So it's here...
Well mate, it's time for me to finally talk to you about this stuff, now that you have reached my main...
Looking at these changes... it seems like what I had suspected has been confirmed: You don't
really know what is best for whatever characters you are buffing.
Did you consult any Lucina mains while making this? Because I wasn't consulted and neither were the people at the social thread, I presume. This means that it's hard for you to get the picture of what actually is going on inside the character and why some things are what they are.
Before I develop this any further, I'll look at your changes one by one:
Preset: Lucina's sword is now slightly longer, and she therefore has the same range as Marth, however she is also now the same height as Marth, making her slightly easier to hit.*
The very reason Lucina supposedly "has less range than Marth" is because she is shorter. I've done countless tests for hours on all of Marth and Lucina's horizontal hitboxes and the results I found were inconclusive towards Marth actually hitting any farther than her. Since she is shorter, she hits slightly lower than him, which means she kind of has a bit less vertical range than he does, but it makes no practical difference and has pretty much never made any. The whole "Marth hits people on Battlefield platforms while Lucina doesn't" is a myth that has been perpetuated for years through selection bias.
Think about it: Lucina is already shorter. She's 0.92 units tall, Marth is 0.96. If her sword were to be even a
milimetre shorter, this would not be possible:
She has the fastest walk in the game. You are buffing what is already her greatest asset. This is very unnecessary.
Air speed: 1.02 -> 1.06 **
This change is okay. But it's also pointless. It's not something she is in such dire need of.
This is also unnecessary. If there is one thing that needs to be maybe changed in her Side Tilt, it's knockback grow, so that the Marth mains can shut up about hers not KOing. Even then, I think even this would a facultative (if nice) buff.
Up Tilt has problems, but the problems it has are definitely nothing to do with how fast it recovers. In fact, looking at this, I'm convinced this is gonna do... nothing. The big issue with Up Tilt is the front hitbox, where almost all of it goes into the Z-Axis and doesn't hit squat. This really hurts her potential with this move when fighting people in front of her (and Marth's as well, since this happens with him, too).
Up smash (ground connection hit) hitbox active: 13-14 -> 11-13
For how strong her Up Smash is (believe me, it's strong), it doesn't need to be faster. It has a really wonky hitbox where if you get hit between the launcher and the actual sword, it launches you at a crazy angle with fixed knockback, so maybe that needs adjustments, if anything.
Dsmash (hit 2) hitbox active: 21-23 -> 16-18
This is a nice buff, but again, it's not remedying what is actually bad about this move, which is exceedingly low reward for how weak and laggy it is. If you had just adjusted the front hit's damage to deal something like 11 and/or had raised it's KBG, Down Smash would actually have a niche as a finisher out of the first hit of Neutral Air while not being completely outclassed by Dolphin Slash and FSmash in this regard.
Grab hitbox size: +0.2 (code hard to read, but this should be about the right increase)
Dash grab hitbox size: +0.2
Pivot grab hitbox size: +0.21
Marth and Lucina still have a very healthy grab range. They don't need it to be any bigger. Their only problem with grabbing is how absolutely arse the lag is on Dash and Pivot Grabbing, but I'd be reluctant to actually buff their abilities to get grabs...
Fthrow IASA: 3 frames earlier
Fthrow angle: 50 -> 52
Fthrow Base Knockback: 100 -> 95
Fthrow KBG: 50 -> 46
Uthrow KBG: 120 -> 136
Dthrow IASA: 2 frames earlier
Dthrow KBG: 50 -> 46
...especially after these.
I think I get what you're going with this. You're trying to make FThrow>Fair be a thing, you want to buff Up Throw to make it kill earlier, and you want DThrow>Bair/Uair connect longer.
You see, this isn't exactly very smart.
DThrow>Up Air like this is actually gonna start KOing a lot of people if you do it on a platform, alongside making this conversion actually work on floaties and heavyweights. This is iffy. Lucina already combos Heavyweights for days, and with this change, you will get a lot of combos that lead into grab>DThrow>Up Air, making them even more combo food unnecessarily. This is also going to absolutely murder floaties.
If you apply these changes to Marth, you are actually going to break him, since DThrow>Tipper Up Air is actually going to be not very far off from 1.0.0 Hoo-hah from Diddy because of how long it will work. DThrow>Tipper Up Air never kills outside of platforms for neither character as they stand right now, but with this new DThrow, Lucina has a really tight hoo-hah confirm in platforms against the entire cast, and Marth will have a really easy-bake hoo-hah that works on the entire cast. Please reconsider.
Up Throw KOing earlier is also weird because them having a kill throw is only supposed to
remedy Marth Syndrome to some extent, not basically make a joke out of it.
Nair autocancel: 47-FAF -> 40-FAF
Given Neutral Air's current role in Marcina's arsenal (combo starter, tool to stuff out vertical approaches, especially aerial ones), this could also maybe do unnecessary damage to them. Right now, out of a shorthop, this move will not autocancel and will give them landing lag of 12 frames. SH Nair in place is one of their best pressure and stuff-out tools. By making it autocanceallable and making it only go through the soft 2 frame landing lag, you are making this move very highly spammable. This would make approaching a smart Marcina be complete hell, as they'd constantly be able to throw out massive, very high damaging and killing hitboxes whenever they need.
Fair FAF: 38 -> 32
Fair landing lag: 16 -> 13
Fair autocancel: 36-FAF -> 28-FAF
I also know where you are going with this... you want to give Marcina double fair out of a shorthop back, As it stands currently, they
almost achieve this but FAF is a little too much.
But there is a reason why Marth and Lucina don't have double Fair in this game.
This gives them way too good of a pressure tool against shields in a game where shields are both easily poked and don't last. This would skyrocket their safety on shield and make them an even bigger threat in the neutral and even scarier to shield against than they already are. With slightly less landing lag, you can fastfall Fair in the middle of the move and be slightly more okay, and now the move autocancels earlier which means you can hit a shield, autocancel the move and pressure with a ground move. I cannot confirm this, but this might make get your Fair blocked>Autocancel>Grab true. This move went from safe on block to unsafe
to block.
Not only that, but lowering the FAF like this is gonna make it a combo tool. Already existing combos that end in a single Fair now can end in two. Combos that ended in two can now end in three. Advancing Forward Air is now a combo starter at mid percents, since you can now combo Fair>Landing Up Air, and this opens a pandora box of combos for them. I can actually picture Fair>Up Air>Up Tilt>Up Air being a true,
40% combo Lucina could do with this. You can now go from mid percents to kill percents just by getting hit by a single Fair. Fair>Up Air>Up Air (34%). Fair>Up Air>Neutral Air (36%). Fair>Up Air>Up Smash (37%). Fair>AC>Dancing Blade Down (31%). You are making their main poke in neutral also one of their main combo tools like this. I'm sorry, this is just a big no.
Uair hitbox active: 5-9 -> 4-8
Uair FAF: 46 -> 41
This is only gonna further add insult to the injury I pointed out with the Fair changes. You're making her Up Air unnecessarily faster. This will only increase its combo ability and will make it easier to pressure people with the start of the move. Falling Up Air>Fair>Up Air is a pretty niche combo with how Lucina is right now, but with how these changes were implemented, now it's an easy 33% for her.
Shieldbreaker start charging at: frame 11 -> frame 8
I don't even know what this will do exactly. If this is making Shield Breaker hit faster in any way, be aware that this is not necessary. It's already a bit hard to react to with the speed it comes out now.
...The verdict here is that you didn't address Marcina's issues here with this, while at the same time, actually giving them somewhat broken stuff. You needed to ask yourself "What are Lucina's current problems, and how can I fix them?"
Her only real problems are things like Down Air, which is extremely niche for both her and Marth. It hardly spikes and has a century of end and landing lag. Her FTilt not being as good as Marth's is also a problem depending on who you ask. Up Tilt is also something people would love to see fixed.
It's also strange how in this one, you didn't put explanations as to why things were changed. I think if you want to keep this up, you need to study the character far more, and do some field research with estabilished Lucina mains you can get in contact with.
