• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

zss side special and special tech

ted dorosheff

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Mar 21, 2015
Messages
82
Hey so Foo made a post in the general forum about b-reversing/turning/waveboucning and it got me thinking about zss's approach to these tech forms. I have a general idea of how to perform these techs, but i could use some help in finding examples of them being done so i know exactly what they look like and how to do them. Also, what are some of the applications and uses for zss's side special and special tech?
 

Foo

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 14, 2014
Messages
1,207
Location
Commentatorland
From the post, here are the descriptions on how to preform the techs. If one of them is unclear, I'll try to explain it further.

  • Turn-b: Shifts direction but not momentum. Preformed by tilting or tapping the analog stick backwards and then doing the input for the special. (or for side b, just hit back and b.)

  • B-reverse: Shifts both momentum and direction. Preformed by imputing the special normally, and then, very quickly, tapping the analog backwards.

  • Wave Bouncing: This tech is a combination of both of the above, and it shifts momentum, but not direction. This is preformed by first turn-bing a special, and then immediately tapping forward. For instance, to input a wavebounced side-special, you would hit back and b, then immediately tap forwards. For a wavebounced neutral special, you would tilt the stick back slightly, then hit b and tap forward.

As for the uses, each and every tech is useful for all of ZSS moves, save for down-b and wavebounce and turn-b on up-b (at least, very limited use).

Turn-b: Very useful for blaster and plasma whip. Mostly used for retreating specials. Let's say you poke at their shield with bair, then run away and do a turn-b blaster or plasma whip etc. It's also useful for just doing blaster out of dash dance or the air or whatever, if you are facing away from your target. For down-b, let's say you are comboing someone and they DI up and in, but are just out of double jump range. You can do a turn-b flip jump, then double jump cancel into a bair to secure a kill. (at least, I'm pretty sure you can.) For up-b, I have not found a use.

B-reverse: For plasma whip, it's useful for a retreat mixup. Let's say you hit their shield with something and start running. When you shorthop from out of your side-b range, they may do something like start up a projectile. You can then b-reverse to land a side-b on them when they aren't expecting it. Not very useful for blaster, but you can use it similarly to plasma whip (though it just seems kinda worse.) Also, if you want to side-b or blaster backwards out of run, you need to b-reverse it. For up-b, it's mostly used for recovery. If you wall jump, you can up-b boost the jump and b-reverse the up-b to shift the momentum towards stage, allowing you to land on stage. You can also use it to end combos. Say you are going REALLY deep to land a double jump up-b off stage. If you did it normally, you wouldn't be able to recover, but if you went a little bit past them and b-reversed it, it might give you the ability to make it back. It can also be used off ledge. If you drop ledge, double jump backwards, you can b-reverse up-b and then grab ledge again during the animation of up-b.

Wavebounce: The most difficult and fun. It's useful for both blaster and side-b. There's a mixup with regular and wavebounced side-b, where you just towards them and side-b. Aim for where they are standing. They will often run at you and hit you out of plasma whip, but if you wave bounce it, they'll hit thin air and then get nailed by side-b. wavebounce blaster is similar, but less useful overall. Mostly just a movement option. Haven't found a use for wavebounce up-b that b-reverse wouldn't do just as well, and I don't think wavebouncing down-b does anything.


As for what these all look like, turn-b will just turn you around, b-reverse will completely reverse your momentum and turn you around, wavebouncing will completely reverse your momentum, but won't turn you around.
 
Last edited:

Lust for Glory

Smash Cadet
Joined
Mar 19, 2014
Messages
31
Location
Phoenix
A while back, I was just messing around with ZSS stuff (pertaining to these specific techs) and came accross something that threw me off a little. I have a semi bad habit to edgeguard with run off ledge -> immediate b reversed up b to have the whip on top of me while i grab ledge, also preserving my two tether ledge grabs granted I get hit off stage (for some odd reason) or go deep a few times to get a kill.

Apparently, when another person is on the ledge, doing a run off b reversed up b kind of pulls you toward ledge as if you were to grab it, but recognizes the opponent in on the ledge. A bit hard to explain but it's really easy to do, and you'll be able to see what I mean.

I've talked to Vixen when I discovered this, and it seems that if this tech were to find a viable use, it would be because of ZSS's walljump, allowing her to either attack the opponent if they were to stay on ledge, or let her wall jump double jump to waveland back on stage. Unfortunately, I dont have the equipment to record such event, and ask that the viability of a run off b reversed up b (while an opponent is on the ledge) be tested by other who are more experienced with this game and character.

Also, this is WAY easier to pull off when tap jump is off, as tap jump makes run off up b's hella hard.
 
Top Bottom