I don't know of too many Shulk mains who would advocate for not using Monado Arts. They are very important tools for Shulk's success, especially against his harder match-ups. Learning how and when to use them will really improve your gameplay, and you'll eventually wonder how you ever played without them. They will let you survive to 200+%, recover from the depths of hell, turn matches back around into your favour, get mad early KOs, and generally just help you find a good rhythm. It'll take some extra work (none of us will tell you that Shulk is an easy character to use), but by Bionis is it ever worth it.
I think most of us can understand this issue-- especially so when running with
Hyper Arts and their ridiculously short time. But if the mentality that "Oh I'm in
Buster, quick I gotta do damage but I can't get hurt myself I'll take more damage" or something similar is affecting your gameplay, you have to acknowledge that and break yourself out of the mental block. Being aware of the benefits and drawbacks is good, and they
should change the way you play, but not to the point of playing badly.
First do what @
Maple42
suggested--- pinpoint exactly where you are struggling with each Art. Is the change in your movement with
Jump,
Speed, or
Shield jarring, causing you to mis-space or run/fall/jump right into attacks? This is an issue that I'm having right now with using
Hyper Speed, as it is even that much faster than regular
Speed, causing me to whiff pivot grabs/ftilts entirely. This sort of issue will just come with familiarity and using the arts more often. It's not a bad idea to just fool around in Training Mode until the movements become more innate, and you are able to follow up attacks on an opponent with ease regardless of which Art you are using.
Since
Buster and
Smash don't affect your normal movement, I assume the issues that you are having with these Arts are more mental in nature-- maybe in
Buster you feel like you have to rack of damage and maybe go far too aggro, or in
Smash you become too desperate for the KO and your opponent capitalizes on it. For improving on this, I'd say you've come to the right place for that. There is
an entire thread on this forum dedicated to discussing Monado usage, including when and how to use them most effectively. Also the
character match-up threads often discuss which Arts are most useful (or most dangerous) against specific characters, and are definitely worth a look-see.
I don't mean to suggest that you are playing Shulk poorly, though! If you are winning matches without the use of any Monado Arts, you must have a great understanding of proper spacing of his moves, the appropriate times to follow up and to retreat, and a good idea of what works in particular MUs. But at this point, if you become a master of the Monado and its true power, your gameplay can only improve as you learn to optimize upon every situation you come across.
If you are willing to behold the power of the Monado, try some exercises like this: instead of going Vanilla for the whole match, go Vanilla plus one Art you want to focus on learning (I'd recommend
Speed or
Buster to begin, since they are arguably the most versatile). Think about the subtle changes you need just for being in that one art, and if you are getting bodied feel free to cancel out of it and then try again when the art returns. You'll see situations in which the Arts were very helpful, and then see other situations in which they hurt you more than anything. By not worrying yourself with managing five Arts at once, perhaps each Art will becomes less intimidating and seem more like an extension of Shulk rather than another hassle to deal with. You'll also learn to cycle to the Arts you want without a second thought.
If I had to give one last piece of advice (sorry that this is already so long): don't ever feel like you 'wasted' an Art. It's not like they are pay-per-use and you are putting Shulk horridly in debt-- the Arts will return, and you'll always get another chance to use them. If you go to
Smash but no opportunity to KO your opponent comes up, then that's just how it is. If you go into
Speed and manage to do nothing but look like a sword-wielding Sonic, then that's fine. You should never sacrifice good gameplay just to 'maximize' an Art's usage.
