Maharba the Mystic
Smash Master
All right guys, ill actually edit mine in or do it as another post because i have work. but here is the idea, now go forth and obey it to the letter
if i started a thread where everyone is allowed only 1 post, and that post would consist of all of your personal strategies and techniques and how you handle certain situations and such (in other words how you play pit) who would participate? this would not be MU specific unless you put in some of your own MU specific knowledge (i would probably mention some stuff about falco for example). this would just be how play pit/think he should be played. you would be allowed to edit your posts sure but if anyone says more than their one granted post (especially a "you are wrong, do this" post) i will have kuro eliminate it from my thread.
is anyone down for this? and i would expect a lot of txt from you guys, this would be the true ultimate guide for pit's current metagame, because it would be how us current pit's play down to the T. if kuro, luckay, and ptzr at least agree to this, i will start the thread because we (me luckay and ptzr anyways) are the most tourney active pit's in the US besides koolaid and kiraflax and those 2 are hard to get in contact with.
The Maharba Style Pit
allright, i basically just covered sections of stuff in no real order. sorry but without further ado......
Recovery
*note, every time i am forced to the ledge, i plank for a bit. there is no reason not too*
-Above the stage
When i recover from up high there are a few different ways i like to get down. But before i do that, i like to start a glide. with a glide i like to glide to the oposite side of the stage near always. it forces the opponent to move after you. now if you have good placement you can dive directly onto a ledge which is one of my favorite things to do. also, you can just glide to the other side, fall, and then WOI under the stage to the other side, this is my favorite way of getting back to at least the ledge. On another note, I also have really gotten into diveboming (the WOI one) to the stage because getting down the cancel timing is easy and it is just so fast that it usually is really safe.
-From a horizantal Medium
from here unless i can safe glide or WOI onto the stage, i will either just grab the ledge and plank or just go straight to the below options.
-Below the stage
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER WHEN RECOVERING BELOW THE STAGE IS THIS. IF YOUR OPPONENT IS NEAR THAT HALF OF THE STAGE, IT IS ALWAYS SAFER TO JUST GO UNDER TO THE OTHER SIDE, OR AT LEAST FAKE IT HALFWAY AND TURN BACK. seriously, not even MK can catch us in WOI, nobody can. and as long as you aren't dumb when you weave projectiles shot under the stage after you, you will always get there at least long enough to plank a bit. I've seen so many pits get gimped very unnecessarily because they tried to challenge an opponent and take that ledge when there is a perfectly open ledge on the other side.
The Maharba Battle Style
To start off, if i can help it, i NEVER EVER (this is no longer true, see my edit directly below) approach. pit is the only character in this game whose ability to force the approach cannot be challenged. He outcamps every single character in this game with no exception. also, while camping, i stay near a ledge so that way even if i can't push them back/start a string while onstage, i fall onto the ledge where my defensive capability is buffed to an extreme degree due to our top notch planking capabilities and procede to put in some work.
Edit:
as i have gotten better i no longer camp even when i am down. i have learned that there are times when you have to go offensive. but smartly. some of the ways i approach when we are both at neutral stage positions is run up to them and immediately roll behind them. this is a great surprise when used sparingly. don't get predictable with it or you will get punished hard.
walking up and spacing jabs, fairs, ftilts, and dtilts is another way i approach. but im sure we all do this.
specifically with short hop approach mix ups, spacing fair>ftilt is pretty solid. and it's harder to punish because they are both safe when spaced on shield.
something ive been doing as well is say we're "boxing" doin some cqc. if they shield instead of just grabbing or infinite jabbing sometimes ill wingdash behind them and punish their shield drop with a retreating turn around fair out of the wingdash. it's a pretty good mixup imo. there's other stuff i do but i don't really know how to write it all down.
planking can be done in many ways with all of our moves. however there a few ways to plank that are generally the most effective against most characters. for spacies, ICs, MK, and most others the basic 2 uairs through the stage with some arrows, maybe some jump dair, and definitely fair mixup here and there is the most effective planking method. however against some characters like peach, zss, marth, and such it is best to do a retreating uair then a returning uair with arrow/fair/jump dair mixup because if you just hug the stage and uair, their disjoints (peach's dair, marth's fsmash, zss's stun) can hit you.
then there is the snake planking method, where you use the first method combined with WOI-ing his grenades back at him. The best time to WOI his grenades is right as he drops them so that they fly back towards him as he retreats causing him to either shield or retreat futher. there are other characters who need careful types of planking but in general these are the main ways to succeed for me.
I also take advantage of our ability to air and platform camp ridiculously safe in almost all MUs (the exception being MK). At BF, i will airdodge/Wing Refresh/Dair camp the top platform and mixup between landing with WOI on a different platform or the ground to get Wing Refresh and air camp more. I also severely abuse scrooging when possible. One way to scrooge is by gliding under the stage (stopping before you get to the other ledge), jumping twice, and then WOI-ing to either side. If you want to be a real ****, you will first Wing Refresh under the stage, then glide, jump twice, and then WOI again.
The other way to scrooge is the SV/Frigate method where there is platform to glide to while defending that platform. To mix this one up on SV, try slow gliding over the platform above the stage (against certain characters) or using your 4 jumps to dair camp it as it moves across the stage (it works out to where our four jumps while dair-ing lasts the length of it's travel). While on the platform it is important to abuse the hell out of your arrows because this is how openings for more devastating things are made. Also if they happen to try and take the platform from you while it is floating offstage, fall through and uair them till they get off or are knocked off by the move (you can also mix it up with bair for early kills and your other aerials for different results, as well as arrows from below). You can also try read their approach and punish with the appropriate move/grab.
now, i just added this to let you guys know the reasoning behind why i try to air camp so much with platforms. normally when landing pit's options are kinda limited. but platform mechanics when combined with our dair, fair, arrow, and fall through aerial arsenal, plus if you wing refresh (the wind-box), will surely keep you safe for the most part against most characters. then you go out and up and air camp more, and with our great moveset for platform combat, they are always at risk to approach. and hell if we just land and jab as they try to board that platform, it gets them away to give us positional advantage. oh ya, fall through rising nair and uair is OP on like SV. oh ya, and of course (unless it's metaknight) safe to scrooge down from the SV platform to the other side and camp it out with arrows and aerials till you get to either WOI-land or aerial land or both on that platform perfectly safe, oh ya mirror shield is also a good option to land with sometimes. and also we can ledge hop platform cancel if we wanna plank until it comes back to that side.
Onstage Gameplay:
321 GO
first off i charge an arrow, and see what happens. they side step or shield i charge it more then release. whether it hits them or not i fire 2 spam speed arrows at them, one of which usually hits. based on how they are approaching, i will either wait for an opportunity to get a jab or i will retreat with either dair>arrow or just run away arrow. now compared to other pit mains, i do not rely on fsmash as my kill move, so i use both it and jab as much as possible, especially on a super slide forwards (shoutouts to zulo for telling me about that). i also like WOI>fairs/bairs. also, bear with me on this, i've found personally that in high level play, dair>footstool>WOI Lock set up is viable in use at lower percents to punish rolls. It shouldn't work, but it sure does.
Back to damage racking, i abuse my fthrow dash attack combos. a lot of times if you just shield after, they will airdodge and you can grab them again and do a uthrow>arrow>uair string. another way to rack damage is to semi tech chase with 3hit jab. just do the hit to punish a side step or mis-spaced attack, then walk forward and do another jab. it works, and if they shield, do the infinite. fun fact, people will run back into the jab infinite if you hold it there a few seconds. grabs in general are great for pit, use them to get good positioning.
Grab Stuff
since i started talking about grabs with pit, i may as well tell you guys all my knowledge on the use of pit's grabs that i have gained through experiance, and couple of esca tricks i was shown.
fthrow- this is pit's best throw. it sets up for so many possibities. here are those set ups:
Esca's Trap: on characters we chaingrab, we can do a psuedo 0-death each time. take them to ledge and air release them. immediately start charging an arrow, then wait to read their airdodge and eat their jump. from here it is just a gimp whether it's mirror shield or a fair string to oblivion or a footstool or a bair.
The Fogo Theory: quote fogo, "yo maharba, that fthrow to fsmash is pretty good. but think about this, if you were to just do the chaingrabs into dash attack and then shield, most people will either dodge or attack and that sets you up to grab them and then do a pit throw string. like the one with your uthrow>arrow>uair, that's around an extra fifty percent or more sometimes based on how you can follow up that uair, hell it could be a gimp."
Backlash- at low percents, we can bthrow>dash attack guarenteed true combo. and it sure does set up a great edguarding scenario, especially if you start jabbing right afterwords. or just a landing read on the stage. the choice is yours.
Esca's Dthrow Setups: im quoting a txt on my phone from around whobo3. "d throw them and stand still and watch their DI. if they go back, free bair. forward, free fair/regrab. if they don't, they're ****ed"
Platform Lock Setup- on BF when standing under a side platform, we can dthrow>WOI>fair lock and, while it's not guarenteed, it does auto cancel and usually beat whatever they react with.
Dthrow>Nair: dthrow to full hop fall retreating nair is actually really good on some characters like snake and fox and bunch of other people because the retreat has a pull that can mess up DI and they get hit by the last hit usually get them at lower percents. it can also be used to put people on platforms just to knock the off with nair and follow up.
random note. grounded grab releasing people by pummling with down c-stick and doing so to buffer a dsmash actually does get people of guard. and it's frame five high priority.
If you are on a stage with platforms, you need to be king of all the platforms on that stage. battle field can be circle camped forever with pit's jumping airdodge (his rising/moving airdodge is actually great, it just sucks for landing) then landing with a WOI that is now wing refreshed go out of reach and air camp some more. On SV you can either scrooge or dair camp that platform across the stage while shooting arrows. just remember what's writin above.
Getting the Kill With & Without Fsmash (the latter being my specialty, use of bair specifically)
Luckay4Lyphe's video's got me addicted to wing chase pivot bair to get people, and since then i've gotten really good at using it as an offstage threat or chasing someone down and just using it when they land or under some platforms just jump up and do it. set it up with weak bair>crit or nair (based on DI)>crit, or just fall off and hit them with it as they use a recovery move. but ya ill chase someone down if the pressure is right and i can think i can risk low-mid inexchange for stock determining reward. sharking it also *****, as well as if you can get extended crit box at like brinstar. however sharking with bair is always great, however you do have to becareful of getting spiked if you aren't smart about your placement, especially wolf and falco and marth. ike could also be tricky with that dtilt. but it still works good on them and great on characters like snake, DDD, DK, RoB, diddy kong, fox, pikachu based on which stage we're sharking, because you gotta watch for jolts on some stages. tbh this works on pretty much everybody, hell you can sometimes even suprise an unsuspecting MK for a suprise 90% kill stage center. but actually against mk planked uair is always safest, then spaced fair. but really you should just away from MK the entire match, punish what you can, use spaced dtilt to punish whenever you can because it always gets him away, and abuse the fact that our glide is faster and our WOI movement is the fastest, farthest reaching, super mobility enhancing move in the god damn game.
sidenote on this MK MU: if you keep running around the map, sometimes just jump back and throw bair out and it'll hit as they chase you and get taken by suprise.
**** you olimar, between fair and bair your *** is mine. grounded invincible super priority extended range hitbox with knockback reward aerial attacks *****. by the way WOI and fair both retreating and approaching can overwhelm olimar at certain times due to pit's super priority in this matchup. did you know if we get close enough our dsmash, jab, dtilt, and dash attack will hit him before his pikmin grabs or hits us and usually kill some pikmin? it's cool. but fair is definately the top tier tool in this match up. followed dash attack. which is then followed by either doing a jab>grab or jab infinite to destroy him and his pikmin if near a ledge, and if you end quick it tends to set us up for a grab based on DI of the olimar. then that Dtilt is next. now because getting olimar in the air above him is pit's specialty, this is a MU where you need to use bair as your kill move of choice because you have so many ways of getting the kill with it. if they get hit far off, arrow him and then edgehog. or he'll just die because he is light. oh ya, your wind box counts a refresher move once for each pikmin it hits that can be hit when you use and it gives ff fair a bigger hitbox that beasts olimar's demon soul. (sorry about the random olimar info in the kill section, i was pretty high when i typed it right there when i did, however it's all true so i leave it)
but ya, WOI aerials are great for getting kills and gimp setups.
Now, there are those who can know which MUs to master getting in killer fsmashes as their kill move. well ill say i attack weirdly with fsmash anymore since that spaced slide throws people off and it can be pretty suprising out of nowhere. so that is one way to do it. oh and another way to really throw someone off with super slide is run through them>pivot super slide charging fsmash> they see and hear it and instictively spotdodge>punishing a spot dodge with a powerful fsmash. don't ever do this twice to the same person in that match though. it will not work.
otherways are to just read their landing and punish it with fsmash. this works pretty good on snake and punishing MK's glide attack sometimes and of course for punishing rolls. oh ya and stutter step fsmash is another great way assult and to punish.
How To Spike Offstage With Pit
yes we can spike people offstage with multiple setups and minimul risk (unless it's like MK). how do you do it you ask? ALL PITS NEED TO BE GOOD AT FOOTSTOOLING. footstooling is a broken gimping tool with pit. there are so many ways to set up a footstool and pit's general height and fall speed is good for quick below the ledge footstools even on metaknight at certain times. we can wing refresh chase them, we can be ballzy at the end and just go for the low footstool wind spike and not be in a real bad position to recover (i mean it's WOI). hell this one tactic can ruin a DDD, a DK, a Snake (as well as wind spiking his c4 recovery so that it keeps c4stun), and other characters, and we are designed to do it. think about it, we have 3 air jumps and a WOI to try and get footstools on character's. and pit's fall speed is good for getting footstools as well. i mean ya a lot of times a fair or bair can/will suffice, but that's not the point. the point is that pit's need to learn how broken footstooling is and abuse it more. it can even be a kamamkazi double footstool or hell a triple footstool rarely. just try to implement this tactic into general gameplay. (oh ya, i guess footstool cancel could be listed but i ain't done it more than once in game on a person).
oh ya, weak rising bair can true combo into a footstool.
A great move for getting the kill is also dash attack. as pit players, we should be patient enough to wait until we can kill with dash attack if necessary in plenty of MUs. it's frame 7, so it's not slow, and can be set up out of something simple like pivot arrow. dash attack out of shield is a great punisher as well even below kill percents. it sets up combos and strings (like dash attack>utilts>uair) or if you just shield their landing, you can get a grab off of it. it can be combo-ed into out of bthrow and fthrow for quite a while. eventually it sets for uairs and juggling scenarios. it's just overall a great move.
MISC (even though my whole thing has kinda been misc info lol)
So yeah, I just realized i haven't even covered my most unique trait as pit in detail yet, so ill do it all in red because i can. so archangels and cherubim *looks at fyre,* without further ado
The Maharba Arrow Style
Arrows, they are the sole heart of pit's camping game. While his other moves are good, this one move outclasses all other projectiles in the game. As it charges it also gains power, increasing it's damage up to 11% and it's knockback to high frame advantage and up/outward push.
Now combine the fact that charge can throw off their pace with the fact that im an excellent arrow looper allows me for a few mindgames and read setups that tend to be successfull. However, don't lose sight of the fact that straight, up, curved, and snaked arrows are usually the best option do to speed and spacing.
1. My Basic Arrow Camp-
As earlier stated i will start the match off by charging an arrow. sometimes i will release it upwards to do a loop to their back just to show that my loops are a threat, but most of the time i will just release it on their shield or after they sidestep/roll. based on what they do after that, i usually fire a normal arrow and prepare to either shield or retreating aerial or jab or grab. Also, when camping try to keep planted near the ledge or under a platform. that way you have solid options of retreat if necessary. if you are near the ledge you can just shield and grab the edge. if you are under a platform you can woi up and cancel it or something else.
2. Airrow Camping-
Alot of the time, especially against other characters with projectiles, i like to jump and arrow down over their projectile safely (lazers, grenades, pikmin). When in the air, you are pretty safe with dair, glide, fair, and mirror, not to mention WOI mix ups. This is also good in conjuntion with platforms, and with b reversal from the ledge.
3. Space Control-
purposely missing with arrows aimed at a specific point to force your opponent to pick a different option. I will use an MU example for this.
Say you are playing against peach. You don't want her coming in with floats right. so you keep firing up slanted arrows so that she will not jump so that she has to come from the ground, thus putting you at an advantage. now peach has ways of getting in, but as long as you are limiting her space with arrows, it becomes easier.
you can also limit certain grounded approaches by charging and spamming arrows at certain angles. slanting it down forces kirby and sonic to approach, as well as others (like snake, pika, and other crawlers).
also, when combined with proper looping, it can control cqc space as well. however, notice i said proper looping. let me explain my views on looping.
there are many differents ways to get certain space control with arrows. especially when combined with proper looping and such.
4. Looping-
loops are useful. they set up specific traps and limit specific areas. however, they must be when you are safe or when you are doing it as a read. Some good read set ups are:
-shooting an arrow as they air dodge so that it comes down as they are finishing it set up a frame trap for fsmash or grab or dair or bair or anything based on what space you were controlling, hell you can even set up uairs and glairs with it. the ones you will find most usefull though are grabs, fsmashes, jabs, and dairs in that order.
all this being said, do not forget that as pit, there are a lot of different options we have for many scenarios besides looping. with all our woi tactics, our jab, our aerials, footstooling, don't loop at the expense of the better option, make sure it was the best option for the moment!
Also, i would just like to say nobody uses enough mirror shield let alone correctly. however i have been implementing it into my game more and it does help a lot for the random areas it defends.
IDK if there is more for me to put in, but if so, then:
To Be Continued
allright, i basically just covered sections of stuff in no real order. sorry but without further ado......
Recovery
*note, every time i am forced to the ledge, i plank for a bit. there is no reason not too*
-Above the stage
When i recover from up high there are a few different ways i like to get down. But before i do that, i like to start a glide. with a glide i like to glide to the oposite side of the stage near always. it forces the opponent to move after you. now if you have good placement you can dive directly onto a ledge which is one of my favorite things to do. also, you can just glide to the other side, fall, and then WOI under the stage to the other side, this is my favorite way of getting back to at least the ledge. On another note, I also have really gotten into diveboming (the WOI one) to the stage because getting down the cancel timing is easy and it is just so fast that it usually is really safe.
-From a horizantal Medium
from here unless i can safe glide or WOI onto the stage, i will either just grab the ledge and plank or just go straight to the below options.
-Below the stage
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER WHEN RECOVERING BELOW THE STAGE IS THIS. IF YOUR OPPONENT IS NEAR THAT HALF OF THE STAGE, IT IS ALWAYS SAFER TO JUST GO UNDER TO THE OTHER SIDE, OR AT LEAST FAKE IT HALFWAY AND TURN BACK. seriously, not even MK can catch us in WOI, nobody can. and as long as you aren't dumb when you weave projectiles shot under the stage after you, you will always get there at least long enough to plank a bit. I've seen so many pits get gimped very unnecessarily because they tried to challenge an opponent and take that ledge when there is a perfectly open ledge on the other side.
The Maharba Battle Style
To start off, if i can help it, i NEVER EVER (this is no longer true, see my edit directly below) approach. pit is the only character in this game whose ability to force the approach cannot be challenged. He outcamps every single character in this game with no exception. also, while camping, i stay near a ledge so that way even if i can't push them back/start a string while onstage, i fall onto the ledge where my defensive capability is buffed to an extreme degree due to our top notch planking capabilities and procede to put in some work.
Edit:
as i have gotten better i no longer camp even when i am down. i have learned that there are times when you have to go offensive. but smartly. some of the ways i approach when we are both at neutral stage positions is run up to them and immediately roll behind them. this is a great surprise when used sparingly. don't get predictable with it or you will get punished hard.
walking up and spacing jabs, fairs, ftilts, and dtilts is another way i approach. but im sure we all do this.
specifically with short hop approach mix ups, spacing fair>ftilt is pretty solid. and it's harder to punish because they are both safe when spaced on shield.
something ive been doing as well is say we're "boxing" doin some cqc. if they shield instead of just grabbing or infinite jabbing sometimes ill wingdash behind them and punish their shield drop with a retreating turn around fair out of the wingdash. it's a pretty good mixup imo. there's other stuff i do but i don't really know how to write it all down.
planking can be done in many ways with all of our moves. however there a few ways to plank that are generally the most effective against most characters. for spacies, ICs, MK, and most others the basic 2 uairs through the stage with some arrows, maybe some jump dair, and definitely fair mixup here and there is the most effective planking method. however against some characters like peach, zss, marth, and such it is best to do a retreating uair then a returning uair with arrow/fair/jump dair mixup because if you just hug the stage and uair, their disjoints (peach's dair, marth's fsmash, zss's stun) can hit you.
then there is the snake planking method, where you use the first method combined with WOI-ing his grenades back at him. The best time to WOI his grenades is right as he drops them so that they fly back towards him as he retreats causing him to either shield or retreat futher. there are other characters who need careful types of planking but in general these are the main ways to succeed for me.
I also take advantage of our ability to air and platform camp ridiculously safe in almost all MUs (the exception being MK). At BF, i will airdodge/Wing Refresh/Dair camp the top platform and mixup between landing with WOI on a different platform or the ground to get Wing Refresh and air camp more. I also severely abuse scrooging when possible. One way to scrooge is by gliding under the stage (stopping before you get to the other ledge), jumping twice, and then WOI-ing to either side. If you want to be a real ****, you will first Wing Refresh under the stage, then glide, jump twice, and then WOI again.
The other way to scrooge is the SV/Frigate method where there is platform to glide to while defending that platform. To mix this one up on SV, try slow gliding over the platform above the stage (against certain characters) or using your 4 jumps to dair camp it as it moves across the stage (it works out to where our four jumps while dair-ing lasts the length of it's travel). While on the platform it is important to abuse the hell out of your arrows because this is how openings for more devastating things are made. Also if they happen to try and take the platform from you while it is floating offstage, fall through and uair them till they get off or are knocked off by the move (you can also mix it up with bair for early kills and your other aerials for different results, as well as arrows from below). You can also try read their approach and punish with the appropriate move/grab.
now, i just added this to let you guys know the reasoning behind why i try to air camp so much with platforms. normally when landing pit's options are kinda limited. but platform mechanics when combined with our dair, fair, arrow, and fall through aerial arsenal, plus if you wing refresh (the wind-box), will surely keep you safe for the most part against most characters. then you go out and up and air camp more, and with our great moveset for platform combat, they are always at risk to approach. and hell if we just land and jab as they try to board that platform, it gets them away to give us positional advantage. oh ya, fall through rising nair and uair is OP on like SV. oh ya, and of course (unless it's metaknight) safe to scrooge down from the SV platform to the other side and camp it out with arrows and aerials till you get to either WOI-land or aerial land or both on that platform perfectly safe, oh ya mirror shield is also a good option to land with sometimes. and also we can ledge hop platform cancel if we wanna plank until it comes back to that side.
Onstage Gameplay:
321 GO
first off i charge an arrow, and see what happens. they side step or shield i charge it more then release. whether it hits them or not i fire 2 spam speed arrows at them, one of which usually hits. based on how they are approaching, i will either wait for an opportunity to get a jab or i will retreat with either dair>arrow or just run away arrow. now compared to other pit mains, i do not rely on fsmash as my kill move, so i use both it and jab as much as possible, especially on a super slide forwards (shoutouts to zulo for telling me about that). i also like WOI>fairs/bairs. also, bear with me on this, i've found personally that in high level play, dair>footstool>WOI Lock set up is viable in use at lower percents to punish rolls. It shouldn't work, but it sure does.
Back to damage racking, i abuse my fthrow dash attack combos. a lot of times if you just shield after, they will airdodge and you can grab them again and do a uthrow>arrow>uair string. another way to rack damage is to semi tech chase with 3hit jab. just do the hit to punish a side step or mis-spaced attack, then walk forward and do another jab. it works, and if they shield, do the infinite. fun fact, people will run back into the jab infinite if you hold it there a few seconds. grabs in general are great for pit, use them to get good positioning.
Grab Stuff
since i started talking about grabs with pit, i may as well tell you guys all my knowledge on the use of pit's grabs that i have gained through experiance, and couple of esca tricks i was shown.
fthrow- this is pit's best throw. it sets up for so many possibities. here are those set ups:
Esca's Trap: on characters we chaingrab, we can do a psuedo 0-death each time. take them to ledge and air release them. immediately start charging an arrow, then wait to read their airdodge and eat their jump. from here it is just a gimp whether it's mirror shield or a fair string to oblivion or a footstool or a bair.
The Fogo Theory: quote fogo, "yo maharba, that fthrow to fsmash is pretty good. but think about this, if you were to just do the chaingrabs into dash attack and then shield, most people will either dodge or attack and that sets you up to grab them and then do a pit throw string. like the one with your uthrow>arrow>uair, that's around an extra fifty percent or more sometimes based on how you can follow up that uair, hell it could be a gimp."
Backlash- at low percents, we can bthrow>dash attack guarenteed true combo. and it sure does set up a great edguarding scenario, especially if you start jabbing right afterwords. or just a landing read on the stage. the choice is yours.
Esca's Dthrow Setups: im quoting a txt on my phone from around whobo3. "d throw them and stand still and watch their DI. if they go back, free bair. forward, free fair/regrab. if they don't, they're ****ed"
Platform Lock Setup- on BF when standing under a side platform, we can dthrow>WOI>fair lock and, while it's not guarenteed, it does auto cancel and usually beat whatever they react with.
Dthrow>Nair: dthrow to full hop fall retreating nair is actually really good on some characters like snake and fox and bunch of other people because the retreat has a pull that can mess up DI and they get hit by the last hit usually get them at lower percents. it can also be used to put people on platforms just to knock the off with nair and follow up.
random note. grounded grab releasing people by pummling with down c-stick and doing so to buffer a dsmash actually does get people of guard. and it's frame five high priority.
If you are on a stage with platforms, you need to be king of all the platforms on that stage. battle field can be circle camped forever with pit's jumping airdodge (his rising/moving airdodge is actually great, it just sucks for landing) then landing with a WOI that is now wing refreshed go out of reach and air camp some more. On SV you can either scrooge or dair camp that platform across the stage while shooting arrows. just remember what's writin above.
Getting the Kill With & Without Fsmash (the latter being my specialty, use of bair specifically)
Luckay4Lyphe's video's got me addicted to wing chase pivot bair to get people, and since then i've gotten really good at using it as an offstage threat or chasing someone down and just using it when they land or under some platforms just jump up and do it. set it up with weak bair>crit or nair (based on DI)>crit, or just fall off and hit them with it as they use a recovery move. but ya ill chase someone down if the pressure is right and i can think i can risk low-mid inexchange for stock determining reward. sharking it also *****, as well as if you can get extended crit box at like brinstar. however sharking with bair is always great, however you do have to becareful of getting spiked if you aren't smart about your placement, especially wolf and falco and marth. ike could also be tricky with that dtilt. but it still works good on them and great on characters like snake, DDD, DK, RoB, diddy kong, fox, pikachu based on which stage we're sharking, because you gotta watch for jolts on some stages. tbh this works on pretty much everybody, hell you can sometimes even suprise an unsuspecting MK for a suprise 90% kill stage center. but actually against mk planked uair is always safest, then spaced fair. but really you should just away from MK the entire match, punish what you can, use spaced dtilt to punish whenever you can because it always gets him away, and abuse the fact that our glide is faster and our WOI movement is the fastest, farthest reaching, super mobility enhancing move in the god damn game.
sidenote on this MK MU: if you keep running around the map, sometimes just jump back and throw bair out and it'll hit as they chase you and get taken by suprise.
**** you olimar, between fair and bair your *** is mine. grounded invincible super priority extended range hitbox with knockback reward aerial attacks *****. by the way WOI and fair both retreating and approaching can overwhelm olimar at certain times due to pit's super priority in this matchup. did you know if we get close enough our dsmash, jab, dtilt, and dash attack will hit him before his pikmin grabs or hits us and usually kill some pikmin? it's cool. but fair is definately the top tier tool in this match up. followed dash attack. which is then followed by either doing a jab>grab or jab infinite to destroy him and his pikmin if near a ledge, and if you end quick it tends to set us up for a grab based on DI of the olimar. then that Dtilt is next. now because getting olimar in the air above him is pit's specialty, this is a MU where you need to use bair as your kill move of choice because you have so many ways of getting the kill with it. if they get hit far off, arrow him and then edgehog. or he'll just die because he is light. oh ya, your wind box counts a refresher move once for each pikmin it hits that can be hit when you use and it gives ff fair a bigger hitbox that beasts olimar's demon soul. (sorry about the random olimar info in the kill section, i was pretty high when i typed it right there when i did, however it's all true so i leave it)
but ya, WOI aerials are great for getting kills and gimp setups.
Now, there are those who can know which MUs to master getting in killer fsmashes as their kill move. well ill say i attack weirdly with fsmash anymore since that spaced slide throws people off and it can be pretty suprising out of nowhere. so that is one way to do it. oh and another way to really throw someone off with super slide is run through them>pivot super slide charging fsmash> they see and hear it and instictively spotdodge>punishing a spot dodge with a powerful fsmash. don't ever do this twice to the same person in that match though. it will not work.
otherways are to just read their landing and punish it with fsmash. this works pretty good on snake and punishing MK's glide attack sometimes and of course for punishing rolls. oh ya and stutter step fsmash is another great way assult and to punish.
How To Spike Offstage With Pit
yes we can spike people offstage with multiple setups and minimul risk (unless it's like MK). how do you do it you ask? ALL PITS NEED TO BE GOOD AT FOOTSTOOLING. footstooling is a broken gimping tool with pit. there are so many ways to set up a footstool and pit's general height and fall speed is good for quick below the ledge footstools even on metaknight at certain times. we can wing refresh chase them, we can be ballzy at the end and just go for the low footstool wind spike and not be in a real bad position to recover (i mean it's WOI). hell this one tactic can ruin a DDD, a DK, a Snake (as well as wind spiking his c4 recovery so that it keeps c4stun), and other characters, and we are designed to do it. think about it, we have 3 air jumps and a WOI to try and get footstools on character's. and pit's fall speed is good for getting footstools as well. i mean ya a lot of times a fair or bair can/will suffice, but that's not the point. the point is that pit's need to learn how broken footstooling is and abuse it more. it can even be a kamamkazi double footstool or hell a triple footstool rarely. just try to implement this tactic into general gameplay. (oh ya, i guess footstool cancel could be listed but i ain't done it more than once in game on a person).
oh ya, weak rising bair can true combo into a footstool.
A great move for getting the kill is also dash attack. as pit players, we should be patient enough to wait until we can kill with dash attack if necessary in plenty of MUs. it's frame 7, so it's not slow, and can be set up out of something simple like pivot arrow. dash attack out of shield is a great punisher as well even below kill percents. it sets up combos and strings (like dash attack>utilts>uair) or if you just shield their landing, you can get a grab off of it. it can be combo-ed into out of bthrow and fthrow for quite a while. eventually it sets for uairs and juggling scenarios. it's just overall a great move.
MISC (even though my whole thing has kinda been misc info lol)
So yeah, I just realized i haven't even covered my most unique trait as pit in detail yet, so ill do it all in red because i can. so archangels and cherubim *looks at fyre,* without further ado
The Maharba Arrow Style
Arrows, they are the sole heart of pit's camping game. While his other moves are good, this one move outclasses all other projectiles in the game. As it charges it also gains power, increasing it's damage up to 11% and it's knockback to high frame advantage and up/outward push.
Now combine the fact that charge can throw off their pace with the fact that im an excellent arrow looper allows me for a few mindgames and read setups that tend to be successfull. However, don't lose sight of the fact that straight, up, curved, and snaked arrows are usually the best option do to speed and spacing.
1. My Basic Arrow Camp-
As earlier stated i will start the match off by charging an arrow. sometimes i will release it upwards to do a loop to their back just to show that my loops are a threat, but most of the time i will just release it on their shield or after they sidestep/roll. based on what they do after that, i usually fire a normal arrow and prepare to either shield or retreating aerial or jab or grab. Also, when camping try to keep planted near the ledge or under a platform. that way you have solid options of retreat if necessary. if you are near the ledge you can just shield and grab the edge. if you are under a platform you can woi up and cancel it or something else.
2. Airrow Camping-
Alot of the time, especially against other characters with projectiles, i like to jump and arrow down over their projectile safely (lazers, grenades, pikmin). When in the air, you are pretty safe with dair, glide, fair, and mirror, not to mention WOI mix ups. This is also good in conjuntion with platforms, and with b reversal from the ledge.
3. Space Control-
purposely missing with arrows aimed at a specific point to force your opponent to pick a different option. I will use an MU example for this.
Say you are playing against peach. You don't want her coming in with floats right. so you keep firing up slanted arrows so that she will not jump so that she has to come from the ground, thus putting you at an advantage. now peach has ways of getting in, but as long as you are limiting her space with arrows, it becomes easier.
you can also limit certain grounded approaches by charging and spamming arrows at certain angles. slanting it down forces kirby and sonic to approach, as well as others (like snake, pika, and other crawlers).
also, when combined with proper looping, it can control cqc space as well. however, notice i said proper looping. let me explain my views on looping.
there are many differents ways to get certain space control with arrows. especially when combined with proper looping and such.
4. Looping-
loops are useful. they set up specific traps and limit specific areas. however, they must be when you are safe or when you are doing it as a read. Some good read set ups are:
-shooting an arrow as they air dodge so that it comes down as they are finishing it set up a frame trap for fsmash or grab or dair or bair or anything based on what space you were controlling, hell you can even set up uairs and glairs with it. the ones you will find most usefull though are grabs, fsmashes, jabs, and dairs in that order.
all this being said, do not forget that as pit, there are a lot of different options we have for many scenarios besides looping. with all our woi tactics, our jab, our aerials, footstooling, don't loop at the expense of the better option, make sure it was the best option for the moment!
Also, i would just like to say nobody uses enough mirror shield let alone correctly. however i have been implementing it into my game more and it does help a lot for the random areas it defends.
IDK if there is more for me to put in, but if so, then:
To Be Continued