What are safer ways to land?

[Fairfax]

I'm sure it's a newbie question, but didn't know where else to ask:

I've been using all options to land and all, but I'm struggling against attacks that out-prioritise the Dair. Usually I can just trick the opponent into attacking too early by launching a Lloid right above them, but this doesn't work for me against sword-based characters, specially the ones with longer reach.
The trick works against them most of the time as well, but since their swords can have very long reach, I have to do it way above them, and then there's enough time to attack me again.

PS: I've learned A-landing and it's great, but I'm talking about attacks before I'm able to land.

Any tips? Is the short invinciblity from Pocket a good alternative?

 

[xVenu5]

It really depends on the situation. Against sword chars I find myself stalling above them (out of range) and breversing a lot. If you find yourself too close you're probably going to get punished. I even ride lloid into their shield and land with something else (fair/bair/another lloid to counter their attack if they do so) for them to deal with after I pop off becuase the chance of getting punished anyway is pretty high lol. Only as a mixup tho. That's pretty punishable.

Speaking of lloid tho, he can intercept hits and explode which can keep u safe in some situations. Gotta know which hitboxes they can get u with and place him in the trajectory. Doesn't help much against long swords tho, unfortunately.

 

[JohnnyB]

Landing options/mixups:

- SLINGSHOT!!!! For the love of god this is one of the best ways of covering your landings. Only works if they are running at you from afar though, not if they are shielding and waiting for you to land.

- B reverse pocket. It reverses your momentum thus mixing up your landing.

- LAND BEHIND THEM!!!! Much harder to punish if you cross them up. Can't shieldgrab, limited oos options for a lot of chars.

- Lloid stalling has already been mentioned so i won't bother explaining it.

The number one thing you have to do though, is not put yourself in this disadvantaged position in the first place. Villager has the best, the very very best, set of short hop aerials in the game. If you find yourself needing to cover your landing from a fullhop/double jump on stage often you are deliberately putting yourself at a disadvantaged position and are going to get severely punished for it. Shorthop more and try not to go high in the air if your opponent is in a position to catch your landing.

 

[Fairfax]

It really depends on the situation. Against sword chars I find myself stalling above them (out of range) and breversing a lot. If you find yourself too close you're probably going to get punished. I even ride lloid into their shield and land with something else (fair/bair/another lloid to counter their attack if they do so) for them to deal with after I pop off becuase the chance of getting punished anyway is pretty high lol. Only as a mixup tho. That's pretty punishable.

Speaking of lloid tho, he can intercept hits and explode which can keep u safe in some situations. Gotta know which hitboxes they can get u with and place him in the trajectory. Doesn't help much against long swords tho, unfortunately.

I'll try the stall+Breverse, but I feel like it's still very dangerous against a long swords like Shulk, Cloud, Ike, et al. Guess that and riding the Lloid are the only options.

Landing options/mixups:

- SLINGSHOT!!!! For the love of god this is one of the best ways of covering your landings. Only works if they are running at you from afar though, not if they are shielding and waiting for you to land.

- B reverse pocket. It reverses your momentum thus mixing up your landing.

- LAND BEHIND THEM!!!! Much harder to punish if you cross them up. Can't shieldgrab, limited oos options for a lot of chars.

- Lloid stalling has already been mentioned so i won't bother explaining it.

The number one thing you have to do though, is not put yourself in this disadvantaged position in the first place. Villager has the best, the very very best, set of short hop aerials in the game. If you find yourself needing to cover your landing from a fullhop/double jump on stage often you are deliberately putting yourself at a disadvantaged position and are going to get severely punished for it. Shorthop more and try not to go high in the air if your opponent is in a position to catch your landing.

Yeah, I was talking more about these situations where the opponent is right below after launching me at high %.
I'll try to avoid double jumps and use the Breverse pocket.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

 

[JohnnyB]

I'll try the stall+Breverse, but I feel like it's still very dangerous against a long swords like Shulk, Cloud, Ike, et al. Guess that and riding the Lloid are the only options.


Yeah, I was talking more about these situations where the opponent is right below after launching me at high %.
I'll try to avoid double jumps and use the Breverse pocket.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

If they are launching you don't be afraid to grab the ledge. You have better options there than landing next to them onstage.

 

[Moosseff]

I feel like villagers landings revolve around mixing up your landing options and crossing up your opponent. If you cant mixup your landing youre going to be punished every time. I personally would much rather airdodge into a ledge cancel if im at the ledge, other than that you can use pocket. If you see your opponent trying to catch your landing by running where they think you are going to land and sheilding, cross them up. If youre too close to them to do that, you can fastfall your landing into jabbing their sheild (assuming you nair whenever you get launched far. If your too close to them to nair and it is unsafe then try landing with an aerial or a tech option) Other than that use slingshot alot when landing because it is a generaly safe move. Shorter opponents will be harder to hit with slingshot though, so be carefull if you are vsing an opponent with a short crouch.