So after the new patch the viability of bowser has risen massively and some people think he any better some think he is ok now some think he is very good and some even think that he is OP (he isent) so i started wondering what are bowser's weaknesses? This will help both the people playing vs bowser and most importantly us bowser mains (thats why i made this thread) knowing bowser's weaknesses will make us know how to avoid them being exploited and allow us to see who exploits them the best and from this we will truly know how hard could certain MU be.
(i will also make another thread talking about his strengths which will make us know which MU he does win and also know which MU people say he loses but actually goes even with (there are alot of those misconceptions and i cant stand them))
So here is the list of the biggest weakness to the smallest keep in mind i judge a weakness by how much can be exploited about it and MOST importantly how much counter play bowser so here we go:
1-his size+weight+lack of landing options when combined together makes bowser mega combo food which will usually result on you taking alot of damage out of a simple combo starter and the worst thing about this is the lack of counter play since all you can do is either airdodge (most characters who can exploit this weakness have frame traps which makes air dodging not reliable) or dair/bowser bomb which usually works when your opponent tries to attack you since these moves will beat out most moves in the game (with some exceptions) but any fast combo character can eaisly bait these out and put you in the air again (examples of characters who can exploit this weakness are:ZSS,Fox,greninja pretty much any character who is fast and has combos and preferably have some sort of hard to punish projectile)
2- mediocre recovery: tbh bowser recovery is pretty good since it goes far, haves a hitbox which is better than no hitbox, and snaps to the ledge from very far which overall gives you enough options to mix up your recovery and leave your opponent guessing but why do i put it as a 2nd biggest weakness? well thats for 1 reason only and that reason is the fact that its really easy to spike his recovery (when compared to other characters) i dieing early is bowser is the last thing you want to happen since you lose your main strength which is surviving for a long time to abuse rage. there are some characters that can hit you out of your recovery but you will be able to return to the stage regardless of how far the attack sent you (unless of you die ofc) and you will still be able to mix up your opponent when recovering even if they took out your second jump while edge guarding since your recovery is that good (examples of characters who can exploit this weakness are:ganondorf,captain falcon,(pretty much any character with a very powerful spike since if the character dosent have a spike as powerful as maybe ganon or falcon and you had your second jump you will be able to make it back assuming that you are between 0-60% and can mash b while recovering really well)
3-no solid approach option which means if your forced to approach (your playing vs a projectile character) then you may have trouble approaching them with any kind of low commitment approach options (which most high or top tier characters have) as every approach options has more risk than reward or isent easy to get (grabs are very rewarding but hard to get) but i dont think that this weakness is as bad since most projectile characters have enough weaknesses to make the MU even as long as you know the MU (examples of characters who can exploit this weakness very well are: R.O.B,toon link,villager)
4-finally the least exploitable weakness (IN MY OPINION) is that some of his hitboxes can be a bit.....inconsistent such as f-tilt and klaw missing at very close range and up-b with throwing out the opponent before the end of the move which is very rare and requires rage and even with rage its still rare (allow me to explain why these moves inconsistency isent as big of a problem 1-when you miss an f-tilt you could usually have used jab or d-tilt and these moves wont miss at close range so you missing the f-tilt is you problem for using it at very close range (or you can up-b since it also hits at close range) 2-klaw is kinda a problem tbh but atleast it has good range..... 3-up-b is so rare to happen that it isent really a problem yes it can lead to losing a game but almost every character has atleast 1 hitboxes like up-b that can miss for stupid reasons and make you lose a game)
and this is it for the MAIN weaknesses that bowser haves from these weaknesses we can get the bowser worst MU are characters that are 1-fast 2-have very strong and good combos 3-has some sort of projectile and here is a list of MY worst 5 MU
1-ZSS (65:35) (i know that 65:35 seems to even and some of you think its 70:30 but if you learn the MU very well you will realize that it isent as bad as it seems so even if you played vs a ZSS and almost got jv3 is isent because the MU is terrible but because YOU dont know the MU well enough and for some reason alot of people try to avoid the MU instead of learning it i personally lost to alot of ZSS that are lower skill than me but i didnt give up and kept learning until i realized that i used to do stupid mistakes that i shouldn't be doing so if YOU hate the MU try to learn it instead of cry about it)
2-sheik (63:37) (same thing dont cry about the MU but instead learn it)
3-fox (60:40) (i never fought a very good fox players just decent ones but i imaging that the MU can be hard but not that hard since (60:40) is not as big of a problem
4-diddy kong (60:40) (same as fox the only diffrence is that i fought more good diddys than foxes)
5-rosalina and luma (60:40) (yes i know some people hate rosa to death and probably think the MU (70:30) but there are alot of weaknesses that rosa haves that balance out the MU 1-rosa is light + you kill early which is very dangerous for rosa 2-rosa is quiet slow for a top tier and dosent have a projectile so if you lose badly to her you probably arent trying to learn the MU but and get frustrated while playing the MU instead of focus in it)
(i will also make another thread talking about his strengths which will make us know which MU he does win and also know which MU people say he loses but actually goes even with (there are alot of those misconceptions and i cant stand them))
So here is the list of the biggest weakness to the smallest keep in mind i judge a weakness by how much can be exploited about it and MOST importantly how much counter play bowser so here we go:
1-his size+weight+lack of landing options when combined together makes bowser mega combo food which will usually result on you taking alot of damage out of a simple combo starter and the worst thing about this is the lack of counter play since all you can do is either airdodge (most characters who can exploit this weakness have frame traps which makes air dodging not reliable) or dair/bowser bomb which usually works when your opponent tries to attack you since these moves will beat out most moves in the game (with some exceptions) but any fast combo character can eaisly bait these out and put you in the air again (examples of characters who can exploit this weakness are:ZSS,Fox,greninja pretty much any character who is fast and has combos and preferably have some sort of hard to punish projectile)
2- mediocre recovery: tbh bowser recovery is pretty good since it goes far, haves a hitbox which is better than no hitbox, and snaps to the ledge from very far which overall gives you enough options to mix up your recovery and leave your opponent guessing but why do i put it as a 2nd biggest weakness? well thats for 1 reason only and that reason is the fact that its really easy to spike his recovery (when compared to other characters) i dieing early is bowser is the last thing you want to happen since you lose your main strength which is surviving for a long time to abuse rage. there are some characters that can hit you out of your recovery but you will be able to return to the stage regardless of how far the attack sent you (unless of you die ofc) and you will still be able to mix up your opponent when recovering even if they took out your second jump while edge guarding since your recovery is that good (examples of characters who can exploit this weakness are:ganondorf,captain falcon,(pretty much any character with a very powerful spike since if the character dosent have a spike as powerful as maybe ganon or falcon and you had your second jump you will be able to make it back assuming that you are between 0-60% and can mash b while recovering really well)
3-no solid approach option which means if your forced to approach (your playing vs a projectile character) then you may have trouble approaching them with any kind of low commitment approach options (which most high or top tier characters have) as every approach options has more risk than reward or isent easy to get (grabs are very rewarding but hard to get) but i dont think that this weakness is as bad since most projectile characters have enough weaknesses to make the MU even as long as you know the MU (examples of characters who can exploit this weakness very well are: R.O.B,toon link,villager)
4-finally the least exploitable weakness (IN MY OPINION) is that some of his hitboxes can be a bit.....inconsistent such as f-tilt and klaw missing at very close range and up-b with throwing out the opponent before the end of the move which is very rare and requires rage and even with rage its still rare (allow me to explain why these moves inconsistency isent as big of a problem 1-when you miss an f-tilt you could usually have used jab or d-tilt and these moves wont miss at close range so you missing the f-tilt is you problem for using it at very close range (or you can up-b since it also hits at close range) 2-klaw is kinda a problem tbh but atleast it has good range..... 3-up-b is so rare to happen that it isent really a problem yes it can lead to losing a game but almost every character has atleast 1 hitboxes like up-b that can miss for stupid reasons and make you lose a game)
and this is it for the MAIN weaknesses that bowser haves from these weaknesses we can get the bowser worst MU are characters that are 1-fast 2-have very strong and good combos 3-has some sort of projectile and here is a list of MY worst 5 MU
1-ZSS (65:35) (i know that 65:35 seems to even and some of you think its 70:30 but if you learn the MU very well you will realize that it isent as bad as it seems so even if you played vs a ZSS and almost got jv3 is isent because the MU is terrible but because YOU dont know the MU well enough and for some reason alot of people try to avoid the MU instead of learning it i personally lost to alot of ZSS that are lower skill than me but i didnt give up and kept learning until i realized that i used to do stupid mistakes that i shouldn't be doing so if YOU hate the MU try to learn it instead of cry about it)
2-sheik (63:37) (same thing dont cry about the MU but instead learn it)
3-fox (60:40) (i never fought a very good fox players just decent ones but i imaging that the MU can be hard but not that hard since (60:40) is not as big of a problem
4-diddy kong (60:40) (same as fox the only diffrence is that i fought more good diddys than foxes)
5-rosalina and luma (60:40) (yes i know some people hate rosa to death and probably think the MU (70:30) but there are alot of weaknesses that rosa haves that balance out the MU 1-rosa is light + you kill early which is very dangerous for rosa 2-rosa is quiet slow for a top tier and dosent have a projectile so if you lose badly to her you probably arent trying to learn the MU but and get frustrated while playing the MU instead of focus in it)
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