How good is F-Air?

[Jee412]

Hey everybody, fellow Lucas secondary.

Spacing with Lucas can be pretty hard.. SH PK Fire are great and all but it can be easy to dodge and passby. Z-Air is also great for his low endlag (no end lag) but I have trouble following after it versus pretty good players.

I've started spacing a little bit with SH F-Air. I usually do an in and out mouvement while doing it, I go in and when the hitboxe come out, I go out.
If I hit the other character I will follow after them that is not the problem.

The problem is that F-Air when sweetspot deals a lot of damage and will put the other player in a bad position and if they miss a tech it can be followed by a jab lock. It's a great move that kills, setup for kills, and deals so much damage.

But the endlag of the move scare me. If the other powershield it he will punish me easily, I have a Fox Up Smash in my head right now.

So..? What do I have to do? Is F-Air a great move and should be use as much as PK Fire and Z-Air? Is it the genre of move that will be a big part of Lucas neutral like R.O.B. N-Air? As you can tell I have trouble with Lucas neutral. I just don't know what to do if they are shielding a lot. Lucas grab is pretty predictible and I will always get punish for it because it's too obvious when a Lucas goes in for a grab.

So guys, is F-Air a great move and how can I improve it in my arsenal?

(I must tell you that I'm a very defensive player who love the poke and run kind of style of fighting. I love to hit the hardest when I can punish them and go back to a defensive game.)

 

[MrWhYYZ]

Thanks to the patch F-air is decent spacing tool now. As long as people don't perfect shield and you space correctly you're fine. That said if people are perfect shielding that means they are reacting to your jump forward and predicting your F-air. This means that you predict that, that you can tomahawk them and get a grab in.

 

[EarthBoundEnigma]

If you hit a shield with it, just keep going though to the other side, or you'll really regret it.

 

[MrWhYYZ]

If you hit a shield with it, just keep going though to the other side, or you'll really regret it.

Not really, if you hit f-air as low as possible you're -7/0 meaning that unless they have a OoS option that's 9 frames you can just mash Jab and watch them get hit because they drop shield and tried to punish you.

 

[GooberGaming]

Hey everybody, fellow Lucas secondary.

Spacing with Lucas can be pretty hard.. SH PK Fire are great and all but it can be easy to dodge and passby. Z-Air is also great for his low endlag (no end lag) but I have trouble following after it versus pretty good players.

I've started spacing a little bit with SH F-Air. I usually do an in and out mouvement while doing it, I go in and when the hitboxe come out, I go out.
If I hit the other character I will follow after them that is not the problem.

The problem is that F-Air when sweetspot deals a lot of damage and will put the other player in a bad position and if they miss a tech it can be followed by a jab lock. It's a great move that kills, setup for kills, and deals so much damage.

But the endlag of the move scare me. If the other powershield it he will punish me easily, I have a Fox Up Smash in my head right now.

So..? What do I have to do? Is F-Air a great move and should be use as much as PK Fire and Z-Air? Is it the genre of move that will be a big part of Lucas neutral like R.O.B. N-Air? As you can tell I have trouble with Lucas neutral. I just don't know what to do if they are shielding a lot. Lucas grab is pretty predictible and I will always get punish for it because it's too obvious when a Lucas goes in for a grab.

So guys, is F-Air a great move and how can I improve it in my arsenal?

(I must tell you that I'm a very defensive player who love the poke and run kind of style of fighting. I love to hit the hardest when I can punish them and go back to a defensive game.)

Not really, if you hit f-air as low as possible you're -7/0 meaning that unless they have a OoS option that's 9 frames you can just mash Jab and watch them get hit because they drop shield and tried to punish you.

Just like what MrWYYZ stated. If your F-air gets shield, you can mash jab and that can help prevent a punish. Just be mindful of not becoming predictable because it is not a 100% safe option and you can be punished if your opponent has an OoS faster then your jab.

I do use F-air as a spacing tool as a mix up between z-air and Pk Fire. For me, F-air typically connects if I full jump and weave back and forth to play mind games with the other player while waiting for them to drop their shield.

 

[JosePollo]

Hey everybody, fellow Lucas secondary.

Spacing with Lucas can be pretty hard.. SH PK Fire are great and all but it can be easy to dodge and passby. Z-Air is also great for his low endlag (no end lag) but I have trouble following after it versus pretty good players.

I've started spacing a little bit with SH F-Air. I usually do an in and out mouvement while doing it, I go in and when the hitboxe come out, I go out.
If I hit the other character I will follow after them that is not the problem.

The problem is that F-Air when sweetspot deals a lot of damage and will put the other player in a bad position and if they miss a tech it can be followed by a jab lock. It's a great move that kills, setup for kills, and deals so much damage.

But the endlag of the move scare me. If the other powershield it he will punish me easily, I have a Fox Up Smash in my head right now.

So..? What do I have to do? Is F-Air a great move and should be use as much as PK Fire and Z-Air? Is it the genre of move that will be a big part of Lucas neutral like R.O.B. N-Air? As you can tell I have trouble with Lucas neutral. I just don't know what to do if they are shielding a lot. Lucas grab is pretty predictible and I will always get punish for it because it's too obvious when a Lucas goes in for a grab.

So guys, is F-Air a great move and how can I improve it in my arsenal?

(I must tell you that I'm a very defensive player who love the poke and run kind of style of fighting. I love to hit the hardest when I can punish them and go back to a defensive game.)

Personally, i think fair is his second-best aerial after nair and the best ways to use it, in my opinion are: rising OoS to punish unsafe shield pressure (which can lead to things such as jab locks at certain percentages), off of a full hop (so you can auto-cancel the attack), off of a short hop while retreating (to extend the disjoint of the hitbox further), or--as MrWhYYZ said--as low to the ground as possible (to get either a frame cancel or minimal cooldown on the attack).

While walling/zoning, try spacing the attack to always make sure you're hitting with the sweet spot of the attack since the sour spot tends to be somewhat unsafe even on-hit at early percentages due to its very low knockback; the best way to know, visually, if you're spacing the attack properly is to make sure the PSI hexagon never overlaps his foot.

One thing to note about fair is that the sweet spot of the attack doesn't clank with other hitboxes, so you can't use it to nullify certain projectiles the way other characters can use their aerials to unless you hit the projectile with the clankable sour spot of the attack, which is his actual foot and leg. The only projectiles you can attack with the sweet spot of fair are projectiles that have hurtboxes on them such as Gordos and Link's bombs.

 

[Baby_Sneak]

Fair seems like a pretty good neutral tool imo, but it's best for you to find out yourself. That's the best way to learn.

Also, take this: http://sonichurricane.com/?page_id=1702. This is the instruction's Manuel to fighting on a different plane that your opponent.

 

[Baby_Sneak]

ignore this

 

[Hath]

Not really, if you hit f-air as low as possible you're -7/0 meaning that unless they have a OoS option that's 9 frames you can just mash Jab and watch them get hit because they drop shield and tried to punish you.

I sincerely hope this is true, and if it is, I need to start utilizing it. I keep getting punished for attacking on shield (pretty obvious that D-smash is a problem). Having a forward facing spacing move will definitely help me out.

 

[JesterJaded]

I sincerely hope this is true, and if it is, I need to start utilizing it. I keep getting punished for attacking on shield (pretty obvious that D-smash is a problem). Having a forward facing spacing move will definitely help me out.

In the event that you do land an FC Fair, or if you'd like to know your pressure options out of it, here are some follow-ups you can do: