New Lucas Player. Some Advice?

[Kazuya]

Basically, there's a tournament in Britain next week and they've pretty much banned most of the top Tiers from being selectable. Here's the list:

Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus Aran, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Diddy Kong, Zelda, Pit, Meta Knight, Pokémon Trainer, Ike, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Ice Climbers, King Dedede, Bowser, Wario, Olimar & Lucas

My two mains have been taken out (Marth and Lucario) but I've been practising with Lucas lately primarly because the tournament will be:

Free For All
4 Players
4 Minutes

They haven't stated whether or not the stages will be random or FD only. Plus they haven't stated a rule about items. I hope to find out more tomorrow.

But by the jist of it, Lucas seems like the most sensible choice in the list. Pit's good, but he can't exactly finish people off easily unless he's in the air. So I'll need someone with good ground hitters and air hitters. That left me with Meta Knight and Lucas.

After some debating, I decided to go Lucas because most players will be expecting to come up against some Meta Knight players - so me choosing Lucas might throw them off a bit.


Basically, I know most of Lucas' main power hitters but haven't really been able to strike some combos together with him

I've been practising against Computer ATM. Usually been waiting till they reach around 70-80% then I start U-Smashing to try and hit them off.

I do try his B-Air against a recovering opponent now an again, but a lot of the time I end up missing due to them either dodging or just poor judgement on my behalf

I NEVER use his P-Freeze, I tried it my first few matches and it would just never freeze anyone! Although it did come in handy when going up against Olimar as it managed to kill a lot of his Pikmin. Is there a certain way of using P-Freeze? Or is it all down to lucckk?

I'm decent with his P-Thunder recovery, although when I'm under the stage in FD I usually end up hitting off the sides whilst other times I end up going up too far out (if that makes sense?).


Overall, I'm just looking for a few quick pointers in how to handle Lucas in a 4 Way match.

 

[Levitas]

just so you know, MK, pika, or Dedede will serve you better.

I don't know much about FFAs, so I'll let others grab that.

 

[Kazuya]

I dunno TBH.

I like Pika, used him a lot in 64, but I drifted away from hiim in Melee. He's still good in Brawl, what puts me off is that he's like an Uber-Light-Weight and there's alot of heavy hitters in the Roster. I can just see myself missing a F-Smash and then being on the recieving end of one by Ike/DeeDee or Donky. lmao.

I know its no different than Lucas, but I reckon Lucas' Up+Smash range will be quite beniftial.

 

[Brinzy]

Main tip: do not rely on Usmash. That's one of the key things that opponents take note of when facing Lucas. Only throw one out when you're sure you'll hit, or at least you won't die from missing.

Get good with PK Thunder. Practice, practice, practice. Also, get good with PK Fire. Check the guide for some techniques. Also, keep in mind that Lucas is mainly about spacing and pressuring his opponent, not so much rushing in, unless you can pull it off.

 

[Kazuya]

Cheers mateeeee

After reading what you said I practised more with the PK Thunder, and I am getting better at it. Not getting caugt under the FD Stage as much this time round.

The problem is with Spacing is that when there's 4 of us on the stage it gets much more difficult to play Mind Games and try and work out my next move as my opponents are really going after each other.

The second round and final round will be 1 v 1 so I have been playing 4 way battles and 2 Way battles just to see how Lucas stands up. Do you think Lucas' metagame changes derastically from 4 way to 2 way battles?

 

[ParanoidDrone]

1v1, you'll want to use lots of PK Fire for spacing and free damage. His laggier moves such as Usmash become less viable since there aren't two other people to distract the opponent. I hear that PK Fire->PK Freeze is a good combination, but I have zero personal experience with it. YMMV. Dsmash outlasts spotdodges and just lasts forever in general, so it's a good defensive smash. PK Thunder (the bolt) makes a fantastic edgeguard without the possibility of being hit out of it.

Hopefully none of this is too far off the mark. <_<

 

[Levitas]

The more people on the stage, the more you want them to not be near you. Therefore, PK fire a lot, and if possible, learn to bstick pk fire.

If you get into bsticking pk fire, you can do that for 1v1s as well, but the game changes pretty drastically because you need to get more than the last KO. Get used to edgeguarding 1v1s, but never FFAs.

Read up on some strategies posted in other topics, they're generally good for 1v1s. But for FFAs, your goal is always to make people not want to get near you. PK fire is the best move lucas has for that, and sometimes make them try to roll at you by not doing a pk fire when they expect it and instead Dsmash. It works if there are 4 people on the map, but should not be relied upon in 1v1s.

 

[PeachyD00M]

that's kind of odd that so many charcters are "banned" ... anyways in a FFA Lucas can be very good due to unexpected smashes, PK fires, and areal goodies. Any basic strategy works well with him really and everyone else has given good advice if you're going to stick with Lucas.

If you ever wish to switch characters, Zelda and Diddy do wonders in FFA, because nobody pays attention and they end up being banana'd and dins fired to death. I forgot to mention Ike too, he's slow but once again, no one is paying attention... SMASH! XD

 

[Kazuya]

Yeah Peach, I can understand why maybe Marth was banned seing as it'd probably end up with like 8 Marth's in the Semi's and Finals. But I don't get why they took out R.O.B and Sonic :S

I changed the C Stick to B specials last night after reading up on some Lucas AT's .

I've gotten pretty used to the PK Fire High Jump (Side + Jump + B).

Been practising a lot with the running away and B-Sticking PK Fire too.

Only thing I can't do is the PK Fire High Jump THEN the PK Magnet thing to get a good vertical and horizontal jump back onto the stage. Could someone explain it in more detail pleaseee?

I'll post a couple of videos of me playing as Lucas later on today

 

[Levitas]

magnet pulling isn't a priority honestly, but bstick a pk fire while holding the other side direction and using a jump button (may require control mods past bstick), then keep holding the same direction on the analog stick and flick down on the bstick. It'll shoot you the way the cstick is pointing, opposite the way PK fire goes.

 

[Trozz]

Lucas has a pretty good recovery with PKT2. The only situation I can think of when you'd rather do that zap jump magnet pull recovery is if a G&W is set to bucket your thunder. Buuut that's not really likely in a FFA.

 

[Kazuya]

Cheeers guys

Really gotten used to Lucas now, both in FFA and 1v1 play. Only thing I'm concerned about now is being hit whilst recovering from a PKT2

Like, soon as I press Up + B I'm vunerable for a few seconds because I'm trying to direct the thunder under Lucas. Any recommendations on coming up against a nasty MK that really does go after you whilst recovering?

 

[screeddie]

You have a pretty decent tether recovery so use that when you can. Other than that, if you absolutely need to PKT2, the only advice I can give is do it fast before you can get gimped.

 

[Kazuya]

Ahh cool. Is there a list of all the attacks Lucas' Down B special can abosrb?

If not, I'm gonna get my lil bro to help me figure out which ones can and can't and then will upload my findings on here

 

[x9whitey9x]

Just for quick reference.
CAN get Pit's arrows (Thanks for the fix)
CAN get Din's
CAN get spacies lasers
CAN get Pika's B
CAN get Samus' charge
CAN NOT get Samus' missiles
CAN get fireballs
CAN NOT get Waddle Dees or Pikmin
CAN NOT get peanut or razor leaf
CAN get firebreath
CAN NOT get Peach's onion thingies
CAN NOT get ice blocks
CAN get PK Fire/Thunder/Flash/Freeze
I think that covers it.

 

[Veng]

Learn: B-sticking, good with ALL his aerials ( they are all amazing ) his bat, and PKT2.

 

[Wilhelmina Carmel]

CAN NOT get Pit's arrows

You mean "can," right?

 

[x9whitey9x]

Seriously? For some reason I thought I remembered his arrows going right through. I'll edit.

Otherwise, use his F-tilt and U-tilt and his aerials well, and you'll do just fine.

 

[Kazuya]

Ahh, thanks a LOT Whitey, I'll be sure to memorize the list

The main one I was thinking about was Pikachu's Down + B Special.

I know you can't aborsb it if you're right NEXT to Pikachu, but so far I havn't been able to try to absorb it when I'm like above Pikachu and he uses it.

This one is gonna sound stupid but I'm gonna try and see if I can absorb the blasts from the Landmaster Tank (Fox's Brawl attack). I've noticed a lot of the time if I'm winning really well, a few opponents end up getting a sympathy Special Brawl and I just don't want someone using that in the tourny to get back on even terms with me lol

I'm recording a few vids just now and also listing down what Lucas can absorb. List will be up later tonight.

 

[PeachyD00M]

you cant absorb Final Smash blasts of any kind and you can absorb thunder at the top (just the bolt)

a basic way to know if it's "good to eat" (absorbable) is if it's an energy projectile not a physical one. EX: energy projectile= Pit's arrows, physical = Link's arrows.

Also you can absorb the little stars on the sides of DDD and yoshi when they to the butt land thing (up b for DD and down b for Yoshi) and most players dont expect that because most ppl dont know that... i actually learned it from a G&W thread about bucketing XD

 

[Kazuya]

hehe yeah, I just shocked my little brother, he was using his Down + B with Pikachu, I jumped up and absorbed it, and then Nair'd him slightly hehehe.

Yeah! I found that out the hard way! I was trying to Down + B King DD when he was about to land to try and knock him away, but instead abosrbing his little stars. I was so shocked that he smashed me away whilst I was thinking about it haha.

I'm getting more settled in with Lucas now and feeling more comrtable with him too .

Just gonna practise a bit more on those Zap Jumps and Bairs

 

[TechnoMonster]

I think DK would probably be the savvyest choice for this tournament, but with Lucas focus on playing keepaway and using your thunder to score kills when people are offstage.

 

[iMeeHow]

SH+Nair = Ownage (but dont over use it)

 

[Kazuya]

Here's my Video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nt8hFdDrNo

Not the best I've played, but hey - least I won lol.

I reckon I need to work more on my PKT2's when recovering

 

[PeachyD00M]

i know this doesnt matter in FFA but you need to STOP spamming your f smash. get good damage w/ the areals and jabs and tilts then go for smashes. i guess the f smash is the best one to spam if you're gonna because of the lack of severe lag but on your second life you used a CHARGED UP SMASH?! no!!! that move has so much lag! i wouldnt use it unless you know you're gonna hit something with it.

Also do you know about hyphen smashing? it's mostly useful for characters like Snake and ZSS but i find it helpful with Lucas's up smash. it's when you dash then do the up smash out of the dash causing your character to slide a little and smash. it's probably the best way to set up the up smash (also is easier to do w/ the c-stick... the one down fall to b-sticking! IMO )

 

[Dxt XXII]

If you are going to use lucas, then you need some things. First, his U-smash leaves you open and has tons of lag. His short hops can be really usedfull, especially side air and neutral air. Also, lucas' pk fire is one of his most usefull moves. It can be used to hit the opponent, knock them off balance, then charge in with a tilt or short hop.

Hope this helps.

 

[Earthbound360]

That tourney sounds retarted.
ANyways, shuffle nair, short hop PKF.
DONT overuse the usmash. People are attracted to it because of its power. I'ts slow. Dsmash and stick are more reliable finishers.
Very difficult to use grab. Reverse grabs are MUCH faster so run back like one step then reverse grab.
PKT edgeguard of course.

 

[GimmeAnFSharp]

They took out "top tiers", but not Meta Knight, who is consistently winning almost as much as Snake? This tournament is a sure skewer for a few select good players out there.

Uhhh for learning Lucas, just use his short hop airs a lot (I prefer nair when I have an opponent attempting to roll around me, bair for the disjointed hitbox on a grounded opponent, and fair for tech chasing) and get comfortable with his tilts much more than his smashes. Also, get nasty at edgeguarding- Lucas has some REALLY nasty edgeguarding (off-stage fighting) due to his unique jump and his good recovery. Also, if an opponent seems susceptible to it, don't be afraid to PK Thunder 1 repeatedly if they can't figure out how to dodge it.