Sheik?

[techskillz]

So I'm currently at around one month of picking Sheik back up. I used both her and Rosalina as a counterpick to Greninja's bad matchups in 4, and I'm very curious as to what other people think of the character. I have been getting the feeling based off of both theory and practice that she is a solid high tier due to rewarding matchups and a very strong kit. What do others think of her?

 

[Aquamentii]

I think she's not a high tier, but no lower than mid. While her kill power is actually great now as of the latest patch, her damage output is simply too un-rewarding for the amount of effort her combos require. Compare her to a definite top/high tier like Daisy:
-Both are combo monsters capable of 60% combos
-Both have aerials which are safe on shield if done correctly, not safe on shield if spaced wrong (or not float-cancelled in Daisy's case)
-Sheik has many kill setups which are safe pressure if spaced right (F-tilt, D-tilt, Nair, Needles), while Daisy has many moves with direct high kill power that are also safe if spaced right/float cancelled (Nair/Fair/Bair/the occasional forward or back throw).
-Both have an excellent projectile that the character can comfortably camp with or advance with for kill setups, including offstage edge guards.
-Both have versatile recoveries with many mixup options for escaping disadvantage (Shiek DownB/B-reverse needles, Daisy Float)

Looking good, right? But there are a few extra things we take for granted that start to highlight differences:
-Both are light but Daisy is a fair bit heavier (89 vs 78)
-While Sheik can occasionally get a kill off of a throw via DI mix-up into an aerial, Daisy's forward/back throw outright kill at ledge at sufficient %
-Daisy's stray hits deal much more damage than Sheik's stray hits, so trade situations are usually a loss for Sheik, while Daisy usually benefits or breaks even. For example Sheik Nair does 7% on sweetspot, Daisy Nair does 15%. So if I'm dropping combos as either character, my stray hits are going to wrack up much more damage as Daisy.

Ok so comparing two characters is always really washy because every character is so unique. But I think the key points are highlighted here: Sheik is held up to an equally high standard for her optimal combos as the other combo-monsters in the game in terms of execution, but is far less rewarded for sub-optimal play, and because of her featherweight is more heavily punished for mistakes/reads than other characters. These exclude her from high tier while at the same time, she has too many top-tier characteristics to be low tier.

 

[MaddaD]

She's kinda Average-Low tier. An extremely technical character that requires a lot more effort to be on the same level as a person who picks any other good/average character. Excellent mobility and combo/neutral game but easy to KO and limited kill options.

Solid kit overall, but the changes from Smash 4 left her in a bad state, leading to an exodus on Sheik players.

 

[1ceolati0n]

Honestly i think low-mid tier, my views on her are that she does have a very strong kit, other characters do her job better, for example both of the rats (Pika/Pichu) have a much better match-up spread than Sheik because of their damage output for example:

Pichu: D-throw > U-air > F-air = >30%

Sheik: N-air > F-throw > F-air > Regrab F-throw > Bouncing Fish = ~35%

Plus her lack of kill options (yes she can kill but her setups are fairly specific) and her being the 7th lightest character being lighter than Pikachu, and you need to perfect her combos in order to win, because if you drop a combo, they might be able to get a reversal which can be lethal,

however her upsides are, that she is FAST and with tech like dash-walking which literally lets her cover half of battlefield in one dash, and obviously she has the best combo-game (in terms of most moves per combo, not damage), plus a strong edge guard game,

not low-tier but definitely not high/top tier (plus you need to work really hard in order for her to be viable)