Question on who I should main

[SirYungsta]

Okay, so I'm wondering who I should main. I'm having a tough decision between, bowser, doc, G&W, and YL, as you can see I'm a fan of mostly low tier characters , Also. another question. what do you guys think is easier to shffl and wavedash with? Y/X or up to jump?

Opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[40secondz]

Well according to the Tier list, you're best bet is to main Doc. But I think you should main who ever you feel most comfortable with. Mess around with all of them until you've found the right one.

I use x to short hop and to wavedash with.

 

[SirYungsta]

Hmm. thats the problem I dunno who I feel most comfortable with. I mean I'm fine with all of them. Btw, any tips on shffling? I'm no good at it.

 

[kevo]

Use whatever button you like better to jump.

I found that shuffling is easier to learn by practicing its individual parts.

Pick Fox, practice short hopping with him. It will be the most frustrating thing ever, but after a few hours you will get it down solid.

Pick another character, and practice short hop fast fall. Press down at the Apex of your jump.

After you can do that over and over and over and over again, add an aerial before your fastfall. The overall keypress should be (in very rapid succession) X/Y , direction+A, down, L/R

Set difficult challenges for yourself. Tell yourself you're not going to bed unless you nail 50 shuffls in a row. After you wake up you will be a level 5 shuffling super saiyan.

 

[Sinji]

Game and Watch is a good choice.

Tier list aside, It all depends on how you use them.

 

[SirYungsta]

Thank you all for your opinions/advice. I've went with doc. and I'll have to try that sometime kevo. (:. I'll prob go with G&W as a secondary.

 

[Pi]

every time i ask a good player 'why did you decide to main _____?'
their response is never 'well i made a thead on smashboards and thhe general consensus was for me to main _____'

my point is that the character you decide to main has to be your decision for your own reasons, not because anyone else told you to play that character, or the tier list said it would be easier to place higher w/ that character, or any of those reasons. it has to be something from that character which calls to you.

 

[rhan]

YL's a hard *** character to play but there's potential to be good.
He has huge disadvantages against most of the top/high tier class.

 

[DippnDots]

fox
10shines

 

[-ShadowPhoenix-]

every time i ask a good player 'why did you decide to main _____?'
their response is never 'well i made a thead on smashboards and thhe general consensus was for me to main _____'

my point is that the character you decide to main has to be your decision for your own reasons, not because anyone else told you to play that character, or the tier list said it would be easier to place higher w/ that character, or any of those reasons. it has to be something from that character which calls to you.

best advice so far...
pick for yourself
the people in this thread have never seen you play or know your potential
its 100% up to you

 

[General Heinz]

Yeah, I definitely agree. You might go through a few characters before you find one that really suits you the best. I suppose tiers do exist, but in the long run all characters have perfectly viable options for completing certain tasks, so it will depend which combination of those options you're most comfortable with.

 

[SirYungsta]

Once again. Thanks for all the advice. . I have decided on doc. I just like how he plays.

EDIT: Actually I'm going to have to do some thinking between YL and Doc.

 

[Zodiac]

This question gets asked a lot...I'll paraphrase the sum of every other thread like this "Whoever you want"

 

[SirYungsta]

This question gets asked a lot...I'll paraphrase the sum of every other thread like this "Whoever you want"

I get that now. As shown above ^^^ lol

 

[CableCho57]

out of the four you mentioned, i'm glad (and you will be too in the long run imo) that you went with doc

 

[40secondz]

when you get the basic's down, you should watch some vids of other Doc mains, like Shroomed.

 

[SirYungsta]

when you get the basic's down, you should watch some vids of other Doc mains, like Shroomed.

I've watched plenty, Smashmac is godly with doc.

 

[Roneblaster]

Use the cstick/right stick/yellow stick when do aerials not the Abutton.

Im looking at u kevo.

 

[kevo]

Sorry, Marf main habits. Yes use the c-stick.

 

[AXE 09]

Keep in mind that you don't have to choose only 1 character to main. It's perfectly fine to main multiple characters. I feel that it's good to be able to play more than 1 character so that you have options against characters that would normally be a bad matchup for you.

For instance, you could play YL for floaty/slow characters like Peach/Jiggs, G&W for fastfallers like Fox/Falco/Falcon, Doc for zoning characters like Sheik/Marth/Samus, and Bowser for any unfamiliar low/bottom tier matchups that you might come across.

You don't have to limit yourself to only 1 character.

 

[Krynxe]

Focusing on so many characters can, and likely will, slow your progress down drastically. It's usually a good idea to have one main that you focus on until you're at a comfortable level with that character to where you can begin experimenting with others. It's your choice though, some of the best players can manage several characters and it goes to their advantage at times, while most high level players stick to one and learn all the matchups rather than counterpicking.

 

[Massive]

while most high level players stick to one and learn all the matchups rather than counterpicking.

This isn't true, actually.

Most high level players will have at least one secondary character. There are just a few really prominent single character players who get a lot of face time.

Learning multiple characters will give you insight you couldn't normally get just playing one character, especially for low tiers. Cross training will help substantially, mostly because it gets you into different mindsets and allows you develop a more versatile playstyle.

 

[Bing]

ShadwPhoenix your quote makes me laugh...


I also totally agree with Axe about the multiple characters, I find the problem is practicing with them all... I think maybe maining 1 or 2 to start(so for now Doc and G&W) and then introduce YL and Bowser to any match ups you have difficulty, mind you Im speaking from personal experience, do what you want. I used to play like 6 people and Im having trouble dropping characters, Im at Marth, Sheik and Peach atm...

 

[AXE 09]

Learning multiple characters will give you insight you couldn't normally get just playing one character, especially for low tiers. Cross training will help substantially, mostly because it gets you into different mindsets and allows you develop a more versatile playstyle.

Exactly this. Playing multiple characters will help you see things from a different perspective that you couldn't normally see by playing only 1 character.

 

[SirYungsta]

Use the cstick/right stick/yellow stick when do aerials not the Abutton.

I dunno, does it really make that much of a diff if I get use to it? it was already hard enough to get use to the Y button jumping,

 

[The Star King]

I've seen a lot of people say that focusing on one character is better but I've seen no evidence to support this

 

[Bing]

I dunno, Im on the fence about the matter really... I like learning more than one chracter also for the fact that if you constantly play one character the odds of you getting sick of that character are more likely... I think Both sides have valid arguements but really its up to what the player themselves believes...

 

[Pi]

The reason people say focus on 1 character is because your character, how he moves, the range/reach on his attacks, their durations, how quickly they come out, what combo's into each other, and basically any and all precise movement needs to be SECOND NATURE before you can even hope to become good at the game.

and it takes a good long while to learn all the intimate details of a character, so switching around will (and I believe this fully, unless you have some ungodly natural talent for picking up and learning a character's delicate inner workings extremely fast) hinder your improvement because you'll have to re-learn all of the options presented to you through your character.

And it's hard for me to tell you exactly when you 'understand the game' because after every plateau you conquer you're going to think 'I understand it now!' when in all probability you are far from where you need to be to be claiming that.

The first and most important step to becoming a better player is to recognize that the reason you are losing, or not placing high enough, or not winning as often as you should be winning, is not due to your character choice, but you're lack of understanding of melee.

Never doubt your character, learning the game as a fox main, and learning the game as a pichu main won't affect your own personal skill level. It might affect your tourney placings, but unless you feel that you could be taking 1st w/ another character, there is no reason to switch.

You'll learn the game as fast with fox as you will with doc, or mewtwo, or pichu.

 

[CableCho57]

Most high level players will have at least one secondary character. There are just a few really prominent single character players who get a lot of face time.

I have nothing against having secondaries, but when you're just starting to play the game, like the guy who started this thread is, then sticking to one is always your best bet.

 

[AXE 09]

The reason people say focus on 1 character is because your character, how he moves, the range/reach on his attacks, their durations, how quickly they come out, what combo's into each other, and basically any and all precise movement needs to be SECOND NATURE before you can even hope to become good at the game.

and it takes a good long while to learn all the intimate details of a character, so switching around will (and I believe this fully, unless you have some ungodly natural talent for picking up and learning a character's delicate inner workings extremely fast) hinder your improvement because you'll have to re-learn all of the options presented to you through your character.

And it's hard for me to tell you exactly when you 'understand the game' because after every plateau you conquer you're going to think 'I understand it now!' when in all probability you are far from where you need to be to be claiming that.

The first and most important step to becoming a better player is to recognize that the reason you are losing, or not placing high enough, or not winning as often as you should be winning, is not due to your character choice, but you're lack of understanding of melee.

Never doubt your character, learning the game as a fox main, and learning the game as a pichu main won't affect your own personal skill level. It might affect your tourney placings, but unless you feel that you could be taking 1st w/ another character, there is no reason to switch.

You'll learn the game as fast with fox as you will with doc, or mewtwo, or pichu.

I would agree with you if we were talking about maining like 26 different characters, but having 3 or 4 different characters is not excessive enough to hinder your improvement.

From what I have seen and also experienced myself throughout my smash career, playing multiple characters helps you to understand what each of them try to look for from their perspective, and also teaches you certain fundamentals and physics of the game based on which characters you're using. For instance, playing Fox can teach your hands to get used to high speed tech skill, Falco can teach you offensive pressure or combos, Marth/Jiggs can teach you about spacing, Link/YL teach you about projectile placement, Peach can teach you about defensive strategies, etc. etc.

Almost all of the Melee players that I have trained with have played multiple characters competitively to get to the level they're at now, and I strongly believe that playing all of those characters only helped them to get better, not hold them back, including myself.

I'm talking about players that I have experience with like:
Vectorman (Mewtwo, Falco, Yoshi, Roy, Samus, Fox, Doc)
Yeah! (Falco, G&W, Fox, Marth)
Forward (Fox, Falco, Marth, Pikachu, Samus, Sheik, Falcon, and a little Puff/Peach)
OkamiBW (Fox, Sheik, Pikachu)
Taj (Marth, Mewtwo, Pikachu, Link, Samus, Fox, Falco, Sheik)
Wobbles (IC's, Sheik, Mario, Falco)

And of course myself (Pikachu, Falco, Fox, Peach, Marth, IC's, Jiggs/Samus(back in the day) )

I feel that playing multiple characters only HELPS you develop as a good player, unless it's an excessive amount of characters. 10 might be excessive but 5 definitely is not. When you play a very high amount of players all at once, then I understand how it could hinder your abilities. But especially in this case with only 4 characters, I feel that it will only help you see things in multiple perspectives and help you develop as a player.

 

[Bing]

Never doubt your character, learning the game as a fox main, and learning the game as a pichu main won't affect your own personal skill level. It might affect your tourney placings, but unless you feel that you could be taking 1st w/ another character, there is no reason to switch.

You'll learn the game as fast with fox as you will with doc, or mewtwo, or pichu.

I dont really agree with this, Yeah for people who main Fox,Falco Sheik(High Tiers) we err, they dont need to switch because the character handicaps arent really.... there? so to speak. Now as opposed to people who main low tiers, there match ups are not as good, so going into a match and saying stick with Doc, even if I get romped where as I could or do have an alternate to try to see if I can play differently and change the outcome. Most(like 90%) of the top players(Anyone who even makes it out of pools) has atleast 1 other character they play. So I do agree with Axe.

BUT

The only Issue I see with the having 5 characters thing is some players might not be able to move all the teaching they learned as each individual character all into each. i.e You Play Fox, Peach, Falco whatever. Fox, Tech skill and fast hands, Peach, Defense and Spacing, Falco, Offensive pressure. Just being able to go into a match as say Falco, and have all 3 of the qualities you`ve been working on with each character might not be so easy.

Im all for atleast a secondary... atleast.

 

[Dan Salvato]

I dunno, does it really make that much of a diff if I get use to it? it was already hard enough to get use to the Y button jumping,

Yes. Especially with lower tiers who may need to retreat often or mix up, using the C stick for aerials can be really important. It's the only effective way to backair while jumping forward, or to easily upair from a short hop without using your air jump. Using the control stick for aerials messes up your momentum, which can cost you.

 

[KirbyKaze]

If you're just learning the game and it's your very first character or two, I'd suggest Toon Link and/or Doc just because they have the most versatility of your chosen characters. Bowser doesn't really teach you fundamentals, IMHO, because there's simply so much he cannot do, and he has a lot of unique character attributes (if you try to play Bowser's style vs stupid space animals, you'll probably get wrecked with almost any other character). His inability to really approach, setup an approach via projectile, awful dash dance game, and lag makes his style seem really stationary, or at least when I've seen good Bowsers play good people in tournament. Other characters benefit a lot from moving; you'll therefore learn more from moving because it's more generically applicable.

GAW I just think you'll get frustrated if your Fox opponents realize he's food for d-throw and there's almost nothing GAW can do about it because of his abysmal techs and light weight, and that disrespecting his aerials (shield grab and a lot of WD back, or running away so his fair weak-hits) is actually more effective than treating them like high-priority, decently ranged attacks with good anti-defense properties (what you want them to be). Also, shielding is very important and GAW's shield game is (MU dependent) either non-existent or mostly lightshield, which is significantly different than the fundamentals of shielding with most characters.

I also think that Doc and Toon Link having distinctly average hitboxes teaches you more about the importance of positioning, and how you have to aim non-disjointed moves (well, not ridiculously disjointed for some of Toon Link's moveset but you get the idea) to beat disjointed or other non-disjointed moves. I also think it puts the idea of stuffing and beating moves into perspective; GAW never really stuffs moves in the sense that the opposing move is supposed to win, but lost due to startup disparity. GAW usually just hits through things with his massive priority (if the opponent lets him).

I can do SHFFLs only with X fluently and with a lot of control and precision, but the buttons are comparably different (most people I know SHFFL with Y because they play Fox and it's closer to B, without going over A, so there's less chance of a misclick during double shines and SHDLs and other jump > B speed-oriented techniques).

Truthfully, SHFFL (and its components) and WD are some of the easier advanced techs to learn and apply simply because what they are is so obviously beneficial; nothing moves you back like WD so it fills movement niche. Similarly, walking takes a while to accelerate normally, but WD momentum lets you walk at max speed efficiently and moves forward a variable amount of space faster than walking most of the time, and with options you don't have out of a dash (some dashes are also slow). SHFFL's components just gives your air game versatility and speed. They're pretty easy to do; the harder advanced techniques to apply effectively are more mix-up oriented things like what to do at the edge, wavelanding off platforms, and various other miscellaneous stuff like pivot (which is IMO useless outside of pivot grab for the entire cast, almost, but whatever).

Sort of unrelated, sort of relevant; you don't know if the way you hold the controller now is going to be how you hold it forever anyway. For all you know, you're gonna claw or some other esoteric grip.

Anyway, I think you're at the point where thinking so much about everything in advanced is not beneficial. There's a lot of stuff to learn and apply. Just play the game for a while with your newfound powers with whatever character(s) you decide on, and if something feels wrong with a certain input style, either decide if it's worth sticking around and working through (decide if you think the hand method is the real problem or you're just not practiced enough yes and be honest with yourself), or modify your grip/input (I claw FCs, JC up smash, and ledgehop bairs because I feel I have more control so it's not outlandish!). Asking people in your local community to show you is also recommended; I'm sure they'd oblige.

 

[no. 1 smash daddy]

young links bombs and boomerangs are definetly annoying, so from the characters your mentioning, if you want to become very annoying play young link (gotta use those weapons a lot, though)

 

[Bones0]

Toon Link

All I read.

 

[SirYungsta]

Asking people in your local community to show you is also recommended; I'm sure they'd oblige.

No smash players around where I live really. ):. (atleast not that I know of)

 

[Pi]

@axe i understand where your coming from, but i personally have seen players (granted not as many as you) switch around too much due to them finding flaws in their characters, or attributing their losing games to their character instead of their own faults

i definitely agree that playing multiple characters can teach you different aspects of the game, aggression, defense, projectiles, spacing, etc. etc.
but i still feel that you should only switch around once you've gained a solid grasp on what all those things ARE
if you can't predict, bait, read because you haven't been comfortable enough w/ your character to do so, then switching around isn't going to help, you have to power through the 'i'm so tired of losing!' phase and start realizing why it is your losing, and what it takes to win
and i think that's easiest while maining 1 character

i'm thinking of mainly 1 person when i'm talking about this, it was so ****ing frustrating to see him switch mains every month and his reasoning was always some trivial non conductive to him improving as a player bull **** (i'm maining sheik cause my shiek was winning more than my falco, or i'm maining jiggs cause i was beating our really good friend, or i'm back to falco because he's just so cool')
and all those switches didn't matter because i didn't see him improve as a player, all i saw was him do the same **** w/ sheik as he was doing months ago, and the same **** w/ jiggs/falco as he was doing moth's ago, and the only reason it was semi succesfull was because it was a different character, eventually i adapted to it and the outcomes re-mained the same, and eventually i had commited to memory all his different character playstyles and it didn't matter which one he went

this may have been a bad experience, or a special case here, but it's just a concern i have for new players because i've seen the makings of it in other players. i've never quested the abilities of my character enough to make me want to switch, all my switches have been curiosities or experimental, but i've never lost faith in samus and all my major mindset/understanding improvements have come from playing her since it takes such minimal mental strain to do all of her stuff because i'm so comfortable with it that i can just put my full focus on the opponent and what he's doing

 

[Sinji]

Has anyone thought about taking G&W to a level to at least make it into brackets in big tourneys?

 

[Pi]

no i'm sure that's never crossed anyone's mind before >.>

 

[choknater]

i agree that doc is an amazing starter character.