Sheik just needs a weakness because currently she does everything really well, she racks up so much damage and keeps advantage so easily that it doesn't really matter when her opponents live to 150%. I don't know if she needs a recovery nerf, needle nerf, fair/bair/nerf safety nerfs or just general toning down until her reward settles low enough that it's balanced with her godlike neutral.
Sheik isn't the only one in the game who has aerials that 95% of the cast can't punish on powershield (shoutouts to Marth's and Lucina's fsmashes though), but she has 3 of them at the moment along with the best projectile in the game. Needles aren't great just for punishing or preventing opponents from using projectiles, but also for setting up into kills like bouncing fish.
Also for those who don't know, you can indeed attack and jump immediately from powershield but if you try to dash, walk or turn around you have to go through shield drop frames. Some aerials have so much range that nothing else than dash attacks or dash grabs have the range to punish them, but it takes too long to get them out because of the extra frames you have to go through after powershielding. Hence, aerials with a lot of range and low landing lag are ultimately unpunishable except for very few select options like <12 frame tilts and smashes that reach far, or <6-7 frame aerials (depending on your jump squat) that have a lot of range, like Sheik's, Marth's and Lucina's fairs.
I haven't looked into this fully but there seems to be only a few aerials in the game that fit this description of having low enough landing lag to not get punished by dash attacks as well as long enough range to stay out of reach from every jab and most tilts in the game. Here's a list of moves like these that I've come up with off the top of my head:
Sheik
- Fair: in a league of its own but there are a few things that can punish it, mainly <10 frame long reaching tilts)
- Bair: a tiny bit less range and 2 frames more landing lag so punishable by Marth's fsmash but no dash attacks
ZSS
- Nair: has more range than Sheik's fair and landing lag is as low, however it has electric properties so the extra few frames of hitlag make it punishable by moves like Marth's fsmash and Wario's dash attack
- Bair: again, more range than Sheik's and 1 frame less landing lag, probably a runner-up for Sheik's fair in terms of safety on shield
Palutena
- Fair: great range, probably comparable to Sheik's bair in its safety because it has similar damage and the same landing lag
Ryu
- Bair: comparable to Sheik's bair in range and landing lag, more hitlag though so punishable by Wario's, Fox's and maybe Sheik's dash attacks in addition to the other things
Link
- Fair: yeah
beat ally
