How you should choose your competitive main in Smash 4

[Chief Hotsuin]

l like the idea of choosing a character that clicks beyond all else. Fore example: Me, l'm a quiet guy who loves to prank people whenever l can or at least do something stupid to see their reactions. l also believe heavily that people can change for the better (although l'm beginning to have my doubts). Also, deep analysis is always something l'll depend on for certain challenges.

Based on this, l'd believe my most "optimal" mains would be heavy punishers like Palutena (who l've enjoyed to an unhealthy degree for a third of the game's existence, before l started to lose on FG), MK (who l've been eyeing), or Ike (Ryo boiz), quirky, underused characters like G&W (who's too light for my taste), or Robin or Mewtwo, who have a bit of both in them.

Honestly, l'm too focused on one character, who l end up switching with a month or so. And the only event in my area won't be held again until January, limiting my ability to judge the win/lose ratio some. And about actual passion, l was one of THOSE Ikes back in Brawl and l think it'd be cool to attone for my scrublord sins. And it's hard for me NOT to be passionate about Palutena, for too many reasons to count. But, her frame data... l'm struggling to get into her again.

 

[Speed Boost]

Smash 4 is the first Smash game I have really tried to get good at. I played around with a few different mains in the beginning that I liked aestheticlly before settling on Dark Pit. Dark Pits kit just felt natural to me and I really liked aesthetics of the character.

I think these factors contributed to me sticking with one character long enough to get better at Smash and have a true main.

 

[Wolfheart77]

I agree with the list wholeheartedly.
I have played Smash at least once per game since 64. I didn't get serious until Sm4sh, but I actually owned Brawl and played some. I was a huge Pokémon fan and Pikachu was the one I'd always played on the other games, but Pokémon Trainer felt better to me. Some things I didn't like; some things I did. When I unlocked Lucario, I loved the Aura mechanic, loved his recovery (I hate it in Brawl now but still love it in Sm4sh thanks to the buff), loved his projectile, was completely stumped at his down special, and enjoyed playing him against level 3-4 computers (no friends that would play Brawl and not good enough with the game to get any higher than Level 5 on a couple characters, level 4 on most). I also loved his appearance in Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. But I would switch it up a bit and played Snake, Pokémon Trainer, Marth, and Falco. Switching to Sm4sh in my group meant them training me to be better with whatever character I wanted to main, so Lucario it was. I figured there was no need for me to switch things and, despite his speed and overall lack of grab-combos, I kept him. And I would win occasionally (though not very often at all).
I honestly didn't realize my playstyle until I tried to pick up Roy as a second character. The problem with him (for me) is that while he does more damage the closer you are and is fairly good with an aerial game (and indeed, playing Roy for awhile taught me to go offstage more often with Lucario), he was too fast and had a terrible recovery option. I kept mistiming my attacks and getting way too close (easily punished) and kept SD'ing because I kept trying to go offstage and fell below the stage, and had little to no recovery experience with him. (And his Flame Blade wasn't the best recovery in the game anyway.) So I knew with those that I needed a slow character with a good recovery option.
I watched someone play ONE game with Robin and instantly wanted to try him out. So I did. Recovers like a dream, has aerial smashes, slow and sweet, and the breakable weapons gimmick is easy for me to work around. I am enjoying him and he is so polite! I'm going to have to learn a lot more with him as well as Lucario, but for either of them, it doesn't matter if I win or lose. If I win, good. I had a good match. If I lose, good. That means there's more for me to learn. Now what did I do wrong? I didn't tech a landing and got punished for it. I charged up my Thunder too long trying to get to Thoron when Arcthunder would have worked just as well. I missed the back-air. I threw myself into fast-fall trying to do a down-air and didn't activate my Extremespeed quick enough. I threw myself into a blatant edgeguard. Those things I can learn from a very close win, too. It just takes time and effort.

 

[Baby_Sneak]

I agree with the list wholeheartedly.
I have played Smash at least once per game since 64. I didn't get serious until Sm4sh, but I actually owned Brawl and played some. I was a huge Pokémon fan and Pikachu was the one I'd always played on the other games, but Pokémon Trainer felt better to me. Some things I didn't like; some things I did. When I unlocked Lucario, I loved the Aura mechanic, loved his recovery (I hate it in Brawl now but still love it in Sm4sh thanks to the buff), loved his projectile, was completely stumped at his down special, and enjoyed playing him against level 3-4 computers (no friends that would play Brawl and not good enough with the game to get any higher than Level 5 on a couple characters, level 4 on most). I also loved his appearance in Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. But I would switch it up a bit and played Snake, Pokémon Trainer, Marth, and Falco. Switching to Sm4sh in my group meant them training me to be better with whatever character I wanted to main, so Lucario it was. I figured there was no need for me to switch things and, despite his speed and overall lack of grab-combos, I kept him. And I would win occasionally (though not very often at all).
I honestly didn't realize my playstyle until I tried to pick up Roy as a second character. The problem with him (for me) is that while he does more damage the closer you are and is fairly good with an aerial game (and indeed, playing Roy for awhile taught me to go offstage more often with Lucario), he was too fast and had a terrible recovery option. I kept mistiming my attacks and getting way too close (easily punished) and kept SD'ing because I kept trying to go offstage and fell below the stage, and had little to no recovery experience with him. (And his Flame Blade wasn't the best recovery in the game anyway.) So I knew with those that I needed a slow character with a good recovery option.
I watched someone play ONE game with Robin and instantly wanted to try him out. So I did. Recovers like a dream, has aerial smashes, slow and sweet, and the breakable weapons gimmick is easy for me to work around. I am enjoying him and he is so polite! I'm going to have to learn a lot more with him as well as Lucario, but for either of them, it doesn't matter if I win or lose. If I win, good. I had a good match. If I lose, good. That means there's more for me to learn. Now what did I do wrong? I didn't tech a landing and got punished for it. I charged up my Thunder too long trying to get to Thoron when Arcthunder would have worked just as well. I missed the back-air. I threw myself into fast-fall trying to do a down-air and didn't activate my Extremespeed quick enough. I threw myself into a blatant edgeguard. Those things I can learn from a very close win, too. It just takes time and effort.

Keep working on those low lvl CPUs like 3 and lower. That's going to up your control. Keep playing robin til he's second nature.

 

[Wolfheart77]

I can two-stock level 7's with Robin. It's not that I'm bad with control. I'm just a fairly new player and keep messing up some.

 

[Deleted member]

The OP has some nice points.
Though, I've always said that I'm way more impressed with someone who can win with NOT the 'best' characters.
For example, watching someone win with Fox, Captain Falcon, or whoever is on top of the tier list: yawn.
But when you see a really good Zelda or Lucina or whatever, I am way more impressed with their skill, because I know it takes more of it to beat other fighters. Like, you're not the best at Smash if you can't beat anyone with Pichu.

 

[FallenHero]

The OP has some nice points.
Though, I've always said that I'm way more impressed with someone who can win with NOT the 'best' characters.
For example, watching someone win with Fox, Captain Falcon, or whoever is on top of the tier list: yawn.
But when you see a really good Zelda or Lucina or whatever, I am way more impressed with their skill, because I know it takes more of it to beat other fighters. Like, you're not the best at Smash if you can't beat anyone with Pichu.

Fox and Falcon are not even top tier....And being able to beat people with a bad character doesn't make you good. I can body my friend using Ganon in Smash 4 consistently, but my Ryu gets bodied by him pretty consistently.

 

[Kulty]

So I came back to this boards after a year of struggle. I managed to findas my characters to focus on, but I haveas a back-up if Mega Man doesn't work for me as a competitive secondary. As for the opening message, I really do like what you said about choosing a character, but I do have a concern. When I played the game, I learned something that can contradict itself but it's essential: losing in order to improve.

With that in mind, I don't really agree that you should pick a character that you can win with. You will lose a lot at the beginning of the learning process, but as you keep going and going, you might eventually rack up some wins and even take out big names or cause big upsets. Personally, when I choose a character, I choose based on three things: 1) Playstyle, 2) The character itself if I like them or not and 3) His reward or if I can play the character many times without getting bored. After all, you don't want to get bored when playing a game that you really like. However, when you really want to be a tournament player, then I agree adding the character that you can win with, but only if you can't rack up any wins or get many significant results despite the enormous amount of effort you put into a character for a long period of time (I would say many weeks or months even).

I sticked tosince day 1 of Smash 3DS release and he has always been my main since day 1. However, here comes a tiny problem for me. I loveso much. The pros of havingoverfor me are that I have a lot more memories with Mega Man rather than Shulk and I have a totally different playstyle than my Mario andin PM. There's more character diversity and very different playstyles. However, the cons for me at least are that I personally feel more comfortable withthansince zoning characters don't come naturally to me. Plus, the playstyle won't be as diverse as if I have Mario and Mega Man. I just don't know what to do...How much time does it take to finally judge that I can't get results with a character? Ifdoesn't work, then I plan to switch to.

 

[YpsiFang]

What character do you think makes sense for me- as someone who is generally pretty balanced between speed, attack, defense, and attack speed? I also tend to grab, then knock upwards, then attack I've got them in the air (admittedly probably not a technique which will get much use later on, but a guy can dream). Currently my mains are Ike, Link, and Zelda in Project M (in that order).

 

[C0rvus]

Anyone can use that strategy. Cloud is particularly good at juggling and has speed and attack speed, and more. Try him. Also try any of the characters you like from other games. See if you still want to play them.

Generally if you want advice on character selection, we have a thread for that. I would link it, but I'm on mobile. It's in the general discussion subforum, and it's pinned. Thread is called Mains Advice Thread. You can occasionally get some good pointers there.

 

[Baby_Sneak]

What character do you think makes sense for me- as someone who is generally pretty balanced between speed, attack, defense, and attack speed? I also tend to grab, then knock upwards, then attack I've got them in the air (admittedly probably not a technique which will get much use later on, but a guy can dream). Currently my mains are Ike, Link, and Zelda in Project M (in that order).

Not general enough. Every character can do that.

 

[YpsiFang]

Anyone can use that strategy. Cloud is particularly good at juggling and has speed and attack speed, and more. Try him. Also try any of the characters you like from other games. See if you still want to play them.
That sounds good.

Generally if you want advice on character selection, we have a thread for that. I would link it, but I'm on mobile. It's in the general discussion subforum, and it's pinned. Thread is called Mains Advice Thread. You can occasionally get some good pointers there.

Didn't mean to post out of thread. Thanks for the advice.

Not general enough. Every character can do that.

What do you mean by "not general enough?"

 

[Baby_Sneak]

Didn't mean to post out of thread. Thanks for the advice.


What do you mean by "not general enough?"

I kinda meant the opposite, but what I mean is that every Charater can do that. Think of ypur favorite way to play competitive and find a character that does that.

 

[LeifEriksson]

I think that having 1 low tier main and 1 high tier main gives me the best of both worlds.

 

[ElectroLightning]

Wow, great guide! Might change from Ganon to MK...

 

[Baby_Sneak]

I think that having 1 low tier main and 1 high tier main gives me the best of both worlds.

Not necessary

 

[Kainomura]

I played every character, but none of them fits me. I guess Random is my main.

 

[Dillon101001]

I find that each person has a tier list of their own, for example i do better with TL, CF, and Yoshi than i do with Mario or Cloud, despite them being high/top tier. The tiers are really based on what the best of the best can accomplish, and such skills can vary substantially among person to person.
-1st reply woo!-

 

[Guh-Huzzah!]

I main a Low Tier (Kirby) I don't think i need to main a good tier character and stuff. I mean, I'm GOOD as him. Should i switch to someone more high tier or just stick as who i am now?

 

[NINTENDO Galaxy]

I main a Low Tier (Kirby) I don't think i need to main a good tier character and stuff. I mean, I'm GOOD as him. Should i switch to someone more high tier or just stick as who i am now?

This thread is dead. I would advise heading to The Mains Advice thread. This can be found by going to Forums, Smash Wii U/3DS, General.

Fox Is Openly Deceptive Mind locking this thread?

 

[Guh-Huzzah!]

This thread is dead. I would advise heading to The Mains Advice thread. This can be found by going to Forums, Smash Wii U/3DS, General.

Fox Is Openly Deceptive Mind locking this thread?

Oh. didn't know there was a mains advice thread. thanks!
(This thread is dead kinda sounds a little bit harsh though to be honest. or it's just me. i dunno.)