Essentially I was experimenting with FT and as you see, saw how incredibly laggy it is considering the damage and lack of stun near the end. A single tap of the B Button will have Zard be vulnerable for 18 frames before a single hitbox comes out, and then have 5 hitboxes emerge up until frame 43. Frame 53 is the last frame there is any hit-stun from this burst, and 25 frames later at frame 77 is where you get IASA (34 frames from the last hitbox). For the trouble, you get 10% damage in the hit-stun area of the burst and from afar a mere 5%. Compared to the similar Heatwave, it has to wait 2 more frames before hitboxes emerge on frame 21, but then gets a wall of 4 massive, powerful hits with no time between them that deal 25%-10% until frame 33, and ends at frame 59 with IASA. So at 18 frames faster, it also has 25 frames of end lag compared to the 34 FT has (unless you count the 25 from where the last hitbox becomes "weak"), while being overall much safer even on hit with similar range (arguably bigger), transcendent priority and a boatload of power.
Where I'm going with this is that it seems that outside of a literal "edge case" where you can make use of the angling and duration of Flamethrower (Don't get me wrong, it's fun and unique to have a move suited to be used best on a ledge facing out!), FT seems incredibly lackluster. Hell, with (25) frames to work with, FT is in fact -always- punishable on hit unless the foe DI's far out of it or falls due to being offstage. In nearly every way other than that Heatwave is superior, and it seems like a shame given FT is a sort of signature move, and HW itself isn't a flawless "wall" for zoning either (given it will never "Stuff" other moves given it cannot clank, namely projectiles which are a big sore spot for Zard). I personally feel that given the way the move works, it wouldn't hurt to perhaps have the IASA window to scale based on how long it has been held (or how many hitboxes it produces) to make a short burst an actual tool instead of a hefty mistake.
There are a few ways this could work, but I guess the gist of it is that a single press, and no further holding of "B" before frame 43 (where the last hitbox from a tap emerges) will then grant an earlier IASA window than what we have now. With some testing in Debug Mode again, I found the following data on how this hit would work if need be:
- When standing right next to Mario at 0% with a fresh Flamethrower, the 5th hit from the burst will hit at frame 49 at the earliest (no DI) and grant Mario 12 frames of hit stun after that frame where he is struck.
- This makes Mario able to act at frame 62 of the burst (if hit by all 5 at close range), giving him 15 frames to punish Charizard while essentially right next to him. Granted, this is all best case scenario for Zard where Mario didn't DI at all or try and beat out the flames.
- From the range Mario ends up at with no DI, Charizard cannot jab or grab him (his two fastest options with horizontal reach from the ground), but interestingly can Ftilt, Dtilt and immediate dash-grab and all hit at frame 9 from the distance.
- If we are being super generous, IASA at frame 53 (Conveniently where that last hitbox stops dealing hit-stun) would let him hit people after the flames if they don't do anything, and yet still be only a mere 6 frames faster than Heatwave in total (yet having a 10 frame window rather than 25 frame one).
- More realistically, IASA at frame 57 both seems "cleaner" (shave 20 frames off the "long" version), and doesn't necessarily auto combo into Dtilt/Ftilt or Dash-Grab (Those would reach Mario at frame 66, him having had 5 frames to possibly jump or toss out a hitbox preemptively or something? Point being is that the victim, regardless of character, had well over half a second to do something on reaction upon getting FT tossed onto them such as toss up their shield or dodge). This is a mere 2 frames faster than Heatwave's IASA, but has a much smaller gap between the last hit and IASA.
