Zerp
A small nitpick, but the poll's second question still says "Low Tier", not "Low-Mid Tier".
This thread is kinda hard to post in now, as my tier list is changing so much. This week should be low-mid tier, but some of the characters I'm about to discuss are high-mid tier in my eyes, as there are just so many good characters in this game.
Regardless, since I have talked about 11 characters and there are 58 total, I should probably split the remaining 47 characters up somewhat evenly, so here are my next 9 characters, from worst to best (sorry, the rest of my posts here are going to be huge):
Just barely scraping out of low tier (literally), this dragon has it all...I wish. Sadly, his mobility is suffering, and combining that with subpar frame data and lots of mediocre moves, he just isn't used much in tournament at all.
- His aerial mobility just isn't cutting it. Slightly increase air speed and give him a third jump, and he might actually be a threat in the air like a dragon should.
- D-tilt needs a bit of attention. Instead of...whatever the windbox is now, the hitbox itself should be bigger.
- Compared to his great U-smash, his other smashes are laughable. D-smash needs a bit more power and F-smash needs a bit less overall lag.
- His D-air is okay, but I'd like the sourspot to do more damage for better pressure and kill ability when he whiffs with the laggy sweetspot.
- Neutral-B should have a bit less end lag so he has a good way to approach and zone besides his volatile B-air.
I honestly don't know how to feel about Game & Watch. He has the combo game, kill setups, mixups, and recovery necessary to be a huge threat on paper, but his terrible survivability and bad neutral game nullify most of those strengths.
- D-tilt is pretty good, but I'd like to make it better. Change its knockback to be vertical instead of horizontal, and immediately the move can combo as well as kill better no matter the stage positioning.
- D-throw is fine, but his other throws need attention. F-throw and B-throw should have a lower launch angles to enhance their positioning, and U-throw should have more knockback growth to make it a semi-viable kill throw.
- F-air makes me sad after what it was in Brawl. Why did it need to be made much weaker, again?
- Like Charizard, neutral-B would be so much better with just a bit less overall lag.
- Oil Panic is a bit unbalanced right now. The absorbing animation should be a lot less laggy so it's actually worth using in more matchups, but to compensate, the attack should come out slower.
[Wii Fit Trainer]
An absolute threat when perfected, this character's ground game is near unparalleled. Unfortunately, he's a glass cannon in a way that doesn't benefit him in the end, as Smash's heavy reliance on being more than a typical fighter hurts his chances, since he definitely ain't no air fighter.
- Revert all nerfs. Let's be honest, they were only done because For Glory noobs couldn't handle him.
- His ground game is fantastic, of course, but his grab game could be better for his (understandably) bad grab. Like Game & Watch, D-throw is fine, but the other throws need a bit more knockback.
- Yes, his aerial game is bad. But I'd like it to be easier to get back to the ground, so slightly decrease landing lag of all aerials (especially B-air and D-air), and make one of his aerials autocancel at the starting frames.
- Understandably aerial KO Punch should be weaker, but why THAT much weaker? Increase damage.
Prince Ramen caught everyone's attention when he 2-0'ed ZeRo at CEO 2016, but it's clear that was just a fluke, as at ZeRo's runback at ZeRo Saga, Ramen didn't take a single game. With more and more Palutena mains resorting to their secondaries, the future doesn't look too bright for her.
- Revert the two nerfs she got, smaller pivot grab range and the removal of F-tilt's multi-hit. Why she got these nerfs in the first place confuses me, as she's never been considered overwhelming at any level of play as far as I've heard.
- U-tilt should have a bit less end lag to make it better at pressuring and comboing.
- D-air should have less end lag so it has a reason for its short range and low knockback.
- Onto the fun stuff, we have Autoreticle. Slightly decrease startup and end lag so it might actually be usable in the neutral. Don't make it stay locked onto the target, because that's kinda ridiculous.
- And, of course, Counter is laughably bad. Make it hover in the air like the other counters, and decrease end lag so it has a reason for it being so weak.
After being considered high tier during Abadango's time with him, he has slowly dropped to somewhere in mid tier. He has so much potential that I'd love to put him higher, but unfortunately key moves (pun intended) that could be great are either too slow or not nearly powerful enough to make his moveset threatening.
- Just make his smash attacks less laggy overall. I like how they're stronger now, but that doesn't matter at all if you can't even land them in the first place.
- GRAB.
- D-air should have less landing lag and a downward angle to make it actually have use over his other aerials.
- Bonus Fruit should charge faster. This as well as the smash attacks are the key to fixing his game plan, as this would actually make his ridiculous projectile game usable.
- The glitch with the extreme bounceback from corners during side-B needs to go. Why is it still a thing?
[Falco]
[HIGH-MID TIER]
Where did you go? How did this once-tournament threat become rather irrelevant so quickly? Oh, I know: People dropped him for characters who can get either more reward or less risk while having the other strengths he has.
- I would buff F-smash a bit in power. His other smash attacks currently outclass it in range (U-smash) or frame data (D-smash), and F-smash's higher power isn't enough to make it stand out.
- F-throw needs something. D-throw combos early and kills later, U-throw combos reliably, and B-throw has good knockback for stage positioning, whereas F-throw doesn't have much going for it. Make it like a forward version of B-throw, preferably.
- D-air is by far his worst aerial, and deserving of attention. It should get a sourspot that lasts a short time and has similar knockback to Cloud's sourspot D-air, so the move has more use than an overly laggy disrespect move or a jab lock at really low percent.
- Aether needs more super armor so it isn't so easy to edgeguard, and to make up for having almost no horizontal movement.
"KOMOTA BEATS ALLY!" Enough to make people pay attention to this pink puffball. He has certain high to top tier matchups like Mario and Fox that he has a chance in, but at the same time, his low mobility and range limit his theory from expanding too far, so I feel this is a perfect spot.
- Ugh, that mobility. I hate to repeat myself, but this character would immediately rise quite far with just a mobility buff.
- D-throw just doesn't cut it right now. Give it some more damage output, and it might make up for its lack of combo and killing ability.
- N-air is good onstage and its knockback is perfect for edgeguarding, I just wish it had less end lag so you aren't basically signing a death note by using it offstage.
- U-air should have less end lag so it's a better juggling, comboing, and anti-edgeguarding option.
- All of his specials (besides maybe neutral-B) should get a slight overall decrease in lag, as they all aren't that useful besides up-B being a recovery move.
I, too, thought he was low tier just months ago, but then suddenly tons of players started using and winning with him, making me reconsider. His punish game is definitely more versatile and strong than I once thought, and his recovery isn't that bad, either. He still struggles with some aspects, but at least he has good mobility and advantage state.
- His full jump and double jump height has to increase. His short hop is useful for approaches, but the others are way too short to effectively juggle, chase in the air, or recover well.
- D-smash should have less end lag, considering it's an even less safe move than Marcina's D-smash because of the tipper sourspot.
- B-throw is a sad excuse for a move. The angle should be lower and the knockback growth should increase a bit so it's actually useful for positioning, instead of having too little knockback and too much end lag to do anything.
- D-air should have an initial hitbox to spike and a short-lasting sourspot afterward to launch upward instead of what it has now, which is not nearly useful enough to risk using offstage most of the time.
- Aerial Blazer should get a bit of super armor to make up for it going shorter and being weaker than the grounded version.
Remember when she was the worst character in the game? So does Sakurai, as she got tons of buffs that fixed a lot of her biggest issues. Not to say she's flawless, as she's not used too much, but when IcyMist or Afro Smash show up or ESAM or Salem pull her out of their pockets, she can truly get the job done with her versatility.
- Obviously, jab 2 should be less terrible than it is now, so she can actually land her jab combo.
- U-smash should have significantly larger hitboxes on all hits, so it connects much more reliably on most opponents who are grounded or on platforms.
- D-smash should have the same damage on the front hit as on the back hit, so it isn't way too weak for its lag.
- Hooray for more characters that need generally better throws besides D-throw!
- Remember in Melee when Missiles were good? Those were the days...
