Tailwhipping
using a PK Thunder without mindgames? That's one punished the eff up Ness. also i know this has probably been asked/adressed 5 hundred times by now but i've searched the threads and haven't found much info on how useful tailwhipping is in Brawl. I believe its usefulness has been pretty diminished since melee but is it still useful? wish there were sum vids out there w/ some good brawl tailwhipping examples. when it comes to the barrier id rather just air dodge my way back to the stage, i think barrier would only be good for mindgames or killing your oppenant if u manage to survive using barrier nad then proceed to recover and hit him back w/ an ariel or the pk missile or w/e its called. last question, why's it called PKT2? is there a difference between pk thunder and PKT2. why the 2? probably a newb question but what the hey, i've always wondered. **** this post is full of questions
You really think that tailwhipping is not longer useful? I am not 100% certain, but I believe the tail is even larger than Melee. Either that or it travels just slightly slower, which has the same effect that I am about to describe. Without a GameShark, I can not prove my conjecture about its size or speed, but I definitely think that PK Thunder is better than it was in Melee.
When I started playing Brawl online, I was messing around with Sandbag in the Waiting Room quite a lot, and discovered that tailwhipping was not only still in Smash, but apparently even better. Like I said, the tail is longer, and it is now much easier to get your opponent with two tailwhips before finishing off with the actual PK Thunder hit. This is useful not only for racking up damage, but for extended juggling (especially in Team Battles). If they are in the correct trajectory path it is even possible to finish the tailwhip juggle with a PKT2. I've actually done this as an edge guard against a very talented Zelda, and it caught him totally by surprise. In fact, if they are close enough to you, it is possible to perform an inescapable tailwhip to PKT2 combo.
Obviously a tactic like this shouldn't be the primary focus of your game. Things like: speed, knowing when to be aggressive, when to be defensive, predicting and knowing your opponent are more important, but its always interesting how pulling off something unexpected and flashy like the tailwihp to PKT2 combo can affect the "pace" of the game.
-Zeke-