Q&A The 'Mains' Advice Thread

[SmooveJuice]

hey guys im a melee player, and an ex brawl player here. I've felt lost ever since this game came out occasionally taking time now and again to play. but lately ive been more serious about Sm4sh. Problem is i cant really find a main, so far i've played pit and dark pit and while they seem to be my best characters and i do like them i dont feel like they truly have potential to go far so i've been looking elsewhere. I don't know if i have a playstyle per-se but i generally in games like mix up characters, rush down character, or characters with a mix of everything. I also don't like flowcharty characters that follow the same formula all the time.

 

[Gearitz]

So I've narrowed it down to 8 characters I like

 

[Spikezillian]

He's a mid-low tier who hasn't gotten many good results yet at any majors.

... Doesn't mean you can't become the first right?

The reason I love Mewtwo so much is because he has everything you could want from a character. Here's a few reasons why:

- He has a good throw, good tilt, good smash, good projectile, good everything. He has at least 1 of every kind of move that is pretty good, and usually its more than one in each category, they arent perfect moves but we can't just become Sheik lol
- His Shadow Ball does 25%. Twenty five. Plus does great shield damage and forces great pressure on your opponent.
- One of the most reliable reflectors in the game, albeit being a little slow on startup, it has a lot of active frames so even if you're too early, you probably won't be. It also helps recovering.
- Up-B is pretty reliable, if it wasnt for weird incorrect direction shenanigans (Being just barely under Dream Land is a good example). Honestly, looking past that it's still super fast and really good for getting past edge guarding shenanigans.
- All of his moves do pretty good damage and have good knockback growth all around, especially now with his up air getting buffed this is further evidence he can kill in a number of ways.
- A crap ton of good mix ups in his disposal. For example, down throw can be stringed to forward air, dash up smash, or side tilt at lower percents. Several of his moves have multiple options. Not to mention his up tilt and up air having multiple different hitboxes in each part of the tail giving you even more possibilities.
- A nice foxtrot to actually do a few things like dash attack, up smash, dash grab, etc. It's tricky as the opponent to keep up with you're moving back and forth as well, since Mewtwo is pretty quick now.
- A great jab that can setup into dash up smash as a mixup, and even true combo into down b at certain percents into a potential kill option! It also stops a lot of attacks and also stops Sanic from spamming side b lmfao
- Did I mention his shadow ball does 25 percent? Cause it does. And this makes me happy. :3

I'm only quickly brainstorming all the Mewtwo stuff, too. There's so much more I haven't even noted yet. He's really fun, regardless of how good or bad of a rep he can get from people. He's also a fantastic stepping stone for people who want a character that benefits from all the techs (other than JCGT.... meh?) He even has this weird grab thing Abadango has shown on his channel, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfdYyrBtf_0

But to be honest, he is more of a jack of all trades and a master of none so... Not everyone will like him because of it, but I digress.

 

[Spikezillian]

So I've narrowed it down to 8 characters I like

From what I see, these are some pretty good combinations:





Or you can run and possibly or if you're down with that.

That's simply my opinion though, give those pairs a go and see if one of them makes you feel successful in your search. Good luck!

@the_muffin , I have decided to take your suggestion of Bowser and try him out again. He feels pretty good and I might go along with that as my third character. It hurts me to not go with Ganon but, without a good recovery I just can't bring myself to going back to him anymore.

 

[The Goldenbrawler]

So an update:
Cut - As much as I like FF7, I can't play him as well compared to the 4 I have set now.
Cut - I'm too inconsistent with him to properly represent him in the competitive scene.
TBD - While I've debated on adding her before, I removed her merely because she was "overused". However, it'd be hypocritical of me to not give her a second chance if I'm playing MK still.
TBD - While he is mid/low tier, I've done rather well with him and he DOES need more representation. Mained him in Melee and PM.
Safe - Been representing him since the 3DS days, that's not going to change. Been my main since Brawl/PM.
Safe - Like with Meta Knight, I've played her since the 3DS release. She's my "low tier main" for this game.

Now whether I stick with 4 mains, lower down to 3 mains, or just put Rosalina and Mewtwo as pockets/secondaries I have no idea. What do you think?

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

What I want in a character

- I like being close
-Not very hard to use, I'm not very good soo
- Does decent damage and has KO potential
- Good recovery
My issues
-I have trouble getting the kill, I get the person to like 100%+ but I sometimes don't KO

I got this one. Kept you waiting, huh?
(Also, anyone notice the strangely high amount of Mewtwo players in this thread?)
are all top tiers that fit your criteria. You're in luck.

 

[Gearitz]

hey guys im a melee player, and an ex brawl player here. I've felt lost ever since this game came out occasionally taking time now and again to play. but lately ive been more serious about Sm4sh. Problem is i cant really find a main, so far i've played pit and dark pit and while they seem to be my best characters and i do like them i dont feel like they truly have potential to go far so i've been looking elsewhere. I don't know if i have a playstyle per-se but i generally in games like mix up characters, rush down character, or characters with a mix of everything. I also don't like flowcharty characters that follow the same formula all the time.

he's really good, fast, has projectiles, decent recovery but can be gimped he just a good rush down character with an amazing down throw or amazing mix ups, good projectiles, tether recovery with her side b can recover two other ways with her up b and down b just an amazing high tier.

 

[C0rvus]

I got this one. Kept you waiting, huh?
(Also, anyone notice the strangely high amount of Mewtwo players in this thread?)
are all top tiers that fit your criteria. You're in luck.

Among those, I would recommend Ness the most, simply because OP said he struggles to get the kill. Ness doesn't have this problem like ever, whereas Mario and Pika have to really fish for kills, and Fox can struggle if the opponent shields judiciously at kill percent, but he has some nice kill confirms out of landing aerials.

 

[Wolfy125312]

So I'm not a very technical person so I can't really play people like Shiek or Pikachu. I play a lot of Ike, but I feel he's very predictable and gets punished hard. Could you guys recommend me an alt go play? Like I said, I like characters who aren't overall technical, but have some power and speed to them. I was looking at Robin.

 

[Wolfheart77]

You do NOT want Robin if you want speed. Slowest dash speed in the game, only average air speed and around 43rd on walk speed. And Robin has a high learning curve.
Maybe try someone like Marth? Fairly fast, nice power and the only technical stuff is learning to land the tipper.

 

[Deleted member]

Marth is fast in terms of air and ground speed, but a good amount of his attacks are deceptively laggy. That dash attack of his is outright terrible and has little to no reward.

If you're looking for somebody who isn't overall technical and has speed and power, go for Cloud. You'll have to be careful going offstage though due to how bad his recovery is.

 

[Wolfy125312]

What about Roy? He seems to be a better marth overall.

 

[Wolfheart77]

I wouldn't say that on any Marth boards, I'll tell you that. That fight's been going on since Melee.
I'm a Roy secondary with Marth as a party character. I picked up Roy because you had to get up close and personal instead of Marth's tipper (and at the time I picked him up, I was a hardcore Lucario main where you had to be close anyway) but I've been landing tippers since Brawl and rarely think about it any more. Plus, Roy's moves are about as laggy as Marth's, I think. I might go back to Marth being secondary like Brawl with Roy as a party character, since Robin's Levin Sword spaces like Marth's Falchion does.
Of course, if you want Marth - tipper, you could always go with Lucina.

 

[C0rvus]

Roy sounds like a good fit if you want speed and power. He's pretty straightforward and not very technical, so give him a go. You may find him underwhelming, in which case try Ike or Cloud.

 

[The Goldenbrawler]

So right now I've got 4 mains, and am trying to decide what I should do. It's either I stay with 4 mains, drop to 3, or keep the original 2 ( & ) and put the recent 2 ( & ) as secondaries.

 

[Wolf64118]

So right now I've got 4 mains, and am trying to decide what I should do. It's either I stay with 4 mains, drop to 3, or keep the original 2 ( & ) and put the recent 2 ( & ) as secondaries.

I would narrow that down to 2 or 3. Personally I'd drop Rosa.
Honestly you could even drop down to 1 if you wanted to invest all your time into one character. (MK is solo viable, check out Abadango)

 

[Lavani]

(MK is solo viable, check out Abadango)

Abadango secondaries and used to play him alongside as well.

 

[The Goldenbrawler]

I would narrow that down to 2 or 3. Personally I'd drop Rosa.
Honestly you could even drop down to 1 if you wanted to invest all your time into one character. (MK is solo viable, check out Abadango)

I figure that, but I do like having more than 1 character, and Lucina is a guaranteed main, as is MK. Mewtwo and Rosa aren't necessarily the case, but they have both proven to get me good results and stood out from the rest of the cast.

 

[Wolf64118]

Abadango secondaries and used to play him alongside as well.

He dropped Pac-Man and Wario completely. When it comes to tournaments it's very rare to see him using Rosa or Mewtwo. Aba only used MK for all of G3. He's said several times he wants to solo main MK.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

The Goldenbrawler 2 and 2 sounds best... but as a counterpick? We all saw what happened to Aba at EVO when he swapped to Rosa, right? It's not the best idea.
(Disproved by Cracklin_Oats.)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
You know what? I like . He's pretty much slower movement, faster moves version of But guess what happened again? (I'm gonna wait it out like last time, probably.)

Screw it, I've had enough of this. I want a character that nobody in their right mind would expect to be good, but is. They need to be not extremely fast, have top-notch aerials, decent frame data, and no need for gimmicks.
Wait... isn't that ? Agh!

(I want some advice about being nervous about committing to characters. That's all this means.)

 

[C0rvus]

2 and 2 sounds best... but as a counterpick? We all saw what happened to Aba at EVO when he swapped to Rosa, right? It's not the best idea.

You mean when he switched to Rosa and beat out top Sonic players? She's a fine secondary. She has some quirks but is overall a pretty simple but effective character.

 

[Wolfheart77]

(I want some advice about being nervous about committing to characters. That's all this means.)

Find a character that clicks. If that fails, find a character from your favorite series. All characters have flaws, and they all have weaknesses. That is what makes them characters.

 

[C0rvus]

I personally struggle super hard with committing to characters. I've played damn near half the roster at this point (hence me posting in this thread a lot; hopefully my experience can be helpful). I think the best advice I can give is keep trying, and try not to be discouraged easily. Or just arbitrarily pick a character or two and roll with it.

I've tried making lists and picking the traits I like and it's never borne fruit. Feeling good about Wii Fit Trainer these days, but I know it more than likely won't last.

 

[Gearitz]

So I've narrowed it down to 8 characters I like

Which one of these would work best with a Villager/Link in teams

 

[Wolfheart77]

Probably ZSS, Ness, or Rosa. You want someone with good kill power, so definitely not Sheik or Villager (though Villager can kill fairly well). You'll also want some good stage control to trap them, and Ike I feel has too much lag on his moves and is far too slow. Diddy and Fox I'm not too familiar with though I'd say Diddy would also be OK in that matchup. But Ness's PSI magnet for healing options, ZSS's Paralyzer for random shots while they're busy with projectiles (and then taking a flower pot or big stick to the face), or someone who can space out the stage control like RosaLuma. Though you'll have to be careful not to kill your own partner's Luma...

Granted, my partner and I are Robin/Cloud pairing, so what do I know?

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

Double Villager all the way across the sky!!!
The more I think about it, having 2 trees out at once would be pretty awesome. But of the 3 above, I'd have to say Ness.
I don't have a regular doubles partner, but I generally play Greninja for doubles.

 

[Gearitz]

Double Villager all the way across the sky!!!
The more I think about it, having 2 trees out at once would be pretty awesome. But of the 3 above, I'd have to say Ness.
I don't have a regular doubles partner, but I generally play Greninja for doubles.

Yeah I would say because I just watched MJG/FOW vs M2K/Zero(Double Diddy) and they did pretty well

 

[Spikezillian]

(Also, anyone notice the strangely high amount of Mewtwo players in this thread?)

Isn't it such a great problem to have?
Honestly, I love coming here simply because I feel like the only Mewtwo player in the GTA and here its like we have a club. :3

Which one of these would work best with a Villager/Link in teams

For , I think fits the bill really well. is a tad slow on the ground and he can stay back to pull bombs and whatnot, meanwhile can get up close and personal with his speed.

For , I tend to agree with the double shenanigans! Other than that, you could go or , again someone who can be fast and jump around like a crazy guy.

 

[Spikezillian]

I personally struggle super hard with committing to characters. I've played damn near half the roster at this point (hence me posting in this thread a lot; hopefully my experience can be helpful).

I totally feel you, man. I've literally went through 3/4 of the roster trying to learn all the characters to see which ones fit perfectly for me. I started out wanting to play and on 3DS, which changed to , which changed to , which changed to , which changed to , the list goes on and on and on. 200 hours of messing around later, I finally settled on and for a loooong time, while playing around with all the other characters for potential pockets, until I found my bae of course, who took place as my secondary. :D

Point is, I think that if people have the time to really play every character and can narrow their choice down to a few characters, then coming here will be a whole lot easier.

 

[Dar4]

So right now I've got 4 mains, and am trying to decide what I should do. It's either I stay with 4 mains, drop to 3, or keep the original 2 ( & ) and put the recent 2 ( & ) as secondaries.

Honestly, if you are serious about winning you need to drop Lucina as well as Mewtwo. They just aren't that good and not worth your time if you want to win tournaments someday. Lucina doesn't have any tools. Literally no reason to play her over Cloud, Ike, or heck even Marth. And Mewtwo is just too big and light to compete. The margin of error with mewtwo is stupidly small because of it and you don't get any special reward that makes it near worth taking on those handicaps.

Now if you would rather have the goal of being best with either of those characters feel free to main them but just be aware you're handicapping yourself and you're going to have to be significantly better than everyone in your area to win tournaments.

Either MK or Rosa would be a fine choice. Both are top 15 characters and both have a good matchup spread from what I know and can be solo mained. You should have a gut feeling as to which is your best. Go with that.

 

[The Goldenbrawler]

Honestly, if you are serious about winning you need to drop Lucina as well as Mewtwo. They just aren't that good and not worth your time if you want to win tournaments someday. Lucina doesn't have any tools. Literally no reason to play her over Cloud, Ike, or heck even Marth. And Mewtwo is just too big and light to compete. The margin of error with mewtwo is stupidly small because of it and you don't get any special reward that makes it near worth taking on those handicaps.

Now if you would rather have the goal of being best with either of those characters feel free to main them but just be aware you're handicapping yourself and you're going to have to be significantly better than everyone in your area to win tournaments.

Either MK or Rosa would be a fine choice. Both are top 15 characters and both have a good matchup spread from what I know and can be solo mained. You should have a gut feeling as to which is your best. Go with that.

I lowered down to just Lucina and MK, and I'ma keep it like that. As for top tiers, I typically stay away from that territory, MK is just there due to character loyalty. Whereas with Lucina, she's my low/mid tier main for this game, typically have on in each Smash. Plus she's underrated. As for your thoughts on her, I disagree, she's proven to be one of my mains for a reason, well a few, since I like her as a character, like the playstyle, and do extremely well with her compared to the others you mentioned. You have your own opinions on the characters though, so I'm not going to argue.

 

[Phikicheli]

Link best main confirmed

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

Honestly, if you are serious about winning you need to drop Mewtwo. Mewtwo is just too big and light to compete. The margin of error with mewtwo is stupidly small because of it and you don't get any special reward that makes it near worth taking on those handicaps.

Oh no you di-int.
I'll agree the mrgin of error for Mewtwo is very small, but the buffs make it so that it's really, really hard to make errors. And his size and weight make it so that you practically float back on stage, so you can pull of insane recoveries.

 

[Joey T.]

Hi guys! I've been reading in this forum for long but I finally decided to make an account to share my problems and opinions with you.
The fact is, like many others here, I'm having lots of trouble to decide a character to master. I know a lot of people think that maining many characters is bad for competitive, so I want to narrow it to 3 characters max.
I'm really hyped about Bayonetta and Corrin, but I don't know if I'll main them (I'll try tho), so I want to choose a character from the current roster in case they don't work for me.
What I'm looking for is:
-a character that doesn't focus on defense. I like equilibrated and offensive characters, but I dislike characters whose strategy is to go to the corner and throw stuff, like Olimar.
-a character with decent ground and aerial mobility. That doesn't mean they have to be fast, because I actually like Robin (slowest in the game), but I haven't been able to play a character like Luigi.
-a character that is somehow viable: no need to be top 10 in the tier list, but at least in the high 50%.

I also like a lot to gimp, going offstage and spiking people, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy a strong ground game, like Cloud or Roy have.

Anyway, that's the requisits I (kind of) ask for.

Thanks for your recommendations in advance! I really appreciate your help.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

On the case! Outside of what you already said you like, here's a few ideas.

is king of the gimp. As long as you avoid the hammer, he's very consistent. The Japanese tier list rates him pretty high, but there's not enough G&W players in America to back that up. Try him out!
is probably the most well-rounded character on the cast. The only thing it lacks is an effective offstage spike...
rocks at spiking. Just watch DKWill or Larry Lurr, and you'll easily pick up the basics.

 

[The Goldenbrawler]

I've decided it's mostly between Mewtwo and Greninja now...for like, the 4th time. This is going to be the LAST time I debate this question, I've had more trouble choosing between them 2 than the other 20+ characters I thought of playing and dropped over the past year.

Hi guys! I've been reading in this forum for long but I finally decided to make an account to share my problems and opinions with you.
The fact is, like many others here, I'm having lots of trouble to decide a character to master. I know a lot of people think that maining many characters is bad for competitive, so I want to narrow it to 3 characters max.
I'm really hyped about Bayonetta and Corrin, but I don't know if I'll main them (I'll try tho), so I want to choose a character from the current roster in case they don't work for me.
What I'm looking for is:
-a character that doesn't focus on defense. I like equilibrated and offensive characters, but I dislike characters whose strategy is to go to the corner and throw stuff, like Olimar.
-a character with decent ground and aerial mobility. That doesn't mean they have to be fast, because I actually like Robin (slowest in the game), but I haven't been able to play a character like Luigi.
-a character that is somehow viable: no need to be top 10 in the tier list, but at least in the high 50%.

I also like a lot to gimp, going offstage and spiking people, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy a strong ground game, like Cloud or Roy have.

Anyway, that's the requisits I (kind of) ask for.

Thanks for your recommendations in advance! I really appreciate your help.

Out of the 4 characters I play atm, would be a good choice. Hydro Pump gimps ftw, but he's very tricky. Just woke up, so beyond my characters, I can't really think of any atm.

 

[AJb1205]

I got this one. Kept you waiting, huh?
(Also, anyone notice the strangely high amount of Mewtwo players in this thread?)
are all top tiers that fit your criteria. You're in luck.

Among those, I would recommend Ness the most, simply because OP said he struggles to get the kill. Ness doesn't have this problem like ever, whereas Mario and Pika have to really fish for kills, and Fox can struggle if the opponent shields judiciously at kill percent, but he has some nice kill confirms out of landing aerials.

Thanks, I like ness the most, I don't like fox very much. Also what secondary would you recommend for ness? I don't like using one character for a long time. I also want a second main and a secondary for that one. These are the characters I like using the most: ,,,,,,. Also this isn't in any particular order. I don't have a lot of experience with these characters I just play with them by myself and with friends and I have the most fun with them. These are characters I don't like using much:,,,,,,,,,,,,,. They just aren't my style. Sorry for asking a ton of questions, I am new to competitive smash and I don't know a lot and I'm not very good either.

 

[Spikezillian]

Honestly, if you are serious about winning you need to drop Lucina as well as Mewtwo. They just aren't that good and not worth your time if you want to win tournaments someday. Lucina doesn't have any tools. Literally no reason to play her over Cloud, Ike, or heck even Marth. And Mewtwo is just too big and light to compete. The margin of error with mewtwo is stupidly small because of it and you don't get any special reward that makes it near worth taking on those handicaps.

Now if you would rather have the goal of being best with either of those characters feel free to main them but just be aware you're handicapping yourself and you're going to have to be significantly better than everyone in your area to win tournaments.

Either MK or Rosa would be a fine choice. Both are top 15 characters and both have a good matchup spread from what I know and can be solo mained. You should have a gut feeling as to which is your best. Go with that.

 

[Dar4]

I really just don't get this opinion. If you want to play a low tier fine, winning tournaments doesn't have to be your main goal. You can play for fun or to be the best with your character. No problem with that. I tried to point this out in my last post. We all play for different reasons.

But pointing out that certain characters are better than others isn't "ignorance", it's just a fact. And it's a very important thing to keep in mind when selecting your main. Most don't find losing to less skilled players, or facing multiple bad matchups in bracket due to your character choice is fun.

Now if you think Mewtwo or Lucina have some untapped tech or potential and are secretly high or top tier that's a different story. Main those characters then if you really think that. That's one of the reasons I main Wario. He's considered high tier but I personally believe he has top tier potential.

 

[The Goldenbrawler]

I really just don't get this opinion. If you want to play a low tier fine, winning tournaments doesn't have to be your main goal. You can play for fun or to be the best with your character. No problem with that. I tried to point this out in my last post. We all play for different reasons.

But pointing out that certain characters are better than others isn't "ignorance", it's just a fact. And it's a very important thing to keep in mind when selecting your main. Most don't find losing to less skilled players, or facing multiple bad matchups in bracket due to your character choice is fun.

Now if you think Mewtwo or Lucina have some untapped tech or potential and are secretly high or top tier that's a different story. Main those characters then if you really think that. That's one of the reasons I main Wario. He's considered high tier but I personally believe he has top tier potential.

Er, I'm the one who mains MK and Lucina. I do plan to win, but I'm still going to play Lucina because I still get results with her. My question was mostly "Should I have a top 3" so I have a backup character if needed. While in that question, it's mostly between Mewtwo and Greninja, I've also questioned: Lucario, Rosalina, Cloud, Robin, and Corrin (although they're not out yet).