Rango the Mercenary
The Mercenary
Ike's most common weaknesses include:
1) His DSmash is useless.
2) His recovery is easy to beat and exploit. Quick Draw does not have a big, frontal hitbox, leaving it susceptible to moves, like Donkey Kong's Bair. Aether is spiked by any character who has a Dair meteor smash.
3) Every move he makes is an overcommitment. If you didn't autocancel your Fair or Bair properly, even from range, expect to be punished.
4) Ike lacks solid punishes from afar. It's too easy for opponents to abuse autocancels and unsafe moves solely to bait Ike into attempting a punish, block it, and punish him instead.
5) He has no solid upward kills. Characters, like Rosalina, Cloud, Zero Suit Samus, Donkey Kong, Sheik, and Bowser are known for killing from the top. For example, if Delfino Plaza and Halberd were still legal, both would prove detrimental for Ike and he may not have the tier status he does simply because they could counterpick either of those stages, or simply go to Town & City to make the finish. Even though Ike has USmash and UTilt, both are "hard reads" that can be punished very hard. In addition, some of the aforementioned characters, notably Rosalina and DK, kill from the top at percents that beat out Ike's USmash. Ike also has UThrow into Uair, but it only works on very few characters, and Nair generally isn't powerful enough to make this confirm.
6) Among the worst Counter in the game (Frame 9, compare to Marth's Frame 6, Corrin's Frame 7, and Roy's Frame 8). Only 1 frame faster than Palutena's.
7) No landing options. Mario's USmash easily passes through Ike's Nair and Bair. Characters can simply run up and mixup intangible hitboxes, powershields, or dashgrabs. Any move Ike uses can be punished. Compare to Mario again, who is known for Bairing people and getting away with it for free.
8) No aerial defense. Captain Falcon can do Uair combos into Fair or continue the mixup. Rosalina and Mario also juggle him. In other words, he's combo food. He lacks a fast attack that can get him out of a juggle.
9) Mediocre "fast defense" options. Rushdown types have no fear going in on him if he's within range. Marth, Mario, Donkey Kong, and Bowser have "get out of jail free" cards with Up B to get them out of trouble quickly.
10) Lacks options using specials in neutral. Eruption is meant for edgeguarding, Quick Draw is highly punishable, Aether is slow and meant for recovery and retreat, and Counter is slow. Most characters can utilize their specials in neutral and in the air. This hurts his options when attacking characters, like Diddy Kong and R.O.B., using their item projectiles against them.
So the next question is, how could Ike be patched without making him broken? I have a few proposals.
1) Give him back his DTilt range. It was nerfed, but its return will keep players from dashing in past his disjoint, like Pit's dash attack. The return of its full range will provide an ample spacing move for Ike, keeping enemies off of him, as well as giving him further range to punish out of shield against disjointed characters, like Cloud.
2) Quick Draw becomes faster and harder to punish. A move that does only 6 damage and starts on Frame 16 is not balanced at all. If hit hits a shield, he's fully susceptible to a hard punish, like a Smash. There is virtually no point to using this move besides to recover and land-cancel on platforms.
3) Aether becomes faster. Not quite as fast as the custom variation, but enough to where it's a surprise for characters making them attempt to dunk Ike with Dair or even FLUDD him.
4) Counter becomes faster. Again, Roy is frame 8 and Corrin is frame 7. Since he's not Marth, perhaps it wouldn't be fair to go straight to Frame 6. However, Frame 9 is way too late to have a practical Counter.
5) Uthrow Uair confirms. Bowser has one, Donkey Kong has one. This would help level the playing field on stages with low ceilings.
6) Faster dash and/or faster dash attack.
7) Bair gets a slightly larger frontal hitbox. Since it already has one, lengthening it won't be a big deal. At Frame 7, this could be pivotal in escaping from juggles.
8) Widen the sweetspot on Dair. 9 times out of 10, Captain Falcon's Dair will spike. And most of the time, Ike's Dair tends to sourspot. You have to hit it precisely.
It's really hard to think of anything else he needs. None of this will change the game, but should another patch come and players find that Ike once again (by the grace of the holy spirits) got buffed, we know what to look for that will help him, and which buffs won't affect his meta and leave him to sink further down the tier list.
1) His DSmash is useless.
2) His recovery is easy to beat and exploit. Quick Draw does not have a big, frontal hitbox, leaving it susceptible to moves, like Donkey Kong's Bair. Aether is spiked by any character who has a Dair meteor smash.
3) Every move he makes is an overcommitment. If you didn't autocancel your Fair or Bair properly, even from range, expect to be punished.
4) Ike lacks solid punishes from afar. It's too easy for opponents to abuse autocancels and unsafe moves solely to bait Ike into attempting a punish, block it, and punish him instead.
5) He has no solid upward kills. Characters, like Rosalina, Cloud, Zero Suit Samus, Donkey Kong, Sheik, and Bowser are known for killing from the top. For example, if Delfino Plaza and Halberd were still legal, both would prove detrimental for Ike and he may not have the tier status he does simply because they could counterpick either of those stages, or simply go to Town & City to make the finish. Even though Ike has USmash and UTilt, both are "hard reads" that can be punished very hard. In addition, some of the aforementioned characters, notably Rosalina and DK, kill from the top at percents that beat out Ike's USmash. Ike also has UThrow into Uair, but it only works on very few characters, and Nair generally isn't powerful enough to make this confirm.
6) Among the worst Counter in the game (Frame 9, compare to Marth's Frame 6, Corrin's Frame 7, and Roy's Frame 8). Only 1 frame faster than Palutena's.
7) No landing options. Mario's USmash easily passes through Ike's Nair and Bair. Characters can simply run up and mixup intangible hitboxes, powershields, or dashgrabs. Any move Ike uses can be punished. Compare to Mario again, who is known for Bairing people and getting away with it for free.
8) No aerial defense. Captain Falcon can do Uair combos into Fair or continue the mixup. Rosalina and Mario also juggle him. In other words, he's combo food. He lacks a fast attack that can get him out of a juggle.
9) Mediocre "fast defense" options. Rushdown types have no fear going in on him if he's within range. Marth, Mario, Donkey Kong, and Bowser have "get out of jail free" cards with Up B to get them out of trouble quickly.
10) Lacks options using specials in neutral. Eruption is meant for edgeguarding, Quick Draw is highly punishable, Aether is slow and meant for recovery and retreat, and Counter is slow. Most characters can utilize their specials in neutral and in the air. This hurts his options when attacking characters, like Diddy Kong and R.O.B., using their item projectiles against them.
So the next question is, how could Ike be patched without making him broken? I have a few proposals.
1) Give him back his DTilt range. It was nerfed, but its return will keep players from dashing in past his disjoint, like Pit's dash attack. The return of its full range will provide an ample spacing move for Ike, keeping enemies off of him, as well as giving him further range to punish out of shield against disjointed characters, like Cloud.
2) Quick Draw becomes faster and harder to punish. A move that does only 6 damage and starts on Frame 16 is not balanced at all. If hit hits a shield, he's fully susceptible to a hard punish, like a Smash. There is virtually no point to using this move besides to recover and land-cancel on platforms.
3) Aether becomes faster. Not quite as fast as the custom variation, but enough to where it's a surprise for characters making them attempt to dunk Ike with Dair or even FLUDD him.
4) Counter becomes faster. Again, Roy is frame 8 and Corrin is frame 7. Since he's not Marth, perhaps it wouldn't be fair to go straight to Frame 6. However, Frame 9 is way too late to have a practical Counter.
5) Uthrow Uair confirms. Bowser has one, Donkey Kong has one. This would help level the playing field on stages with low ceilings.
6) Faster dash and/or faster dash attack.
7) Bair gets a slightly larger frontal hitbox. Since it already has one, lengthening it won't be a big deal. At Frame 7, this could be pivotal in escaping from juggles.
8) Widen the sweetspot on Dair. 9 times out of 10, Captain Falcon's Dair will spike. And most of the time, Ike's Dair tends to sourspot. You have to hit it precisely.
It's really hard to think of anything else he needs. None of this will change the game, but should another patch come and players find that Ike once again (by the grace of the holy spirits) got buffed, we know what to look for that will help him, and which buffs won't affect his meta and leave him to sink further down the tier list.
