Shulk problems i have

[Golden Sun]

Dash attack - The power is good and all, but the lag is amazingly long, people can easily roll behind you and grab you

Forward smash - Too much lag after it, almost the same as the dash attack problem

Monado Arts - its so troublesome once you are off the stage and your picking a monado art, then you just get self-destructed when you pick a monado art and get offstage

Shield Art - the number one counter to get rid of this is to grab the opponent, and throw them offstage far, they wont have enough time to switch to jump and do his recovery

Backslash - too much lag

but I understand all of this was inputted due to how OP Shulk would be since his buff made him way more powerful

 

[erico9001]

All of this was here before the buff.

These are all known and we do take all of this into account while playing.
- I'll generally only dash attack to punish a landing or to take somebody by surprise.
- F-Smash should be spaced and not overused.
- I only had issues with the MArts right when I was starting with Shulk. It takes getting used to, but now I'm switching Monado Arts offstage all the time in order to get to MJump for better recovery.
- If somebody did get me off stage with a grab while I was in Shield I would just switch out of it if I had to. Although, the point of MShield is it makes you harder to get off of the stage and if you were not using it you might have gotten KO'd by that throw.
- Backslash has a lot of lag, so it's something not to be spammed but thoughtfully used. It gets most of its use in surprising people and in moments where you are in the air and need extra distance to hit the opponent (like when Link is charging his bow or to punish somebody when you're in MShield). It can also jump over some projectiles, so it gets use from that every once in a while. You can reverse it at the first few frames to throw people off.

 

[InfinityZERO]

Dash attack - The power is good and all, but the lag is amazingly long, people can easily roll behind you and grab you

Forward smash - Too much lag after it, almost the same as the dash attack problem

Monado Arts - its so troublesome once you are off the stage and your picking a monado art, then you just get self-destructed when you pick a monado art and get offstage

Shield Art - the number one counter to get rid of this is to grab the opponent, and throw them offstage far, they wont have enough time to switch to jump and do his recovery

Backslash - too much lag

but I understand all of this was inputted due to how OP Shulk would be since his buff made him way more powerful

Almost everyone's Dash Attack is punishable on block (with a grab). The only ones I can think that have difficult to punish Dash Attack are ZSS and Yoshi (Yoshi I know just jump kicks past you).

I agree, Shulk's Fsmash is generally terrible. You miss and you're probably going to be punished, hard. I think Shulk has the worst Smashes in the game, they are generally too long, too punishable, and the shield damage is minimal. I try and kill with just Ftilt and Fair because at high percents, the knockback is really good. Especially with Smash Monado turned on.

Shield Art I rarely use because getting off the ledge can get you killed plus you lose dashing. I usually use Speed for offensive and defense. Although you can get out of any art very quickly by pressing Special three times.

Backslash is generally not worth it unless you're trying to go Fast Fall with an attack. Backslash is barely more useful than Ganondorf's Utilt.

 

[Winter W. Winter]

When I'm knocked off with shield Monado I'll usually cancel out like InfinityZERO had mentioned above.
Quickly tapping B 3 times will cancel the Monado you're currently in.

 

[Nammy12]

Smashes are for definite punishes. Most of the time you're going to be using tilts.

 

[DavemanCozy]

I'll just repeat what others said already:

Dash attack

Don't spam it. As you said, good power but bad lag. You can buffer it by foxtrotting, i.e. stop dashing and then use it a second later.

Forward smash

This move may be laggy, but it's also one of the longest horizontal reaching F-smash in the entire game (quite probably the longest). It's one of Shulk's best moves for punishing whiffs, specially anyone who tries to get up using a ledge attack.

Monado Arts

As mentioned above, you can tap the special move button three times to deactivate the current art. You can then switch to jump quickly.

Shield Art

It's pretty difficult to throw Shulk far in this stance though, unless you're at a ridiculously high %. I like Shield because of this, it's an art you use to stall and build damage until you're finally KO'd.

If you're at high %, try to conserve your double jump (specially in Shield). Use the above method to quickly deactivate Shield and switch to Jump, then use your double jump to get back onstage. Even if Jump doesn't activate by the time you double jump, you still get buffed vertical recovery distance with the Air Slash.

Backslash

Yep, the move is pretty unsafe. Definitely a move I hardly ever use as Shulk. There are a few situations though: aside from punishes, it's good as a surprise attack back on-stage.

 

[DonteB84]

I also find that even though I love Shulk, I am terrible with him. But I am enjoying the challenge

 

[Berserker.]

I'll talk about dash attack. Dash attack is eternally crap for the most part. Maybe it's good for chase down punishments (punishing landing lag) unless speed is activated. I find myself pivoting f-tilt while dashing more than using dash attack

 

[imnotdannyboy]

I'll talk about dash attack. Dash attack is eternally crap for the most part. Maybe it's good for chase down punishments (punishing landing lag) unless speed is activated. I find myself pivoting f-tilt while dashing more than using dash attack

For all intents and purposes, turnaround f-tilt IS shulk's dash attack. It has almost as much range, and speed turnaround ftilt actually outranges speed dash attack, if i recall correctly.

 

[Berserker.]

For all intents and purposes, turnaround f-tilt IS shulk's dash attack. It has almost as much range, and speed turnaround ftilt actually outranges speed dash attack, if i recall correctly.

qft

Yes, it has almost as much range and it deals more damage

 

[ChronoPenguin]

You only use Dash attack one to two times a match. Just to make em go "forgot he had that".

Fsmash - Don't miss, exploit the range It's a considerable distance between the tip and shulks hurtbox. Ftilt is Fsmash light so you should be using ftilt in most situations you would F-smash, still dirty because of the range however.

Get better at pressing B. Like that's all there is to it, I don't find it troublesome. I get knocked off, press B 3 times im in Jump, shield canceled, now im recovering.

Shield art- If you get knocked off stage in shield, switch to jump and recover.

Backslash - Its for them Hard reads and to punish ridiculous stuff like Up-B's on stage also it has a little "jump" to it, that can be used to hop over projectiles.Oh and sometimes you basically pivot Backslash from Speed monado Dash, but that is akin to Dash attack, except I'd say use it only once a match at most.

 

[imnotdannyboy]

BTW, pivot Fsmash is drugs. Beautiful, beautiful drugs. It's your 'my sword is better than your sword move'. Characters like Lucina, Marth, or other Shulks LOVE to get JUST inside your/their range when doing an aerial, locking you in shield stun for that millisecond they need to get back out, and putting on pressure. Make a habit of not shielding attacks QUITE as much, and instead learn to pivot.

Basically, flick away from them, then instantly flick right back at them and input an Fsmash. it's different from turnarounds because it's much faster, and you move FAR less. Instead of sliding during the attack, you'll pop back just an inch and then instantly do a smash attack. They'll whiff and get a facefull of Fsmash.

As far as Shield art goes, learn to press B four times. That'll pop you right out of shield and into jump. Air dodge before Jump activates or else you'll lose all of your forward momentum and you'll lock yourself in an animation.

 

[Masonomace]

Get better at pressing B. Like that's all there is to it, I don't find it troublesome. I get knocked off, press B 3 times im in Jump, shield canceled, now im recovering.

Apparently one of my problems I have without realizing it 'till now is pressing B 3x to get to Jump mode. I doubted it worked for a little while but I've pondered about this because I wasn't able to cancel MArts from just 2 inputs of B under normal mashing, (take Meta Knight Nado B mashing for example) is it as simple as just "spam pressing B faster", & I'm just derping & slurping being too slow?

I press B 4x to get to Jump but yeah pressing B one less time would be great. Something like that wouldn't feel any different but I object & say it will make a lot of difference.

@ imnotdannyboy I love stutterstepping my F-smash backwards, I dig the advice.

 

[N7Kopper]

BTW, pivot Fsmash is drugs. Beautiful, beautiful drugs. It's your 'my sword is better than your sword move'. Characters like Lucina, Marth, or other Shulks LOVE to get JUST inside your/their range when doing an aerial, locking you in shield stun for that millisecond they need to get back out, and putting on pressure. Make a habit of not shielding attacks QUITE as much, and instead learn to pivot.

Basically, flick away from them, then instantly flick right back at them and input an Fsmash. it's different from turnarounds because it's much faster, and you move FAR less. Instead of sliding during the attack, you'll pop back just an inch and then instantly do a smash attack. They'll whiff and get a facefull of Fsmash.

Practice this. The inputs are ridiculously specific, especially during online latency. It's not a full pivot, as Masonomace said, but a stutter. It's within dash dance timing, so you don't want to actually turn around, but snap back and then forward again. The real-life equivalent would be a small backward jump combined with a forward thrust in fencing or something.

 

[InfinityZERO]

Practice this. The inputs are ridiculously specific, especially during online latency. It's not a full pivot, as Masonomace said, but a stutter. It's within dash dance timing, so you don't want to actually turn around, but snap back and then forward again. The real-life equivalent would be a small backward jump combined with a forward thrust in fencing or something.

Does anyone have a video of this?

 

[DavemanCozy]

One amazing thing about Backslash when you're facing :

If you see her recover onstage with their Flip Jump (Down-B), use backslash to hit her just as she's a bit after the apex of her jump (when her invincibility frames of the move are done). Thing about Flip Jump is that it turns her around: learn the distance she can travel and punish it with that sweet Backslash sweetspot.

 

[NessAtc.]

As I'm sure some people have already said, I tend to use Back Slash when somebody ends up putting themselves helpless in the air. If they don't go for the ledge, switch to Monado Smash and use Back Slash to knock 'em faaar away.