Why do you limit your number of characters?

[Mean Green]

There are way too many fun characters to play as, why limit!?

Beacause if you fight competitively, you need to

 

[hi im 47]

Well for me, I only play wolf and roy because they both have similar things in common. When I play other chars, I feel like I have no experience with them.

 

[MLGF]

Well, I have a main then I have a character to cover my mains weaknesses while still feeling comfy with him.
Think of it like a track or swimming. Sure I may be the best Back Sprinter on the team, but I may also be decent at long distance and can use that to cover more of the teams weaknesses.
It's all about coverage, if your 5 mains all cover the same things, then all but one will be useless. If you have 1 really good specialization and another thing to cover that things rear, you're far better set.

 

[Mean Green]

How many characters you should play, is entirely subjective based on player skill and other factors. There's no universal answer that settles the debate

With that said, I would recommend 90% of players across the board to stick with no more than 2-3 characters. The population of players who successfully or skillfully use more than 3 is incredibly low, for any Smash game.

Someone revived the thread and I just noticed your post.

I can see where everyone's coming from, since we've all run into people that believe they're great with a lot of characters.. but it seems to me like 95% of people that stick to 2 or 3 think that only established top players are skilled enough to use 5+ characters. I honestly didn't think anyone would say what you said there in that first sentence

 

[Fortress]

I honestly didn't think anyone would say what you said there in that first sentence

I agree with it, it is all pretty subjective.

"I am Azen/M2K/Zero and now possess the skill to pick whoever I would like on the roster and use them effectively."

"I am Fortress. I can use Link and Sheilda. That is the extent of my skillset and focus so far."

It's with that sort of point of view where you can say things like "basically any player you ever play with in the bracket will not reach the level of play where they can consistently 'multi-main' and perform well.".

 

[Frost | Odds]

imo, more than anything it's critical to only really play one character at a time, for stretches of weeks or (ideally) months. During that time, with enough focus and tech practice, you'll hopefully have "levelled up" as a player in general. At that point, should you choose another character, you'll actually be enriching your experience with the game (at the penalty of some slight deterioration of your tech/consistency with your original character), instead of just flailing about uselessly and being mediocre with/never truly learning a fistful of characters.

At least, that's been my experience. I've switched mains a number of times, but only ever after significant growth as a player. Now, I can go back a couple iterations, and after a few nights of tech practice, my Sheik or my Puff (or, hell, my Bowser) would be far stronger than ever before - even though I haven't played either in a very long time.

EDIT: Whoops, this is a PM thread. Whatever, exactly the same stuff applies.

 

[Mean Green]

I agree with it, it is all pretty subjective.

"I am Azen/M2K/Zero and now possess the skill to pick whoever I would like on the roster and use them effectively."

"I am Fortress. I can use Link and Sheilda. That is the extent of my skillset and focus so far."

It's with that sort of point of view where you can say things like "basically any player you ever play with in the bracket will not reach the level of play where they can consistently 'multi-main' and perform well.".

I don't disagree with you dude, you're right about everything you said ITT. As a matter of fact, earlier, I figured if you posted again it would sound more or less like your post right there.

 

[Mean Green]

Well for me, I only play wolf and roy because they both have similar things in common. When I play other chars, I feel like I have no experience with them.

I know that feeling. I can't use snake or

imo, more than anything it's critical to only really play one character at a time, for stretches of weeks or (ideally) months. During that time, with enough focus and tech practice, you'll hopefully have "levelled up" as a player in general. At that point, should you choose another character, you'll actually be enriching your experience with the game (at the penalty of some slight deterioration of your tech/consistency with your original character), instead of just flailing about uselessly and being mediocre with/never truly learning a fistful of characters.

At least, that's been my experience. I've switched mains a number of times, but only ever after significant growth as a player. Now, I can go back a couple iterations, and after a few nights of tech practice, my Sheik or my Puff (or, hell, my Bowser) would be far stronger than ever before - even though I haven't played either in a very long time.

EDIT: Whoops, this is a PM thread. Whatever, exactly the same stuff applies.

You spoke my mind with that entire post

@ DMG I usually do but I was replying to different people. Didn't know if it shows in alerts that they were responded to.

@ Paradoxium Now that's impossible, unless it's just in CPU battles. I mean, what can you do with 41 characters that you couldn't do with 5 or 10? Besides, if you have 1 good S tier, it can be argued that you don't even need a secondary

 

[DMG]

Yo you Double post a lot. Just use edit feature in your first replies and add quotes. Mod's may give you the stink-eye

 

[Paradoxium]

I try to main the whole cast, so I can counter pick as hard as possible. They say learning a lot of characters puts you at a disadvantage, but I think the advantage I gain from my counter pick makes it well worth it. But I always start off every set as Pikachu, because imo Pikachu has no hard counters, and I have invested the most time into that character.

 

[victinivcreate1]

I don't think that if you go Ivysaur (and have never used him before) vs a solo Ganondorf main with strong fundamentals and claiming "whats really guud, 7:3 MU".

Then again I'm not you lmao

 

[MechWarriorNY]

*insert Bruce Lee one kick a thousand times/thousand kicks once quote here

 

[Paradoxium]

I don't think that if you go Ivysaur (and have never used him before) vs a solo Ganondorf main with strong fundamentals and claiming "whats really guud, 7:3 MU".

Then again I'm not you lmao

Hey now, I don't just pick up characters and play them at will, I put in good practice with each character until I am confident in my ability to perform with them. And ironically I don't play as Ivysaur, even though she is probably the best counter pick character. She is way too defensive for me.

Besides Ganon gets spanked by Pikachu and Rob, I have enough counter picks for every character.

@ Paradoxium Now that's impossible, unless it's just in CPU battles. I mean, what can you do with 41 characters that you couldn't do with 5 or 10? Besides, if you have 1 good S tier, it can be argued that you don't even need a secondary

Um, how exactly is that impossible? You just spend like a week or two practicing a characters tech and movement, then your fundamentals just carry over. And ironically I do face Cpu's when I'm training up a new character lol. There is such a thing as healthy CPU practice you know

With the entire cast you get wwwaaayyy more options for counter picking. You can counter pick for the stage, their character, or their play style. And when you counter pick you just have to abuse your advantage as hard as possible. So even though I haven't fully mastered the character the edge I've gained makes up for it.

 

[Paradoxium]

Double post

 

[Mean Green]

Um, how exactly is that impossible? You just spend like a week or two practicing a characters tech and movement, then your fundamentals just carry over. And ironically I do face Cpu's when I'm training up a new character lol. There is such a thing as healthy CPU practice you know

With the entire cast you get wwwaaayyy more options for counter picking. You can counter pick for the stage, their character, or their play style. And when you counter pick you just have to abuse your advantage as hard as possible. So even though I haven't fully mastered the character the edge I've gained makes up for it.

Actually I trust you, I know that picking up a new character isn't hard as people make it seem. And as long as AI abuse is minimal, I agree, there's nothing wrong with CPU practice.
I just had the assumption that everyone here strives to be great (as in- able to take a match or set from a top player). Idk if you're trying to be that good, but idrk if someone can reach that level, using 41 chars.. unless they have enough melee/brawl experience or commit like a mf.

 

[TreK]

I decided to only ever play one character when I picked up PM because at that time I was mainly following Brawl and besides ESAM every Brawl top player that matters solo mains so I figured it was the right move. I almost immediately went from "that guy who never goes through pools" to "top 5 in my region". (and then they made Ivysaur boring to play so I picked up DK to stop myself from quitting)

But then again, I can now name at least ten top players who are known for playing multiple characters. Oracle is probably the most ridiculous when it comes to playing everyone.

I'd say you have to test both. Different training methods for different people. If you're having great results playing several characters (and I mean, GREAT results), then good for you, but if you don't, try to be more focused for a couple months and see how that goes.

 

[Phaiyte]

Every single character in my sig, including the ones I've recently removed, I've invested at least straight months of all kinds of practice. Partially for the strong counter pick game, partially because outside of the one player that's genuinely better than me in our regular crew, I'm the one that teaches all these players everything they need to know in order for them to succeed in getting better. I take great pride in that every third-ish week when I see all of my players drastically improving. I sit people down one on one between tournament days and run mock sets with them every single day. I'm no pushover in the movement department with any character by any means, I know how to play footsies like a real man, and part of that teaching involves me pulling up frame data mid match to search for better options they can use in most situations, so I inadvertently learn a lot myself. **** man it's hard NOT to git gud with a lot of characters in my particular situation. 5 years of fundamental practice makes almost every character in this game easy as hell to learn and implement optimal options with.

Now that I think about it though, the PM portion of my sig basically represents what the players of my community look like, and I feel like that's kinda cool in a roundabout way.

 

[nimigoha]

Oracle is pretty great when it comes to playing multiple characters. Charizard, Lucas, Wolf, and ROB he can do very well with, especially compared to Denti and Sethlon who he plays regularly, and they only ever use 1 character.

 

[MechWarriorNY]

It's a fine balance; play most of the cast decently, or a few characters REALLY well, with time put in?
It's not a one-or-the-other question, lol.

 

[Mean Green]

i like pie