How to counter spam/excessive rolling?

[VKatana]

I've been attempting to play online recently, and my experience thus far has been less than desirable. 9/10 people I meet online spam projectiles for the entirety of the match (Robin, Samus, and Mega Man) or will roll from one side of the stage to the other non stop waiting for a chance to punish something. Extreme spam and excessive rolling like this is really damaging my win rate, so can anyone give me tips on how to counter it?

I also have a friend who plays Villager and constantly uses gyroids as well as forward and back air, rarely throwing in other moves. He claims its an approach, but he does it when he's not even near his opponent and sometimes he'll throw them out for no reason. It's borderline spam, but I'd like a second opinion.

If it helps to know, I play Sonic and Mii Brawler, but have been trying Luigi. My Luigi's approach may be too predictable, as I work off of grabs for kills and combos. Somebody please help me!

 

[Raijinken]

Mix in fireballs for your Luigi approach, and maybe also fair or nair.

As for the rolling, it's harder with lag since your timing has to be much more accurate, but there is always about 1/4 of a second vulnerability between rolls. Especially on Sonic, you should be able to just roll on through that to hit 'em.

For Villager (and every projectile character), a major part of their design is harassment with projectiles at a distance. For Villager, it IS an approach, because if any of it hits you, it creates openings for Villager's other aerials. Spamming moves IS super annoying, but a downside to it is that it makes the spammer extremely predictable, in turn letting you punish them. For Samus and Robin, projectiles are more of a means of forcing you to approach them. Robin, especially online, has very bad up-close since his endlag is miserable. But also worth noting, he can only use Thunder spells for a total of 20 charges (1 for Thunder, 3 for Elthunder, 5 for Arcthunder, 8 for Thoron) before losing them for ten seconds. Similarly, Arcfire only has six charges. Abuse those cooldowns.

Megaman's a mixed bag. He fights best at mid-range, but if he can weaken you from a range without you stopping it, it's generally a sign that you're running straight into things. Try just catching his Metal Blade and holding onto it (especially if you're someone with good B moves). He won't be able to use half of his actually-long range attacks, and the Crash Bomber can be tagged back onto him.

 

[dragontamer]

I've been attempting to play online recently, and my experience thus far has been less than desirable. 9/10 people I meet online spam projectiles for the entirety of the match (Robin, Samus, and Mega Man) or will roll from one side of the stage to the other non stop waiting for a chance to punish something. Extreme spam and excessive rolling like this is really damaging my win rate, so can anyone give me tips on how to counter it?

I also have a friend who plays Villager and constantly uses gyroids as well as forward and back air, rarely throwing in other moves. He claims its an approach, but he does it when he's not even near his opponent and sometimes he'll throw them out for no reason. It's borderline spam, but I'd like a second opinion.

If it helps to know, I play Sonic and Mii Brawler, but have been trying Luigi. My Luigi's approach may be too predictable, as I work off of grabs for kills and combos. Somebody please help me!

Online, it is a bit difficult. But there is roughly a 1/6th of a second window on every roll where the opponent is vulnerable and can't move. If you can time a smash attack (most characters: down-smash. If you're very good with spacing, try forward smash), then you'll win against every opponent who rolls.

EDIT: This 1/6th of a second period is near the end of the roll. Furthermore, all rolls have a brief period of vulnerability on startup (roughly 4 frames, or 1/15th of a second). So solid shield pressure (for example: Yoshi's down aerial, Robin's Elfire, Ness's PK Fire etc. etc.) can prevent the opponent from rolling.

For projectile "spam", it depends on the opponent and depends on the character you play. Powershielding projectiles is relatively easy, learn to run->powershield, and often you can jab or tilt your opponent before they recover.

If you can't powershield your opponent's projectiles, then it isn't "spam". They're reading you and reacting to you. Powershield "spam", the predictable obvious projectiles. After that, your opponent has to be more careful about placing projectiles against you.

Megaman is a bit different, due to the versatility of his lemons. Personally, I'd say just get yourself hit by the lemons and try to punish Megaman afterwards. The 3rd lemon leaves Megaman on negative frames at most medium / low percentages, so he's open to counter-attack. The walk-up -> powershield technique against his more spammy, powerful projectiles works pretty well in my experience.

But "spam" is only spam if it is predictable. If it is working, then it isn't spam. Its your opponent outplaying you.

Or its lag, which is why I prefer playing offline. Online Lag makes the above techniques much harder to pull off.

 

[Antonykun]

First of all, stop playing for glory, 80% of the players are such noobs that you have to degrade your skills to beat them. Second, stop caring about your win rate, lag and stupid things will make your rating go down anyways. If you want a learning experience online, try Smash Ladder, people actually play smart there

 

[Jebus244]

I've been attempting to play online recently, and my experience thus far has been less than desirable. 9/10 people I meet online spam projectiles for the entirety of the match (Robin, Samus, and Mega Man) or will roll from one side of the stage to the other non stop waiting for a chance to punish something. Extreme spam and excessive rolling like this is really damaging my win rate, so can anyone give me tips on how to counter it?

I also have a friend who plays Villager and constantly uses gyroids as well as forward and back air, rarely throwing in other moves. He claims its an approach, but he does it when he's not even near his opponent and sometimes he'll throw them out for no reason. It's borderline spam, but I'd like a second opinion.

If it helps to know, I play Sonic and Mii Brawler, but have been trying Luigi. My Luigi's approach may be too predictable, as I work off of grabs for kills and combos. Somebody please help me!

Villager is my second and the spam is how you have to play against most characters. It's even useful against reflectors because of pocket. That said, its purpose is to force you to play a certain way so that the one spamming can then capitalize on risky or passive play. If the spam doesn't stop, then you haven't stopped it with whatever actions you're taking. It's your job to play around it and play in a way the spammer doesn't expect or can't account for. There are holes in the villagers traps, the villager's job is to hide them as best he can or make them difficult to take advantage of, the opponent's job is to find them and exploit them. Now against certain characters, spam is not so effective, which leads to the villager changing his style, but against diddy (who I see is your main), gyroids will fly!

 

[Teh Sandwich]

You can cancel your dash by blocking. Use that to close the gap

 

[David Viran]

You can cancel your dash by blocking. Use that to close the gap

Watch out though because it doesn't cancel your initial dash.