Uses for Flamethrower?

[MadKraken]

I find that I rarely, if ever use Flamethrower, and I was wondering what uses it has that maybe I'm missing?

 

[Tremendo Dude]

Flamethrower makes for an interesting mix-up, resetting the game to neutral and netting you some free damage. On top of that, it makes for an extremely effective edgeguarding tool, particularly against fastfalling characters like spacies. It completely eats through their side B and up B and will almost guarantee you the kill or at least around 80% damage if they don't know to Smash DI back onto the stage or if they don't manage to sneak into a weak spot in your firewall (like by using up B into the stage and sliding up, depending on where you're sitting to blow smoke).

If they do attempt to SDI the flames, dropping the flames is another choice open to you, which will potentially lead to them using an aerial attack to their deaths if they don't pay attention. You can also drop the flames and prepare for their incoming Up B with your choice of attack, be it Dsmash, Dair, Fsmash, Dtilt, whatever suits the situation best.

 

[proxibomb]

I usually use flamethrower to cancel any incoming dash attacks or gimping players. It's hard to time, but you can actually flamethrower into a grab, I've done it before and seen others do it. I'd listen to what the guy above me has to say, but I just wanted to add my two cents. Good luck!

 

[Yurya]

Compare it to Fox's Blaster when used onstage. It won't get you anything but it is free damage if it hits. And what XGShadowstar said about offstage.

 

[Heroofhatz]

Also John Numbers uses it in neutral a lot specially against projectile characters, since it will clash with a lot of projectiles and force your opponent back, it can still be quite useful for getting some stage positioning.
Also you can use it to grab the ledge since it forces Zard to take a quick step back. so if you roll all the way up to the ledge then press B, you'll fall to the ledge

 

[Blank Mauser]

To add to that, you don't have to roll. You can simply run up to the ledge and b-reverse at the right time.

 

[Blank Mauser]

Messed around with Flamethrower some more. Pretty much the best application comes from the fact that you can ledge cancel it imo. It actually isn't any more difficult to do consistently than a lot of other ledge cancels as he has quite a bit of control over it.

 

[Phoca017]

Its usefull on the edge against some chars (Spacies, capitain, ganon, for example) and totally useless against who has a good upB (squirtle, sheik).

 

[JOE!]

I'd like to get some discussion on FT since the latest iteration is... booty to say the least.

What do people feel would be a decent change for it to make it a viable spacing tool while at the same time not making it "dumb" when you catch people at an edge and net like 80-90% for "free" haha.

 

[Doraki]

Give the flames some knockback all the way until they disappear at the beginning, then progressively make the flames lose the knockback earlier and earlier until at some point they have no knockback at all ? it would solve both problems.

Or else tweak the endlag and make it shorter if you don't hold it too much, and maybe slow down the recovery to prevent spamming short bursts. But still, it's sad that half the cast can pretty much fsmash through the whole thing.

 

[JOE!]

Give the flames some knockback all the way until they disappear at the beginning, then progressively make the flames lose the knockback earlier and earlier until at some point they have no knockback at all ? it would solve both problems.

Or else tweak the endlag and make it shorter if you don't hold it too much, and maybe slow down the recovery to prevent spamming short bursts. But still, it's sad that half the cast can pretty much fsmash through the whole thing.

Having the fire start strong, then decay in Damage and KB with the size sounds like a great idea combined with less end lag. Would make a fresh burst strong, but the more you use it it sort of "super-stales"

 

[Samurai Jack]

Probably at least half decent as an edge guard