How many mains are too many?

[Marthmario]

See my problem is, I get interested in a lot of characters. It's actually quite hard to narrow it down at points. For example, my current mains in Smash 4 are: , but I'm interested in . So I ask you... how many mains are too many?

 

[WolfieXVII ❂]

I've gained two characters until this iteration where I picked up Pit and Sheik.
I'd say 4 is the max, because you would want to be able to properly learn all those characters, it depends on you.
If you can play 7+ characters well, then go for it.
But I for one would rather have
2 Great Characters
+2 Meh/Good Characters
Instead of 7 average characters.
Start weeding out the characters that you are meh with, or can't put time in with them.
Like for example, in this iteration I wanted to try use all theses characters
on top of my mains .
I eventually dropped the ones that I didn't want to play or couldn't put effort into them.

 

[Marthmario]

I've gained two characters until this iteration where I picked up Pit and Sheik.
I'd say 4 is the max, because you would want to be able to properly learn all those characters, it depends on you.
If you can play 7+ characters well, then go for it.
But I for one would rather have
2 Great Characters
+2 Meh/Good Characters
Instead of 7 average characters.
Start weeding out the characters that you are meh with, or can't put time in with them.
Like for example, in this iteration I wanted to try use all theses characters
on top of my mains .
I eventually dropped the ones that I didn't want to play or couldn't put effort into them.

I see what you're getting at. So my problem with Dark Pit and Bowser Jr. is that I can't always get a good kill, so I tried out those three I mentioned in the TP, and well here's where I'm at with my characters:

• : My main since Melee, never going to drop him.
  
• : Clone of Marth and one of my favorite characters
  
• : Really fun and reminds me of the feelings I had when I first played Marth
  
• /: I love Super Mario Sunshine, and Bowser Jr, is one of my favorite characters. Ludwig as well.
  
• : I liked him in Uprising and his personality is cocky, and I love it.
  
• : A classic character with one of my favorite fighting game moves. (SHORYUKEN!!!)
  
• : Awakening is one of my favorite games and I love Robin, but his management is difficult for me sometimes.
  
• : The King of Evil feels like a pure powerhouse and he lets me achieve extreme levels of salt.
  
• : I love Namco and Pac-Man is super fun.

 

[Munomario777]

So many mains, so little time. The characters I like to use (besides the random button ) are in my signature. I love their playstyles, and there's even more I didn't include because I didn't want to sound too crazy

 

[WolfieXVII ❂]

Okay lets narrow it down to 5.
You say is difficult sometimes.
You say you like for various reasons.
But for those 4 do you really like playing as them? Or would want to git gud with them?
For they can count as one main. You can interchange them due to similar movesets.

 

[LordVacation]

I consider a main somebody that you find yourself to be better as than the rest of the cast, whether it be accidental or not.

I.E. in Brawl I desperately wanted to main , and but it never clicked the way it was supposed to, and I ended up with , , and

I think when you try to main somebody even though it isn't working out, or just classifying somebody as a main because you like them; that's a problem.

In other words; I don't think there is a cap on how many mains you can have.
If it feels right, it's right.

 

[maxpower1227]

There are too many characters to narrow it down. I usually play on random, but I tend to like a lot, and somewhat enjoy . I have no plans to ever limit myself to just a few characters, even if it means I never become super awesome at any of them. Ain't nobody got time for that anyway.

 

[Marthmario]

Okay lets narrow it down to 5.
You say is difficult sometimes.
You say you like for various reasons.
But for those 4 do you really like playing as them? Or would want to git gud with them?
For they can count as one main. You can interchange them due to similar movesets.

You think so? I mean, I usually limit myself to plus one main per game so:

• 64:
• Melee:
• Brawl:
• PM:
• Smash 4:

So, by that logic I could add a main in Melee and Smash 4?

Also:

• : I do enjoy his projectile gameplay and basically controlling where my opponent goes, so that's fun.
  
• : He's super fun and quirky, with plenty of great options.
  
• : He's a bit slower than what I'm used to, but he's enjoyable. Again, the management is difficult to remember at times.
  
• : He's fast and has great aerial control, with plenty of style.

But, I'm not sure who I want to "git gud" at. I just don't want to drown myself in characters that I'm all average at.

 

[WolfieXVII ❂]

You think so? I mean, I usually limit myself to plus one main per game so:

• 64:
• Melee:
• Brawl:
• PM:
• Smash 4:

So, by that logic I could add a main in Melee and Smash 4?

Also:

• : I do enjoy his projectile gameplay and basically controlling where my opponent goes, so that's fun.
  
• : He's super fun and quirky, with plenty of great options.
  
• : He's a bit slower than what I'm used to, but he's enjoyable. Again, the management is difficult to remember at times.
  
• : He's fast and has great aerial control, with plenty of style.

But, I'm not sure who I want to "git gud" at. I just don't want to drown myself in characters that I'm all average at.

So stick with learning better. Doesn't mean you stop playing the others entirely lol. I still play Robin occasionally, but I'm crap with him.

 

[Marthmario]

So stick with learning better. Doesn't mean you stop playing the others entirely lol. I still play Robin occasionally, but I'm crap with him.

Well, should I allow myself one more because of Marth/Lucina?

 

[WolfieXVII ❂]

Sure, its up to you

 

[killer9260]

I think 3-6 mains are alright, anything more is too many BUT, you can classify the others that you aren't as good with as "Secondaries."
For example: My mains are: ,
And my secondaries are: , since I'm not as good with Dr. Mario and Pac-Man, as I am with Ganondorf and Captain Falcon.

 

[Aus0115]

I have 4 main's (which I think is a good amount considering theres 50+ characters) and a ton of secondaries, I like using a variety of characters so I become less predictable : P

 

[the8thark]

When you have/want more options than what the random button gives you, then you have too many mains.

 

[Kaye Cruiser]

Eh, no number is too many as long as you're having fun.

It's your game. Play it however you like. As long as you enjoy it, you can play with the whole roster if you want.

 

[Raijinken]

You have too many if you consistently lose to players of your skill, simply due to their greater understanding of their characters. You have too few if you can get beaten by a counter-pick character used by a weaker player.

 

[BubbaDuke]

I like to have 3 characters that I can play competently. For me, thats .

These are the characters I'd feel comfortable playing competitively.

 

[HammerHappy]

The point of a main is to translate into your own optimal performance. As in, if you get this character this is about the best you can play. This loses weight when your "main" is a 1/4 of the roster.

In Smash I'd say 3-4 mains is fine given the variation. I have two mains, Bowser Jr. and Metaknight because they let me cover different bases while still both doing what I enjoy (strong recovery, strong off stage game, satisfying aerials, dynamic movement options).

Everything else I would call a secondary.

 

[JayTheUnseen]

Well,I had trouble cutting down my mains.Here's how I did it-
Fav Fast/Ninja Characters:
Fav Sword-Users:

Out of these,I preferred Greninja and Shulk,I decided.I also just decided to use Bowser Jr.
These are my 3 three favs,and now I hardly play anyone else.My other Favs
I just don't play much because those 3 are so fun.

In other words try assigning your favs into arch-types,then decide who your fav is in that type.

 

[Saltwater Gem]

I don't really get the concept of 'mains'. There are almost 50 characters, why limit yourself? I use who I feel like using. Hence the line of question marks under my avatar (PS to any mods who may read this... can we get 'random' question marks for the 'mains' thing for Melee and Wii U/3DS?)

 

[wolfos144]

I don't really get the concept of 'mains'. There are almost 50 characters, why limit yourself? I use who I feel like using. Hence the line of question marks under my avatar (PS to any mods who may read this... can we get 'random' question marks for the 'mains' thing for Melee and Wii U/3DS?)

Well, having a main is something competitive smashers do. If you don't play competitively, then you're right, you shouldn't even be concerned about a main.

 

[Admiral Pit]

For the Smash 4.

Kinda dropped this guy though: He'll probably come back, but we'll see.

A character that might interest me would be but it is not certain yet. I say give the game time, then we'll see what happens. Pit and Palutena are here to stay, and that's a given.

 

[ItsMeBrandon]

Answering this question depends on whether you play with all those mains competitively or not, though it's still up to you.

Competitively, people would probably stick with up to 4 mains and no more, with maybe a couple of secondaries, as far as I can tell. Which makes sense, if you consider they're trying to be really good with a few select characters rather than be pretty good with a lot more of them. Although you could play competitively with 5+ characters whether you're good or not with all of them. It just may not be a good idea if you aren't that skilled with all of them.

If you're not a competitive player, or you are and you're playing for fun on your off-time, then I think there's really no need to restrict yourself to a couple of characters if you'd like to play with more of them. The big reason people choose certain characters to play as is so they can get good at them, if not just because they simply like that character. So I think you're free to have as many "mains" as you'd like.

 

[Donkey_Inferno]

I normally base it off how many characters are in the game in total.

For example in Smash64 I have my #1 Main which is

And for Melee I have my "Top 3" which are

Then for Brawl and Sm4sh I have my "Top 5"
Which in Brawl are

And in Sm4sh are

 

[Fatmanonice]

Realistically speaking, the best players typically have one character they're stupidly good with and then 1-3 counterpick characters. In this game, for example, I regularly play as but, based on my records, is my best character with following.

 

[liets]

Once you main the Random button

 

[Kevandre]

My true mains are in that order. But I also like not in that order.

I limit myself to three "mains" per game I think. Except 64 where its all Yoshi all day.







So I dunno. I mainly use random because I like to know how to use anyone.

I also apparently really like newcomer . And suffering cuts .

 

[Khao]

I don't really get the concept of 'mains'. There are almost 50 characters, why limit yourself? I use who I feel like using.

Similarly, one could perfectly say "There are almost 50 characters in the game, why force yourself into trying every single one? I use who I feel like using."

Mains are not stuff people suddenly decide they want to have for no reason whatsoever, then go ahead ignore every other character in the game that they enjoy. If you have a favorite character to play as for whatever reason, of course you're gonna feel like using them more often.

I mean, it's not like people enter the selection screen and go "I wanna play as Pikachu!... But he's not my main, oh well, back to Fox." Everyone plays who they want to play as, even if the characters they actually enjoy are just a few. They're not "limiting" themselves, they're just playing on a smaller group of characters, or even a single character, because they are the ones they enjoy the most.

 

[MarioFireRed]

Unless you plan to play at a competitive level, don't worry too much about having too many mains to use. They're characters that you're willing to put time into learning to get better with because you like their playstyles, you like the character itself, or for any other reason.

However if we ARE talking at said competitive level, then I'd suggest having 1 main and maybe around 1-3 secondaries/counter-pick characters that you can also learn that covers your main's bad matchups.

 

[Deleted member 269706]

10. 10 is too many.

 

[mygamecube]

There is no limit.

 

[Meelow]

Well if you see my mains down below...

Link is my main, Shulk will likely be my newcomer main, everyone else after that are secondaries really, I'll always choose Link first though.

 

[servbot 42]

I hear the standard number of mains should be 2, both characters should be complete different playstyles to throw off people when playing. I want to main a couple myself but my only current main is Mario. I want to work on Link or toon link, but I cant decide.

Youre good though, I check my google+ account from my phone and i swear people put half the roster as their mains. I remember someone made a joke about that by putting the character select screen with a caption "My current mains"

 

[Snagrio]

I personally classify my mains as characters I take into competitive settings, such as and

But when items are on and it's all fun random chaos, my character pool extends much further, typically including and

So while I may play with 13+ characters on a regular basis, only 3 are trained enough to go out into the serious matches with me.

 

[LunarWingCloud]

Mains =/= everyone you use, remember that. Consider labelling several of those supposed mains as secondaries.

 

[James92]

Sometimes I pick whoever I feel like playing as, but there's always 1-2 characters I'm crazy good with, and several others I'm pretty good at using. The characters in my sig are the ones I want to try out the most. Once I get my hands on the game, I'll know who I'll be maining.

 

[Igzex]

For me, the character I primarily use is my one and only main. The other people I use slightly less but more than others are people I like.

Though I want to make everyone in the game a person I like.

 

[Evello]

As past topics have demonstrated, there's not a whole lot of agreement on what a main entails, so you're bound to get different answers here.

The way I see it, a main generally refers to the single character a player is most effective with and/or uses most frequently. By this definition, you can only have one main. That doesn't mean you aren't good with other characters; skilled pros spend hundreds of hours training as multiple characters, and some pros become so good that they can win major tournaments with several characters. Just being good with a character doesn't make them your main, though. Your main is the one character you feel most confident with in the greatest number of situations. I main Ike. Online I typically play Ike, Shulk, and Robin pretty evenly, with some WFT mixed in, and I like to think I'm decent with all 4 characters. But when my friends and I play a serious match for bragging rights, Ike is usually my go-to guy. He's my main, the others are secondaries. Some people act like calling a character a secondary is some kind of insult, but there's really no difference between having 1 main and 1 secondary and having 2 supposed 'mains'. Being 2nd out of 51 characters is not bad.

If you do somehow manage to play more than 1 character completely equally, with no favoritism in play time or difference in skill level, then it's not clear to me what those characters are. The strictest definition of a main suggests that you simply haven't chosen a main yet, since you have not identified the character you rely on more, but I'm willing to grant that you essentially have dual mains, for all intents and purposes. Still, this is nigh impossible to do with more than ~2 characters, since beyond that it's fairly inevitable you will perform ever so slightly better with one character than another.

For you situation, Marthmario, it looks to me like you are operating under a looser definition of a main. In terms of just characters that you learn the moves and strategies of, you could probably get away with a dozen or so, given enough time and dedication. But by the more strict competitive definition of a main, it sounds like you don't have a main at all. That's not a problem, as outside of competition there's no need to have a dedicated main. But a main really should be a single character, ignoring rare exceptions.

 

[ChikoLad]

main(m

n)
adj.

1. Most important; principal. See Synonyms at chief.
2. Exerted to the utmost; sheer: by main strength.

You can have as many as you want.

 

[the8thark]

main(m

n)
adj.

1. Most important; principal. See Synonyms at chief.
2. Exerted to the utmost; sheer: by main strength.

You can have as many as you want.

Which characters are most important to you? Saying all of them would be a strange answer for that question.