What does Vectoring mean for Pikachu?

[NobleClamtasm]

In case you're not caught up to speed, a new mechanic was found that allows a person to control how much knockback they receive after getting hit. You can read more about this here:
http://smashboards.com/threads/vectoring-the-replacement-to-directional-influence-in-smash-4.368780/

I'm worried about what this means for combo-heavy characters like Pikachu. If someone vectors upwards during one of Pikachu's uair or utilt strings, he will receive more knockback thus making it easier for him to escape. If possible, I'd like it if someone can test how vectoring affects Pikachu's combo game. Thanks.

 

[NobleClamtasm]

Oh... so it seems like vectoring has less of an effect at lower percents and weak attacks, meaning Pikachu's combo game shouldn't really be affected.

 

[Choice Scarf]

Yeah that was what I was theorizing. Since Pika is more of a "death by a thousand cuts" type attacker, his attacks have less damage to work with, so the opponent should be limited by how much vectoring they can do. This includes multi hit moves too, so I want to say this is why Bair and D-smash are harder to SDI out of (if SDI is even still a thing anymore). Of course, if vectoring is based purely on knockback received, then one should have more knockback influence as their percents increase, so there will be a point where even Pika's combos will stop working. The question will be whether or not those percents will be kill percents and whether they will be reasonable kill percents, but that will probably need more testing. Also Pika in return will receive more knockback because of it's lightweight, so it should be able to moderate strength combo moves a little better.

The vectoring will also exacerbate Pika's lack of killing power, so it basically solidifies tactics like saving a designated kill move and edgeguard gimps. The edgeguarding will probably need more priority though, since multi hit moves are good now (thanks to vectoring I guess) so it's much safer and convenient to use them to refresh stale moves. So once again it becomes a matter of figuring out Pika's offstage game with the new ledge mechanics, and I wonder how vectoring will apply to that as well.