Early impressions, beware!
Aww, Nair lost both the gimp and the penetration/range. :^( What does the Utilt change do?
Jab feels similar but looks different - was it worsened or buffed?
As much fun as Utilt is and sucking someone into a jab, I don't particularly care for it. It feels like a glitch. You can interrupt the Utilt as fast as you can throw out a jab, so always throwing it out when an opponent is approaching feels spammy. FYI, the IASA can be interrupted with ANY action (even moving), unlike normal IASA which is more specific to attacks/shield/dodge.
Jab is more or less the same -- the previous version had the hitbox out on frame 3 only, and was IASA frame 23. This current one mainly looks less mechanical, but also has a hitbox duration from during frames 3-5, and is IASA on 22. Minor polishing, same function.
As for the U-tilt, it's just a wild experiment. Someone suggested it a while back and most people thought it was a cool idea that would lead to some interesting uses without radically changing the move.
Right now it's IASA on frame 30, meaning you have to commit yourself to 30 frames of standing there vulnerable. As for looks, it is unfortunately the nature of IASA frames to look glitchy -- you're cutting out the transition to another move, and this is a large transition. I don't know how to make it look better, but I'm open to suggestions.
Also, while we
can limit IASA to certain attacks, it was my understanding that most IASA can be canceled by moving. If you think it'll make the move act better / look more natural feel free to suggest a list of moves you think it
should cancel into, though.
As for throwing it out when an opponent is approaching and feeling "spammy" -- first, how often do people
approach Ganondorf...? Anyways, in the event they do, how often will they actually fall for U-tilt Vacuum -> jab? To a certain extent, it's like the
absurd beautiful IASA frames on the U-smash, especially in Melee -- on un-experienced foes you could let off an U-smash and then punish with a jab if they tried to run in and punish the lag. Sure it was cool, but it only works once or twice before people get wise.
Bottom line is that, sure, you can try to spam it, but I suspect it's not going to get you very far and you'd do better to focus on your full move-set.