Honestly, I haven't been playing this game very much mainly because Lucas doesn't feel right anymore and they took too long to fix Bowser. Maybe once Smash 4 dies down a little I'll get back into it, but eh. Lucas has some good stuff I'm sure, but he feels really jank unless you have marth-like spacing and generally unfun. His projectile is ass and his pressure is crap. I haven't actually put time into him since 3.6, and barely any since 3.5 so I don't know his nuances in this build, but I can say that overviewing his general design doesn't make me happy. The boy has approach issues, which is kinda bad for a character who was supposed to be good at pressure but also kinda isn't at the same time. I can understand if they didn't want it to be as good as Falco's approach/pressure game, for example, cause Falco is kinda dumb and diversity is one of this game's strong points, but good god PK Freeze takes way too long to come out, gets neutralized by too many moves, doesn't stun long enough for Lucas to directly follow up in any way unless you have lots of practice with him, and is beaten by a lot of dumb tools in PM (I'm looking at you, CCing). I'd be okay with that if, once he got in, he could do some work and reliably start up a combo/string/tech chase/etc, but I don't feel like he's strong enough in that area to negate where other characters excel.
Trying to play Lucas just makes me feel like I have to outplay my opponent in every single aspect of the game now, whereas other characters have exploitable strong points. Don't get me wrong, 3.02 Lucas was dumb and I wanted nerfs to that design out the ass, but 3.5 just put him in a direction that has like, zero merit to me and I hate it.
I still think he needs to be a mix of pressure, combos, and a bit of tech chases with weaknesses in recovery, comboability, ease of approach, his moves' SDI-ability, and range/technicality/need to be precise to be effective--and make his rush down game not prominent, but make him actually have one. Right now, his offensive game gives way too much leniency to the defender. That's literally the opposite of what an offensive character in an offensive game is supposed to do.
Magnet's hitstun is fine at the moment, but shield stun could be a couple frames better than what it is now.
If PK Freeze is going to be one of the worst projectiles in the game, it needs one or more of a few changes:
- range buff
- startup/cooldown buff
- shield stun buff (probably the best option, because it punishes opponents for shielding without thinking about Lucas' options on it)
- change whatever makes it so goddamn easy to CC it
- hitstun buff
I also played with a personal build I created that changed Lucas' back throw that I felt could strengthen him in the right areas while making sure he wasn't too strong overall. Essentially, his back throw was no longer a kill move, but sent at a weak back and down-ish trajectory. What this did was a few things:
- In the middle-ish area of the stage, it gave the opponent an option to tech. It was such that Lucas couldn't follow up insanely easily, but if the opponent did something dumb like tech roll > shield, Lucas could read that and potentially, through mindgames, get in with some pressure. It was basically a "get out of my face, get over there, and I'm coming to kick your ass" kind of throw. At higher %s and proper spacing, it threw opponents onto low platforms. This forced a tech, which, again, is something Lucas can capitalize on. However this time, he can also approach from below with moves like OU Usmash if the opponent mistimes their getup/roll/tech. Make note, though, that it also had significant cooldown, so it was by no means a combo-friendly throw.
- Near ledges (and with back facing the edge of course), it would indeed throw at a low angle, but was still recoverable by Bowser, for example, up to high %s because of its very weak knockback algorithms. This throw also required Lucas to be in a defensive position, which made sure it wasn't overcentralizing. His grab is fairly slow anyway, and Lucas in this design was meant to be offensive. However, I thought about what would happen if I reversed the functions of his forward throw and this back throw-- Make the forward throw as a compliment to his pressure and tech chase (But then, would he be too strong at that?) with his back throw as just a mixup/neutral-reset kinda thing. Both have merits and design applications.
- Finally, on platforms, it behaved similarly to how it does near ledges. When facing backward, it had enough cooldown to where no follow up was guaranteed and smart players could avoid the gimp with a read/reaction, but it was fast enough that it put them in an unfavorable position. It could also throw players onto the main stage platform if Lucas faces the blastzones when throwing.
The last thing I feel like could use some change is his fair. In 3.6 it's so bad for what it's supposed to be good at, and stupidly easy to perform jank follow ups with the weak hit because of its priority over the strong hit. I'd switch the priorities or just make the strong hit slightly bigger and the weak hit slightly smaller.
Overall, I feel like just a few changes could make him both balanced and strong/fun in the proper areas. Right now, he requires so much work that literally all my other characters were better than my Lucas when I played a few friendlies at a recent tournament. The things I suggested would give him some strong points without making him overcentralized and strong in every way like he was in 3.0.
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Kipcom
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D e l t a
any thoughts?
