Practice methods?

[Rongunshu]

What are your methods of practising P:M If you don't have anyone to practice with? A.K.A "Sparring partner"

 

[PastLink]

depends on what you're trying to practice my man. for general movement and stuff going into training and just pick a stage were you can practice what you want (wavedashing, wavelanding between platforms, bomb jumping, super wavedash, etc.) as for actual match up practice there's nothing really that beats PvP, but going through all star is a good endurance test, especially on harder difficulties.
now i can reccomend a good way to practice L-canceling, just in case you didn't know, L-canceling timing is different between whiffing, hitting opponent, and hitting sheild. go onto two player and set the damage scaling down as far as it'll go, and just have whatever character you're beating up stand there. with the damage scaling all the way down, your hits won't start sending them anywhere really even at higher percents, you can practice any sweetspot spacing you may need for your character this way too. as for shield? all i've really got is taping the button down and jabbing to snap them out of sun. happy training though

 

[Hinichii.ez.™]

I pratice my timings with L cancels and other timings while playing CPU's. CPU's also have decent Di so if you can do a combo on them, you can probably do that same combo on a human. You can get used to weights, fall speeds, spacing, tech roll speeds and all that jazz. It's not horrible, just make sure you play people ever so often so you don't fall into a bad mindset.

 

[Rongunshu]

Yeah CPU on PM are pretty decent to train on since they wavedash and such when I play them. Athough I do wish I had a sparring partner, that would be a much more effective way of training.

 

[GaretHax]

Playing CPU's usually just develops bad habits in my game. Honestly my advice is to come up with circuits and practice moving around the stage with your main until you can get anywhere you want, when you want, as fast as you possibly can. Smash is mostly about positioning, so being able to navigate seamlessly around a stage and optimize your use of platforms, or lack thereof makes a huge difference. You can also practice little things like character specific AT'S that require precise timing, but really just cement your knowledge of the AT'S. Apart from that, find people to play.

 

[fabulouspants]

dolphin netplay

 

[Rongunshu]

Playing CPU's usually just develops bad habits in my game. Honestly my advice is to come up with circuits and practice moving around the stage with your main until you can get anywhere you want, when you want, as fast as you possibly can. Smash is mostly about positioning, so being able to navigate seamlessly around a stage and optimize your use of platforms, or lack thereof makes a huge difference. You can also practice little things like character specific AT'S that require precise timing, but really just cement your knowledge of the AT'S. Apart from that, find people to play.

That is true although there isn't much you can do for sparring if you don't have anyone to practice with. Thankfully I live somewhat near this place where they play smash on tuesdays, thursdays, and occasional tournaments so I have some people I can face sometimes. I will try your advice about practising, sharing your method is well appreciated.

 

[Mera Mera]

I personally don't recommend using high level CPUs. They're pretty bad at the neutral game anyways (and they teach you bad habits), so I prefer to make them a punching bag (training mode and set them to stand) to practice followups and edgegaurding.

The only time I set a CPU to attack is to get them to mix up their tech choices, and even then I just use a level 2 or 3 (might be able to get away with level 1? not sure). Then I hit/toss them, try to get near where they land, and then react to (not guess) their tech option. Tech away will get away in a lot of match ups if there's no ledge to stop them, but that's still a soft punish and you can dash at them to pressure them.

But yeah, you're gonna need a human player to really excel. Still, playing alone can definitely be useful in getting your guaranteed stuff down. Edit: And for getting tech skill down.

 

[Phoenix502]

if I had the extra money to pay for gas, I'd be more than happy to travel wherever I can to find human opponents. but in the meantime, I sort of work on survival above most other aspects. using the full version, I'll set up stock control to Crew battles, and just face random CPUs on random starter stages (occasionally selecting a counterpick stage for a change of pace) until one of my characters lose all their stocks. pick the next character, finish off the foe that won, and keep going until I've cycled through all the characters I play regularly...

in the event I feel a bit slow running, I'll just go on a Multi-Mook Smash and KO as many alloys as I can, avoiding using items if I can help it. it'd be nice if there was a code that prevented items from spawning in single player modes, practicing on that would be much more meaningful if I didn't have item distractions breaking my concentration.