Adapt
Smash Lord
Ok, since I started this project I have seen 2-3 topics on whose spike is the strongest. The answer to that question is not an easy one due to the way knockback increases with damage in this game. This is not really a ranking of which spike is best because there is also the matter of ease of use, for example I happen to find that Falco's spike is by far the easiest to hit with. That is a subjective trait and differs from person to person so I choose to ignore it for this ranking system. Since I am Statistics Boy Wonder on the ZSS forums I chose to use knockback as my ranking system because it is easily quantifiable and I can draw some good general conclusions from it.
Every spike is ranked according to the percentage damage that is required before the move hits to produce a downward knockback of 4725 MPH on Mario. This number was chosen because it happens to be the knockback of Luigi's down taunt, regardless of damage percentage. This seemed fitting because I have yet to see someone survive Luigi's Spike.
Aerial Spikes
Knockback is a pretty simple formula when not accounting for characters other than Mario:
<Knockback> = <Initial Power> + <Growth Rate> * <Damage after Hit>
For information on how this changes with different characters, I will direct you to Mr. Silver's thread: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=162546
Notes:
- I know there are a couple moves that people will claim are missing like Yoshi or Fox's dair, but I excluded these for a reason. They do not act like spikes, even though they do knock the opponent downwards.
- If a spike has multiple hitboxes the one marked with a (1) is the stronger version. Also, Olimar's Pikmin are of course separated: b=blue, y=yellow etc...
Spiking Ground Moves
There are also several grounded moves that have spiking properties as well. These are much harder to spike with, but they are still important to consider, so I ranked these as well:
Grounded Spikes
When you do a spike on a grounded foe they are popped upwards. The knockback that they travel upwards is actually less than the knockback of an aerial spike. 20% less to be more precise. This seems to be the trend with all the spikes I have tested with the exception of Ike's Up-B, and the many spikes that have a different hitbox on the ground than in the air. ZSS's Down-B is a good example of this, it is a horizontally killing move if it connects on the ground, but in the air it will spike.
Notes:
- These are only the spikes that have the same hitbox on the ground as in the air. I will update later with more info on the spikes that have different hitboxes.
- The spikes are ranked according to the damage at which they hit Mario at 6300 MPH. 6300 MPH is the approximate knockback that will star KO Mario. The actual kill percentage of each spike is dependent on DI, but it would not likely change the order of the spikes here very much if at all.
- Ike's Up-B does not follow the 20% rule. As you can see, the hitbox does the same knockback whether you hit mario on the ground or in the air.
- I'm still missing Luigi's dair from this list, I am terrible at getting the spike to connect.
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Thanks to cr4sh, ph00tbag, and FadedImage for getting some numbers I was missing.
-Adapt
Every spike is ranked according to the percentage damage that is required before the move hits to produce a downward knockback of 4725 MPH on Mario. This number was chosen because it happens to be the knockback of Luigi's down taunt, regardless of damage percentage. This seemed fitting because I have yet to see someone survive Luigi's Spike.
Aerial Spikes
Knockback is a pretty simple formula when not accounting for characters other than Mario:
<Knockback> = <Initial Power> + <Growth Rate> * <Damage after Hit>
For information on how this changes with different characters, I will direct you to Mr. Silver's thread: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=162546
Notes:
- I know there are a couple moves that people will claim are missing like Yoshi or Fox's dair, but I excluded these for a reason. They do not act like spikes, even though they do knock the opponent downwards.
- If a spike has multiple hitboxes the one marked with a (1) is the stronger version. Also, Olimar's Pikmin are of course separated: b=blue, y=yellow etc...
Spiking Ground Moves
There are also several grounded moves that have spiking properties as well. These are much harder to spike with, but they are still important to consider, so I ranked these as well:
Grounded Spikes
When you do a spike on a grounded foe they are popped upwards. The knockback that they travel upwards is actually less than the knockback of an aerial spike. 20% less to be more precise. This seems to be the trend with all the spikes I have tested with the exception of Ike's Up-B, and the many spikes that have a different hitbox on the ground than in the air. ZSS's Down-B is a good example of this, it is a horizontally killing move if it connects on the ground, but in the air it will spike.
Notes:
- These are only the spikes that have the same hitbox on the ground as in the air. I will update later with more info on the spikes that have different hitboxes.
- The spikes are ranked according to the damage at which they hit Mario at 6300 MPH. 6300 MPH is the approximate knockback that will star KO Mario. The actual kill percentage of each spike is dependent on DI, but it would not likely change the order of the spikes here very much if at all.
- Ike's Up-B does not follow the 20% rule. As you can see, the hitbox does the same knockback whether you hit mario on the ground or in the air.
- I'm still missing Luigi's dair from this list, I am terrible at getting the spike to connect.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to cr4sh, ph00tbag, and FadedImage for getting some numbers I was missing.
-Adapt
