Important New Technique: Pivot Cancelling

[Chiroz]

This technique was explained in videos in my twitter thread, I would recommend watching those:

https://twitter.com/ChirozDR/status/1067589787027161088



Basically by inputting a RAR motion out of a run you are able to keep your "turn around slide" momentum while performing an attack in the direction you were running. This can be done with any tilt, smash or special but certain attacks from specific characters will stop all your momentum, so specific characters might have attacks this does not work with. The slide distance is unique to every character since it's based on the initial turn around slide velocity.

Let us discuss what effect this could have on the meta. IMO, from a very first glance: This will allow many different things such as give you a wider range of punish, give your dash dance a bigger "effective range". Allow for micro spacing and better baits.

 

[Octorockandroll]

Honestly, dashing in this game is so crazy strong that I don't even care that we don't have real wavedashing. This sort of thing could let characters with less options for getting in have a safer approach and give others with more range on their normals a way to create safe pressure. I'm really happy about it.

 

[Shieldlesscap]

So it's like you get Perfect Pivot physics off of a normal pivot?

 

[kirby3021]

Quick question - I am unsure what RAR is (and I will no doubt be seeing many more acronyms I am unfamiliar with as time goes on). Is there a resource explaining most acronyms used in Smash?

 

[Shieldlesscap]

Quick question - I am unsure what RAR is (and I will no doubt be seeing many more acronyms I am unfamiliar with as time goes on). Is there a resource explaining most acronyms used in Smash?

RAR, or Reverse Aerial Rush, is a technique that lets you approach with Bairs

Basically, post Melee, you can turn around while running, and if you jump, you'll retain your momentum but face the other way, allowing you to use your Bair while moving toward the opponent. In Melee, Fox and Falco were the only characters who could do this, and they needed to run, Shine, turn around, and then jump back very quickly.

 

[Chiroz]

So it's like you get Perfect Pivot physics off of a normal pivot?

I mean sort of. It gives you more slide then a PP would, it’s easier to perform and it’s also more adjustable/controllable. It’s only doable from a run, but can be done at any time, whereas PP can only be done in the first frame of a dash.

But I would say they are similar, yea.

 

[Shieldlesscap]

I mean sort of. It gives you more slide then a PP would, it’s easier to perform and it’s also more adjustable/controllable. It’s only doable from a run, but can be done at any time, whereas PP can only be done in the first frame of a dash.

But I would say they are similar, yea.

Oh, even better, so it's like PP but better (minus not being able to do it out of a dash)

 

[adlp]

man its tough for me to do this for an approaching ftilt. i keep accidentally smashing. should i have my left stick sensitivity or high, low or normal to make this easier?

 

[BlackFire]

So is there a situation where using a PP would be better that this new tech or should I only use this from now on?

 

[Shaya]

Perfect Pivots were removed from Ultimate.

 

[Octorockandroll]

man its tough for me to do this for an approaching ftilt. i keep accidentally smashing. should i have my left stick sensitivity or high, low or normal to make this easier?

What character do you play? Most of the cast I would recommend having a tilt stick anyways. It'll help with a lot of things, especially this.

 

[Shieldlesscap]

man its tough for me to do this for an approaching ftilt. i keep accidentally smashing. should i have my left stick sensitivity or high, low or normal to make this easier?

Either set sensitivity to low or try using Tilt Stick. Personally I’m more comfortable with Smash Stick. Even at minimum sensitivity it requires some practice. Imo they should let you turn the sensitivity to “Will only ever do Smashes” or “Will only ever do tilts”

 

[BlackFire]

Perfect Pivots were removed from Ultimate.

Oh thanks I didnt know

 

[adlp]

What character do you play? Most of the cast I would recommend having a tilt stick anyways. It'll help with a lot of things, especially this.

melee is my main game so i prefer to keep the controls uniform and with tap jump. in ultimate ive been playing c.falcon, ganon, DK, icys, and samus on loop

 

[AceEliteMaster]

ok, I did some testing with this and here's what I found.
1. There seems to be a ~13 frame window to do the attack after the pivot, starting on the frame immediately after you input the pivot
2. if you do it with an utilt or dtilt and input on any frame after the first (2-13) you turn around just before the attack, which is especially useful for utilits that hit behind you (like kirby's). if you input the attack on frame 1, you won't turn around unless you input an ftilt in that direction. I believe this all works the same way for smashes.
3. This also works with some special moves

 

[Chiroz]

ok, I did some testing with this and here's what I found.
1. There seems to be a ~13 frame window to do the attack after the pivot, starting on the frame immediately after you input the pivot
2. if you do it with an utilt or dtilt and input on any frame after the first (2-13) you turn around just before the attack, which is especially useful for utilits that hit behind you (like kirby's). if you input the attack on frame 1, you won't turn around unless you input an ftilt in that direction. I believe this all works the same way for smashes.
3. This also works with some special moves

You can input U-Tilt and D-Tilt with diagonal inputs which turns you around on the direction of the diagonal.

 

[KurashiDragon]

I recently started using this myself and was wondering what it would be called. Honestly some characters just get alot better with Pivot Canceling. For me, special mention goes to Corrin who's PC'd F-tilt is better than his dash attack imo. Also, All of the Marths benefit from this as well. Really, any character with a bad dash attack and/or great f-tilt with a long slide of a pivot benefits. I'm already thinking of how this might apply to Charizard *Pokemon Trainer secondary who thinks Charizard is trash*

 

[Wyatt Davis]

Quick question - I am unsure what RAR is (and I will no doubt be seeing many more acronyms I am unfamiliar with as time goes on). Is there a resource explaining most acronyms used in Smash?

Reverse arial rush. There's a wikipedia for that.

 

[vincefreeman14]

Quick question - I am unsure what RAR is (and I will no doubt be seeing many more acronyms I am unfamiliar with as time goes on). Is there a resource explaining most acronyms used in Smash?

RAR means "Reverse Aerial Rush" basically turning your character around and immediately following with an aerial.

 

[Wyatt Davis]

I made a high production video to showcase it.

 

[Terotrous]

Charizard's Pivot Cancel Ftilt is nuts, it travels really far. Definitely way better than his dash attack.

 

[Call_Me_Red]

How do you perform a Pivot Cancel up or down tilt? I keep getting the tilt, but facing the wrong direction.

Edit: found the answer further up. Ignore this post.

 

[Yawshi]

I think that sheik has one of if not the best Pivot cancel.

 

[DavemanCozy]

I love doing this with Snakes uptilt as a quick kill move.

 

[Kugelhagelfisch]

Oh, nice. It's pretty easy to do with ftilt. This can help King Dedede a lot with the long range ftilt and the invulnerable utilt. I'll be sure to practise this.

 

[TK Wolf]

ok, I did some testing with this and here's what I found.
1. There seems to be a ~13 frame window to do the attack after the pivot, starting on the frame immediately after you input the pivot
2. if you do it with an utilt or dtilt and input on any frame after the first (2-13) you turn around just before the attack, which is especially useful for utilits that hit behind you (like kirby's). if you input the attack on frame 1, you won't turn around unless you input an ftilt in that direction. I believe this all works the same way for smashes.
3. This also works with some special moves

You can input U-Tilt and D-Tilt with diagonal inputs which turns you around on the direction of the diagonal.

I'm really confused, cause I was testing before and THOUGHT I could use an angled Utilt/Dtilt to slide and attack forward, but I can't get it to happen at all now. I can only consistently do it if I input the attack on frame 1.

 

[Chiroz]

I'm really confused, cause I was testing before and THOUGHT I could use an angled Utilt/Dtilt to slide and attack forward, but I can't get it to happen at all now. I can only consistently do it if I input the attack on frame 1.

I don’t know about the exact frames and such, but I am able to consistently do turn around tilts at any time by inputting diagonals, even when I am standing still. Works the same for sliding.

 

[Mark The Page]

Has there not been another update on this technique?

After a lot of testing, I've found a MUCH better way to perform pivot cancels than what I'd read here back in December. So I put together an in-depth guide to all the nuances of pivot canceling different types of attacks. The single biggest point is that, while Ultimate's pivot canceling was originally reported to use the RAR input, the doubling back isn't actually necessary. For the most part, pivot cancels now work like they did in Smash 4, except you can now use them with any attack rather than just reversed side attacks.

Because the Smash 4 method is faster than the RAR method, this also means you'll slide farther. Little Mac's pivot cancel in particular goes so far that I often can't catch opponents in its second hit. Too much power for me to handle!

I had to rewrite the script for this video twice because I kept discovering new mechanics.