Do you secondary?

[Mario766]

So I want to hear from the Ike group.

Do you secondary? Why do you secondary? What characters are you, or are thinking of, secondaring?

I personally don't play a second character. I might play a character randomly in friendlies but I only have Ike as a real character. I thought about using Mario for a time while talking with Ally, but that kinda fell through as I wanted to improve my Ike. I was a big scrub in Brawl and used Snake as a secondary for the MK MU and doubles, mostly because I wanted to live till outrageous percents and not care about the world. That and it worked with my static wifi doubles partner, who mained MK *who didn't*.

I think after going through years of Brawl Ike and release Ike, I don't need a secondary.

 

[AN(M)ist]

Im of the mentality that unless ive grown proficient enough with one character, i dont move to another. And by proficient i mean saturating most if not all possibilities of that character before explorng someone else. Hence, no i dont really secondary and am just playing ike atm.

Thankfully there isnt any dreadful matchups as of yet for ike either so i dont really feel compelled to move.

 

[XDaDePsak]

Yeah, I agree. I don't play merely to win, but to master the character.

That means sucking it up and using your main on tough matchups, even if you might be able to take them more easily with a secondary.

Secondaries can become crutches which will stunt or atrophy your main, and prevent you from unlocking their potential. Which just increases your need for secondaries. Then you end up jack of all characters, master of none.

 

[san.]

You don't need one, but I recommend either playing a character that emphasizes skills you may not use often, or play various top tier characters to understand how others DI your attacks and understand the mindset of that character, even if you're not too great with them.

 

[Rinku リンク]

Having a secondary in my opinion can expand your knowledge and understanding of the game. I main Link but having Ike as my secondary has further improved my spacing game on both terms.

Its also taught me how to approach and deal with projectiles which also in turned helped me strengthen my projectile play as Link.

 

[Yoh]

First I had Pit as a secondary, but even in matchups where I kinda struggle with Ike, my Pit does not really better...I don´t even use him anymore, started to play Ryu as a secondary, he is fun, he hits hard (I need that in smash), also I am a huge fan of other beat´em ups, so I like those inputs he has.
Don´t know if I´m gonna use him in tourney though, already in brawl I always seemed to stay with Ike in the end.

 

[goose32]

I've been working on Ryu as my primary secondary. Roy is also in the mix.

I'm not nearly as good with Ryu as I want to be, but that's my plan. I don't mind failing with him, so when I go play at my local place in town, I'll probably bring Ryu to improve.

 

[Xuan Wu]

I do have a secondary character, but I do not use this character as a hard match-up counter necessarily. Then again, I do not really know what match-ups the character fares better in, compared to Ike.

I use Charizard, largely due to it sharing many similar attributes to Ike.

- Heavy, strong
- Throw combos
- SH auto-cancellable aerials
- Two means of recovery
- Super armor
- A vertical kill throw, although the latter requires rage to be effective.

With Charizard, I gain a powerful zoning tool and an OoS option in Flamethrower and Fly, respectively, at the expense of aerial mobility and range.

^-^

 

[Macedonian]

hi guys, so i just thought id pop in on the opposite side of the spectrum, im a mario main but the character I play the second most of is ike. I used to just play him when i got high and wasn't serious, but now i actually find myslef using ike better in some matchups when my plumber is struggling, so i am thinking of making Mario and ike my combo, im just unsure how viable it is as i really have yet to play ike in tournament setting and obtain a good knowledge of his MU spread.

I also believe playing a variety of characters allows you to have a better knowledge of the game and mindsets of different players. and if you are in a tourney you should not limit yourself by forcing yourself into a bad MU.

 

[underpowered]

I actually now have a secondary: Lucas.

First, I am awful and casual, so I want a secondary just for a fun change of pace with my buddies.

Second, I wanted a "brawler" like Ike, but one that had the option to use some projectiles. Lucas fits that bill, IMO. He's slow in the air and on the ground, but to me that's fine, used to that! haha.

He is great against projectiles (fsmash them back at them!) and can zone himself effectively. His combo game is great, etc.

I really wasn't going to secondary him, but I just "clicked" one night using him.

I have a long way to go both with Lucas and with Ike, just in terms of smash basics.

(Here's an [online, laggy] game on Ike vs my friend on Ryu [we were both VERY tired at this point since it was 2 a.m.] and an earlier sample game with Lucas vs the same Ryu. I've played like 1/10th as many games as Lucas and I was still getting used to Ike vs. Ryu, but they're my latest games.)

 

[JJpalmer]

I had given up ike for shiek but i hit a horrible wall then so im working on ike again but i also play roy so theres that i tried to not learn mus and just have a character for it its biting me in the butt

 

[Electrix]

As a Pit main I guess I don't really need a secondary, but I will use:
-Diddy Kong because he's a top tier; it's just good to learn him.
-Kirby because he's a ton of fun and he can deal with Pit's mediocre speed and kill power in some matchups.
-Meta Knight because his tools can dominate when used properly.
-Lucario because it's good to learn a slower character who depends on good spacing, plus he's hard to combo due to "floaty Ness."

In my opinion the most important characters to secondary are:
1) ones that can compensate for a lack of speed from your main (e.g. Sheik)
2) ones that have better killing power for opponents that you must kill early (e.g. Pika)
3) ones that can help you focus on basic Smash tactics rather than character specific ones (e.g. Mario)

 

[Duck SMASH!]

Ike is one of my secondaries.
My sig has all of my mains and secondaries but one of the most important things I learned from playing heavies like Ike and Bowser is how to read opponents and punish them hard.
I really enjoy the satisfaction of landing kill moves with heavies. It feels much more fun than chipping at opponents with tons of weak attacks like Sheik and Pikachu.

Spacing is also important and playing as a slow but long ranged character can help you develop your concept of spacing at lower levels of play (Once you play tourneys you'll need either an exponentially better understanding or will have to choose a faster character that is more forgiving)