process of writing a Falco guide, so definitely check it out when I'm done!

 

[pagedMov]

Fox

and the rest is history

 

[Frostav]

I like hitting people with swords and spacing.

I like dunking people into the bottom blast zone and combo'ing for days.

Marth and Falco were just natural fits in the end. I even mained Marth back when I was a casual though I didn't touch Falco.

 

[LDSenpai]

Kept changing characters and told my friend I didn't know who to main and then he told me, "Suck it up, you're a Marth main, your Marth is good af."

 

[Spak]

Kept changing characters and told my friend I didn't know who to main and then he told me, "Suck it up, you're a Marth main, your Marth is good af."

(And your main icon is Shiek)

 

[Doxy]

I used to main sheik because she was easy to pick up imo. However, I always have enjoyed playing yoshi. I just find him hilarious, sometimes I get bodied due to some poor tech but I still have fun and people enjoy playing my yoshi so it's all good. I just eventually picked a character I enjoyed and wanted to play, it makes practicing tech just easier and more enjoyable.

 

[zero sum]

just play the character that's the most fun to you out of the tournament viable ones

for example i play a lot of fox and a little marth. fox is good for me because he's very fast and flexible and i feel like that suits me in a way that falco doesn't. marth is good because sometimes i like the relative linearity of the character. he's very deep too but i feel like i learn more about the game when i pick up marth than i do when i play fox sometimes and that feels really good. not every character is as protean as fox and playing marth helps me learn to navigate some situations differently whereas before playing him i'd just throw out a brainless shine or something as fox.

don't play a character you don't find interesting but at the same time i wouldn't recommend picking up one that isn't from the top 8. i think there's too much variety to not be able to find one that you like a lot, learn from playing, and feasibly get results with. things often don't “click” one way or another for weeks or even months. try devoting yourself to a character and if you don't like it try thinking about your frustrations with it, and try thinking about a character that doesn't have the same problems that yours has.

 

[vexoskeleton]

since there is already a thread going on finding mains maybe some one could help me decide.

I've been playing marth for the last 6 ish months since I started played much and I like him and all but I really just find it hard to improve with him as he has little tech skill to practice while I've started to play and practice falco and began to really like the character for various reasons aside from how fun I feel practicing his various tech is. How should I go about deciding who to play solo as at this time I feel it may be a hindrance in my progress if I play both.

 

[LDSenpai]

(And your main icon is Shiek)

Lol, must of never changed it, oops. This was like 2 weeks ago. xD

 

[Plunder]

For me it's the character I can still have fun with even when I lose. I think that's because I realize it was my fault for using the character incorrectly, I know I can adjust, and I know that there are still optimizations to be made for next time.

 

[Modesty]

For me it's the character I can still have fun with even when I lose. I think that's because I realize it was my fault for using the character incorrectly, I know I can adjust, and I know that there are still optimizations to be made for next time.

You make me want to try and main Ness again lmao

 

[JoeTango]

since there is already a thread going on finding mains maybe some one could help me decide.

I've been playing marth for the last 6 ish months since I started played much and I like him and all but I really just find it hard to improve with him as he has little tech skill to practice while I've started to play and practice falco and began to really like the character for various reasons aside from how fun I feel practicing his various tech is. How should I go about deciding who to play solo as at this time I feel it may be a hindrance in my progress if I play both.

Look into your heart

Jk basically who ever you find more fun you should play. Even if you lose more games as Falco than Marth stick with Falco for a while, because you'll get better eventually.

 

[PalmTrees]

I watched a ton of people play at Evo and then it just came down to what I liked most!

 

[TriffHR]

I'm relatively new to Melee and I am really struggling with finding a main. Would you guys offer me some help? as I am really struggling at the moment

A good way to find your main is to play carefree with a friend or two. Go random until you find a character that you are doing well with and are winning with, even if the wins aren't consistent. If you are thinking really hard about who's your main should be, you should be thinking about who is most fun to play because anyone (but Kirby. Don't pick Kirby) can be good if you enjoy them enough to work with them in the lab for a while

 

[mythbust4000]

Remember this their is nothing wrong with maining more then one person
Having more then one main is BETTER FOR YOU because you learn more about the game there is a reason every top player has at lest 3 mains but just don't main 8 out of the box the max is 3/4 in my opinion until you win like every tourny then you can step it up if you want to but don't recommend

 

[Snorlaxes]

Remember this their is nothing wrong with maining more then one person
Having more then one main is BETTER FOR YOU because you learn more about the game there is a reason every top player has at lest 3 mains but just don't main 8 out of the box the max is 3/4 in my opinion until you win like every tourny then you can step it up if you want to but don't recommend

This is bad advice. When you're starting out, devote all of your focus into one character. There's a plethora of situations and tech to learn with each character and trying to do more than one will only make both worse and stagnate your improvement. Some characters place emphasis on different parts of the game, but you'll still learn those parts with a single character as you become better.

What top player has 3 mains? Maybe you're thinking of Mew2King, but his characters outside of Sheik and Marth only get used for specific matchups. Other than him, top players have two characters max because they've already essentially mastered one and understand the path to developing a new character.

 

[hunterlittle]

When I was playing my brothers I would always try to play the character they were going at. To never really worked for me XD. Then when I started to practice I chose fox and I realized that he was my character. Your main will mainly choose you.

 

[Dolla Pills]

When I was really young I liked Fox a lot, then one day I unlocked Falco and thought that he was unquestionably better in every way. Now I know that this is not true, but I still stick with Falco and recently Fox to a lesser extent.

 

[hunterlittle]

When I was really young I liked Fox a lot, then one day I unlocked Falco and thought that he was unquestionably better in every way. Now I know that this is not true, but I still stick with Falco and recently Fox to a lesser extent.

He did get nerfed a good amount in four. That's why I have jiggly puff under my sleeves XD

 

[Zodiac]

Zelda fan boy...so I main Link, pretty much a no brainer, also fox is pretty fun so I mained him as well.

 

[Nixon Corral]

There's a long version, but the short version is that I mained Luigi back in 2001-2002 when I played as a kid, but I dabbled with Falcon a bit. In the interim between Melee and Brawl, I got F-Zero GX and F-Zero (SNES) and became hooked on the series, so I picked up Falcon in Brawl (not knowing he was ass). Yet more years later, when I finally started picking up Melee competitively, there was no doubt in my mind Falcon would become my new Melee main, replacing my younger self's Luigi. I love F-Zero, and Falcon has my favorite moveset, so that's really all there is to it.

If you don't have any real tie to a character's source series, I would recommend just playing with whoever you have the most fun with. That might take some more play to figure out, but that's ultimately what I'd suggest. I'd also recommend eventually making that decision and committing to a character. If you plan to go to tourneys, you generally won't fare as well if you split your attention among several characters, no matter how bad you may think you are at certain matchups.

 

[Lonkas]

I'm relatively new to Melee and I am really struggling with finding a main. I have been bouncing around the top 8, besides Ice Climbers because I just find Wobbling dumb, and even some other characters like Pika and Luigi. I just can't find a character that clicks. How did you guys pick your main? Did you bounce around like me or did you just force yourself to stick with one character. The only thing I have found so far is that Fox, Peach, and Jigglypuff really don't feel natural to me, so I don't think I will be maining them. Would you guys offer me some help? as I am really struggling at the moment

Now dude i have been playing melee for 3 months and how i found a main was this strategy. Look at the top teir characters from A-S teir, you can go lower but this is what i did. Try to have a feel for one or two of the characters. Learn a bit of the character/characters tech skill. If you feel like that will be your main then it will be your main. Good luck.

 

[Nyain]

My very first main was Falco, he was very fun to play and has great pressure. But, my main fluxuates a lot. Right now, my main is Marth. But I also use Fox and Ice Climbers a lot, I also use Ganondorf, Falco and Mario, as well as Sheik and Roy.

I have a range of characters I use and am pretty good at, I wouldn't say competitive level. The characters I use that are on a tourney level would be Marth and Fox.

It took me years to find my main, hours upon hours of daily practice and Saturday Smash Traditions with my friends. If you wish to find a main, try every character, see what you like and what you are good at, and practice.

 

[The_Most_Effectual]

Personally, I would play a lot of Marth for now. I think it's interesting to note that your poll asks which character did we first main, instead of which character we now main. I would imagine that some of the people who said Marth probably no longer main him, because that's the kind of stepping-stone character he is, in my opinion. He brings a little of everything to the table, so players new to Smash get to experience all the fundamentals, in one slick, not overly-technical package. Play him for now, and see what aspects of his play you enjoy, and pick a character who's play revolves around those aspects. Plus, he's great for just learning the game in general.

 

[1Twinmuduck]

I used to play Puff becuse I thought playing other characters In melee was difficult with the same but different machines from PM. I was a PM only guy for a about 18 months but want to progress in melee. I found I couldn't play Puff because of my aggressive nature so I placed poorly at my first local. Switched to Sheik after the first tournament and did better placing very well al my local but after going to a larger tournament(around 50 people) I found that my Sheik wasn't for me. I found that I didn't f-tilt or dash attack enough which are some of her best tools but I didn't like to use them. I did well because I played smart and got good reads and had good spacing. After that I resolved to just play a midtier and played Doc pretty seriously, unfortunately Doc was just lacking tools and range that could have made him really good so I decided to switch again. I switched to Falco/Fox because Wolf was my PM main and the skill slightly transferred but it wasn't enough to keep them solid. So I asked myself who do I like to watch play Melee the most and I loved watching high level Marths. So I picked him up and tried to move around and the more I played him the more I liked him. Now sometimes I'll just plugin 20XX and just move around with Marth cause he just feels the best to me. I've been playing Marth for about 3 months now and I love it. Anyways the point of this story is that it took me about 6 months to find my true melee main, so you shouldn't feel bad if you can't find somebody you like. Just keep at it! Melee is a splendid game.

 

[Massive]

Ness.

I mained Ness.