InterimOfZeal
Smash Champion
Played Melee for 6 years, traveled OoS, won a few tournaments, placed top 4 in a lot more. Didn't really do anything with Brawl, aside from making top 5 at FR using Sonic, Jigglypuff, and Kirby. Beat HMW at OC3, though I think he wasn't really known back then? I'm not pro by any means, but, I'm decent enough, and here are my thoughts!
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Jab. Seriously, it's either 1 or 2 frames. It gets you out of a lot of tight situations, and you can just jab and run away, or go for some sort of mix-up.
Don't be afraid to retreat. ZSS is at her most threatening when running away. Bair, pivot grab, reverse pistol, side-b, and the list goes on. I wish she had a moonwalk, but ohwell.
Her grab is equal parts terrible and incredible. It has ridiculous range, and a fair amount of active frames, but the recovery is just... oof. The easiest way to land grabs is retreating pivots, or via pistol pressure.
The pistol is weird to use at first, but I've grown to like it. It's essentially Sheik's needles, with much less priority, and it's lagless on the ground instead of in the air. If your fingers are up to it, dash, then sh a pistol, and dash cancel as soon as you land. You cover a lot of space, your pistol will clash with other projectiles (giving you a free approach while ivy lags from razor leaf), and you're left in a position to play her yomi game. Charged shots are ideal, but you can go into quick mix-ups with uncharged as long as you realize that you're both at a neutral position, and they have to play the guessing game vs you.
You can play ZSS many ways, but it's best if you can switch between her styles at will. She can do decent zoning using dsmash, sideb, pistol, and her various AAs, she can rush down with pistol, jab, and uair gimmicks (as well as sweet, sweet nair), with grabs thrown in to keep them honest. I think she's best at mid-low range (around 1/4 of FD), so I try to weave in and out from there. Similar to Marth, you threaten with your dashdance, range, and speed.
Dsmash is a fantastic, but hard to use and easy to punish, AA. If you guess right on where they're going to land, any trades that don't send you too far away to follow up are worth it. You get a lot of damage off this, and free mix-ups.
Usmash is what I use when I know upb won't hit, but it's so far otherwise not really worthy of note. I'll try to figure it out.
Dash attack is only good as a "get away", and that's only if they don't cc it. You can also use it to finish combos.
Utilt ehh. Probably could do nair>utilt. Idk
Dtilt is like Sheik's dtilt, maybe a little worse. It's fast as hell, though, so you can do stupid things on shield like jab>dtilt, run away> reverse pistol/pivot grab/side b/fsmash
Fsmash is really good, and really bad. Don't miss with it, don't use it at low percents. It covers so many angles, and at high percents the weak hitboxes can set up kills. The strong ones murder people, and I use this sparingly as an AA.
Ftilt is a really good poke, just don't get predictable with it. close-mid range "get off me".
On the subject of shoryukens, she has next to nothing. Once you're in on ZSS, pressure all day. She has particular trouble with GnW and Mario, due to their combos, CC, and close range games. If you don't control the pace of the match, you lose.
Use dair like a stomp, or to cross up their shield. You can do silly stuff at low percents like dair>dsmash, but it's really hard to set up. The hitstun on this is ridiculous. Also, you almost never need to l-cancel it (which messes me up sometimes.)
Fair is a kill move. That's about it, for me. You can use it as a combo ender, maybe like cf nair, but idk. She has better aerials. Not to say this move is bad.
Bair is pinpoint jigglypuff. Hits hard, is fast, but has a very precise hitbox. You can do WoP stuff with it, kinda.
Uair is still godly. You'll alternate between this and nair, mostly.
Nair is just... wow. Characters with high priority nullify the beam (gnw fair straight beats it, ugh), but other than that, it's incredible. I use it like a Marth fair, and it combos pretty much the same. shffl nair>shffl nair>uair is a pretty decent combo that works on a lot of characters, but with bad DI you could probably just nair all day. A good trick is to jab their shield, run to the tip of nair's range, and sh. If they drop their shield for almost any reason, it's a free combo. If they sidestep, ff and grab/whatever. If they roll away from you, you get pistol space (though not optimal) and are back at neutral, and if they roll toward you... wellllllllll
I'll write more about her b moves and grab later, but those are the basics that I've learned so far. Downb is a move I need to use a lot more, it gives her so much mobility.
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Jab. Seriously, it's either 1 or 2 frames. It gets you out of a lot of tight situations, and you can just jab and run away, or go for some sort of mix-up.
Don't be afraid to retreat. ZSS is at her most threatening when running away. Bair, pivot grab, reverse pistol, side-b, and the list goes on. I wish she had a moonwalk, but ohwell.
Her grab is equal parts terrible and incredible. It has ridiculous range, and a fair amount of active frames, but the recovery is just... oof. The easiest way to land grabs is retreating pivots, or via pistol pressure.
The pistol is weird to use at first, but I've grown to like it. It's essentially Sheik's needles, with much less priority, and it's lagless on the ground instead of in the air. If your fingers are up to it, dash, then sh a pistol, and dash cancel as soon as you land. You cover a lot of space, your pistol will clash with other projectiles (giving you a free approach while ivy lags from razor leaf), and you're left in a position to play her yomi game. Charged shots are ideal, but you can go into quick mix-ups with uncharged as long as you realize that you're both at a neutral position, and they have to play the guessing game vs you.
You can play ZSS many ways, but it's best if you can switch between her styles at will. She can do decent zoning using dsmash, sideb, pistol, and her various AAs, she can rush down with pistol, jab, and uair gimmicks (as well as sweet, sweet nair), with grabs thrown in to keep them honest. I think she's best at mid-low range (around 1/4 of FD), so I try to weave in and out from there. Similar to Marth, you threaten with your dashdance, range, and speed.
Dsmash is a fantastic, but hard to use and easy to punish, AA. If you guess right on where they're going to land, any trades that don't send you too far away to follow up are worth it. You get a lot of damage off this, and free mix-ups.
Usmash is what I use when I know upb won't hit, but it's so far otherwise not really worthy of note. I'll try to figure it out.
Dash attack is only good as a "get away", and that's only if they don't cc it. You can also use it to finish combos.
Utilt ehh. Probably could do nair>utilt. Idk
Dtilt is like Sheik's dtilt, maybe a little worse. It's fast as hell, though, so you can do stupid things on shield like jab>dtilt, run away> reverse pistol/pivot grab/side b/fsmash
Fsmash is really good, and really bad. Don't miss with it, don't use it at low percents. It covers so many angles, and at high percents the weak hitboxes can set up kills. The strong ones murder people, and I use this sparingly as an AA.
Ftilt is a really good poke, just don't get predictable with it. close-mid range "get off me".
On the subject of shoryukens, she has next to nothing. Once you're in on ZSS, pressure all day. She has particular trouble with GnW and Mario, due to their combos, CC, and close range games. If you don't control the pace of the match, you lose.
Use dair like a stomp, or to cross up their shield. You can do silly stuff at low percents like dair>dsmash, but it's really hard to set up. The hitstun on this is ridiculous. Also, you almost never need to l-cancel it (which messes me up sometimes.)
Fair is a kill move. That's about it, for me. You can use it as a combo ender, maybe like cf nair, but idk. She has better aerials. Not to say this move is bad.
Bair is pinpoint jigglypuff. Hits hard, is fast, but has a very precise hitbox. You can do WoP stuff with it, kinda.
Uair is still godly. You'll alternate between this and nair, mostly.
Nair is just... wow. Characters with high priority nullify the beam (gnw fair straight beats it, ugh), but other than that, it's incredible. I use it like a Marth fair, and it combos pretty much the same. shffl nair>shffl nair>uair is a pretty decent combo that works on a lot of characters, but with bad DI you could probably just nair all day. A good trick is to jab their shield, run to the tip of nair's range, and sh. If they drop their shield for almost any reason, it's a free combo. If they sidestep, ff and grab/whatever. If they roll away from you, you get pistol space (though not optimal) and are back at neutral, and if they roll toward you... wellllllllll
I'll write more about her b moves and grab later, but those are the basics that I've learned so far. Downb is a move I need to use a lot more, it gives her so much mobility.
