• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

Social Lower Norfair

Gleam

Smash Ace
Joined
Apr 7, 2008
Messages
654
Location
Burlington, NC
Unfortunate how spot-on Vreyvus' rant is, which makes it all the more demoralizing in the event we never get buffs. I didn't think much of Ridley still getting no changes from update 3.1.0 at first, but then when I saw how some like Ken got super buffed, in addition to how Samus' up smash was "fixed", it sank in and hit me like a truck.
RIdley has just become stagnant in the meta while everyone else is getting buffed up the rear and the few who the few Top or High Tiers who do get nerfed, are still in a position where they're notably a head of Ridley. Like let's be honest, Pichu's Nerfs aren't going to make it any easier not getting combed of the walls and gimped. In the past, Ridley was balanced out by extremes. He had an extreme advantage and an extreme disadvantage, a very technical character that took skill but clearly got results thanks to that skill.

Now that everyone but him is getting buffed, that advantage state is getting weaker and his disadvantage state is getting stronger. It's something that's happening to Donkey Kong too who apparently also suffers from an issue of disadvantage. Yeah, it's honestly gotten tiresome playing as RIdley now a days. In the past, Ridley could be difficult to play but he was rewarded for his actions. Now a days, I'd much rather play someone like Zelda who is arguably just as good now but doesn't require me to take precautions as I do with RIdley.

With Zelda, I don't have to worry about getting comboed because of a huge body. I don't have to worry about getting gimped as easily thanks to a linear recovery. I often have much better tools for spacing. I have better kill options, decent enough stage control, edgeguarding tools, etc.

I hate to say it but playing Ridley has gone from being challenging fun to tedious chore work. At this point, there's plenty of characters who can get similar results but require far less effort upon the player.
 

meleebrawler

Smash Hero
Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Messages
8,156
Location
Canada, Quebec
NNID
meleebrawler
3DS FC
2535-3888-1548
So I guess one year is when the gratitude period ends and you can start bemoaning viability mercilessly?
 

Ridley_Prime

Proteus Geoform
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
8,631
NNID
AlphaWarDragon87
3DS FC
0774-4845-6886
Switch FC
SW-7888-8563-5773
RIdley has just become stagnant in the meta while everyone else is getting buffed up the rear and the few who the few Top or High Tiers who do get nerfed, are still in a position where they're notably a head of Ridley. Like let's be honest, Pichu's Nerfs aren't going to make it any easier not getting combed of the walls and gimped. In the past, Ridley was balanced out by extremes. He had an extreme advantage and an extreme disadvantage, a very technical character that took skill but clearly got results thanks to that skill.

Now that everyone but him is getting buffed, that advantage state is getting weaker and his disadvantage state is getting stronger. It's something that's happening to Donkey Kong too who apparently also suffers from an issue of disadvantage. Yeah, it's honestly gotten tiresome playing as RIdley now a days. In the past, Ridley could be difficult to play but he was rewarded for his actions. Now a days, I'd much rather play someone like Zelda who is arguably just as good now but doesn't require me to take precautions as I do with RIdley.

With Zelda, I don't have to worry about getting comboed because of a huge body. I don't have to worry about getting gimped as easily thanks to a linear recovery. I often have much better tools for spacing. I have better kill options, decent enough stage control, edgeguarding tools, etc.

I hate to say it but playing Ridley has gone from being challenging fun to tedious chore work. At this point, there's plenty of characters who can get similar results but require far less effort upon the player.
Pichu's nerfs definitely do help Ridley more than the others who got nerfs which were minor in comparison, mainly due to it being much easier to hit Pichu now compared to before, but true enough still.

Ah, didn't think about that with DK suffering the same way. But yeah, it's unfortunate. I find there's still some new cool things to occasionally learn with Ridley, but the lack of consistent kill confirms is what really hurts him at times, though often don't see it as too consequential since once he gets someone off the stage or on the ledge, he dominates. I still use others too regardless, but don't think Ridley's bad enough to be considered a lost cause for those who want to be a dedicated user, still having some nice technical things to work with. Just have to put in more work with him like you said... It's not that Ridley himself got worse, it's that the meta moved up and improved so many others without him, which unfortunately bumps him down a tier or so.

So I guess one year is when the gratitude period ends and you can start bemoaning viability mercilessly?
I'll never not have gratitude for Ridley's overdue inclusion, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. If not now, then when's a good time for people who use him to point out his flaws/limitations? Tough love; most character mains tend to go through this at a certain point.

While it sucks seeing people drop Ridley here and there, I'd rather they drop him and move on to someone else than still use him while only complaining and finding nothing good about him/getting no results. Happiness with your character should be #1 priority, because if you don't have faith in your main anymore, how are they gonna help you improve? I'm still happy with Ridley, but doesn't mean he couldn't use eventual improvements, and it gets frustrating after awhile seeing how many others tend to get buffs in these updates while he's continually glossed over.
 

meleebrawler

Smash Hero
Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Messages
8,156
Location
Canada, Quebec
NNID
meleebrawler
3DS FC
2535-3888-1548
The thing is those patches are mainly focused on rebalancing moves, which is not an area Ridley has noticeable issues in. Like... the most I could feasibly suggest that would provide a noticeable boost is a tiny increase of the sweetspot for uair. You may argue for increasing his firepower in general further to try and compensate for his weight and frame, but he's already known for being a monster when he has momentum as it is, so it's a tricky line to walk on in order to not make him overbearing for low-level players not well-vested in exploiting his weaknesses. For as much flak as Ridley may get, he's never been accused of being nothing more than a noob-stomper.
 

Cutie Gwen

Lovely warrior
Joined
Jul 1, 2014
Messages
63,047
Location
Somewhere out there on this big blue marble
Basically the issue is that Ridley's too good in advantage to warrant buffs I guess. That being said the meta's only about 7 months old and let's be completely honest, there are characters who fundamentally not work in the game like Little Mac, the most recent patch proved that they're willing to buff some of the weaker characters and while it didn't include Ridley, Ridley may be next in line if they're going up from the bottom
 

Thermithral

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Messages
310
NNID
blahara
3DS FC
1375-7535-6452
Switch FC
6524 3241 3725
I still have not gotten into elite smash, but I will never stop playing Ridley. He is to fun to stop just to win more.

On an unrelated note, I had planned to make a joke tier list video about characters reactions to being skewered and got all the footage for it, but when I started ranking them I noticed most of the time he aims specifically for the crotch. I really want to know if that is just an unintentionally common thing that happens, or if someone on the animation team was like, "Yeah, Ridley should always go for the crotch if he can".
 
Last edited:

meleebrawler

Smash Hero
Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Messages
8,156
Location
Canada, Quebec
NNID
meleebrawler
3DS FC
2535-3888-1548
I still have not gotten into elite smash, but I will never stop playing Ridley. He is to fun to stop just to win more.

On an unrelated note, I had planned to make a joke tier list video about characters reactions to being skewered and got all the footage for it, but when I started ranking them I noticed most of the time he aims specifically for the crotch. I really want to know if that is just an unintentionally common thing that happens, or if someone on the animation team was like, "Yeah, Ridley should always go for the crotch if he can".
Pretty sure it's just a practical coincidence so that he can hit small characters with it.
 

Giga Kaiju

Smash Lord
Joined
Sep 16, 2015
Messages
1,045
Location
Valley Of Repose
NNID
GigaKaiju
Switch FC
SW-8115-0761-4039
Man, it has been awhile since I posted on this thread.

RL, and stuff can be a thing. (BTW, Godzilla 2: King Of The Monsters is awesome, hopefully you guys have seen it as it is pretty damn worth it.)

Well, it is something to see looking at other threads of people wanting characters while we can sit back and relax now after all these years, eh~?

It's very humbling.

Also, to add on the conversation about Ridley's potential/role in competitive Smash. Well, it was bound to happen but that doesn't mean that people should stop playing (both for the people that try to learn him or that, like us in the thread, LIKE the Character).

I have played some matches online (friendlies and random) and so far I had no issues that are deal-breaking. He is a bigger target and may not have buffs as of right now but that can change. With the dexterity of people that know the ups and downs of Ridley can be just as similar to other characters.

Overall, it isn't the end of the world, guys. And as I have mentioned, buffs can still happen. Just be patient and soon enough something will come up.

:ultridley:.
 

Ridley_Prime

Proteus Geoform
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
8,631
NNID
AlphaWarDragon87
3DS FC
0774-4845-6886
Switch FC
SW-7888-8563-5773
I mean worst that can happen is that Ridley becomes the SSB4 Jigglypuff of Ultimate newcomers (for those who don’t get the reference, Jiggs never got any buffs throughout SSB4’s updates), not that I’m ready to call him that yet but y’know.


After playing with Ridley some more again recently, I think he may have actually gotten a shadow buff, in that his initial dash speed is consistent with his running speed now, like with current Charizard. First noticed it when I was labbing/practicing some stuff with him, and then when I tested out his and Charizard's startup and running speed back to back, it felt the same to me now.

I remember Ridley’s startup dash being slower before like SSB4 Zard, but if it got changed to current Charizard’s, would explain why running u-tilt after d-throw feels so easier to time for me as a Ridley combo compared to before.

If I’m right about that, it softens the blow from the recent complaints about him. Hope I’m right anyway, but would like to know if any others find his startup speed to be faster than before too so I know it’s not just me going crazy with optimism or something. Testing it again just now, I still feel my observation to be the case...
 
Last edited:

NintenRob

Rising YouTuber
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Messages
5,340
Location
Australia
NNID
trpdm.wilton
I'm not sure if anyone here watches PhantomStrider. But after watching his most recent video on cancelled animated movies, I decided to do this

I'm not exactly a good editor, this was made using pretty much just Paint and Word
 

Rizen

Smash Legend
Joined
May 7, 2009
Messages
14,887
Location
Colorado
^I like Phantom Strider.

Hi, Ridley's one of my secondaries and I'm getting pretty good with him. He's a fun character except for in a few MUs like Pichu which suck. Does he have any combos I should know about besides Dthrow>Fair?
 

Ridley_Prime

Proteus Geoform
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
8,631
NNID
AlphaWarDragon87
3DS FC
0774-4845-6886
Switch FC
SW-7888-8563-5773
Update with Trela.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

He mostly just needed a break I guess after the devastating losses at Prime Saga, but at least he doesn't blame his misfortune entirely on Ridley, despite going through a character crisis at the moment. It was rough, but hopefully Ridley doesn't lose another top player since he said he'll still use him along with other characters.

^I like Phantom Strider.

Hi, Ridley's one of my secondaries and I'm getting pretty good with him. He's a fun character except for in a few MUs like Pichu which suck. Does he have any combos I should know about besides Dthrow>Fair?
Most of his combos have been posted in this thread here, but for the short version, d-tilt can do most things d-throw can as a combo starter (d-tilt > *insert aerial or whatnot here*), so don't make d-throw your only hope for combos if you're not having the best time getting grabs with Rids. Definitely check out the thread though for insight.

p.s. Is there a reason for all the character icons not matching with their respective sub-forums now? Like Pit which you see for this one and Robin subforum having Ridley's icon, etc. May be some kind of bug on my end since I saw it disappear and then reappear.
 
Last edited:

Predatoria

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jan 30, 2019
Messages
361
Location
Raleigh, North Carolina
Switch FC
SW-5219-6817-7975
Update with Trela.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

He mostly just needed a break I guess after the devastating losses at Prime Saga, but at least he doesn't blame his misfortune entirely on Ridley, despite going through a character crisis at the moment. It was rough, but hopefully Ridley doesn't lose another top player since he said he'll still use him along with other characters.
Idunno dude, I read the message just now and, at least, to me, it sounds like we won't be seeing any more ultra-competitive Ridley sets from Trela, at least for the forseeable future.

I think Trela's burnt out. He sounds tired and frustrated with Smash, and, even moreso, frustrated with Ridley, perhaps for reasons similar to the ones Vreyvus had put up a few weeks prior. He himself said he likely placed too much blame on Ridley after Prime Saga, which suggests he still likely does place a bit of blame on Ridley. I personally think we won't see a whole lot of Trela at the regional level until Banjo comes out, and even then it won't be with Ridley any longer.

Do you know what tourney he's speaking about? And, if so, if there are any posted sets on YT of the tournament?
 
Last edited:

Gleam

Smash Ace
Joined
Apr 7, 2008
Messages
654
Location
Burlington, NC
You can tell both Vreyus and Trela have gotten tired of Ridley and I don't blame them. This is a character that takes way too much effort for the little reward he gets today. He was difficult to use back then but it was balanced out by decent reward and Ridley got results. All the struggle has increased and all of the reward has decreased.

I once supported Ridley against detractors because back then, he was legitimately proving himself, by both professionals and less players a like but one would have to blind, deaf or all around stupid not to realize the effect the ever changing meta has had on Ridley and it's not good. People say you should just play who you like? Fine, play a casual match with your friends with items on, but on a professional setting, you need to have a viable character. People say he'll get buffed later.

He hasn't been buffed once (beyond his Final Smash) but let's hope he does. He's going to be dropping to the #40s on Orion next update, I can almost promise you that. Ridley has literally dropped from Uppers 20s to 40s, that's nearly 20 some placements down. I can almost bet you that if nothing happens, he could drop down to the #50s and when that happens, he'll definitely be in the running for a terrible Low Tier character.

It's not my joy to diss on a character I main but right now, people need to open their eyes to the possibility that Ridley might actually turn into a bad character who isn't worth any viability. If you don't believe me, then believe the pros like Vreyus and Trela who actually use the character competitively because they're making it pretty clear how they feel about Ridley right now in the professional sense.
 

Cosmic77

Smash Hero
Joined
Dec 17, 2017
Messages
9,547
Location
On a planet far far away...
Switch FC
2166-0541-5238
You can tell both Vreyus and Trela have gotten tired of Ridley and I don't blame them. This is a character that takes way too much effort for the little reward he gets today. He was difficult to use back then but it was balanced out by decent reward and Ridley got results. All the struggle has increased and all of the reward has decreased.

I once supported Ridley against detractors because back then, he was legitimately proving himself, by both professionals and less players a like but one would have to blind, deaf or all around stupid not to realize the effect the ever changing meta has had on Ridley and it's not good. People say you should just play who you like? Fine, play a casual match with your friends with items on, but on a professional setting, you need to have a viable character. People say he'll get buffed later.

He hasn't been buffed once (beyond his Final Smash) but let's hope he does. He's going to be dropping to the #40s on Orion next update, I can almost promise you that. Ridley has literally dropped from Uppers 20s to 40s, that's nearly 20 some placements down. I can almost bet you that if nothing happens, he could drop down to the #50s and when that happens, he'll definitely be in the running for a terrible Low Tier character.

It's not my joy to diss on a character I main but right now, people need to open their eyes to the possibility that Ridley might actually turn into a bad character who isn't worth any viability. If you don't believe me, then believe the pros like Vreyus and Trela who actually use the character competitively because they're making it pretty clear how they feel about Ridley right now in the professional sense.
Ridley was always going to be a character with a high learning curve and low reward. I actually like it that way. Makes his victories a much bigger deal than it would be if he were extremely easy to pick up like Cloud.

Regardless, it's at least been shown that he's viable even in his current state when put in the right hands. While he hasn't gotten the buffs he needs, I don't think he'll ever leave the competitive scene entirely, low-tier or not.
 

Predatoria

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jan 30, 2019
Messages
361
Location
Raleigh, North Carolina
Switch FC
SW-5219-6817-7975
You can tell both Vreyus and Trela have gotten tired of Ridley and I don't blame them. This is a character that takes way too much effort for the little reward he gets today. He was difficult to use back then but it was balanced out by decent reward and Ridley got results. All the struggle has increased and all of the reward has decreased.

I once supported Ridley against detractors because back then, he was legitimately proving himself, by both professionals and less players a like but one would have to blind, deaf or all around stupid not to realize the effect the ever changing meta has had on Ridley and it's not good. People say you should just play who you like? Fine, play a casual match with your friends with items on, but on a professional setting, you need to have a viable character. People say he'll get buffed later.

He hasn't been buffed once (beyond his Final Smash) but let's hope he does. He's going to be dropping to the #40s on Orion next update, I can almost promise you that. Ridley has literally dropped from Uppers 20s to 40s, that's nearly 20 some placements down. I can almost bet you that if nothing happens, he could drop down to the #50s and when that happens, he'll definitely be in the running for a terrible Low Tier character.

It's not my joy to diss on a character I main but right now, people need to open their eyes to the possibility that Ridley might actually turn into a bad character who isn't worth any viability. If you don't believe me, then believe the pros like Vreyus and Trela who actually use the character competitively because they're making it pretty clear how they feel about Ridley right now in the professional sense.

I'm no pro, not even close, but I will admit that the psychology of the situation has had a profound influence over my personal morale, unfortunately, and I am curious to know if others feel similarly, as I imagine they do given the general climate of the replies I've seen here.

When I first started going to weeklies, Vreyvus and Trela had recently kicked serious ass with Ridley. There were a half-dozen other prominent Ridley players as well, and even Tweek was starting to show interest in the character. He was #28 on Orion's tourney ranking. My friend group used to kind of mock or jab at me a bit for playing a lower tier character, but I always retorted "oh yeah? Look at those guys! I'm going to do that too, you just watch. I'll beat you. This character is great, he's amazing, he has Skewer, and side b, and look how much damage his plasma breath does, and his off-stage game is phenomenal, hahahaah I laugh at you all with your lousy recoveries, back air to the face, what's wrong, you're too far from the stage? I have multiple jumps and my up B goes so far!" I used to be so gung-ho about Ridley and how it was such a great injustice that he was placed so low on the tier list despite the bombastic potential he was showing in the professional scene.

At weeklies, I knew I was maining an unorthodox character, being that the vast majority of players did indeed play the same dozen or so characters considered to be top of the meta. It didn't matter. Vreyvus and Trela could do it. They could dominate weeklies. They could dominate regionals. They beat everybody, with Ridley. I always thought, "well if they can beat them, so can I, just maybe if I train hard enough, maybe one day when I'm better at teching and have mastered these super awesome regrab combos I see posted in the Ridleycord from OverLade, ..... one day I'll be stronger."

I'd look at the forums and the discord and watch youtube guides and try to find all the little tips and tricks about how to play Ridley better. I'd watch all of the big Ridley players' sets. I'd try to figure out how they prevailed against characters that I struggled with, as I always knew it was possible, and surely I could win. I just needed to train more and learn more. My spirits were always high and my morale was strong, even when I was losing set after set, and then getting wrekt in friendlies. Comboed by Pichu. Counter-killed by Lucina during wing blitz. Nair-spammed by Palutema. Blown to smitherines by Snake's nikitas. It didn't matter, because look what these guys can do with Ridley, their play was so elegant, smooth, and beautiful, so surely one day I can be like that too....

Things have changed. I will admit, I have lost a lot of interest in improving my game at Smash. I no longer feel like the sky is the limit. When I get comboed to death by Pichu and then spiked off-stage, I no longer think "Ridley can do this, I gotta learn the matchup, practice, and get better!" Now, I will admit, the first thing I think is "this is really lame and unfair, I kind of don't really wanna play any longer." My entire mentality towards progressing with Ridley has been shattered, and I don't really know what to do or how to repair it. I imagine that many of you reading this post will agree, deep down, somewhere along the road, your spirit has been shattered a bit too regarding trying to be a bad-ass Ridley player. I just find myself not having the energy any longer to try and put up with the torture that is being comboed, being abused off-stage, and having zero options out of shield. Trying to go to weeklies with Ridley just became too frustrating to bear any longer to the point where the disadvantage and injustice I felt while playing him overwhelmed my joy of how much I want to play this character. It no longer felt fun to me to try to win, especially while many pro Ridleys throwing in the towel.

Maybe one day.... we'll be great, but today does not seem to be that day. For now, I play with buddies and enjoy Ridley, but I don't really want to be competitive with him any longer and my drive to do so has been broken.
 
Last edited:

meleebrawler

Smash Hero
Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Messages
8,156
Location
Canada, Quebec
NNID
meleebrawler
3DS FC
2535-3888-1548
Ridley was always going to be a character with a high learning curve and low reward. I actually like it that way. Makes his victories a much bigger deal than it would be if he were extremely easy to pick up like Cloud.

Regardless, it's at least been shown that he's viable even in his current state when put in the right hands. While he hasn't gotten the buffs he needs, I don't think he'll ever leave the competitive scene entirely, low-tier or not.
See, I'm not one to hope for buffs, because although I can see some areas here and there with potential for improvement, none of them will drastically affect his viability, unless the devs fall off the wagon and resort to giving Ridley a Scraw-Haw. Nothing short of a win button will ever fully compensate for being a big target in competitive Smash.

Look at Bowser, the widely-agreed best superheavy at the moment. Even though he's a bit better at mitigating them with his tools and features, he ultimately still loses to the same things Ridley does. They all struggle badly when not winning in exchange for the sheer damage output and knockback they can offer when they do have the upper hand. Doubly so with Ridley as his lack of defensive options is very much in-character for him, since without outside influences he has no natural defences outside agility and relentless aggression.
 
Last edited:

Ridley_Prime

Proteus Geoform
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
8,631
NNID
AlphaWarDragon87
3DS FC
0774-4845-6886
Switch FC
SW-7888-8563-5773
^ At least Bowser has the air speed he needs compared to Ridley. Rids having his air speed would be one of the first things I'd ask for as a buff probably, along with giving Ridley's d-air the more consistent spiking power that someone like Bowser's has. Maybe give Ridley's up smash some insane buff too after what Samus' got from 3.1.0. Not asking for a win button or for heavies to get some special treatment.

I'm no pro, not even close, but I will admit that the psychology of the situation has had a profound influence over my personal morale, unfortunately, and I am curious to know if others feel similarly, as I imagine they do given the general climate of the replies I've seen here.
I definitely feel similarly as you know, but I just try to be positive and optimistic regardless, even if it's not always easy. Lord knows I didn't support Ridley to be playable in Smash a good chunk of my life just to become a debbie downer on using him after about a year. I still feel I can learn and progress with him, even if there's a certain level I can't reach due to his inherent weaknesses, but it hasn't affected my enjoyment in using him, nor am I letting it. Anyone whose waited for him to join the roster for years and years I know at least feels similarly in that respect.

And for all the flak others like Vreyvus give Ridley now on his limits/flaws (rightfully so admittedly), Vrey still uses him and posts occasional findings with him for what it's worth. Character loyalty is getting rarer and rarer nowadays when one can just switch to a high tier to main without a 2nd thought (well it's always been like that to a point, but y'know), so I admire Vreyvus' dedication to Ridley and Bowser in spite of his gripes. Trela, you might be right on that he'll drop Ridley altogether. I don't know, but still.

Smash Ultimate still has I think a minimum of at least a handful more balance updates/patches to go (minimum being keyword), some of which can come even after the final DLC characters are out. If Ridley still doesn't get anything by the next balance patch, then I might start having to accept/consider the possibility that he's just the SSB4 Jigglypuff of this game in terms of how the changing meta treats him... I don't know, but we'll see.

While on the subject, how would you buff Ridley, out of curiosity? Like what's the first thing you'd give him? It's usually agreed that he needs buffs, but the answers of how he should get them seem to vary, so thought I'd ask, having said my piece on it I guess.
 

Cosmic77

Smash Hero
Joined
Dec 17, 2017
Messages
9,547
Location
On a planet far far away...
Switch FC
2166-0541-5238
While on the subject, how would you buff Ridley, out of curiosity? Like what's the first thing you'd give him? It's usually agreed that he needs buffs, but the answers of how he should get them seem to vary, so thought I'd ask, having said my piece on it I guess.
Like you said, probably air speed. It'd be a huge help for Rids whenever he's trying to get back to the ledge, and it'd likely open up the door to some better combos with his aerials. I'd also make it a lot harder to mash out of Space Pirate Rush when characters are at higher percentages.
 

meleebrawler

Smash Hero
Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Messages
8,156
Location
Canada, Quebec
NNID
meleebrawler
3DS FC
2535-3888-1548
Like you said, probably air speed. It'd be a huge help for Rids whenever he's trying to get back to the ledge, and it'd likely open up the door to some better combos with his aerials. I'd also make it a lot harder to mash out of Space Pirate Rush when characters are at higher percentages.
I don't really see air speed helping Ridley that much with combos when his starters have mostly vertical trajectories. Air acceleration, even though it's already the best among superheavies, would help Ridley be more unpredictable in recovery and neutral.

Can't forget Ridley's own percentage is a factor in the effectiveness of mashing against rush, the only thing I'd change about it is giving the auto-toss a lower angle, making it more versatile in conjunction with the high angle of the jump throw.
 

Ridley_Prime

Proteus Geoform
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
8,631
NNID
AlphaWarDragon87
3DS FC
0774-4845-6886
Switch FC
SW-7888-8563-5773
While I still stand by my stance about the air speed, willing to admit that maybe you're right. Maybe it wouldn't be the best buff for him straight off. I don't know, but different perspectives is always good for this kind of discussion.

For other things...

. Does his rapid jab need any buffs for connectivity purposes like what others got in the last update or so? Seen that suggested at least once.
. I still like u-tilt, but making it less prone to whiffing like some suggest I definitely wouldn't mind.
. Besides the obvious d-air, does he need any aerial attack buffs?
. The regular throws I honestly think are fine for the most part, in that they serve their purpose of repositioning the enemy for you to go in for the kill, even if they're not reliable for killing outright themselves (forward and back throw when the opponent's at too high % to combo with d-throw anymore, etc).
. Wing Blitz... With how accustomed I am to his recovery paths by now, I'm not sure giving up B more directions for it to travel would help that much, and would be the least likely kind of buff to happen with how much they'd have to reprogram.
. Space Pirate Rush I would give less end lag at the very least & if nothing else, especially since all four of Ridley's specials are laggy in nature to some level, which is kinda unusual for a character, but doesn't make them bad necessarily. Some have suggested things like giving SPR armor on startup, but that's a bit much to hope for I think.
. More weight... Not my most wanted buff, but Ridley's weight is one of the most controversial things about him, sometimes leading to misconceptions that he's lightweight or something (he's heavy, just not super heavy, there's a difference), so I'm for this. Whatever can make him live a bit longer at higher %.
. Some have said give Ridley another jump, but with the kind of edgeguarding he can already do off-stage, I think his three jumps is reasonable. The best a 4th jump would do is make it easier for him to recover back to ledge of certain stages after an f-air train or something (four f-air's would be kinda overkill, on that note), not that I'd complain if he got this after experiencing the extra jump upgrade when using him in World of Light.

That's about all I can think of atm on my questions/opinions of potential buffs. Buffs are definitely needed eventually but I'm kinda lenient on how he should get them.
 

meleebrawler

Smash Hero
Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Messages
8,156
Location
Canada, Quebec
NNID
meleebrawler
3DS FC
2535-3888-1548
While I still stand by my stance about the air speed, willing to admit that maybe you're right. Maybe it wouldn't be the best buff for him straight off. I don't know, but different perspectives is always good for this kind of discussion.

For other things...

. Does his rapid jab need any buffs for connectivity purposes like what others got in the last update or so? Seen that suggested at least once.
. I still like u-tilt, but making it less prone to whiffing like some suggest I definitely wouldn't mind.
. Besides the obvious d-air, does he need any aerial attack buffs?
. The regular throws I honestly think are fine for the most part, in that they serve their purpose of repositioning the enemy for you to go in for the kill, even if they're not reliable for killing outright themselves (forward and back throw when the opponent's at too high % to combo with d-throw anymore, etc).
. Wing Blitz... With how accustomed I am to his recovery paths by now, I'm not sure giving up B more directions for it to travel would help that much, and would be the least likely kind of buff to happen with how much they'd have to reprogram.
. Space Pirate Rush I would give less end lag at the very least & if nothing else, especially since all four of Ridley's specials are laggy in nature to some level, which is kinda unusual for a character, but doesn't make them bad necessarily. Some have suggested things like giving SPR armor on startup, but that's a bit much to hope for I think.
. More weight... Not my most wanted buff, but Ridley's weight is one of the most controversial things about him, sometimes leading to misconceptions that he's lightweight or something (he's heavy, just not super heavy, there's a difference), so I'm for this. Whatever can make him live a bit longer at higher %.
. Some have said give Ridley another jump, but with the kind of edgeguarding he can already do off-stage, I think his three jumps is reasonable. The best a 4th jump would do is make it easier for him to recover back to ledge of certain stages after an f-air train or something (four f-air's would be kinda overkill, on that note), not that I'd complain if he got this after experiencing the extra jump upgrade when using him in World of Light.

That's about all I can think of atm on my questions/opinions of potential buffs. Buffs are definitely needed eventually but I'm kinda lenient on how he should get them.
- I've never had people fall out of the multistab except when I get greedy.
- The only real aerial buff I kind of want is a slightly larger sweetspot on uair
- Why not give the startup armour to Wing Blitz instead? It's not likely to get a startup buff since it's like that in the games too, and the pose he takes while charging it can be seen as defensive.
- Take some of the killpower dthrow has and give it to uthrow so it doesn't stale itself with use in combos.
 
Last edited:

NintenRob

Rising YouTuber
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Messages
5,340
Location
Australia
NNID
trpdm.wilton
My most wanted buff is to give his up special more directions it can go, I just don't understand the thought process behind this, at all. Like WHY? It just makes no sense at all.
 

Predatoria

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jan 30, 2019
Messages
361
Location
Raleigh, North Carolina
Switch FC
SW-5219-6817-7975
^ At least Bowser has the air speed he needs compared to Ridley. Rids having his air speed would be one of the first things I'd ask for as a buff probably, along with giving Ridley's d-air the more consistent spiking power that someone like Bowser's has. Maybe give Ridley's up smash some insane buff too after what Samus' got from 3.1.0. Not asking for a win button or for heavies to get some special treatment.


I definitely feel similarly as you know, but I just try to be positive and optimistic regardless, even if it's not always easy. Lord knows I didn't support Ridley to be playable in Smash a good chunk of my life just to become a debbie downer on using him after about a year. I still feel I can learn and progress with him, even if there's a certain level I can't reach due to his inherent weaknesses, but it hasn't affected my enjoyment in using him, nor am I letting it. Anyone whose waited for him to join the roster for years and years I know at least feels similarly in that respect.

And for all the flak others like Vreyvus give Ridley now on his limits/flaws (rightfully so admittedly), Vrey still uses him and posts occasional findings with him for what it's worth. Character loyalty is getting rarer and rarer nowadays when one can just switch to a high tier to main without a 2nd thought (well it's always been like that to a point, but y'know), so I admire Vreyvus' dedication to Ridley and Bowser in spite of his gripes. Trela, you might be right on that he'll drop Ridley altogether. I don't know, but still.

Smash Ultimate still has I think a minimum of at least a handful more balance updates/patches to go (minimum being keyword), some of which can come even after the final DLC characters are out. If Ridley still doesn't get anything by the next balance patch, then I might start having to accept/consider the possibility that he's just the SSB4 Jigglypuff of this game in terms of how the changing meta treats him... I don't know, but we'll see.

While on the subject, how would you buff Ridley, out of curiosity? Like what's the first thing you'd give him? It's usually agreed that he needs buffs, but the answers of how he should get them seem to vary, so thought I'd ask, having said my piece on it I guess.
The very first thing I think I'd give Ridley, if I was in charge of balancing the game, would be a bunch of minor tweaks here and there that improve his combo game, such as fixing areas that are very easy to frame leak, combo linkages that are either super tight or impractical, and just all-around get his moves linking into one-another better. A great example of this is down tilt or down throw into up air. I've seen much discussion on this in the Ridleycord, about various Ridley players trying to make these work by reversing up tilt, or doing a special version of dash (burst dash, was it?) that makes you go a bit further, but, coming from a non-pro, I've yet to get this combo working in a semi-competitive environment (weekly sets, friendlies, or gatherings with frequent weekly-goers and playing tourney rulesets). Down throw just doesn't link well enough into up tilt, and down tilt never links into anything if sweet-spotted it seems, as Ridley is simply too far away, especially if they DI away.

-I'd alter the trajectory of down tilt such that, if sweet spotted, it sends your opponent towards Ridley for follow-ups, either fair, nair, grab at low percents, up tilt, etc. (Vreyvus said this in his post, and I thought it was a brilliant idea).

-I'd buff Ridley's initial dash speed. A lot. As of now, he's #65 in the game for initial dash speed, which is very slow. While his sprint speed is quite high, at higher levels of play many players adopt a movement style of fox trotting, which makes Ridley quite sluggish given he has one of the slowest initial dash speeds in the game. In fact, at higher levels of play, initial dash speed seems to matter way more than your actual running dash speed, and this may be why Ridley's been having trouble keeping up in higher levels of play as the meta has evolved. People have gotten better, at all levels, and it's made this weakness of his more and more apparent. This would make following up after a down throw / DI away scenario with up tilt much smoother. It'd also help him approach, as his slow initial dash is part of the troubles he has with avoiding projectiles and finding an opening on a campy opponent. This may also let us finally link plasma into SPR.

-I'd make short hop fair auto-cancel like short hop nair, such that it can be followed up more easily with grabs, down tilt, or dash attack. I do believe OverLade's combos with fair into regrab or dash attack were debunked, weren't they? I was never able to do them during a match, personally.

-I'd buff Ridley's grab hitbox and give it more active frames. When I play other characters, it feels way easier to grab than it does with Ridley. I whiff so many grabs and half the time I feel like Ridley's hand slides right across my opponent while playing the grab animation, but it still doesn't actually grab them. This is particularly frustrating against small characters like Pichu, that feel very hard to grab.

I'd personally love seeing his up B come out more quickly.

Air speed would definitely help Ridley with a lot, personally, and I think it'd be a very amazing buff. Sometimes I really feel slow in the air with him. It'd help with:
-Avoiding being juggled, and juggling more successfully. There have been many times I've been unable to catch an air-borne Snake or Ness simply because they float faster than I do while airborne. It'd also let you get out of juggling scenarios.
-It'd let us follow up more easily after dtilt or dthrow into uair
-It'd make our air dodge to ledge grab option for recovery go much further
-It'd let us get back to stage under more scenarios where we have already spent some of our jumps, or are down in the lower left or lower right corners of the screen, perhaps after spikes or aggressive chase scenarios off-stage.

Weight is a clear and simple buff I'd like to see. Not much to say on this one.

I may edit this to add more later, but, in general, I feel like Ridley is just "too slow" in many ways to follow up with his moves. A lot of the time, he just kind of starts feeling bulky. I feel like the design choices they made when setting Ridley up was such that they wished for him to be a nimble, yet fragile, large character. He needs to be more nimble, better at following up on his moves, better at comboing, and quicker in general than he is right now. If I had to choose just one of the above, I'm thinking it may honestly be the initial dash speed that'd do the most for him, especially at the highest play levels, though getting his moves connecting into one-another better in combo strings in general would certainly be welcome.

Oh, and, another jump would be amazing as well from a fun-factor perspective, though I don't know how much it'd do for him when he's struggling in neutral and getting pushed off-stage anyways.
 
Last edited:

Ridley_Prime

Proteus Geoform
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
8,631
NNID
AlphaWarDragon87
3DS FC
0774-4845-6886
Switch FC
SW-7888-8563-5773
The very first thing I think I'd give Ridley, if I was in charge of balancing the game, would be a bunch of minor tweaks here and there that improve his combo game, such as fixing areas that are very easy to frame leak, combo linkages that are either super tight or impractical, and just all-around get his moves linking into one-another better. A great example of this is down tilt or down throw into up air. I've seen much discussion on this in the Ridleycord, about various Ridley players trying to make these work by reversing up tilt, or doing a special version of dash (burst dash, was it?) that makes you go a bit further, but, coming from a non-pro, I've yet to get this combo working in a semi-competitive environment (weekly sets, friendlies, or gatherings with frequent weekly-goers and playing tourney rulesets). Down throw just doesn't link well enough into up tilt, and down tilt never links into anything if sweet-spotted it seems, as Ridley is simply too far away, especially if they DI away.

-I'd alter the trajectory of down tilt such that, if sweet spotted, it sends your opponent towards Ridley for follow-ups, either fair, nair, grab at low percents, up tilt, etc. (Vreyvus said this in his post, and I thought it was a brilliant idea).

-I'd buff Ridley's initial dash speed. A lot. As of now, he's #65 in the game for initial dash speed, which is very slow. While his sprint speed is quite high, at higher levels of play many players adopt a movement style of fox trotting, which makes Ridley quite sluggish given he has one of the slowest initial dash speeds in the game. In fact, at higher levels of play, initial dash speed seems to matter way more than your actual running dash speed, and this may be why Ridley's been having trouble keeping up in higher levels of play as the meta has evolved. People have gotten better, at all levels, and it's made this weakness of his more and more apparent. This would make following up after a down throw / DI away scenario with up tilt much smoother. It'd also help him approach, as his slow initial dash is part of the troubles he has with avoiding projectiles and finding an opening on a campy opponent. This may also let us finally link plasma into SPR.

-I'd make short hop fair auto-cancel like short hop nair, such that it can be followed up more easily with grabs, down tilt, or dash attack. I do believe OverLade's combos with fair into regrab or dash attack were debunked, weren't they? I was never able to do them during a match, personally.

-I'd buff Ridley's grab hitbox and give it more active frames. When I play other characters, it feels way easier to grab than it does with Ridley. I whiff so many grabs and half the time I feel like Ridley's hand slides right across my opponent while playing the grab animation, but it still doesn't actually grab them. This is particularly frustrating against small characters like Pichu, that feel very hard to grab.

I'd personally love seeing his up B come out more quickly.

Air speed would definitely help Ridley with a lot, personally, and I think it'd be a very amazing buff. Sometimes I really feel slow in the air with him. It'd help with:
-Avoiding being juggled, and juggling more successfully. There have been many times I've been unable to catch an air-borne Snake or Ness simply because they float faster than I do while airborne. It'd also let you get out of juggling scenarios.
-It'd let us follow up more easily after dtilt or dthrow into uair
-It'd make our air dodge to ledge grab option for recovery go much further
-It'd let us get back to stage under more scenarios where we have already spent some of our jumps, or are down in the lower left or lower right corners of the screen, perhaps after spikes or aggressive chase scenarios off-stage.

Weight is a clear and simple buff I'd like to see. Not much to say on this one.

I may edit this to add more later, but, in general, I feel like Ridley is just "too slow" in many ways to follow up with his moves. A lot of the time, he just kind of starts feeling bulky. I feel like the design choices they made when setting Ridley up was such that they wished for him to be a nimble, yet fragile, large character. He needs to be more nimble, better at following up on his moves, better at comboing, and quicker in general than he is right now. If I had to choose just one of the above, I'm thinking it may honestly be the initial dash speed that'd do the most for him, especially at the highest play levels, though getting his moves connecting into one-another better in combo strings in general would certainly be welcome.

Oh, and, another jump would be amazing as well from a fun-factor perspective, though I don't know how much it'd do for him when he's struggling in neutral and getting pushed off-stage anyways.
Said it in one of my last posts, but I think Ridley's initial dash speed may have gotten a shadow buff which I elaborated on here, but need someone to confirm or deny it. Testing it whenever you can, do you feel any difference in his initial dash speed now compared to before? Because I do honestly, but need to be sure it's not just me... I remember it being slower before now.

There is at least this dash technique too which I sometimes call super foxtrot (Shiek is the the posted example but it works for others like Ridley as well) that compensates a bit.

Buffing Ridley's grab hitbox would definitely make his grab game more rewarding, yeah (also give up throw some of the kill power d-throw has as meleebrawler said). Have you tried roll cancel boost grab, out of curiosity? It's a more niche technique and takes practice to make a habit out of, but does help with slightly extended people's grab range, even Ridley's. This is what Ridley's looks like, which I have to say isn't half bad far as range. Something more Ridley players could make use of IMO.

Even in his current state, I feel Ridley still has some untapped potential far as how some use him, and OverLade's last posted guide solidified that for me with how much I learned from it. But yeah, let me know if you see any difference in his initial dash speed now, because I am curious. Wish I could post a comparison or something...
 

Predatoria

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jan 30, 2019
Messages
361
Location
Raleigh, North Carolina
Switch FC
SW-5219-6817-7975
Said it in one of my last posts, but I think Ridley's initial dash speed may have gotten a shadow buff which I elaborated on here, but need someone to confirm or deny it. Testing it whenever you can, do you feel any difference in his initial dash speed now compared to before? Because I do honestly, but need to be sure it's not just me... I remember it being slower before now.

There is at least this dash technique too which I sometimes call super foxtrot (Shiek is the the posted example but it works for others like Ridley as well) that compensates a bit.

Buffing Ridley's grab hitbox would definitely make his grab game more rewarding, yeah (also give up throw some of the kill power d-throw has as meleebrawler said). Have you tried roll cancel boost grab, out of curiosity? It's a more niche technique and takes practice to make a habit out of, but does help with slightly extended people's grab range, even Ridley's. This is what Ridley's looks like, which I have to say isn't half bad far as range. Something more Ridley players could make use of IMO.

Even in his current state, I feel Ridley still has some untapped potential far as how some use him, and OverLade's last posted guide solidified that for me with how much I learned from it. But yeah, let me know if you see any difference in his initial dash speed now, because I am curious. Wish I could post a comparison or something...

I'm at work so I can't get to the training room right now to check, but the last couple times I played I didn't really feel any difference with his initial dash speed. I haven't really gone and paid specific attention to it, so it's possible that I just didn't notice it had been improved a bit. I believe a friend of mine has a Switch that he's yet to update to 3.1, since when we play it's always on my system and he never plays unless I'm there. I may be able to get onto there and go into the training room and get a screenshot of how far I go on just the initial dash and compare it against live. Would you say that'd be an adequate way to truly see if his dash is going faster (and, thus, further)?

I tried to do the super foxtrot a while back when I first saw it posted, but I wasn't able to either get it to work, or tell if I had gotten it to work (I wasn't sure which). I never really got too far with it in the training room, and mostly focused on trying to learn other things.

I did really enjoy OverLade's guide as well. One of the things I really took away from it, personally, was short hop SPR into the platforms. I got some friends of mine with that several times last Thursday, and it worked very well.
 

Ridley_Prime

Proteus Geoform
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
8,631
NNID
AlphaWarDragon87
3DS FC
0774-4845-6886
Switch FC
SW-7888-8563-5773
I'm at work so I can't get to the training room right now to check, but the last couple times I played I didn't really feel any difference with his initial dash speed. I haven't really gone and paid specific attention to it, so it's possible that I just didn't notice it had been improved a bit. I believe a friend of mine has a Switch that he's yet to update to 3.1, since when we play it's always on my system and he never plays unless I'm there. I may be able to get onto there and go into the training room and get a screenshot of how far I go on just the initial dash and compare it against live. Would you say that'd be an adequate way to truly see if his dash is going faster (and, thus, further)?

I tried to do the super foxtrot a while back when I first saw it posted, but I wasn't able to either get it to work, or tell if I had gotten it to work (I wasn't sure which). I never really got too far with it in the training room, and mostly focused on trying to learn other things.

I did really enjoy OverLade's guide as well. One of the things I really took away from it, personally, was short hop SPR into the platforms. I got some friends of mine with that several times last Thursday, and it worked very well.
Yeah, I'd say that's a good way to do it. Also compare Ridley and Charizard's dash speeds back to back, as they should be the exact same now. What I believe happened was Ridley was given current Charizard's dash speed, whereas before he had Smash 4 Zard's, where he started off slower before moving at his full running speed.

And here is the tutorial for roll cancel boost grab, in case you've never tried it which you could attempt sometime. Having practiced it a bit before, can say it works well for Ridley, to a point.
 

meleebrawler

Smash Hero
Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Messages
8,156
Location
Canada, Quebec
NNID
meleebrawler
3DS FC
2535-3888-1548
My most wanted buff is to give his up special more directions it can go, I just don't understand the thought process behind this, at all. Like WHY? It just makes no sense at all.
Primarily animation is my guess. How's he supposed to land smoothly if he charges into the ground wings-first? And I wouldn't trade the disjointed wings and power for any amount of angles. Frankly, when's the last time anyone used Fire Fox diagonally to recover without getting smacked for it? At least when going straight up for the ledge, you have a chance to tech the stage if you get hit or be too low for some characters to reach.

The very first thing I think I'd give Ridley, if I was in charge of balancing the game, would be a bunch of minor tweaks here and there that improve his combo game, such as fixing areas that are very easy to frame leak, combo linkages that are either super tight or impractical, and just all-around get his moves linking into one-another better. A great example of this is down tilt or down throw into up air. I've seen much discussion on this in the Ridleycord, about various Ridley players trying to make these work by reversing up tilt, or doing a special version of dash (burst dash, was it?) that makes you go a bit further, but, coming from a non-pro, I've yet to get this combo working in a semi-competitive environment (weekly sets, friendlies, or gatherings with frequent weekly-goers and playing tourney rulesets). Down throw just doesn't link well enough into up tilt, and down tilt never links into anything if sweet-spotted it seems, as Ridley is simply too far away, especially if they DI away.

-I'd alter the trajectory of down tilt such that, if sweet spotted, it sends your opponent towards Ridley for follow-ups, either fair, nair, grab at low percents, up tilt, etc. (Vreyvus said this in his post, and I thought it was a brilliant idea).

-I'd buff Ridley's initial dash speed. A lot. As of now, he's #65 in the game for initial dash speed, which is very slow. While his sprint speed is quite high, at higher levels of play many players adopt a movement style of fox trotting, which makes Ridley quite sluggish given he has one of the slowest initial dash speeds in the game. In fact, at higher levels of play, initial dash speed seems to matter way more than your actual running dash speed, and this may be why Ridley's been having trouble keeping up in higher levels of play as the meta has evolved. People have gotten better, at all levels, and it's made this weakness of his more and more apparent. This would make following up after a down throw / DI away scenario with up tilt much smoother. It'd also help him approach, as his slow initial dash is part of the troubles he has with avoiding projectiles and finding an opening on a campy opponent. This may also let us finally link plasma into SPR.

-I'd make short hop fair auto-cancel like short hop nair, such that it can be followed up more easily with grabs, down tilt, or dash attack. I do believe OverLade's combos with fair into regrab or dash attack were debunked, weren't they? I was never able to do them during a match, personally.

-I'd buff Ridley's grab hitbox and give it more active frames. When I play other characters, it feels way easier to grab than it does with Ridley. I whiff so many grabs and half the time I feel like Ridley's hand slides right across my opponent while playing the grab animation, but it still doesn't actually grab them. This is particularly frustrating against small characters like Pichu, that feel very hard to grab.

I'd personally love seeing his up B come out more quickly.

Air speed would definitely help Ridley with a lot, personally, and I think it'd be a very amazing buff. Sometimes I really feel slow in the air with him. It'd help with:
-Avoiding being juggled, and juggling more successfully. There have been many times I've been unable to catch an air-borne Snake or Ness simply because they float faster than I do while airborne. It'd also let you get out of juggling scenarios.
-It'd let us follow up more easily after dtilt or dthrow into uair
-It'd make our air dodge to ledge grab option for recovery go much further
-It'd let us get back to stage under more scenarios where we have already spent some of our jumps, or are down in the lower left or lower right corners of the screen, perhaps after spikes or aggressive chase scenarios off-stage.

Weight is a clear and simple buff I'd like to see. Not much to say on this one.

I may edit this to add more later, but, in general, I feel like Ridley is just "too slow" in many ways to follow up with his moves. A lot of the time, he just kind of starts feeling bulky. I feel like the design choices they made when setting Ridley up was such that they wished for him to be a nimble, yet fragile, large character. He needs to be more nimble, better at following up on his moves, better at comboing, and quicker in general than he is right now. If I had to choose just one of the above, I'm thinking it may honestly be the initial dash speed that'd do the most for him, especially at the highest play levels, though getting his moves connecting into one-another better in combo strings in general would certainly be welcome.

Oh, and, another jump would be amazing as well from a fun-factor perspective, though I don't know how much it'd do for him when he's struggling in neutral and getting pushed off-stage anyways.
There's not a single move in Ultimate (apart from obscure circumstances with Roy) that gets it's best followup potential at the tip of their range, not even with Mr. Tipper Marth himself. The devs have made a conscious effort to avoid safe buttons leading to disproportionate reward as much as possible, and I don't see them breaking that for Ridley or anyone else.

And when thinking about trying to increase Ridley's combo potential, you kind of have to stop and think about how this might step on other superheavy's toes, namely Bowser and especially DK. The ape's whole niche is being pretty much the fastest superheavy that can string moves together more easily than any other, at the cost of defence or any zoning options, and if you try to edge Ridley closer to that, you either don't go far enough to justify picking Ridley over him, or vice versa (weight is frankly a very low factor of a character viability). What should be done before anything else is looking at what sets Ridley apart from his peers, and one example of this is that he honestly has the best aerial mobility of the bunch overall, yes Bowser and DK edge him out in top speed there but he also has the best aerial acceleration of all of them, making him more agile. It's still below average among the whole roster though, so it could stand to be increased and further set him apart and improve him without having to emulate the others.
 

Ridley_Prime

Proteus Geoform
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
8,631
NNID
AlphaWarDragon87
3DS FC
0774-4845-6886
Switch FC
SW-7888-8563-5773
Predatoria Predatoria Did ya ever manage to test it out? Would like to know if my belief about the startup dash speed panned out or not...

Also practicing roll cancel boost grab a bit more, realized that doing it will make the 2nd grab harder to escape during any of Ridley's combos that involves a regrab.

Broke: Falling f-air into regrab was debunked.
Woke: D-throw > falling f-air > roll cancel boost grab makes the 2nd grab true as long as the f-air hits, or at the very least makes the window for the opponent to DI away even tighter/tight as possible.

The more I practice d-throw > falling f-air > roll cancel boost grab > another f-air/n-air/dash attack, the more legit it feels.



Also, meant to post these couple things earlier.


Using forward up B as a ledge kill is a clever mixup to Ridley's already good arsenal of edgeguarding, though requires some careful positioning so you don't accidentally suicide yourself over the ledge, but can be done. Found it rather difficult to time when practicing it, but is high risk high reward, suffice to say.


Using spaced forward and down tilts like this is good for shield pressure if you find someone blocking a lot.

I feel if more Ridley's weren't as lazy and tried new things more often (instead of complaining about or blaming their character), some of this stuff would've been discovered sooner (I'm guilty of some of that too), and even then, there's likely still some things yet to be practiced or known good habits that more Ridley's need to pick up on.
 
Last edited:

Predatoria

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jan 30, 2019
Messages
361
Location
Raleigh, North Carolina
Switch FC
SW-5219-6817-7975
Predatoria Predatoria Did ya ever manage to test it out? Would like to know if my belief about the startup dash speed panned out or not...

Also practicing roll cancel boost grab a bit more, realized that doing it will make the 2nd grab harder to escape during any of Ridley's combos that involves a regrab.

Broke: Falling f-air into regrab was debunked.
Woke: D-throw > falling f-air > roll cancel boost grab makes the 2nd grab true as long as the f-air hits, or at the very least makes the window for the opponent to DI away even tighter/tight as possible.

The more I practice d-throw > falling f-air > roll cancel boost grab > another f-air/n-air/dash attack, the more legit it feels.



Also, meant to post these couple things earlier.


Using forward up B as a ledge kill is a clever mixup to Ridley's already good arsenal of edgeguarding, though requires some careful positioning so you don't accidentally suicide yourself over the ledge, but can be done. Found it rather difficult to time when practicing it, but is high risk high reward, suffice to say.


Using spaced forward and down tilts like this is good for shield pressure if you find someone blocking a lot.

I feel if more Ridley's weren't as lazy and tried new things more often (instead of complaining about or blaming their character), some of this stuff would've been discovered sooner (I'm guilty of some of that too), and even then, there's likely still some things yet to be practiced or known good habits that more Ridley's need to pick up on.
Ahh crap I totally forgot. I'll try and do it next time we meet again, we kinda just sat down and played a bunch of smash and I didn't remember to grab his.

I will say, though, I think I'm getting quite pumped with Ridley again.

I think that the poundings I got at the weeklies kind of eventually etched my morale down a bit, despite my best efforts to improve my game by learning from it. I was indeed getting pretty bodied in many instances, which, despite my best attempts at remaining positive, didn't feel the best. Perhaps I just wanted an excuse, and it's pretty easy to blame your character when you're maining someone lower on the tier list.

Sadly though, between my rl job and managing my video game, I don't really have the hours in the day to practice all the fancy tech and stuff, so I've just kind of been playing casually once or twice a week with my regular friend groups, all of whom are indeed right at my skill level so it's a ton of fun playing Ridley again in these scenarios.

Ridley will be proud

Triple Kill.jpg
 

Predatoria

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jan 30, 2019
Messages
361
Location
Raleigh, North Carolina
Switch FC
SW-5219-6817-7975
I love it when **** just lines up perfectly in those instances. I got this to happen the other day in a casual match.

You made Ridley proud, fellow space pirate! Those constant bounces around the floating island were pretty funny. We have this meme about stuff like that, and scream "YOU GOTTA TECH" when somebody fails to tech anything just to make fun of our ineptitude at teching pretty much anything.

I really do enjoy FFAs. My screenshot was from a group I usually play with on Thursdays, and I'm always the one asking to do teams / ffas instead of tourney 1v1s all the time. I actually did that smash while I was invulnerable from my respawn and two of them were being jabbed by a third so they couldn't move. They all respawned and went for me after that, so I went under the map back and forth a few times to hide from their wrath.
 

RomanceDawn

Smash Lord
Joined
Jun 13, 2011
Messages
1,052
NNID
Romancedawn
3DS FC
0044-2811-9045
Still love Ridley! Baggage and all! Every special leaves him wide open and he's got a big body to get slapped around constantly. I play semi competitively but don't have time for local tournaments. If he gets buffed great but if not I'll live and still play him like he's the only character available.
 

Dalek_Kolt

Smash Master
Joined
Mar 30, 2014
Messages
3,557
Location
Skaro
A thought occurs that they may have removed home-run contest because Ridley would be too OP.

One of the single most devastating move in the game+minimal time wasted+no knockback is a recipe for Ridley dominating the homerun meta.
 

Dalek_Kolt

Smash Master
Joined
Mar 30, 2014
Messages
3,557
Location
Skaro
Ridley finally got added to Model's Resource.
I find it funny how much more terrifying and bosslike Ultimate Ridley is compared to Brawl Ridley.
1562905276327.png
 

Ridley_Prime

Proteus Geoform
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
8,631
NNID
AlphaWarDragon87
3DS FC
0774-4845-6886
Switch FC
SW-7888-8563-5773
Our true Ridley is thicc while Brawl/boss Ridley is sticc.

May as well drop this here I guess, in case there was still any doubt about Vreyvus still maining the big boi.

 

Cosmic77

Smash Hero
Joined
Dec 17, 2017
Messages
9,547
Location
On a planet far far away...
Switch FC
2166-0541-5238
Our true Ridley is thicc while Brawl/boss Ridley is sticc.

May as well drop this here I guess, in case there was still any doubt about Vreyvus still maining the big boi.

Well, that's reassuring. Ridley can't afford to lose him.

It's depressing how it feels like all of my mains are surviving off one person. If it weren't for Dabuz, no one would be taking Rosalina seriously.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom