mastering the luma

[brentosfreshness]

Has anyone master controlling the luma yet? I've been doing it myself and decided to try it out online against someone in For Glory 1v1. I ended up losing the first two matches or so getting the hang of it and not really paying attention to rosalina, but after i started getting the hang of it, i noticed how much easier it is to beat someone as rosalina than any other character I use (sheik, ZSS, yoshi, zelda,).

I still don't feel 100% comfortable utilizing the luma completely to win a battle, but it helps sometimes (i wasn't going to make it back to the stage, but my luma was sitting by my opponent so i smashed him and won).

Is there anyone here that feels they've got the luma on lock and could give some pointers?

 

[Saltix]

I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on Rosalina and Luma. My biggest tip to give out, which was a big sticking point for me is to not worry about Luma too much. I used to place an over emphasis on Luma's safety, which would shift my attention from Rosalina, but you have to remember Luma does respawn if killed. Sometimes I let my Luma eat damage, because it allows me to reposition myself in order to reset the situation or gain the upper hand.

 

[Super Writer]

I'm still figuring out some stuff, but I do know the Luma Shot is great for Sudden Death, as you can use it to trap opponents easily. For example, today I got into SD with an Ike player, he started charging his side B, the one where he travels across the screen, that one. Anyways, in retaliation, I used the Luma Shot. He of course countered Luma to not get hit, but the recovery frames of that move left him wide open for me to get him. Second best SD victory I've had so far.

Note this doesn't work against Little Mac's neutral B, it just keeps on going.

P.S. Best SD was using Ganondorf against Little Mac, shielding Mac's neutral B and hitting him once with Ganon's normal attack.

 

[SSNC Luck]

I feel fairly comfortable with Luma now, some match ups I want Luma away from me acting as a barrier or a buffer vs my opponent, I'll interrupt or pressure them with star bits if they jump over I go between trying to tag them with Luma's up tilt or jumping to meet them with ROsa's forward air, it's a sexy move.

If they just run past Luma, I'm still working on this but try to tag them with jabs or a down smash to hit them from Luma or me. Other matchups I like having Luma on me to boost my attacks and do some grab followups with Lumas up tilt. It's all feeling really, Don't be afraid to be annoying and spam those star bits, they can disrupt people who aren't used to it, don't try to save luma if the foe focuses on him instead try to punish them after they hit Luma with something.

 

[Mienaikage]

I basically use Luma as a moving weapon, at the moment I manage to catch when people have their guard down:
http://youtu.be/XZKrHt7KKLs

 

[brentosfreshness]

awesome, thanks for all the replies, great info!

 

[Peterawr]

Originally I thought controlling both would be super hard.

I just send Luma out on its own and then fight as Rosalina, and occasionally look to see what Luma's up to.
It works out really well.

The biggest problem I see too many Rosalina fighters coming into online is that they ONLY focus on Luma.
90% of the focus needs to be on Rosalina - if Luma dies, it's not a big deal.

 

[SSNC Luck]

One thing at least I feel is true, N-Air sucks if Luma is NOT with you, Luma covers the early front since the move starts behind Rosa, and Luma hits fairly hard in N-Air, good way to get a KO off the stage if you're unpredicatble with it.

 

[-Jax]

I don't really use Luma as much else than a meatshield or a way to distract the opponent and bait them in a laggy move. Luma can soak up a lot of damage and can negate a ridiculous amount of projectiles easily without requiring you to stop to down-b.

Don't try altering Luma's position with attacks, as you opponent will punish you. I've found that even if you try to attack with a Luma disconnected from you, their moves will just outprioritize Luma's. At most, just side-b them when they're in range of Luma to make them get annoyed enough to attack.

Of course this is strictly personal preference, and how I have had the most success with this character. Surely there's a ton of room for improvement. The sheer fact that most killing moves kill about 20% later without Luma is enough reason for me to keep them by my side unless I'm trying to mess with my opponent.

 

[Deleted member 269706]

I was messing around during training, and I noticed that Rosi did a lot more damage when the Luma was paired with her, so I've been keeping the Luma at her side for most of the battles, and only occasionally sending him out when I need a shield, or want to edge-guard safely. Though occasionally I can pull off some pretty decent combos where I treat the enemy as a ball and just send him back and forth between Rosi and the Luma. When I do play more offensively I find myself pulling him back in, then shooting him outwards more than I do most other moves. Still trying to get a sense of the spacing and such.

 

[Meta_Ridley]

Whether you keep Luma close to you or far out is a good bit dependent on the match-up and situation.

I was up against a Mario (and then a Dr. Mario), and I had my Luma out and would try to hit them with a laggy move, but they would dodge the move and grab me before I could do anything. And of course, since I didn't have Luma with me, I couldn't do anything about grabs and I lost a lot of my trading potential.

 

[SSNC Luck]

I was messing around during training, and I noticed that Rosi did a lot more damage when the Luma was paired with her, so I've been keeping the Luma at her side for most of the battles, and only occasionally sending him out when I need a shield, or want to edge-guard safely. Though occasionally I can pull off some pretty decent combos where I treat the enemy as a ball and just send him back and forth between Rosi and the Luma. When I do play more offensively I find myself pulling him back in, then shooting him outwards more than I do most other moves. Still trying to get a sense of the spacing and such.

It does more damage because Rosa AND Luma are hitting at the same time usually. That's the benefit of having him close, among other things.

 

[ParanoidDrone]

Something I noticed playing online:

Normally Luma dies by getting knocked offstage and falling to its death. But when it dies due to reaching the end of its HP meter, you can tell because it makes that noise Lumas do when it gets hit, and it explodes mid-flight as it gets blown away.

Here's the weird thing.

If this fatal blow is dealt with an attack with negligible knockback, then Luma will make the noise, but will still be controllable for those few seconds until it explodes. I noticed this when Luma took a weak hit for me, made the noise, and I was still able to recall it and move around with it a bit until it finally died for real.

I think this may warrant further investigation and may prove situationally useful akin to the Chiko Special, a small fake out like how Nana sometimes pulls off clutch kills before she vanishes.

 

[R e d X]

Can confirm this, this has happened to me before ^

There's definitely time to get off a quick attack or two until it dies, I've killed people a couple of times during this window and it makes for a pretty good surprise attack

 

[Meta_Ridley]

It reminds me of Kirby Super Star, how when your helper dies, he has a small window of time to attack people or change into a different enemy before he explodes.