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Elessar
- Earlier you said to just focus on Link, but do you think that the Wii U will push the "metagame" of the 3DS? I mean, will most of these characters likely gain anything in the 3DS by the Wii U being released? Also, if updates keep coming out to "balance" the game will there even be a point in talking about tiers or matchups as long as there is still support for the game? Just theory-crafting right now...
Well, the most important difference between the 3DS and the Wii U will be ATs. The incorporation of the cstick will allow for more Ats (theoretically) as well as a better control of the chars. For this reason, it could be argued that focusing on tech sckill right now is not the most important thing you can do. While it will surely help, getting used to the cstick and the control stick will take some time. I say this because las Saturday I played some PM with some friends, and getting used to feeling the Pro Controller's slightly less sensitive stick took some time. I had a bit of a harder time doing smashes and I wasn't using the cstick since I just got used to not relying on it. These are silly nonissues, but they are annoying when transitioning and just illustrate how the 3DS controllers are possibly affecting us and the meta.
Now, concerning the metagame of the 3DS, I think that to some extent it will be the same as the one for Wii U, BUT it'll always be a bit behind. It will push it (for the resons mentioned above) but I don't think it'll always be able to be on par with it (again, for the reasons mentioned above). I do think that all chars will gain something once the Wii U is out, since the game and hte ngine is the same, so the same ATs excist in both, just that the 3DS is a bit behind it due to the lack of a cstick (something that might change with the release of the new 3DS).
Finally, while we all hope for balance patches, we do no know whether the will actually be helpful. For all we know they may fix something and break something else, not really address competitive balance, nor even address all chars, but only some. Why is this? To release balance patches, the devs keep a close eye on the community and the competitive scene (something Ninty is infamous for not only not doing but refusing to even acknowledge it) to see how a game evolves, when something is broken or when an imbalance appears in order to fix it to restore balance. For this to happen appropiately, all chars must have not only equal representation, but also equally loud. That means that, in theroy, if nobody mains Link on large important tourneys, and nobody voices the issues with him, the devs will not know what's wrong and never address his issues. This means that we have to become more active, in both accounts, and make our complints heard through the appropiate channels. Of course, this is true IF the devs do release balance patches, something which may not happen. Keep in mind that one thing is fixing something broken (like the infinite they have already removed) and another is addressing minor balance issues (like making Link's dash attack come out slightly faster or give it more shield breaking properties to
balance it for its speed).
And
finally finally, MU threads will always be important since they will be true for months. Patches are not released every other week, but may be released ever 4 months. During that time, the meta will continue to evolve correspondingly and so, we all need to adjust to the new meta and/or MU as to keep competitive.
I think I addressed all your concerns, and I
hope that this makes as much sense written as it did on my head. If it doesn't, read it again until it does, and if you have any other theory crafting questions, let me know. I'll be happy to crit you all with another wall of meandering text.
Edit: I forgot to address one thing. I said focus on Link because the best thing we can do right now is learning and focusing on basics like spacing, pacing, spamming, speed, and reading imho.
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