- The idea that a standard grab made the blaster->grab setup more powerful is pretty much not true. Her tether grab was the entire reason that setup was so powerful. The ability to threaten a grab setup from mid-range was only guaranteed by the fact that the dash cancel + tether allowed her to theoretically land the grab before the blaster even got to the opponent. A standard grab severely reduces the range at which it's effective. Safer, yes, but much less potent. And while it is easy enough to avoid the setup by jumping out, that option is covered by nair so it was a 50/50 with a solid combo for guessing right and a hard punish for guessing wrong.
- Blaster needed to be nerfed. It wasn't the best projectile in the game, but projectiles needed to be toned down across the board. Removing the dash cancel, in my opinion, was not the way to do it. Lots of characters can cancel moves in lots of different ways, but ZSS was the only character in any smash game who could cancel a move by dashing. This created a lot of technical depth unique to her and opened up some interesting options for the people willing to figure her out and put the time in. Promoting technical depth is one of PM's stated objectives, so I would go on record saying that removing the technique runs counter to PM's stated goals. I understand for balance issues the projectile needs to be nerfed, but there has to be a better way than removing one of the most unique techs in the game.
- One suggestion, instead of removing the dash cancel, would be to keep 3.5's speed but severely reduce the distance it travels (maybe to 1/3). This would eliminate her followup options at mid/long range but give her a nice setup option in close quarters, while still preventing blaster->grab from being too powerful / guaranteed. And it would be consistent with Metroid Zero Mission where the thing went nowhere.
- ZSS's new dthrow/uthrow are complete garbage. Even with the ability to grab out of shield she's probably still better off resetting to neutral and trying to set something up. The idea of a potential DI mixup with d/uthrow for combo and f/bthrow for kills is interesting and helps freshen up her repetitive throw game, but it only works near the edge at mid/high percents. It would be nice if uthrow and dthrow had opposite escape di for at least a mixup option, but down and away will get you out of both. I'm not saying bring her old dthrow back, but in a game where most every character has at least somewhat reliable followups to a grab, she needs something to make it worth using.
- I'm not sure what to think about the standard grab. The old tether was an offensive grab with great set ups into it and uses as a mid-combo tool, at the cost of not being able to grab out of shield and being laggy if you messed up. The new one is more defensive, just like every other grab. The old tether better fit the archetype of the character as a combo machine with a powerful neutral at the cost of poor defenses, but I can understand the appeal of wanting a safer grab. If I had to vote though I'd go with the old tether.
- I donít mind the change to nair so long as they keep the changes to uair/dair. Mixing it up to keep a combo going is a nice change of pace from just shffl nairing as fast as I can.
- On a more positive note, pretty much every other change I think they did a good job with. They did a great job of nerfing her recovery without giving her awkward handicaps or taking away options.
- For me, the biggest appeal of ZSS is that she's a nonstandard character with a lot of technical potential, but not necessarily requiring fast fingers to play her. She's a character who's unique properties make her somewhat difficult to pick up but a great reward if you put the time and effort into learning her. My fear with 3.5 is that she loses a lot of what makes her unique in the cast, and smash in general, and becomes more of a standard, pick-up-and-go kind of a character as a result.
