Lucas Approach Strategies

[kingofping4]

I posted this on the big guide thread, but I haven't gotten any response to it in a day or two. So here it is on its own.

Some things I discovered while waiting for online matches.

Approaching with Lucas seems to be amazingly simple. You can go offensive or defensive, or mix it up to keep your opponent guessing.

Offensive: Short Hop PK Fire. You just make little hops and blast them with fire each time. Pretty good for keeping up some pressure, and when you get close you can change it to FAir or NAir.

Defensive: Short Hop PSI Magnet. I kid you not, you can pull this out almost the EXACT instant you jump, giving you almost a wavedash-type forward slide with the magnet out. It's not a big slide, but it is noticable. This protects you from projectiles, and if they get too close you just pop the magnet on them.

So now you can SHPKFire a few times, then SHPMPop if they try to counter or you get close enough. The pop has good kick, so you could then dash in and start whatever devastation you want.

I haven't played many 1v1s, but I'm sure these options make Lucas one of the easiest/safest chars to approach with.

So is this already known? Useless? New and exciting? Feedback appreciated

 

[SMS028]

It sounds good, i like to play offensive and i do tons of arials a lot. when you mean they jolt back from the PSI magnet you mean wavebouncing?

 

[Gerbality]

spam forward momentum, short hopped bairs. lucases best move imo. keep in mind that this does come out a little slower than his fair. while running away from your opponent, use your forward momentum and use c-stick to toss out a bair towards your opponent to play defencively. This can be done with the fair too, but you need to be facing your opponent while shorthopping with a backward momentum. both bair and fair will not 'auto cancel' during a short hop, so expect to deal with the ariels landing lag every time you use it. fortunatly there is very little.

his nair is the only one that 'auto cancels' when done out of a short hop quick enough, making this a good choice. if you do it a little to slow, expect to deal with lots of very punishable landing lag. unfortunatly this ariel doesnt have the range of fair or bair, so it wont be as useful for approaching. It would be useful for falling down onto the stage from up high though. Its Lucas's quickest stopping ariel, so the ariel will hopefully finish before you have to deal with its landing lag.

dair has low range, and high landing lag making it a poor choice for approach. It would be very useful for falling down from the sky, back onto the stage, due to its long vertical range. keep in mind that this move stays out for a long time, so you may have to deal with landing lag.

his PKfire is really good too. Very spammable >: )

pivoted grab would work nice for a defencive approach, it comes back quicker if you miss(i think it comes out quicker too) VERY USEFUL

Also, what is probably the coolest thing ever, is hitting someone with your downB. You can only hit someone when you let go of B, so while you are holding it, and the opponent is unsuspecting/mindlessly runs up to try to punish you for using you downB, you can hold it and wait until they run into your PSI magnet. ie: falco is short hopping lasers while approaching you. falco sees that you are using your anti-projectiley move, and runs towards you thinking your defencless. wait until he runs through the PSI magnet and let go of b. you will give him a shocking surprise. lololololololol bad puns ftw. anyways, this is not spammable so dont abuse it, the falco will eventually shorthop over the PSI magnet and smack you.

It sounds good, i like to play offensive and i do tons of arials a lot. when you mean they jolt back from the PSI magnet you mean wavebouncing?

Wavebouncing requires the c-stick, this does not. This you slide on the ground for a little bit, Wavebouncing you actually change direction. (keep in mind you do not need to change your controls to do wavebouncing, just push the c-stick in the opposite direction of the pk fire/jump) Wave bouncing would be a very defencive strategy, and could be potentially very useful.
I am not sure, but maybe the shorthop is done while running forward? ive done it while standing still, and i always end up in the same spot.

 

[kingofping4]

I am not sure, but maybe the shorthop is done while running forward? ive done it while standing still, and i always end up in the same spot.

If this was directed at me, then yes. It is definitely done while moving forward, else you wouldn't really be approaching. PSI mag stops your momentum, but if you short hop you get a nice little slide before you stop completely. What you have to watch for is opponents with non-energy based projectiles. Diddy in particular can punish the SHPMpop approach with thrown bananas.

As for landing lag on aerials, I haven't really noticed any on short hop FAirs. And if there is any, you can just use PSI mag instead. It has very little/no landing lag, and I think it will push a shielding opponent far enough that they can't immediately counter.

 

[Zephirah]

I would go with a new and exciting character. It`s simple and easy to aproach with Lucas so I think it will become very popular with time. Also, aproaching with SH and A Down which can stop a countering smash attack for it is very fast.

 

[Gerbality]

As for landing lag on aerials, I haven't really noticed any on short hop FAirs.

there is landing lag for all ariels, its just very little for his fair and bair. Compare short hopping without the ariel, and short hopping with the fair. But as I said before, it has very low landing lag, making a nice choice.

I would go with a new and exciting character. It`s simple and easy to aproach with Lucas so I think it will become very popular with time. Also, aproaching with SH and A Down which can stop a countering smash attack for it is very fast.

his down ariel has very low range, plus high landing lag. This is not your best choice. try forward A, or back A.

 

[Levitas]

Honestly, although everyone's been saying how good bair is as an approach, I've found it to be too slow and have too much lag. The Fair is quick, has little lag, and can be spliced in between PK fires to great effect.

And Lucas is almost never pressured to approach, it's a nice little bonus that comes with having a beastly mid-range projectile as well as many high priority disjointed attacks.

 

[Gerbality]

ya, bair is more of a personal preference for me . fair does come out considerably faster then his bair, however the landing lag is the same. I believe that his bairs range extends a little above/below him too, making it possible to hit jumping or crouching/short characters. I may be wrong there though.

 

[Levitas]

The fair hits a crouching squirtle, I suppose it'd miss a crouching jiggs/kirby, tho.

As far as landing lag, I've found the bair to have a considerable amount compared to the fair, and the hitting with the top of the bair is a spot that I'd much rather hit with a uair.

Although, cool stuff sometimes happens, like the Bair pushback to bair spike into the ground tech-chased Dsmash for the KO. That's always cool.

 

[Gerbality]

heh ya, I really should be using uair more O.o
honestly I dont think Ive short hopped an uair with lucas yet. wow. :/
I'll probably mess around with lucas in training mode tomorrow, I thought that the bair and fair had similar landing lag.

ya, the first time I tried lucas(I dunno know why, ive never used ness in melee), i did a short hopped bair into short hopped fair, knocking them off the edge, into a dair for the meteor sick stuff, but i think the person i did it on wasnt quite up to par... Then i found out about the bairs meteor and started using that hehe.
anyways bair still looks too good :D

 

[Subtle]

I can't manage to short hop very well on my current control scheme right now, but my favorite approach by far is a c-sticked down air. The multiple blows all have decent hit stun, go through shields well. and come out at a rate that makes it hard to punish. The move also has little landing lag.

Depending on the situation you can:

1) Use blow one to interrupt an attack, and then attack with 2 and 3

2) land behind them on the third blow and then follow up with a jab, f tilt or bat strike

3) use multiple blows to wear down their sheild

4) suck them into the blow or push them away with it.

I have decided that ultimately, I find more use with this move than I do with Lucas' wave bounce. My only problem is trying not to spam it.

 

[Levitas]

It's ironic that someone with the account name "subtle" has trouble avoiding spamming one move as an approach.

The Dair does in fact have a few problems, one of which being lag, another being that it doesn't say GTFO like the rest of his game.