*reads above post*
You DO realize the Zelda boards put down the Ike VS Zelda match as 55-45 our Advantage correct?
And well done: randomly coming into a topic and start flaming. You joined last month, please learn how the boards work before randomly spewing meaningless flames.
I played around with the idea of using Sheik as a secondary for a while. Longest lasting secondary character I've had so far. It's 45 -55 (as in, Sheik has the 55).
First point: Lag. Lets start by comparing air to air, not air to ground, because in both cases whoever is in the air has less lag. Yes, for the most part, Shiek has minimal lag on her aerial moves that aren't Dair. News flash for ya: Ike has minimal lag on his aerials as well. Nair and Bair both auto-cancel, as in zero lag when using them. Fair, Uair, and Dair all have a crap load of IASA frames on them. Sheik is one of the few characters that can punish a perfectly spaced Fair from Ike without a projectile, but thats only through a DACUS. Anything other move besides Needles will be blocked before they connect.
I'll keep on the subject of aerials: Ike harshly beats out Sheik in range and lingering hitboxes, as well as KOing power. You can't AD through Ike's uair. AD doesn't last long enough, same idea with Nair. Dair is the 4th strongest Sheik has her Bair for spacing, Ike's Fair beats it out easily. There are only 4 non projectile moves in the game that can outrange Fair in the air. Sheik doesn't have any of them. If you try spacing with Bair, you WILL get hit by Fair. Want speed in the air? Ike's Bair comes out frame 7, and outranges most, if not all of Sheik's aerial moves. Add on top of that it's disjointed, while Sheik's hurtbox extends out with her leg, Ike wins in the air above the stage. Off stage yes Sheik can do some damage. Problem is you actually have to get us there in the first place.
Now lets talk about ground moves shall we? Sheik does have lag on her moves on the ground. Her Fsmash? Punishable lag. Dsmash? Punishable. Usmash? punishable. Utilt? Ftilt? Punishable. Know why? Ike's jab comes out frame 3. All of those moves leave enough time for Ike to jab if they are blocked or whiff. And it's not like you can shrug off getting hit by the best jab in the game. Just how exactly is Sheik going to avoid taking a fair amount of damage? She doesn't have invincibility frames on some of her moves like Marth does. She'll be taking at least 20% damage every single time she gets jabbed due to jab canceling.
Yes, Ike has some lag on his ground moves. However, he also has IASA frames on them, as well as more range then Sheik has. Did you know Ike has 20 IASA frames on his Usmash? I doubt you did. And you act as if we're going to be randomly throwing out Counter all of the time. What type of noob were you playing? Ikes don't use Counter unless it's against a move that has so much start up time they know they can use it. We don't use Counter like Marths do, get that out of your head.
Yes, Ftilt locking is annoying. Thats the main reason I say Sheik has the slight edge. It helps a fair bit to tack on the damage. Too bad Ike's jab is faster. Sheik is going to have to work to get in that Ftilt lock in the first place. And it doesn't lead into a tipper KO. Ike is NOT the spacies. We don't stay in as long, we survive vertical KOs better, and we don't fall as fast. And why the flip did you think that a smart Ike would even ATTEMPT to counter out of it? Again, we aren't Marth.
Chainlocking wouldn't work. Know why? Too much flipping lag pulling the chain out and more importantly pulling the chain back. Ike's Ftilt has just as much range as his Fsmash. Sheik pulling out the chain = her getting Ftilted to oblivion if it misses, assuming we weren't in her face jabbing before it came out. And even if it hits, this isn't Melee, nor are we Ganondorf. We can get out of it. Frankly, you can't afford to risk it. Ike's Ftilt has around as much kick as Snake's ftilt.
Projectiles are nothing new. Powershielding FTW, since you decided to pull out the powershielding card for protecting yourself during the chain, I'm going to pull it out for protecting myself against the needles. And Ikes approach through the air, so we can keep up the jumping "game" for quite a while.
For gimping Ike: Thats nothing new either, and other characters do it better. The easiest way around it would be to go to Battlefield or Smashville, use Aether to slide up the slope, and land on the stage while you're dangling there like an idiot. QD gimping, who on earth uses QD to recovery besides noobs, or when it's 100% safe to do so? Thats like claiming you can gimp Marth easily due to the fact he can attempt to use his Neutral B to recover. Or gimp Fox easily because he can use his Firefox to recovery horizontally. Only and idiot would do such a thing.
Speaking of gimping, what about the other way around? Vanish is dtilt, walk-off aether, or Eruption bait. The chain is nice sure, but again you can't stay there forever. You eventually are forced back up, particularly if we use a walk-off dair down the chainline.
And then you go on again about Ike using counter randomly. That would be like me going on over and over about Sheik spamming the chain.
Sheik generally speaking has the speed advantage, but Ike's jab beats out her good moves. Ike has more priority, better range, and a lot more KOing power. Both characters are going to have fun coming back on stage if they are knocked off. It's the combination of Needles and the fact that if Ftilt lock lands at a low enough % it can do some damage that leads me to say Sheik has the 55-45 advantage. Possibly a 6-4 advantage for Sheik if there are enough stages that work to her advantage, but no way is it 65-35 sheik's advantage.
Please learn how the character is used before claiming random things again.