Here are my thoughts on Robin after doing all my research:
Prediction: High Tier, possibly better.
Robin has a LOT of great tools, but also has some defined weaknesses.
In terms of basic properties, Robin is pretty average. Feels somewhat light. Rolls, Shield Size and spot-dodge are all great, air-dodge is fine. Run-speed is a little sluggish, but not the worst. Also very floaty, so you shouldn't have any trouble recovering with Robin thanks to how far you can just
float back after being hit.
Robin's Nair is SOOOO close to being amazing. If you could fast-fall it and have it AC, or if it had just a bit more range (or used the Levin Sword), it would be a real move. As it stands, not a great one. Dair is basically a meteor and that's it, the move is otherwise unimpressive in terms of hitbox/endlag. Fair is a bit awkward to use due to the slight start-up, but has a great angle and is very strong.
Bair and Uair are
godlike. Bair comes out amazingly fast and has a fantastic hitbox, as well as being one of Robin's primary reliable kill options. Uair is like Marth Uair except it has ridiculous killpower. These two aerials will be the bulk of Robin's spacing game.
Robin's Smashes are all fairly punishable, but are strong and reliable killing tools that will see earlier kills than Bair/Uair. D-Smash is a close-range punish with less range (but more payoff) then F-Smash, while F-Smash will be the 'all purpose' ground punish and 'spacing' Smash. U-Smash doesn't have much of a grounded hitbox, so should be reserved for trapping landings and trying to catch jumps.
In the tilt department, Robin's U-tilt is ALMOST amazing. It's fast and has a great vertical hitbox, but is really lacking in horizontal hitbox, so its use as a grounded tool is going to be a bit limited outside of traps. F-tilt and D-tilt are the stand-outs here. F-tilt is fairly fast and has great range, and is usable out of a dash thanks to pivot canceling. D-tilt is
ridiculously fast and recovers damn near instantly, but has very short range to compensate. It might be safe, or close to it, even on shield, but I'd need better testing tools to be sure.
Robin's standing grab is butts. The range is very poor. Dash-grab is a bit better, but still pretty laggy. Stick to pivot-grabbing, it has a much better range. His throws are in general fairly weak. You'll want to use them for positioning, and D-throw for follow-ups at low-mid percents on some characters. B-throw eventually becomes a kill move, none of the others do.
Nosferatu is going to be
super important. In conjunction with his Bair/Uair, Nosferatu will form the core of his mix-up as it is a command grab, allowing him to beat shields, which are the best answer to his aerial game. Nosferatu has a long respawn timer (4 uses, 40 seconds), so this will take some careful management. All 3 versions of Nosferatu are good, having different trade-offs. N1 is the fastest, but is point-blank and gets middle amounts of damage. N2 hits farther away, but has a dead-spot, and does much less damage. N3 has a huge hitbox and does the most damage, but has no healing and longest start-up. I think the choice will be between N1 and N3, depending on how much you value start-up vs. hitbox size.
I'm still unsure how I feel on Arcfire. It's slow enough that you can react and jump, and if you use it while rising from a jump, it doesn't reach the ground to ignite. I'm having a hard time coming up with situations where it would be super reliable, but I'd also need time to try it against human opponents, and I also haven't unlocked its custom moves, so that could give a much more usable version.
Elwind is not an offensive tool, but will be fine as a recovery. I'd say go with Elwind1 unless you're in a match-up where you'll be sent to the bottom corner, because Elwind 3 is definitely much easier to edge-guard, I think. Warrants testing vs. humans.
Thunder and its variants will be the core of Robin's zoning. You're going to want to play a keep-away game that revolves around spacing the opponents out with Bair/Uair while racking up damage w/ Thunder variants. Thoron is an
excellent punishing tool that can tack on 10 damage any time they press an unsafe button, and Arcthunder can be followed up on due to its slow travel time.
Robin seems to struggle the most when enemies get 'inside' the Levin Sword range. He doesn't have much in the way of 'get off me' tools, so you'll need to rely on Jab, Tilts and rolls/shield to try to find your way back to that optimal mid/long range game that I think is going to be core to Robin's playstyle.
@
C.J. @
Shaya @
~Firefly~