Picking a basic character for a first main.

[Datnox]

So me and my friend are both getting into competitive smash (PM) at the same time and are struggling finding a main to stick to. I have slightly more experience and have been maining ivy primarily. I was thinking today about why I gravitated towards ivy and I came to the conclusion that it's because her fantastic normals and incredible recovery make it a lot easier to get by against more experienced players. This made me think that I'm pretty much hurting myself in the long run by not play a more basic character first to build solid fundamentals. I figure if I could do well with someone like sheik it will be a lot easier for me to do well with most other characters in the future.

TL;DR: Would I be better off maining a more basic character like sheik or marth to build a solid fundamental foundation?

 

[Vashimus]

If you like Ivy and do best with Ivy, stick with Ivy. She's a really good character in her own right who doesn't really play like any other (much to the chagrin of others), so fundamentals from the rest of the cast won't always translate as well.

It's like me saying I want to main Peach in Melee, but I'll decide to main Sheik instead to get better at the basics despite her playing nothing like Peach. I can't practice float-canceling / turnip game with someone else. Your "fundamentals" will change for every character. Pick a main character you'd like to get really good with, and then pick up any secondaries you might be interested in.

 

[ECHOnce]

Get good with Ivy first. If Ivy is the character you feel most comfortable with, keep playing him until you feel like you've gotten your fundamental tech skills down; look up different tech skills, practice them a little bit on your own in training mode, and then try integrating them into your play whenever you practice against friends. Learning some characters can improve your gameplay with many of the others, yes, but if you haven't mained anyone else before, you should stick to whoever you feel most comfortable with.

Just don't go off and main 2-4 characters at a time while you're getting your fundamentals down; you can still do so, but it's an unnecessary handicap. Every character feels different (jump speeds/heights, falling speeds, dash speeds/lengths, attack range/knockback, recoveries, projectiles...), which in turn affects the timing and usage of SHFFLs, wavedashes, etc. Going back and forth between these different traits while practicing the same skill, but with slight variations, screws it all up. Just learn one character at a time; if you want to go even further with 3 or 4 mains, make sure to learn your secondary character first too, then move on to the 3rd/4th. Just remember that, with all their differences, maining too many characters can take away from how comfortable you feel with each of them.

Went a bit off-topic there sorry, but concerning whether or not Ivy's good recovery is hurting your learning process...yes, it is. But it won't matter until you move on from Ivy, since it'd only be an issue if you swapped mains. So if you're planning on sticking with Ivy, you can worry about that later.

 

[Chesstiger2612]

You can basically learn everything with everyone, play Ivy if you like that character and you can pick a secondary if you need to later...

 

[Xenozoa425]

I would say use two characters, your favorite, and then either Falcon, Marth, Sheik, Mario, Meta Knight, or Roy, as all of them are pretty straight forward and easy to learn the fundamentals with IMO.

 

[CORY]

eeeh, if you want to get generally good at the game, ivy's not a bad character. the only glaringly "different" thing about her is the tether recovery. otherwise, she doesn't have a drastically different play style, such as snake or yoshi. so, basically, i agree with vashimus, just stick with ivy for now and branch out when you want more characters in your roster.

if you still want a more general character, though, i always advocate mario and shiek. they're pretty solid fundamentals characters, who are also pretty solid, so you can learn to play the game "properly" from them.