When to throw needles?

[Cho]

Hello fellow ninjas,

I am having troubles applying needles in an actual game - Even though they play a huge role in my "Spam-tech-skills-to-show-off" and warmup game I rarely ever use them apart from edgeguarding and Invincibleframespam (I know... and I feel bad about it so don't get mad with me please :< )

I did read through a few guides regarding needles - so needless to say (Hehe, get it?) I know HOW to use them in theory.. I just lack situational awareness of when needles should be used and more importantly for what purpose: to stop approaches, to set up for combos or as mindgames? I Know they can do all of these things and more - but I can't recognize said opportunities...

If anyone could make me understand how to apply needles - or show me videos of when needles were applied correctly and why - I would be very grateful.

Thanks in advance

 

[Simmonick]

Heres something; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fInkEOU7Ens From Mango's commentary of PPMD vs M2k at MLG. Go to 3:15 in the video. It shows a useful needle trick you could implement!

PS killer pun

 

[The Lemon]

I'm going to just type as I think.

Purpose of needles:
1. Build %
2. Edgeguard
3. Start a combo
4. Stop movement (protect yourself)

Standing needles will usually be for % building and edgeguarding if they are horizontal to you, but if they are close, they can punish you, even if they get hit, it could result in you getting grabbed. Also, if you chuck them from far, it's time you would have used to gain stage positioning. But if you value 15% or so (depending on how many needles are stored) over stage positioning (often seen right after Sheik gets a kill and is at high %), then it might be worth to chuck them from maybe half battlefield's length+. So I guess standing needles is a little more obvious when/when not to throw them, so let's get into air needles...

First of all, Sheik hates being above people. She has no moves that quickly hit below. Needles mean that if you're above your opponent and their spacing is slightly off (they should be trying to stay directly below you), then you can hit them with needles before they hit you with something. So typically, I use air needles to protect myself and to start a combo.

A thing to note is that I will often throw needles down to where I don't want my opponent to go rather than where my opponent is (trying to hit them). This is because if I aim for them, sometimes they can run past my needles and "shark me" from below. But I throw needles in front of them where I don't want them to be, I either miss and things stay in neutral, or I hit them and possibly get a follow up.

So that's the mindset I use with needles, here are some tactics:
-I don't throw needles unless I'm close to the ground because the lag is pretty big if you don't cancel the lag with landing. This means if I'm aproaching, I give a little pause between my SH and then I press B.
-Platforms let you shorten that pause. You can jump above a platform, throw your needles, land on he platform and run-off nair or w/e you want.
-Jump-off stage needles is a pretty strong edgeguard option because it'll often lead to an easy fair, but sometimes it's a little risky

 

[Cho]

Thanks for the video Simmonick. The commentary is in general helpful for my Sheik game.. made me understand a few things a bit more (Seeing as I am a total scrub and there's lots of space for improvement that is not that surprising )

And thanks Lemon for that huge text!!
I started incorporating what you wrote in my game.. so far it's not that succesful to be honest, but I'm improving.. and when it works it's pretty flashy!