How many mains is too many mains?

[PyrexO2]

Hello Everyone!

A question that ponders the mind of myself and many other smash players are the limits on how many main characters or 'mains' a person can have before it becomes unsustainable or difficult. While many players usually stick to one or two mains usually to counter pick or support there other characters weaknesses or abilities. Other players (such as myself) find comfort in having several characters as their go to options even having as much as 3-4 mains which some people can consider impractical and timewasting.

However everyone has their own opinions which is why I'm asking you guys, How many mains is too many mains?

 

[L1N3R1D3R]

I would recommend having one main and two or three pocket characters. I would say that three or four characters in total is pretty healthy, given the huge character variety in this game.

Your main can be any character you want as long as you're extremely confident in your skill with that character, and I would recommend that they are at least somewhat viable. However, you don't want to be forced into a bad situation with no backup plan, so you should have characters that you are at least comfortable with who cover bad matchups, and usually ones that are pretty viable. You can also choose to pocket characters that aren't too viable but you love playing as, because having a positive brain can really help you perform well even in the least probable of situations.

In my case, I have Lucas as my main, Marth and Greninja as my more viable pockets, Pac-Man as my less viable but very fun pocket, and Cloud because everyone has one.

 

[PyrexO2]

I would recommend having one main and two or three pocket characters. I would say that three or four characters in total is pretty healthy, given the huge character variety in this game.

Your main can be any character you want as long as you're extremely confident in your skill with that character, and I would recommend that they are at least somewhat viable. However, you don't want to be forced into a bad situation with no backup plan, so you should have characters that you are at least comfortable with who cover bad matchups, and usually ones that are pretty viable. You can also choose to pocket characters that aren't too viable but you love playing as, because having a positive brain can really help you perform well even in the least probable of situations.

In my case, I have Lucas as my main, Marth and Greninja as my more viable pockets, Pac-Man as my less viable but very fun pocket, and Cloud because everyone has one.

[Reply]
Right ok thanks for the help!
Currently I main Pacman mostly, then my other secondaries or pockets i like to play are bowser jr and falco, a lot of these characters are pretty low tier but idk if i can use them in tournaments or not

 

[JayE]

I think its fine to have at least 2 mains. Many people dual main. Everything else are pockets, secondaries, etc.
I dual main Link and Marth, secondary ZSS and Fox, and have a pocket Falco, Falcon, Robin, and a bunch of others. In general, its great to have many characters you can use proficiently and that you're confident with. I know some people who say they main the whole roster or more than 3, but there's no way they are equally or approximately the same with that many characters. I'm not one of the those people who will hate someone for saying they main 3 or more, but to each their own I guess.

 

[PyrexO2]

I think its fine to have at least 2 mains. Many people dual main. Everything else are pockets, secondaries, etc.
I dual main Link and Marth, secondary ZSS and Fox, and have a pocket Falco, Falcon, Robin, and a bunch of others. In general, its great to have many characters you can use proficiently and that you're confident with. I know some people who say they main the whole roster or more than 3, but there's no way they are equally or approximately the same with that many characters. I'm not one of the those people who will hate someone for saying they main 3 or more, but to each their own I guess.

[Reply]
Right ok, so that is a different point of view. So with dual maining, do you think there is a strategic side to it? or is it just primarily interests/likings in both characters?

 

[Pale Tuna]

One main and a secondary to cover what they lack. For instance, ZSS. She has trouble fighting low-profile/shorter characters so a character like Cloud or Sheik would perform better in that regard. I thought this was common knowledge by now. (Not trying to sound mean, but I've seen this type of thread/post too many of times).

But in regard to MU knowledge, knowing how to play other characters is a must. Look at Anti, he uses ZSS, Mario, Cloud, Diddy, Metaknight. His pocket Metaknight and Cloud had him win CEO (as stated by himself).

But traditionally, a main means one character with your highest proficiency, but again, having a secondary to touch base with your main's weaknesses is good.

Now, if a person were to: 2/3 mains, 2/3 secondaries, 2/3 pockets, 2/3 fun characters, 2/3 in training....
That's a little excessive and I feel that they're just conflicted towards choosing any character. (Not trying to sound mean to those who do have 16 characters).

However! I do feel that there are too many likable characters and I can see how one may be conflicted. I have yet to choose a main since launch, but it's looking to be ZSS as of current. As for my secondary to cover her bad MUs, I have not decided yet.

Hope this helps and that no one gets offended!

 

[Axel311]

As far as "serious" tourney characters, as few as possible. For most people I think 2 is optimal since most characters and players have atleast a couple struggle matchups with their main. And everyone at times doesn't play well or gets downloaded with their main and needs an alternative. 3 at the absolute most. I don't see any reason why you would ever need more than 3 characters. Once you get to 4 you're definitely spreading yourself too thin. It's better to drop one of your 3 and replace them with another character that better covers whatever holes you're trying to fill.

 

[JayE]

[Reply]
Right ok, so that is a different point of view. So with dual maining, do you think there is a strategic side to it? or is it just primarily interests/likings in both characters?

its both. I main two characters mainly because they're my favorite/characters I love, but they also can have a strategic side to it. I main Marth, and he struggles against Sonic, so me having a ZSS or Fox can help in that matchup.

 

[PyrexO2]

One main and a secondary to cover what they lack. For instance, ZSS. She has trouble fighting low-profile/shorter characters so a character like Cloud or Sheik would perform better in that regard. I thought this was common knowledge by now. (Not trying to sound mean, but I've seen this type of thread/post too many of times).

But in regard to MU knowledge, knowing how to play other characters is a must. Look at Anti, he uses ZSS, Mario, Cloud, Diddy, Metaknight. His pocket Metaknight and Cloud had him win CEO (as stated by himself).

But traditionally, a main means one character with your highest proficiency, but again, having a secondary to touch base with your main's weaknesses is good.

Now, if a person were to: 2/3 mains, 2/3 secondaries, 2/3 pockets, 2/3 fun characters, 2/3 in training....
That's a little excessive and I feel that they're just conflicted towards choosing any character. (Not trying to sound mean to those who do have 16 characters).

However! I do feel that there are too many likable characters and I can see how one may be conflicted. I have yet to choose a main since launch, but it's looking to be ZSS as of current. As for my secondary to cover her bad MUs, I have not decided yet.

Hope this helps and that no one gets offended!

[Reply]
I do know it is 'common knowledge' and I am aware of having two mains in order to make up for the others weakness, but i was just directing that question to others who might not know.

 

[Mythzotick]

It depends on the person you ask as some people define the term "main(s)" differently than others do. When I think of what a main means to me, I usually think of the one character you'd chose over any other character or the one that is your most preferable choice.

You can have as many mains as you want to if you just like to have fun although if you get to a certain point where you "main" a lot of characters, you wouldn't really have a set main or 2 then; it would just be a large pool of characters that you like to play as. If you're in the competitive scene or you want to get in it, 1-2 mains while having at least 1 secondary with 2-3 secondaries as the max is a good approach. In a game like Smash 4 where pretty much no character right now doesn't have a single losing match up, you're more than likely to stumble across a character that gives you trouble if you're using your main(s). It also can depend on the difficulty and similarity of some of the characters you play. Some characters can be really simple to learn to where you can afford to use more characters with a similar difficulty of use and/or game plan while some characters are too technical that if you use too many characters as mains including those that are difficult to use efficiently with, it can get problematic.

In the end though, there really isn't a set way on how many mains you should have. Some do well with 4 or more characters and some do well with just using 1 character. It really comes down to how many you think is too much.

 

[Crystanium]

I think anything more than three. Then again, I don't consider anything but your oft used character to be your main. There's only one. Main office, main building, main road. "Mains" is a silly word.

 

[Skwrl]

Anything more than 2 doesn't really fit the definition of a "main". It gets really ridiculous when people claim to have more, especially those that claim up to 5 or so "mains".

 

[Cardboardtubeknight]

3
Controlling 2 with both hands and 1 with your tongue.

Like a true smash master.

 

[ItsASquid]

I think its fine to have at least 2 mains. Many people dual main. Everything else are pockets, secondaries, etc.
I dual main Link and Marth, secondary ZSS and Fox, and have a pocket Falco, Falcon, Robin, and a bunch of others. In general, its great to have many characters you can use proficiently and that you're confident with. I know some people who say they main the whole roster or more than 3, but there's no way they are equally or approximately the same with that many characters. I'm not one of the those people who will hate someone for saying they main 3 or more, but to each their own I guess.

I also have 2 mains - Robin and Wario. Both are awesome characters, and they cover each other's poor matchups nicely. For example I'll send in Wario for characters like Sonic and Little Mac, but Robin gets to fight swordfighters or characters like Luigi or ZSS.

 

[Tino]

For me, I can only have up to three mains, though I have two plus three secondaries. Anywhere above that is considered too much for me and I would have to drop someone just to make room for another.

P.S. Anyone who "mains" 5-6 or more characters don't really have a main. Just sayin'

 

[Mega-Spider]

Personally, I think the most amount of mains a person should have really depends on how many they feel they should have. I've seen people say that a person should have one main, and I've seen others say that 3 or 4 mains is good. I've always liked the idea of two mains. In my case, I like to use view those two mains as partners to compliment their MU spreads and play styles. Megs and Kirby are completely different characters, and both help each other with some MUs, even if there are characters they both lose to. But hey, that's just me.

 

[PyrexO2]

I also have 2 mains - Robin and Wario. Both are awesome characters, and they cover each other's poor matchups nicely. For example I'll send in Wario for characters like Sonic and Little Mac, but Robin gets to fight swordfighters or characters like Luigi or ZSS.

[Reply]
I myself am struggling on finding who i should main or good counterpicks i should have for a characters weaknesses. I main pacman and bowser jr (Roy to be specific) but i don't know if these two characters work too well together. Both of them seem to heavily rely on projectiles and spacing *correct me if i'm wrong*. I generally like pacman better so if you know any good characters that go well with pacman then please do tell.

 

[Floor]

It's hard to say. Id say that, the more you play the game, the more mains/ secondaries you should have. Someone playing smash for the first time should stick with one main while ZeRo could still win tournaments if he played 5 characters. I main Marth and Lucina (i count them as 1 character) and use Bayo Sheik Zss and Cloud on the side (im looking to narrow that down though).

 

[MajinBuu272]

personally i practice a bit as all characters to try and learn about each of them, but i still do have set mains and secondaries that i like using or that i play better with, its really up to the player to decide tho

 

[HartG21]

Hello Everyone!

A question that ponders the mind of myself and many other smash players are the limits on how many main characters or 'mains' a person can have before it becomes unsustainable or difficult. While many players usually stick to one or two mains usually to counter pick or support there other characters weaknesses or abilities. Other players (such as myself) find comfort in having several characters as their go to options even having as much as 3-4 mains which some people can consider impractical and timewasting.

However everyone has their own opinions which is why I'm asking you guys, How many mains is too many mains?

It honestly depends on your specific play-style. There are top players who focus on just one character (Nairo, Ranai, Mr. R, Esam and Ally), Top players who dual-main or have a pocket character for certain match-ups (Zero, Dabuz, Larry Lurr, and Void) and even top player who play 3-4 different characters (Anti and Leo). Generally the trade off for playing more characters is while you have the luxury or switching to a different character to tip the odds in your favor, you also won't have as much time/practice invested into a character vs if you had just stuck to one character. The opposite is true if you decide to stick to one character.

Too answer your question, IMO I think 3 characters is the max amount of character you should invest time into for competitive tournament play. I hope this post helps!

 

[Uffe]

I don't believe in more than one main. A character who will do it all for you where no other character you use can is your main. You can use a lot of characters in this game and learn their ins and outs, and I feel that would just help you become a better player where you'd understand how each character works.