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What characters have an easier learning curve?

Phaiyte

Smash Ace
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
932
Marth is the one character that yields the most reward with the least effort.
 

burntfish44

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jan 22, 2014
Messages
53
So how hard is Metaknight to pick up in P:M? He seems pretty straightforward.
Eh idk i had a decent amount of toruble picking him up - perhaps its just due to my difference in playstyle or something... i like his constant barrage of attacks but for me he just takes a ton of getting used to.. but again it might be a personal thing. just use ftilt and dont use jab like ever and get his up b down and itll be k
 

StKo

Smash Rookie
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Dec 31, 2013
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14
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La Habra Hts, CA
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I feel that because every character is viable, there's going to be quite a bit of learning curve for each one. Sure you might get by better on a casual level with some characters then others (like Marth or Mario) but let's face it: each character has their own advantages and disadvantages that must be learned and exploited. And often, a lot of tech will be involved from wavedashes to spacing to l-cancels in order to fully exploit a character's best abilities
So choose a character who's style fits you the best. The learning curve will probably be easiest on the character who's style you feel most comfortable with simply by nature of how you and the character play. So if you're comfortable playing Pikachu, I say go for it
 

XalchemistX

Smash Ace
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This SSBM video applies to Project M as well

Decent characters to practice wavedashing: :luigi2:,:marth:, :mewtwopm:,:squirtle:

Here is useful data on the characters

If you have a difficulty learning the advanced techniques like wave dashing, I highly recommend :bowser2:. Hes just pure raw power, and doesn't need much effort like most characters to take out a stock.
 

Hashtag

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Nov 13, 2010
Messages
151
Location
AZ
This SSBM video applies to Project M as well

Decent characters to practice wavedashing: :luigi2:,:marth:, :mewtwopm:,:squirtle:

Here is useful data on the characters

If you have a difficulty learning the advanced techniques like wave dashing, I highly recommend :bowser2:. Hes just pure raw power, and doesn't need much effort like most characters to take out a stock.
In my opinion, bowser may be easy to pick up, but one of the harder characters to get good at. Requires quite a bit of reading your opponent and forcing them into punishable situation that would keep you ( bowser) relatively safe from being punished yourself.

I don't recommend bowser as your first character as far as getting advanced techs down either.
 

Aenglaan

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I'd say that Mario is one of the easiest characters to use well. While he feels slightly nerfed in 3.0, he does still have great accessibility that really pays off.

I think Falco is also a character to consider, since while he still has the technical aspects of Fox and Wolf, they're easier to adapt to.

Ike also isn't a bad choice, considering he has good speed for such a heavy hitter and really good range.

I'll have to ask the MK player in my area what he thinks, I'm not super well versed on the character, but Idk his recovery seems fine to me.
His recovery has its ups and downs, but there are certainly much better vertical recoveries as far as I'm concerned (Mewtwo for starters). Meta does have the advantage of having so many options when it comes to recoveries, though.
 

SixSaw

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Oct 28, 2013
Messages
321
Location
Chicago, IL
Wario seems like a pretty easy character to me in terms of APM demands, and in general really forgiving as far as fundamentals go because of safe he is in the air, etc. When I play him, I feel like I usually don't have to work nearly as hard as my opponent to take stocks.

The space animal matchups really highlight it since they tend to play out like:
"Man, that long-ass super technical combo you just did on me was pretty sweet, but I'm just gonna gimp you at 0% now off of one grab, hope that's cool."
 

Thane of Blue Flames

Fire is catching.
Joined
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The other side of Sanity
Wario seems like a pretty easy character to me in terms of APM demands, and in general really forgiving as far as fundamentals go because of safe he is in the air, etc. When I play him, I feel like I usually don't have to work nearly as hard as my opponent to take stocks.

The space animal matchups really highlight it since they tend to play out like:
"Man, that long-*** super technical combo you just did on me was pretty sweet, but I'm just gonna gimp you at 0% now off of one grab, hope that's cool."
Sounds a lot like Melee Jiggs, but with more survivability. And possibly less stringent spacing requirements.
 

Veishi336

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Sep 23, 2013
Messages
215
Location
Decatur,GA
Mario, Marth, Peach, and Zelda all seem to be the easiest to pick up and play.

Mario- He just has the whole book of stuff that you need for a pick up and play type character. Nice recovery, easy combo game, cannot get killed that easy due to weight, quite powerful, and he is quite stubby but has a surprisingly long reach. Doesn't seem like you need to L cancel much out of anything for any follow up either.

Marth- He is suitable for those who like swords and for those easy-going players who don't like the stress of trying to make the most obscene combos. Nice neutral game where he can keep all types of spacing, all his smash attacks seem reliable in their own ways, he has a nice recovery as well but somewhat limited also, and he has a neat grab game. Pretty fun character.

Peach- She is just that "im gonna pick up a turnip and throw it a hundred times and spam FWRD-B a thousand times till it hits" type character. She can float, has an amazing D-smash, pretty dang reliable on not dying, and all of her stuff really isn't hard to pull off. You just have to have a good head on your shoulders.

Zelda- Somewhat similiar to Peach in a way when it comes to not dying and other things, but she has a nice spammable fwrd-B as well, very quick dash attacks, great Bair and Fair that can catch many folks off guard, her smash attacks are a nice space tool to tell folks to get away from you if they don't want to die, and she has a nice transformation into sheik. So she has an abundance of stuff to work off of.
 

deadjames

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If you have a difficulty learning the advanced techniques like wave dashing, I highly recommend :bowser2:. Hes just pure raw power, and doesn't need much effort like most characters to take out a stock.
Wave dashing is definitely vital for Bowser players as well, Bowser requires more effort than most of the cast imo. His whole game revolves around spacing, baiting, and punishing, and against good players one mistake as Bowser will likely lose you a stock because it's so hard for him to escape from combos.
Mario- He just has the whole book of stuff that you need for a pick up and play type character. Nice recovery, easy combo game, cannot get killed that easy due to weight, quite powerful, and he is quite stubby but has a surprisingly long reach. Doesn't seem like you need to L cancel much out of anything for any follow up either.


Peach- She is just that "im gonna pick up a turnip and throw it a hundred times and spam FWRD-B a thousand times till it hits" type character. She can float, has an amazing D-smash, pretty dang reliable on not dying, and all of her stuff really isn't hard to pull off. You just have to have a good head on your shoulders.
.
L-cancelling is completely necessary for all of Mario's aerials, his nair, fair, and dair are especially laggy. Also, he does not have long reach, in fact his poor range is one of his few weaknesses, but luckily that weakness is somewhat covered by the fact that his fireballs are amazing. As for Peach she is a very difficult character to play, based on this post it doesn't seem like you understand much about her at all. Her side-b and dsmash are highly situational and extremely punishable, turnips are for zoning, and she is actually a pretty technically demanding character if you plan to get the most out of her combo game.
 

Ali Baba 177

Smash Journeyman
Joined
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Messages
274
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Washington
Hey guys I'm trying to create an updated tier list since Apex and 3.0 being out for 2 months, I am putting in tourny results as before and trying to make a community tier list that reflects the most recent of opinions so if you guys could help and vote in the survey thatd be great! Im posting in a lot of threads so there can be more more opinions as that will reflect more accurately so please vote!

The first one has you rank each character individually 1-41, I arranged it to what I think so it can be easier but itll still take a little time.
<a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GDPZ53B">Click here to take survey</a>

If you dont care as much and/or dont wanna spend as much time then this one is just rankings based on tier.
<a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GD3NDM9">Click here to take survey</a>

Please don't just destroy it with joke rankings. Thanks!
 

deadjames

Smash Lord
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Messages
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deadjames
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Hey guys I'm trying to create an updated tier list since Apex and 3.0 being out for 2 months, I am putting in tourny results as before and trying to make a community tier list that reflects the most recent of opinions so if you guys could help and vote in the survey thatd be great! Im posting in a lot of threads so there can be more more opinions as that will reflect more accurately so please vote!

The first one has you rank each character individually 1-41, I arranged it to what I think so it can be easier but itll still take a little time.
<a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GDPZ53B">Click here to take survey</a>

If you dont care as much and/or dont wanna spend as much time then this one is just rankings based on tier.
<a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GD3NDM9">Click here to take survey</a>

Please don't just destroy it with joke rankings. Thanks!
Lol I can do it twice, posting this in multiple threads might end up skewing the results.
 

Shouxiao

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Apr 11, 2013
Messages
213
For certain things I like to practice wave dashing and wave landing on platforms with characters with easier short hops like Falco and Ganondorf.
 

deadjames

Smash Lord
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Luigi is probably the best character to practice wave dashing with, but after you can consistently perform the tech you should practice it with your main, unless your main happens to be Link in which case you'd be better off learning to moonwalk.
 

G13_Flux

Smash Lord
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
1,076
avoid characters like fox, wolf, ice climbers, mewtwo, yoshi, and snake. these characters all have some combination of a necessity for a high tech skill, slightly unorthodox playstyle requirements (looking at characters across the board), and a large dependence on mental skill and in game knowledge factored in.

Not that all characters dont eventually fall into these categories somewhat, but these characters IMO are slightly more polarized in this regard, and you might have a tough time learning how to kill efficiently with them. Characters like marth, CF, ganon, DDD, mario, shiek, pikachu, and kirby seem to display a more typical style of comboing, and segway a little bit more simply into kills, at least for beginning players.
 

Soft Serve

softie
Premium
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AZ
Marth has a really easy learning curve when it comes to the fundamentals of smash, He really accentuates certain traits that are common in every matchup. His dash dance is fantastic and makes it very easy to understand the strengths of a dash dance, ie occupying space without commiting to it. His wavedash is significant to be noticable and play a good role in spacing, while not being overly difficult to do when just starting. He also is realy easy to start juggling with, and is easy juggled himself, so he shows the importance of positioning on the stage, be it vertical or horizontal. He also isnt' hard to use, except for his recovery which is piss-poor by even Melee standards and difficult to use optimally.

If you're not feeling marth that much I would recommend mario or sheik. Maybe lucario since you're coming from mavhel and his On-hit-cancel system would make more sense to you than most smashers at first.
 

deadjames

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avoid characters like fox, wolf, ice climbers, mewtwo, yoshi, and snake. these characters all have some combination of a necessity for a high tech skill, slightly unorthodox playstyle requirements (looking at characters across the board), and a large dependence on mental skill and in game knowledge factored in.

Not that all characters dont eventually fall into these categories somewhat, but these characters IMO are slightly more polarized in this regard, and you might have a tough time learning how to kill efficiently with them. Characters like marth, CF, ganon, DDD, mario, shiek, pikachu, and kirby seem to display a more typical style of comboing, and segway a little bit more simply into kills, at least for beginning players.
I wouldn't necessarily say Falcon, D3, or Pika are good for beginners. Falcon relies heavily on tech chases which is something that takes practice to be good at. It requires at least a bit of tech skill to be proficient with some of D3's unique movement and recovery options, and Pika is one of the most technically demanding characters in the game, especially when recovering.
 

G13_Flux

Smash Lord
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
1,076
Well all three of those characters can be very technical demanding at a higher level of play, but for beginners, they make sense because killing with them is a bit more simple when used at that level since they don't require complex spacing or combo sequences to get a kill. They all have relatively powerful attacks that can be thrown out and connected with a lot of the time.
 

deadjames

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Their combos aren't simple though. Pika and Faclon especially, it requires significant knowledge of the character to keep combos going with them.
 

Toxicroaker

Smash Lord
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Everywhere
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Whatever you do, don't do Bowser. I've been there and done that. It doesn't work to easily (unless all you have to battle is the CPU in which case just down-b them and wait for the victory screen)
 

HK_Spadez

(@'o')=@ t('o't)
Joined
Dec 11, 2013
Messages
221
Marth is a good choice for beginner smashers. Makes use of all the basic tech. dash dance/wave dash/pivot grabs and smashes/ l canceling/ etc

But doesnt require every item on the list to be able to be played well. You can just start with dash dance -> grabbing and just trying to space out your opponents with fsmashes. then move up and add other tech and incorporate as you go.

Wiwht marth you can improve at whatever rate you feel comfortable. certain chars like falco require L cancel wave shine to do decently well so he's kinda more advanced imo
 

Ali Baba 177

Smash Journeyman
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Mario is definitely a good choice to start with as well as also has combos and kill moves that are fairly straight forward and easy to practice. Then he also has a versatile and fun recovery that can help learn the mind games involved in recovering as time goes on. He is medium weight and size so then itll be easier to change characters as well
Mario has a bunch of videos too as he is top tier and is often in tournaments so you can get ideas from there.
 

deadjames

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Mario can't be top tier when there's no official tier list.
 

Kink-Link5

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Besides which, a character's tier position doesn't necessarily have an impact on them having a lot of videos.

For the longest time, Chris G was the only one using Morigan, and even after everyone was convinced she was borked, he was still the only one doing well with her.
 

deadjames

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Speaking of Chris G, I wish there were more Sakura vids of SF4.
 

Pseudomaniac

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If you like Pikachu keep playing Pikachu. P:M needs more Pika players. Mario is the obvious choice if you're looking for a pocket though. Bowser, Meta Knight, and Falco are also pretty common pocket characters. They cover a good amount of matchups against low to mid level players without having to invest large amounts of time into learning the characters in-depth or learning huge amounts of difficult tech skill (just SHFFLing should be needed at low to mid levels). Plus, in the hands of experienced players, they can excel in high level tournaments
 

Ali Baba 177

Smash Journeyman
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Nearly 50 people have voted in the past two weeks and itd be awesome if 100 people could participate in this community involved 'tier list'. Just trying to gather the most recent opinions on character placement and then I'll make a tier list combining these results with tournament results. Im posting in a lot of threads so there can be more more opinions as that will reflect more accurately. If you havent voted yet please do! (just 3.0 opinions please)

The first one has you rank each character individually 1-41, I arranged it to what I think so it can be easier but itll still take a little time.
<a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GDPZ53B">Click here to take survey</a>

If you dont care as much and/or dont wanna spend as much time then this one is just rankings based on tier.
<a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GD3NDM9">Click here to take survey</a>

Thanks guys!
 

deadjames

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Anther and Chu Dat are both really good Pika players too, though I think Chu Dat dropped him in PM since Kirby and ICs were added.
 

Spooky Skook

Smash Cadet
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Feb 11, 2014
Messages
57
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Falls Church, VA
I just picked up competitive smash too, and I honestly feel ganon is good for getting shffling down cause of how easy it is to short hop with him. Another thing about ganon is that because of his super slow movement, it really forces you to work on your defensive play. Although, like people have been saying about bowser and ike, getting off the ground competitively with ganon might be a toughy.
 
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deadjames

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Ike is actually a very technical character, due to all the different things you can do out of Quick Draw.
 
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CyberZixx

Smash Lord
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
1,189
I think the easiest characters to pick up are Mario and Zelda. As others have said Marth is a character that is great starting out because he is so fundimentals based so as you improve it will be more noticeable in play than say ice climbers.
 
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