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Wolfs Down Air, How to Use Effectively (Rewritten for Specific Skill Levels)

Koskinator

Smash Lord
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I have heard a lot of talk that Wolfs down air is a useless attack and not to waste your time using it/ its too hard to use. I really beg to differ. If you can learn how to use Wolfs down air correctly as I have, its devastation city, and your the mayor. Basically the rule is, don't use his down air on an enemy who is on the ground, that would be a waste of time, spikes are what its for and thats what we're gonna use it for. To explain how to use it well, Im going to use Wolfs height as a measurement of when to use it. If your trying it out for the first time and/or unconfident with it, only attempt it on an enemy at least a wolf and half higher than the platform you are jumping from to execute it. If your getting better, you can go for attempts against opponents who are level with the ground you jumped from. If you teh skillzor, you can try it a wolf and a half underneath the platform you jumped from, but I recommend going no lower than that because the lag after the attack in combination with wolfs "tricky" vertical recovery makes for a very risky attempt. I will now go on to explaining each way to use this for all skill levels.

A. Noob- Don't attempt anything lower than a wolf and a half higher than the platform you jumped from, too risky for beginners. Just jump, double jump and down air at the same time so your executing the attack and rising at once, then over+b for the recovery, its safe and effective.

B. Decent- Don't attempt on anyone lower than equal with the platform your jumping from. There are 2 ways to do it. First way is just jump out, down air, double jump, recover. Second way is, jump out, fall for a second or two, double jump and down air at same time, so you can get further out but your still level with the platform then Up+B for recovery. The second way is a little bit riskier but it has some mindgames to it and can hit the spike further out from the stage.

C. Teh Skillzor- Don't attempt on anything lower then a wolf a half lower than the platform you jumped from, even people in Teh Skillzor have limits. Basically, short hop and down air for the KO, double jump and Up+B for recovery. You are a very good spiker if you can do this consistently.

D. Beyond Teh Skillzor- You are the best of the best, go for a spike underneath Final Destination for all I care lol.

Now there are 3 main reasons this attack is Perfection.

1. No sweet spotting required, if it hits at 50% or up, say bye bye.
2. Since all this talk of this attack sucking, no one online expects it, you now have the element of surprise at your disposal.
3. Spikes are the headshots of Smash Bros.
Basically once you get good in your level of skill, you will be able to step it up into Teh Skillzor and once you get there, you will be a lethal spiking weapon. Feel free to ask any questions, I'll be glad to answer.
 

da K.I.D.

Smash Hero
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GGMF GGMF
great post, i love this move and was trying to implement it better.

i also think its useful to counterattack after a block, because if you short hop and do it immediately it can get around sidesteps.
 

Ghost07

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Its also depends on the person you're playing. If you go for a spike you have to make it very sneaky.
 

Koskinator

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If you want to see some of my brawl replays with spikes in them, pm me and i will add your fc and wii code and send you my replay data.
 

BlackYoshi7

Smash Apprentice
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Wisconsin/Illionis
Best way to spike with it is the down throw off the edge to short hopped dair right at the ledge. At pretty much any percentage it's a kill; they are too close to the bottom to recover for most characters. Hard to land though.
 

Chexr

Smash Ace
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You can use it against shielding opponents by moving out of shield grab range once you hit their shield to set up for a fsmash when they move.
 

Ghost07

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I just want to know what characters/players are you pulling off a dair on? For a move to be effective it has to work alot which is not the case for his dair. Because of the floatiness of brawl mose characters can get back to the stage without even having to grab the ledge. If you down grab them off of the stage they can easily air dodge your dair or just stall. Once you miss they will clearly have the advantage, which has nothing to do with wolf recovery. Sorry but his dair is not that effective in my opinion but I'm not saying its useless.
 

Revven

FrankerZ
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Double jump? Pfft, who needs to double jump when you can do what I did here. I hardly ever double jump to do the spike, I just jump back lightly, down air, jump back up and I grab ledge (if I'm not that close, Up B or Side B depending on where I am).
 

The Ocho

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Yeah, I agree with Kasha.. you should definately reserve that second jump. I tend to jump out there high with first jump, hit the spike, use my second jump, and then UP B to save myself.
 

Koskinator

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well im saying the double jump for beginners, they should only attempt a wolf and a half higher than the platform they jumped from. If your skilled, short hop to down air is a must. But what i really like about the double jump is that if you doing it to an opponent who is level with the platform, if they double jump over you, you have a second chance at the meteor with wolfs sweetspotted over B, i have actually done this a few times
 

Mackaveli

Smash Rookie
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i usually just treat wolf's dair just like i treat cpt. falcon's stomp (ledgehogging suprise lol) only wolf's is faster

plus its perfect for mindgames ;)
 

Raider 88

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Wow thanks, this move is pretty sick.

I also agree with one jumping it. You can really be asking for trouble when using both jumps before using the spike. My SD's have gone down considerably since changing to the one jump approach.
 

Acid_Wolf

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Jan 12, 2008
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I agree this attack is useful, I have it in my Wolf's bag of tricks. It's tricky to hit with but the knockback is great, the only thing that beats smacking some guy with this move is sweet spotting with your side b.
 

tag yeah

Smash Cadet
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This a great spike, and fun to use! I usually use it by jumping vertically, as far as I can from the level (to catch the enemy off guard) nobody expects a wolf to go far from the level. After i jump i almost immediately D-air, then once the lag from the move is over I'll 2nd jump and B-side (which also spikes *sweet spotted*) so if i miss the first spike, I could land the second. :)
 

AlAxe

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I never heard of anyone claiming this attack sucked but yeah, it is a bit difficult to use. How many times you jump would depend on where your opponent is. Obviously you wouldn't double jump dair an opponent level with or under the stage.

Good post. I play a good wolf but I've never really gotten great with the spike. This info is very helpful.
 

Dustero

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I use Wolf's spike all of the time. I love it when I spike somebody over Wi-Fi and when they come back, they come after me, trying to kill me, but in the end I usually spike them again! :D
 

Koskinator

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Well I'd just like to throw it out there that I will be in the Smash The Limit tournament this weekend. Anyone else? If not, Ill try to do a good job representing the Wolf community!
 

Ghost07

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Well I'd just like to throw it out there that I will be in the Smash The Limit tournament this weekend. Anyone else? If not, Ill try to do a good job representing the Wolf community!
Well I'll be participating in some Friday night friendlies at my college. I'll try to represent even though I doubt if the matches will be recorded.:(
 

Koskinator

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Well smash the limit starts in about 45 minutes, everlasting yayuhzz will be in it aswell but he will be playing snake. Wish me luck fellow wolfers
 

kungfurabbits

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Here's my problem b/c I dont' exactly know how to rank myself on this list.
I got this game while on spring break and got some decent online play time piled up but I had not unlocked Wolf yet and figured out that he would be my main (previous was Olimar which is very tricky and rather annoying. Wolf's just badass and awesome.). Anyway, so I haven't played against actual people online with Wolf. I've played with a few friends here at college but really not often enough assuming this list is based off of human opponents.

But if I'm basing it off of the lvl 9 computers that I beat every time, then I am at the "Teh Skillzor" level.
 

Koskinator

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Well, computer tend to just fall straight down if they see your coming to intercept, so there are times when they have nothing else they can do but jump and you can hit a meteor, once you play against real people, you will most likely find that it's more difficult to hit a meteor on someone with a brain lol.
 

Coen

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O_o I honestly never though Wolf's Dair was a bad move. You make it sound so godly though (although it is pretty sweet) The noob/decent/pro part is a little weird though. There are tons of ways how it can be used and it all depends on the situation, like the character you're edgeguarding (Spiking a Meta Knight recovering from below would be loads harder than spiking a Falco recovering from below for example) and your opponent's mindset when recovering (the kind of guy/girl you're playing). You know what I'm getting at, like spiking like a 'Noob' will get you absolutely nowhere against people who have a decent amount of brain cells (or Metaknights). It's simply adjusting to the situation, and that's what the player should be learning. So different tactics for different groups of players makes little sense, assuming you're writing this guide to improve the reader's ability to spike.

Aside of that, no offence and nice job.
 

Koskinator

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Well I obviously can't go into detail on how to spike each and every character, the mindset you should be in whilst spiking these different characters, asking each player if they are a guy or girl, asking about their mindset, I was just providing a vague outline on the basic strategies on getting the job done. Thanks for the criticism though, never hurts. :D
 

StarWolf12

Smash Rookie
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May 26, 2008
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Good article, Wolf's meteor is definitely a useful move. If you haven't read Kosk's guide to Wolf you should. He offers some good combos (such as d-throw near the edge to d-air) for spiking as well as overall general good wolf advice. Another way to spike, although very very risky is to jump past the opponent and then try and sweet spot a Wolf Flash before they get back on the stage. It's tricky so use it with caution.
 

Tokipin

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Jun 17, 2008
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i'm not sure if it was implied, but hold down on the analog stick before you start falling

if you just press down+A when you're on your way down, you will fastfall. it's self destruct town that way

holding down before falling also makes hitting easier, since you don't have the mindset of "down+A." you hold down and when the moment comes, you just press A. it's easier for me at least. maybe because the controller is more stable that way

if you want a difficult D-air, try Marth's. after you get past the can-never-land-it stage with his, all other meteor smashes will feel easy, especially ganon's lol

but of course the hardest thing about them isn't the technical aspect, it's your opponents being human
 
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