@
T
tomom90
If we're speaking in hitboxes, there are 4 different active frames, 4 hitboxes each, so 16 different fair hits. But it also depends on which part of the hitboxes you're striking the opponent with, what angle they're at, and how they've been DI'ing. For all intensive purposes, assume there are an infinite number of fair's - this is why people never answer the "how do I ken combo the best way" question - it's impossible to say until after each unique situation has presented itself.
That being said, I think it's very important you understand how certain fair hitboxes behave. Namely:
1. The top hitbox, so you can hit people with the top without reversing them:
https://gfycat.com/FreshThinAntbear#?frameNum=4
2. When second active frame's tipper and mid-sword hitboxes are at about 45 degrees for lower and higher percent combos, respectively:
https://gfycat.com/FreshThinAntbear#?frameNum=5
3. When the second/third active frame's tipper hitbox is about level with marth's shoulder (seen as the tipper's lowermost hitbox in the above link).
For 2., these are important because they are the most commonly used hits in combos to bring people to edges
For 3., This is really good for popping people straight up if they're caught DI'ing improperly (which happens more often than you'd think, especially if you get them with it when they're grounded - it leads into more fair's, an fsmash, a dair, a dolphin slash)
The "speed of putting out the fair from SH" doesn't matter as long as you hit the person with the part of the fair you want to. But if you often find yourself in situations where you need to put out a fair really quickly from sh, I would recommend practicing SH double fair. Of course, you need to Lcancel the second fair, and don't fastfall at all for this. But if you get pretty good at it, then you should be able to see marth's sword be horizontal with his shoulder before you hit the ground (on the second fair). If you can do that, then it means you're within 1-2 frames of being frame perfect in doing a sh instant fair. So in these cases you want a really quick tipper from SH, just do the SH instant fair, then ff and lcancel it (instead of not fastfalling and doing the second fair, though SH double fair does have plenty of uses).
As for Fox, when about 28- ~35% (before uthrow happens), you can utilt (if he does no di, aka goes straight up, it's usually better to turn around utilt first, they go almost straight up). At this point depending on percent:
1. Assuming you utilt them off a grab between 28-32%. You can regrab and then -
Start upairing or fairing at this point - if they barely DI, you might get an utilt (It won't hit full DI either behind or in front of you at this percent). When they DI behind you, you
should be able to dash back/turnaround/sh (while drifting backwards) tipper uair. You might also find the 2. fair hitboxes to work decently.
2. Assuming you utilt them off a grab around 32-35/36, it's probably better to just shffl tipper uairs.
For falco, the rule of thumb is add about 8%, but you'll eventually get more used to his specifics as well.
Marth's Uthrow is a weight dependent throw, if you really want to find lag frames after it, you can use this:
http://smashboards.com/threads/detailed-throws-techs-and-getups-frame-data.206469/
But practically speaking, I like to watch the DI of the opponent for just after the throw starts. Because they can't drift in the air until out of hitstun, it doesn't actually do anything for you to keep on watching them - just be able to tell if you need to do a turnaround regrab, pivot grab, or dash forward/back grab. So after you spot their DI, look at marth. Go into training and uthrow somebody at 1/4 speed while only looking at marth. You can tell when the uthrow ends by when his throwing arm (I don't remember if he throws with his left or right arm, I think it's right, but it doesn't matter at all) goes back down to his side. So uthrow someone at 1/4 speed and hold the control stick a direction to see when he walks out - the first step he takes is the first time you can act out of a throw. Also - just watching marth's arm go back down always works - it always goes back down the moment you can move again. So just watch his animation until you get used to uthrow lag on certain characters (i still do it when I'm trying to be as accurate as possible, like uthrow tipper uairing falcon with only 2 frames of leniency), and then you can dash.
*Btw, for turnaround regrab at early percents, you can always just hold down the direction (left/right) you want marth to face while he's in uthrow lag, and it'll buffer his turnaround, which is much easier, consistent (and unless you're a frame monster) and faster (buffering and doing it perfectly are the same anyway...).*
@
R
Rlagkrud
Getting some additional upwards momentum from the first dancing blade hit happens when you have a "flag". It is used up when you first use the side b in air (otherwise marth would have a ridiculous recovery). To refresh the flag, you have to land on the ground - The flag is then refreshed. However, the flag is not refreshed if you hit the ground while doing a move - even if you L-cancel ur aerials. The exceptions would be when you touch the ground in the middle of dancing blade itself. I'm not sure about if it's refreshed from falling from upb or if doing a shieldbreaker, but i'll check and come back, or you can check it urself.
ALSO - you can refresh it from a wavedash (even if it's a perfect wavedash and you don't leave the ground). So the flag should also be refreshed if you just straight up airdodge into the ground.
@
Bounce N Back
Be honest, you should probably just read some of PPMD's stuff about dash dancing and the neutral game. But it essentially comes down to this:
You're against an opponent who stands still until he's ready to attack you, at which point he dashes at you. It's extremely easy to distinguish between something not moving, and moving. You then react by dashing away, jabbing, etc.
You're against an opponent who dash dances until he's ready to attack you, at which point he dashes at you. Because he was always moving, it's harder to be sure when he's really going to come at you. It keeps him moving in/out of your/his ranges (which ill explain below) and makes it harder for you to know when he'll attack.
People usually think of pressure as something like Hax's Octuple shines, Westballz shield pressure, or Mango/Hax nair shines. But you can also exert pressure by dash dancing. Let's consider Fox. His largest effective range to be afraid of, is how much distance his dash->shffl nair covers. Let's say it covers distance X pixels. You're just as safe from that attack at X+1 pixels, as you are across all of Dreamland. He can't hit you with it either way - you're just as safe. So why not be at X+1 pixels? By moving in/out of his range, you're pressuring him to attack, then not, then attack, then not. It might throw him off. Also, by dashing into him,dashing back, dashing in, you're putting him into YOUR range, and out of it. Melee neutral game has everything to do with making options available. But not necessarily acting on them. as marth, your range is dash attack (though not recommended), shffl fair, and dash->JC grab. So by dashing into him, you have more of a potential to grab him, which can freak him out. By dashing back, you're relieving THAT pressure, but at the same time, pressuring him to jump at you with nair or something like that. Pressure isn't just making people not able to do something and locking them down. It's forcing them down certain trains of thought and action. Maybe they'll throw a nair at you when you're dashing back, and when they whiff, you can grab. It didn't just happen. Look at everything that happens in the game as something that happened for a reason. He attacked and whiffed because he was pressured to attack you when you moved away from him. Keeping a good dash dance makes it ambiguous as to what your options are, and when people are approaching you, then you're moving in/out of their range. If you get closer, and they try to attack, you can move back out of their range again, and they're stuck in their move's ending lag. It's an endless game of baiting them to attack, and and endless game of making them want to back off. And they can only back off up to a certain point - they'll run out of stage eventually, at which point they can jump off the edge and SD (...), or they can try dashing through or jumping on platforms or something. You don't need to attack here - by dash dancing them up to the edge, they already feel pressure. They feel pressure to get out of the situation, which means moving recklessly into your range and making an opening for you attack, or attacking you recklessly and getting dash dance grabbed or fsmashed or jabbed, etc.
Standing still does none of this. Maybe if you fast walk, they'll feel a little pressure, but we can get used to something consistent. Dash dancing keeps things ambiguous. So just standing doesn't exert the same pressure on them, and makes it very easy to see what you're doing - inaction->action is much easier to see than action->different action.
Hope that makes sense!
Also, great options out of dash dance are (maybe most importantly) JC grabs, then run in dtilt->run back, (sometimes) shffl aerials such as fair, pivot fsmash, or even run in every once in a while and shield and wavedash back OOS to see how they react. Shield Pivots can be good to stop momentum in a dash dance when people telegraph their attacks - once they hit your shield, you can dair OOS, and depending on orientation, bair OOs, fair OOs, nair OOS, UpB OOS.
ED: forgot to mention nair OOS
