Mage.
Smash Cadet
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2014
- Messages
- 47
So I decided to come up with a tier list. Something of note before I drop my short story on it. I am by no means a top player so take these placements with a grain of salt. However, I have played numerous games competitively to the point where I feel comfortable on what I can consider strong, weak, and terrible or overpowered. That being said here is the list:
*There is no particular order within a tier*
So now you've had a range of reactions. You either want to weld my asshole shut and put a new one on my forehead for my placing of -insert X character here- or you just simply nodded your head and said "Yeah I can deal". Onto explaining my thoughts! Please note that this is a long written post explaining my thoughts.WALL OF TEXT INCOMING. You've been warned!
So, that's my freaking essay I wrote up. Feel free to haze/burn/flame/kill me discuss about the tier list I made. I'm open to criticism.
*There is no particular order within a tier*
So now you've had a range of reactions. You either want to weld my asshole shut and put a new one on my forehead for my placing of -insert X character here- or you just simply nodded your head and said "Yeah I can deal". Onto explaining my thoughts! Please note that this is a long written post explaining my thoughts.WALL OF TEXT INCOMING. You've been warned!
The most recent melee tier list is structured as S, A, B, and F. These tiers aren't rigidly defined but character viability is. S tiers will perform very well at nationals, A's not as much, B's will be very niche and very hard, and F is garbage tier. First and foremost every character in my tier list is viable and I definitely believe this to be true. You can do well with C tier or B tier characters at tournaments. There are no garbage or "niche" characters in this game. It's why i've strayed away from using D or lower because it implies that those characters are downright terrible to use or at least gives off that impression. There are no Poppy's of LoL or Pichu's of melee. Now for the breakdown of tiers.
The A Tier
Honestly, the simple reason why I divided the A tier into A+, A, and A- is because originally when I was putting all of the characters who I thought were A tier the damn list was too big and looked fugly. So I broke it up a bit. That said, after more consideration I also divided it up slightly. he A tier consists of characters who are strong. They have general positive traits that can offset their negative ones but they aren't invincible or incredibly powerful. They are solid, powerful characters. I'm going to talk about the two outliers first, the one's everyone mostly agreed on with my list.
A+: I don't think its anyone's surprise that the three spacies are in A tier but why did I put Fox and Wolf above Falco? Simply put, while I don't think Fox or Wolf are broken or so overwhelming, I do think they don't have enough negative attributes. Falco, while retaining amazing pressure and combo game has a few negatives. For one, he has terrible speed. He is much slower than Fox and Wolf and as a result his Dash dance is okay and his running speed is lacking. He also has weak recovery and can't really play offstage because you'll plummet to your death. What's nice about Falco's negatives are that they help define him. He's a bird, he's slow as hell on the ground but packs a punch combo wise because of his amazing jump height and his strong horizontal kill moves.
Fox and Wolf don't seem to have these negative attributes. They're both fast, can gimp offstage very well, have good recoveries and more. I wouldn't call for a radical nerfing of these two but rather toning down so they are more in line with Falco. Obvious weaknesses that can help define them (maybe Fox being fastest of the three but weakest in general power while Wolf is a mix? Idk.) I don't think these characters are overpowered or overwhelming but they are above the rest of the A tier slightly.
A: These characters are powerful and contain a good fair deal mixing between positive and negative attributes. They don't contain the amazing all around feeling that the A+ do but they do have noticeable strengths and don't feel sluggish or lacking too much in any area. Some of them may or may not shift to A+ tier due to little counter-play to things in their kit but for now i've deemed them as such.
A-: While just as strong as the A tier, they do contain only a few or slightly more weaknesses making them not as solid as the higher A counterparts but not weak or unfavored in the slightest. To elaborate, I've felt and witnessed Mewtwo to be a very difficult character that lacks in areas such as strong easy to land smashes/specials and can be difficult to combo with if you don't know the character too well. That being said, i've seen Mewtwo's lay some nasty hurtings on other people and, sadly, myself to the point where my bum hurt too much. The same applies to all the A- characters.
The B tier
Characters in this tier are lacking in comparison to their A counterparts. They have something there that shows some level of strength and skill to achieve A tier but something holds them back. Characters should have weaknesses for sure but they shouldn't be so crippling that opponents can take full advantage of it and win solely from that glaring weakness.This isn't to say they are terrible, but they just need a little more of a push to reach higher tiers.
B+: I don't feel that there are many B+ characters. Ganondorf and Charizard have clear strengths but have weaknesses that hold them back a bit. Ganon not as much but Charizard definitely has it, so he is subject to drop a tier. Kirby is also subject to change. He is either B+ or B. The reason why he retains the higher of the two is because of personal experience of meeting and talking with Kirby mains and witnessing how devastating he can be. That said he is lackluster in some areas. It's fine for characters to have weaknesses but Kirby seems to have a few of them, hence my not-so-sure position.
B: Characters in this tier have some niche strong abilities (Zelda Kicks, Link's chain grab combos/follow ups, and Ivy's zoning/space control) but there is something that usually hard-counters them (CC for ivy) or they are simply lacking in other areas of their kit that are lackluster. Olimar and IC's I honestly don't know where to put. I've put them at this tier simply because I have yet to see/meet a very solid and strong Olimar/IC player. Through my experience playing them i've found them both to be odd quirky characters that definitely have potential but I have not chose to explore that path and so I'm not sure on their placement. Jiggs is subject to change for the same reason. Many claim she can't deal with the Brawl characters but I have yet to see a PM Jiggs in consistent action.
The C tier
So only two characters are in this tier, DK and D3. They are by no means bad at all. I've had first hand experience of facing very powerful DK's and D3's and getting my ass handed to me. I've also met others who can say the same. That being said, while they can be very potent in the hands of an experienced player, in comparison to a majority of the cast they seem to be on the polar end of gameplay. They either get combo'd to death or they combo others to death. In neutral they perform decent but generally are on negative ground when playing against others. Once again, they aren't garbage but they do need some more love.
The A Tier
Honestly, the simple reason why I divided the A tier into A+, A, and A- is because originally when I was putting all of the characters who I thought were A tier the damn list was too big and looked fugly. So I broke it up a bit. That said, after more consideration I also divided it up slightly. he A tier consists of characters who are strong. They have general positive traits that can offset their negative ones but they aren't invincible or incredibly powerful. They are solid, powerful characters. I'm going to talk about the two outliers first, the one's everyone mostly agreed on with my list.
A+: I don't think its anyone's surprise that the three spacies are in A tier but why did I put Fox and Wolf above Falco? Simply put, while I don't think Fox or Wolf are broken or so overwhelming, I do think they don't have enough negative attributes. Falco, while retaining amazing pressure and combo game has a few negatives. For one, he has terrible speed. He is much slower than Fox and Wolf and as a result his Dash dance is okay and his running speed is lacking. He also has weak recovery and can't really play offstage because you'll plummet to your death. What's nice about Falco's negatives are that they help define him. He's a bird, he's slow as hell on the ground but packs a punch combo wise because of his amazing jump height and his strong horizontal kill moves.
Fox and Wolf don't seem to have these negative attributes. They're both fast, can gimp offstage very well, have good recoveries and more. I wouldn't call for a radical nerfing of these two but rather toning down so they are more in line with Falco. Obvious weaknesses that can help define them (maybe Fox being fastest of the three but weakest in general power while Wolf is a mix? Idk.) I don't think these characters are overpowered or overwhelming but they are above the rest of the A tier slightly.
A: These characters are powerful and contain a good fair deal mixing between positive and negative attributes. They don't contain the amazing all around feeling that the A+ do but they do have noticeable strengths and don't feel sluggish or lacking too much in any area. Some of them may or may not shift to A+ tier due to little counter-play to things in their kit but for now i've deemed them as such.
A-: While just as strong as the A tier, they do contain only a few or slightly more weaknesses making them not as solid as the higher A counterparts but not weak or unfavored in the slightest. To elaborate, I've felt and witnessed Mewtwo to be a very difficult character that lacks in areas such as strong easy to land smashes/specials and can be difficult to combo with if you don't know the character too well. That being said, i've seen Mewtwo's lay some nasty hurtings on other people and, sadly, myself to the point where my bum hurt too much. The same applies to all the A- characters.
The B tier
Characters in this tier are lacking in comparison to their A counterparts. They have something there that shows some level of strength and skill to achieve A tier but something holds them back. Characters should have weaknesses for sure but they shouldn't be so crippling that opponents can take full advantage of it and win solely from that glaring weakness.This isn't to say they are terrible, but they just need a little more of a push to reach higher tiers.
B+: I don't feel that there are many B+ characters. Ganondorf and Charizard have clear strengths but have weaknesses that hold them back a bit. Ganon not as much but Charizard definitely has it, so he is subject to drop a tier. Kirby is also subject to change. He is either B+ or B. The reason why he retains the higher of the two is because of personal experience of meeting and talking with Kirby mains and witnessing how devastating he can be. That said he is lackluster in some areas. It's fine for characters to have weaknesses but Kirby seems to have a few of them, hence my not-so-sure position.
B: Characters in this tier have some niche strong abilities (Zelda Kicks, Link's chain grab combos/follow ups, and Ivy's zoning/space control) but there is something that usually hard-counters them (CC for ivy) or they are simply lacking in other areas of their kit that are lackluster. Olimar and IC's I honestly don't know where to put. I've put them at this tier simply because I have yet to see/meet a very solid and strong Olimar/IC player. Through my experience playing them i've found them both to be odd quirky characters that definitely have potential but I have not chose to explore that path and so I'm not sure on their placement. Jiggs is subject to change for the same reason. Many claim she can't deal with the Brawl characters but I have yet to see a PM Jiggs in consistent action.
The C tier
So only two characters are in this tier, DK and D3. They are by no means bad at all. I've had first hand experience of facing very powerful DK's and D3's and getting my ass handed to me. I've also met others who can say the same. That being said, while they can be very potent in the hands of an experienced player, in comparison to a majority of the cast they seem to be on the polar end of gameplay. They either get combo'd to death or they combo others to death. In neutral they perform decent but generally are on negative ground when playing against others. Once again, they aren't garbage but they do need some more love.
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