Which character suffers the most from lag?

[Nathan Richardson]

I know that lag isn't fun, but it's impossible to play online without at least a little lag. So which character do you think suffers the most from it and why?

 

[Arrei]

My vote's for Pikachu, things go very south when lag eats Quick Attack inputs.

 

[Frizz]

I think it's Ryu, actually. I don't main him, but the people that I know who do often say that the lag messes up their inputs.

 

[Nathan Richardson]

Both excellent examples. As for myself I main nothing hurts more than lag making me do flare blitz instead of rock smash.

 

[Arrei]

I think it's Ryu, actually. I don't main him, but the people that I know who do often say that the lag messes up their inputs.

No one exactly plays well with messed up inputs, but Ryu can at least do well enough without relying on his tricky inputs. True Shoryu may become less viable, but he still has regular Shoryu which is still confirmable and perfectly serviceable on For Glory. Pikachu on the other hand gets crippled hard without reliable Quick Attack shenanigans, losing a powerful approach and mindgame tool and making otherwise simple recoveries a lot more risky on top of the whole lag messing with combos thing. So he can't do damage, he can't get kills, and he can't recover as well when he tries to gimp. Ouch.

 

[HartG21]

Sheik, Fox, bayo, and pika mostly in my opinion.

 

[KirbCider]

Personally I think anyone can be completely screwed with lag because no matter the character if it doesn't read an input correctly or at all in certain situations well then that's it. Say goodbye to winning because you did an aerial move you didn't want or a Smash.

That being said, the MOST? Probably characters with laggy attacks. King Dedede for example. If I want his jab which is faster than his Side Smash and WILL hit an opponent, but get his Smash attack anyways they can counter me far easier cause that move won't hit in time. Plus some laggy moves have dead giveaways on what exactly they are. If the lag is making it freeze or making it feel like slow motion they know exactly what type of attack is coming out and can often avoid it before you have a chance to land it.

They can actually see it happening in slow motion and prepare ahead of time.

Faster characters with faster attacks on the other hand, even if the opponent sees it due to the lag they may not be able to react due to how fast it is. So yeah. My vote will be for the slower guys with laggy moves since lag allows you to prepare for it.

 

[Jzeke420]

I say pikachu and ness/lucas or any character really who needs specific DI to achieve their recovery. I've screwed myself plenty as pika when trying to quick attack back to safety or if i'm trying to recover with ness and his pk thunder lags i will (very often) completely wiff and just fall to my death

 

[Conn1496]

Any character with an attack that when used wrong can make you SD is an obvious one. As are characters that play at a speed that requires more inputs, since there's basically more chances that misinputs will happen leading to either punishes or an SD. Characters who require good spacing can also be a nightmare because precision gameplay is so much harder when things aren't smooth on the eyes. -and finally, characters without projectiles suffer because you have no moves to throw out without having to dodge basically everything in lag in the first place - which goes back to my point about precision gameplay.

Some characters just have to play with a neutered, cheesy toolkit in lag, like Fox, Ryu or Sheik, who I've all seen played "well" despite lag, but it just looks really degenerate and uncomfortable. Whereas others like Pikachu, Greninja or Ness have relatively higher chances of SDing because of a misinput or wrongly aimed recovery, but that only really applies to their offstage game.

I don't think there's a single character who is "unplayable" in lag, unless the lag is that bad in the first place, but if I had to say the worst character in lag comparative to how well they usually do?..

Laggy onstage game where lag can make reading and punishing easier, with an offstage game where there are handfuls of moves that can cause an SD, no projectile, a special move integral to his gameplay that requires a specific amount of quick presses, gameplay that benefits a lot from spacing and timing moves correctly, topped off with the fact that basically most of Shulk's technical stuff is just nigh-impossible in lag, he just suffers hard.

At least, he's my pick. Sorry Shulk.

 

[Nathan Richardson]

Any character with an attack that when used wrong can make you SD is an obvious one. As are characters that play at a speed that requires more inputs, since there's basically more chances that misinputs will happen leading to either punishes or an SD. Characters who require good spacing can also be a nightmare because precision gameplay is so much harder when things aren't smooth on the eyes. -and finally, characters without projectiles suffer because you have no moves to throw out without having to dodge basically everything in lag in the first place - which goes back to my point about precision gameplay.

Some characters just have to play with a neutered, cheesy toolkit in lag, like Fox, Ryu or Sheik, who I've all seen played "well" despite lag, but it just looks really degenerate and uncomfortable. Whereas others like Pikachu, Greninja or Ness have relatively higher chances of SDing because of a misinput or wrongly aimed recovery, but that only really applies to their offstage game.

I don't think there's a single character who is "unplayable" in lag, unless the lag is that bad in the first place, but if I had to say the worst character in lag comparative to how well they usually do?..

Laggy onstage game where lag can make reading and punishing easier, with an offstage game where there are handfuls of moves that can cause an SD, no projectile, a special move integral to his gameplay that requires a specific amount of quick presses, gameplay that benefits a lot from spacing and timing moves correctly, topped off with the fact that basically most of Shulk's technical stuff is just nigh-impossible in lag, he just suffers hard.

At least, he's my pick. Sorry Shulk.

I'm going to be honest, I've run into a LOT of shulk players with my charizard, I....honestly I don't remember the last time I lost to one.
Shulk's moveset has to be memorized fully to take advantage of it, there are several moves that if used at the wrong time make him very easy to punish, and his upb recovery has a nasty tendency to overshoot the edge leaving him open for counters.
Good shulk users from what i've seen can go between his five stances seamlessly but they always pick a stance, keep it until it runs out then switch. Buster and speed modes are popular starters with shield mode rarely being used except to stall. Like I said I don't remember the last time I lost to him.

 

[Jaabir]

Yeah might as well face it shulk will always suffer from lag

 

[Tino]

used to be one of my mains and I remember how I almost always get lag whenever I play as him.

 

[MikaPlayz]

i say toon link cause when u try to glide toss u end up doing a jump and throw or hurt ur slef

 

[Mega-Spider]

I think every character suffers from lag, but some suffer more than others. and are good examples of characters that suffer way more from lag because they require precision and timing to get a lot of their strategies right, and having lag of any kind throws off their games.

 

[Nathan Richardson]

I'm actually glad I hit upon a good conversational topic. I mainly got this idea from the sheer amount of complaining I saw about lag when it came to the online discussions. Heck I know some smashers that refuse to play if they sense lag.