Q&A The 'Mains' Advice Thread

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

Hey y'all I'm back again. I'm using already so I'm not looking for a main or secondary or anything. But I'm looking for 2 more characters to have as "trump cards" I'm skilled with that help these guys out somehow that I can use. I'm open to any characters except cause they bore me and I'd much rather go with someone else. Any suggestions? I don't care about they're tier ranking. Just 2 more characters to go with . I just like the number 5

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

What character do you all seem fit for a playstyle like "aggressive, but not technical"?
Zero Suit Samus.

I'm looking for two more characters to have as trump cards.
You need nothing more than what you have.

My temporary characters are and . Theyr'e not too bad, I played some friendlies today and won my fair share. I'm waiting until balance patch bonanza settles down with a 1.1.6 or a finalization of the metagame.

 

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

The Legendary DJXYZ i just want 2 more mostly for fun. Basically for fun mains. But t I want them to cover like maybe 1 matchup is struggle with or something slightly useful. Mostly for fun

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

You know who's a hilarious character? . Guess what he does? He beats .
And maybe since you have , how about as a "9-iron" character? Like a second gear?

 

[C0rvus]

Honestly sounds like something you ought to figure out for yourself. I have no idea who you might find fun, or what matchups you struggle with. So I can only make assumptions based purely on your character selection. If your current 3 man squad is Roy, Toon Link, and Mario, you might have a hard time dealing with Rosalina, Cloud, maybe Mewtwo and Diddy as well.

In that case, having a orof your own may not be a bad call. Cloud beats Rosalina, the only other character that can say that is , but he also has a hard time with Cloud and Diddy, and you said you didn't like him. Other dudes with decent Rosalina MUs are . If she's your problem, there's your choices below Cloud.

Cloud allegedly loses to , and notably do well against him.

Diddy is hard to counter but I think Mario and Toon Link do well enough. If you're really struggling, seems like a good choice to even the odds. Mewtwo vs Mario is close, but if you need an edge, do pretty well.

If I had to recommend 2 dudes from this info, your squad would look like this: or

If you're just looking for fun characters, it's pretty much on you because of personal taste varying. Also keep in mind these MUs could be wrong, I'm not an expert on everyone lol.

Edit: Jigglypuff beating Bayonetta is just blatantly wrong lmao. If you want a pick for her, have shown some degree of success against her.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

But... that Rest combo breaker tho?
Come on. It's the only thing I've ever used Jiggs for.

is a good choice though. Personally in my interim state I use for the matchup, and he/she's a lot of fun.

 

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

Sorry for not being specific I do struggle with . I usually use to beat and just struggle with everyone else a lot. I'd say the characters I would like to add would be and I don't like a lot of technicality and I like aggressive but I'm ok with few defensive. I mostly struggle against and would like a good option against . Hope that clarifies things.
Also in my region are the most commonly used and I wanna know if I have or need good solutions for them. Reminder: I'm looking for 2 more characters to use with in a group of 5. I want them to help out atleast a little but they are mostly for fun.

 

[C0rvus]

For extra info, Corrin loses to Diddy, ZSS, Fox and Pikachu are annoying. I can see Falcon being a pain as well as Mega Man.

Sonic loses to Rosalina, Ike, arguably Zero Suit Samus, Mega Man.

Yoshi's worst matchup is Diddy, and he struggles with Sheik, Corrin, and Cloud, just off the top of my head.

Falcon loses to Sheik, Pikachu, Bayonetta, notably has a lot of near even matchups. I know Mario and Toon Link do well against him.

Sonic and Toon Link have a pretty close matchup, so I think he's your guy there.

Since you want to deal with Diddy and Corrin most of all, I suggest picking up Ness and Pikachu. Ness has a good record against Bayonetta, and is pretty simple and effective. Pikachu should be able to deal with characters like Corrin and Diddy if your main isn't working. He's able to be played pretty flexibly but has a bit of a learning curve.

You could also pick Mewtwo and Fox like before, I think it's a good combo.

 

[Wind Blade]

Maybe it's the wrong thread but and are a good combination to main?

 

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

Maybe it's the wrong thread but and are a good combination to main?

Yeah they're pretty good. Not the best but not bad. Sonic beats 90% of the cast and falco can go even with those he doesn't.
As for me I'm gonna try and see who I like most.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

You're in the perfect place for that question. Well let's see here... Sonic has the fastest run speed in the game, while Falco has the second slowest. So you have two characters with polarized physics. That should cover your weaknesses. Now you have an offense approach (Sonic) and a defensive approach (Falco). You should be well off.

 

[Green Zelda]

You're in the perfect place for that question. Well let's see here... Sonic has the fastest run speed in the game, while Falco has the second slowest. So you have two characters with polarized physics. That should cover your weaknesses. Now you have an offense approach (Sonic) and a defensive approach (Falco). You should be well off.

Not gonna lie, the bird's mobility is pretty darn bad, but not that bad. Everything you said is still correct, though.

 

[KniteBlargh]

Yay, I'm the second slowest! LOL

But yeah, the thing about Falco is that his air speed is pretty slow as well, but his jump height/speed is ridiculous to try and make up for it. In that way, if you count Sonic's up special, the two of them are actually kind of similar in how quickly they can reach very high places.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

Falco is faster than Ness? Who knew...
Well, he's still slow. So you have the offense character and the defense character still.

 

[Rioku]

I've been struggling with finding a main for a year and a half now. At the games launch I decided to play and . Greninja quickly proved extremely difficult to play well so I dropped him early. After that every month or so I would switch from Shulk to another character, then back to Shulk. For a while I felt like I could deal with Shulk's issues, but it's gotten to the point where he's not even fun to play anymore. I'm no stranger to playing low tiers, but I feel like Shulk as a character is limiting what I can do in a way that I don't have with my Melee Pichu. After watching some high level Shulks and trying out different things, I've come to the conclusion that he doesn't fit my play style at all and this whole time I've just been wasting my time on a highly sub optimal way to play this character. I'm done with Shulk, but I have no idea who I should move to.

In Melee I play and in tournament with a pocket and . I do a lot of juggling and deep edge guards with Pichu and my Roy is clearly skilled. Jiggs and Kirby I just try and kill people below 20% with.

In PM I play and. Forward smash is my friend and Ike fairs and dairs of stage are awesome. Roy is literally free in this game.

As a player I'm moderately aggressive and I do a lot of rising/retreating aerials to approach. I'm a fairly patient player despite hating extremely defensive play. It's just not fun to watch and it makes your opponents feel bad. I'm pretty good in neutral compared to a lot of the guys in my local scene on the same level, but my greatest strength in my opinion is my edge guarding skill. I played an extremely aggressive hit and run style Shulk that just focused on getting people off stage and gimping, and I'd like to think I got pretty good at gimping. When I'm playing my best I'm usually going for a lot of high risk/high reward stuff off stage and stuff. I struggle much more than most people with a lot of AT but I can extended dash dance, b reverse, and perfect pivot very consistently.

I'm not really sure if that information was useful, but because I've been switching mains so much I have a bunch of characters I'm looking at.

I'm putting this guy here just because he's really easy to do cool things with, though I usually fish for suicide kills when I play Bowser.

Cloud came out and I dropped Shulk for a while. He's really easy for me to play and do things with, but I don't like his off stage game at all despite his aerials being really good. I can't go deep enough in my opinion.

Also tried to main at release. I like what the character can do, but she just doesn't click right. One thing I really like out of a character is movement, specifically run speed, and Corrin, despite having that amazing side b, is really freaking slow.

I've tried getting back into Greninja recently. He's still incredibly hard to play, but a lot on this character clicks instinctively. I am by far the most inconsistent with Greninja but when I'm in the zone he's probably my best character.

I play him in PM? Not really the same at all...

Kirby is a lot of fun, but his lack of range is really irritating to deal with. It's like when I play a Marth in melee, but against every single character.

I feel like I've been ignoring my Lucina until recently. I've just kinda subconsciously decided that I won't play her. My Lucina is consistent, and probably better than my Shulk. She can do what I want when I want it, something I wish Shulk could do. She feels like she fits the way I play, but isn't Lucina like really bad? Would it be worth going from Shulk to a worse character? Marth is an option, but I much prefer Lucina, especially with how her jab -> fsmash kills between 60-80 fresh and you don't have to worry about not getting a tip when you do that.

I had a stint with this character. I cannot kill with this character, but I'm pretty good with him in teams.

My most recent stint with a main. Funnily enough I stopped playing him right after Abadango won pound. Mewtwo did a lot for my play as a whole. A lot of my bad habits are more prominent with Mewtwo and he helped me fix a lot of them, but I do not do well when I play this character at all.

There's a palutena main in locals that I play against a lot. After a while I started doing Palu on FG for fun and got one. She's grab heavy and I'm not though.

Roy is a ton of fun, but I hate how bad he is on shield and how weak his recovery is, though I do love going off stage and up bing to ledge on my opponents to get stage spikes. The Roy/Marcina/Falcon movement is by far my favorite in the game.

Never again.

I do well when I play Yoshi, but I don't really play Yoshi that much. He's kinda weird but he can play aggressively well.

Idk if this is anything to go off of but I just really think I need some external advice here.

 

[Lavani]

I feel like I've been ignoring my Lucina until recently. I've just kinda subconsciously decided that I won't play her. My Lucina is consistent, and probably better than my Shulk. She can do what I want when I want it, something I wish Shulk could do. She feels like she fits the way I play, but isn't Lucina like really bad? Would it be worth going from Shulk to a worse character? Marth is an option, but I much prefer Lucina, especially with how her jab -> fsmash kills between 60-80 fresh and you don't have to worry about not getting a tip when you do that.

I definitely wouldn't call Lucina worse than Shulk. She's a bit worse than "optimal" Marth, that doesn't mean she's a bad character.

If you're concerned about viability though, honestly sounds like a perfect fit to me with the caveat that you'd need to get comfortable with his offstage game. He might not be able to go deep for edgeguarding, but he's still more than capable of threatening opponents offstage as long as you're mindful of the distance.

 

[Rioku]

I definitely wouldn't call Lucina worse than Shulk. She's a bit worse than "optimal" Marth, that doesn't mean she's a bad character.

If you're concerned about viability though, honestly sounds like a perfect fit to me with the caveat that you'd need to get comfortable with his offstage game. He might not be able to go deep for edgeguarding, but he's still more than capable of threatening opponents offstage as long as you're mindful of the distance.

I'm not super concerned with viability. My issues with Shulk are hard to put into words. I feel like I've seen the limit of what Shulk can do, and I don't like it. I suspected Cloud would be the first response I'd get, I mean, he's really good with a bunch of results too. I can't really say I have an issue with Cloud as a smash character other than how people who try and camp out limit and only attack while they have limit are the worst. I don't know why but for some reason I really don't want to main Cloud and I mostly put him on there because, well he's too good not to be on there and I can use him. To be honest I think it's because I don't like Cloud as a character given I've never played Final Fantasy VII and my only exposure to him was the Advent Children movie.

In melee my mains are carry over from the characters I played as a kid and it just worked out. In PM I had a similar problem to what I have in Smash 4 for a pretty long time, then one of my friends just told me to play Ike 30,000 times and well I just kinda stuck with Ike. And Ike's kinda sorta awesome from his own game.

It's just I'm in a weird spot at a point trying to not go Cloud even though he's the most obvious correct answer. Sorry I'm just sounding weird.

 

[KniteBlargh]

Rioku As Lavani said, may not be quite as good as optimal Marth, but her being bad is just a common misconception. She can even go pretty deep with edge-guards, so I don't see why you shouldn't put work into her if she's appealing to you.

You may like over if you're willing to give him a shot (not to downplay Bowser; he's great), just from reading about your playstyle. He was recently buffed quite a bit, and he has a very satisfying Ike-ish dair. You have to be careful with his recovery; sometimes it can be a bit like Pichu in that you have to decide to sacrifice a bit of % to get back (side special if you're launched to the side of the screen above the stage and don't think you can make it otherwise), and it's definitely a good idea to get a feel for the height of his multi-jumps + up special (which does at least have some armour on it).

The problem with most of the characters who edge-guard and play off-stage super well is that they also have grabs that shouldn't be ignored, but you said you're not big on grabs, so I'm not sure if I should suggest any others for now. :S I think I'll just leave and as my biggest suggestions for you. Hope it helps and you find who you like best.

 

[Rioku]

Rioku As Lavani said, may not be quite as good as optimal Marth, but her being bad is just a common misconception. She can even go pretty deep with edge-guards, so I don't see why you shouldn't put work into her if she's appealing to you.

You may like over if you're willing to give him a shot (not to downplay Bowser; he's great), just from reading about your playstyle. He was recently buffed quite a bit, and he has a very satisfying Ike-ish dair. You have to be careful with his recovery; sometimes it can be a bit like Pichu in that you have to decide to sacrifice a bit of % to get back (side special if you're launched to the side of the screen above the stage and don't think you can make it otherwise), and it's definitely a good idea to get a feel for the height of his multi-jumps + up special (which does at least have some armour on it).

The problem with most of the characters who edge-guard and play off-stage super well is that they also have grabs that shouldn't be ignored, but you said you're not big on grabs, so I'm not sure if I should suggest any others for now. :S I think I'll just leave and as my biggest suggestions for you. Hope it helps and you find who you like best.

I hadn't really considered Charizard. I do play him for fun sometimes it might be worth looking at him more. There's a Zard main in locals who's been doing very well with the character recently so it's always good to have someone near by to get advice from.

Maybe I'm just overthinking things and just ignoring Lucina. Like I've been getting very frustrated with finding a main in this game since Christmas and I didn't even really realize it until yesterday when someone else pointed it out, but I tend to go Lucina or Roy when I don't want to play Shulk any more, and I do a lot of very gutsy things with the character, and it works. I've just had this mindset that it's not worth going Lucina and I won't win with the character, pretty hypocritical considering who I play in melee, but I haven't really put that much time into Lucina at all mostly opting for Roy instead. Like seeing two people in a row just say she's a slightly sub-optimal Marth is kinda reassuring I guess.

 

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

I'd say try out . They seem to fit your play style well.

 

[WindShineZ]

Hey guys, I main Mewtwo but I want to pick someone up for matchups like Robin and Marth (I usually have troubles with those.) I like Roy a lot but I'm not sure if he's a good pick. Any help?

 

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

Hey guys, I main Mewtwo but I want to pick someone up for matchups like Robin and Marth (I usually have troubles with those.) I like Roy a lot but I'm not sure if he's a good pick. Any help?

goes even with the two and maybe 55:45 at very worst. is another another great option against those two. Is also a good option if you don't like those two. But yes Roy is a good pick. As a Roy main I can govey In tips on him too, especially in these match-ups.

 

[WindShineZ]

goes even with the two and maybe 55:45 at very worst. is another another great option against those two. Is also a good option if you don't like those two. But yes Roy is a good pick. As a Roy main I can govey In tips on him too, especially in these match-ups.

Awesome, guess I'll go with Roy then, those tips would be great too

 

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

Against be right up in his face always. Don't be afraid of his grab. Do not give him a chance to space you out with his tipper and be very safe when trying to recover. As for edge guarding use his counter to hit Marth away. NEVER LET HIM SPACE YOU!
Against power shield her projectiles until the wear out, use counter more often then not but don't stale, and edge guarding her is easy. Sit on the ledge and back air or nair her until she runs out of Elwind or doesn't reach. And don't let her get you with Nosferatu it's very annoying.

 

[WindShineZ]

Against be right up in his face always. Don't be afraid of his grab. Do not give him a chance to space you out with his tipper and be very safe when trying to recover. As for edge guarding use his counter to hit Marth away. NEVER LET HIM SPACE YOU!
Against power shield her projectiles until the wear out, use counter more often then not but don't stale, and edge guarding her is easy. Sit on the ledge and back air or nair her until she runs out of Elwind or doesn't reach. And don't let her get you with Nosferatu it's very annoying.

Thank you! I'll practice him soon.

 

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

I'm having trouble picking 2 out of to help out my . Any help? I need to be able to beat . Or should I just keep all 3 and have a "sacred six" team? (Quote Green Zelda )

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

Hey guys, I main Mewtwo but I want to pick someone up for matchups like Robin and Marth (I usually have troubles with those.) I like Roy a lot but I'm not sure if he's a good pick. Any help?

No. Roy has a very bad matchup against both Robin and Marth. You need a better spacer with similar moves. So try... I guess is a good choice, or .

 

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

No. Roy has a very bad matchup against both Robin and Marth. You need a better spacer with similar moves. So try... I guess is a good choice, or .

I main Roy and have talked to other Roy mains and we all agree it's 50:50 between the two. It is harder for Roy but it's still 50:50. You are right that another option like would be better but Roy is still fine. Whatever you want to do WindShineZ . If you play someone who excels at beating Roy with then go with if you decide to use .

I'm still looking at to go with . Is it a good idea to have a sacred six team? Or should I just do 5?

I'm trying to find out if I like or not. I hate that he has bad grab game and no counter cause it feels like he should. But other than that I like him. Should I use him? If so I'd add him to the list looking for my sacred six team. Also there's a similar story for . I like them but don't love them. Should I consider them?

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

You've played waaay too many characters, Nice_FZPSC.42 . At this point, just play a pocket Random. (Yes I do this.) Your opponent will have no idea what's coming, which pretty much makes an unpredictable matchup for any game. Try it sometime.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

I blame MissingNo. for this post.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

I'll use this post to say things.

I played a whole bunch of matches with Zelda over the weekend. She's totally my best character, with Villager in a close second. I'll hold on to Toon Link for matchup safety, because I do think he could go even with most top tiers.

Many people have told me that 1.1.5 will be the last patch, and if so, I won't be fully maining any character. I still would not believe it if Bandai Namco decided to leave Brokenetta combos in the game. I like as a character that must rely on Bullet Arts and damage-gaining combos, not one-hit KO combos a la .

 

[Airpoizon]

You've played waaay too many characters, Nice_FZPSC.42 . At this point, just play a pocket Random. (Yes I do this.) Your opponent will have no idea what's coming, which pretty much makes an unpredictable matchup for any game. Try it sometime.

Lmao you replied 3 times

 

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

The Legendary DJXYZ sorry I like a lot of characters. Thanks but I've finally got myself to pick 3 so I have a sacred seven team with . Now hopefully I don't need to ask anymore main advice questions.

Also I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask but who out of those six should I use against ? These tend to be the most difficult match ups for me the most often.

 

[Dream Cancel]

The Legendary DJXYZ sorry I like a lot of characters. Thanks but I've finally got myself to pick 3 so I have a sacred six team with . Now hopefully I don't need to ask anymore main advice questions.

Also I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask but who out of those six should I use against ? These tend to be the most difficult match ups for me the most often.

No amount of switching characters will save you from the top tiers. You need to pick one character of those six and really practice. It will be easiest with Ness and Mario, but all of those characters (except maybe Roy, but he's still scary in the right hands) have the tools necessary to beat them. Fundamentals and match-up knowledge will carry you further than your character choice alone.

Edit: And, also, should you get absolutely bodied (which you will) it will be very discouraging. No doubt about it. It will also be VERY tempting to switch mains. (Happened to me a couple times as Rosalina of all characters) But stick with your character. Chances are your opponent figured out something in your gameplay and exposed it, not a crippling character flaw.

 

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

No amount of switching characters will save you from the top tiers. You need to pick one character of those six and really practice. It will be easiest with Ness and Mario, but all of those characters (except maybe Roy, but he's still scary in the right hands) have the tools necessary to beat them. Fundamentals and match-up knowledge will carry you further than your character choice alone.

Edit: And, also, should you get absolutely bodied (which you will) it will be very discouraging. No doubt about it. It will also be VERY tempting to switch mains. (Happened to me a couple times as Rosalina of all characters) But stick with your character. Chances are your opponent figured out something in your gameplay and exposed it, not a crippling character flaw.

My main is with secondary. What I mean by sacred six is other characters I'm good with I can use as a trump card so to speak. I will be using mostly Mario and Roy though. And don't worry I took a game off of Nairo with Roy. I'm not dropping him.

 

[Rioku]

To follow up responses to my earlier inquiry, Lucina has been working well. I've taken the time to sit down and go over what Lucina can do and it's already shown surprising results. I've also come to notice some of my bad habits a lot more when I play her and I'm noticing how they're costing me games which is great. Good advice.

 

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

To follow up responses to my earlier inquiry, Lucina has been working well. I've taken the time to sit down and go over what Lucina can do and it's already shown surprising results. I've also come to notice some of my bad habits a lot more when I play her and I'm noticing how they're costing me games which is great. Good advice.

Glad to hear she's working out

 

[KniteBlargh]

Rioku That's great news! Not too many people follow up after getting advice here, either, so thanks for letting us know!

 

[LordShade67]

@Nice_FZPSC.42 I'm going to be blunt with ya: Maining 6 characters for tournament play will, in the long run, be detrimental to your tournament health. You'll be too focused on all of those characters and as a result, you'll be fundamentally weaker with those characters. As @Bay6 mentioned before me, Pick A character, focus your time and effort on said character, then consider if you really need a secondary or not. Or at the very most a Main + a secondary will do(/, in your case.).



Now that I've said my .02 on that one, I've admittedly been having abit of a character crisis. I've recently been messing around with But I'm questioning if I should main him again or just stick with /. Both are fundamental characters, with / having overall better reward, ease of commanding space, and a really good Dash and Having better overall movement, easier edgeguarding(for me, anyways. I just FAir and things die lol), and a more reliable OoS option in Dolphin Slash. Decisions decisions...

 

[Nice_FZPSC.42]

@Nice_FZPSC.42 I'm going to be blunt with ya: Maining 6 characters for tournament play will, in the long run, be detrimental to your tournament health. You'll be too focused on all of those characters and as a result, you'll be fundamentally weaker with those characters. As @Bay6 mentioned before me, Pick A character, focus your time and effort on said character, then consider if you really need a secondary or not. Or at the very most a Main + a secondary will do(/, in your case.).

I'm going to use I'm just gonna have as characters I might switch out for one of those three and have them as pockets just incase. But for tournament I'll go with . And maybe

Edit: Just out of curiousity who out of the whole cast is the best secondary for ?