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Official Viability Ratings v2 | Competitive Impressions

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LordShade67

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Can someone explain why people think Ike is better than roy? I don't see it, could someone explain it to me?
Range, recovery, better combo consistency(UThrow > FAir works up until 80s at the very least, not to mention DThrow stuff and NAir/DTilt stuff), isn't AS fudged in disadvantage, oh and blue flames.


EDIT: :4greninja:'d.
 
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ぱみゅ

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Eh, I'll let Shaya handle that list, moderation-wise.

But anyway, can we talk about Pacman?
I think he's a very difficult character to weigh, his whole gameplan seems to be to outgimmick you, and when facing one more often than not your though is "I didn't know that", "I didn't expect that", "it caught me off guard", "I could've avoided that" and similar stuff.
As in, is he successful just because he catches people offguard? Is the matchup so complex and obscure that is difficult to play at not top level? Is it possible to be perfectly aware of all of Pacman's micromanagements and avoid being hit by them?
I think yes.

:196:
 

Mario766

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I'm honestly questioning Pacman's strengths now that the main Pac, Abadango, basically dropped everything in favor of the butter knife.

I know very little about Pac so don't blast me for saying these things.
 

TDK

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why Kirby is so low?
Kirby's shield stun changes.
Bowser is "that high" due to an amazing out of shield game with his Ub-b, and punish game.

Roy is above DK. I challenge you to back that up with something. Evidence? Results? Matchups? Representation? Anything other than opinion.
Characters [Sheik and Rosalina are the best at this with Needles and Luma, Pit is also quite good at this] can combo him due to his huge frame, get him off the stage, then Gimp him over and over with Arrows/Needles/Luma until around 200% [ZeRo did this to M2K at Pax], or even further, at which point if you do get on the stage, Rosa and Pit can both kill you with throws, and even Sheik can kill you really easily at that percent. DK's disadvantage state, I'd argue, is even worse than Roy's due to hit huge frame and slower attacks, and his advantage state isn't that much better than Roy's, as Roy is faster and can get the same % off of combos, and kills at the same time [Uncharged FSmash killed :4rob: under 60% off the side, not DI influenced, it even did the red lightning] or even earlier.

Also, Radical Larry Radical Larry - Why on earth is Ganondorf so high and Duck Hunt in bottom 5?
 

Ffamran

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I'm pretty sure Mario's Dair multihits don't have knockback growth so Pikachu's % didn't matter. Only Mario's mattered because when something doesn't have knockback growth the only thing that can increase it is rage or getting hit while charging a smash attack.
Unless specified or noticeable like Fox's Blaster, all moves have knockback growth even if its little. In Mario's case as with most multi-hit or weighted knockback moves, the knockback growth just gets "canceled" out. Simplistic way of explaining what the knockback formulas do, though. Ask A_Kae, since I don't remember the formula, but I know KBG for both normal and weighted has KBG/100 somewhere. Mario's Dair has 100 KBG for all hits, but 10 weighted for the looping hits and 60 weighted for the landing hit. The last hit has to have base knockback of 80 or it would be a bit silly. Without any knockback, I'm going to assume there's no hit stun meaning if Mario's Dair had no knockback, it would be a close-range Fox Blaster... Yeah...
 

Radical Larry

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TDK TDK Ganondorf is high because he can display good potential and has tournament results to back him up. He's not too high, because he's in the very middle (alongside Link), because he's a character of some good balance.

And Duck Hunt is bottom five because you really need to learn him big time in order to do something with him; his Smashes can be SDI'd out of, his aerials aside from N-Air and U-Air aren't that great, his combo game from throws is bad, he's light, he can be juggled easily, some of his attacks have high end lag (like Side Special), and some of his attacks are really weak. But he has good sides in that his attacks come out fast, he's got a good RAR, good edge-guarding game, amazing projectile game and good set ups with his projectiles.

Again, all you guys need to do is ask for any position changes. (I'll gladly put Diddy Kong into a higher position when one pointed out he was rather low.)
 

Y2Kay

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I'm honestly questioning Pacman's strengths now that the main Pac, Abadango, basically dropped everything in favor of the butter knife.

I know very little about Pac so don't blast me for saying these things.
Though Abadango dropped, there's is still another Pac-Man main by the name of Zage. His Pac-man maybe even better than Abadango. Abadango seems to be going thru a phase right now, trying to feel his way out, trying a bunch of characters. The projectile trio :4megaman::4pacman::4rob: are all super interesting, especially pac-man. Those sick fruit combos have really changed my mind about him. These three characters are similar in the fact that they do really well, but just have a few top tiers that give them serious problems, specifically sheik. I know for :4pacman: he also has a bad matchup against :4rob:
 

C0rvus

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Larry, please stop putting Ganondorf in mid tier. He isn't a well balanced character at all. His design is poor and lop-sided in ways that make him most likely unviable. Poor CQC while being slow and having bad neutral? I don't care how good your reward is when you have no tools to control the match against 90% of the cast.
 

Nu~

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I'm honestly questioning Pacman's strengths now that the main Pac, Abadango, basically dropped everything in favor of the butter knife.

I know very little about Pac so don't blast me for saying these things.
Eh, I'll let Shaya handle that list, moderation-wise.

But anyway, can we talk about Pacman?
I think he's a very difficult character to weigh, his whole gameplan seems to be to outgimmick you, and when facing one more often than not your though is "I didn't know that", "I didn't expect that", "it caught me off guard", "I could've avoided that" and similar stuff.
As in, is he successful just because he catches people offguard? Is the matchup so complex and obscure that is difficult to play at not top level? Is it possible to be perfectly aware of all of Pacman's micromanagements and avoid being hit by them?
I think yes.

:196:
Pacman is in a very strange predicament. All of his tools have so much obvious counterplay that many of our players believe that he will become a mid tier character in the future.

We can try and fight it, but even then, his weaknesses are just so much more a usable than others. Sakurai was trying so hard to not create a broken character. The goal of pacman is to control your opponent's nuetral game by using your tools creatively, but it's much more difficult when people know how to play with your tools as well...

I'm unsure of where he'll end up. That's why I'm trying new characters now

Though Abadango dropped, there's is still another Pac-Man main by the name of Zage. His Pac-man maybe even better than Abadango. Abadango seems to be going thru a phase right now, trying to feel his way out, trying a bunch of characters. The projectile trio :4megaman::4pacman::4rob: are all super interesting, especially pac-man. Those sick fruit combos have really changed my mind about him. These three characters are similar in the fact that they do really well, but just have a few top tiers that give them serious problems, specifically sheik. I know for :4pacman: he also has a bad matchup against :4rob:
Zage is definitely not better than abadango lol. That's comparing a mid level player to a high level (maybe top level) player. Dee is the only pacman main that gives abadango a run for his money. Pacman also does not lose to ROB. We force him to approach us and have better ways of keeping him out than he does us.
 
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Djent

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I also don't think Nietono switched off Diddy in Umebura FAT. Paging Djent Djent
If he did it wasn't on stream, but Nietono is known for using tons of "joke" characters. His main was listed as :061: in the rankings.

I'm honestly questioning Pacman's strengths now that the main Pac, Abadango, basically dropped everything in favor of the butter knife.

I know very little about Pac so don't blast me for saying these things.
This is anecdotal, but it comes from the best two players :4pacman: has, so I'm going to pretend for a moment that the plural of "anecdote" is "data:"
Abadango's one tournament win involved the help of :rosalina: (in WF, no less) and :4metaknight: (vs. Umeki). Ginko's best finish utilized :4rob: to beat Komorikiri and Ruri.

Since the best offline Pac-Mains* all tend toward playing multiple characters, and attain their best placings by far while utilizing said characters, it suggests to me that Pac is probably borderline viable on his own.
* Sorry Nu~ Nu~ , I'm not counting Dee.
 
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Nu~

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If he did it wasn't on stream, but Nietono is known for using tons of "joke" characters. His main was listed as :061: in the rankings.


This is anecdotal, but it comes from the best two players :4pacman: has, so I'm going to pretend for a moment that the plural of "anecdote" is "data:"
Abadango's one tournament win involved the help of :rosalina: (in WF, no less) and :4metaknight: (vs. Umeki). Ginko's best finish utilized :4rob: to beat Komorikiri and Ruri.

Since the best offline Pac-Mains* all tend toward playing multiple characters, and attain their best placings by far while utilizing said characters, it suggests to me that the character is probably borderline viable on his own.
* Sorry Nu~ Nu~ , I'm not counting Dee.
:crying:

Damn I wish Dee played offline
 

HeavyLobster

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Well, let me just do my own tier list. I haven't done these in a while, and I'm basing this all off how a character plays, potential, tournament results and talk based upon the character. However, tournament results are the heaviest amount of all things, so a character might be in a position that you might think of as odd for a moment, but tournament results do allow them to be there. I'm giving 6 categories filled with 2 sub-categories to fit all the characters within, as it will go by named viability and a sub-category of letter viability.

Named Viability is truly what you need to acknowledge, as Letter Viability just allows characters to be in a decent order so that they can be categorized. Top Tiers are top tiers and so on and so forth, no matter the letter.

Without further ado, let's head on to the "Radical Larry Tier List v3". And remember, no bias, so you can help manipulate my list if need be:

Category: Top Tier
Top Tier characters show the most potential and tournament results out of any character within the game, and have relatively good play styles that allow them to rise above others. They have low-risk, high reward, great advantage and disadvantage.

Sub-Category: S-Tier
Characters: :4sheik::4zss::4pikachu::rosalina::4ness:

Sub-Category: A-Tier
Characters: :4sonic::4luigi::4villager::4fox::4mario:

Category: High Tier
High Tier Characters show extraordinary potential and tournament results, and have good play styles that help them rise high. They have low or high risk, high reward, great advantage and disadvantage.

Sub-Category: B-Tier
Characters: :4yoshi::4ryu::4diddy::4pacman::4falcon:

Sub-Category: C-Tier
Characters: :4miibrawl::4peach::4metaknight::4pit::4darkpit:

Category: Middle Tier
Middle Tier Characters show amazing potential and/or tournament results, and have decent play styles that can help them be viable. They have low or high risk and reward, good advantage and disadvantage, as well as are good in terms of balance.

Sub-Category: D-Tier
Characters: :4olimar::4wario2::4megaman::4rob::4myfriends:

Sub-Category: E-Tier
Characters: :4feroy::4dk::4tlink::4link::4ganondorf:

Category: Low Tier
Low Tier Characters can still show potential and tournament results, but they have a harder time than other characters to even get there in the first place due to them being harder to use initially. They have medium to high risk and reward, good advantage and disadvantage, and are good for pocket characters.

Sub-Category: F-Tier
Characters: :4greninja::4gaw::4lucario::4shulk::4marth:

Sub-Category: G-Tier
Characters: :4bowserjr::4charizard::4jigglypuff::4lucas::4littlemac:

Category: Bottom Tier
Bottom Tier Characters (this isn't actually bottom tier) show small potential and tournament results, and even have an extremely hard time than other characters do in finding results, but they can. They have high risk and moderate reward, average advantage and low disadvantage, and you better pick a great secondary.

Sub-Category: H-Tier
Characters: :4falco::4lucina::4robinm::4kirby::4drmario:

Sub-Category: I-Tier
Characters: :4samus::4bowser::4palutena::4miisword::4dedede:

Category: Negligible 5
The Negligible 5 are characters who show the worst potential out of any single character in the game, and have the hardest time to even get to where they can win. They have high risk, low reward most of the time, low advantage and bad disadvantage, and it's recommended to always pick a secondary that's of a higher tier.

Sub-Category: J-Tier
Characters: :4duckhunt::4wiifit::4mewtwo:

Sub-Category: Z-Tier
Characters: :4miigun::4zelda:

Anything from comments to suggestions on where characters can be are indeed welcome, but I'd like to get some characters out of the way.

Link is considered the most balanced character and despite him not having that much tournament results, his balance is so great that he can actually be considered the "middle" character. He's got good frame data (not sluggish attacks; his attacks are better than some characters'), good aerial and ground mobility, great combo game and powerful KO attacks abound his arsenal. He also has arguably one of the better gimping and edge-guarding games of all characters, and his boot can defeat many projectiles, and his bombs defeat fully charged projectiles. However, he still suffers from heavy weight, below-average mobility compared to the cast and lack of good OoS options.

Ganondorf is so high, unlike some peoples' expectations, because he has quite a bit of tournament results and is also very balanced, being the second best super heavy in the game, next to Donkey Kong. He's got arguably the best frame data of the Super Heavyweight category, has great tech chases and reads with Flame Choke, unarguably the most powerful attacks in the game overall, the best meteor and the best GTFA move in Wizard's Foot, which KO's characters who are light very early. He's also decent at breaking shields. However, he's not without faults as he is one of the heaviest characters in the game, the 3rd slowest, has bad aerial mobility and jumps, a bad recovery and is easy to combo.

Due to better match-ups against characters lower than her, as well as good combo ability from D-Throw > N-Air at various percents and characters, as well as the new buffs, Samus has become much more viable on my tier list than her original placing, which could have been Negligible Tier. She still suffers problems like floatiness, lack of power on most of her attacks and high end lag on attacks, but overall she's more solid from the patch.
Ganondorf in mid tier, Greninja in low tier, Wii Fit bottom 5. Ness in top 5. Lucina 2 whole tiers lower than Marth. Sounds about right for Larry. Only surprise is that he placed Link in a somewhat plausible position instead of top 10.
 

NachoOfCheese

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Characters [Sheik and Rosalina are the best at this with Needles and Luma, Pit is also quite good at this] can combo him due to his huge frame, get him off the stage, then Gimp him over and over with Arrows/Needles/Luma until around 200% [ZeRo did this to M2K at Pax], or even further, at which point if you do get on the stage, Rosa and Pit can both kill you with throws, and even Sheik can kill you really easily at that percent. DK's disadvantage state, I'd argue, is even worse than Roy's due to hit huge frame and slower attacks, and his advantage state isn't that much better than Roy's, as Roy is faster and can get the same % off of combos, and kills at the same time [Uncharged FSmash killed :4rob: under 60% off the side, not DI influenced, it even did the red lightning] or even earlier.

Also, Radical Larry Radical Larry - Why on earth is Ganondorf so high and Duck Hunt in bottom 5?
1) What rep or result does Roy have? Has he cracked top 8 at a national? Has he even put a dent in a major bracket?
2) DK getting gimped at 200 is no different that Roy getting gimped at 50. Roy's recovery distance is garb, so I would say the characters you mentioned also give Roy a hard time too.
3) Your Fsmash argument doesn't prove much because landing the Fsmash is harder to do than say getting a grab. Get grabbed by DK at 80, you're dead. Even if we were talking raw kill power off a move that needs a read, Roy isn't any better: 10 charge punch kills at 40.
4) DK's advantage state is among the best in the game. Roy doesn't come close to his grab reward and edgeguard game. Nair gimps and has active frames; Bair gimps, straight up kills, and has active frames; Up B is frame 3, huge, gimps, and has active frames. The hitboxes on these moves are giant and DK's horizontal recovery distance is so long that he can go as deep as he wants.

The only thing Roy really has on DK is Up B OoS.
Therefore, putting Roy above DK does not make sense.
 

Mario766

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I get grabbed by DK at 80 all the time and live, up air or not.


It isn't THAT strong.
 

Y2Kay

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DK's humongous hitbx makes him combo food and gives him a projectile problem even worse than roy's. DK has good range, but they all are apart of his hurtbox. Roy may not be strong, but he's still pretty strong. Sure, Roy doesn't have a ton of tournament results, but I don't see DK with a whole ton either, and we know roy's b/c of how little time he's been out there.
 

C0rvus

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1) What rep or result does Roy have? Has he cracked top 8 at a national? Has he even put a dent in a major bracket?
2) DK getting gimped at 200 is no different that Roy getting gimped at 50. Roy's recovery distance is garb, so I would say the characters you mentioned also give Roy a hard time too.
3) Your Fsmash argument doesn't prove much because landing the Fsmash is harder to do than say getting a grab. Get grabbed by DK at 80, you're dead. Even if we were talking raw kill power off a move that needs a read, Roy isn't any better: 10 charge punch kills at 40.
4) DK's advantage state is among the best in the game. Roy doesn't come close to his grab reward and edgeguard game. Nair gimps and has active frames; Bair gimps, straight up kills, and has active frames; Up B is frame 3, huge, gimps, and has active frames. The hitboxes on these moves are giant and DK's horizontal recovery distance is so long that he can go as deep as he wants.

The only thing Roy really has on DK is Up B OoS.
Therefore, putting Roy above DK does not make sense.
I wouldn't ignore Roy's mobility. His footsies are top notch. DK does have much more consistent ways to finish stocks. These characters have very little in common tbh, I think comparing them is moot. I do think that both are in a similar spot.
 

Mario766

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Has active frames?
Means it lingers, or that the hitbox stays out.

A lot of moves last 1-2, maybe 3 frames.

Spinning Kong hits 8 times, lasting from frame 4 to frame 67 with invincibility from frames 3-6 in the air. It hits frame 19 on the ground, but has super armor frames 8-17.
 

Locke 06

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Unless specified or noticeable like Fox's Blaster, all moves have knockback growth even if its little. In Mario's case as with most multi-hit or weighted knockback moves, the knockback growth just gets "canceled" out. Simplistic way of explaining what the knockback formulas do, though. Ask A_Kae, since I don't remember the formula, but I know KBG for both normal and weighted has KBG/100 somewhere. Mario's Dair has 100 KBG for all hits, but 10 weighted for the looping hits and 60 weighted for the landing hit. The last hit has to have base knockback of 80 or it would be a bit silly. Without any knockback, I'm going to assume there's no hit stun meaning if Mario's Dair had no knockback, it would be a close-range Fox Blaster... Yeah...
Not A_Kae, but yes Fox's Blaster has 0 knockback values.

This equation for knockback:
Code:
(((((p/10+(p*d)/20)*200/(w+100)*1.4+18)*(g/100))+b)*(m)
p = % after hit, d = damage of attack, 
w = weight of defender, g = kb growth, b = base kb,
m = misc.
is substituted for this equation for weight based knockback:
Code:
((((((10/10)+((10*s)/20))*(200/(w+100))*1.4)+18)*(g/100))+b)*(m)
s = (set) weight based kb, w = weight of defender
g = kb growth, b = base kb, m = misc
Making everything to the left of *(m) a static value whereas the previous equation is dependent on your opponent's percent. Rage is part of the "miscellaneous" multiplier, which is why it affects "set knockback."

The only part of this I don't understand is how gravity works, but it seems like nobody does, so whatever.

This stuff should be asked in the mechanics thread. But this is a social and has been for a while/s.

The only thing Roy really has on DK is Up B OoS.
Therefore, putting Roy above DK does not make sense.
I sure hope you don't actually believe this.
 
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Dre89

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Well, let me just do my own tier list. I haven't done these in a while, and I'm basing this all off how a character plays, potential, tournament results and talk based upon the character. However, tournament results are the heaviest amount of all things, so a character might be in a position that you might think of as odd for a moment, but tournament results do allow them to be there. I'm giving 6 categories filled with 2 sub-categories to fit all the characters within, as it will go by named viability and a sub-category of letter viability.

Named Viability is truly what you need to acknowledge, as Letter Viability just allows characters to be in a decent order so that they can be categorized. Top Tiers are top tiers and so on and so forth, no matter the letter.

Without further ado, let's head on to the "Radical Larry Tier List v3". And remember, no bias, so you can help manipulate my list if need be:

Category: Top Tier
Top Tier characters show the most potential and tournament results out of any character within the game, and have relatively good play styles that allow them to rise above others. They have low-risk, high reward, great advantage and disadvantage.

Sub-Category: S-Tier
Characters: :4sheik::4zss::4pikachu::rosalina::4ness:

Sub-Category: A-Tier
Characters: :4sonic::4luigi::4villager::4fox::4mario:

Category: High Tier
High Tier Characters show extraordinary potential and tournament results, and have good play styles that help them rise high. They have low or high risk, high reward, great advantage and disadvantage.

Sub-Category: B-Tier
Characters: :4yoshi::4ryu::4diddy::4pacman::4falcon:

Sub-Category: C-Tier
Characters: :4miibrawl::4peach::4metaknight::4pit::4darkpit:

Category: Middle Tier
Middle Tier Characters show amazing potential and/or tournament results, and have decent play styles that can help them be viable. They have low or high risk and reward, good advantage and disadvantage, as well as are good in terms of balance.

Sub-Category: D-Tier
Characters: :4olimar::4wario2::4megaman::4rob::4myfriends:

Sub-Category: E-Tier
Characters: :4feroy::4dk::4tlink::4link::4ganondorf:

Category: Low Tier
Low Tier Characters can still show potential and tournament results, but they have a harder time than other characters to even get there in the first place due to them being harder to use initially. They have medium to high risk and reward, good advantage and disadvantage, and are good for pocket characters.

Sub-Category: F-Tier
Characters: :4greninja::4gaw::4lucario::4shulk::4marth:

Sub-Category: G-Tier
Characters: :4bowserjr::4charizard::4jigglypuff::4lucas::4littlemac:

Category: Bottom Tier
Bottom Tier Characters (this isn't actually bottom tier) show small potential and tournament results, and even have an extremely hard time than other characters do in finding results, but they can. They have high risk and moderate reward, average advantage and low disadvantage, and you better pick a great secondary.

Sub-Category: H-Tier
Characters: :4falco::4lucina::4robinm::4kirby::4drmario:

Sub-Category: I-Tier
Characters: :4samus::4bowser::4palutena::4miisword::4dedede:

Category: Negligible 5
The Negligible 5 are characters who show the worst potential out of any single character in the game, and have the hardest time to even get to where they can win. They have high risk, low reward most of the time, low advantage and bad disadvantage, and it's recommended to always pick a secondary that's of a higher tier.

Sub-Category: J-Tier
Characters: :4duckhunt::4wiifit::4mewtwo:

Sub-Category: Z-Tier
Characters: :4miigun::4zelda:

Anything from comments to suggestions on where characters can be are indeed welcome, but I'd like to get some characters out of the way.

Link is considered the most balanced character and despite him not having that much tournament results, his balance is so great that he can actually be considered the "middle" character. He's got good frame data (not sluggish attacks; his attacks are better than some characters'), good aerial and ground mobility, great combo game and powerful KO attacks abound his arsenal. He also has arguably one of the better gimping and edge-guarding games of all characters, and his boot can defeat many projectiles, and his bombs defeat fully charged projectiles. However, he still suffers from heavy weight, below-average mobility compared to the cast and lack of good OoS options.

Ganondorf is so high, unlike some peoples' expectations, because he has quite a bit of tournament results and is also very balanced, being the second best super heavy in the game, next to Donkey Kong. He's got arguably the best frame data of the Super Heavyweight category, has great tech chases and reads with Flame Choke, unarguably the most powerful attacks in the game overall, the best meteor and the best GTFA move in Wizard's Foot, which KO's characters who are light very early. He's also decent at breaking shields. However, he's not without faults as he is one of the heaviest characters in the game, the 3rd slowest, has bad aerial mobility and jumps, a bad recovery and is easy to combo.

Due to better match-ups against characters lower than her, as well as good combo ability from D-Throw > N-Air at various percents and characters, as well as the new buffs, Samus has become much more viable on my tier list than her original placing, which could have been Negligible Tier. She still suffers problems like floatiness, lack of power on most of her attacks and high end lag on attacks, but overall she's more solid from the patch.

There is absolutely no way Ganondorf is better than Bowser and Charizard

He probably has the single worst neutral in the game because he has no burst movement that threatens shield and nothing to force approaches. Charizard and Bowser both have jab spacing and the dash attack/grab duo that
make either shielding or spot dodging/jumping away potentially unsafe.

The logic 'he's flawed but only needs a couple of reads to win' is cool until you verse people who realise that if you just don't commit to anything in neutral there is nothing Ganondorf can do. He can't get reads if the player doesn't give him anything to read, and against Ganondorf you never have to because sideb is the only thing that threatens shields from a distance and it's spotdodgeable on reaction.

Charizard and Bowser at least have burst options that you can't always react to and aren't all countered by just shielding. At a high level of play the neutral game and your options in disadvantage are way more important for heavies than how much reward you get off hard reads.
 

Y2Kay

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TDK TDK Ganondorf is high because he can display good potential and has tournament results to back him up. He's not too high, because he's in the very middle (alongside Link), because he's a character of some good balance.

And Duck Hunt is bottom five because you really need to learn him big time in order to do something with him; his Smashes can be SDI'd out of, his aerials aside from N-Air and U-Air aren't that great, his combo game from throws is bad, he's light, he can be juggled easily, some of his attacks have high end lag (like Side Special), and some of his attacks are really weak. But he has good sides in that his attacks come out fast, he's got a good RAR, good edge-guarding game, amazing projectile game and good set ups with his projectiles.

Again, all you guys need to do is ask for any position changes. (I'll gladly put Diddy Kong into a higher position when one pointed out he was rather low.)
Holly cow man, greninja is way too low. He should be somewhere behind the Angels, but DEFINITELY not behind Link. I mean seriously? That placement is kinda whack.
 

BSP

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Eh, I'll let Shaya handle that list, moderation-wise.

But anyway, can we talk about Pacman?
I think he's a very difficult character to weigh, his whole gameplan seems to be to outgimmick you, and when facing one more often than not your though is "I didn't know that", "I didn't expect that", "it caught me off guard", "I could've avoided that" and similar stuff.
As in, is he successful just because he catches people offguard? Is the matchup so complex and obscure that is difficult to play at not top level? Is it possible to be perfectly aware of all of Pacman's micromanagements and avoid being hit by them?
I think yes.

:196:
If players took 5 minutes to study Pac Man and had the sense to ignore his hydrant, he would get results that reflect where he should be (high mid tier).

As it stand he doesn't a good enough answer to shield, so he can't end stocks. His damage racking is great, but it doesn't matter if you get rage killed while they're at 170%
 

Nobie

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I'm honestly questioning Pacman's strengths now that the main Pac, Abadango, basically dropped everything in favor of the butter knife.

I know very little about Pac so don't blast me for saying these things.
I think what's more notable is that Abadango in the switch to MK has kept Pac-Man but dropped Wario, when a lot of people see Wario as high tier and Pac-Man as gimmicky.
 

Mario766

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He barely played Wario but in specific match-ups.


It was the most logical choice.
 

HeavyLobster

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There is absolutely no way Ganondorf is better than Bowser and Charizard

He probably has the single worst neutral in the game because he has no burst movement that threatens shield and nothing to force approaches. Charizard and Bowser both have jab spacing and the dash attack/grab duo that
make either shielding or spot dodging/jumping away potentially unsafe.

The logic 'he's flawed but only needs a couple of reads to win' is cool until you verse people who realise that if you just don't commit to anything in neutral there is nothing Ganondorf can do. He can't get reads if the player doesn't give him anything to read, and against Ganondorf you never have to because sideb is the only thing that threatens shields from a distance and it's spotdodgeable on reaction.

Charizard and Bowser at least have burst options that you can't always react to and aren't all countered by just shielding. At a high level of play the neutral game and your options in disadvantage are way more important for heavies than how much reward you get off hard reads.
Flame Choke is burst movement that threatens shield. Fair and Bair are safe on shield now, and Aerial Wizkick breaks weakened shields. It's also not true that Ganondorf can't do anything if you don't commit. He might not have anything reliable, but you do have to respect him. Frankly his approach options are better than Charizard's. Ganondorf is still bad but probably slightly better than Zard now that shields are nerfed and Zard's OOS is less useful.
 

Blobface

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Ganondorf is most definitely not worse than Zard/Bowser. Vermanubis and Ray_Kalm are significant threats in their respective regions, and both get closer to placing 1st every tourney (Verm literally just got 2nd at his last tourney, losing to Shiny after a bracket reset and 10 entire games).

And before anyone says it: Flame Choke is not realistically reactable.
 

KirbySquad101

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Sub-Category: E-Tier
Characters: :4ganondorf:

Sub-Category: F-Tier
Characters: :4greninja:
Wat

And what's everyone's sudden fascination with listing Jigglypuff as anything more than bottom tier after it's been established a few pages ago she wasn't good? She's not better than Kirby, Lucina, Robin, and she's most certainly not better than Wii Fit for that matter.
 
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MysteriousSilver

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Out of curiosity, what do people think it would take to break Ganon using the same design? Same bad recovery, same slow movement, same poor neutral, but increased reward?

Would Ganon be top tier if he did 50% with front smash? What if he 1HKO'd with it? If not that, what if he got 50% with Ftilt? With uair? What would it take?

Do people think his design is really so poor that he's hopeless without an overhaul, or would some percent increases fix it?

I don't really mean to theorycraft, but while I'm not that familiar with Ganon he seems much better than he has been in the past, and people still seem to place him around the bottom.

Is his kit fundamntally broken or did they just not make the numbers big enough?
 

Y2Kay

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Flame Choke is burst movement that threatens shield. Fair and Bair are safe on shield now, and Aerial Wizkick breaks weakened shields. It's also not true that Ganondorf can't do anything if you don't commit. He might not have anything reliable, but you do have to respect him. Frankly his approach options are better than Charizard's. Ganondorf is still bad but probably slightly better than Zard now that shields are nerfed and Zard's OOS is less useful.
Reasons why Chariard is better than ganondorf:
* Flamethrower lets zard gimp people and give him a decent way to deal with projectiles and c falcons trying to rush in. Dorf doesn't have anything remotely as good. full hop flamethrower gets the job done
* Zard's recovery is better and much more dangerous than Ganondork's. Fly can only be safely gimped with F.L.U.D.D. do to it's super armor, and no smart player will get in the way of flare blitz
* Zard is crazy fast, considering his size. His air speed is fast, but his mobility on stage is much better than dorf's
* They both are combo food, but Zard can break out of combos with rock smash. But what can dorf do?
 

Trifroze

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Sheik isn't dominating anything. Only ZeRo is, there's no other sheiks coming anywhere near "dominating" the meta.

To put it in a somewhat anecdotal perspective, of the top 10 Wii U ranked players, only TWO use sheik. And of the top 30, five.

We'd be saying the exact same thing about ZSS if ZeRo didn't exist.
I agree to an extent that Sheik isn't dominating (she certainly was during the summer) but she's still doing stronger than any other character even if you remove Zero out of the equation.

http://www.ssbwiki.com/CEO_2015#Smash_4_singles
http://www.ssbwiki.com/EVO_2015#Super_Smash_Bros._for_Wii_U_singles
http://www.ssbwiki.com/Super_Smash_Con#Super_Smash_Bros._for_Wii_U_singles
http://www.ssbwiki.com/PAX_Prime_2015#Smash_Wii_U_singles
http://www.ssbwiki.com/Paragon_Los_Angeles_2015#Super_Smash_Bros._for_Wii_U_singles
http://www.ssbwiki.com/Umebura_F.A.T.#Singles
http://www.ssbwiki.com/The_Big_House_5#Smash_Wii_U_singles

You can remove Zero and retain results for Sheik, but you can't remove Nairo and still retain results for ZSS. You may be right in that if Zero wasn't a thing ZSS would be called the best character because of one dominating player (although we really shouldn't let that sort of thing happen), but to say that Sheik is put on a pedestal for the same reason is failing to be honest about recent results.
 
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HeavyLobster

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Reasons why Chariard is better than ganondorf:
* Flamethrower lets zard gimp people and give him a decent way to deal with projectiles and c falcons trying to rush in. Dorf doesn't have anything remotely as good. full hop flamethrower gets the job done
* Zard's recovery is better and much more dangerous than Ganondork's. Fly can only be safely gimped with F.L.U.D.D. do to it's super armor, and no smart player will get in the way of flare blitz
* Zard is crazy fast, considering his size. His air speed is fast, but his mobility on stage is much better than dorf's
* They both are combo food, but Zard can break out of combos with rock smash. But what can dorf do?
Ganon and Zard are both good at edgeguarding. Ganon's probably a bit better overall. Flamethrower is a great poke for Zard but it's not really all that much better than Ganon's better moves in neutral. Zard's other options are pretty limited, and he can't pressure shields like Ganondorf can. Zard's dash speed does help in neutral, but it matters way more for his punish game than neutral. Really Zard lacks spacing tools in neutral, especially in the air, while Ganondorf's aerials are much more formidable. Both of them were about equal in viabiity as of 1.1.0, but Zard got hurt more since he has fewer spacing tools and relied more on OOS than Dorf, and didn't gain nearly as much in terms of shield pressure. Also Ganon has Nair and Wizkick to threaten opponents with in disadvantage. They're about the same when it comes to difficulty landing.
 

DanGR

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http://kuroganehammer.com/Smash4/Ganondorf says it starts on frame 16, that's not realistically reactable (it's the same amount of time for ZSS's grab to come out which is also not reactable). i wrote more about it here
If I can train myself to spotdodge on reaction to the noise Brawl Zelda's 12 frame grab makes, and distinguish it from every other noise she makes, it's entirely possible to react to Ganon's 16 frame startup with a considerable amount of practice.
 
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