CR4SH
Smash Lord
Alright, so you're like most people, in that more often than not you don't have an opponent ready to brawl. Well, you're not completely out of luck, there are still some things you can do to improve your luigi game, even without competition.
Of course, live matches are the best way to improve your game. And of course, online (especially with luigi) is godawful. But solo-smashing is not completely without merit. Fire up a lv3 cpu and beat the tar out of them, but remember, you're not here to kill cpus, you're here to build good habits.
What's most important is to remember that you're not fighting to win, you're fighting to experiment. Think of it as a moving punching bag. I'll outline here some strategies to improve your overall muscle memory and develop good habits.
I would recommend not using stock survival rules. This seems to reinforce the competitive nature of the fight. You need to keep in mind here that winning isn't the goal, so losing a stock is meaningless. Set up a timer (I put it on infinite) and just keep messing around until you're bored with that character or you're bored with it altogether lol. Think of it as training mode with move degradation.
These are some examples of things to focus on while fighting mindless opponents.
Correct recovery methods. IE airdodge->missile->jump->downb->upb.
In a match "You Must Recover!", so it's important to be completely comfortable getting back onto the stage. Experiment with different recovery options. Remember, staying alive here isn't important, but finding a new way to live longer is a great thing to do. Switch it up, know what all your moves do and how they can connect, so when you play a human, they won't see you coming.
Fastfall your shorthops. It leaves you less vulnerable, and allows you to act more quickly.
Airdodge your landings This is a method alot of good luigis use. Boss does it constantly, and the way I see it, emulating boss can't be a bad thing. It'll screw up your game initially, but thats ok, get used to it and you'll see luigi getting faster. This provides you the option of FFAD to another SH aerial, instead of floating a bit and using your second jump. Options are never bad.
Learning to do this with a static opponent in training mode is a good idea. Polishing that on a moving target in a fluid fight situation should come afterwards, thats what low lvl cpus are for.
Mix up your jab game Jab game is considered by some to be luigi's most important skill. If not that, it's at least his best option on the ground. Jabbing, then crouching makes your next move come out faster. Get used to jabbing once and moving into another move. Hell, get used to jabbing. Once again, this opens up options.
Some things you might do out of a jab include, grab, shoryuken, dtilt, fsmash, or another jab. For a more complete synopsis of a jab game, and luigi's attack options go here http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=180142
DI DI might be the most important thing to learn in smash, it keeps you alive longer. However, it's not something you can really think about when it's happening. To start out I would suggest going to slow brawl and setting 1-2 lv9 cpus (lower levels don't attack enough) and just let them beat you up. DI correctly when they attack you, and don't worry about anything else. When you're comfortable enough in that, go to regular speed. Just make sure you do this instinctively.
Pile on the damage during grabs. It's free damage, yo. When you grab someone, figure out how many hits you can get at each %, and get in the habit of getting a couple hits before you throw. Each does 3%. Knowing how much leeway you have during a grab is a useful piece of knowlege.
Use the right aerial! At low %, fair and uair are great combo starters. Near the ledge, back air puts your opponent where you want them. A good thing to think about is what aerial to use out of your dthrow. At low % uair is great at leading into combos. At %s above ~120, a dthrow can be a killer if you remember to chase them up and throw out a nair.
Use the right killing move Luigi has lots of options when it comes to KOs, however many of them kick in at different times. It's important to know what moves kill when. Your options begin at 50% (yowza) and go on in a stepwise fashion all the way up to 200. Getting a good feel of what your easiest KO is at any percent is important. Going for a shoryuken when your opponent is already to 85% is often inefficient, since a up-angled-fsmash will kill most people at that stage, and is generally easier to pull off. This process continues until about 230, which is where a uair or fair will kill anyone, which are generally the easiest moves of all to land.
Get your fireball on. Fireballs are easy to overlook, since projectiles aren't the basis of luigi's game. It's important to know, however, what your fireballs are capable of. Any time your combo gets away from you, a fireball can tack on a bit of damage. When you can't reliably approach, getting into fireball range and making your opponent uncomfortable is a good option. They're also a powerful defensive tool.
Check out this thread for great fireball ideas. http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=175919&highlight=fireball
Up-angle your fsmash. This should be as natural as breathing. It kills quicker, and comes out faster.
Sweetspot that edge. The green rocket sweetspots. Learn it, love it, make it muscle memory. The spot is just a bit under the ledge.
Grab the edge. When you knock your opponent offstage, hanging off the ledge makes a great neutral state for a waiting luigi. Particularly because it leads easily into a bair wop. On top of that, ledgedrop->FJP is a very quick hog. One of the quickest sweet spotting upbs in the game.
Follow them off the edge every time. When you're fighting a computer, your stock is fairly unimportant. Following a knocked-off opponent can't hurt you, and is good practice. Luigi's recovery is very good, and you can often score an easy KO when your opponent is trying to recover. Get used to this.
Try to spike on EVERY dair. Any time you can, try that dair spike. The more you try it, the better you'll get, the better you get, the more useful it is.
Shield is your neutral state When you're not doing anything, you might as well have your guard up. This isn't terribly practical in an actual match, but any time you aren't doing anything in an actual match, and you don't need your shield up, you'll have plenty of time to make that decision consciously. This will help the "don't get hit" concept. If you're not attacking, and not pursuing, making it a habit of hitting L (or R in my case) is a good thing. It'll reinforce your SHAD, and it will in effect auto-tech your landings.
If your shield breaks in training, so what? If your finger is that much more itchy to block, you come out on top.
Shield cancel your dashes Even when you don't need to, hitting shield instead of simply stopping running is a good habit. Luigi slides alot, and the end of a dash, just sliding, is a vulnerable state. Shield canceling helps to alleviate this.
Other ideas and methods.
On Vids. Watching videos of luigis better than you is a great way to evaluate the game. However, just sitting and watching a match doesn't do much for you, that's just entertainment. Watching a good match multiple times is a good way to get out of it what it has to offer. I like to, on the first viewing, just watch the non-luigi character. Do what you can to see what it is they're doing, what they're trying to do, and what their strategies are. This is practice for reading your opponent in a real match. Once you have a good idea of how the opponent fights, watch the luigi player, but do it in the context of the situation. OK, so that toon link likes to SH into a zair, watch for that, when it happens how does the wigi react? Did his reaction work? If so, why? Keep these questions in your mind. Don't just watch a fight, analyze the fight.
Another thing I like to do is watch a fight I haven't yet seen with a controller in my hand. I'm not sure if it helps or not, but play-fighting a real human seems like a good idea to me. This, though, is inherently flawed just like everything else I talk about, because its not a 1v1 fight, and they're not reacting to you as you react to them. Keep this in mind.
Online Play Is also useful, and also flawed. The Idea here is, again, to experiment. How do people react to your moves. What do people like to do, how do they expect you to act? Learn to read people, and what they like to do.
None of the above listed ideas are ideal to your improvement. The best thing you can do to improve your game is to play people, alot of people, all the time. However, this is a set of ideas on how you might still be able to improve your game when you have nobody to play. The most important thing I would like people to take away with this is how to be in the proper mindset when fighting fake opponents, to actually get better. You're not here to win, you're here to experiment. **** around, have fun, do things you normally wouldn't do. Get used to everything, anything, and every possible situation. Figure out exactly what luigi can do, and what he can't do. While you're doing this, keep doing the little things that reinforce good habits. When luigi isn't a game character, but instead just an extension of your fingers, thats when you win.
I want to make sure that you know, that I know, I'm not the best luigi player here. If you think you're probably better than I am, you probably are. However I feel like my reasoning is sound, and I know for a fact good habits promote good play. That said, I WANT YOUR INPUT! This is by no means comprehensive, and some things in here are complete horse****. Which are they? Please let me know, if not for the community, then for me lol. I want to know everything and this game isn't an exception to that. Once I do though, I'll let everyone in on the secret
Thanks!
Of course, live matches are the best way to improve your game. And of course, online (especially with luigi) is godawful. But solo-smashing is not completely without merit. Fire up a lv3 cpu and beat the tar out of them, but remember, you're not here to kill cpus, you're here to build good habits.
What's most important is to remember that you're not fighting to win, you're fighting to experiment. Think of it as a moving punching bag. I'll outline here some strategies to improve your overall muscle memory and develop good habits.
I would recommend not using stock survival rules. This seems to reinforce the competitive nature of the fight. You need to keep in mind here that winning isn't the goal, so losing a stock is meaningless. Set up a timer (I put it on infinite) and just keep messing around until you're bored with that character or you're bored with it altogether lol. Think of it as training mode with move degradation.
These are some examples of things to focus on while fighting mindless opponents.
Correct recovery methods. IE airdodge->missile->jump->downb->upb.
In a match "You Must Recover!", so it's important to be completely comfortable getting back onto the stage. Experiment with different recovery options. Remember, staying alive here isn't important, but finding a new way to live longer is a great thing to do. Switch it up, know what all your moves do and how they can connect, so when you play a human, they won't see you coming.
Fastfall your shorthops. It leaves you less vulnerable, and allows you to act more quickly.
Airdodge your landings This is a method alot of good luigis use. Boss does it constantly, and the way I see it, emulating boss can't be a bad thing. It'll screw up your game initially, but thats ok, get used to it and you'll see luigi getting faster. This provides you the option of FFAD to another SH aerial, instead of floating a bit and using your second jump. Options are never bad.
Learning to do this with a static opponent in training mode is a good idea. Polishing that on a moving target in a fluid fight situation should come afterwards, thats what low lvl cpus are for.
Mix up your jab game Jab game is considered by some to be luigi's most important skill. If not that, it's at least his best option on the ground. Jabbing, then crouching makes your next move come out faster. Get used to jabbing once and moving into another move. Hell, get used to jabbing. Once again, this opens up options.
Some things you might do out of a jab include, grab, shoryuken, dtilt, fsmash, or another jab. For a more complete synopsis of a jab game, and luigi's attack options go here http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=180142
DI DI might be the most important thing to learn in smash, it keeps you alive longer. However, it's not something you can really think about when it's happening. To start out I would suggest going to slow brawl and setting 1-2 lv9 cpus (lower levels don't attack enough) and just let them beat you up. DI correctly when they attack you, and don't worry about anything else. When you're comfortable enough in that, go to regular speed. Just make sure you do this instinctively.
Pile on the damage during grabs. It's free damage, yo. When you grab someone, figure out how many hits you can get at each %, and get in the habit of getting a couple hits before you throw. Each does 3%. Knowing how much leeway you have during a grab is a useful piece of knowlege.
Use the right aerial! At low %, fair and uair are great combo starters. Near the ledge, back air puts your opponent where you want them. A good thing to think about is what aerial to use out of your dthrow. At low % uair is great at leading into combos. At %s above ~120, a dthrow can be a killer if you remember to chase them up and throw out a nair.
Use the right killing move Luigi has lots of options when it comes to KOs, however many of them kick in at different times. It's important to know what moves kill when. Your options begin at 50% (yowza) and go on in a stepwise fashion all the way up to 200. Getting a good feel of what your easiest KO is at any percent is important. Going for a shoryuken when your opponent is already to 85% is often inefficient, since a up-angled-fsmash will kill most people at that stage, and is generally easier to pull off. This process continues until about 230, which is where a uair or fair will kill anyone, which are generally the easiest moves of all to land.
Get your fireball on. Fireballs are easy to overlook, since projectiles aren't the basis of luigi's game. It's important to know, however, what your fireballs are capable of. Any time your combo gets away from you, a fireball can tack on a bit of damage. When you can't reliably approach, getting into fireball range and making your opponent uncomfortable is a good option. They're also a powerful defensive tool.
Check out this thread for great fireball ideas. http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=175919&highlight=fireball
Up-angle your fsmash. This should be as natural as breathing. It kills quicker, and comes out faster.
Sweetspot that edge. The green rocket sweetspots. Learn it, love it, make it muscle memory. The spot is just a bit under the ledge.
Grab the edge. When you knock your opponent offstage, hanging off the ledge makes a great neutral state for a waiting luigi. Particularly because it leads easily into a bair wop. On top of that, ledgedrop->FJP is a very quick hog. One of the quickest sweet spotting upbs in the game.
Follow them off the edge every time. When you're fighting a computer, your stock is fairly unimportant. Following a knocked-off opponent can't hurt you, and is good practice. Luigi's recovery is very good, and you can often score an easy KO when your opponent is trying to recover. Get used to this.
Try to spike on EVERY dair. Any time you can, try that dair spike. The more you try it, the better you'll get, the better you get, the more useful it is.
Shield is your neutral state When you're not doing anything, you might as well have your guard up. This isn't terribly practical in an actual match, but any time you aren't doing anything in an actual match, and you don't need your shield up, you'll have plenty of time to make that decision consciously. This will help the "don't get hit" concept. If you're not attacking, and not pursuing, making it a habit of hitting L (or R in my case) is a good thing. It'll reinforce your SHAD, and it will in effect auto-tech your landings.
If your shield breaks in training, so what? If your finger is that much more itchy to block, you come out on top.
Shield cancel your dashes Even when you don't need to, hitting shield instead of simply stopping running is a good habit. Luigi slides alot, and the end of a dash, just sliding, is a vulnerable state. Shield canceling helps to alleviate this.
Other ideas and methods.
On Vids. Watching videos of luigis better than you is a great way to evaluate the game. However, just sitting and watching a match doesn't do much for you, that's just entertainment. Watching a good match multiple times is a good way to get out of it what it has to offer. I like to, on the first viewing, just watch the non-luigi character. Do what you can to see what it is they're doing, what they're trying to do, and what their strategies are. This is practice for reading your opponent in a real match. Once you have a good idea of how the opponent fights, watch the luigi player, but do it in the context of the situation. OK, so that toon link likes to SH into a zair, watch for that, when it happens how does the wigi react? Did his reaction work? If so, why? Keep these questions in your mind. Don't just watch a fight, analyze the fight.
Another thing I like to do is watch a fight I haven't yet seen with a controller in my hand. I'm not sure if it helps or not, but play-fighting a real human seems like a good idea to me. This, though, is inherently flawed just like everything else I talk about, because its not a 1v1 fight, and they're not reacting to you as you react to them. Keep this in mind.
Online Play Is also useful, and also flawed. The Idea here is, again, to experiment. How do people react to your moves. What do people like to do, how do they expect you to act? Learn to read people, and what they like to do.
None of the above listed ideas are ideal to your improvement. The best thing you can do to improve your game is to play people, alot of people, all the time. However, this is a set of ideas on how you might still be able to improve your game when you have nobody to play. The most important thing I would like people to take away with this is how to be in the proper mindset when fighting fake opponents, to actually get better. You're not here to win, you're here to experiment. **** around, have fun, do things you normally wouldn't do. Get used to everything, anything, and every possible situation. Figure out exactly what luigi can do, and what he can't do. While you're doing this, keep doing the little things that reinforce good habits. When luigi isn't a game character, but instead just an extension of your fingers, thats when you win.
I want to make sure that you know, that I know, I'm not the best luigi player here. If you think you're probably better than I am, you probably are. However I feel like my reasoning is sound, and I know for a fact good habits promote good play. That said, I WANT YOUR INPUT! This is by no means comprehensive, and some things in here are complete horse****. Which are they? Please let me know, if not for the community, then for me lol. I want to know everything and this game isn't an exception to that. Once I do though, I'll let everyone in on the secret
Thanks!
