Tips on using defensive options effectively? (Especially shield)

[MonkeyArms]

Yeah, so every time I find myself shielding in this game, there is so much pressure put on my shield that it seems like I have litterally no options. I also find options at the ledge severely limited, because almost every one can be punished on reaction and not by a read. Rolling and spot dodging are flat out terrible in most cases, so I find when my opponent approaches my and starts putting pressure on me, there's nothing I can do.
I have been recently thinking of doing more neutral air out of shield, but its kind of hard to adapt to that when I mainly play smash 4. (Best john confirmed.)

 

[Schwamus]

Quick clarification: what character(s) do you play? That changes your OoS options quite a bit

 

[20YY SS | Saiblade]

Yeah, so every time I find myself shielding in this game, there is so much pressure put on my shield that it seems like I have litterally no options. I also find options at the ledge severely limited, because almost every one can be punished on reaction and not by a read. Rolling and spot dodging are flat out terrible in most cases, so I find when my opponent approaches my and starts putting pressure on me, there's nothing I can do.
I have been recently thinking of doing more neutral air out of shield, but its kind of hard to adapt to that when I mainly play smash 4. (Best john confirmed.)

Depends on the character, Up-B OoS can be good on Marth but terrible on Falco or Fox.

 

[meebius]

In sm4sh, there is virtually no shield stun so you can do almost anything out of shield. However, in melee, you're limited to what you can do from a jump and the only other option is roll. When someone hits your shield in melee, you have to wait until the shield stun is gone until you can perform any action.

 

[MonkeyArms]

Quick clarification: what character(s) do you play? That changes your OoS options quite a bit

I play any of the Mario Brothers in tournament usually.

 

[Schwamus]

So if someone is really deep on your shield as Luigi, UpB out of shield is great to punish unsafe shield pressure. The catch is that if you miss the sweetspot and just get the coins then you probably will be punished hard. I don't know about Doc/ Mario's upBs so I can't help you there. The brothers have pretty low traction, especially luigi, so any attack on shield probably will push you over a bit. Learn to wavedash out of shield to either escape or punish attacks on shield. If you take a marth fsmash on your shield, WD forward and hit him back. However, if you are under fast spacie shield pressure, your best option is probably to just roll out of there and try to reset to neutral.

Nair out of shield is also great for you and you really should learn how to do it. it takes practice but well so does Melee. You just have to press X or Y then A almost at the same time but A ever so slightlly after X. I personally like to use the tip of my thumb to hit Y then the bottom of the knuckle to hit A so I don't have to move my finger around, just kind of roll it from button to button but it's whatever works for you.

 

[MonkeyArms]

So if someone is really deep on your shield as Luigi, UpB out of shield is great to punish unsafe shield pressure. The catch is that if you miss the sweetspot and just get the coins then you probably will be punished hard. I don't know about Doc/ Mario's upBs so I can't help you there. The brothers have pretty low traction, especially luigi, so any attack on shield probably will push you over a bit. Learn to wavedash out of shield to either escape or punish attacks on shield. If you take a marth fsmash on your shield, WD forward and hit him back. However, if you are under fast spacie shield pressure, your best option is probably to just roll out of there and try to reset to neutral.

Nair out of shield is also great for you and you really should learn how to do it. it takes practice but well so does Melee. You just have to press X or Y then A almost at the same time but A ever so slightlly after X. I personally like to use the tip of my thumb to hit Y then the bottom of the knuckle to hit A so I don't have to move my finger around, just kind of roll it from button to button but it's whatever works for you.

I've been starting to use more nair out of sheild in smash 4, but it really feels unnatural as a smash four player to have to jump out of my sheild for little lag, so melee's shield mechanics kind of bother me.

 

[Schwamus]

I've been starting to use more nair out of sheild in smash 4, but it really feels unnatural as a smash four player to have to jump out of my sheild for little lag, so melee's shield mechanics kind of bother me.

Lol and it feels unnatural as a melee player to be able to act out of an airdodge but c'est la vie. Are you looking to play both sm4sh and melee in tourney or just one?

 

[MonkeyArms]

Lol and it feels unnatural as a melee player to be able to act out of an airdodge but c'est la vie. Are you looking to play both sm4sh and melee in tourney or just one?

I already play both, I just don't place in Melee