Locke 06
Sayonara, bye bye~
There is no reason to pick Ice slasher over the mind games of Crash Bomb or the unique trajectory KO option of Danger Wrap
??? I don't know anyone who actually uses Ice Slasher. Pretty much everyone on the board agrees that it's garbage.
For shame. Let's give Ice Slasher and Skull Barrier a chance, shall we? They make for very interesting tools in Mega Man's arsenal, and, as everything else in his kit, serve a useful purpose. I would argue that these two moves can help swing matchups in Mega Man's favor. So without further ado:I can’t really think of any situations where I would recommend taking Skull Barrier over Mega Man's other DownB options.
White Halloween - An Ice Slasher and Skull Barrier Introduction
Mega Man's horizontal spacing game is ridiculous. Megabuster shots (lemons) and Metal Blades (MB) can be fired constantly with incredible mobility, stuffing approaches. This allows you to retreat safely when needed with the pellets while using hit-confirm tactics to follow up MB's with grabs, dash attacks, etc. Not to mention his FAir & BAir are disjointed and have good knockback. This we can agree on.
Now what's the hole in his defensive game? The wall of projectiles with a good grab in addition to a quick & mobile DTilt slide and a punishing UTilt can keep the majority of the cast in mid-range while being very safe. The issue is stage control. Sometimes you can't follow up Metal Blades, and sometimes you can't get the sweetspot of the lemons to knock them back. It's fine though, you're safely retreating, but you are losing the positional battle. In the long run, I think this will become a major problem for Mega Man as he has no projectiles he can throw out that do decent knockback. Nothing like Villager's Slingshot or Link/Samus' projectiles. Item MB's have decent knockback, as do leaf shield/plant barrier, but they require a break in your projectile wall to set up. This is why crash bombs that explode on contact against things like Luma are valuable.
Enter: Ice Man
Ice Slasher fills this niche incredibly nicely. On hit, it freezes the opponent and launches them up in the air, ripe for UAir juggling or a quick aerial if they don't mash out quick enough. More importantly, you gain complete stage control. This is huge for opponents that thrive on bullying themselves in or forcing you into a corner. Marth, for instance, is incredibly hard to regain stage control against because he covers options so well. Go over him and his UAir has a great arc. Roll behind him, and he can dancing blade you to the other side of the stage. You need to bully him back head on, and Ice Slasher can fill that role as a projectile with knockback. One hit from anywhere will give you every bit of the stage back that you gave up while retreating and immediately put you in an advantageous position. This is similar to Crash Bomb in that it's very useful when you are in a bind. However, Crash Bomb forces the opponent to do something while Ice Slasher doesn't give your opponent an option, they are going to be launched up and frozen if they get hit.
Now, it's not a magical elixir. This move has its flaws. It does a measly 4%, its range is not the best (about 2 dtilt slides or just outside of pellet range), and it is not as fast as Crash Bomb. It also doesn't freeze at low %'s; in exchange, it freezes longer at high %'s. But if you like to stay at mid-range anyway, the range is "good enough," and the reward on hit is instant and can be greater than crash bomb rewards. The reward on block is slightly (but not insignificantly) better as well, as it does shield damage where Crash Bomb does not (until the explosion), which can help you get a shield stab with a dtilt and keep pressure up with projectiles. Furthermore, it is a physical projectile like a metal blade, which helps against characters like Ness & Game and Watch.
Pros:
- A horizontal projectile with knockback!
- Shield Damage
- Freezes allowing for free followups if not mashed out of
- Launches up, giving you UAir juggles, time to reset, and landing traps.
- A physical projectile (can't be bucketed or PK Absorbed)
Cons:
- 4% of damage (Mega Man's dps will forever be low)
- Limited range (about 3 character lengths beyond max pellet range or 2 dtilt slides whereas MB is about 2.6 dtilt slides)
- A little laggier (compared to CB, but about the same activation/end lag as DW)
Suggested MU's to use in: - Generally, quick characters that deal with crash bombs well, slow characters that can bully themselves through your defenses on the ground, and stage control.
/ (all I can think of so far. I haven't done a whole lot of real person testing with it, but these are the matchups I definitely plan to use it for. Piercing property probably will help somehow, but I haven't found it useful yet. Will update after more input and testing/MU experience)
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So, you're playing the mid-range. Your opponent has a projectile too, but you're pretty content to cancel theirs out with lemons and continue. ? I'll cancel your uncharged water shuriken with pellets and jump over your fully charged ones. ? Hah, I'll cancel out everything you throw at me except Thoron, but you're not going to be able to charge that, and even when you do let lose, I'll just jump over it. I am the king of mid-range already, and long range isn't a problem because
you can close the gap between long & mid-range so easily. You can't out camp me, I'm and I will impose my will on you by pushing my wall of projectiles on you.
Enter: Skull Man
As dominant as Mega Man is at mid-range, what if I told you he could be even more dominant?
Think of all the reflectors/projectile neutralizers in any Smash character moveset. None of them allow for flexible movement as they either hold you in place (Fox/Ness/G&W/Pit Down-B/Rosalina/Villager) have a set distance (ROB/Pit Side-B) have few active frames and is somewhat of a melee attack (Mario/Falco/Palutena/Zelda). Only Link/Toon Link's Hylian Shields offer any type of movement flexibility and those are only work while walking towards the projectile or standing still and the shields don't cover all of their hurtbox.
An 11 frame reflector that stays out for 100 frames, multiplies damage & speed of reflected projectiles x1.2, has 0 lag when it ends, and allows you to have all of your mobility/defensive options (sans up-B) along with grab and item throwing and a special projectile the size of Bowser. This. Is. Skull barrier.
No other reflector in a moveset allows you to shield, walk, run, grab, or throw out your own projectile while reflecting. None. The most apt comparison to Skull Barrier is the Franklin Badge item. This is a unique move in Smash Bros. and makes Mega Man's defense against projectiles the best in the game. Bold claim? Maybe, but it is one that I am willing to argue.
Projectile users are notorious for baiting reflectors. Mega Man users should know how to do this, as it's a good strategy to pair with our utilt kill move. If you get baited into using Skull Barrier, guess what? You can still defend yourself. You can even be offensive with a metal blade in hand or using grabs. Furthermore, if you time when the barrier dissipates, you can do absolutely anything you want when it's gone with no interruption from Skull Barrier. It should be noted, however, that the move does not continue to reflect once you have thrown it.
What holds this back from being incredibly overpowered is, of course, the activation startup and activation end lag. However, if you are fighting at mid-range, an 11 frame activation is plenty fast. Given the average human reaction time of 1/4 of a second or 15 frames (which most competitive fighting game players have above average reaction times), that is 26 frames to reliably activate Skull Barrier in time to reflect something. If you are at mid-range/long range, 26 frames is plenty of time as the projectile has to be shot and needs to travel to you. At mid-range, you should be able to reliably reflect Samus' missiles, WFT's projectiles, and Duck Hunt's projectiles (minus the quick gunman) on reaction. This is on top of using it simply to deter any projectiles when it's up and you are moving freely. You are able to approach the edge of their melee range with 0 resistance.
And then there's some untapped edge guarding potential. Since the total time you have Skull Barrier around you is less than Leaf Shield/Plant Barrier, you can activate it as you jump off the stage, double jump, and easily up-B back to the stage. You can also use it as a gigantic projectile, but its main purpose here is to reflect projectile recoveries. is going to hate this move as it works exactly as you would imagine with no risk of allowing to hit Ness and have him PK Thunder Missile you. will hate it too, because Elwind meteor's himself upon activation upon reflection (and if you get there a little late, the Elwind is reflected up and hits him for damage). After some very brief testing in training mode, these are the only two recoveries I can confirm its use for. Other obvious possible candidates for Skull Barrier edge guarding include Mii Gunner, Yoshi, and Greninja. Yoshi had mixed results as the eggs pop him up. Might be useful at low %'s, but it's not going to gimp him. Skull Barrier boosts Greninja's Hydro Pump recovery distance a little bit and does maybe 3-4% of damage to him. It could be used to make him recovery too high so that he lands on the stage vulnerable, but more testing needs to be done. I don't know anything about Mii Gunner's recoveries, but Lunar Launch and Canon Uppercut seem similar to Robin's Elwind, making it perfect for Skull Barrier edge guarding. I encourage you to try this out and report any findings!
Pros:
- A reflector which allows you to reflect while doing other actions
- See point above. It's worth 2 bullet points. You are basically giving yourself a Franklin Badge.
- Reflector stays out for 100 frames, which is longer than any other reflector that cannot be held indefinitely
- Multiplies speed and damage of reflected projectiles x1.2
- When the reflector goes away, you suffer no lag
- You gain a Bowser-sized projectile that can hit twice for 2% each, possibly leading to follow ups. (Would love to see people explore this)
- Edge guarding potential
Cons:
- 11 frame startup (which is only 2 more than Pit's down-B 1)
- You lose all of the Leaf Shield/Plant Barrier hitbox techs
Suggested MU's to use in: - Projectiles. Just about all of them. From most useful to least (again, haven't done a whole lot of testing, so this is mostly off of theory. If requested, I can explain each one in depth in a spoiler tag)
Side note: Skull Barrier also has a small push/windbox where the skulls are. Not sure how useful this is, but it is part of the move so I'll just leave it at that. Also, it has a reflector health of 25%. If the reflector is overwhelmed by a single projectile, it will "break" and the projectile will go through the reflector. Notable projectiles that deal +25% are Samus' fully charged charge shot fresh, fully charged dense charge shot, Lucario's fully charged Aura Sphere at +110%. WIP
Personal note: I cannot say enough about Skull Barrier from a theory standpoint. I have very limited experience actually testing it, but this move single handedly can swing matchups towards Mega Man's favor. I have very strong hopes for Skull Barrier in competitive play.
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Ice Slasher and Skull Barrier are mostly defensive tools. Ice Slasher can patch up stage control issues by giving Mega Man a spammable projectile that will give you complete stage control on hit, along with the opportunity for UAir juggles and landing traps. Skull Barrier is a unique reflector that, although has slow startup, allows for mobility while reflecting deterring almost all projectiles while it is active. I hope I've encouraged more exploration with these moves, as they definitely have their merits. They could very well be the worst of their respective directional special custom options, but that doesn't mean they are useless. Mega Man can gain a lot from customs, and I think all of his customs are worth exploring due to their great variety and utility.
That wraps things up for now. I'm sure I'll edit this as more Mega Man players start to find techs and uses for these custom moves. Matchup testing and discussion is greatly encouraged, but please keep it to Ice Slasher/Skull Barrier specific topics. And as always, if you have questions, you should ask them.
Enjoy the Winter, everyone.
Special thanks to my editor: @Parcheesy for helping me not make a fool of myself and keeping my stream of consciousness writing habits in check.
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