If Isabelle's Fishing Rod Worked on Shield...

[BuckTooth]

...how would things change? Her game plan? Tier ranking? Facing her?

How likely would such a change be? (I love maining Isabelle right now, but if she somehow got this huge buff, I would absolutely love maining her with all my might.)

 

[Call_Me_Red]

Whenever this comes up, people say it would make Isabelle borderline broken. I'm not too sure though. I think it would definitely boost her to high tier though. I think this would be a really good step towards differentiating Isabelle and Villager. Villager has a lot of safe horizontal pressure with Lloyd Rocket, Isabelle has a decent punish on a hard read, but lord it's so easy to whiff and get punished for using rod at the wrong time.

Really I wish there was some middle ground. Fishing Rod definitely needs some sort of buff, but I don't think grabbing on shield is the right answer. I think if they made either start up or end lag faster it would solve a lot of problems. Maybe increase lag on the opposite one. Idk, rod has potential to be a really good move, but I don't want it to become broken.

 

[ZeroJanitor]

its weird because shielding makes the fishing rod too easy to avoid, but if it went through shields then it might be too difficult to avoid.

i think the bobber having a hitbox while stationary would be a good buff (it had a stationary hitbox in the air after patch 3.0.0, but its since been reverted back). if you could just leave a hitbox out when you use the move, it would be a lot more effective at threatening space while also not being too unreasonable for the opponent to get around.

 

[Call_Me_Red]

its weird because shielding makes the fishing rod too easy to avoid, but if it went through shields then it might be too difficult to avoid.

i think the bobber having a hitbox while stationary would be a good buff (it had a stationary hitbox in the air after patch 3.0.0, but its since been reverted back). if you could just leave a hitbox out when you use the move, it would be a lot more effective at threatening space while also not being too unreasonable for the opponent to get around.

I think this is a really solid idea, actually. I think that'd be a good buff. It'd really play around with the timing of drawing the bobber back in. Also, if this is added, can we get a slow draw in? From what I understand you can reel it in once using up or down, but after that Isabelle just moves the rod with nothing happening (correct me if I'm wrong). I think a slow reel with a hitbox would be beautiful.

 

[TennisBall]

I think this is a really solid idea, actually. I think that'd be a good buff. It'd really play around with the timing of drawing the bobber back in. Also, if this is added, can we get a slow draw in? From what I understand you can reel it in once using up or down, but after that Isabelle just moves the rod with nothing happening (correct me if I'm wrong). I think a slow reel with a hitbox would be beautiful.

You can nudge it a little using up and down for a little while but anyone can just jump over it and there isn't something where you can slow reel in a little, stop, nudge it, etc.

 

[Luminario]

Unfortunately, some sort of slow reel doesn't really help out it's flaws, as beyond using it to edgeguard people will just always jump over the hook to punish.

Personally I think different throw angles should be explored. Reeling back at a high angle would probably be too OP for such a weapon as it'll have too much vertical range for characters without projectiles to punish at all, but throwing the hook out at a higher angle to catch aerial approaches would work much better, especially since this game is all about the full hop approaches. We already have a tilt input for the rod which quite frankly is just sitting there being useless as there's no situation that a shorter hook is gonna help you out, so that one should really be changed to a higher angle but still shorter range than the smash input.
After that we just need to find a fix for her abysmal shield pressure and we might actually have an actual character to work with.

 

[Call_Me_Red]

Unfortunately, some sort of slow reel doesn't really help out it's flaws, as beyond using it to edgeguard people will just always jump over the hook to punish.

Personally I think different throw angles should be explored. Reeling back at a high angle would probably be too OP for such a weapon as it'll have too much vertical range for characters without projectiles to punish at all, but throwing the hook out at a higher angle to catch aerial approaches would work much better, especially since this game is all about the full hop approaches. We already have a tilt input for the rod which quite frankly is just sitting there being useless as there's no situation that a shorter hook is gonna help you out, so that one should really be changed to a higher angle but still shorter range than the smash input.
After that we just need to find a fix for her abysmal shield pressure and we might actually have an actual character to work with.

I want a reason to use it in the air. Right now if you use rod in the air it goes out...then kinda shrivels up before it reaches the full length. I think if the physics were changed on that it'd be a mildly useful buff.

 

[Reila]

It would be silly. A command grab working on shield is fine, but a RANGED command grab working on shield is... Just no. That said, Isabelle does need buffs.

 

[Concept]

She might be a little too good if that were the case. Fishing Rod already has two decently lengthen ranges and nice knockback. It does needs buffs like still being able to latch onto opponents when being reeled in all the way no matter what and/or better start/endlag. But reaching through opponents might be a bit unfair and would make her unapproachable in many cases if you don't have the option for zoning.

 

[Milo the villager]

She'd be to OP