Make Your Move 8: -TOP 50 POSTED-

[Deleted member]

There was absolutely no point to that post. I'm working on a moveset now, and I wasn't really in the mood to comment, and the comment was born.

Ah, right.

Well, progress on my moveset is slow, but real. Personally, it's hovering around actually being made and just being another stats-section fodder. Tonight shall be the true test.

 

[n88]

2-Day Pokeyset! (WARY)

 

[MasterWarlord]

@Zook: I can sort of see what you're getting at with some of the better MYM sets in general, but I feel Dark Bowser is actually among my more versatile, what with his various ways to set-up the cage properly - competent foes are going to play around the space that he can make it materialize in and play outside of it, either via camping or approaching around it. Once they're in the cage he can either attack them from the outside or go in to take advantage of the tight space on more defensive foes who dislike pressure. Yes, his game will always involve the cage, but pretty much every character in Brawl boils down to abusing a handful of moves. Can you imagine playing Dedede without the grab-game? Snake without his Dsmash/Down B? Yes, Snake would still get along fine, but that'd be because of the brokenness of his ftilt/utilt. There's a lot he can do with that cage, and it's not simple matter of landing one move casually. Indeed, how many characters in Brawl vary up their playstyles significantly based off whether their foe is offensive or defensive?

Sorry if that came across as glomping you, just defending my set. I'm actually fairly satisfied with how you feel about it, as I feel the 3v1 aspect of the moveset is rather underappreciated.

DONALD TRUMP

Hardly a trump card from you, Darth Meanie – Donald has no idea as to what he’s trying to do for the vast majority of the moveset beyond insisting that he has a good air game which is in actuality rather bland, beyond perhaps a couple of his specials in the air, and the special smashes feel entirely unwarranted. Then again, everything feels entirely unwanted, as nothing flows into anything and Mr. Trump seems to have no idea as to what he’s trying to do. I was hoping it’d be like Axel Gear or Zinger in that it’d be brought together in the playstyle summary, but I was sorely mistaken, as that just tried to subtly leech off of Doppelori’s playstyle concept with different wording. Push the foe away, okay, there’s the repel, but it doesn’t seem like Donald can do that much that’s particularly threatening when approaching, making it rather pointless for him to get the foe at a range beyond to just use his ranged force attacks – the moves he’ll probably of had to use to get them away in the first place and thus won’t be able to use after they’ve been shoved away thanks to his ammo bank running dry. Indeed, Mr. Trump is trying to be offensive and failing at it quite badly, and doesn’t really even have much defensive stuff to fall back on. I would say that Donald Trump is worse then Saber, as she at least had some idea as to what she was trying to do rather then being literally all over the place. Not even versatility can be an excuse as to what this mess of a moveset was going for, as that hardly seems to be what the moveset was trying to do. This moveset is very rushed and it shows.

If you’re an outsider reading this comment, you can see why I’m being so harsh on Darth Meanie when he has created such masterpieces as Subaru, Harbinger, Videoman.EXE, and Hariyama. . .

POKEY

You’d think this moveset was another one of those minions that were supposed to play together, but Pokey is supposed to be a moveset on his own so he doesn’t have an excuse to be horribly underpowered. The aerials being absent are understandable, though the lack of a grab-game is rather in-excusable (Impale them on his spikes or something), and if you wanted to get really daring you could always go with the reliable method of Special Smashes in place of Aerials. . .

Considering Pokey has so few moves, it’s not surprising that his balance problems are actually just a few small number changes in a couple of essential moves, though. Particularly, it’d be nice if Pokey started with a full tower so he doesn’t have to worry about set-up right off the bat, and that awesome dtilt (No seriously, that’s one of the best moves I’ve ever read in my life) is held back by something you put in to balance him trapping in heavier characters – he’s forced to come out of it in a mere second. Perhaps you could do something along the lines of if the foe is launched at him powerfully enough from having enough damage he gets knocked over? You could put their weight into the equation to make him tumble over more quickly to deal with those large characters.

While Pokey could use more flow and a more focused playstyle, I’m surprised what interesting interactions/uses of the mechanic you came up with for a character with so few inputs/such a simple character – a definite improvement from your earlier works this contest.

 

[DiamondFox]

The Apprenticeonice is a my favorute moveset posted in MYO8. he has lots of versitelity in wat he can do, and he is good character. Not like Wheezing, Fortress, Booze, or Hairyamama. You did good job putting him in Smash. very practical moveste.

 

[TheSundanceKid]

Hi, Diamond. Welcome to Make Your Move! Feel free to look around and read some sets. Hell, even make a set yourself!

 

[Agi]

Pardon me, Diamond, you appear to be new here. Just so you know, if you plan on making any sets in the future, it'd probably be a good idea to tune up your grammar a notch. Only a thought, don't take it personally.

 

[DiamondFox]

Hi, Diamond. Welcome to Make Your Move! Feel free to look around and read some sets. Hell, even make a set yourself!

Ty 4 the warm welcome. I've been reeding some sets for a while now so i can get a grasp on the standards.

Pardon me, Diamond, you appear to be new here. Just so you know, if you plan on making any sets in the future, it'd probably be a good idea to tune up your grammar a notch. Only a thought, don't take it personally.

wat's wrong with my gramer?

 

[MarthTrinity]

Pokey

Alrighty! Rapid fire comment here. I seem to remember Pokey being made ageeeees ago by TheTrophyMaster with a similar concept. Granted, how many concepts can people really come up for for a slowly moving yellow cactus? That's nothing against you of course, more the character and material you're working with.

I must ask though; was Pokey a part of your Mario Enemies set like Bob-Omb or was this guy meant to be solo? I do agree with Warlord that he seems a tad underpowered like he needs other characters as backup...

Aside from that though, it's a pretty fun set. I'd say it's better than Bob-Omb and Dark Samus and it really is great to see you making more sets this time around, hope you're having fun with them! Also, as a totally random change that would seem a bit more interesting than his normal recovery; what if instead of just doing a short little hop, he hopped off of his previous segments? Like if he had four, he'd do a mid-air hop and the bottom bit would fall away and he'd be down to three? Just a randomly little afterthought so feel free to ignore.

Will comment other sets later <3

​

 

[Agi]

wat's wrong with my gramer?

Well, let's just say that I'd use a Spell checker of some sort next time you're readying a post.

 

[Wizzerd]

The Celebrity Apprentice​

I hate to keep dogpiling you, meanie, but I can't disagree with the previous commenters - Bret Michaels doesn't have enough focus. You have a couple of concepts in that playstyle section that could make for a much better set on their own, once given enough polish, but they're dragged down by the prescence of the other concepts and in the end he doesn't do versatility right, which I believe is possible.

Beyond the lackluster flow he's not a bad set. There are still a couple flaws ignoring the playstyle, like the special smashes which seem to not add much as you said to Warlord when he came up for them for Count, and some moves that seem to exist purely to be in character (I don't know the character, just fyi) but there are still some nice concepts like the multi-target grap grab. Still, while I hate to be so obsessed with Final Smashes, that one is just ridiculously underdetailed. How big is this destroyer and what is its shape, how fast can you move it, how gravity-affected is it, how long does the Final Smash last, is Bret invincible during it and what the hell does "obscene damage and knockback" constitute? You can't get away with such underdetail, man.

Ultimately, there are some good concepts in Bret Michaels, but the playstyle is still there (or rather the lack of it), and it prevents it from amounting to much in my eyes. Sorry to be negative, man, especially when you haven't gotten much of a positive reaction beyond "it's in character", but I couldn't like this too much.​

I WILL edit in a Pokey comment at some point, but right now Sundance URGENTLY needs to post something. (shock)

 

[TheSundanceKid]

A Wild EMPOLEON APPEARED!

Empoleon

​

Background​

Empoleon is the final evolution of Piplup, the fourth-gen water starter. According to the Pokedex, it has the ability to swim faster than a jetboat, and slice glaciers in two with its razor-sharp wings. It's a unique combination of two types... water and steel. This gives it access to a wide range of attacks, as well as an ungodly amount of resistances... twelve of 'em, two of which are doubly resisted and one immunity. All in all, it's one of the best fully-evolved starters out there.​

Stats​

Weight

7
Height

6
Jump

6
Second Jump

2
Speed

3
Power

9
Attack Speed

2
Fall Speed

7

Specials​

Neutral Special

Ice Beam

Empoleon starts off his set with a move that any penguin with super powers should be able to use. This is basically the same Ice Beam that you’d see in any other Pokeset. Empoleon tilts his head slightly back, opens his mouth and fires a thin beam forwards. It has about the range as a low-charge laser from ROB, but it travels much slower. It takes about three quarters of a second for the beam to completely disappear. (1)

The Ice Beam deals about 10% damage, with very high hitstun. It’ll hold the foe in place while the beam passes through, and leave a lingering stun even after that. That said, Empoleon is so slow that you’ll be very hard-pressed to follow this move up with anything. Its starting lag makes it somewhat predictable, might I add.

Ooh, something I forgot to mention. If you use Ice Beam midair, Empoleon will aim the beam diagonally down, instead of firing directly forward. In this manner, you’ll be able to freeze foes on the ground… or even the ground itself.​

(1)

Side Special

Rain Dance

When you use Empoleon’s Side Special, he’ll begin a… unique dance. Jumping forward, clapping his flippers together, and even throwing a few butt-shakes in there, he looks like a complete goof. (2) Perhaps it would be best not to tell him that. Anyway, as you dance, you move forward erratically at about your walking speed, while a sound of thunder begins to brew. Each clap that Empoleon makes summons a particularly loud burst, a sign of the storm to come.

After you stop dancing (stop holding B,) Empoleon does one final pose to summon the rain. Use your imagination for what it looks like. The air above where Empoleon had danced through begins to congeal into the shape of rainclouds, which do what they do best… rain. From their lofty position three Ganondorf heights above the battlefield, they’ll continue to rain for a long time: about ten, fifteen seconds. While this doesn’t do much of anything on its own besides increase falling speed, it has interactions with several other moves later on in the set.

…such as Ice Beam, come to think of it! If you manage to get yourself high enough to fire an Ice Beam into the clouds, they’ll begin to hail instead of rain. Hail is a constant-damage, 2pps (%per second) version of the rain, that still has the downwards-pushing effect. It’ll harm you as well as your opponents, so watch out.

…realistically, though, Empoleon is going to be hard-pressed to get up high enough to hit the clouds with an ice beam, especially considering that he fires diagonally down when midair. That being the case, he has another trick up his sleeve. If Empoleon fires an Ice Beam at a puddle of water that he’s created, (via either Rain Dance or his FAir,) the puddle will freeze, creating a low-friction environment. In fact, the ice is so pure, that it doubles as a mirror! And we all know what happens when pure energy hits a mirror… you can bounce an Ice Beam off of frozen ground to hit a cloud far above your head! Clever, no? (3)

Note: The dancing before the rain does have a hitbox… a small, low-priority one. There’s a constant 4% threat as he dances, but the claps can deal 12% with moderate knockback, if the foe happens to be stupid enough to let you hit them with one. Also, this attack doubles as a fourth taunt. Just thought I’d say that. Oh yeah, and puddles formed by the splattering rain will evaporate about 8 seconds after the rainfall halts. The same goes for puddles formed by the upcoming FAir.​

(2)

(3)

Up Special

Aqua Jet

Empoleon really feels out of place in the air, and this meager recovery exemplifies that fact. Much like Wario’s Corkscrew, Empoleon twirls around in midair for this attack. Flippers extended, eyes closed, with a watery aura surrounding him, you can see that he’s making a serious effort to recover as he moves upward.You can angle this move to an extent… holding left will cause him to angle himself in a more counterclockwise fashion; right, clockwise. You’ll be able to recover about the same distance as Lucario’s Up Special by the end, but it takes twice the time. Even so, Empoleon’s body is a very high-priority multi-hit hitbox that can deal 15% at maximum, so it’s probably safe from interruption.

If you use this move on the ground, its low starting lag makes it one of Empoleon’s better offensive options.​

Down Special

Iron Defense

Empoleon plays off of his other type for his Down Special, giving him the chance to actually be useable in an competitive environment. Unfortunately, like many of his other moves, this attack is somewhat laggy to start out with. Empoleon raises both arms above his head, and then presses them both down with hand on top of the other, in front of him. After this motion, he flashes white momentarily, as a change comes over his body. Everything which was blue has now taken on a silver sheen, as if they were affected by a Metal Box. (4) This can be used twice; the second time will affect the golden colors of his body. (5)

You can probably guess what has happened. Empoleon’s already high weight has slightly increased, and he has gained knockback resistance. Anything which deals less than 10% won’t even make him budge. Unfortunately, this also halves his speed, making it that much more difficult for him to launch a counteroffensive. A second use of this move will add another 5% flinch resistance, anti-grab armor, and increase his weight one more stage. In addition, it doubles Empoleon’s damage-dealing potential. Yes, this means that your Up Special can deal 30%.

Of course, the shielding can only take so much abuse before it will break away. The first layer can take up to 40% and the second, 25%. After being broken off, you’ll have to wait a stock before using this move again, meaning that it’s critical to think about what point during the match you use this move. Oh, and the Iron Defense itself counts as a status effect. This may seem obvious, but it still needed to be clarified.

Continued notes: Iron Defense can actually take far more than 65% before breaking. Confused? Rightfully so. You see, a move will actuall have to cause Empoleon to flinch before it passes through his defenses. For example, if Falco continually blasts Empoleon with this laser, his trigger finger will die far before Iron Defense does. However, if Falco gets smart and runs up with an USmash, your metallic armor will take 17% worth of unrepairable damage. Any true combos adding up to greater than Empoleon's total flinch resistance will also break through the initial barrier. Throws and pummels skip the barrier entirely, but since they can't actually be used on Empoleon after the second layer of Iron Defense...

Still confused? Leave a comment to that extent and I'll do my best to explain.​

(4)

(5)

Please pardon the incredible choppiness of these images.

Standards​

Neutral A

Mist

To the untrained eye, this move looks exactly like Empoleon’s Neutral Special. He opens his mouth and moves his head in a similar manner, and even releases a cool substance. This time, however, it’s a (shock) mist. The mist will continually be let out as long as you hold A, potentially covering an area twice the size of Bowser if you hold it out for a few seconds. (6) This serves as a unique shield. Any attack used will be entirely ineffective while inside the mist. Energy attacks will be absorbed, physical attacks will cause a convenient wind current to carry the would-be attacker away, and physical projectiles such as Link’s arrows… well, they’ll still work, but that’s about it.

So how can a foe counter this? By grabbing. Grabs and throws are still entirely useable within, although secondary effects (such as the lasers of Fox’s and Falco’s DThrows) will be absorbed into the mist as usual. In fact, if 20% worth of pain is dealt inside of the mist, it’ll dissipate. Please take note: If you’ve buffed up Empoleon’s weight with an Iron Defense or two, he’ll be too heavy to be picked up by the aforementioned gust of wind, and can still use physical attacks. His Down Smash, Forward Special, and Up Special are unaffected by the presence of mist, nor are most recovery specials.

Of course, there's a bit more you can do with this move. Remember how energy projectiles are absorbed by the mist? Well, once the mist disippates, they'll all be released at once, continuing on their trajectory as if nothing happened. 'twould be best to fire an Ice Beam or two into the mist as a backup plan.​

(6)

Side Tilt

Secret Power

The move begins with a little bit of starting lag as Empoleon crosses his hands… er, flippers over his chest, closes his eyes, and lowers his head slightly. After a while, small orbs of energy begin to appear from the background and gather inside Empoleon. Empoleon then begins to glow as he looks up to the sky and throws out his arms, unleashing all the stored energy directly in front of him in one big shockwave. Seems simple enough, right? Ha, ha! Wrong. You see, the power and properties of this attack are all based on the surrounding terrain. Nifty.

If Empoleon is surrounded by natural terrain, such as grass or dirt, the move takes on the properties of the ground type. Orbs will be colored brown and green, and the final strike smacks into the opponent to deal 10%, with average knockback. Perhaps Empoleon is surrounded by water terrain, such as puddles, a beach, or a Rain Dance. In this case, the move becomes water type. Orbs are colored various shades of blue, and the final strike splashes against the foe to deal 5% with strong knockback, comparable to Ike’s FTilt.

If Empoleon is surrounded by artificial terrain, such as a ship or any metallic structure, steel will be the form the move takes. It will also become steel type if Empoleon has an Iron defense. The orbs are randomly colored black or silver and the end shockwave deals 18%. However, it only causes the foe to flinch. Finally, if Empoleon is surrounded by Ice, such as a hailstorm, frozen ground, or even the Summit stage, the move takes on an icy form. The orbs are either colored white or a metallic blue and the end shockwave deals 11%. While this attack only deals the same amount of knockback as the ground form, it should be noted for its excellent hitstun.​

Up Tilt

Metal Claw

As Empoleon’s Up Smash doesn’t actually damage, you’ll rely on this move a lot to defend from aerial assaults. That said, it’s incredibly simple. Empoleon simply waves his flipper over his head in a similar method to Donkey Kong’s UTilt, with a much larger hitbox. This is easily Empoleon’s quickest attack, and it deals 12% to boot. Sadly, it cannot juggle… it’ll actually knock opponents to either side depending on where they were hit by the flipper.​

Down Tilt

Defog

While defog may be an odd choice to give your starter Pokemon, it becomes a great move in the transition to Smash Bros. Well, it may not appear to be all that impressive… Empoleon snaps each flipper to either side and faces the screen. Sure, this does 8% and hits opponents on all sides, but with the move’s slim yet punishable ending lag, there are plenty of better options all over the moveset.

No, what you want to do is use this move for its HM purpose… clearing fog. Use the move while in a cloud of mist and it reveals its true potential. No change is made in the animation, but a large gust of wind emanates from Empoleon, pushing opponents (and the mist) away in all directions. (7) At the epicenter of this attack, the power is equivalent to Mario’s FLUDD, but it quickly drains in effectiveness to not having any push at a Battlefield away.​

(7)

Dash Attack

Tackle

Although I’m sure you’re questioning the moves we choose to teach Empoleon by this point, just trust us that it all makes sense in the end. So, tackle. This is closer to the football version of Tackle than the Pokemon version… a full-bodied leap forward without regard to safety or brain cells. As such, there’s a bit of a “tell” when Empoleon starts this move up: he takes three quick steps forward right before he jumps. When he lands, he’ll fall on his belly and slide! Like a penguin! (8) The jumping motion deals 7% with weak horizontal knockback, and the slide afterwards is a version of the Piplup Pokeball that's easier to DI out of and has less priority. Empoleon slides a varying distance: two battlefield platforms on regular ground, 3/4 Final Destination's length on water-doused ground, and potentially infinite length on icy ground. This is also one of Empoleon's very few approach options, so you'll probably use it if you decide you want to approach for some reason.

Note: Empoleon won't end up sliding to his slippery death if you use this on a walk-off stage... you can move the control stick in the opposite direction to make him turn around and frantically scape his claws against the ground to stop his movement.​

(8)

Smashes​

Side Smash

Steel Wing

Ah yes, Steel Wing. Not as strong as Iron Tail, not as accurate as Metal Claw, it’s a nice middle ground. Plus, Empoleon is a steel bird. Who else are you going to teach it to, Skarmory?
…anyway, let’s move on. Steel Wing, like most Side Smashes I have the opportunity to write, is a simple, powerful attack. Empoleon reaches out to either side with both arms (is he going to give you a hug? I think he is! =D) and then smacks them both together in front of him when the charge is released. (oh… I guess he wasn’t.) This does exactly what it sounds like, dealing between 18-26% and powerful diagonal knockback. Moderate starting and ending lag hamper this move to an extent, but the hitbox extends a bit farther than it appears at first.

This attack has another, small effect: a wind hitbox. It’s far too weak to effectively gimp anything but the lightest character that has also been shrunk by a Poison Mushroom, but it’s useful for relocating any Mist you have made. Each use will push it about two battlefield platforms forward. Be careful about moving it, though. After the third attempt to do so, it’ll give up the ghost, and vanish into the air.​

Up Smash

Aqua Ring

It’s been a while since a move in this ‘set has blown you away, hasn’t it? Don’t worry, we’re about to start anew. As Empoleon charges this move, the ground around him begins to bubble and churn. While ordinarily this would be the sign of an attack brewing, this time it’s not the case. When the charge is released, Empoleon points upward with a flipper as a translucent ring of water raises up into the air, stopping about an SB block above his head. On its way up, it heals 2%, and gives you a hint as for what to do next. Any time you (or an opponent) makes their way through the Aqua Ring, they’ll heal another 2%. Considering the ring stays out for all of ten seconds, that’s some sizeable health increase. (Good thing you can only have one onstage at a time, or this move would be completely broken!) Unfortunately, Empoleon is pretty poor at jumping, and has a hard time fending off enemies. That’s where move interactions come in.

I forgot to mention it, but more charge will make the ring bigger, from the size of an SB block to 2x that size. This becomes fairly important with this interaction, take my word for it. Anyway, use an Aqua Ring while underneath a Rain Dance, and you’ll be glad you did. Suddenly, anyone simply standing underneath the ring will be in an area where they recover 3% every second, and even have their status effects healed! Once again, I need to remind you that Empoleon is not the greatest at quickly getting his opponents out of his face, so you have a few options up your sleeve. You could set up Mist in the same area, limiting your opponents to their throws, which will have a much lower success at getting you out of the healing rain. Double up with an Iron Defense, and they’ll lose even that ability! Then again, you’ll be far too slow to ever hunt them down, so they’ll be able to heal just as well as you are.

But hey, maybe that’s what you want! Turns out, there’s another interaction… one which makes Ice Beam useful! Yay! If you use an Ice Beam to hit the outer edge of the healing area, whether you’re inside or outside, the Aqua Ring will freeze in midair, and an icy wall will form around the edge from the drops of water dripping off of the ring, forming a jail cell of sorts. (9) This halts the healing effect as well as making an impassable barrier. Trapping the opponent inside is nice, you’ll be able to set up a larger area of Rain Dance! Trapping yourself inside is nice, you’ll be able to buff yourself with Iron Defense or what have you! Trapping yourself –and- the opponent inside after adding Iron Defense and Mist is extremely nice. You’ll be able to beat them up to your heart’s content! The icy barrier is somewhat weak, however… it’ll shatter after taking 20% or being hit by a flying body thrice.​

(9)

Down Smash

Whirlpool

Note: The only paragraph you actually need to read is the first one; every one after that is a way that it connects to other moves.

…whirlpool? That’s the kind of move you teach an HM Slave, not your starter! Ah, well. The animation for this move is somewhat odd. Empoleon touches one flipper to the ground and holds the other behind his back, as he looks at the camera sternly. (10) Maybe he’s feeling angry because you made fun of the animation for his Rain Dance. He’ll hold this position as long as you hold the charge, and when you release… he’ll do an even more ridiculous dance, spinning on one foot like a ballerina. Yikes. Just like Aqua Jet, a watery aura forms around Empoleon as he spins. This attack lasts as long as an unlengthened Mach Tornado without charge and almost as long with. It does about the same amount of damage as well, but it has much higher ending lag than its parent version.

(10)

Of course, that doesn’t account for the paragraphs of text to follow. No, this is the longest move in the set for a reason… there’s so much you can do with it! Let’s start with a simple interaction: Rain Dance. Using Whirlpool in the middle of a rainstorm will have the exact opposite effect on the rain as it does the opponents. Instead of sucking it in, it’ll fling the rain out in all directions, turning the move into a weak gimp! If you’re inside a hailstorm, not only will you deflect the hail from Empoleon’s body (protecting him from damage,) but you will also send it flying just like the water droplets, creating streams of pain.

But those two were only the icing on the cake. Heck, not even the icing, more like the candles. The real fun begins when you use Whirlpool inside a cloud of Mist. Yes, there’s a reason that it specifically was unaffected. After you finish using Whirlpool, the Mist will continually spin around, a tornado of condensed water just floating there above the stage. It sucks in enemies at the rate of Ganondorf’s dash, but doesn’t have any sort of aftereffect beyond that. The tornado sits there for about five seconds, just waiting for the next step. There are two branching paths from here: one which dead-ends and one which continues on. The dead-end step is fairly simple, just shoot the tornado with an Ice Beam. This will cause the beam to be defracted (SCIENCE!), and fire weaker ice beams in all directions in about half a battlefield platform’s radius. This instantly freezes any foe for the same time as a Freezie item.

That’s not what we’re here for though. No, try Empoleon’s Down Air instead. (I know we haven’t got there yet. Quick preview: He drops feathers.) His steel down will get sucked into the vortex, spinning and spinning ever faster. Almost like… a drill! Interestingly enough, this also has the same properties as a drill, a hollow one at that. It’ll grind its way into the stage, creating a small hole that opponents can fall into to take weak, constant damage. (The drill is still in there, continuing to spin.) This can easily be DIed out of, and only lasts for 5 seconds. The absolute maximum that a foe could take from this is 12%.

Of course, if there’s a Rain Dance directly overhead, the increased fall speed will prevent the foe from DIing out! Not only are they forced to take the damage, but they’re a sitting duck for the next phase. You see, when rain falls into the drill, it remains in there until the weather clears up. And when it does… oh boy, this is the part you’ve been waiting for… all the collected water is fired up to the top of the screen in a fountain, which remains onstage for the same amount of time that it took to collect the water. This potentially can be a vertical KO tool on its own merit, but it pushes foes (and Empoleon himself) up rather slowly.

Sooo now what? Well, ideally you were able to trap the opponent inside the drill during a Rain Dance, and can simply follow them up with an Aqua Jet for a near-guaranteed KO. (Aqua Jet’s speed is greatly enhanced when riding the fountain, and can reach the top of the stage with room to spare.) Unfortunately, trapping them will often prove to be more difficult than it would appear at first glance, so you’ll probably need to continue the interactions.

Steel Wing gets another use here. Stand right up against the fountain and slap your wings together over the jet of water, and Empoleon creates a giant splash that covers a great area... between 45 and 70 degrees in front of himself on the protractor. Needless to say, this is a great tool to blast away opponents who are in the process of recovering above the stage.

If you’re completely dissatisfied with what you’ve done with the fountain, fire an Ice Beam at it. This will freeze it completely, making a giant wall which spans the screen from the floor to the ceiling. It’s basically a miniature version of the Ice Climbers’ Final Smash, dealing damage to foes that walk close to it. It can be taken down in the same manner.

But once again, that’s the easy finisher. To use this move to its fullest extent, bulk Empoleon up with an Iron Defense or two and walk into the fountain. He’ll be too heavy for it to fling him up into the air, and he in fact halts the flow of water! From here, you have another set of options. A particularly iconic one is an Aqua Ring. By using it, and subsequently walk off the fountain to allow the water to flow again, you’ll create a virtual Fountain of Youth from the water passing through the ring! Of course, it doesn’t actually make Empoleon or his enemies younger, but it does provide a ridiculously easy way to restore health. Each ride up to the top of the screen (if you can avoid the top blast zone) heals 20% and any status effects! This is a particularly useful way to bait enemies, as a quick Aqua Jet will easily pick off opponents looking to restore health. Even if they seek you out on the ground, a few of your throws interact with the upwards pressure in excellent ways, which won’t be covered here. Look to the Up and Down throws if you don’t want to lose your train of thought on this move.

Defog gets another chance to shine when used on top of the fountain. You remember how it worked with Mist, right? Well, imagine what happens when you replace air with water. When Empoleon uses Defog while on top of the fountain, it’s basically a shorter-range, no-damage version of Tabuu’s red rings. Okay, so maybe it’s not that powerful, but gosh darnit it’s close enough for the metaphor. Imagine a watery Falcon Punch that goes half of Battlefield’s length in all directions with less starting lag. Unfortunately, this will overwhelm the fountain and instantly deplete it of water.

Fortunately for your eyes, there’s only one more interaction. While plugging up the fountain with your massive girth, it may not occur to you to reuse Whirlpool, the move which started all this madness. Try it. All of a sudden, Instead of simply causing a whirling motion, Empoleon’s outstretched flippers will channel two giant streams of water to either side, almost like one of those tractor sprinklers. (11) (You city boys probably have no idea what I’m talking about.) These steams have incredible reach, and are twice as powerful as Mario’s FLUDD. The only thing keeping this from being a guaranteed KO (it can even push shielded opponents. Geez.) is that it cannot be aimed, only fired to the direct left and the direct right. Then again, that’s probably a good thing, or I’d go on for another paragraph explaining how you can do that and how it interacts when fired at other rainclouds and other blah that will make this move even longer.

Note: Good God that move was 1272 words long, not counting the notes. That’s half the length of the whole set at the time I’m writing this.​

(11)

Aerials​

Neutral Aerial

Brine

Empoleon’s Neutral Aerial, while not mind-boggling, is a vital move for him to use if a foe is trying to gimp him offstage, so listen up. When used, A ring of churning water forms around Empoleon, and splashes once, twice, three times, at his head, feet, and midsection. This deals 3, 4, 3% respectively, holding the foe in for all three hits. The last attack knocks foes away in a random horizontal direction, potentially offstage themselves. A shame you don’t have any tools to pursue them. While the attack’s starting lag is nonexistent, there’s juuuust enough ending lag to prevent you from endlessly juggling the foe.​

Forward Aerial

Surf

Empoleon’s FAir, despite having little offensive purpose, is particularly useful for setting up puddles of water. When this move is used, Empoleon’s feet generate copious amounts of water, and he continues to move forward. However, his falling speed has decreased dramatically, so he now has aerial DI envying a gliding Charizard! There’s also a large gimping hitbox beneath Empoleon, to allow him to get back to the stage largely unthreatened. If he is hit out of this move, however, he enters his helpless state and begins his rapid descent.

Now, the gimping hitbox I mentioned earlier. This is formed in large part by his watery feet, which will bounce foes away. However, the water will also drip, drip, drip off of Empoleon’s body, and find its way down to the ground. Every square inch of platform that Empoleon passed over will be soaking wet by the move’s end. It’s a convenient thing for the player that this move has such incredibly low ending lag upon landing, because just like in Super Mario Sunshine, you can instantly cancel this into a Tackle and maintain your watery distance bonus. This is one of Empoleon’s few approaching options that can be used without much planning, in case you wanted to play him that way.​

Up Aerial

Hydro Pump

For his UAir, Empoleon utilizes an attack he saw during “How to Train Your Dragon.” …what? Pokemon can keep up with popular culture too! Anyway, Empoleon turns upside down for this attack, but manages to look straight up, between his legs. From this position, he fires an incredibly powerful burst of water directly upward, which travels a fair distance (say, 1.5x the length of Fox’s recovery) before dissipating into the air around it. As it sounds, this move deals incredibly powerful knockback, equal to Dedede’s UTilt, and unlike most of his water-based attacks, it actually deals damage… 6% worth. However, it has a very obvious starting animation, absolutely no hitstun, and ending lag equal to Link’s DAir if you whiff the attack entirely, so be careful when you use it.

Did someone ask for move interactions? No? Well, you’re getting them anyway. The only things that’re actually in the air for Empoleon to hit are his rain clouds, so logic dictates that you should probably try shooting them. If you manage to, you’ll restore about five seconds worth of rain or hail to the clouds, even beyond their regular capacities. Nifty! Oh, and did I mention? If you do fire this through a hail cloud, the hail will be carried along with the Hydro Pump into the air, and land a few seconds later. It’s completely impractical to hit a foe with this in most situations, but hey, it may save your bacon once or twice.​

Down Aerial

Featherdance

Here’s another move in a similar vein to Mist. When you use this attack, Empoleon shakes himself all over, like a dog just after falling into a stream. This causes dozens of feathers all over his body to be flung off, and drift down slightly faster than Empoleon’s fall speed. While this move has no hitbox whatsoever, it serves as an aerial shield of sorts. You see, opponents will be able to jump up through the feathers with no problem whatsover. However, if they try to attack through them, their metallic properties come into play. (Hey, he’s a steel penguin, so he can have metal feathers.)

When attacked, the feathers are quickly compressed together into a lattice, essentially replacing the thin air the opponent was trying to attack through with an iron plate. Great for you, not so great for the opponent, who enters their helpless state if they had been attacking you from below as opposed to above. You can even turn this plate-forming property to your own advantage! After releasing a Featherdance, use your Neutral Aerial and fastfall towards the drifting feathers. They’ll compress, form a midair platform, and you can abuse the NAir’s low ending lag to jump off the platform before it falls! A shame, though, that you can’t use this move more than twice before having to land and restore your feathery supply.

Try using this move when above (or even inside) a cloud of mist. Okay, since you can’t actually use it, I’ll just tell you what happens. Mist, being far denser than air, will actually be able to hold the feathers in place, much like the move Stealth Rock. As such, it has a detrimental effect to foes who try to run through it. Any foe moving through a cloud of metallic mist will take 5% per second, damage which stops as soon as they stand still. You know what I’m thinking? Bait them into the mist with an Aqua Ring and then use Steel Wing to send them and the mist flying for some excellent damage-dealing potential.

Note: As a little easter egg, Empoleon will grow small bald patches with the first and second use of this move, which will quickly grow back when you land.​

Back Aerial

Growl

Grr! Yes, that’s exactly the sound effect your opponent will make if you use this move on them. You see, this attack’s animation is very simple: Empoleon turns his head around and makes a guttural growl at the foe, with a hitbox about the size of Kirby. While the move does no knockback or damage of any sort, it will actually prevent enemies from attacking! Yes, until they land, they will be unable to use aerials. Specials will still be useable, though. Why…? Well, Growl only lowers their Attack, not their Special Attack!​

Throws​

Grab

Peck

In an attempt to grab the opponent, Empoleon lunges his head forward, and bites down hard with his beak. This has range slightly shorter than a regular grab, but executes rather quickly.​

Pummel

Fury Attack

Empoleon swaps his grip to hold the foes with his flippers, and then pecks them repeatedly for his pummel. Peckpeckpeck. Sadly, Empoleon's endurance ain't what it used to be, so this is a rather slow pummel. Thankfully, it deals 3% per hit.​

Forward Throw

Bubblebeam

For his FThrow, Empoleon lets the foe escape the grab momentarily, and they instantly begin to run away from him. We can’t have that happen, now… or can we? Realizing that a distant foe is exactly what he needs, Empoleon fires a stream of bubbles at the escaping foe, which pop on contact. He fires between 15-20 bubbles, most of which are small, with a few large ones scattered around. Small bubbles deal 1%, and larger ones deal 2%. Chances are, the foe will be running too quickly to be hit by all of the bubbles, and will only take a few points of damage. Thus, the damage taken varies by their running speed; Sonic would only be hit by the very first bubble, and Bowser would take the full force. Considering that it forces them to run for a second, though, you could easily herd them into a prepared or semi-prepared Whirlpool or Mist.

Note: This move’s strength is unaffected by Iron Defense.​

Up Throw

Waterfall

Here’s another fun throw. Empoleon flings the opponent directly above his head, and then jumps after them. No, he’s not using a Shoryuken, he’s using Waterfall! We all know the animation for the in-game move: a series of watery explosions (four of them dealing 3% each) culminating in a final strike. That’s exactly what happens in this move, as Empoleon brutally batters the beaten… [something that starts with B] ever higher. The move culminates in height at about twice Empoleon’s usual jump, at which point Empoleon does an uncharacteristically acrobatic midair flip, kicking the foe for 4% and strong vertical knockback.

Unfortunately, Iron Defense really weighs this move down. Literally, in fact. Empoleon can only jump half as high (and hit half as many times) with one layer, and fails to perform the final kick for the actual knockback. With a second layer, Empoleon can only hit -one- time, making this move entirely worthless.

Now, it’s time for the aforementioned interaction with Whirlpoool! Well, perhaps not so much an interaction as… a buff, of sorts. If standing in a fountain, Empoleon’s jumping ability is drastically increased (as we remember from Aqua Jet,) and he becomes able to barrage the opponent all the way to the top of the screen! It’s a bit of a shame, but this isn’t the easy guaranteed KO it sounds like. Granted, it -could- be one, but Empoleon moves a bit too slow to reach the top under most circumstances, especially factoring in the limited time you have to bait the opponent close to you. So really, it’s more of a cool thing you could show off to your friends in training mode.​

Down Throw

Dive

Finishing up Empoleon’s hefty list of HMs, Dive is similar to Waterfall in that it’s directly affected by how high Empoleon can get himself in the air. I’m sure that simple description coupled with the move’s title has given you a good idea of the move’s appearance already, eh?

Regrasping the foe in his beak, Empoleon leaps straight up into the air to twice the height of his regular jump, performing an extra flourish with his neck to maneuver his quarry even higher. After reaching the apex of his jump, he begins his dive toward the ground, and holds the foe via his trident. Oh yeah, that’s going to hurt when they land. In fact, this is Empoleon’s most powerful throw, dealing 12% and vertical knockback which KOs at about 90%.

Of course, Iron Defense lowers the height that Empoleon can jump. The animation is exactly the same for the first layer of Iron Defense, (with a shorter execution time, of course,) and the move still deals 12%. However, knockback power is drastically decreased, to only KOing at 200%. A second layer of Iron Defense changes the move again, preventing Empoleon from performing any sort of jump. Instead, he just bites the foe with his beak, lifts them up, and smacks them into the ground, leaving them prone.

But supposing Empoleon can jump higher, instead of being weighed down? What if you use this move on a fountain? Well, you’ve seen Kirby and Meta Knight’s UThrows, right? Now, imagine that instead of a ten pound puffball, you have Empoleon’s one hundred eighty-six pounds crushing down on top of you with a trident being shoved through your midsection to boot. 27%. Yes, you read that correctly, 27% and knockback that KOs at percentages as low as 60% will be granted to you if you manage to pull this off. Well done.

But wait, there’s more! Remember the puddles of water you could make with Rain Dance and Surf? If you use this move while standing in one of those puddles, (and while not doubled up with Iron Defense,) Empoleon will actually dive into the water with the foe and disappear! Empoleon emerges from the watery depths in little time, but the foe is trapped underneath the surface of the water. Quickly, before they find their way out, freeze the surface layer and trap them underneath. Ah yes, now they’re out of commission for a long while. Set up set up set up before the ice melts. Or hey, have some fun and use Tackle to land on the ice over and over again. While this serves no purpose whatsoever, it knocks the opponent down farther underwater. It’s fun to watch.

Note: Wait, I thought those were puddles. How did he dive so far underwater?​

Back Throw

Icy Wind

That's one chill wind. Brr. Yes, Empoleon’s BThrow is another simple move… Empoleon tosses the foe overhead and then blows a cold, cold breeze at them as they slide helplessly away. They’ll be pushed about half Battlefield’s distance away by this attack, taking hits of 1 and 2% until 11% in all has been suffered. What’s the point of this move? Why, the same point as the FThrow, to space your foe exactly where you want them! In fact, since this is “Icy” wind, this doubles as a grab input for Ice Beam. Send your opponent sliding into an active Aqua Ring, and watch as they get trapped inside of the forming prison. Good fun.​

Final Smash

Hydro Cannon​

No fancy mechanic boosting attack for Empoleon. Nope, it’s time for brute force. When Empoleon uses his Final Smash, he inhales deeply, and a sound almost like gargling can be heard. He’s not maintaining his oral hygiene, however… this is just the precursor to the devastating blast of water which Empoleon fires soon after. In fact, to both of them. You see, Empoleon fires not one, but TWO jets of water straight ahead of himself, each twisting and churning around the other to create a powerful force which holds the foe in for the duration of the attack. Empoleon continues to fire for five seconds, as the streams and their victims continue to be helplessly carried offscreen. The ONLY way they’ll survive if they get hit is if they can somehow stay midair long enough to avoid the full force of the attack. Foes caught inside will also take 10pps (percent per second, remember?) as long as they’re trapped inside. This is a powerful attack by any standards, although it lacks a final hit beyond the flow of the water.​

Playstyle

Antarctic Emperor​

The nice thing about Empoleon is that there’s really no one set way to play as him. He has plenty of options when it comes to dealing damage, KOing, staying alive… the only thing he can’t do is gimp. Every move he has interacts with another in some way, shape, or form, (except the UTilt, but that’s used to keep foes away,) giving you nearly unlimited options on how to use him. Heck, if you wanted to, you could just use Whirlpool and its set of interactions and call it a day. But nope… that would make my life too easy.

Alright, let’s just dive in. Empoleon, as you may have noticed, is something of a set-up character. Suppose you want to use his ability to create his own environment to your advantage. If that’s the case, I’d start with a Rain Dance. Cover the greatest area you possibly can with your tribal foot-flapping, and you’ll have a good start on controlling the playing field. What? The foe doesn’t want to just let you have your way? How rude of them. Now is when you’ll want to take your enemy’s abilities into account. Are they a quick little bugger, dancing around and hitting you with all sorts of low-damage aerials and dash attacks? Iron Defense would be your best bet in this case, enabling Empoleon to absorb the damage without even budging, and continue to set up all the same. But what if you’re battling, say, Ike? A powerhouse who can just barrel through even your doubled-up defenses? Well, I’d start up a Mist in that case. By limiting him to his wimpy throws (is it just me, or do a lot of powerhouses have weak throws?) you’ll have a far better chance of keeping him away. Even if he does come up to grab you, a quick UTilt will knock him out of your misty veil. But maybe he’s becoming just a bit too persistent for an UTilt to deter him. Maybe he’s mastered the art of spot dodging. Sounds like a good opportunity to use Whirlpool to me! The tornado will hold him in place as you merrily skip off to your next location, even more so if you quickly turn around and fire an Ice Beam before he manages to escape.

When it comes to dealing damage, steel-type Secret Power is a safe bet. A ranged attack which deals 18% is far too tempting to pass up. Of course, as mentioned earlier, Aqua Jet will work in a pinch, much like Bowser’s Whirling Fortress. It may be highly tempting to bulk up early with an Iron Defense to buff the damage you can do, but just remember: once the defense breaks, it’s gone. You can’t use it until your next stock, and trust me, you’ll wish you had it once you get to those higher damage percentages. Dealing damage is one of Empoleon’s harder tasks, so it’s likely that you’ll have to bounce a couple of techniques together to get through this part of the battle. First, let your opponent hit you up after you’ve set up even the smallest amount of Rain Dance. Set up an Aqua Ring directly in the middle of the flow, and let some Mist loose so they don’t hound you with projectiles. Once you’ve managed to bait the foe inside the healing area (really, everyone reacts differently, so there’s no clear-cut way to do this) freeze yourself and them inside. Use the frame advantage you got from the Ice Beam to bulk up with Iron Defense, and proceed to beat the snot out of them. Incredibly crude, but oh-so effective. If you happen to trap yourself inside, alone, I’d begin setting up Empoleon’s trump card… Whirlpool. You should be able to get to the part where you add in Featherdance before your foe breaks into your icy fortress, and after that the Rain Dance will begin to fall into the gaping hole in the stage. Exactly as planned.

When you find yourself offstage, and trust me, eventually you will, Empoleon has plenty of ways to get back onstage. While he has little gimping potential himself, almost every aerial he has is an anti-gimping tool, with the exception of Surf, his FAir, which itself serves as the best way to extend his recovery. Hydro Pump guards against meteor smashes, Growl almost completely disarms foes, Brine offers a way to actually attack, and Featherdance provides a shield against foes as well as as even giving you a platform to jump off of. As you can probably tell, he wants to get back onto solid ground as quickly as possible. If you have excellent timing, you can use Featherdance, Brine, and then stand on the platform you created to use Iron Defense, increasing your fall speed… once you’re over solid ground, that is.

As for landing the KO… by now, we all know that Empoleon's KOing tools take a fair amount of time to set up, or have starting lag which prevents them from being 100% reliable. If you can manage to use Whirlpool in a fountain, or batter them with Steel Wing, be my guest. In many cases, though, you'll want to hold them in place with a semi-prepared whirlpool, during the tornado or drill phase. This will enable you to casually walk up to them with a partially-charged FSmash. A jump towards the opponent with a well-aimed Ice Beam also has the potential to hold them in place long enough to follow up with a finishing blow.

All in all, Empoleon is an incredibly versatile character, with an answer to almost every situation. While he specializes in pure survival, with his ability to heal in Aqua Ring, to bulk up his weight and defense via Iron Defense, to halt a foe's attacks with Mist and to prevent any form of gimping with his incredibly disarming airgame, Empoleon will be on the battlefield for quite a long time, and will have plenty of opportunities to use even the most time-consuming interactions in his arsenal.​

HERE YA GO, AGI!
​

​

 

[Neherazade]

Ty 4 the warm welcome. I've been reeding some sets for a while now so i can get a grasp on the standards.



wat's wrong with my gramer?

hey! welcome to MYM!

It's good to see some new faces around here (though you might want to take the other MYMer's advice about ur grammuhs).

[collapse=cuz i'm socially awkward and bad at reading people's intentions]...You/We all know this is spadefox in disguise, right?[/collapse]
[collapse=you didn't shoot me... WHY TEH HELL NOT!?!]got sick this weekend/today. been doing an assload of Homework. will have masterpiece set (gonna get almost a 2/5 from Smady!) posted by Wednesday (cuz it is impossible - literally no physically concievable reason - for me not to have it done).[/collapse]

 

[MasterWarlord]

EMPOLEON

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpnqMvJZTOY

Long, long, long 8.5 audio comment where I talk about the writing, have awkward pauses due to hotkeys for pausing not working when I need some time to think, stumble over myself, repeat the same points a lot, and struggle to say much about the actual set. Fun.

Too long;didn't listen: Weezing taken to extremes. Great set, bad writing.

EDIT: You all seem to of gotten the wrong message from how I feel on this set - I still very much like it, the audio commentary doesn't do it nearly enough justice. Weezing's writing didn't affect my overall opinion at all and I still think highly of it - I needed something to critique. While Empoleon's I feel is an actually slightly legitimate issue, I still hold this set in high regard.

 

[AEMehr]

I myself Personally love 75% of these movesets. They're all well thought out and are really in tune with how characters work in Smash Brothers. I can only hope when I post my first moveset, people can compare mine to The Halberd Crew.

 

[KingK.Rool]

Empoleon is such a lame Pokemon. He only deserves HMs and silly-looking dances.

Spoiler

This is the first Sundance set since bloody SAKURAI, so naturally I need to comment it ASAP. My first impression is that its dense tangle of move interactions and interconnections is very agidish - but there are also these hilarious little touches...

(is he going to give you a hug? I think he is! =D)

...that feel much more typical of Sundance's easygoing movesetting style. You can definitely feel his influence throughout the set, although I don't think I'm wrong in saying that agi did most, if not all of the writing.

Anyway, I reckon it's a little hypocritical of Warlord of all people to criticize a set for its writing, be it Weezing or this or whatever else - and I didn't really have any trouble getting through this, anyway. In fact, I found it to be just personal enough without being suffocating, and rather enjoyable to pick through.

The main attraction here is the Grunt-like weave of move interactions; just like him, the set shoots mostly for versatility and impresses with sheer options (and the ingenuity with which they're strung together) instead of a "fresh" playstyle - and how many of those exist now anyway? Although some of the interactions are a bit stale, most of them are pretty brilliant and Whirlpool is the most exciting move I've read since Huff N. Puff.

The thing you captured here is that water-steel combination that makes Empoleon unique, which is perfectly in line with this regulator-of-weather creature you've got here. He's like an administrator or something. Water administrator. He certainly can't fight, silly-looking and ineffective as he is. It reminds me of the way Probopass caught its character by making it unable to even move.

There are these little touches of Pokemon Syndrome (Secret Power? Really?) and also a few of magic syndrome (that first throw comes to mind), but for the most part, it's a very exciting set that doesn't innovate so much as it creates a rich tapestry of interactions that you can't help loving. Hell of a set, folks.

You pronounce it aji, Warlord?

 

[Deleted member]

Empoleon
I've been waiting on this set for a while, and I feel that it does not disappoint. Empoleon's such a cool Pokemon.(Y)

First of all, I like the many interactions with Empoleon. From rain dancing, and then ice beaming to make hail/reflecting my ice beam, to healing my self with the up smash/rain dance move, and then trapping my opponents with the help of ice beam...Empoleon has tons of options if I was playing as him. I also can envision the attacks clearly with the pictures, and the organization is crisp clear. I also feel that Empoleon is alot in character, fitting his water/steel typing, with Iron Defense and like K.Rool says, he can't actually fight.

Moving onto my (minor) complaints, I feel that the up tilt and neutral attack could have been switched around. This would give Empoleon an easier way to...well, attack (though using Mist as an up tilt would be kinda weird...). I mean, when he's not busying setting up, what's he supposed to do? More on Mist, I'm assuming that letting go of A will immediately stop the mist? Just a little clarification will help. Also, characters without physical projectiles and have weak main attacks, will have a hell of a time trying to beat Empoleon with Iron Defense and mist.

Other than that, I really have nothing else to add that hasn't been said already (though I don't think the writing style was that bad. I had to reread a few moves to fully understand it, but hey, I had little trouble actually reading the set). Overall, great set guys!(hug) It's good to see that Sundance is still making movesets, and agi just makes any set good. (H)

Spoiler

Huh...my first comment I actually took time writing.(wary) This isn't a half bad feeling at all.

 

[Deleted member]

I’d like to firstly say that I downgraded a moveset’s stars, for the second time, in my Smady’s Ratings as well as its comment. Similar to the first time, this is due to other people’s comments and me going back to truly check over my assumptions – after Kingdra and Apprentice, I’ll be sure not to assume so much about a playstyle. As it turns out, Apprentice doesn’t really have much of one – DM rushed it, dang.

You know, I touched upon how good you are in Bob-Omb – Pokey is truly your first moveset that shows off how much potential you have, Nate. I thoroughly enjoyed all the natural interactions, though there were more than a couple of oddities surrounding the moveset.

A fair warning, these are pretty general nitpicks: for starters, that you start off as tiny Pokey is really off-putting – Pokey’s ‘true’ form is always regarded as his full-height one, right? Not just his head on the ground; I don’t see the logic behind this besides forcing the player to build up Pokey, which isn’t exactly riveting. It’s also kind of jarring where some of these inputs are – that forward tilt, for example, would be more suited as the jab and vice versa. Another little niggle is in those tiny damage percentages – way too small across the board. Keep in mind in the future, anything that isn’t guaranteed multi-hits that deals below five-percent damage may as well be a pummel.

There’s also something to be said about how Pokey's strange way of dropping parts of his body as traps... that’s both literally and figuratively strange, as the idea is that his body is impenetrable except his head, his weak point. I’ll get onto the good parts in a bit, but I can safely say that much of that is rather counter-productive to what else there is. It isn’t well-explained, really, and it seems you really want the player to just drop Pokey’s body wherever – he needs help damaging sure, but aside from that, the point of traps is to create pressure points and Pokey hardly needs help in range.

So, you’re still suffering from common traits among newcomers – you’re severely underpowering your moveset, but you have improved in this regard, as Pokey is just skewed, not broken. Moving the numbers around a little, he’s perfectly viable: unlike Bob-Omb. The dropping of his body is certainly weird, but it isn’t totally horrible an idea – I simply prefer what else there is.

The else being, the absolutely delicious aspects of the whole moving of Pokey’s body around, which you grumpily neglect to interact so much with when Pokey’s head becomes separate – you should have, it would make the set flow a lot better and make more sense than making the bodily remains some kind of disjointed weapon. Like with Bob-Omb, you’re able to build this giant flowchart out of this simple interaction in Pokey’s body structure that, while not without its breaks, all comes together to make a character whose moveset clearly expresses a minimalistic ideal as playstyle. As a MYMer, it’s great that you moved away from that great Bob-Omb concept to something even better, while still keeping the level-headedness. I’m really excited just to see how far you’ll go, as every moveset this contest has been a dimensional leap in thought and execution so far.

In all, it would have indeed been a lot better if you just scrapped the whole traps thing, but what was there of the concepts I liked was brilliant and completely in-character for Pokey. Again, I’m hotly anticipating what else you’ve got brewing, as I’m very optimistic that you will improve even further. It appears to me that you’re just adjusting to the moveset length and ironing out the problems with such large flowcharts, but you’re honestly doing perfectly fine for a relative newcomer. Keep it up.

Onto Empoleon – the first Sundance moveset in a while, if also an Agidius joint. That’s some sunny ass right there. Anyway, the moveset is actually fairly awesome in more ways than must be legal, but really is dragged down by that writing at times, which just makes things so utterly muddled that the entire set becomes an ordeal.

It’s not like the writing is bad per se, it’s just that there are so many moves with needless amounts of interactions at the end, which can’t really be skipped. What is definitely needed here is an interactions section, like in Nurse Joy, which clearly labels what moves interact, as it’s already all sectioned off within the moves. It just slows down the moveset incredibly and makes it very hard to keep track of all the different ways moves work together, with the resulting playstyle pretty lacking as there’s a general lack of cohesive thought in this moveset.

One of the reasons the writing style doesn’t bog down the moveset is definitely the images – very Agidian, clearly demonstrating exactly what the move looks like. I think again where you guys screw up is with the interactions, though – they obviously can’t all be pictured and some of them, like iron defence or one of the long throws, end up being needlessly convoluted.

Er, somebody tell me exactly what Empoleon is, besides being a big penguin?

I was expecting some kind of Robot Master explanation – this is the same reaction I had with Solar Man, so not so great. The problems are similar, except Empoleon actually pulls of this kind of “versatility” and has a wide, wide array of ways to use these moves together. I’m not sure of the kind of flow – it’s what I talked about with Strike Man a little, being more reactionary due to your huge amount of defences compared to offenses. My only problem with this being, Empoleon can just tank immensely with the fog and iron defence, completely halting any momentum in the match.

Sure, there are some clever interactions. I particularly liked the few moves taking care of the mist – very much like Weezing, but, I don’t know, seems cheap here comparatively – not to big up my own moveset, but he did have a reason to constantly use Wiz and Kupa’s neutral air. I know Empoleon doesn’t have a ‘job,’ but I find it strange just how many really specific things he does in this moveset. Back on course, the ice beam had its fair amount of uses with the puddles – which function as they did in a couple of the Eevees, I believe. Other than that, obviously you also have the fountain, waterfall, aqua ring, cage, feathers and it goes on... there’s just so much set-up here, but why is Empoleon playing like this?

Bah, I just do not know; Empoleon strikes me as a character who should provide instant gratification, not have to set up an entire ice rink to make you fall into a spike he shot out of his ass when it was raining. He is a second evolution – you’d think he’d be able to do that. Not to put down some of these superb interactions, but it does feel haphazard with the amount of things Empoleon just does, because it's water-based; excessive would be most accurate here. Like Apprentice, a lot of the time it almost is like it's purposefully being secretive to mystify the reader, to hide a lacking playstyle. But it's not, so I don't know why it is so dang secretive.

To conclude this rather messy comment; I didn’t enjoy reading Empoleon, but I can respect what you accomplished. It’s not the writing style that makes it hard to read, it’s the organisation, where you place thousands of words around where they have no place being. It’s not just a case of re-arrangement – this kind of placement has an effect on the writing, where you have fewer words to describe what the moveset actually does. It’s a good moveset, though and it’s good to have Sundance back – I just wish it wasn’t quite as frustrating in terms of frigging reading the thing.

 

[Kholdstare]

THE YOUNG AND THE MOVESETS SEASON ONE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMYchl631pA

 

[Deleted member]

Oh man that's awesome, Khold - never read the Young and the Movesets when it first came out. Perfect for a page with a Sundance moveset as well.

 

[Deleted member]

I regret double posting usually, but the thread is sort of... dead. So I'll update you guys on Mr. L's progress.

I have three of the specials done, the orgy-nation is getting there; the basic concepts of the movesets are coming together, but it's still pretty early days. The problem now is definitely in the execution of said concepts and ideas. Still, I got over a hump with Mr. L I've had for months - salutations on small successes.

 

[AEMehr]

I have a somewhat Set Moveset on Mr. L, need help on moveset ideas?

 

[Deleted member]

Perhaps you could suggest some more source or relevant material to use for him - I've exhausted everything he does in chapter 4 of SPM, so if you've got anything else, that'd be helpful. That can also include weakly-connected stuff, like from the Mario RPG franchise. Every little helps.

 

[AEMehr]

Perhaps you could suggest some more source or relevant material to use for him - I've exhausted everything he does in chapter 4 of SPM, so if you've got anything else, that'd be helpful. That can also include weakly-connected stuff, like from the Mario RPG franchise. Every little helps.

How about you PM me what you already have, and I'll help you from there.

 

[Deleted member]

Sure - I already have a preview at hand, as a matter of fact.

 

[Katapultar]

I presume somebody's waiting for the next page to be up so they can post their set. This post should do justice. Meanwhile, Im hoping to have another set up.

 

[Deleted member]

SMADY SUNDAE SUMMARY #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVAvP1EZP8M

Who stole the what-now? Remember to comment and like.

 

[JOE!]

Just want to point out that i made a quick note in Forretress, detailing how Bide differs from Gyro Ball.

Bide goes off when he receives damage, meaning it wont "end" when he is grabbed, and can / will go off if he is pummeled or thrown,

Gyro Ball only reacts when he is hit by attacks that cause flinching or KB, and directly hits foes on the re-bound.

 

[n88]

So, I promised Plorf a Kingdra comment about a week and a half ago. I didn't really feel like it at the time, though, then forgot about it. So now the thread needs some activity, and I figured why not?

Kingdra is a bit of a mixed bag. I've heard a lot of complaints that it's OoC, but I'm not too familiar with the character, so I don't have much to say there.

You've still got those little oddities in the writing style that you did with Solar Man. (Although I believe these were both written at pretty much the same time, so it's not all that surprising) The comparison to Kirby games is jarringly out of place. Comparing to anything that's not either a) In Smash or b) in the character's game/movie/whatever of origin, is a very bad idea. Also, "Now I’m not sure if seahorses can really spew ink" can go. The attack seems a little odd on Kingdra, but it's not really helped by the author admitting that it's out of place. You've got a few other instances of this, but I don't feel like pointing htem all out.

And now, the actual moveset. As Sundance claims, a lot of the attacks are pretty similar, but I'm not going to delve into that too deeply. The Situationals are a nice touch (I can't remember the last time I read a set that had Situationals), but I feel the water attacks should have been more incorporated into the main moveset somehow. Perhaps some kind of stage-flooding mechanic would have worked. (Or maybe a note recommending that he be played in Doubles with Ludicolo (WARY) ). The attacks do seem like they come together to form a playstyle, although it could stand to be a bit more focused.

I have to leave urgently, or this might have gone on longer. >.> Might edit in more later.

 

[32º Centigrade]

Slow days are slow. Here's a set.

THE SNIPER

The Sniper is one of the nine playable classes in Team Fortress 2. He excels at long ranged combat and relies on keeping his foes away from him to play properly. Naturally, this translates into his moveset. His stats are akin to his fellow human Smash Bros., mostly Snake. He's slow, heavy, and doesn't like the air. Without any further ado, let's move on to the set itself.



SPECIALS

Neutral Special - Sniper Rifle

The Sniper pulls out his rifle and looks down the sight, which takes one second. A faint red laser stretches horizontally from the rifle to the end of the stage. This can only be aimed forward. The Sniper stands just as tall as Ganondorf, therefore the laser goes through the heads of most other human characters like Snake or Samus. During this time, the Sniper has similar controls to if he was holding a Cracker Launcher. He can only jump once, cannot run, and must turn around by tapping in the opposite direction. His walk is also made slower than Ganon's. Pressing a shield button will have him put it away, which also takes a second. Pressing B in this state will have the Sniper fire his rifle, and a bullet will travel instantaneously along the laser's path with infinite range. If is hits someone, it'll get stuck in them, and the force will send them flying.

This is the Sniper's main KO weapon, obviously, but there are some drawbacks. This is not a spam-able attack. After firing his gun, the Sniper has to reload. Firing and reloading together takes about 2.5 seconds. Combined with drawing and putting away the weapon, he is left very vulnerable to attack. Unlike traditional sniper rifles in video games, this rifle is not an instant KO upon a headshot. Instead, the bullet does more damage the longer it is in the rifle.

Every 1.5 seconds, the damage and KB change, although KB will always be horizontal. On no charge at all, the bullet will do 8% and light KB that barely KOs at 150%. A headshot will do 12% and slightly more KB. There are four levels of charge, and KO potential increases dramatically between them. After 6 seconds of charge, contact with the bullet does 20% and great KB that KOs at 75%. Headshots do 22% and can KO at 55%!

Because of the Sniper Rifle's power and the time it takes for it to reach full potential, he's going to need to keep his foes away from him as much as possible to land that headshot. Just how is he going to do that? Don't worry, the Sniper has his ways.

Down Special - Adjust Aim

This Special is only usable while the rifle is drawn out. By holding down B and tilting the control stick up and down (gently or not), the Sniper will adjust his position; he can go from his towering stand to a low squat for hitting the likes of Kirby, and everywhere else in between. Releasing the button will have him remain in this position, and it becomes his default position for every time he draws his rifle for the stock. If he get's interrupted before B is released, he'll need to start over. Once he gets KOed, he has to readjust his stand.

Obviously a crucial part of the Sniper's moves, the Down Special allows him to potentially get a headshot off of anyone shorter than him. He still can't hit low crouches like Jigglypuff's, however. Because he needs to do this every time he loses a stock, he needs to find even more time for setup against shorter foes like Mario. The rifle cannot be fired in this state, but he can still move left and right.

Side Special - Jarate

The Sniper pulls out a jar of Jarate, the jar-based Karate, loosens the lid, and hurls it forward. It flies forward 2 Battlefield platforms before hitting the ground and creating a splash and translucent yellow cloud as big as Bowser. The jar also breaks on contact with opponents and causes flinching. Jarate can only be used every 15 seconds. What does Jarate do though? Any enemy hit by it or the lingering fog, that stays for 2 seconds, will take 1.5x the damage and KB from any attack for 4 seconds.

If the Sniper's got an enemy on the offensive, which he always will, using this can discourage them from advancing or acting too offensive. It's a little slow; it's about as laggy as Force Palm, but he should be able to find a opportunity to use it. Even if he whiffs it, the cloud forces opponents to find another way to get to him. Anyone hit by this is going to want to keep their distance and stop him from readying his rifle. And don't worry, this is the only thing the Sniper has that resembles a trap.

Up Special - Arrow Tether

By holding down the input, The Sniper pulls out his longbow, the Huntsman (pictured above), and draws an arrow. This arrow is aim-able in every direction, but is connected to the Sniper by a rope 3 Battlefield platforms long. Upon release of the B button, he shoots the arrow in the designated direction going the speed of Link's arrows. After traveling the distance, the rope snaps and disappears along with the arrow. If it hits an edge, it acts like every other tether in Brawl.

In the fray, it can be used as an alternative projectile to the rifle. Enemies hit with arrows take 4% (7% for a headshot) and upward KB equal to Link's charged arrows. The arrow remains stuck in the opponent for 20 seconds (to be elaborated on later). It only takes the Sniper half a second to pull another arrow out of his quiver and draw it. Like the rifle, it takes a second to pull the bow out, and pressing a shield button has him take a second to put it away. It is the Snipers main damage tool, and is a great way to keep opponents at bay. Unfortunately, he can't move at all while the bow is out.



STANDARDS

Neutral Standard - Bushwhack

The Sniper by default wields his Kukri, a machete-like blade. Upon input, he slashes forward twice as if he's cutting a hedge. Each slice does 4% with flinching and little push. Holding down A will continue the slicing until he let go.

The attack is as fast as Donkey Kong's neutral standard, but has the benefit of lasting indefinitely. It's a good way to get someone out of the Sniper's face while adding on some damage. The swings cover about Mario's height horizontally and protect all but the Sniper's legs, so short characters can still bypass this attack.

Unless, of course, he's used the Down Special recently. If he has a default crouch set, he'll automatically jump to that position. Now he can hit whoever he's set his sights on!

Forward Tilt - Razorback Reverse

The Sniper makes a huge swing with his Kukri. He put so much force into it that he's turned himself around! It's as slow as Ike's F-Tilt and covers the range of Ike's F-Air. The knife does 10% and KB similar to Link's F-Tilt; mainly a spacing tool. The attack, however, has an atrocious amount of end lag due to the Sniper recuperating himself. It can be dizzying spinning 180º that fast. Even with the lag, his enemies should still be wary to approach him. Why?

This is the Razorback. It's an aboriginal Australian shield. With a car battery taped to it. The Sniper is seen wearing it during this move, but only after the initial attack. If an opponent attacks the Sniper during the end lag, they'll be met with the surprise of 10,000 volts! The enemy will be shocked as if hit by Zamus's charged Paralyzer. They also can't be grabbed during this time.

The Sniper isn't totally protected, though. Turns out, all the tribal craftsmanship in the world cannot stop a modern butter knife [sic]. As such, it does a feeble job of protecting its wearer; the Sniper still takes the full damage and KB of the attack, and the shield shatters into a million pieces. Still, getting hit isn't all that bad, as long as it's not fatal. It can put the Sniper just far enough away to ready his rifle as his opponent stops shaking. And don't worry, he'll get another one if he uses this attack again.

Up Tilt - Shafted

The Sniper pulls an arrow out of his quiver and violently stabs it into the ground. The animation is a little slower than and similar to Link's F-Tilt, but with more vertical range and less horizontal. If he misses, the Sniper will take the time to pull the arrow out of the ground and put it back in his quiver, so don't whiff this attack. Contact with the arrowhead, a small hitbox mind you, does 8% or 12% if he can hit their head, but that's not the best part. Anyone hit with this attack gets the arrow speared through them as they are dragged to the ground. Then, they're pinned to the floor! They have to button mash to escape, as if they are grabbed, and then they are released into their prone position.

This opens up more possibilities for the Sniper. He can kick the foe while they're down (in some cases literally), hit 'em with some Jarate, or set up the perfect shot. The attack is fairly easy to escape, and isn't dependent on percentage, so he can't do all at once.

Down Tilt - Sniper's Sweep

The Sniper's crouch is about the same as Wario's, which is good considering his size. A good Sniper needs to be flexible. From his crouch, he swings one of his long legs across the floor 2 SBB forward. Getting hit by this attack does 2% and causes tripping. This can give the Sniper ample time to retreat and charge up his gun.

This can't cause infinite tripping by the way. While the end lag is decent, the start up lag is pretty bad. Any competent foe can avoid being hit twice in a row. Enemies can escape just as the attack ends so they can use their get-up frames to avoid any chaining attacks.

Dash Attack - Shafted II

The Sniper enjoys skewering people. Arrow in hand, he drives forward impaling whoever gets close enough to the arrowhead. Contact does either 8% or 12%, though he probably won't be hitting anyone's head. The Sniper then hurls his victim-on-a-stick over his head and onto the floor 2 Battlefield platforms behind him. The Sniper then turns around to face away from the opponent, so he can keep running if you choose. Missing with this attack causes bad ending lag, as the Sniper wants to make sure he doesn't waste any arrows and puts the arrow back into his quiver. Slowly.

Also, none of the arrow attacks have grab hitboxes. They can be shielded just like any of the other attacks so far.



SMASHES

Forward Smash - Point Blank / Auto Aim

The Sniper pulls out his Sniper Rifle and smacks in front of him with the stock. While the horizontal range is poor, the swing does at least cover his whole height. Getting hit does 4-6% and pops the foe into the air in a helpless tumble. We're not done yet, though. He's already got his rifle out, so he might as well take a shot, right? The Sniper fixes his stance so the barrel of the gun is pointed at where the opponent is falling, and fires. Since there was no charge, it does 8%-12% and the horizontal KB that KOs at 150%. The Sniper then takes the 2.5 seconds to reload and put his gun up.

This attack is laggy on both ends, but it does have the added benefit of automatically setting his default crouch for the Neutral Special to aim for the victim's head. Now he doesn't have to worry about adjusting his aim! Also, the whole attack is only, and only performed if the first hit connects. If the swing is shielded or dodged by an enemy, the attack is canceled.

Up Smash - Spear Rain

The Sniper draws 3 arrows from his quiver and simultaneously fires them upward. The arrowheads do 6-8% each and upward KB that KOs around 200% as they go up. Once they reach about 3 SBB above the Sniper, gravity takes in and the arrows are dragged down. One goes straight down, and the two on the sides go diagonally down on both sides. They land on the ground with 1 SBB's distance between them. When they hit someone, the victim will take great KB in the direction the arrows were falling. The arrows will pin the foe to the ground like in the U-Tilt.

Again, pinning his foes to the floor is a great way to escape and charge his rifle, but this attack also offers better protection from the air. It does have more lag, however, about as much as Donkey Kong's F-Smash. Still, if he's got enough space and needs to increase his opponent's percentage, it's a nice choice.

Down Smash - Shell Shock

After charging, the Sniper assumes a duck-and-cover position. He drops down on his knees and covers his head with his hand. Does this cowardly position do anything? Well, not directly, but the Sniper does don the Razorback for this attack. This time, the shield protrudes further out, so it can shock enemies earlier to stop attacks from reaching the Sniper, rather than him taking both damage and KB.

How is this a better option than the F-Tilt? Aside from charging, which increases the stun time, this attack has relatively no start up lag. The shield lasts out between 1.5-3 seconds, dependent on charge, and the end lag isn't too bad either. How is this a worse option than the F-Tilt? It has no chance of dealing damage, and only really protects from above. Both are good depending on the situation, and necessary for spacing.



AERIALS

Neutral Air - Wild Swing

The Sniper is not well suited for the air. His jumps aren't fantastic, and his weight definitely slows him down and makes him perfect bait for characters like Jigglypuff. That being said, he's going to want to get out of the air as soon as possible. That's where this attack comes in. The Sniper slashes his Kukri around like a maniac all around him, like a slower version of MK's Neutral attack. The knife does 7% and KB angled 15º up that won't KO, but will definitely get anyone off his back.

This attack comes out almost instantly, but he never stops swinging. He's perfectly controllable in the air as he's attacking, so he can direct himself toward an edge if he's been knocked over a pit. The Sniper will auto-grab a ledge if he's close enough. The disjointed hitbox acts as a nice little shield, so the Sniper will want to use this attack if he's been forced into the air. Unfortunately, this attack has pretty bad landing lag, as the Sniper needs to calm down and recollect himself.

Forward Air - Dimming Doff

The Sniper doffs his hat in a downward arc in front of him. Opponents hit by the hat will have their face stuck in the head hole. They'll fumble for one second to remove the hat and throw it on the ground. When they're blinded, left and right momentum are halted, and they are uncontrollable until they throw the hat away.

This is a great way for the Sniper to distract an aerial opponent for a while while he retreats, but it's not as fast as the N-Air. It has the same start up and end lag as DK's D-air. Fortunately, there isn't much landing lag at all. Still, the Sniper should be cautious about using this, because he can't do it again until he gets his hat back off the floor, which is done automatically if you walk over it. Other players can't pick up the hat, so they just can't throw it off the stage. If it's used over a pit, though, they will throw it down past the KO zone, and the Sniper won't get his hat back until next stock.

Back Air - Quiver Shiver

The Sniper hunches over in the air as his quiver protrudes out farther behind him than normal. If the quiver is hit, it shatters into tiny wooden pieces, and 6 arrows are thrown up in the air at random angles (between 45º-135º) and reaching random heights (between 1 SBB and 3 SBBs). The arrows do 4% or 7% on heads and mild upward KB. These arrows are also effected by gravity, but still keep the upward KB.

Like in the F-Tilt, the Sniper will still take the whole of the attack (if it hit him), but it will create plenty of space between him and his foes. It also creates a small barrage of falling arrows for them to get past or wait to hit the ground. This attack comes out pretty quickly, is pretty subtle, and lasts 1.5 seconds. It has little ending lag and no landing lag. Still, having to turn around for his enemies to hit him is noticeable, and the need for your opponent to attack you can be dangerous.

Up Tilt - Makeshift Missile

The Sniper reaches into his quiver (a new one will appear on his back if the B-Air was used) and stabs an arrow upward. If you miss, the attack has equal lag to Bowser's U-Air in Melee, so don't just throw this out randomly in the air. Landing lag is equally as bad as the end lag. If the arrow gets stuck through someone (4% or 7%), the Sniper hurls them downward with great force. It's a powerful meteor smash, but using it off-stage is impractical and dangerous. Instead, if it's used over land, hopefully the opponent will land and be pinned down by the arrow. Like with the U-Tilt, the opponent is left unable to stop the Sniper from running away.

Down Tilt - The Legend of Sniper

The Sniper steals from Link and does a downward thrust with the Kukri. Hitting someone with the blade makes them pop up in the air about 2 SBB (set KB) and regain control from where they were hit. No distance is gained from the attack, and the enemy takes 8%.

The Sniper, on the other hand, manages to gain some distance. He pops up the same 2 SBB off the victim's head, and gains increased speed in whatever direction the Sniper was going in. Another great move for spacing, but it doesn't come out as fast as Link's D-Air. The start up is about the same as Sonic's D-Air, and the hitbox doesn't stay out for long. Be frugal with use, especially on land; the landing lag is as bad as Link's.



GRABS / THROWS

Pummel - Tribal Tussle

The Sniper's grab is very slow and punishable, and it should only be used in the perfect opportunity. He puts up the Kukri and does another swing with his hat. Like the F-Air, this cannot be executed without the hat. He turns the opponent around and smothers their face in the hat. He also pulls out another blade and keeps it at the foe's throat.

This is the Tribalman's Shiv. When A is pressed, the Sniper takes his time to put a gash on the grabbed enemy. The slice does 4%, but does bleed damage over time, 2% every second for 4 seconds. This pummel can only be done once per grab, but the effect stays even after release, so if he's landed this and the opponent escapes, the Sniper has still done pretty good damage to them. It takes one second to do this pummel, during which the opponent can escape unharmed.

Forward Throw - Senseless Shove

The Sniper simply shoves his opponent 3 SBB in front of him, doing 6% by doing so. After going the distance, the enemy has to take another second to remove the hat, and then he's facing the wrong direction, so he also needs to turn around! This attack is probably the Sniper's best tool for retreating, be he needs to remember to get the hat back. His enemy cannot be grabbed when the hat is on them, so no infinite chain-grabs, sorry.

Backward Throw - Pincushion Pull

Remember how arrows that hit someone remain in them for 20 seconds? Well, here's how to get them out sooner. The Sniper grabs every arrow stuck in the victim and yanks them all out. Every arrow does 3%, which can accumulate to a maximum of 18% if there were 6 arrows. He then flings the foe behind him 2 SBB, where they then lie in their prone position. This is a great reward for both landing the grab and spamming expert use of the bow and other arrow attacks.

Up Throw - Human Arrow

The Sniper pulls out the Huntsman, but not an arrow. Instead, he pulls back the string with the enemy on it! He points the bow up, lets go of the string, and the foe pops up lightly in the air and face-plants on the ground. What, you expected him to be launched in the air? That'd be silly.

The foe takes 10% from the splat and remains in the prone position. This attack is a good balance between building up damage and remaining away from your enemy, as it gives you just enough time to run and does decent damage.

Down Throw - Plan B

The Sniper releases the foe for a second as he puts down his shiv. The opponent has less than a second to dodge or counter here. If they don't, the Sniper swiftly knees them in the crotch. It only does 2% but the victim is completely incapacitated for the next 3 seconds, after which they will be in the prone position. This is the biggest moment of silence given by the Sniper, but since it can be counter-attacked, it doesn't have many good situations to use it.

Obviously, this doesn't have an added effect on female characters.



FINAL SMASH

Emergency Airlift

When the Sniper gets the Smash Ball, he takes out a walkie-talkie and mumbles something into it. Then, a RED (or BLU) company helicopter drops down to assist him. He climbs on the skid, and now the fun begins.

The helicopter itself is as big as Battlefield, and the blades are even wider. The blades do 10% and KB equal to the Sniper's N-Air. The blades also create enough wind to blow away anyone less than 3 SBB away from the chopper. The wind keeps them from advancing.

While on the helicopter skid, the Sniper draws his rifle. Now, he has the perfect opportunity to get a headshot, because now no one can come close to him! The rifle acts the same as in the Neutral Special, but as an extra bonus, the helicopter can be gently guided in any direction to find the right position to fire. The chopper will hover as low as one Kirby off the ground and cannot leave the main platform.

The helicopter lasts for 15 seconds, after which, it will take to the skies and shake the Sniper off.



PLAYSTYLE

The Sniper has a bit of a disadvantage from the start. He's constantly on the run despite his poor speed. Most of his attacks are also slow and laggy, and he's a prime target for a Wall of Pain if he ever finds himself forced in the air. He does have the Sniper Rifle, but it takes so long to actually become a KO choice. To actually play as the Sniper, one has to really buckle down and focus.

A charging opponent can be easily dissuaded by a cloud of Jarate. Better yet is if they are hit directly by Jarate. Now, they need to find a balance between avoiding his now dangerous attacks and making sure the Sniper doesn't stay too far away. Arrows can become an even bigger menace now that they do more damage. However, staying out of the arrow's line of fire can put the Sniper in a position to charge his rifle. And once that thing is charged, it's over.

However, the Sniper Rifle won't do much without enough damage already dealt. That's where arrows and Jarate come in. When the Jarate isn't available though, the Sniper will need to get creative while dealing damage. He has plenty of attacks that can effectively stop approaches, slow though they may be. Any moves using arrows to pin enemies to the floor are a good choice, and leave the foe open to other attacks. They don't keep them down for long, so manage time wisely.

An offensive Sniper is rare, however. Being chased is common for him, but he has his ways of turning the tides. Any Razorback attack or the B-Air are great for countering and giving a Sniper on the defense enough space to collect his thoughts. If he gets trapped in the air, he'll need to remain calm and not act on impulse. The N-Air is a great attack, but doesn't cover his top and bottom. Also, misusing it over a pit can give the enemy an easy KO. Using the F-Air to stop an assault all together is a good option. The D-Air needs time to start, but can really get the Sniper out of a sticky situation by giving him increased air speed.

The opponent has enough percentage, now what? First things first, he needs to get enough space between him and his opponent to charge the rifle. Going for a full charge is unorthodox; instead, one should find enough space to get to a 2nd or 3rd charge. Any of the methods listed above are good for setting up space, but if the Sniper absolutely cannot do those, it may be time for him to use a grab. All the throws are good and effective at either damage or space, but landing the grab itself requires a golden opportunity. Once he's found the time and the rifle is charged, a KO is inevitable.

Getting a KO as the Sniper requires a lot of hard work, and it can be easily lost. A good Sniper can play games with their opponent, and make them fearful to approach them. Once he has control over his opponent, the Sniper's job is made easier. An aggressive Sniper can dominate an opponent by getting in close and dealing damage, and once the foe starts running, whip out the rifle. Not just anyone can play the Sniper. Snipers have standards: Be polite. Be efficient. Have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

My first attempt at writing a playstyle, let me know how I did.



MATCHUPS:
WHO IS DEADLIEST?!

SNIPER vs. SCARMIGLIONE

Scarmiglione (or for the sake of convenience, Milon) at first seems like perfect bait for the Sniper. He stays at a distance, builds his own damage for the Sniper, and doesn't require a full charge to KO because he has no recovery. But Milon can keep the Sniper at bay as well. When he spreads his poison gas over the stage, Milon is no longer confined to one little place, and the Sniper is left with fewer places to run. His Skullnants are also a thorn in the Sniper's side. They can provide meat shields to protect Milon against the rifle. Lit 1 can shock the Sniper out of a camping position as well.

The Sniper should instead focus his attacks on the Skullnants first. When they're all out of the way, and Milon's on the run, he's a prime target for a KO. A defenseless Milon should act aggressive against the Sniper, unorthodox as it may be. Even if the Sniper damages him, it'll get him closer to his True Form. If he can manage to incapacitate the Sniper, he can bring out his defenses again, and the cycle will start over for the Sniper. But, in close quarters, the Sniper is better. Since just about all of his attacks force Milon away from him, it would take a miracle for Milon to stop a bullet.

Needless to say, if Milon does get his True Form, it's all over for the Sniper, and while the Sniper's off trying to get rid of his minions, it may already be too late.

DRAW

SNIPER vs. MILES EDGEWORTH

Edgeworth needs his enemies to attack first, so he can then gather evidence. The Sniper loves it when he fights someone who needs to push him away. First, he can bait Edgeworth with an attack. When Edgeworth knocks him away to gather evidence, the Sniper can hold up in one place and camp. Now, Edgeworth can't get past the wall of arrows and Jarate, so he can't gather evidence.

Edgeworth does have his assistants to back him up though. Gumshoe can knock away the Sniper from his little camp site, and Edgeworth can gather evidence. He'll still need the green piece of evidence, but the Sniper is not going up in the air willingly. If Edgeworth does get every piece of evidence, it becomes a game of cat-and-mouse, as the Sniper runs away and Edgeworth chases him down, trying to land an Objection!. Any Sniper should be skilled at avoiding chases, though, so the Sniper has a definite advantage.

ADVANTAGE: SNIPER

SNIPER vs. AXEL GEAR

Axel is the Sniper's worst enemy. All of Axel's specials are detrimental against the Sniper. Lightning Barrier and Toxic Dash limit space to retreat to, while Dark Orbs and Burst Dash close the distance between the two. The Sniper can't counter pressure Axel, and his attacks are slower than Axel's. Axel does have his fuel to worry about, but it's a part of his playstyle that anyone who plays Axel needs to learn, so it doesn't hold him back much. Once Axel can get close, which is inevitable, there really is nowhere to run.

ADVANTAGE: AXEL

SNIPER vs. SPY

ADVANTAGE: SPY​

 

[Deleted member]

Smady here, posting via iPhone... What's up with the thread? Seriously, the thread has moved like three posts since I left yesterday. Shocking leadership, really - do I even need to ask where some of those poor chuckleheads have wondered off to? Frigging weak. :/

Expect commentary upon my return from sunny Wales.

 

[Kholdstare]

Smady here, posting via iPhone... What's up with the thread? Seriously, the thread has moved like three posts since I left yesterday. Shocking leadership, really - do I even need to ask where some of those poor chuckleheads have wondered off to? Frigging weak. :/

Expect commentary upon my return from sunny Wales.

Yes, but not as weak as your leadership

 

[MasterWarlord]

SNIPER

The Sniper's playstyle is a camper, something that's far from new, but he's the bloody SNIPER. It'd be insanely OOC for him to do much of anything else. I was pleasantly surprised with the fairly unique approach you took on camping with him by focusing on his attacks to give him space/time to charge his otherwise unviably laggy Neutral Special (Though I do still feel you could tone the numbers down a tad). I was in particular a fan of the ftilt and how it used the knockback of the foe's attack to get the Sniper the spacing he needed but also stunned the foe in the process. The only attack that seems rather awkward is the Down Special, which seems like it should've been fused with the Neutral Special and is just there to hit smaller characters.

The playstyle summary is fairly well written with you knowing what you're talking about for the most part. The only thing that I find awkward there is the rather out of place paragraph about the potential of an offensive Sniper, which he doesn't seem very capable of doing and goes against most of his strategies. That's the last of my complaints with the moveset, though, it's a fairly nice take on the camping genre with a character who can't do much else.

I was impressed with how much you knew you were talking about on the match-ups as well, considering your only previous work was Slaking. You certainly seem to be doing your homework, as shown by you *gasp* actually commenting movesets. Might I interest you in a invitation to the MYM chat? You'd certainly be just as welcome if not more so than a good handful of people in there. . .

 

[32º Centigrade]

Thanks for your comment, Warlord, and for the chat invitation. I tried getting on the chat before, but I don't know how it works...

I agree with you for the most part on your complaints. I was hesitant on the down special; it was a toss up between that and making the down smash his special, but I think having it and the back air as two separate attacks works better.

And, yeah, the Sniper is probably the least offensive character ever, so I tried to steer quickly away from that subject. I at least pointed out how rare it is.

Speaking of comments, I'll try to catch up with the 'sets I missed while I was gone. I don't know if you were aiming for it, but reading Dark Bowser really made me want to play Bowser's Inside Story. As for the set itself, I think everyone else has already spoken for me. It's a great set and definitely up to the standard you've set.

 

[MarthTrinity]

Wiz and Kupa

I could say a lot of things about this set but I won't, it's a joke set that was vaguely warped into an attempt at a serious set. I could say more but I really don't want to; it's a weak attempt at making fun of the leadership of this contest and, as the current leader of the leaders, I find it immature.Wiz and Kupa get 5 out of 24 ducks (my totally legit rating system).

Ol' Edgey

Another fairly short comment that I won't go into a whoooooooooole lot of detail about. I proofread Edgeworth for TWILT so I know it pretty well and he knows pretty well my feelings on it. I'd say it's certainly TWILT's best...creative ideas with great organization and it's really FUN to read. Great job TWILT!

Secret Apprentice

I can't say that I find Secret Apprentice as bad as Warlord says but he does have a few problems here and there. The first of which is the self-admitted problem where the playstyle is kind of shoe-horned in to fit the mechanic.

But I won't really complain about the Secret Apprentice, especially when we all know darn well you're perfectly capable of making far better sets. You made this for fun, you HAD fun with it and it got you back into making sets. So long as you enjoyed it, that's all that matters!

Pokey

http://www.smashboards.com/showpost.php?p=10452331&postcount=328 My Pokey commnent. Just organizing everything slightly better.

Kingdra

Alrighty. So here we have Kingdra, Plorf's second moveset of the contest. It's weird to see so many Plorf sets posted within such a short time of one another but...whatever! I'll comment them all mwuahahahha!

Ahem. Filler, sorry. Anyway, one complaint I have right off the bat...you really should just name an attack after a Pokemon attack just to give it a name. Yawn, Dragon Pluse and Draco Meteor immediately jump to mind as offenders. Lots of people play Pokemans here so they instantly picture the attack as one thing...and then with a totally different interpretation presented to them in the moveset, it comes off as weird, especially Yawn.

As another thing...I do feel that Sundance's joke comment has a ring of truth to it; it does seem like most of the attacks essentially boil down to Water Gun or different assorted water bursts. While this is, in part, because of the source material, there's some definite stuff that could've been changed. Overall, Kingdra's fairly...ehhh. Solar Man was better.

Dark Booze

"Dark Booze.....He's just a clone of regular Boozer. He has teh same Up B, forward A, and back A air. And he is...just a palette swap of Boozer. Why shuld he get his own moveset?"

This comment sums up nicely how I feel about Dark Booze.

Dark Bowser

Dark BOWSER however is brilliant, simply put. I really don't know how much I can add to this comment without echoing everyone elses constant worship of this set but...yeah. It's really, really good. This is easily, hands down, your best set in quite a while. The 3-vs-1 little extra bit is great too. AND to make it all better, it's a nice mix of insmash/unsmash concepts without being boring or too over the top. Excellent set here.

Axel Rose Metal Gear

Axel Gear is yet another very highly praised set that is, quite honestly, deserving of it. It's fun to read, easy to read and it's got some really imaginative ideas. The playstyle section is excellent and does a perfect job of summarizing all of the options you have without being painfully wordy or tedious. It's another great example of a moveset being POTENTIALLY Smash possible without being totally over the top. Excellent work here HR, as always obviously =P

_______________


Uh...Weezing, Solar Man, Sniper and Jack Spicer remain. Will comment ASAP.

​

 

[cutter]

Man oh man.

It is just incredible to see how far MYM has come from. I remember just about a year and a half ago when I posted my Master Chief moveset, I thought that was amazing back then.

But HOLY ****ING CRAP! The quality and detail that is put into stuff like Nurse Joy completely blows my mind. I'm actually in the middle of making a moveset for someone right now, but after reading all of these movesets, I have my work cut out for me in terms of formatting and detail lmao.

But hey, I'll still give it my all and see if I can make one of my favorite characters from another fighting game (or should I say games?) transition smoothly into Smash.

 

[MarthTrinity]

Hey and welcome back cutter! Glad to see you're up to making sets! Don't worry about how our sets look; we don't mean to intimidate, we just like to see what kinds of awesome stuff we can all come up with! I'm positive anything you or anyone else makes will be a fun and enjoyable read, I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with (and I'm particularly curious about who the set will be for...)!

Also glad to see you found the chat! :3

http://chiefmendez.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/mts-sunday-recap-episode-41/
Sunday Recap Episode 41 is up!

​

 

[flyinfilipino]

Hey cutter, and welcome back! I remember your Master Chief set from back in MYM4. Hope you'll make yourself at home and we look forward to what you've got to show us!

Here's to a good week; I recently got a job and I've got some other stuff this week so I haven't been around as much.

 

[Deleted member]

Yes, but not as weak as your leadership

As a matter of fact, MYM7 was over twice as active as MYM8 and I certainly would have done something drastic if things were that bad. I'm not particularly criticising MT with that post, but I certainly expect some kind of response.

Also, your bravado in being a retired funny man is getting really tiresome when you don't contribute anything; any sets planned?

I could say a lot of things about this set but I won't, it's a joke set that was vaguely warped into an attempt at a serious set. I could say more but I really don't want to; it's a weak attempt at making fun of the leadership of this contest and, as the current leader of the leaders, I find it immature.Wiz and Kupa get 5 out of 24 ducks (my totally legit rating system).

I'm a little upset that you took the moveset the same way MW did when he first read it - it's not meant to be "making fun of the leadership," it's simply a funny little moveset I made in a few hours. Didn't you also say this exact same thing in your recap last week? I expected something original, at least and your jib at my ratings is unappreciated.

As posted, will post commentary on Sniper - but I'd rather leave it until after this round of replies. Also, I did get some work done on Mr. L, so expect that one sometime soon.

 

[JOE!]

Prepare for tentacle raep....

​

OCTILLERY​

Octillery, the Jet Pokémon. Octillery attaches its tentacled feet to its opponent before attacking with its hard head. ​

STATS​

Octillery is about the size of Pikachu in regards to actual size (though he is significantly wider due to tentacles), weight and melee range (tentacles = tail range of Pika). This may put him at a distinct disadvantage in alot of instances, as he lacks the supreme mobility of the electric rat, having a terribly slow Dash speed(he just flops his tentacles wildly...) and low air speed, both comparable to Kirby's, although his walk is rather decent as he pulls himself along with his 2 big tentacles as fast as Wolf's walk. He is also terribly floaty like Samus, but has jumping prowess to match, with a second jump the same height as his first, and with a strangely familiar animation...

Octillery also sports a special mechanic : Suction Cups. What Suction Cups allow him to do is simple; stick to stuff. Either by crawling (shuffling about at about his walk speed), or teching/wall clinging, Octillery will be able to anchor himself to the surface, gaining 7% heavy armor, as well as the ability to walk crawl on walls! This is incredibly useful when combined with his specials, as he can gain a cool perch for his camping that almost no other character can. After 10 seconds he will automatically fall off of ceilings however, as gravity will slowly work it's way on his suction cups. After crawling for a moment ona wall or ceiling, you no longer need to actually crawl to stay on, you just need to first crawl onto the surface (or use an aerial onto it as mentioned later on) before beign able to use your moves on it. As an added bonus, this also makes Octillery one of the few characters with perfect traction, unable to trip naturally.
NOTE: you may have noticed I left out average range/attackspeed/power/recovery. This is because I feel that these don't really belong in a "stats" section, unless truly notable. They are better off being listed move per move as everyone has that one fast/strong move, and recovery belongs in the recovery move descriptions.

SPECIALS​

NEUTRAL SPECIAL : OCTOZOOKA​

Octillery's signature attack, Octozooka controls alot like Yoshi's egg, but in reverse. Instead of directing the projectile on release, when holding B you can angle Octillery's head up and down from slightly downwards to straight up. The actual shot looks like a glob of black sludge the size of a pokeball, and travels in an arc just like Yoshi's egg, with the longer you held down B determining it's range.

Unlike the egg however, upon hit the foe will receive 9% damage, and no hitstun! Instead, they become slightly darker as the ink covers them and disorients them. What this means is that for the next 10 seconds, their chance to trip will increase by 10% for each hit. This really doesn't need explanation of why it's so great, as with the foe slipping around constantly, they aren't attacking you and are prone to more assaults!

UP SPECIAL : WATER SPOUT​

Taking a brief moment to ready himself, Octillery will launch a huge torrent of water from his mouth, propelling him backwards at tremendous speed! This will then move the jet pokemon about with similar control to Lucario's Extreme Speed, along with ROB's Jet boost in that you can start and stop it, and doing similar damage as the "tip" of Squirtle's waterfall if a foe is hit by the water. Octillery can do this for a grand total of 3 seconds at 0%, however he will lose half a second of time for every 30% he takes. This is a great, if hard to master tool to zip around with in the start of a match, but as time goes on he will lose the strength to keep up the torrent. Now if only there were a way to keep the foe from attacking as often to avoid that problem? (smirk)

SIDE SPECIAL : OCTILLERY SUPPORT​

Similar to Diddy Kong's...face **** move, Octillery will lunge forward about 2 stage builder blocks, landing comically on his face and twitching for a second if he misses. If he lands this move however, Octillery will wrap his 8 tentacles around the foe, stationing himself on their back almost like a living FLUDD. You will be latched on as long as you like, with the foe being able to move around normally, just with Octillery on their back. They will able to get rid of him via spinning attacks(or in Yoshi's case his Side Spec) if he doesn't do anything before the character recovers from some light hitstun.

Now, what is the point of this? Well, just as the opponent is free to move about and attack freely, Octillery can use his standards, specials (except Side B, which will manually release Octillery from the character) and smashes on them! However, many moves are suited for when attached to a foe or a friend. For example his Jab when used here will repeatedly bonk the character, where as Water Spout can replace your ally's recovery with your awesome one (although the added weight reduces the speed from Extreme Speed to Squirtle's Side B). Using this move will require both great prediction of a foe's behavior as not to get hit off, and great skill with your partner in doubles, as you now become two players controlling one "character", but the payoff can be enormous!

DOWN SPECIAL : MOBILE CANNON​

Taking a moment to prepare, Octillery will anchor himself and begin to suck air in through his turret with impressive force! This has alot less range than Kirby's suction power, but has much more force, guaranteeing a catch if in range. Once said object or character is caught, Octillery then controls the same way as Octozooka, but with the ability to go all the way backward and not just straight up at max. After he has his aim the way he wants, releasing B will launch the foe for 10%, and KB that can kill at 150%! Items will also be launched back at their thrower with the same forceful KB as an opponent, with damage varying upon what it is.

Combined with Octozooka, this is a great way to take advantage of the increased trip-rate, as it forces an approach while making alot of projectiles essentially useless, which can also be a great asset on certain characters who have trouble with them. Combined with Suction Cups, this can even be used to kill very early on some stages due to the epic stage spikes that can occur, but Octillery will have to play smart to get a foe in it's clutches like that.

STANDARDS​

JAB: HEADBUTT​

Reeling back briefly, Octillery will then slam his noggin forward at high-speed, slamming foes for 5% and KB that shouldn't be killing before 300%. This is similar to a "ganon-ized" Pikachu jab in it's spammability (3 per sec vs 9001 per sec), but unlike Pikachu, his is good vs shields in that it does very good shield damage (due to his rock-hard head), being able to shatter a shield with 3 good hits. When latched on via Side B, this hits the foe directly and is slightly faster, letting you hit 4 times a second.

DASH ATTACK: FLAIL​

As he flops his tentacles wildly about for his dash, Octillery will attack by....flopping them around even more! This makes him out to be in a similar situation to MK's jab only sliding toward you with 8x the hitboxes (1 sword vs 8 tentacles). Fortunately for foes it isn't very strong as it is only 2% per hit, but has annoying set KB of half a SBB away from him. Obviously you cannot do this with Octillery Support, but it can count as a second jab as you can hold it with A after you are done sliding.

D-TILT: TENTA-CRUEL​

Sweeping his big tentacle on the floor in front of him, Octillery will automatically trip foes for 4%, or push them away for 4% if they are already tripped. This has range akin to Yoshi's Ftilt (considering how small Octillery is, that's pretty good), and has relatively little lag like his Dtilt. When on a foe, you will actually wrap your big tentacles around the foe, and begin to choke them like Snake's pummel! This does 2% per half second, and actually causes hitstun to the foe, which can be valuable for keeping yourself on them.

F-TILT: GUNK SHOT​

With lag similar to GW's ftilt, Octillery will spit out a wad of tar-like ink in the way Mario's fireball works (only with no bounce). Upon hitting a foe, the gunk will do 6% with some hitstun and also have the interesting effect of increasing the time it takes to "get up" once tripped, as they are all sticky on the floor with each application increasing said time by 1.5x. If you do not hit a foe, you will create a small patch of gunk the size of Kirby that will last on the stage for 10 seconds. If anyone steps on this, they will gain 7% heavy armor just like you do with suction cups! However, if they trip or are hit onto the gunk, they will be "stuck" in that position, and take 2x as long to get up as they normally would.

This move can be angled up and down somewhat, allowing for the patches to range from right in front of you, to a SBB away. When using OS, down-angle will hit the character directly, normal will arc the hit just over the foe's head (right in front of them unless crouching, which will give a tad more distance), and up angle will launch it almost straight up, falling back on your ride unless they crouch on release. This can be very good in doubles as it provides free super-armor for your buddy.

U-TILT: KINGDRA WATER GUN​

Looking straight up (but with the ability to angle it back and forth a bit), Octillery will suddenly shoot out a thin jet of water as tall as Ganon! This lasts as long as GW's Up air, and has similar lag. While this is out, the water is essentially impassable as it is a very concentrated push effect, and can be downright deadly if used on an edge vs a recovering foe. With OS this provides cover for your ally from behind, as the water can negate tons of attacks, and can push foes around slightly, allowing for potential gimps if you angle it so they go down a bit as they recover, and allowing you to still have Water Spout when you release to save yourself.

SMASHES​

F-SMASH: INK BLAST​

Sucking in air as he charges, with a bit of angry eyes, Octillery will launch a hardened ball of ink at the foe for 10-20%! Much like another Pokeset I've made, this smash controls like Link's arrow, gaining range with charge, although unlike Pin Missile it has TL's range. On impact the Ink-ball will shatter, applying an ink effect to the foe and do KB similar to BBrawl's link, being able to kill offstage at 120% full-charge! With OS, this fires straight upwards, then plummets back down if it doesn't hit anyone. Use this off-stage with our buddy to guarantee a KO on a recovering opponent as it crashes back down!

D-SMASH: OIL SLICK​

Curling up his tentacles as he charges, Octillery seems to be in deep concentration as he....oh dear he gone-done inked himself. Yes, Octillery "inks" on the stage, creating a puddle of it covering 1-2.5 SBB's based on charge. Like with Gunk Shot, these puddles last for 10 seconds (although this move has a ton of end lag, which makes it pretty punishable if you try and cover a stage by yourself), but do just the opposite: create a 0-Friction area with a +50% trip rate, and super-slide properties. Combine this with other ink abilities, and you'll have the foe flopping around like a magikarp in no time!

This is also an amazing move combined with OS. On a foe, this will apply 3-6 applications of Ink, making them far less mobile (although it has an obvious warning to when you're gonna do it). But with an ally, you can use moves like Utilt and Uspec to have them slide along the surface of the puddle, essentially giving your buddy the ability to wavedash! Due to suction cups, Octillery is immune to these puddles, even if done by another Octillery, although he will slide slightly more with his Dash Attack and Usmash.

U-SMASH: BUBBLE BEAM​

Looking down as he charges, Octillery sucks in air before shooting down an incredibly powerful jet of frothy water, launching him as high as Marth! This has two functions, the first being a KO-move along side Fsmash, as hitting with his head as he rockets up will do a solid 14-22%, and kill vertically at 120-100%. Second is that hitting a foe with the bubbles as you hover will do hefty damage to them, about 16-28%! Unfortunately for Octillery, this move has a bit of start-up to go along with the commitment of the move, and can really only hit with one or the other (with the bubble part being particularly good when sliding over to a tripped foe).

With OS, this will launch the foe off of you directly, having them slide as if they are pushed by other water-gun like attacks. The distance ranges from 2-6 SBBs with charge, making it superior to your other jet-options for raw power, but forces you off your ally. This can be great for mix-ups, and for epic cross-stage falcon punches as you boost Falcon over an oil slick to nail a foe across final destination.

AERIALS​

N-AIR: TENTACLE-RAEP​

Turning sideways mid-air, Octillery will rapidly rotate twice with his tentacles extended, taking about the same time as Wolf's Nair, before returning to neutral. This has some ok range to it as he extends hit hitboxes with the tentacles, but the real attraction here is the fact that this can hit up to 16 times, seeing as he has 8 tentacles and all. His 6 small arms do 1% with flinching, and the big ones do 3% with small amounts of Kb, but neither one will break through the "rooting" of a gunk shot now will they? (smirk)

F-AIR: KNOCK OFF​

Taking a page from a certain Robot, Octillery will shove his two big tentacles forward, doing 7% and negligible KB that can combo into itself at low %. A good spacing move, as it also sports range the size of himself as his tentacles stretch a bit, it also has the ability to activate Suction Cups on walls if you hit one with your outstretched arms.

D-AIR: INK BLOT​

With an animation similar to his second jump, Octillery closes his eyes momentarily before shooting ink from below him once again, gross. This blob of ink behaves very similarly to the aerial version of Sonic's Spring, falling slowly until it hits the bottom blast zone or the stage. Upon impact, the blob will do 6% with hit stun, as well as apply 2 inks! If it misses anyone and hits the stage however, the ink will "splat", creating a SBB-wide hitbox for 3%, and applying 1 ink. Unfortunatley, the animation for this makes it only about as spammable as Wolf's Dair would be.

B-AIR: SLUDGE BOMB​

Spinning around horizontally, Octillery fires a blast of his tar-like ink at his enemies! This has the same effects as Gunk Shot (and with the ability to create the "stick" patch on walls!), but with a hitbox similar to mario's Fsmash instead of his fireball, and as such does 9% and can kill around 150%. This move also turns Octillery around, as well as push him backwards a bit, which can both be key for his recovery as he jets backwards.

U-AIR: DIVE​

Flipping backwards, Octillery will scrape the air above him with his tentacles and like Fair, be able to activate Suction Cups if he hits a ceiling! However, if he doesn't hit anyone, or a ceiling, he will simply flip in the air similar to the Mario Bro.'s Uairs, though with a slightly telegraphed beginning as he lurches his head back before following with the tentacles. If he does snag a foe, he will grip them tightly with his arms, and begin to plummet down to earth! On impact with the ground, Octillery will be fine as his hard head absorbs the blow, but his prey suffers a decent 12%, and vertical KB that can kill around 130%. This is cancellable by pressing A, simply dropping the foe into their tripped state if close to the ground.

GRABS​

PUMMEL: INK​

After grabbing the foe with out-stretched tentacles, which give him an impressive grab akin to DK, tapping A will have Octillery spray the foe with a jet of ink, doing 2% every half second, and inflicting 1 ink for every second they are pummeled!

U-THROW: FACE HUGGER​

Jumping atop the foe's head, Octillery will wrap all his tentacles around it and begin squeezing hard each time A is tapped! This does 3% per tap, with a rate of 4 per second. While this is going on, the foe must dash wildly to shake him off their head, all while having the hilarious "curry-run" animation! Oh, did I mention that having them dash after some pummeling makes them likely to trip, where you can still continue the constriction? (smirk)

F-THROW: FLING​

Grasping the foe with his two big tentacles, Octillery slowly raises them above his head, then chucks them hard ahead of himself for 6% and KB that kills at silly %'s. interestingly, Octillery will always toss the foe toward his partner in a doubles match, turning around or adjusting his aim to do so.

D-THROW: OCTOSSAULT​

Tossing his foe to the ground, then facing the Camera, Octillery then begins slamming on them with his tentacles! This will whack the foe about 8 times for 1% a pop, then release them with small vertical KB that will never kill. It should be noted that, although it does not have the damage potential of Uthrow, it sends the foe upward in their reeling state, making them land in their trip-state, which is ideal when over a gunk-patch.

B-THROW: TENTA-SHOT​

Jumping on their torso, Octillery will then bounce backward a character length, holding on with his tentacles, before slamming back into the foe for 8% and potentially killing at about 150%. While good on it's own, in a doubles match your ally can actually grab you while you jump back, then walk you backward for an extra character length! This will then double the damage and power of the throw, potentially guaranteeing a kill at 100%.

FINAL SMASH​

REMOR-AID

​

Octillery snagged the Smash Ball! On activation, the screen zooms in on him as he wraps a tentacle around his mouth, and proceeds to play the cavalry charge! As he does 3 Remoraid swim in from the background, and begin to circle his head counter-clockwise. They even circle your ally if you use Octillery Support!

These little buggers will now stay like this for the rest of Octillery's stock, and each passively shoot either Psybeam (Pinkish beam composed of rings, cannot be blocked and does 10% with flinch), Ice Beam (Light blue beam resembling a lightning bolt, freezes on impact with 7%) or Bullet Seed (same as Ivy's, potential to do over 20% total). Each of them will fire if an enemy is in range (2.5 SBBs) in front of them passively, and must be dealt 15% damage for them to swim off again, but during this time all hits count toward them, not Octillery. This is a great compliment to your ranged game, and makes you truly an impressive force in a team setting!

PLAYSTYLE​

As you may have noticed, Octillery shines best in doubles where he works as covering-fire for his buddy, and even as a tool to let them wail on foes as they slip around or to jet them around with his various water abilities. So let's talk about that aspect 1st.

Your main goal will probably be to set up a bit of gunk here and there, then do an Oil slick before hopping on your buddy, getting the stage set for some camping either by hindering approaches, or giving your team a super-armor anchor. Once on your ally, you can safely start pegging foes with Octozooka as it's arcing can easily nab foes and cause them to trip more, becoming prime targets for your partner. If need be, Water Spout can be used to fly out of danger, or replace your ally's recovery as you become a mini-jet pack, but be careful as it's tricky movement may spell disaster if your partner is unaware of how to use it to your advantage. Mobile Cannon can be used to good effect, but it can be slightly hampered due to how you hang on the character, but like Gunk Shot, crouching will bring you forward, and able to suck in a dangerous projectile.

You will mostly want to stay away from your standards (sans Gunk Shot while your buddy crouches, bringing you forward) as they hit them directly, but Water Gun has a great edge guarding use, as while your ally hangs on a ledge, you can create a wall of water to push recovering foes away! You can also be a pest here by doing Octozooka from an even sillier spot, but you are already relatively safe. Water gun is also your main means of keeping flanking from screwing you over, but be careful with it's use, as you can screw your ally's spacing, and you aren't giving them cover from the front. Ink blast will give great Anti-air, and can combo naturally into almost everyone's uthrow (except bowser, who will fling Octillery off ) for a stylish kill. The fact that the ball of ink plummets back down is invaluable when hitching a ride on an aerial character, as off-stage you can really rain hell down on people! Dsmash is to be avoided while on your buddy, as all that does is screw both of you as when they trip, you go with them, and Bubble Beam is situational, but as mentioned, when the time comes that epic cross-stage falcon-punch is just unfathomable amounts of win.

Octillery really meshes well with just about any character on a team due to what he brings to the table, but he prefers characters that either compliment the camping style, or hugely benefit from having a projectile-shooting buddy, and have kill moves to take advantage of the tripping and free damage, which Octillery lacks somewhat. This means guys like Yoshi and Ganondorf will love Octillery, as Eggs and Octozooka = ****, and guaranteed setups + ganon = ****. However, characters like the Mario Bros wont really see much synergy as one would hope, as nothing new is brought to their game, and none of their "holes" are filled as well by the pairing as they can rack damage, zone and kill well without needing a set-up (although it is always welcome).

Without Octillery Support, the rest of his moveset is great for support as well. He can climb to obscure places where foes cant really get him to peg enemies for free damage, do great zoning one airborne to get the foe(s) where you and your partner want them, stick them in place with your gunk, shoot them into Falcon punches/etc with Mobile Cannon, the list goes on! however, his throws hold a special mention as each one has a nuance in doubles. the most obvious being bthrow, which your partner (or some *** in an FFA) can grab you and extend the sling-shot effect for double the power. Fthrow and Dthrow both are great set-ups for a powerful attack, as Fthrow will launch the foe toward your ally automatically, and Dthrow sends them reeling. A common tactic is to Dthrow->Utilt, to keep them suspended momentarily in order for your partner to wail on them with an aerial. Uthrow will extend the duration of the foe's incapacitation, as while running around to get Octillery off, they cannot defend against your partner's assault (although they cannot be grabbed as you are grabbing them already), which can lead to even more free damage. Scoring the KO for your team will mostly come from either Bubble Beam's sweet spot, ink blast off-stage, or Mobile Cannon stage-spikes. However, each one is rather hard to hit yourself (sans ink Blast) due to the chaotic nature of doubles, so you'd best be letting your partner land those KO's you set up, unless you find yourself in a prime spot to nail one of the 3 moves.


In a 1v1, you play essentially the same, using the ink to screw with your foe's spacing and approaches, allowing you to Water Spout away to safety, and camp more. The key difference here is that you will need to play a lot more cleverly, luring foes to get you off-stage while you suction cup over the edge, and hit them with a gunk shot or Mobile Cannon to screw them over for trying. You will also find yourself using your own oil Slicks more to wail on foes with Bubble Beam's sour spot and Flail, or to hit foes who slipped on a gunk patch with Tentacle Raep! Your Dtilt will help with the latter as you trip, then hit them again to slide them over onto a patch.

Octillery Support becomes a terrifying punishing tool against an opponent, as your Jab and Dtilt become great damaging tools, and you can get free gunk and ink effects on them as well with Ftilt and Dsmash. Water Spout wont offer much here, except becoming a possible way to suicide with the foe, but Bubble Beam's launch can have a great effect on some characters if done offstage, rocketing them under the stage, or simply too far away for them to recover! Just be sure not to use both, as then you are also out of a recovery, especially if you have taken some hefty damage...

Other than that, simply use your tools to camp and punish approaches like no other. You may find yourself in hot water if someone finds their way too you however, as with crappy air-speed and floatiness he can be easily comboed, and easily killed due to his featherweight status. Don't let that discourage you though as with the right Partner, or right sniper's post, Octillery is sure to blow away the competition!







And thus concludes my Pokeset I made by rolling some dice to determine the # on the Pokedex

 

[Hyper_Ridley]

Octillery feels in many ways like a successful attempt at what Kingdra was doing; a water pokemon who fights with sniping and gimping. Good lord, just the thought of sticking to the side of the stage while your opponent recovers, then sucking them up with Down-Special, then firing them straight down...good job utilizing the ink as a relevant part of the playstyle, it makes him feel very much like an octopus.

Besides his Kindra+ 1v1 playstyle, Octillery also has a rather awesome 2v2 style, what with being a true artillery support character and being ride your ally and use them as a mobile sniping platform. Now Ganondorf feels like a complete moveset!

Awesome work JOE! Much better than Foretress. Though the pictures aren't working. (smirk2)