TechnoMonster
Smash Ace
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2008
- Messages
- 836
Christ, powershielding is amazing with Ganondorf. This is what you need to know about it and how to ****.
Mechanics
How To Powershield:
Powershielding occurs when an opponent's attack hits you during the initial frames of your shield coming out. The timing is similar to a Parry in Street Fighter: Third Strike; just press the shield button as you are about to get hit. A "Clank" noise will be heard if you did it correctly. Powershielding results in a 0-lag situation for you, while freezing the opponent in his attack animation, where you can counterattack with almost any attack.
Advantages
"Full Parry"
If an attack has multiple hits, then you'll have to time individual shield taps to match them, which is why multi-hit attacks like Marth's 4th green hit of his side B can be effective against powershielders. You'll need to practice the timings on these attacks, and preferably set a button that isn't pressure sensitive like X or Y to shield if you want to full parry these consistently.
Another neat fact; some multi-hit attacks can be flat-out broken through with a well-timed jab, most notably DK's down B, Marth's DED (any hit, though the timing on breaking the 4th green multi-hit is extremely tight), and Peach's Dash Attack and double slap (AA, can tie).
Powershielding is God Tier with Ganondorf
AKA how to use it.
First of all, you gotta understand the math here. Ganondorf's stomp comes out in 24 frames. Most attacks freeze for about 4-10 frames and have about 15 frames of air/landing lag. Keep in mind that the margin for error is all yours; if they hold shield or buffer an attack like Bowser's Up-B they will be able to do either action on the first actionable frame without much techskill. You won't be able to powershield, jump, and then stomp after most grounded jabs and tilts and even many well-spaced smashes.
In fact, I think stomp is possibly your worst option after a powershield. At any percentage where stomp is a guaranteed kill, I think you can also kill with the faster F-smash at 22 frames. If you want damage, you can either use a grab (at mid-high %) to rack up about 18% and reset your diminishing returns using grab hits, use a downsmash for a solid 21%, use your F-smash for a bigger chunk (but watch those returns), or even just use a side B into a d-tilt or f-tilt for damage. Up-air or FJ stomp if they're doing a rising attack.
Against faster ground attacks, you'll want to respond with a d-tilt for the damage and setups and the fact that it doesn't miss short people or people far away (no attack as far as I can tell will outrange it unless it's a tipper smash from a sword character, and even then they'll usually lean into the d-tilt and get hit). This works even against Meta's d-tilt, only a few fast attacks like jab hits will beat it. The other follow up is the dorf's amazing forward tilt, which can wreck people at like 50% if they DI it wrong. This is extremely good after someone tries to space an aerial on you as they'll often DI it backwards, expecting you to slide back and not counterattack in time, and in particular I think this is a necessity for beating Marth.
Practice
You should practice powershielding with a buddy. The best way to practice is to play simple powershielding-based drills and game. For instance, have one player pick Marth, and the second player pick his main character. Then simply stand at tipper range and practice powershielding his forward smash, and countering with different attacks. There are very few attacks that have so long of a startup that they can't be used to counter Marth's powershielded F-smash.
Other drills include Marth using his side-B or charge-B with mixed up timing and moves, powershielding multi-hit attacks like Diddy's F-smash, Snake's F-air and F-tilt, and Jiggly's D-air and Rollout. You can also mess around with Wario, as his air game is often very hard to punish, but not with powershielding!
Finally, its important to have a reward system for being good at powershielding. If you're going to run a drill, so give out cookies or a buff sandwich for good powershielding because smashers are always hungry. One of the biggest obstacles to learning for new players is the repetative nature of drills, so keeping it fun is important, and its also important to take frequent breaks; after about 20 minutes of play, it becomes hard to remember details and general practice sessions become less efficacious.
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I'll update this guy with less wall of text and more formatting and color later. Swoops, if you're reading, feel free to copy and paste it into your guide thingy and we'll team up for a sticky, and if you have any questions, try to answer them yourself so that you'll learn!
Mechanics
How To Powershield:
Powershielding occurs when an opponent's attack hits you during the initial frames of your shield coming out. The timing is similar to a Parry in Street Fighter: Third Strike; just press the shield button as you are about to get hit. A "Clank" noise will be heard if you did it correctly. Powershielding results in a 0-lag situation for you, while freezing the opponent in his attack animation, where you can counterattack with almost any attack.
Advantages
- When you powershield, you incur no lag whatsoever. It's important to immediately release the shield button so that you can counterattack!
- Your opponent get stuck in the shield-hit freezeframes of his attack for the prescribed duration, and then has to deal with his move's own lag as well. (opponent recieves no freezeframes from projectile attacks)
- When you powershield, your spacing to the opponent does not change (you don't slide back).
- Your shield does not diminish due to being hit when powershielding, though it does diminish normally as you hold it afterward.
"Full Parry"
If an attack has multiple hits, then you'll have to time individual shield taps to match them, which is why multi-hit attacks like Marth's 4th green hit of his side B can be effective against powershielders. You'll need to practice the timings on these attacks, and preferably set a button that isn't pressure sensitive like X or Y to shield if you want to full parry these consistently.
Another neat fact; some multi-hit attacks can be flat-out broken through with a well-timed jab, most notably DK's down B, Marth's DED (any hit, though the timing on breaking the 4th green multi-hit is extremely tight), and Peach's Dash Attack and double slap (AA, can tie).
Powershielding is God Tier with Ganondorf
AKA how to use it.
First of all, you gotta understand the math here. Ganondorf's stomp comes out in 24 frames. Most attacks freeze for about 4-10 frames and have about 15 frames of air/landing lag. Keep in mind that the margin for error is all yours; if they hold shield or buffer an attack like Bowser's Up-B they will be able to do either action on the first actionable frame without much techskill. You won't be able to powershield, jump, and then stomp after most grounded jabs and tilts and even many well-spaced smashes.
In fact, I think stomp is possibly your worst option after a powershield. At any percentage where stomp is a guaranteed kill, I think you can also kill with the faster F-smash at 22 frames. If you want damage, you can either use a grab (at mid-high %) to rack up about 18% and reset your diminishing returns using grab hits, use a downsmash for a solid 21%, use your F-smash for a bigger chunk (but watch those returns), or even just use a side B into a d-tilt or f-tilt for damage. Up-air or FJ stomp if they're doing a rising attack.
Against faster ground attacks, you'll want to respond with a d-tilt for the damage and setups and the fact that it doesn't miss short people or people far away (no attack as far as I can tell will outrange it unless it's a tipper smash from a sword character, and even then they'll usually lean into the d-tilt and get hit). This works even against Meta's d-tilt, only a few fast attacks like jab hits will beat it. The other follow up is the dorf's amazing forward tilt, which can wreck people at like 50% if they DI it wrong. This is extremely good after someone tries to space an aerial on you as they'll often DI it backwards, expecting you to slide back and not counterattack in time, and in particular I think this is a necessity for beating Marth.
Practice
You should practice powershielding with a buddy. The best way to practice is to play simple powershielding-based drills and game. For instance, have one player pick Marth, and the second player pick his main character. Then simply stand at tipper range and practice powershielding his forward smash, and countering with different attacks. There are very few attacks that have so long of a startup that they can't be used to counter Marth's powershielded F-smash.
Other drills include Marth using his side-B or charge-B with mixed up timing and moves, powershielding multi-hit attacks like Diddy's F-smash, Snake's F-air and F-tilt, and Jiggly's D-air and Rollout. You can also mess around with Wario, as his air game is often very hard to punish, but not with powershielding!
Finally, its important to have a reward system for being good at powershielding. If you're going to run a drill, so give out cookies or a buff sandwich for good powershielding because smashers are always hungry. One of the biggest obstacles to learning for new players is the repetative nature of drills, so keeping it fun is important, and its also important to take frequent breaks; after about 20 minutes of play, it becomes hard to remember details and general practice sessions become less efficacious.
-
I'll update this guy with less wall of text and more formatting and color later. Swoops, if you're reading, feel free to copy and paste it into your guide thingy and we'll team up for a sticky, and if you have any questions, try to answer them yourself so that you'll learn!
Nice
