Is Bowsercide still Viable? (A Strategy Discussion)

[B!squick]

And then other times you whiff the second hit of DownB because that move doesn't need to link and stuff.

 

[Anragon]

Has to be said, Dropkick is so ridiculously powerful, you have to use it sometimes.

 

[MrEh]

I use it after a shield break and never any other time.

Unlike old Fsmash, dropkick is useless in neutral. It's incredibly bad. It only works in hard read situations, but ANYTHING works in hard read situations.

 

[MagiusNecros]

How viable would a aerial Klaw to Fsmash be? Since you can immediately do any single action once you hit the ground.

 

[MrEh]

It would be very very bad.

Aerial klaw is very ineffective at grabbing anything not 6 feet tall in this game. Even if it was Brawl huge again, there's too big of a window where you're gonna get hit after landing if you go for Fsmash

 

[MagiusNecros]

A shame. I'd like to use the dropkick more. It's so powerful.

 

[MrEh]

There's a time and a place.

If you wanna use dropkick more, then set up situations where you can guaranteed punish people with it. Or just try and break their shield.

 

[Zigsta]

Instead of aerial Klaw I've been incorporating ADC Klaw into my game. It's super handy, but man oh man do I miss Brawl Klaw so much.

New fsmash, like MrEh said, is really only good for hard reads thanks to the sidestep being gone. I think for people who didn't play much Bowser in Brawl, they love the new fsmash because to them Bowser's old fsmash was slow and in their mind needed a hard read. And while that's certainly true in some scenarios, any solid Bowser main (or anyone who regularly played one) knew to fear throwing out spaced tilts or fsmashs because they could get fsmashed by Bowser.

Right now I'm primarily using dropkick after a jab (it's fairly similar to jab>fsmash in Brawl) OR it's just a read. Stutterstep fsmash is nifty, especially against grab-heavy opponents--they try to run after you only to get kicked in the face.

 

[MrEh]

I will say that Jab->Fsmash is legit once you condition your opponent to respect Jab->Bomb.

Spotdodging is one of the few ways to stop the Jab->Bomb frame trap, and Jab->Fsmash tears that to pieces.


So yeah, reads only. It's way worse than it was in Brawl for reasons Zigsta mentioned.

 

[Dumbfire]

I find that even with big leads I have trouble controlling the Bowsercide; I've only been able to do it once, and I think the other person wasn't inputting anything.

I use the new Fsmash about once every five games by now, I think. Usmash is the only smash I use with any regularity, and even then I often prefer Utilt.

 

[Anragon]

Old F-smash was good ONLY because it used to move Bowser's hurtbox backwards before moving forward for the headbutt. Also ~30% uncharged Fsmash was insane damage.

New F-smash is more powerful than the old one. His new intangible hitboxes on Bowser legs are very useful if you use it to challenge other hitboxes. But it can no longer be used for dodging purposes on mindgames.