Jack of all Trades Dilemma

[Xxaz_v]

Ever since I started playing Melee, I wondered what character I should main. I started out with Pichu, then switched to Roy, the Falco, then Mario, then Doc, then Marth, then Samus, then Luigi, then Falcon, and currently I'm a Marth main. I've tried out other characters in friendlies, and it seems that I'm average with almost every character. So now I have this Dilemma. Should I try to become very skilled with one character, or just continue being average with almost all of them?

 

[necroTaxonomist]

Why not become very skilled with all of them? You can be the guy that beats everyone with their mains.

 

[Xxaz_v]

I actually didn't consider that. But the problem is I would have to practice a lot more then usual. I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

 

[AudioSilver]

If you have any questions about Marth, feel free to ask me. If you want to anyway.

 

[gmBottles]

Why not become very skilled with all of them? You can be the guy that beats everyone with their mains.

Yeaaah, no. This doesn't work, and there's a very good reason.

Let's say Smasher A puts in 10 hours of practice every week, only playing his main. That's 10 hours of learning and experience all focused into one character. Now, let's look at Smasher B, who puts in an identical amount of time practicing with 10 different characters (the number of characters listed in the OP). He's only getting an hour of practice with each character, as opposed to Smash A's 10. That is 10 times the improvement with the one character he plays the most than Smasher B is getting with all of his characters.

Now, I won't say to not play these characters at all, because you should play whoever you want! But if you want to beat other really good players that only have 1 main, and maybe a couple secondaries, it's going to be very difficult. In the example above, Smasher B would have to put in ten time more effort and time into learning his characters. Now I'd say that this is a pretty extreme case, but it is also based on the list of characters in the OP so this represents a very real possibility.

 

[GenNyan]

Yeaaah, no. This doesn't work, and there's a very good reason.

Let's say Smasher A puts in 10 hours of practice every week, only playing his main. That's 10 hours of learning and experience all focused into one character. Now, let's look at Smasher B, who puts in an identical amount of time practicing with 10 different characters (the number of characters listed in the OP). He's only getting an hour of practice with each character, as opposed to Smash A's 10. That is 10 times the improvement with the one character he plays the most than Smasher B is getting with all of his characters.

Now, I won't say to not play these characters at all, because you should play whoever you want! But if you want to beat other really good players that only have 1 main, and maybe a couple secondaries, it's going to be very difficult. In the example above, Smasher B would have to put in ten time more effort and time into learning his characters. Now I'd say that this is a pretty extreme case, but it is also based on the list of characters in the OP so this represents a very real possibility.

Yeah, the point where the tournament benefits outweighs the cost requires thousands of hours of experience. Only top players can really be competent with multiple characters without their other mains suffering, because they've put in so much time that more practice with their first main won't lead to substantial improvement anyway.

 

[-ACE-]

Are you going to tournaments or smash fests in your local region? You have to truly test your best characters against skilled opponents. The decision will get super easy once you do.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

Pick your goals. Do you want to be a long term competitively viable person internationally and nationally? Then, your choices are quite limited to Falcon, Peach, Fox, Falco, Sheik, Jiggs, and Marth. However, if you somehow get very, very good then character choice matters very little even going up to national level. Too many people suck at this game.

For a region, it should hold true as well, but more lenient. So long as you are probably picking Link and up you can go pretty far if you are good. Better characters make it easier to see the success.

Otherwise, no one can help you decide other than picking what you want most. If you have the most fun across a spectrum of characters do that. Otherwise, there is no reason to pick a single unless you really like them or simply want to get to be the best you can get.

 

[NitroSSBM]

You're going to have to pick one. And then maybe if you're really good then down the road pick up a secondary. But playing over 2-3 characters really doesn't work.

 

[AirFair]

It really depends on what you want out of the game. If you don't plan on being a strong competitor anytime soon, you can try being average at all of them

I would just try and master the fundamentals on one character before I look to try others. I only use Marth in tournament. Not to say learning other characters is necessarily a bad thing, as you can learn a lot more about the game playing them, but you won't be making as great of an improvement.