imnotdannyboy
Smash Cadet
So as we all know, Buster increases damage dealt (by a whopping 40%)
However, I'm going to make the argument that it's the worst art. And here's why.
Fighting games are all about options; having a plethora of options at your disposal allows you to make better choices and trip up your opponents with a large display of actions. Just about all of Shulk's Arts increase his options. Jump allows him to recover effectively, dodge projectiles and negate spam, approach with tons of different attack combinations that he could never do otherwise, and edgeguard like a beast. Speed allows him to do a light rushdown, play a bit risky and get away with it, follow up attacks and grabs, and pivot like a mofo. Shield allows Shulk to survive a bit longer than he normally would, tacking on percent or eating attacks he should never be able to eat. And Smash, of course, allows him to kill on stage at percents he couldn't otherwise.
Interestingly, Buster does none of these.
The benefit to buster is purely a numbers game; when Shulk hits, he tacks on some extra percent. This seems nice, and were it not for the drawbacks (both innately within Buster and by not having another Art active) it'd seem wonderful. But the drawbacks are quite harsh and often ignored. First and foremost, opponents also tack on extra damage. If Shulk and his opponent are trading hits evenly, activating Buster will result in roughly a net difference in percent of zero! All it'll do is raise the percent of both players faster! I believe Shulk gets a slight edge in damage vs his vulnerability increase, but this is like a difference of 1-5% damage. It's nil.
The problem with this is that Shulk has other perfectly good Art options and doesn't need to be wasting time on Buster. Anyone who's played Magic The Gathering can attest; if you have a card that deals 2 damage to yourself and your opponent, nine times out of ten that's a junk card. For the purpose of this analogy (don't wanna delve to deep into M:TG metagame here) the advantage gain is zero since you're both losing life, and now you're down a perfectly good card. That card could have been something to give you an advantage (i.e. any other Art) but now it's not.
Even worse, however, is the change to Shulk's knockback in Buster. The reduction in knockback is severe, and while this may seem wonderful for Shulk's combo game, it also reduced hitstun. This means that a lot of Shulk's natural followups are now impossible; Upthrow to utilt can be jumped out of, bthrow to anything can be ignored, AC nair to ftilt can be blocked. They're all trash. This is less prominent at higher percents, but people don't use Buster at high percents. They use Smash! Hell, most people use Buster at the very start of the match, which is totally counterproductive! When both players are at 0 percent, the atrocious knockback of Buster essentially gives your opponent a new set of possible reactions. You nair them, they can eat it like a boss and grab or tilt you. You throw them, they can react with just about any aerial, depending on the character. Your Art is actually giving THEM options!
There's a place for Buster. Generally if I know I can land hits I'll switch to it. This is often using it to cancel a fair into a grab, in which the pummel knocks on a lot of percent and puts my uthrow into utilt range. Or if I'm edgeguarding but I'm not confident in my ability to seal a stock, I'll swap to Buster to tack on extra percent and concede the kill. However, overall Buster is the worst Art as it doesn't actually give a significant advantage, and blocks out the usage of your other Arts.
Do yourself a favor, use Speed or Jump from the start, and dictate your playstyle on those.
Speed will allow you to pull off some attractive turnaround grabs and titls, and open up options that rely on you catching your opponent off guard. Shulk is a slow character, so when suddenly he's faster than Sonic your opponent won't know what to do for a beat or two.
Jump allows you to gimp and approach like no other. You can fullhop fair and nair before you hit the ground. If you can land directly behind the opponent, the nair should hit them and they won't be able to react. You can also, obviously, jump off the stage and do any number of crazy edgeguarding moves (careful with nair, it's easy to forget how long it lasts since it always cancels).
Shield is safe after taking a stock at high percent, and Smash is fine if you have a light character at 50% and you want to seal the stock quickly. Just, ease up on Buster.
However, I'm going to make the argument that it's the worst art. And here's why.
Fighting games are all about options; having a plethora of options at your disposal allows you to make better choices and trip up your opponents with a large display of actions. Just about all of Shulk's Arts increase his options. Jump allows him to recover effectively, dodge projectiles and negate spam, approach with tons of different attack combinations that he could never do otherwise, and edgeguard like a beast. Speed allows him to do a light rushdown, play a bit risky and get away with it, follow up attacks and grabs, and pivot like a mofo. Shield allows Shulk to survive a bit longer than he normally would, tacking on percent or eating attacks he should never be able to eat. And Smash, of course, allows him to kill on stage at percents he couldn't otherwise.
Interestingly, Buster does none of these.
The benefit to buster is purely a numbers game; when Shulk hits, he tacks on some extra percent. This seems nice, and were it not for the drawbacks (both innately within Buster and by not having another Art active) it'd seem wonderful. But the drawbacks are quite harsh and often ignored. First and foremost, opponents also tack on extra damage. If Shulk and his opponent are trading hits evenly, activating Buster will result in roughly a net difference in percent of zero! All it'll do is raise the percent of both players faster! I believe Shulk gets a slight edge in damage vs his vulnerability increase, but this is like a difference of 1-5% damage. It's nil.
The problem with this is that Shulk has other perfectly good Art options and doesn't need to be wasting time on Buster. Anyone who's played Magic The Gathering can attest; if you have a card that deals 2 damage to yourself and your opponent, nine times out of ten that's a junk card. For the purpose of this analogy (don't wanna delve to deep into M:TG metagame here) the advantage gain is zero since you're both losing life, and now you're down a perfectly good card. That card could have been something to give you an advantage (i.e. any other Art) but now it's not.
Even worse, however, is the change to Shulk's knockback in Buster. The reduction in knockback is severe, and while this may seem wonderful for Shulk's combo game, it also reduced hitstun. This means that a lot of Shulk's natural followups are now impossible; Upthrow to utilt can be jumped out of, bthrow to anything can be ignored, AC nair to ftilt can be blocked. They're all trash. This is less prominent at higher percents, but people don't use Buster at high percents. They use Smash! Hell, most people use Buster at the very start of the match, which is totally counterproductive! When both players are at 0 percent, the atrocious knockback of Buster essentially gives your opponent a new set of possible reactions. You nair them, they can eat it like a boss and grab or tilt you. You throw them, they can react with just about any aerial, depending on the character. Your Art is actually giving THEM options!
There's a place for Buster. Generally if I know I can land hits I'll switch to it. This is often using it to cancel a fair into a grab, in which the pummel knocks on a lot of percent and puts my uthrow into utilt range. Or if I'm edgeguarding but I'm not confident in my ability to seal a stock, I'll swap to Buster to tack on extra percent and concede the kill. However, overall Buster is the worst Art as it doesn't actually give a significant advantage, and blocks out the usage of your other Arts.
Do yourself a favor, use Speed or Jump from the start, and dictate your playstyle on those.
Speed will allow you to pull off some attractive turnaround grabs and titls, and open up options that rely on you catching your opponent off guard. Shulk is a slow character, so when suddenly he's faster than Sonic your opponent won't know what to do for a beat or two.
Jump allows you to gimp and approach like no other. You can fullhop fair and nair before you hit the ground. If you can land directly behind the opponent, the nair should hit them and they won't be able to react. You can also, obviously, jump off the stage and do any number of crazy edgeguarding moves (careful with nair, it's easy to forget how long it lasts since it always cancels).
Shield is safe after taking a stock at high percent, and Smash is fine if you have a light character at 50% and you want to seal the stock quickly. Just, ease up on Buster.
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