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Guide How to defeat Chrom! Is the "Best Swordsman" in Smash Ultimate Overhyped??

OverLade

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SsbProTips_Lade submitted a new resource:

How to defeat Chrom! Is the "Best Swordsman" in Smash Ultimate Overhyped?? - Chrom's biggest weakness

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Hey Guys. ProTips guy Lade here.

Chrom has been one of the hottest topics since Smash Ultimate's release. Many top players have even cited him as the best character in the game. But is he really though? Today we're going to talk about his biggest weakness!

Check it out here!

If you enjoy content like this, please Like and Subscribe, as there will be plenty more to come in the future! Seeya over there!
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Luigifan18

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Wait, how does this thread have an article attached to it?
 

Arthur97

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Is a guide really necessary when he does have a very known weakness? It's not like he's Smash 4 Bayonetta.
 

Creeeamy

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Chrom is just sword little mac. He's overall weaker than Roy (because lets be real, Roy's sweet spots are easy as all hell to land). I feel like people are just kind of taking ZeRo saying Chrom is the best swordsman without actually thinking about things. Seriously just throw him off the level, the moment that happens any competent player should take his stock. the vast majority of the time, since he either has to airdodge back on, which is extremely punishable, or aether, which is also extremely punishable.

This all honestly reminds me of the start of smash 4 when people thought Little Mac was the best character in the game for like, 3 weeks. I just don't think it's possible for a character to be considered the best if they don't have a consistent recovery method. Hell even Cloud has limit Climhazard.
 
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Rocketjay8

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Chrom is just sword little mac. He's overall weaker than Roy (because lets be real, Roy's sweet spots are easy as all hell to land). I feel like people are just kind of taking ZeRo saying Chrom is the best swordsman without actually thinking about things. Seriously just throw him off the level, the moment that happens any competent player should take his stock. the vast majority of the time, since he either has to airdodge back on, which is extremely punishable, or aether, which is also extremely punishable.

This all honestly reminds me of the start of smash 4 when people thought Little Mac was the best character in the game for like, 3 weeks. I just don't think it's possible for a character to be considered the best if they don't have a consistent recovery method. Hell even Cloud has limit Climhazard.
Little mac didn't have a good air game.
 

Izanagi97

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Little mac didn't have a good air game.
Seriously, this reason here is why I get so annoyed when people compare any character with a bad recovery to Little Mac. It's like they forget that Little Mac is held back by more than just a really bad recovery, that being his aforementioned god awful air game which means that once he's knocked off the ground and into the air, he's gonna be taken for a ride.
 

zeldasmash

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Chrom is just sword little mac. He's overall weaker than Roy (because lets be real, Roy's sweet spots are easy as all hell to land). I feel like people are just kind of taking ZeRo saying Chrom is the best swordsman without actually thinking about things. Seriously just throw him off the level, the moment that happens any competent player should take his stock. the vast majority of the time, since he either has to airdodge back on, which is extremely punishable, or aether, which is also extremely punishable.

This all honestly reminds me of the start of smash 4 when people thought Little Mac was the best character in the game for like, 3 weeks. I just don't think it's possible for a character to be considered the best if they don't have a consistent recovery method. Hell even Cloud has limit Climhazard.
Well....I don't recall Little Mac having some of the best aerials in the game and having an Up B that if you get hit by offstage you straight up die.
 

Arthur97

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Seriously, just take a moment to consider if Chrom had a recovery like K. Rool or Meta Knight. That would hardly be fair.
 

7 or 7

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Chrom is just sword little mac. He's overall weaker than Roy (because lets be real, Roy's sweet spots are easy as all hell to land). I feel like people are just kind of taking ZeRo saying Chrom is the best swordsman without actually thinking about things. Seriously just throw him off the level, the moment that happens any competent player should take his stock. the vast majority of the time, since he either has to airdodge back on, which is extremely punishable, or aether, which is also extremely punishable.

This all honestly reminds me of the start of smash 4 when people thought Little Mac was the best character in the game for like, 3 weeks. I just don't think it's possible for a character to be considered the best if they don't have a consistent recovery method. Hell even Cloud has limit Climhazard.
I don't remember Little Mac having arguably the best aerials in the entire game and being able to leave the stage for edgeguards, like Chrom's edgeguarding game isn't amazing but as long as you have your second jump you have a pretty good chance at making it back (when edgeguarding).
 
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Odd_0ne

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Wouldn't it be harder to get those nairs if he sweetspots the ledge? You can get him on the way up but he does have a hitbox once he is up there so 2 frames and maybe dairs might be hard. Also, another thing that intimidates people to edge guarding him is that if they messed up, they can get spiked at 0%. Has set ups to get the spike too which is why I can see him getting praised. For the video, you should have shown your self edge guarding against someone who puts the max amount of spacing on his recovery. Just having the cpu recover is not that helpful imo.

About the Mac and Chrom recovery comparison, the difference between the two is that Chrom's goes way higher than Mac ever could and yeah mac was no air fighter. With Chrom's good ground game and air game, he deserves to be high tier. Roy should also be in the same caliber too since you know, there basically the same character just with a few minor differences.

Just putting it out there, I could be wrong about all of this but I'm speaking from my exp with the character.
 

Zapp Branniglenn

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Chrom's super armor on Up B ends the moment he starts ascending, just like Ike's. It's as easy as grabbing the ledge and N-airing with decent timing. You don't have to time a hop from onstage like in the video, that's making it way too hard on yourself. Even characters like Donkey Kong with a N-air that doesn't protect under him are good to go because Chrom is not a hitbox until he reaches the top of aether. If you've got a move with a lot of active hit frames, it will work, no need to time a B-air that you'd normally want to use for a kill.

I've been watching some matches with Chrom just to see what people are freaking out about and yeah, I would definitely point to these sorts of gimps being the number one reason people fail. The only hard part should be getting him offstage in the first place.
 

Bobert

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Chrom is just sword little mac. He's overall weaker than Roy (because lets be real, Roy's sweet spots are easy as all hell to land). I feel like people are just kind of taking ZeRo saying Chrom is the best swordsman without actually thinking about things. Seriously just throw him off the level, the moment that happens any competent player should take his stock. the vast majority of the time, since he either has to airdodge back on, which is extremely punishable, or aether, which is also extremely punishable.

This all honestly reminds me of the start of smash 4 when people thought Little Mac was the best character in the game for like, 3 weeks. I just don't think it's possible for a character to be considered the best if they don't have a consistent recovery method. Hell even Cloud has limit Climhazard.
Roy's sourspots are still fairly large. Lost count of how many times I've missed the back air kill off of jab because of the sourspot due to them DIing away. Up-tilt's and up airs sourspots are still horrendous, which is why we see Chrom doing insane juggles with up air and killing through platforms with up tilt instead of Roy. I've seen top players struggle to kill Chrom offstage already also, and it's kind of hard to get him there in the first place. Comparing his recovery to Little Mac is such a huge exaggeration. Despite the slow air accel., his air speed is still really fast compared to Mac's and he actually has an air game with huge disjoints. Are we also going to keep pretending that recovery isn't a problem for Roy either? Roy's and Chrom's recoveries are more like Doctor Mario VS Ganondorf. They both suck once you take their double jump, but one of them has an extra option that's still mediocre.
 
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Phatty

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Wouldn't it be harder to get those nairs if he sweetspots the ledge? You can get him on the way up but he does have a hitbox once he is up there so 2 frames and maybe dairs might be hard.
Actually, he doesn't have any hitboxes above or behind him while he is spinning. The animation makes it look like he does but it's just for show. There's a huge hitbox in front of him but as long as you avoid that he is quite easy to gimp.
 

Bobert

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I don't think Chrom or Roy are even the best swordsmen in the game. Ike is looking better than both Roy and Chrom lately. They both have the speed advantage over Ike, but Ike seems like he's so much better at everything else, including recovery. I thought Chrom was great at juggling, but Ike basically makes you forget what the ground felt like after landing a single n-air and then eventually kills you off the top with an up-air so big, it makes even Cloud jealous.
 
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Arrei

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Ike's conversions off of Nair are super scary but his ground game is easily the most lacking of all the swordsmen, making his game plan disproportionately reliant on being able to land that thing. I'm reluctant to give that trophy to ChRoy either but I'd think the title would go to a character with a more versatile toolkit.
 
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Ike will get worse once people learn to parry nairs, its not that hard, but requires practice. Roy and chrom are okay, and chroms up is acutally a little better cuz it can sweetspot if you space it jsut right, whereas ikes never. Roys recovery is just good tho. Roy has stronger kill options then chrom (imo) but chrom is better neutral
 

Arthur97

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Ike will get worse once people learn to parry nairs, its not that hard, but requires practice. Roy and chrom are okay, and chroms up is acutally a little better cuz it can sweetspot if you space it jsut right, whereas ikes never. Roys recovery is just good tho. Roy has stronger kill options then chrom (imo) but chrom is better neutral
I would not call Roy's recovery "good."
 

Arrei

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Ike will get worse once people learn to parry nairs, its not that hard, but requires practice. Roy and chrom are okay, and chroms up is acutally a little better cuz it can sweetspot if you space it jsut right, whereas ikes never. Roys recovery is just good tho. Roy has stronger kill options then chrom (imo) but chrom is better neutral
I dunno, I think "just parry lol" is also a bit overblown. Straight up Nairing in someone's face is not the only tactic in Ike's kit, even if the rest of his tools are more lacking. Parrying is just another option in the rock-paper-scissors game that is neutral, beaten out by tomahawking or switching up your timing. And Chrom's recovery never sweetspots, it must go through the spin just like Ike's.
 
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Bobert

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Ike will get worse once people learn to parry nairs, its not that hard, but requires practice. Roy and chrom are okay, and chroms up is acutally a little better cuz it can sweetspot if you space it jsut right, whereas ikes never. Roys recovery is just good tho. Roy has stronger kill options then chrom (imo) but chrom is better neutral
Saying just to parry it is like saying just to airdodge through Snake's Nikita. It's easier said than done because your opponent can still bait you into those options and punish you anyway. Chrom's Up-B doesn't sweetspot differently from Ike's. Both only sweetspot the ledge when they're coming down after the spin regardless of spacing. Blazer is better than Aether for recovery but it's still not very good and isn't that great vertically. You also have to remember that Ike has Quick Draw for recovery while Chrom and Roy only have Aether/Blazer.
 
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Saying just to parry it is like saying just to airdodge through Snake's Nikita. It's easier said than done because your opponent can still bait you into those options and punish you anyway. Chrom's Up-B doesn't sweetspot differently from Ike's. Both only sweetspot the ledge when they're coming down after the spin regardless of spacing. Blazer is better than Aether for recovery but it's still not very good and isn't that great vertically. You also have to remember that Ike has Quick Draw for recovery while Chrom and Roy only have Aether/Blazer.
With practice, parrying is doable, and you can also anti air, and most people spam SH nair pretty predictably.
On the way up, chorms can sweetspot the ledge actually, where ikes goes down just a little bit before grabbing the ledge
 

FSF

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Chrom is just sword little mac. He's overall weaker than Roy (because lets be real, Roy's sweet spots are easy as all hell to land). I feel like people are just kind of taking ZeRo saying Chrom is the best swordsman without actually thinking about things. Seriously just throw him off the level, the moment that happens any competent player should take his stock. the vast majority of the time, since he either has to airdodge back on, which is extremely punishable, or aether, which is also extremely punishable.

This all honestly reminds me of the start of smash 4 when people thought Little Mac was the best character in the game for like, 3 weeks. I just don't think it's possible for a character to be considered the best if they don't have a consistent recovery method. Hell even Cloud has limit Climhazard.

I disagree with your entire sentiment. Lil Mac only has a good ground game. Shielding is a perfect option against everything Mac does because he has pitiful grabs. Because of his weak aerials he can't really crossup shield either. Predictable, 1-dimensional approach options severely limit L.M. and people realized that quickly. Mac can only approach you with a grounded attack. His entire aerial moveset is forgettable. Does a character with half the moves of everyone else seem overpowered to you?

Chrom has an oppressive ground game, air game, threatening combos and followups from grab, and he can combo into a suicide move that kills at 0% meaning he has a strong comeback option. It doesn't feel at all like smash 4 Mac, who faded quickly after people realized that he is a 1-dimensional character. Chrom can always switch things up, most of his moves are good and have uses, and he has a good grab with followups.
 
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Arthur97

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I disagree with your entire sentiment. Lil Mac only has a good ground game. Shielding is a perfect option against everything Mac does because he has pitiful grabs. Because of his weak aerials he can't really crossup shield either. Predictable, 1-dimensional approach options severely limit L.M. and people realized that quickly. Mac can only approach you with a grounded attack. His entire aerial moveset is forgettable. Does a character with half the moves of everyone else seem overpowered to you?

Chrom has an oppressive ground game, air game, threatening combos and followups from grab, and he can combo into a suicide move that kills at 0% meaning he has a strong comeback option. It doesn't feel at all like smash 4 Mac, who faded quickly after people realized that he is a 1-dimensional character. Chrom can always switch things up, most of his moves are good and have uses, and he has a good grab with followups.
Can I just say that I do grab with Little Mac? I also used one of his aerials to good effect once in memory. Not saying your wrong, just wanted to say that. Carry on.
 

FSF

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Can I just say that I do grab with Little Mac? I also used one of his aerials to good effect once in memory. Not saying your wrong, just wanted to say that. Carry on.
I'm sure you got a nice 8% damage with no followup on that grab. Devastating!
 

Arthur97

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I'm sure you got a nice 8% damage with no followup on that grab. Devastating!
I pummel. Still, I'm not a big comboer anyway. And some damage through a shield is better than hitting it and getting punished.

Besides, I never said they were great throws.
 
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