Kaishin
Smash Apprentice
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2014
- Messages
- 79
I'm writing a Rosalina how-to guide. Not how to use Rosalina, but how to remember how to play your damn main when its five minutes to tourney and you forget how the neutral works because you haven't warmed up properly and your last opponent wasn't that good and let you get away with a lot and and and all this mumbo jumbo. I have a huge problem with this personally. The age of the brain dead Melee Falco has passed. I don't want to start up the age of the brain dead Smash 4 Rosalina and Luma.
This is going to be general, so a lot of the information doesn't account for every situation (DeDeDe outranges Rosalina and forces a more aggressive approach and Pikachu can't be zoned easily, if at all). It will cover mostly spacing and only diving into mindgames such as reads and mixups in a handful of situations.
Note that things that are bolded are especially important.
Fundamentals composes two things: spacing and mindgames. Rosalina is probably the most spacing-oriented character in the game (Robin gives her some competition there). Don't play to your opponent's strengths: if you can't get inside their head, don't strain your concentration trying to do so. Rosalina isn't designed for that to be your only answer. I'm not talking about air dodge reads, but memorizing patterns in neutral is difficult for a lot of players. As a character with a surprising number of safe options in her lunar landing and Melee Marth-style pokes and without the speed and frame data to punish any random neutral game move, don't try to beat them in mindgames. Instead, you should be trying to beat them in spacing.
It's true that Rosalina can make some real hard punishes thanks to 25 damage smash attacks and 80% killers, but if you aren't mindgame oriented, just don't sweat it too much. Mindgames are only important when you need to secure kills or continue combos. Basically, they are most important when you are on the offensive (which is when it is the easiest). Even then, Rosalina has extremely reliable killers at percents lower than 150 (though some certainly stretch it) and her combo game can consist of solely option coverage and brute force 50/50s. Though I don't recommend ditching mindgames entirely, the options are there and you should take advantage of them if you need them.
Rosalina is a heavy zoning character whose objective in the vast majority of matchups is to lock opponents to the edge and get tons of chip damage and/or kills, by keeping them cornered onstage with superior range. The cornerstone of most successful zoning attempts (at least for me) is dtilt (but not spamming dtilt), which is a much safer option than the commonly used nair, especially against tiny characters. By standing right outside an opponent's roll range, Rosalina can harass opponents that try to get out of that zone with star bits and dtilt. Dtilt won't reach in this situation but it will catch rolls and doesn't have the atrocious endlag that star bits have. It also catches opponents from quite far away that try to run through the front when they expect star bits. If they jump over her, then the objective is to force them to the other end of the stage. This is a solid strategy against most characters (Falcon in particular).
Luma jabs are an even faster option with less endlag if it comes to it, but those don't go as far a dtilt, they give less room to punish direct approaches because they don't go as far, and Rosalina's jab is actually slower than her dtilt (frame 8 vs frame 5). They are best for love tapping opponents' shields and confirming kills at 130% when they drop them by mistake.
The effect of Rosalina's zoning is exacerbated with a platform arrangement similar to Battlefield or Dreamland, which makes it very difficult for opponents to land just about anywhere but the opposite side of the stage, which puts them in the same situation they were in before. This is why these are her best stages against spacers. However, Battlefield should only be picked if your opponent needs space more than you do. Don't take most rushdowns to Battlefield. And never underestimate stage choice. It can and will win you sets.
Characters that rely almost exclusively on their aerials to strike (Wario, Jigglypuff), should instead be met with a different strategy. They can't really be zoned by nature of their air games being ****all amazing (and they should be, since that's the reason for playing them), so meet them by spacing at maximum distance with the bair wall. Large stages are good for this. Being aggressive with your bairs is important against characters like these, because they will be the ones doing the zoning if you do not take stage control any chance you get. With a little bit of reading your opponent's spacing, you may find that most of their strategy revolves around punishing your moves. Remember that aerial approaches do not have the luxury of run-up shield and a lot of times you can simply walk forward against them and the sheer threat of your usmash will get them to back off. Rosalina needs space more than these characters, and should take them to large stages (DH is best stage against Jiggs). However, with the aid of BF or DL, it is possible to partially zone out these characters. Lastly, I don't recommend ever picking BF over DL for this purpose.
Rosalina should only go offstage if it is known that the opponent's recovery is abuseable, whether by nature of the character or their recovery option being read. Don't even try it until you have a read, unless the opponent has so few options that you can cover at least 80% of them (Little Mac, Luigi and Mario far away). Even though Rosalina can't beat Falcon without gimping him, studying your opponent's recovery patterns should come before you haphazardly dair/bair and get yourself command grabbed. This is supposed to be something I read before fighting a match, but I will mention this: MU knowledge is most important here than anywhere else. There's simply no substitute for knowing yours and your opponent's options in any offensive offstage situation. You don't want to haphazardly edgeguard so you need to know what actually works. You cannot be successful as a Rosalina main if you can't abuse bad recoveries in certain matchups.
Rosalina's neutral is greatly improved at higher level play thanks to Lunar Landing and her Boost Grab, both of which allow her to attack and grab and the same time and the former of which allows her to safely land in otherwise dangerous situations without using a move that can be punished. Any MU where you want to approach and convert into combos more than anything else (D3, Pikachu, Yoshi) should consist of mostly Lunar Landing-based approaches.
Remember that when your opponent approaches with moves that are capable of hitting both you and your precious little star child and more importantly, killing it, offensive deterrents (dtilt, dair against dash attacks) vastly beat out defensive options (shield, spot dodge) in terms of desirability. One of the hardest parts about playing Rosalina is realizing that this is the case and adapting to fit this. Despite being a character who can't take many hits, Rosalina's best options in a lot of defensive situations are offensive options, especially when she is on the ground. Offensive options stop attacks from hitting Luma and they stop characters from getting in close. The thought that hiding in your shield will protect you just doesn't cut it with Rosalina, just like neither shield nor gravity pull alone are the answer to all projectiles.
But for quick fixes, this effect is much greater on short stages, which is why Battlefield is only better than Dreamland against projectile spacers and other characters that you really don't want to have a lot of distance between. Duck Hunt is an especially good counterpick for Falcon because it vastly decreases the amount of space on stage where his DA makes this an issue.
If there is an option to camp as SoRo, you should camp for the entire 4 + 12.55 seconds that it takes for Luma to die and respawn. Smashville is a decent stage to take Falcon or Sheik or ZSS to for this purpose, because even though it is smaller than FD (I think), the single platform when far away can stall greatly. What the hell are those characters going to do? Falcon can maybe up b but he can only do that if the platform is over the stage. Past that none of them really have many options to get past your shield. Town & City is also a great option since it has even more platforms and a low ceiling (however do NOT counterpick ZSS with this), but it also has an FD transformation without the bonus of being as big as FD (I think), so weigh the risks carefully.
Rosalina's OoS is decent if the opponent is behind you but trash if they are right in front of you (Nair is just the weirdest move, isn't it?). Rosalina should mixup nairs for opponents right behind her (because that is where the first hitbox becomes active) instead of simply shield rolling away and getting punished every time. When the opponent is in front of her, Rosalina can SH dair as a mixup, which will catch people that try to grab her from the front because Luma will hit them even if they grab Rosalina (her jump is sloooow). This is another case where offensive options trump. However, because her OoS is not the greatest, smart rolling is still incredibly important for any Rosalina main.
Rosalina's biggest flaws are a combination of her extreme floatiness, huge size, and general vulnerability when she is the air. You should never attack in these situations unless it is the best defensive option available or they are low-risk, high-reward situations (using a kill move on someone at high percents while you are at low percents, for instance). The same goes for offstage. Rosalina's recovery is great for avoiding stuff like ZSS going in deep for a bair, but not so great against a Jigglypuff that's about to make your life hell with gratuitous amounts of 75/25 situations involving his Nair. Don't stretch it. You play the lightest character and one of the most prone to combos out of the entire top tier (which in my book includes like 12 characters); unless you are down substantially, high-risk gambits are never a good idea. You are not Captain Falcon, no matter how much the power in your uair and dair would like you to believe so.
On that note, I'm going to stress the importance of using utilt over usmash in a lot of situations. It has better vertical range, challenges fighters directly above much better in a lot of cases, and is in general simply a safer move.
Lastly, Rosalina has a ton of kill options. She has the best collective of killing options in the game. In both specific matchups and sheer numbers of killers, only Captain Falcon beats her (albeit on both accords). Luma has a frame 2 utilt and a frame 3 or 4 jab that links into a third jab, both of which kill around 130%. The jab is especially important as a killer. It is an option in every situation, even against floaties that can escape the combo. The sheer threat of the 3rd jab combined with how incredibly safe it is makes it especially important to remember this move. Uair is a staple killer at around 100%, but it can kill much lower if you can connect the Luma uair without the Rosalina uair while the opponent is near the top. Dair is great for offstage and sometimes on stage. Luma dair shoots the opponent forward and Rosalina dair spikes (move comes out on frame 18, spike hitbox is frame 19-23). Bair is a great edgeguarding tool if they are far away as well as a great option after a ledge trump. Fsmash stretches an amazing distance and can be used to get unorthodox punishes against badly spaced attempts at getting back down to stage. Usmash hits twice because of the luma and Rosalina's head is invincible during the duration (fun fact: you can challenge ZSS's down b with Rosalina's usmash if you are directly under it). At extremely high percents, your back and forward throws kill along with Luma's Nair.
Comments, questions, concerns? Any feedback on this would be great. I want to make this more brief so I can reference it before a tourney and remember how to play my character.
P.S. Sorry if I bolded too much.
Edit: This is waaaay too long.
This is going to be general, so a lot of the information doesn't account for every situation (DeDeDe outranges Rosalina and forces a more aggressive approach and Pikachu can't be zoned easily, if at all). It will cover mostly spacing and only diving into mindgames such as reads and mixups in a handful of situations.
Note that things that are bolded are especially important.
Fundamentals composes two things: spacing and mindgames. Rosalina is probably the most spacing-oriented character in the game (Robin gives her some competition there). Don't play to your opponent's strengths: if you can't get inside their head, don't strain your concentration trying to do so. Rosalina isn't designed for that to be your only answer. I'm not talking about air dodge reads, but memorizing patterns in neutral is difficult for a lot of players. As a character with a surprising number of safe options in her lunar landing and Melee Marth-style pokes and without the speed and frame data to punish any random neutral game move, don't try to beat them in mindgames. Instead, you should be trying to beat them in spacing.
It's true that Rosalina can make some real hard punishes thanks to 25 damage smash attacks and 80% killers, but if you aren't mindgame oriented, just don't sweat it too much. Mindgames are only important when you need to secure kills or continue combos. Basically, they are most important when you are on the offensive (which is when it is the easiest). Even then, Rosalina has extremely reliable killers at percents lower than 150 (though some certainly stretch it) and her combo game can consist of solely option coverage and brute force 50/50s. Though I don't recommend ditching mindgames entirely, the options are there and you should take advantage of them if you need them.
Rosalina is a heavy zoning character whose objective in the vast majority of matchups is to lock opponents to the edge and get tons of chip damage and/or kills, by keeping them cornered onstage with superior range. The cornerstone of most successful zoning attempts (at least for me) is dtilt (but not spamming dtilt), which is a much safer option than the commonly used nair, especially against tiny characters. By standing right outside an opponent's roll range, Rosalina can harass opponents that try to get out of that zone with star bits and dtilt. Dtilt won't reach in this situation but it will catch rolls and doesn't have the atrocious endlag that star bits have. It also catches opponents from quite far away that try to run through the front when they expect star bits. If they jump over her, then the objective is to force them to the other end of the stage. This is a solid strategy against most characters (Falcon in particular).
Luma jabs are an even faster option with less endlag if it comes to it, but those don't go as far a dtilt, they give less room to punish direct approaches because they don't go as far, and Rosalina's jab is actually slower than her dtilt (frame 8 vs frame 5). They are best for love tapping opponents' shields and confirming kills at 130% when they drop them by mistake.
The effect of Rosalina's zoning is exacerbated with a platform arrangement similar to Battlefield or Dreamland, which makes it very difficult for opponents to land just about anywhere but the opposite side of the stage, which puts them in the same situation they were in before. This is why these are her best stages against spacers. However, Battlefield should only be picked if your opponent needs space more than you do. Don't take most rushdowns to Battlefield. And never underestimate stage choice. It can and will win you sets.
Characters that rely almost exclusively on their aerials to strike (Wario, Jigglypuff), should instead be met with a different strategy. They can't really be zoned by nature of their air games being ****all amazing (and they should be, since that's the reason for playing them), so meet them by spacing at maximum distance with the bair wall. Large stages are good for this. Being aggressive with your bairs is important against characters like these, because they will be the ones doing the zoning if you do not take stage control any chance you get. With a little bit of reading your opponent's spacing, you may find that most of their strategy revolves around punishing your moves. Remember that aerial approaches do not have the luxury of run-up shield and a lot of times you can simply walk forward against them and the sheer threat of your usmash will get them to back off. Rosalina needs space more than these characters, and should take them to large stages (DH is best stage against Jiggs). However, with the aid of BF or DL, it is possible to partially zone out these characters. Lastly, I don't recommend ever picking BF over DL for this purpose.
Rosalina should only go offstage if it is known that the opponent's recovery is abuseable, whether by nature of the character or their recovery option being read. Don't even try it until you have a read, unless the opponent has so few options that you can cover at least 80% of them (Little Mac, Luigi and Mario far away). Even though Rosalina can't beat Falcon without gimping him, studying your opponent's recovery patterns should come before you haphazardly dair/bair and get yourself command grabbed. This is supposed to be something I read before fighting a match, but I will mention this: MU knowledge is most important here than anywhere else. There's simply no substitute for knowing yours and your opponent's options in any offensive offstage situation. You don't want to haphazardly edgeguard so you need to know what actually works. You cannot be successful as a Rosalina main if you can't abuse bad recoveries in certain matchups.
Rosalina's neutral is greatly improved at higher level play thanks to Lunar Landing and her Boost Grab, both of which allow her to attack and grab and the same time and the former of which allows her to safely land in otherwise dangerous situations without using a move that can be punished. Any MU where you want to approach and convert into combos more than anything else (D3, Pikachu, Yoshi) should consist of mostly Lunar Landing-based approaches.
Remember that when your opponent approaches with moves that are capable of hitting both you and your precious little star child and more importantly, killing it, offensive deterrents (dtilt, dair against dash attacks) vastly beat out defensive options (shield, spot dodge) in terms of desirability. One of the hardest parts about playing Rosalina is realizing that this is the case and adapting to fit this. Despite being a character who can't take many hits, Rosalina's best options in a lot of defensive situations are offensive options, especially when she is on the ground. Offensive options stop attacks from hitting Luma and they stop characters from getting in close. The thought that hiding in your shield will protect you just doesn't cut it with Rosalina, just like neither shield nor gravity pull alone are the answer to all projectiles.
But for quick fixes, this effect is much greater on short stages, which is why Battlefield is only better than Dreamland against projectile spacers and other characters that you really don't want to have a lot of distance between. Duck Hunt is an especially good counterpick for Falcon because it vastly decreases the amount of space on stage where his DA makes this an issue.
If there is an option to camp as SoRo, you should camp for the entire 4 + 12.55 seconds that it takes for Luma to die and respawn. Smashville is a decent stage to take Falcon or Sheik or ZSS to for this purpose, because even though it is smaller than FD (I think), the single platform when far away can stall greatly. What the hell are those characters going to do? Falcon can maybe up b but he can only do that if the platform is over the stage. Past that none of them really have many options to get past your shield. Town & City is also a great option since it has even more platforms and a low ceiling (however do NOT counterpick ZSS with this), but it also has an FD transformation without the bonus of being as big as FD (I think), so weigh the risks carefully.
Rosalina's OoS is decent if the opponent is behind you but trash if they are right in front of you (Nair is just the weirdest move, isn't it?). Rosalina should mixup nairs for opponents right behind her (because that is where the first hitbox becomes active) instead of simply shield rolling away and getting punished every time. When the opponent is in front of her, Rosalina can SH dair as a mixup, which will catch people that try to grab her from the front because Luma will hit them even if they grab Rosalina (her jump is sloooow). This is another case where offensive options trump. However, because her OoS is not the greatest, smart rolling is still incredibly important for any Rosalina main.
Rosalina's biggest flaws are a combination of her extreme floatiness, huge size, and general vulnerability when she is the air. You should never attack in these situations unless it is the best defensive option available or they are low-risk, high-reward situations (using a kill move on someone at high percents while you are at low percents, for instance). The same goes for offstage. Rosalina's recovery is great for avoiding stuff like ZSS going in deep for a bair, but not so great against a Jigglypuff that's about to make your life hell with gratuitous amounts of 75/25 situations involving his Nair. Don't stretch it. You play the lightest character and one of the most prone to combos out of the entire top tier (which in my book includes like 12 characters); unless you are down substantially, high-risk gambits are never a good idea. You are not Captain Falcon, no matter how much the power in your uair and dair would like you to believe so.
On that note, I'm going to stress the importance of using utilt over usmash in a lot of situations. It has better vertical range, challenges fighters directly above much better in a lot of cases, and is in general simply a safer move.
Lastly, Rosalina has a ton of kill options. She has the best collective of killing options in the game. In both specific matchups and sheer numbers of killers, only Captain Falcon beats her (albeit on both accords). Luma has a frame 2 utilt and a frame 3 or 4 jab that links into a third jab, both of which kill around 130%. The jab is especially important as a killer. It is an option in every situation, even against floaties that can escape the combo. The sheer threat of the 3rd jab combined with how incredibly safe it is makes it especially important to remember this move. Uair is a staple killer at around 100%, but it can kill much lower if you can connect the Luma uair without the Rosalina uair while the opponent is near the top. Dair is great for offstage and sometimes on stage. Luma dair shoots the opponent forward and Rosalina dair spikes (move comes out on frame 18, spike hitbox is frame 19-23). Bair is a great edgeguarding tool if they are far away as well as a great option after a ledge trump. Fsmash stretches an amazing distance and can be used to get unorthodox punishes against badly spaced attempts at getting back down to stage. Usmash hits twice because of the luma and Rosalina's head is invincible during the duration (fun fact: you can challenge ZSS's down b with Rosalina's usmash if you are directly under it). At extremely high percents, your back and forward throws kill along with Luma's Nair.
Comments, questions, concerns? Any feedback on this would be great. I want to make this more brief so I can reference it before a tourney and remember how to play my character.
P.S. Sorry if I bolded too much.
Edit: This is waaaay too long.
Last edited:
