PK Freeze

[Phelix08]

Discuss.



Seriously though, what's you guys's take on pk freeze? I find that it's not too difficult to get someone frozen, but there's not much you can do afterwards. Sure, you can get in a bit of damage, and the occasional gimp kill on some heavy characters, but against most people, it's pretty worthless. Am I missing something, or just getting hung up on a fairly useless attack?

 

[ParanoidDrone]

You're just getting hung up on a fairly useless attack. The best use I've found for it is trapping an opponent in the general vicinity of a stage hazard just as it's about to fire or whatever. You can also stagespike with it under certain conditions.

It's still a really cool move though (pun not intended).

 

[slickmasterizzy]

i dont use pk freeze when im lucas but even if you cant do much after their frozen dont forget that it does 20% damage. not too bad damage IMO.

 

[Phelix08]

Good point. For the record, since i've never heard this discussed, you can kill ddd at up to 30ish percent damage by pk freezing him offstage. He barely goes up, so he winds up dying off the bottom before he breaks free. Easy to do in free for all's. Not so much in 1v1. And I assume it works on others, maybe not at very high percents, though.

 

[Blackbelt]

I find it effective as a mindgame, and it's good for forcing people into PK Fire range.

And yeah, I love using it for low percentage gimps, since vertical movement at low percentage is null, so they go straight down.

 

[NESSBOUNDER]

I use Pk Freeze more than I should. It is a good way to apply constant pressure over all parts of the stage.

And when the opponent is frozen, I send a Pk thunder op to try and Ko them off the top of the stage.

 

[IDK]

blonde lucas could've used it in this video at 1:30 instead of charging his bat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOtrGjB6600

 

[Blackbelt]

blonde lucas could've used it in this video at 1:30 instead of charging his bat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOtrGjB6600

Yeah, he should have.

 

[Trozz]

It's hilarious when you freeze someone who doesn't know that you can break out.

Freeze is decent, since it has great horizontal speed. I just don't like that you can't really do tricks with it. Feels uninspired.

 

[Earthbound360]

Mindvirus has this really cool (lol punny) video of him Freezing someone off stage then spiking them with his bair. It was amazing.

 

[Ryazan]

It's occasionally useful for gimp kills, but not often. Even against heavy characters. It always knocks the target upwards after it freezes them, and since everyone is so floaty in Brawl, it's almost impossible NOT to break free. But it's great for pressuring since it's so fast.

 

[DemonicTrilogy]

I guess it is an OK skill because if the enemy is trying to recover, you can freeze them and then spike them with a d-air or a b-air while they are still encased in the ice. Other then that, I only use it to pressure them.

 

[Trozz]

Mindvirus has this really cool (lol punny) video of him Freezing someone off stage then spiking them with his bair. It was amazing.

Lucas vs Wolf on Battlefield. Very cool use of Freeze if you can predict when they'll break out.

 

[inside]

Is there a way to cancel one in a middle of a PK freeze?

 

[Levitas]

no.

On a different note, PK freeze is more effective the taller and slower the opponent is. IE, gannon's the best, pika/metaknight are probably the worst. The reason for this is that PK freeze hits in a more or less horizontal line, so the timing window for release is bigger on a taller character. It's also more precise to aim at a slower target, due to the lack of flexibility on the part of the arc freeze makes.

 

[Phelix08]

What exactly contributes to you (or hopefully your opponent ) breaking out? I know fire-based attacks (pk fire in our case) instantly breaks them free, but what about other attacks? And does damage have anything to do with it?

Basically, it makes it a much more useful tool if we can predict where and when your opponent is going to break free.

 

[Levitas]

It's like sing-stun. You have to mash to get out sooner. normal attacks don't break people out, though, which is different than sing-stun.

In other words, you can't effectively combo off of PK freeze, because the opponent (if competent) will always mash out first.

 

[fishsticks]

I mindgame with it. PK Freeze isn't so much an offensive attack as a tactical one; you need a perfect situation in which to use it and not miss, and they rarely happen.

What exactly contributes to you (or hopefully your opponent ) breaking out? I know fire-based attacks (pk fire in our case) instantly breaks them free, but what about other attacks? And does damage have anything to do with it?

Basically, it makes it a much more useful tool if we can predict where and when your opponent is going to break free.

I think it's more like Yoshi's egg; mash buttons to escape.

 

[wavelucas]

i dont use pk freeze when im lucas but even if you cant do much after their frozen dont forget that it does 20% damage. not too bad damage IMO.

yeah, i only tend to use it about every 3 matches. BTW, i was just about to start a thread on this, but u beet me 2 it

 

[Earthbound360]

I hate how your attacks only do 1/2 damage when they're frozen though. But the damage it does is nice. It's good for regular spacing and mindgames even if you dont hit with it. If you DO hit with it, it does great damage.

 

[Tyr_03]

Don't use PK Freeze on any decently fast character. All they have to do is run, short hop, air dodge through it and they can punish you. Never send PK Freeze the full distance unless they're off the edge. They can easily get through it and punish you. Always keep it close and hope for them to walk into it. If they're preparing to shield PK Freeze, make sure that the freeze hits them so that they are knocked away from you rather than toward you. It has enough shield knockback that it will protect you if they're knocked away, but allow them to punish you if they're knocked toward you.

When you do hit with PK Freeze your best option is almost always Dair. Opponents can break out really fast so this is about all you'll have time for most often. Most often what will happen is they will break out of the ice in the middle which means you get to spike them to the ground on the 4th hit. There are of course plenty of other options but they're much more dependent on when your opponent breaks out which is based on how fast they're mashing buttons.

PK Freeze is a move for pestering your opponent when they're being campy. It has better range than a whole lot of characters' projectiles. What you're hoping for is that they will see it coming and try to punish you not realizing the hitbox size of the freeze. It's a very risky move and it does not have exceptionally high rewards. Think of it as an occasional way to rack up damage.

 

[iMeeHow]

Only time PK freeze is somewhat useful is as a edgeguard

 

[Pai]

Well, I only use it in multiplayer fights. I go stand off from the crowd and PK freeze one or two. Bahaha.

But otherwise, in 1v1, I use it as a lure for camping, spamming people. Or for opponents that don't approach right away. usually they just run past, so I aim infront, which occasionally gets them, but about 85% of the time, they shield. And you only have just enough time to block their incoming attack afterwards.
So... I'd say it's a nice lure, but very very avoidable.

 

[Irsic]

Yeah, maybe if it wasn't such a god**** awkward ability.

 

[GimmeAnFSharp]

Only instances I can recall using it is for mindgames and when my opponent tries to get a breather on the other side of a flat stage with a character with no ranged attacks... ironically, Marth is probably the most susceptible to long-range PK Freezes if he gets too far.

 

[Dxt XXII]

I hardly use it, but it can be usefull for combos sometimes.

At low percentages you can grab then throw foward then PK freeze. If they still have low percentage, they won't fly up so you can PK freeze again while the opponent is still frozen. But mostly it's just to catch people off guard.

 

[JigglyZelda003]

i only really use it in FFA or teams since its easier their. in 1v1 i just use it to falsely gimp peoples recovery lol.

 

[Subs]

i use pk freeze to keep my friends occupied and on their toes

but other than that if your fast enough you can easily run up to them and up smash before they get out


just a fun thing i do

also its good for edge guarding ^.^

from,
Subs

 

[Phelix08]

I hardly use it, but it can be usefull for combos sometimes.

At low percentages you can grab then throw foward then PK freeze. If they still have low percentage, they won't fly up so you can PK freeze again while the opponent is still frozen. But mostly it's just to catch people off guard.

Seriously? Wouldn't it be really easy for them to just DI out of that? As in, right after the forward throw? No offense, but it sounds pretty punishable.

 

[DemonicTrilogy]

Subs, I wouldn't say that PK freeze is a good edge guarding. It is fairly easy to air dodge since the graphic of the attack is huge and predictable. Also, if the attack was to hit, it would cause the opponent to spin upward while they are frozen, thus making it easier for the opponent to recover , since you can't give a lot of horizontal knock-back to the opponent while they are frozen. Even if you were try to aim for a spike after they are frozen, it would be fairly difficult to set up a situation where you can spike the person with b air or something else. Even if you were to spike the frozen opponent, they could unfreeze since it is easy to mash yourself out of the ice, thus canceling all of the momentum of the spike before giving the slight upward momentum.

 

[Dxt XXII]

Seriously? Wouldn't it be really easy for them to just DI out of that? As in, right after the forward throw? No offense, but it sounds pretty punishable.

It can be avoided easily, but if they aren't expecting it it could catch them off guard and hit. PK freeze is a fast attack, so if you miss you can just get away easily.

 

[PKflashfreeze]

I usually only use PK Freeze in multiplayer brawls. It's a good move to use when you're on one end of the stage and the other 3 players are fighting on the other because it has good horizontal range and the other players might be too distracted to avoid it. It racks up some damage and you might even hit 2 people at once if they're close together.

 

[Earthbound360]

People should realize that PK Freeze can KO at higher percents. Easy to kill someone off the top if they are recovering high up but have a difficult time dodging the blast.
Oh, and it kills shields.