stingywizard
Smash Rookie
Update 3.0 is coming, and Zelda was one of the few characters excluded from the buffs in 2.0. I love playing Zelda and she is the best she has ever been, however she still feels just, well, not very good compared to many other characters. However, I think she is close, and that a few more careful tweaks could see her making more appearances in the top 16s at big tournaments. This thread is a place for players who love Zelda to throw out a few hopes for tweaks/buffs in 3.0 that they theorize would push her into more a more competitive area. I'll start it off with four ideas.
1. Fair vs. Dair
Fair and Dair are the same move. They are high-risk, high-reward though. Those types of moves are harder to just throw out as pressure. If one of these (either one really) was adjusted to have a large sweet-spot and smaller sour-spot, but also had the killing power and damage output of the sweet-spot reduced then Zelda would have one risky version for when you want to take the risk for the kill, and one safer version for when you just want to apply pressure.
The final three ideas I have are all about taking moves which I believe are amazing in the advantage state but terrible in disadvantage, and tweaking them so that they become useful in disadvantage without improving their advantage state play.
2. Din's Fire
This move is great when the opponent is off the stage. When Lucina is rushing you down with aerials it's not so good. It all comes down to the rather-large minimum distance that it travels before a hurtbox comes out. If this was adjusted to be much closer to Zelda, even if it only dealt a small amount of damage (relative to how close it is to Zelda), then it could be used in disadvantage to keep characters at bay.
3. Phantom Slash
Another amazing move when you are ahead that is simply too slow when you are behind. If the animation of Zelda pointing, which she is stuck in when firing the Phantom early, was removed I believe the move would be a significantly better tool for disadvantage and neutral. This would not speed up the move, but would allow Zelda to react faster when she had to fire it early due to pressure, letting her block or use Utilt if somebody is jumping over the partially-charged phantom.
Most characters with powerful, charge-up projectiles are able to cancel them into shield or roll and continue charging later. Zelda cannot store a partial charge, and cannot cancel it shield or roll. I think that this change would keep the flavor of the move much the same while enabling its use when Zelda is behind.
4. Farore's Wind
This is a great move. Powerful and fast, yet punishable if blocked. I would only want to enable its use as an escape-from-pressure option, and not increase its ability as an offensive tool. My suggestion is that the end-lag is drastically reduced only when you do not hit anything. This, could with something similar to re-grab timeout to prevent spamming, would leave the move as punishable if it was shielded, and would enable Zelda to teleport away from pressure without immediately being rushed down again before she can do anything.
1. Fair vs. Dair
Fair and Dair are the same move. They are high-risk, high-reward though. Those types of moves are harder to just throw out as pressure. If one of these (either one really) was adjusted to have a large sweet-spot and smaller sour-spot, but also had the killing power and damage output of the sweet-spot reduced then Zelda would have one risky version for when you want to take the risk for the kill, and one safer version for when you just want to apply pressure.
The final three ideas I have are all about taking moves which I believe are amazing in the advantage state but terrible in disadvantage, and tweaking them so that they become useful in disadvantage without improving their advantage state play.
2. Din's Fire
This move is great when the opponent is off the stage. When Lucina is rushing you down with aerials it's not so good. It all comes down to the rather-large minimum distance that it travels before a hurtbox comes out. If this was adjusted to be much closer to Zelda, even if it only dealt a small amount of damage (relative to how close it is to Zelda), then it could be used in disadvantage to keep characters at bay.
3. Phantom Slash
Another amazing move when you are ahead that is simply too slow when you are behind. If the animation of Zelda pointing, which she is stuck in when firing the Phantom early, was removed I believe the move would be a significantly better tool for disadvantage and neutral. This would not speed up the move, but would allow Zelda to react faster when she had to fire it early due to pressure, letting her block or use Utilt if somebody is jumping over the partially-charged phantom.
Most characters with powerful, charge-up projectiles are able to cancel them into shield or roll and continue charging later. Zelda cannot store a partial charge, and cannot cancel it shield or roll. I think that this change would keep the flavor of the move much the same while enabling its use when Zelda is behind.
4. Farore's Wind
This is a great move. Powerful and fast, yet punishable if blocked. I would only want to enable its use as an escape-from-pressure option, and not increase its ability as an offensive tool. My suggestion is that the end-lag is drastically reduced only when you do not hit anything. This, could with something similar to re-grab timeout to prevent spamming, would leave the move as punishable if it was shielded, and would enable Zelda to teleport away from pressure without immediately being rushed down again before she can do anything.