You mean 3.5? And you can use the quickdraw attack whenever you want by pressing B and jump out of quickdraw, which means you can jump cancel, which leads into things like Quickdraw -> Jump Cancel -> Up smash or grab or pivot grab or wavedash, or you can just jump and do an aerial. You can also wall jump out of Quickdraw. Because of this, Ike has a lot of mix-up options in the neutral, when combo'ing, when recovering, etc. One of the scariest situations for your opponent to be in is lying on the grab and you charging quickdraw. Because you have so many options out of it, that they it will put a lot of fear into them, you can up-smash them, grab them, jump then aerial, or if you don't feel like committing, you can just wavedash. Also, you have a ton of options when recovering, practice all of them so you can have a lot of mix-up options, you don't always have to grab the ledge. You can wall jump then waveland, you can wall jump quickdraw back to the ledge, you can release the attack early to sweetspot, you can just Aether back on the ledge, you can Aether on stage, its kind of crazy. I recommend watching players like Lordy, Metroid, DJNintendo, and Ally (There are a ton of Ike's and a ton of different ways to play the character so you can have different ideas on how to play the character, its best to find what works for you. I treat Ike like a better Brawl Ike while Metroid just goes insane and looks cool). Also, don't use Quickdraw a lot in neutral, I try to treat it as an extension of myself and my character rather than some gimmick I can abuse in every situation and a lot of PM players have this problem. You get a lot more doing out of not abusing it and you will have better fundamentals because of it. Also, just going into training and just mess around with Ike and see what you can do. I can go further like removing the Jab locks and reducing the armor on Aether and Eruption, but I think this is the most important.
Okay, so I took your advice, and
GOD. Even with the Super Armor being taken away (that thing made for some hype moments in desperate situations), Ike's Up Smash is crazy for recovery with how much horizontal distance he can get. The Quick Draw wasn't easy to get used to, but I managed, and I am impressed with how much you can do with it. The fact I can fake out a QD by ending it behind my opponent really helps bring in the unpredictability, and I have been able to do a QD Cancel a couple of times (I loved QD Canceling it into an Aether or Grab), though I need to get the timing of it down considering I use a WiiMote in sideways position.* And I have learned the hard to not overuse the QD, as if I don't react in time, I end up screwing my a** over in the end. The Jab combo unlock is nice to have, though I usually rely on the full combo because of how quick it is and how much damage it can do. Eruption, while also rid of Super Armor, has that meteor smash effect that I actually quite like. Though it has much more lag time than Ike's Dair, I personally feel it is better for that Hype moment when I am either at a 1 stock advantage and just want some disrespect, or if I get desperate and say "Screw it", and then jump into an Eruption meteor smash. Though this is rare, I usually keep to the edge to do it, but only against certain characters. Works against Fox and Falco's recovery very well, but horrible against Sheik and Squirtle-which I either take a defensive point and back up from the edge, or I meteor smash with Dair instead of Eruption due to it having better end frame data. Wall Jumping is still something I need to learn, as I haven't got the hang of it yet, but for being a Ike smasher ever since 2011 when I finally got a used copy of the game, Ike is better than ever in M than both Brawl and Wii U (God, the Wii U Ike needs some buffs-besides his physique). Anyways, since I have been playing Project M with my friends, I have gotten progressively better with Ike. I have also been to local Brawl tournaments, none to which I have won yet considering I've only participated in three, but I have gotten far-the farthest being QuarterFinals losing to a really good Ganondorf. Since it's summer and I don't have to worry about school (besides college planning) I think I may turn to tournaments listed on SmashBoards just to see must level against complete strangers who have more experience than me with other characters from PM, or post videos to show how I do and what I need to improve on. Anyways, that's all for me right now.
*Yes, I know this method is considered Forsaken because of how limited use it has, but give me a moment to explain. While using other characters give this method a bad name, using Ike with this method doesn't seem that different (to me at least) from using the WiiChuck method or the GC method. To be honest, I like where the buttons are placed. People say the B button for shielding is the s***iest placement for a shield button, but I beg to differ. I'd rather have the D-Pad jump than Up-Tilt, because I have learned to effectively Up-Tilt simultaneously pressing the Up button and the 1 button very fast (it's hard to do, but perfect it, and it's glorious). I can grab by pressing B and 2, which is nifty and is comfortable to do-why nobody has done or shown this before considering sources say you can only do it by pressing '-' or A and B simultaneously is beyond me. Maneuvering Ike with the WiiMote sideways is actually quite easy-even with the Quick Draw Cancel-as his attacks aren't complex as Ness or Pikachu's. Granted I still need to learn the Wall Jump, but nonetheless. Quick Smashing, while not much of an option, isn't much of an issue for me. ShortHopping is very nice on the WiiMote sideways, and so is air-dodging (though i will say air dodging in Melee compared to Brawl is something I REALLY need to get used to). Yes, I may not be able to walk slowly as easy when with a WiiMote sideways, or the double tapping on the directional pad is difficult if you don't have the timing down, but that doesn't mean I will throw it away for a GC method. I have tried both the GC and WiiChuck method-both to which I actually felt uncomfortable using, event after around two hours of use for each. In short, I just like using the WiiMote sideways the best.
( If our walljump does get removed that sucks a lot, but I get that our recovery is kinda really good right now.
