How to beat a lightweight with a heavyweight?

[Deleted member]

Since the matchups are unwinnable for my mains and I'm tired of having to wait out my bans after leaving before the match starts because / is involved. The aerial spam is salt-inducing and morale-lowering.

 

[RepStar]

Nerf them.

 

[Deleted member]

Nerf them.

I need a real answer. It's far too early for nerfs.

 

[Impa4Smash]

Practice. Pick two or three characters and stick with them. Like any Smash game.

 

[TheTrueBrawler]

I need a real answer. It's far too early for nerfs.

To be honest, Smash as a franchise has had a history of favoring faster fighters leaving the heavies in the dust. I literally have no idea how to play heavies, and I don't even know if heavy fighters other than King K Rool are viable right now.

 

[NuzTheMonkey]

In this game, all heavies are significantly buffed, including DK. Watch videos of the matchup, practice and adapt to the play style of the lightweight. It is all about conditioning your opponent into shielding, so you can kill confirm with cargo throw to Uair.

 

[PsySmasher]

What it really comes down to is reading your opponents’ movements. As a heavyweight, you’re gonna get juggled a lot. But thankfully you have the benefit of surviving longer than other characters, as well as benefiting more from rage.

It all comes down to punishing when the opponent makes a mistake or when you see an opening. Since heavys deal a lot of damage and knockback. It only takes a few well-timed hits to take a stock off a light character.

 

[rlwrgh]

I don't know this as fact but as an ike main I personally play defensively and punish bad choices I have been practicing the timing of perfect Shields and mixing it up with throws and counters. To me it is all about finding an opening and punishing as hard as you can. With heavyweight not being good at combos I tend to focus more on smash attacks though Ariel's on Ike are quite good this time around. If you can find moves that have high likelyhood of breaking shield and condition them into shielding the punishment should be devistating. Heavies are definitely harder to win with competitivly but I feel like they are in the best place they have been in the series so far.

 

[Perversion]

As someone who prefers the heavies over the lightweights, perhaps I can give some insight. You're gonna get hit a lot, but their small hits don't do as much percent damage. So really, you have to play lame to win game. Step back, watch your opponent, condition them and mix up on them. If you play one with projectiles (like I do as I main Snake), use them to set up or trap areas of the stage in order to force movement elsewhere so you can make a educated guess on where to hit them. Use your best moves according to framedata/situation in order to get in on your opponent. Then use the chunkier, hefty moves to hard read them. Figure out what your character has going for it. Just a couple of examples for the heavies:

DK: Good aerials, cargo throw, lots of meteors.
Bowser: Decent aerials, meteors, command grab, up special coverage, etc.
Snake: EXPLOSIONS, projectiles, utilt, area coverage.
King K. Rool: Built in armor for belly, some good utility projectiles/+command grab, amazing recovery.
Ridley: Command grab, crumple, wide area coverage of areas with nair.
Incineroar: Great utility with command grab and range with it, revenge, some really good juggle game with aerials.

Those are just a few. Honestly, playing heavies is pretty fun but you have to know when you go in and also know you'll be combo food.

 

[Alsyght]

I like to practice on smaller characters to test my accuracy on hitting and grabbing them. I usually practice with Pichu, Olimar, and Ness because they’re smaller. Then everyone else gets easier when you get bigger.