What's Lucario good at?

[Hyjacked]

I've been maining Lucario for a few months now, and most of that time I've really enjoyed him. Lately, however, I've been in a hell of a slump as far as my Lucario game is concerned. I play mostly FG but also some local as well, but in either place I feel like I'm more often than not completely destroyed by my opponent, and I'm starting to question whether I should even be playing the character.

There've been enough threads about counters to Lucario. My question is, why should I keep maining Lucario over another character? What kind of matchup is Lucario strong in and why? Because most of the games I play, I feel like Shulk, my alt, just has a way better time of the matchup.

 

[Neiroa]

You should keep maining Lucario if you like the character and also if you have the patience to train with him a lot.
He is definitely one of the hardest characters to master in the game, but once mastered he become very powerful. Shulk is easier to use, he is faster, has more range and requires less training than Lucario. that's maybe why Shulk seems better for you.

Lucario has not really so many bad matchup, but he struggles against the very quick character like Sheik, Captain Falcon, Yoshi, etc. If you are good, Lucario is very viable against the other characters. If you are facing against someone who plays fast characters, you can take your alt if you think it will be better.

Some tips to get better: At high % one of the key is to make pression. Because at this moment people are afraid of lucario. They are starting to make mistakes to avoid you, so you must exploit that to put a kill move (reads, zoning, spacing). And think and try to not being hit (if you're killed, you will lose this advantage)

 

[Kyzael]

Lucario is like Shulk in a way. Low % is Shulk in Buster Mode. High % is Shulk in Smash mode.

Both are equally dangerous as one can combo very well, especially if you read the air-dodges, rolls,and all that nice stuff.

High damage is great as now you are Super Bowser and one Fsmash can win you the game. But it can get you killed, so that's a thing.
Using Force Palm most of the time SHOULD be your kill move in a melee confrontation due to how quick it is. If you can get the Fsmash, by all means, hit it.

Aura Sphere is strong, just dont abuse it too much otherwise, people will just wait for you to throw to go in to fight.
And the next thing, use Double Team. It is really powerful and can kill really well. But dont mess up and end up getting punished. Read the attack and get that KO.
To give some advice, Lucario's counter is based off his AURA, not the damage inflicted like Marth or Ike. That is a good and bad thing. I have a bad habit of almost never using it. I need to though.

Also, some jab combos you can counter. Rosalina's is the easiest most of the time.

 

[#HBC | Red Ryu]

Killing, lot of death everywhere.

After all he is based on Anubis.

 

[Kyzael]

Killing, lot of death everywhere.

After all he is based on Anubis.

Yeah, this guy get it. xP

Lucario is probably the one of the few characters where the phrase, "It's not over until i'm dead" is very true. Due to the recovery of his, he can deal with gimping.

And with the insane high KO power at high percents, it makes it where one hit decides it.
Really funny when you think about it. Each game can end in a Sudden Death with Lucario.

 

[fatalfoxy]

Hitboxes. Seriously, almost all of his tilts hit from behind if you take the time to learn weird angles. His grab game is also really good for setting up aerials, especially fair. Also, if you get really good at mastering his recovery at high percentages you can get away with going far off the stage. He also has a ton of reliable killing moves(learning aura in conjunction with the opponent's damage/character weight is the problem. Takes a while to learn when moves become reliable in all match ups and at different percents) so it's safe to mix your neutral game up a lot.

 

[Kyzael]

Hitboxes. Seriously, almost all of his tilts hit from behind if you take the time to learn weird angles. His grab game is also really good for setting up aerials, especially fair. Also, if you get really good at mastering his recovery at high percentages you can get away with going far off the stage. He also has a ton of reliable killing moves(learning aura in conjunction with the opponent's damage/character weight is the problem. Takes a while to learn when moves become reliable in all match ups and at different percents) so it's safe to mix your neutral game up a lot.

As with the recovery, you will usually get one chance to do this but your opponent is going to expect you to go for the edge. This will keep them unaware that you could dive-bomb them. You will get to abuse this one freely usually and anytime after that, you need to be careful for being punish. (I've been Knee'd by Captain Falcon before due to it. Although my friend got seriously lucky and was facing the direction I was facing.)

 

[Raethien]

Lucario is a comback King.

 

[Typhlosion09]

I'm surprised to see that nobody has mentioned wavebouncing. It's a huge part of my game at least, and if caught in the charge you can do everything mentioned above except for the up-b hitbox divebomb thing

 

[fatalfoxy]

Tbh I only find out about it yesterday thanks to the boards lol. Also using fast falling with aerials is a really good spacing tool now that I think about it.

 

[Typhlosion09]

Tbh I only find out about it yesterday thanks to the boards lol. Also using fast falling with aerials is a really good spacing tool now that I think about it.

Yeah practically no landing lag with nair is really helpful, dair can be used on rolling opponents, fair is a good spacing tool in general, and you can RAR bair for a kill and also kinda do some good spacing with it as well.

 

[fatalfoxy]

Im not entirely sure if I'm imagining it or not, but doesn't timing fast falling with an up air just right make the hitbox bigger as well as make it hit under lucario? I'm not sure because I can see how someone's bad DI would make me think that.

 

[Typhlosion09]

Im not entirely sure if I'm imagining it or not, but doesn't timing fast falling with an up air just right make the hitbox bigger as well as make it hit under lucario? I'm not sure because I can see how someone's bad DI would make me think that.

Doubt it, but it probably gives that illusion because of its larger hitbox. I think there is hitboxes all over him on that move, and falling onto an opponent while using it can pop them up into the air because of those hitboxes. I don't think nintendo would ever consider changing a move if it was performed a certain way, nonetheless through something like fast falling.