What to practice first?

[Kyzael]

I like to play Lucario in PM and I know he has a lot of nice tricks but other than the fundamentals that I have to get good at using. (Don't wave-dash. I've yet to put it into my play-style.) PM is weird for me but I do like it. I'll just have some problems getting stuck in combos (ZSS is the MU).

Some what are some fundamentals I should get better at? I'm relatively new to PM. My friend is currently streaming some PM. I apologize to all Lucario Mains for how bad I suck.

But what should I learn first? Like to utilize the Aura Sphere Cancel to where I can use it in matches?

 

[Misuse]

Learn all of lucarios basic cancels and figure out how you like to use them. If you didn't know already:
Jab/DA--->tilts---->smashes--->specials

Once you've got the basic combo structure down it's time to be creative, lucario has endless combos, and it's up to you to unleash them. Either go into training mode or just play a lot to figure out all of the follow ups you can pull off.

Do not underestimate the fundimentals! Good spacing, dash dancing, wave dashing and MU knowledge are incredibly important to be a high level lucario, keep grinding on your fundementals until they become subconscious.

If you've got any more questions feel free to ask, I'll do the best I can to answer!

 

[Leirkov]

DI.

You talk about being comboed. The answer is firstly not getting hit, but also altering your trajectory to prevent the most optimal follow up (or at least make it hard). For example. Falcon aerial combos will keep you juggled if you DI his Uair up and in. That's how a Falcon takes you to 0-80 off bad DI. But if you DI the Uair down and away, he has less guaranteed follow ups and needs to mix up to try and catch you off guard.

First off, C Stick takes priority for SDI. So if you wanna DI up and right, C-stick right when you get hit, then mash your control stick between the upper right and lower right notches to continuously DI afterwards. Likewise, ASDI down (an "alternative" form of crouch cancelling) can be performed by holding down on either stick.

I don't know survival/combo DI against ZSS since we don't have any ZSS players around, so I can't give advice there, but you should mess around with what directions are best against certain moves in certain situations.

Other good things to eventually learn would be..

- Aurasphere cancel (ASC) - Cancelling any move into Neutral-B, then cancelling the charge with Shield (trigger buttons), puts you in a lagless state that can lead to new follow ups.

- Dash dance - Lucario has an amazing Dashdance game, his dash goes decently far and has a good speed as well. Learn to do small distance and large distance dash dances. If you run out of someone's range and immediately come back in after they committed to a big move (IE, Marth forward smash), you have the chance to punish.



Lastly, to commentate on your last bit, you should strive to learn almost everything unless you don't plan on being anything more than casual with the game. Lucario has a lot of tech to learn and learning that on top of Smash fundamentals are all extremely important/required to actually be good at the game.

 

[Stryker]

As someone who is in the same process right now, I'll give you some basic suggestions.

Dash dancing, and by extension, CCing it into other things. Lucarios dash dancing is one of his strongest options, so you need to learn fundamental things around it. Learn the feel for how far before lucario stops dashing and starts running. Once you are running, you can crouch at any point to either attack or turn around with minimal lag. Cancelling lucarios dash with a crouch is a great option because it will allow you to dtilt or dsmash, or even restart your dash dance.

Try to start getting used to ASC. The first two things I would focus on are Dash attack>ASC and Fair>ASC. Trying to hit ASC's off of these moves should give you lots of practice opportunity, and once you can do them, you can put them else where in combos. Remember that you can light press and hold either shoulder button before inputting your nb and it will cancel right away, just make sure you dont depress the button early.

Lucario's kit is beautifully design to reward you for understanding his kit and using it to build combos around your opponents reactions. As such, you kind of want to know what each things does.
Also remember
Jab/DA--->tilts---->smashes--->specials
or Ariel--->specials

Here is a very shorthand
Jab and Dashattack are combo starters.
dtilt catches grabs, utilt hits behind you, ftilt steps you forward
Usmash is antiCC, Dsmash hits behind you, Fsmash is fsmashy
sideb beats shield, down b keeps you safe or crosses up

So its important to become familiar with your tools and build your combos based off your opponents reactions. Its kind of like throwing a puzzle at your enemy, and then changing it once they start to solve it.
I.E.
If your enemy is shielding > Dashattack >Dtilt>side B should grab them before they can do anything (shffled fair>sideb works well too)
If your enemy is crouch cancelling Dashattack >dtilt >Usmash >fair /nair
if you notice the dash attack send the enemy into the air behind you DA>utilt>dsmash
Down B can catch rolls, SideB can catch spot dodges with the damaging part

Lucario is very theory based, so be sure to dig around this section and do your homework and you will find lots of cool stuff.
As a PS, if you can moonwalk, lucario can make surprisingly fun and good usage out of it too.

 

[Brim]

Just to add to what others may have said already, what I believe you should work on more than anything is how to L-cancel Lucario's aerials mostly because they're a powerful tool for the character, and if you can learn to fluently do so your Lucario will advance even further. Then you can learn what you can chain into out of your moves, and how to properly utilize Lucario's Double Team (Down B), though I'm not sure if Lucario's dair is L-cancel-able.
-
Just one more tidbit of advice:
Remember, Lucario is a character that sacrifices resources.