it doesnt matter if 2 characters have the same number but they arent EXACTLY the same.
i.e.
MK has a +1 on both ICs and Snake
However it's pretty clear that ICs does better at a top level
I'm not going to get my panties tight and make it a -0.5
We weren't even talking about sheik, I don't know why you put this big *** IS like you're telling me some **** I don't know.
I think sheiks risk reward ratio is her main problem as a character. But I also think that this will change as people get better followups with her. Her weight will always be issue, but she can still wrack up huge strings quite consistently with solid option selects and mobility (which her frame data allows her do).
100% maxing your followups in a game like brawl is extremely difficult, and it's something literally every character is still having trouble advancing bar a few really good top of the top players.
However at least sheik has the potential to do that. Having poor risk reward is a character flaw but that doesn't stop her being able to compete unlike the other characters you listed. luigis horrible mobility along with sliding, lucas's grab release issues or the fact that squirtle just turns into garbage are much more problems to deal with at a character base model.
oh god
I put the big IS because you said "all the other characters you listed have huge character flaws" and i was stating that so does sheik. I wasn't like yelling its just a way of typing like how you would put emphasis on a word.
And I wouldn't put the decimals if everyone DID understand that all MU's arent the same. But i have had like 10 times people say to Snake -1 Diddy -1 Olimar -1 "dude there is NO WAY Snake is the same difficulty as olimar" because people say that crap all the time. The numbers is just a way to help clarify that. If you guys want me to stop I will but like MU's arent set in stone and i feel like as long as they convey an understanding it doesnt really matter.
Sheik does have alot of follow up potential and I feel I am very good at capitalizing on most of her oppertunities (obviously I can always improve) but understand Sheik only has great strings and follow ups below 100% once they break that cap the only real strings you get are off throws. Which stinks because thats realistically only 2/3 of their stock. And once she loses her followup options its basically one hit then reset and try again. She can have better follow up options given proper decay but sheiks decay dependency is also in some ways a weakness.
Here is an example. Say you are playing an MK and you get off the standard 30-70% ftilt lock stuff. Cool your ftilt is probably staled 5-6 times which is good if your going for the kill at 86%.If your opponent happens to try avoiding the ftilt and ends up passing up the 90% cap well now ftilt usmash now no longer works. Whats worse is your aerials are all at max strength but their percent is too low to kill them. So you need to now rack damage but all ur aerials hit so far you have no shot at following up. Well the good news is ur ftilt is still decayed so everytime you hit with that it will combo.....into aerials which hit too far to followup again. But thats fine every ftilt is now like 14% not bad. However now that you are using that to rack damage you are staling your aerials. Which at this point in the game is your primary killing tool. So you need to pick which one you wanna save (typically bair or nair) both of which have different uses. Nair is good OoS and Bair is her good reach higher priority move you have to save one. But that means you cant really use it for that function. If your gonna save nair you OoS options are more limited, if you save bair your spacing game will pay. Becomes tricky and hard to deal with.
So then say screw it dont let them pass up the 90% cap (called the Lucario strategy lol jk but I do sometimes use this vs Lucario) wait til you kill em with ftilt to Usmash. Now they are at 86% and you are walking around the stage fishing for ftilts like an idiot. This actually works sometimes cause ftilt is an amazing move. But against good characters this wont fly.
So then nevermind just let your aerials be more stale by the time they get to 100% so have more legit strings once they break the cap. This is a pretty sound idea. The only real issue is that for this to be the case you have to have used your aerials several times before 100%. This means more than likely you didnt get off ur ftilt string (one of sheiks strongest aspects) and that you 0-100 game was much less smooth and had many more oppertunities to take extra damage here and there building it (Because now a solid 40-65% more wasn't a combo like it normally is and her strings become strings and less guaranteed because most of her strings are off ftilts and fairs and combinations of the 2.)
But by far the biggest problem with decay management in general is you are trying to orchestrate a match. You are trying to get hits with certain moves at certain times which is partly up to what ur opponent does. Like if your opponent doesn't do stuff you would expect it throws off you plan for how to setup ur decay. Like what if they do stupid stuff like charge MK fsmashes from full screen which is easily punished with a needle. Well cool you punished them once......and added 1 needle to the decay list.
Managing decay is only so practical which is something sheik relies on and is for sure a big weakness.
: she is underrated, but I think she requires a great skill usage to perform at high level. I also think the fact that Japan generally using only sv, bf, and fd for the most part boost her capabilities. I think cp's are bad for her, which reflects her position in the American tier list.
