Zelda: Tips For When Facing Up-Close-And-Personal Foes?

[Steamblown]

ESPECIALLY Little Mac. Enemies like this are always too close to me, and I can't get good distance to get a Din's Fire off because they are always near to do their melee combos and DF takes too long to charge if they are going to be so close to me so often, they use melee attacks a lot, so reflecting projectiles with Nayru's Love is out of the question, and characters with counters make using standard attacks difficult. My "strategy" right now is to get close to them, rack up the damage with Nayru's Love or Phantom Slash, then Farore's Wind away, hopefully launching them, and repeat. However, this gets predictable and stale pretty quick, and I have trouble launching my foes outside of the difficult-to-guage-distance that is FW. How should I mix up my strategy to remedy this?

 

[Jackson]

I'm having this problem as well. Interested in Zelda though.

 

[Toadallstar2]

It certainly is tough, for fast/grounded characters, throwing out a Dins won't do any good. Only do it when they're launched in the air and to mix it up. Mac is awful in the air, just awful. Dair is your best friend in this game, due to our great recovery.

Jab/ftilt/grab is good in short range. Zelda's smaller moves have been buffed and we should try our best to change our strategy from Brawl.

Low percents:

grab-down throw-nair-uptilt-uptilt-upsmash

Don't rely on down smash, only if they are suffering with ending lag can we use it.

Phantom is useful for grounded opponents also.

 

[Steamblown]

Would that sort of strategy apply to most little/no range characters? Stuff like Bowser and Cpt. Falcon are also irksome, and I know LM is different than them regarding air game and their moves in general. Bowser with his side special and the rest of his buffs in general, and Falcon with his speed and power.

 

[Jackson]

Ok guys: I'm kind of getting bodied by ZSS. Help?

 

[Steamblown]

Ok guys: I'm kind of getting bodied by ZSS. Help?

I don't have as much trouble with her as I do heavy characters, but remember her recovery travels far less than our's, so the idea is to stay mildly close to where you can dodge if she starts closing in for a combo, but close enough to use NL to reflect the paralyzer and proceed to combo her if it hits, OR close enough to use regular combos and tilts and still have room to dodge, especially because she has no counter. Then when she's off stage use your dair or FW to send her past the blast line. Alternatively, stay on the stage and use DF to send her horizontally, otherwise the tether is going to grab to the ledge. This is a safer option because you stay on the ground, but if ZSS is above or below the stage, then FW and aerials are more reliable to kill with, otherwise its likely DF will miss. (Despite DF having the ability to be angled. The limited range is what stops it.)

 

[Einyuri]

I actually commented on this in a different thread so I'll just copy and paste it here to save some time.

I find it to be a challenge when going up against Little Mac as Zelda, though I've learned that if you spot dodge a lot and time your attacks (specifically Din's Fire in some situations or Nayru's Love), you tend to get him off of your back. Also, throwing him into the air can sometimes work in your favor. Shielding also works against some of his approaches.

That's how I've found out how to deal with Little Macs that is. Playing very defensively and waiting for their obvious run in attacks helps greatly. I'd call it.. Changing the pace of the match I guess you can call it.

I fought against only one ZSS, I essentially did the same thing as I would against Little Mac. Using Din's Fire to create some space/pressure is not a good idea unless you're already a good distance away from them. I usually use Din's Fire when they're just recovering, or off the stage to create pressure. I don't really use it out of those situations.

 

[Rion]

For Little Mac specifically:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWrbBw--YnA

Honestly, if you "camp" the ledge like this in cautious shield, this will instill a lot of fear. My thoughts:

- He has no projectiles, so he can't camp us at all, he HAS to approach.
- Corkscrew Punch charging = Farore's Wind to the face if he's getting cheeky about wanting to make us move from afar.
- You just need one good throw + a sweetspot Dair (even sourspot works if he's higher %) and he's done, as shown in the video above. He really can't do anything remotely threatening to you when he's trying to get back at risk of self destructing himself because of his abysmal recovery.
- Worse case scenario, he grabs you out of shield and throws you... but has absolutely no off stage game whatsoever, so you can just safely come back and put him in another high risk situation again. I'm fairly certain none of his throws even kill.
- You just have to be very patient. They're probably gonna get pretty peeved at you, but frankly as a Zelda player I don't really want to put up with Little Mac's BS when you try to go toe to toe with him, because we're probably gonna lose haha.

And for in general for toe to toe situations:

Honestly, one of the worst places to be as Zelda is the "just out of range" distance, where none of your regular attacks reach but your opponent's do. She does have decent range with her Fsmash, but trading with it is a pretty horrible thing as you'll most likely trade with that crappy 1% mini hit before the launcher one. It's personally one of my least favorite places to be, and I usually back off a bit to be cautious or try to get in a bit closer if I really need to get that last KO or something (that's the tough part naturally). It is however quite safe on shields.

I've found Nayru's Love very effective at people that spot dodge a ton or roll behind you when they get close. The hitboxes stay out pretty long, so it's a fairly good way to punish those, just don't ever, ever use it raw or on shield as it has an extremely horrible cooldown and is incredibly punishable.

Lightly charging Dsmash also is quite good for cheeky folks that love to roll into you as well. It's a bit harder to do on reaction, but the payoff could give you a KO or set one up after all. This also works for Fsmash too if you notice they like to spotdodge a lot.

Hopefully that sorta helps!