WDing and L-canceling.

[KratosAurion192]

How vital are these skills to link and when are they best used?

[SLH]

Use the search button, or read the stickys.

You should l-cancel every aerial you do, and learn for yourself when WDing is appropriate.

[ancientevil11]

Use the search button, or read the stickys.

You should l-cancel every aerial you do, and learn for yourself when WDing is appropriate.

what SLH said is correct....especially if you want to use Link.

[THE PAIN]

L- cancel is a must with link since his air moves have so much lag. Wavedashing is used to space and used as a mindgame.

[KratosAurion192]

That's my problem. I can't WD to well because it's so hard to do with Link. L-cancel I can do most of the time but then again I don't really havec anyone to play against to practice. What would be a good CPU to play?

[technomancer]

If you want to play competitively, you have to play people. CPU AI invovles way too much walking straight towards you - you cannot learn to play people that way.

Unless you live in the mountains, there's a monthly near you somewhere. Get there, and have fun. You don't even have to enter the tournament, just play practice against the guys there, and have fun, and just talk to everyone and make some friends. The smash community is really chill in general.

L-cancelling is a must. Speed is % in smash, and L-cancel is speed. Learning the wavedash is also very good, but Links is pretty slow so there are not many situations where it is required. Learning to ledge-dash and platform dash is (using the airdodge to catch the tip of a platform and sliding off the side) will help your mobility and edgeguarding though (see GERM videos).

[Kyle Kerplunk]

Wavedashing is debatable some people say it's not required with Link as it's not very expoitable. It's nto the best wavedash though I use it a lot and I'm sure others do if you check out HDL's videos he seems to wavedash quite a bit. That's really more depdning on play style and spacing though. Like people have said mindgames, I would learn it though cause some battles it may save you. L-Canceling on the other hand.. not an option, if you want your Link to stand a chance at all you have to L cancel everything. Shffling is one of the biggest parts of making Link able to contend with higher teir characters at advanced play.

[SLH]

The only Link player who can get by without wavedashing even once is Aniki. Are you Aniki? Didn't think so.

One of the best possible uses for wavedashing is overlooked just because people try to go Aniki style. Wavedash back and grab. Simple, easy, and effective.

[KratosAurion192]

OK so the L-canceling is a must. That's on my checklist. I'm not to worried about WDing for the moment because I seem to be fast enough. I have friends that I can play with mabye once or twice a month and I'll play with them. Only problem is they like to play on Final Destination and they play as fox,falco, shiek and marth.

[DLK]

You want how vital l-cancel is....okay do a d-air and right as u hit the ground hit L if u do right ur guy will miss a couple frames and you'll see the difference and for wd'in link has one of the hardest ones to do, i can do it with any character bascially except link :-( and if u want to practice just try it at first with luigi or ice climbers.

[bladeofapollo]

you can't play Link effectively w/o L-canceling, his aerials just have WAY too much lag. WD'ing is ok too. not vital, but useful... it's good for spacing, but Link's is so short, it's not all that important. but don't play Link w/o L-canceling, you'll get owned like there's NO tomorrow.

[KratosAurion192]

Thanks for the help guys. I know how to L-cancel and I'm getting better with it. I'm also trying to play around more with my areials as well. If I can make a video somehow I will.

[mkmelee]

Also try wavelanding some times, probably mostly off a SHbomb throw.... Wave dash should be learned and yeah... it's pretty useful.

[Hyrulian_hero1110]

Ok... well I read this whole thing.... THANK YOU ALL!... I had no idea L-canceling helped THAT much... peace out folks....


and just for the record... wavedashing is stupid to me... just something to go "HA! I can do it!" to... nothing more... maybe a good thing for cube junkies but not really that great in terms of punishing the opposition... like ya'll said... its used for spacing.

[Arcnatural]

If you can't play with friends alot but want to improve your tech skill (combos, etc.) play CPU lvl 1. If you get bored with that lvl 7 isn't bad for slightly different DI. But don't play higher than that, as CPU lvl 8-9 have ridiculously stupid timing and grab skill and become very predictable most likely ruining your game.

I mainly stick with lvl 1 for tech skill, then occasionally try lvl 7 to get the feel for trying to do combos against attacks. Nothing beats humans though, learn mindgames and skill in one!

[agent7underfire]

whats shl is it short hop laser? u can do that with bombs? thats wack if u can

[bladeofapollo]

yes, SHL stands for Short-Hop Laser. but he just meant short hopping bombs, as opposed to standing still while pulling them out or full jumping. Link can't "SHL w/ bombs" as effectively as Falco, but short-hopping bombs is good for on-the-run offensives or retreats.

[smashfan34]

Heres something I did to get better and shuffling and wd'ing. Instead of playing lvl 9's and wasting ur time for hours playing stupid computers, or other useless things. Devote 1 hour to just practicing wavedashing. Set it to timer, put 60 minutes, just wavedash 1 hour str8. This is what happened to me when I did that. Ok, I basically couldn't do it at all. like most of it was jumping and not wd cuz i didnt have the timing down. then by the time the hr was up, i could do it quite well. do this, it's what I call target technique practice. you just say, ok I am going to learn this technique today, I'm devoting an hour to shuffling or wd or w/.e ur trying to learn,