Just a collection of Samus tips and ideas to discuss. There are quite a few, so I thought a new thread might be in order. Hopefully some of them will help out the the Sami around here. A few points might be pretty straightforward or obvious, but I included them anyway if I felt they represented a weak point in the videos I've watched around here. Anyways:
It's important to learn how to buffer a reversed dtilt from an auto canceled aerial. Taking advantage of the great range of the dair, bair or uair, and using them for crossups occasionally is one of the best ways for Samus to take the aggresive role when she needs to, or has the opportunity. Uairs and dairs on grounded opponents are nice and all, but they can be punished, or shielded without too much effort. If you can get a dtilt on your opponent 6 frames after you land (even if you're facing the wrong direction), you dish out some serious shield pressure if they shield, poke if they have already tilted their shield upwards for your uair, get a 25+ damage true combo at lower percentages if you hit, and generally out range, out prioritize and out speed any attempted counter attack. If you time your aerials correctly, you can make the amount of time between the aerial and dtilt very negligible. Of course, Fsmash, ftilt and jab (lol) can also be used after an aerial, but they're slower with lower shield stun, range, and are generally much easier to punish than a well spaced dtilt.
Bair becomes a much more powerful move if you learn this, but first you need to learn how to time the bair so it cancels only a frame or two after the hitbox comes out. It's surprisingly easy. Just SH, FF at the earliest available point, and bair almost immediately after you start FFing. If you do it right, Samus' leg just flickers on screen for about a frame or two before she lands - but the hitbox is still active for that frame or two. If you learn to space this with the very tip of Samus' toe (spacing it is much harder than performing it), it makes a decent "wolf style" spacer. Even better, though, it hits as low to the ground as possible, allowing it to poke shields, and more importantly, to hit annoying small characters even if they're ducking.
Dair on grounded opponent -> usmash is great at certain percentages for MASSIVE DAMAGE.
Stall more. If you're going to play to win, don't be afraid to do some planking. Not ultra-gay MK planking, but just enough to be a nuisance. Retethers and the ability to regrab quite early in the UpB animation gives Samus fairly constant invisibility frames. Be patient on the edge so as to harbor impatience in your opponent. Even great players will make hasty decisions, or otherwise give you an opportunity to deal some extra damage or returrn to the stage quickly.
I don't care if the down angled Fsmash has less damage and knockback. Against many characters, it can be a better option simply by merit of the angle. Off this side, Samus has zair, dair, missiles, bombs, retethers and easy regrabs to ensure your opponent doesn't recover. The early kills you get often make up for the -2 damage.
Remember that Samus has BY FAR the worst roll in the game. Don't use it. Pivoting is usually better.
Stop relying on dair so much off the edge. Try some nairs. You're going to connect way more often, sometimes getting gimps, sometimes just dealing damage.
Use your grab more often. You'll get punished lots until you get a good sense of when to use it and when to avoid it, but once you do, it's quite a useful move due to it's range. It super-effective against opponents returning from the air.
Every last one of you underestimates the power of dtilt as an edgegaurding tool. Against the vast majority of the cast, a well timed dtilt has more than enough range to hit a recovering opponent well before they're within range to snap onto the ledge for 14 free damage.. Try it – walk up to the edge until you're doing Samus' epically awesome (better than her taunts at taunting) 'teetering' animation, and use your dtilt. It's quite safe, too.
Stop SHing and doing zairs over and over again while remaining stationary. Even the best Sami around here are doing this all the time - and getting grabbed. As soon as you're start your SH, the opponent is 100% sure you're just going to try to zair him.... again. Of course he's going to punish you. At the very least, DI backwards, or off the edge.
Samus is all about baiting - it's the essence of Samus, and an element of her game that I feel is vastly underdeveloped. The next few points are some brief tips on how to bait, predict and punish aerials.
Samus absolutely must be able to predict when an opponent will jump; she has some of the best tools for this, and should thus make use of them. Fair is the perfect tool for punishing a predicted jump. It deals such incredible damage that it's worth putting in the effort to bait an opponent into it with missiles, zair and bombs (lol, some people, ie nubs, try to jump over them). Sliding usmash is great in the same situation - if you predict a jump well, you can easily slide in and deal the full 20+ damage.
Learn to true pivot into an uangled ftilt, or an utilt. Again, you must learn to predict the aggressive aerial approaches that will warrant this response. This is one of the only good ways Samus can keep those annoying squirtles and tinks and warios on their toes. Even if you don't connect often, it makes aerial approaches much more risky for them.
Ftilt is deceptively good. The range is actually pretty ridiculous, it's hard to punish if you hit with the tip, and it's Samus' best option for keeping opponents from getting close. Learn to true pivot with this, too. It will stop the vast majority of ground approaches before they get close enough to hit you. If you use the ftilt regularly, it's very easy to quickly condition your opponent to shield during their approach, which really gives Samus the ability to make use of the one area in which her grab excels - the range. Just like the ftilt, Samus' grab will regularly catch opponents well before they're close enough to attack. Obviously, your opponent won't fall for this very often - but that's precisely where baiting comes into play. This is how you force the opponent into the air and predict his aerials. Don't forget to make a fairly liberal use of smash missiles. too!
Bombs, though controversial, are decent baiters. It doesn't matter that you should never actually hit your opponent with a bomb - figuring out their preferred method of avoiding it is what truly matters. A shocking amount of good players go right ahead and try to jump over it... into a face full of fair.
Anyway, it's late. I'm tired. Lots of typos I bet. Let me know if anything I wrote is unclear. I'm sure I've forgot a few things. I'll add them later if I remember.
It's important to learn how to buffer a reversed dtilt from an auto canceled aerial. Taking advantage of the great range of the dair, bair or uair, and using them for crossups occasionally is one of the best ways for Samus to take the aggresive role when she needs to, or has the opportunity. Uairs and dairs on grounded opponents are nice and all, but they can be punished, or shielded without too much effort. If you can get a dtilt on your opponent 6 frames after you land (even if you're facing the wrong direction), you dish out some serious shield pressure if they shield, poke if they have already tilted their shield upwards for your uair, get a 25+ damage true combo at lower percentages if you hit, and generally out range, out prioritize and out speed any attempted counter attack. If you time your aerials correctly, you can make the amount of time between the aerial and dtilt very negligible. Of course, Fsmash, ftilt and jab (lol) can also be used after an aerial, but they're slower with lower shield stun, range, and are generally much easier to punish than a well spaced dtilt.
Bair becomes a much more powerful move if you learn this, but first you need to learn how to time the bair so it cancels only a frame or two after the hitbox comes out. It's surprisingly easy. Just SH, FF at the earliest available point, and bair almost immediately after you start FFing. If you do it right, Samus' leg just flickers on screen for about a frame or two before she lands - but the hitbox is still active for that frame or two. If you learn to space this with the very tip of Samus' toe (spacing it is much harder than performing it), it makes a decent "wolf style" spacer. Even better, though, it hits as low to the ground as possible, allowing it to poke shields, and more importantly, to hit annoying small characters even if they're ducking.
Dair on grounded opponent -> usmash is great at certain percentages for MASSIVE DAMAGE.
Stall more. If you're going to play to win, don't be afraid to do some planking. Not ultra-gay MK planking, but just enough to be a nuisance. Retethers and the ability to regrab quite early in the UpB animation gives Samus fairly constant invisibility frames. Be patient on the edge so as to harbor impatience in your opponent. Even great players will make hasty decisions, or otherwise give you an opportunity to deal some extra damage or returrn to the stage quickly.
I don't care if the down angled Fsmash has less damage and knockback. Against many characters, it can be a better option simply by merit of the angle. Off this side, Samus has zair, dair, missiles, bombs, retethers and easy regrabs to ensure your opponent doesn't recover. The early kills you get often make up for the -2 damage.
Remember that Samus has BY FAR the worst roll in the game. Don't use it. Pivoting is usually better.
Stop relying on dair so much off the edge. Try some nairs. You're going to connect way more often, sometimes getting gimps, sometimes just dealing damage.
Use your grab more often. You'll get punished lots until you get a good sense of when to use it and when to avoid it, but once you do, it's quite a useful move due to it's range. It super-effective against opponents returning from the air.
Every last one of you underestimates the power of dtilt as an edgegaurding tool. Against the vast majority of the cast, a well timed dtilt has more than enough range to hit a recovering opponent well before they're within range to snap onto the ledge for 14 free damage.. Try it – walk up to the edge until you're doing Samus' epically awesome (better than her taunts at taunting) 'teetering' animation, and use your dtilt. It's quite safe, too.
Stop SHing and doing zairs over and over again while remaining stationary. Even the best Sami around here are doing this all the time - and getting grabbed. As soon as you're start your SH, the opponent is 100% sure you're just going to try to zair him.... again. Of course he's going to punish you. At the very least, DI backwards, or off the edge.
Samus is all about baiting - it's the essence of Samus, and an element of her game that I feel is vastly underdeveloped. The next few points are some brief tips on how to bait, predict and punish aerials.
Samus absolutely must be able to predict when an opponent will jump; she has some of the best tools for this, and should thus make use of them. Fair is the perfect tool for punishing a predicted jump. It deals such incredible damage that it's worth putting in the effort to bait an opponent into it with missiles, zair and bombs (lol, some people, ie nubs, try to jump over them). Sliding usmash is great in the same situation - if you predict a jump well, you can easily slide in and deal the full 20+ damage.
Learn to true pivot into an uangled ftilt, or an utilt. Again, you must learn to predict the aggressive aerial approaches that will warrant this response. This is one of the only good ways Samus can keep those annoying squirtles and tinks and warios on their toes. Even if you don't connect often, it makes aerial approaches much more risky for them.
Ftilt is deceptively good. The range is actually pretty ridiculous, it's hard to punish if you hit with the tip, and it's Samus' best option for keeping opponents from getting close. Learn to true pivot with this, too. It will stop the vast majority of ground approaches before they get close enough to hit you. If you use the ftilt regularly, it's very easy to quickly condition your opponent to shield during their approach, which really gives Samus the ability to make use of the one area in which her grab excels - the range. Just like the ftilt, Samus' grab will regularly catch opponents well before they're close enough to attack. Obviously, your opponent won't fall for this very often - but that's precisely where baiting comes into play. This is how you force the opponent into the air and predict his aerials. Don't forget to make a fairly liberal use of smash missiles. too!
Bombs, though controversial, are decent baiters. It doesn't matter that you should never actually hit your opponent with a bomb - figuring out their preferred method of avoiding it is what truly matters. A shocking amount of good players go right ahead and try to jump over it... into a face full of fair.
Anyway, it's late. I'm tired. Lots of typos I bet. Let me know if anything I wrote is unclear. I'm sure I've forgot a few things. I'll add them later if I remember.
