Alright guys, I guess I'll humor myself and post what I think DDD needs again.
First of all let's look at what are DDD's bad MUs and let's look for some common themes between them.
-3







-2






-1






These are what I believe to be DDD's losing MUs, the degree of which he loses could be argued for some characters like Jiggs, G&W, and some of the -1 characters but I don't think anyone would argue about anyone else.
first theme one should notice is really good multi hit moves:
Lucas, wolf, sonic, mewtwo ivy, and squirtle are good examples of this. Lucas' nair, wolf's nair, sonics spin on shield, mewtwo's nair, ivy nair, and squirtle's d-tilt are essentially guaranteed shield pokes on us because our shield provides such poor coverage. and I'm not even exaggerating, if you have anything below full shield, you will get shield poked EVEN when you shield angle like I do. these characters' moves aren't even "one and done" moves. they all get GREAT conversions off of landing their multi hit moves. Lucario and falco also fit into this category since they apply such great shield pressure that our shield can't cover all of their attacks so fast. they can look at where our shield is and d-tilt or jump > dair
another theme: Items
Link, Peach, TL, and diddy all have great projectiles with bomb, banana, and turnips. and we can do nothing about them. this results from us being slow and having item pick up ranges and tosses that are some of the worst in the cast. there is no counterplay to items in these MUs, you simply have to avoid them at all costs.
3rd theme: raw kill power
being a semi fastfaller and a super heavy help but when you're one of the slowest and most commital characters in the game, someone with a very strong punish game can practically negate our survivability. G&W, Wario, pika, Link, mario, zelda, Jiggs all have very strong punish options and most often kill us sub 130%.
4th theme: hard to follow up and even grab.
Pikachu, peach, sonic, jiggs, mewtwo, yoshi and G&W give DDD problems because we can't do anything to them with our grabs. not only is grabbing these characters difficult but even when we do get a grab, d-throw actually isn't very effective against these few and up-throw to up-air doesn't work on these characters except on sonic below like 30%. with our grab game practically negated we fold pretty hard because all we have left is dair and waddles.
can any of these problems be fixed by modifying DDD and not changing how he interacts with the rest of the cast?
mostly yes
1. buffing our shield
slightly helps us not get dominated by those that get can freely throw out multihits on us and get confirms.
2. improving item grab
ranges and tossing frame data. this doesn't affect cast wide interactions with DDD, only those who can spawn items, which are only the characters I mentioned and ROB. Actually improving his jump squat from 6 > 5 would actually help this considerably also.
3. Raw kill power doesn't need to be fixed or changed.
4. Improve inhale as our "secondary" grab. inhale has its uses in all MUs but we don't dominate any character because of it because its the worst of the command grabs. We don't get any follow up/mix up/hat or even tech chase. I believe have a simple suggestion
inhaling someone can transition to you grabbing them when grounded. I think this is great to the problem imo because it reinforces the idea that DDD is a grab centered character. landing inhale is easier than landing a grab on those characters in most cases but it still wouldn't give him too much power against those characters he can already easily inhale such as bowser
The first 2 fixes should heavily be considered since they help round out his MUs without affecting his others. we don't beat characters because of our shield game and we lose MUs partly because of our item toss problems. the 3rd one should be toyed with because his command grab is a very poor move as it stands right now and it has the potential to help in the MUs where his standing grab is extremely difficult to land and where his follow ups don't exist.
That's looking outwardly. now how about inwardly. does DDD's kit have any glaring weaknesses to it, or something that should just generally be improved. this is just what I think should be looked at but obviously not all things are equally needed
Excessive landing lag / start up / commitment on some of his moves
Empty - 6
Fair - 16
Dair - 11
Nair - 11
Bair - 11
Uair - 10
These numbers might not seem like they are too high but in reality its these numbers +7. DDD's fastest ground option comes out on frame 7 so landing is a huge commitment unless you plan plan is to shield or land away from them. imo, all of DDD's aerials should see a reduction in landing lag and empty hop should be 4 across the board; seeing as DDD is one of the true grapplers in the game, he should function akin to other grapplers from other games, which is slightly longer than usual start up on moves (which he already has) but still having low cool down on moves (or in the case of doing empty hop, not being in more lag for doing nothing). I would be fine if DDD continued to have no move faster than frame 7 since thats how grapplers seem to work but cool down on things needs to be shaved off.
Jab is absolutely fine with its cool down but it isn't fine on its start up. frame 9 start up but it can't hit anyone until 10. his commitment is part of why this move is bad, just empty hop and jab takes 16 frames at least to come out. Jab should tie for his fastest move. frame 7. I shouldn't have to mention that it should hit someone in front of him on frame 7, not be in the z-axis on frame 7.
D-tilt - tied for fastest move for frame 7 which is good, but this move has huge commitment issues. IASA on frame 35. I suggested a complete rework of this move and I still do. there is no reason to use this move in any situation. CC grab is better and edgeguarding can be done with other moves. Remove the sour spot that lasts 10 frames. change the sweet spot to an angle that favors DDD's strength of edgeguarding.
something like 9%, 30 BKB, 90KBG, and angle of something like 40. IASA on something between 25 and 28.
Up-tilt - great start up. acceptable cool down. one "issue" with is move I will list later since it isn't imperative to be looked at.
F-smash - Extreme start up on 42, having 12 more frames of start up than the next longest starting up move in the game
and its only the sour spot. Long cool down also. The only use this move has is edgeguarding ike. there's no point in having a super strong move if I have no places to use it except in one super situational time. its start up needs to be lowered to something like 36. go ahead and subtract 1% and 10BKB. having a F-smash, even if its weaker would be better if I could attempt to throw it out even in 2x as many situations than it currently is used in. this move is probably one of the few exceptions I'm willing to count for cool down since it will be one of the strongest moves in the game.
D-smash - Fine as is, good start up, good cool down.
Up-smash - it was a step in the right direction making the start up faster by 3 frames but the cool down didn't need to be increased by 3 frames. I suggest that the 3 frames be removed.
Dash attack - Fine? IDK. hilarious move, and not that useful
Inhale - Absolutely not fine just talking about commitment. 17 frames start up. 40 frames of forced inhaling, and then 17 frames of cooldown. total of 77 frames of commitment for something that gives 10% and some stage positioning.
Side-b - aerial side-b is fine with its 40 or so frames of cool down for its use in the neutral but grounded side-b is not fine. 63 frames of cool down. reduction of this to something like 55 would already do him wonders.
down-b - probably another exception. doesn't need less cool down because it could do 30%
up-b. no changes
I wrote a lot but I'm not asking for a lot. just that DDD's cool down needs to be looked at if his grab continues to be his fastest move.
I honestly don't think anything else is wrong with his moveset in general which is pretty great. I only have a couple "fluff" suggestions.
First off.
1. Make Down-b feel less clunky.
it takes 25 frames to turn around and then start walking backwards even though you can cancel turning around by releasing it on frame 1 of turning around. this wouldn't even be a buff really, itd just make him feel less clunky. reduce turn around time from 25 > 10
Reduce jump squat. not sure why but DDD's jump squat is 7 during the animation. 7 > 6
reduce landing lag on it too. once again, you cancel it frame 1 of landing. it just allow more movement.
12 > 8
2. reduce the amount of time needed to fall through a platform after an aerial jump.
it surprisingly takes a long time to fall through a platform after a jump. holding down doesn't allow you to pass through them. not sure exactly how long, but I do know it takes over 45 frames.
3. extend the invincibility on DDD's head on up-tilt until the hitbox goes away.
DDD's head practically quadruples in size and loses every to every attack even when it looks like they should trade.