Q&A The 'Mains' Advice Thread

[Onee-San]

and or your man then.

Did you mean main when you said man?

 

[Y2Kay]

Did you mean main when you said man?

Kinda. Those two are both "the man" for the job. Both have the play style you are looking for.

 

[Onee-San]

Kinda. Those two are both "the man" for the job. Both have the play style you are looking for.

My second favorite playstyle is the high risk-high reward type. Third would be sniper. Anything like those.

 

[TheBlueSpirit]

Did you mean main when you said man?

Sonic is also probably good for your playstyle

 

[Onee-San]

Sonic is also probably good for your playstyle

To be a bit more descriptive I'm the kinda guy that's an all out offensive fighter but get's out when he needs to. Though sometimes he forgets. I can't remember a time when I remembered to shield actively in a fair match. The only time I actively used my shield was master hand.

 

[TheBlueSpirit]

To be a bit more descriptive I'm the kinda guy that's an all out offensive fighter but get's out when he needs to. Though sometimes he forgets. I can't remember a time when I remembered to shield actively in a fair match. The only time I actively used my shield was master hand.

Still gonna say sonic. In this game every character is gonna need to use their shield anyway and sonic rewards both styles of play decently

 

[Murlough]

I need a secondary for my Mewtwo.

I'm mostly looking for a character who can take on heavies well and has a projectile to work with (I hate being forced to approach unless I want to).

I'm thinking or mostly.

I like Shiek's style alot (almost more than Mewtwo's but I can't give up on him). My main issue with her is my own lack of skill with her. That and killing can be a real chore sometimes which is frustrating.

Toon Link is a hilarious character to play and I love his style as well. Unfortunately, I'm unsure of him because of several reasons. He pisses my friends off ALOT, his recovery can screw me over occasionally, shields are murder...

I'm mostly posting to see other player's opinions. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[TheBlueSpirit]

I need a secondary for my Mewtwo.

I'm mostly looking for a character who can take on heavies well and has a projectile to work with (I hate being forced to approach unless I want to).

I'm thinking or mostly.

I like Shiek's style alot (almost more than Mewtwo's but I can't give up on him). My main issue with her is my own lack of skill with her. That and killing can be a real chore sometimes which is frustrating.

Toon Link is a hilarious character to play and I love his style as well. Unfortunately, I'm unsure of him because of several reasons. He pisses my friends off ALOT, his recovery can screw me over occasionally, shields are murder...

I'm mostly posting to see other player's opinions. Thanks in advice for the help.

They're both good picks, I'd say Toon Link might be better if you'd like to have solider kill options still. His recovery isn't really that bad, and once you learn him more you'll only have a better grasp on it. As for shields being murder, you can take advantage of people's shielding with other options as you learn them and of course someone who is always in shield is very prone to a grab. Toon Link is always seeming to look more and more solid these days so I'd say keep at him.

 

[Lavani]

I need a secondary for my Mewtwo.

I'm mostly looking for a character who can take on heavies well and has a projectile to work with (I hate being forced to approach unless I want to).

I'm thinking or mostly.

I like Shiek's style alot (almost more than Mewtwo's but I can't give up on him). My main issue with her is my own lack of skill with her. That and killing can be a real chore sometimes which is frustrating.

Toon Link is a hilarious character to play and I love his style as well. Unfortunately, I'm unsure of him because of several reasons. He pisses my friends off ALOT, his recovery can screw me over occasionally, shields are murder...

I'm mostly posting to see other player's opinions. Thanks in advance for the help.

I don't know if you had a specific heavy in mind when saying this (I'm just assuming DK is the primary offender), but I know Larry Lurr was optimistic about the DK v Sheik MU even prepatch, and now that she has even less fair range vs his bair/pivot grab and lost throw 50/50s...even if she wins, it sounds mentally taxing to try to slowly chip him to death without getting rage killed at 60%.

Food for thought, I suppose. As far as a strict heavyweight counterpick goes, 's superior kill power and projectile-heavy gameplay might fare better.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

Murlough? Are you sure about this?
Well, as a fellow player, I can vouch for . He's great against heavies, has a very similar aerial game, and the same crazy combos. Only problem is the tether grab and the low air speed, but seeing as you thought of those shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Murlough]

Murlough? Are you sure about this?
Well, as a fellow player, I can vouch for . He's great against heavies, has a very similar aerial game, and the same crazy combos. Only problem is the tether grab and the low air speed, but seeing as you thought of those shouldn't be a problem.

Wat? I'm not giving up Mewtwo.

I can't stand the PK kids. Lucas is good and I've seen proof of it but he just isn't my style. I appreciate the input though!

I don't know if you had a specific heavy in mind when saying this (I'm just assuming DK is the primary offender), but I know Larry Lurr was optimistic about the DK v Sheik MU even prepatch, and now that she has even less fair range vs his bair/pivot grab and lost throw 50/50s...even if she wins, it sounds mentally taxing to try to slowly chip him to death without getting rage killed at 60%.

Food for thought, I suppose. As far as a strict heavyweight counterpick goes, 's superior kill power and projectile-heavy gameplay might fare better.

DK is the main offender, yes. You are probably right.

Tink sounds like a much better pick against DK.

 

[MikelovesCordelia]

Hey guys, So I am having trouble picking a main. I like R.O.B a whole lot, but I am better with Duck Hunt and Rose and Luma. I am a melee player, so characters like falcon and sheik SHOUL be natural fits for me but they aren't, I just don't like the way they feel. So should I pick the character that is most fun or the character I do best with is my question? R.O.B = Fun, I can win often in For Glory. Duck Hunt/Rose = Not that fun, I can win most of the time in For Glory.

EDIT: Also, I forgot about Diddy, I have heard that he is one of the easiest characters to be good at, and Sm4sh is really more of a side thing for me. If I am devoting most of my time to melee still, is Diddy a good option. I have almost no experience with him.

Ah fak me. I got Flavia. Happy april fools!!

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

I'm thinking about maining Corrin, and it's not because of EmblemBoards. Corrin may walk slow, but my style revolves around Dragon Lunge kicks to get around. I have small DFS into bite as both an alternate finisher and a spacer. Counter and forward smash is my defense. And this equals power, speed, defense and range. The rest will come later.

EDIT- Wario's good too. I like having a responsive character, and he doesn't rely on very quick thinking. Also a beast in the air, with solid recovery. Wario Bike is a weird projectile but it doubles as a movement option, which is cool.

I'm going to stop talking about my character search here... I think I can handle it on my own from here. It's really tough to leave characters you've played for so long. I'll keep playing until I find a better fit.

 

[Foxus]

I'm looking for a different main at the moment, until I get better, Fox is a little too tech-dependent for me at the moment. Any ideas?

I'm thinking of going with Pikachu, just because I'm used to a more speedy character, but is Pikachu as tech-dependent as Fox is to use effectively?

 

[Ravengeance]

I personally don't like playing my main or secondaries/pockets online because of this, so I understand your concern. Online matches can also teach rather bad habits, things that may work online for the most part, but not offline. It's not like it absolutely can't be done, but picking up a main for online play isn't such a bad idea either if you plan on doing a lot of that.
For fundamentals, Mario is usually considered the go-to character.


Which do you find more fun: (1) winning regardless of how fun your main's playstyle feels to you, or (2) playing a character whose playstyle is fun to you while still having a chance of winning? Bayonetta is seemingly the strongest of the three at the moment (don't quote me on that, it's just how it seems for the moment in tournaments and such), and she's certainly more like ZSS than Sheik, but remember that being as strong as she is, she's more likely to see a future nerf than Sheik or ZSS now. That in mind, you may feel safer honing your skills with Sheik and working with the options she has than learning a completely new character only to be disappointed in future. Not really a recommendation, I know, but just some things to consider to help you make up your mind. In the end, if you find Bayonetta's playstyle to be the most fun, I say play her!


This is a tough question for me to answer. I'm about fun>what people think is the most OP character. But I like good characters too. When Diddy was the strongest I still played Sheik over Diddy bc I didn't enjoy Diddy. I wanted to main Fox bc I mained him just bc I liked him ever since N64.
So the character (not just their playstyle) affects whether or not I want to play them. I'm a big metroid fan so I enjoy playing Samus and ZSS. I know nothing about Bayo, never played her games. But Bayo is so strong right that my Bayo is already better than my Sheik or my ZSS. So the fact that Bayo is my best character I feel like she's my current "main." But your main doesn't have to be your most played or favorite character. No matter how bad they make her I'll always enjoy playing Puff.
I'm also the guy that plays 'random' all the time so it's not like I'm grinding to get better at Bayo so much that I feel other characters fall off.
I agree that Bayo is likely to see future nerfs and that after how drastic the Sheik nerfs were she isn't nearly as likely to get nerfed. Ideally I would like ZSS to be the best character bc I like Samus in general. I have more fun playing Sheik so I'll still prob play more Sheik than Bayo. But I'll feel obligated to use Bayo some so I don't get rusty.

tldr; Your main is your best character not your favorite. Patch 1.15 made my "main" Bayo and no longer Sheik.

 

[DarkAuraful]

Would anyone like to tell me something about and ?

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

has a great neutral, crazy combo strings, and a massive finisher on his up-B. Always jump out of dash to avoid the insane amount of dash cooldown he has, and make sure to learn all of the recovery tech if you're going to take him seriously.
is only good on Wii U. All of his signature stuff fails on 3DS. He's easily one of the most well-rounded characters. Super easy to learn.

 

[Kirito_SAO]

I'm having a really hard time picking other mains and secondaries and stuff. I want to narrow it down to 5. This is what I have so far.

 

[Kirito_SAO]

Main:

Others:[/]

 

[C0rvus]

Any other criteria? With 5 characters you can just kinda do what you want. I got nothing to work with here.
Meh, I'll try to help anyway.

If I was a Roy main... (crazy hypothetical here lol)
I definitely would want Lucario in my squad. He's a pretty good dude, has a few good top tier MUs (Sheik, Ryu come to mind).
Rosalina is probably worth pursuing. She's just super good and stuff. And her palette swaps are dope.
Toon Link is def in my squad. Another solid character with a more campy style. Nice to have variety on your squad.
Last spot goes to Mario or Sword Mario aka Cloud. Nice and easy, pretty fun. I'd opt for Mario because playing Cloud is like, why ever play Roy?

Really, it's up to you and why you play. If you compete, I think 5 is too many, and if you don't, play whoever you want mang.
If you want more specific advice, let me know.

 

[Kirito_SAO]

Any other criteria? With 5 characters you can just kinda do what you want. I got nothing to work with here.
Meh, I'll try to help anyway.

If I was a Roy main... (crazy hypothetical here lol)
I definitely would want Lucario in my squad. He's a pretty good dude, has a few good top tier MUs (Sheik, Ryu come to mind).
Rosalina is probably worth pursuing. She's just super good and stuff. And her palette swaps are dope.
Toon Link is def in my squad. Another solid character with a more campy style. Nice to have variety on your squad.
Last spot goes to Mario or Sword Mario aka Cloud. Nice and easy, pretty fun. I'd opt for Mario because playing Cloud is like, why ever play Roy?

Really, it's up to you and why you play. If you compete, I think 5 is too many, and if you don't, play whoever you want mang.
If you want more specific advice, let me know.

So ? And what do you mean by another criteria? And I do wish to compete.

 

[C0rvus]

Well I was wondering if there was anything specific you were looking for, any preferences, etc. Otherwise I'm just picking these guys kind of arbitrarily. You might want to dial it back to like 3 characters, but it's your call.

 

[Kirito_SAO]

Well I was wondering if there was anything specific you were looking for, any preferences, etc. Otherwise I'm just picking these guys kind of arbitrarily. You might want to dial it back to like 3 characters, but it's your call.

Ok thanks. So with Roy getting 2 other characters who do you say would be best?

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

That's... a lot of characters. I've played most of them... this is tough. Here's some stuff I can think of off the top of my head that's not just "Play bcuz easy top tier lawl"

Want a full cover for from the top tiers? Go with . Her matchup spread is unparalleled, if you can handle playing two characters at once. She's a rather unpopular top tier as of late. And she has good recovery and approaches, two attributes Roy lacks in.

Would you like to have a good pair character, and not a top tier? Pick . He's a great secondary for Roy since they cover each other's weaknesses pretty literally. Also, he's rising in populatiry with Mr. E and Pugwest carrying him pretty far. is another good pick for this purpose, and his aggressive playstyle can parallel Roy without having the same faults.

I need backup on this one...

 

[C0rvus]

I cannot say I know Roy's matchups too well, but I think Lucario and Rosalina would be form the best trio. That's just me, though. Those two have pretty deceptively nuanced neutrals and stuff, but watch some footage of them and see if you want to pursue them.

 

[Kirito_SAO]

Awesome thanks guys. I'm gonna try with

 

[Kirito_SAO]

Last question. With , which other swordsman would be a good third for these two between ?

 

[Justinian]

Last question. With , which other swordsman would be a good third for these two between ?

If we look at the characters Marth + Roy struggle with, we see that they have issues with hyper-rushdown characters ( ) as well as heavy projective zoners ( ), though Roy has a slightly easier time against the first group. So for a tertiary, you would want a character that has the tools to deal with both groups. I'd recommend Cloud or Dark/Pit, whichever fits your playsyle better. I want to warn you though: if you pick Cloud you may find Marth + Roy obsolete competitively and end up just maining Cloud. If you don't want that, pick DPit, but ultimately it's your choice.

Good luck finding your main(s), hope I helped!

 

[TheBlueSpirit]

I'm looking for a different main at the moment, until I get better, Fox is a little too tech-dependent for me at the moment. Any ideas?

I'm thinking of going with Pikachu, just because I'm used to a more speedy character, but is Pikachu as tech-dependent as Fox is to use effectively?

Pikachu has a really high skill cap, and being able to use quick attack effectively and such is where technical skill lies in the character. Thats just one example though. Basically yes Pikachu fairly tech-dependent but also just understanding the fundamentals behind the character is very important. High skill character overall

 

[Blaze The Great]

Hey everybody. I'm still relatively new to the competitive Sm4sh scene (and competitive Smash in general), having only been at it since September. I only went to my first tournament last weekend.

Picking mains has been a constant struggle for me, and I've been recycling almost all of my characters. I've only consistently played Falcon, and Cloud has pretty much solidified himself as my second after this weekend. I want to play 5-6 characters at a relatively decent level, at least. Advice/thoughts?

 

[Green Zelda]

Hey everybody. I'm still relatively new to the competitive Sm4sh scene (and competitive Smash in general), having only been at it since September. I only went to my first tournament last weekend.

Picking mains has been a constant struggle for me, and I've been recycling almost all of my characters. I've only consistently played Falcon, and Cloud has pretty much solidified himself as my second after this weekend. I want to play 5-6 characters at a relatively decent level, at least. Advice/thoughts?

Hey there! I'm not one of the people hwo usually help with this sort of thing, but for starters, you should probably tell us your playstyle (rushdown, zoning , etc). Good luck finding a main!

 

[Blaze The Great]

Hey there! I'm not one of the people hwo usually help with this sort of thing, but for starters, you should probably tell us your playstyle (rushdown, zoning , etc). Good luck finding a main!

True. With Falcon, I used to be more rush down, but now I'm shifting more to a punish-heavy style, and that's true with basically everyone I play as. With Cloud, I both zone and punish a lot. Hope that helps some.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

Falcon and Cloud are literally everywhere. Any player you meet knows the matchup. (though, admittedly, some fear both)
Pick a character less popular just in case your opponent knows your game plan.

You clearly enjoy having speed, by your current character choices. You should pick up a character that can be rushdown when needed, but isn't afraid to drop back and play defensive. The most popular characters that do this are

 

[Razmord]

I need a bit of help with choosing a main. I can't find a character and stick to it, one day I'm like "I want to main this" and the next day I am like "No, I don't want to main it because of X", so I end up not training anyone for locals. I'm bad at the game and I want to play a character that will help/let me learn the basics of competitive smash. I enjoy playing most of the cast so I want to find a character to focus on for competitive training, leaving the other characters for when playing casual.

In other fighting games, I usually main fast characters, preferably with an special that helps to close distances. I really enjoy moves such as SFIV Juri's Divekick, SFIII Karin Ressenha or GGXrd Millia Iron Savior. From Smash itself, I enjoy moves such as uair, dair, dair, fair, nair, bair, dash attack or utilt and usmash. I don't use many projectiles, thus villager and megaman feel very weird for me. I don't look at viability when choosing a main, unless they have really really bad MUs, things like losing 8-2, but characters with no advantage MUs and a few losing 6.5-3.5 I'm willing to play.

Characters I tend to play more often are (in no particular order) :


Characters I really don't want to play:
(Feels like playing certain combos in magic the gathering, I feel worse winning than losing)
(I really hate their weak points+too many of both at locals+0 attachment to the character itself)
(Never played them, I hate them too much)
(Like in SF, I don't like "blueprint characters"+also too many marios at locals already)

Looking forward to your input on who would suit me.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

So you want to be original, but pick a character that centers around basics and is easy to learn. From your list, here's your options:
are too technical, and are too popular.
Only reason I left on that list is because her new buffs gave her a sick combo game, and if you really pride yourself on sweetspot attacks as you've mentioned, she's the queen of sweetspots.

Someone else may narrow these five down.

 

[KniteBlargh]

Razmord I'll join in on this one. I personally feel that are also quite technical (can be kind of easy to pick up perhaps, but mastering is a whole different ball game), which would leave us with and . I'm leaning toward out of those two for you, because he's pretty balanced overall and has a projectile, but one you won't feel you have to use constantly. Based on some common mistakes I see people falling for, if you go with Dark Pit, try to remember to (1) get used to his recovery (don't use it too close to the ledge or you'll fly by it and get punished, and remember that it can slide up the side of stages to prevent this from happening), and (2) don't abuse his side special even though it's a kill move and very useful in general, 'cause it's pretty punishable if your opponent sees it coming from too much use.

 

[Kirito_SAO]

Personally I think you should try out . They have good match ups to cover zeldas bad ones but they are still really fun imo.

The best way to decide mains is who do you have fun using, AND who do you win with. You should have 1 character in atleast high tier for results but otherwise play characters you really like. Im a main forever and I'm gonna play him cause he's fun but I'm also trying out to cover his weaknesses and to get more results. Just keep that in mind

 

[Kirito_SAO]

With the 50+ characters in smash 4 I is pretty hard to pick a main. Unlike 64 and melee where there were 12-24 characters and it was pretty easy to pick. Brawl was trickier but.... My advice would be to pick the most iconic character to you (that you have fun and win with) to be your main. That is for me. I loved him in melee, cried when he got cut from brawl, and I love fire emblem. Just some advice to help

 

[Kirito_SAO]

Also make sure you have characters who can beat as they are the best in the game and the biggest threats to beating you.

 

[Razmord]

Thanks for the input, I'll try to stick with at least until summer to see if it suits me for tournaments.

About beating the top characters, is probably getting banned here in spain this month, and unless I go to a major there is only 1 at locals so my only threat is . How is that matchup for ?

And about choosing characters I feel attached to... well, aren't in the game, and from my list, I pretty much like everyone at the same level.