Hokori
Great King of Evil
Can't figure out the secrets of the Monado's power? Need a new prescription to get your Visions right? Winning doesn't seem like a piece of cake? This just might be the place for you! If you have any questions about Shulk in Smash 4, feel free to ask them here, and fellow Shulk players will be around to assist you.
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Q: Buster's knockback reduction makes it easier to combo, right?
A: No. The knockback reduction also affects the hitsun which kind of hinders Shulk's combo potential in buster art. This might not be a problem if you're fighting a lightweight or if the opponent's health is at ~50%+
Q: Does Monado speed also increase your attack speed?
A: No. Monado Speed increases ground speed, air speed & traction. It also decreases jump height & his damage by 20%
Q: Does Monado jump increase your recovery, air speed and falling speed?
A: Yes. Shulk's overall recovery improves immensely. W/o customs, Jump Shulk's short hop & full hop jump the highest & his doublejump rivals Mewtwo's & Yoshi's doublejump. His air speed becomes the fastest in the game w/o customs. His fall speed is also significantly increased to match around Falco's fall speed, & the vertical height to both hits of Air Slash are greatly improved too.
Q: Does Vision countering get harder each time you use it?
A: The counter frame window shortens after each successive use. Otherwise, your Vision refreshes after dying.
Q: Can you quickly switch out of a currently used Monado Art
A: Yes, you can even switch Arts even during hitstun, but once you deactivate that Art it'll go on cooldown
Q: How long is the duration & cooldown for Monado arts, Decisive arts, & Hyper arts?
A: Monado arts last for exactly 16 seconds (960 frames) & about 10 seconds of cooldown
Decisive arts last for exactly 20 seconds (1200 frames) & about 5 seconds of cooldown
Hyper arts last for exactly 6 seconds (360 frames) & about 15 seconds of cooldown
Q: Is back slash actually useful for something?
A: Actually. . .yes, yes it is. The recent 1.1.0 patch buffed Back Slash, so now the move's startup being Frame 22 instead of the old Frame 31 allows it to be a better mix-up punish option especially used for ledge reads & cross-ups.
Q: Where is the monado's sweetspot?
A: It's kinda complicated but for the most part, the Blade is Shulk's dominant sweetspot in the majority of his attacks, though there are a few exceptions to this. The Blade as a term itself is used to describe the red monado sword Shulk swings around. If you want to find out more about Shulk's sweetspots, check the info in this original post
Q: Can Shulk perform combos
A: It's possible but he's not primarily a combo character. He's more of a mid-range character. With jump, speed, and buster art, he can perform combos
Q: Does timing your counter affect the variation used?
A: No. You can use the second variation (aka: the stronger one) by simply moving the circle pad forward
Q: Does Shulk's counter scale with the countered attack's damage?
A: Yes. Something important to note is when countering a move that deals high enough damage to become Vision's damage, the damage won't change if you use the Forwarded variation. Though, the Forwarded variation definitely deals more knockback growth.
Q: How do you deactivate an art?
A: Press the special button 3 consecutive times or hold the special button for 1 second. However, deactivating the art by holding it means you must only hold that button & perform nothing else. This makes you very limited & so it's best to just press 3 times.
Q: How do you perform the stronger variation of Vision counter?
A: Hold your direction towards the direction Shulk is facing during the counter window.
Q: What are some good moves to use for starting the buffered art's deactivation?
A: Generally you cannot deactivate an art during a lot of things seen here, but good moves include:
- Dtilt
- Throw preferably Dthrow
- Ledgejump
- shield drop
Q: How do you use Monado arts?
A: Go to this thread
Q: I need help with the match ups.... Any tips?
A: Go to this thread
Q: Can Little Mac's KO punch be countered?
A: No. The aerial version can be countered but not the grounded version
Q: Does Monado Jump affect your weight?
A: No. The Jump arts do not affect Shulk's weight. On one hand, the Jump arts add extra knockback taken due to the increased damage received. On the other hand, the Jump arts also increase Shulk's fall speed which helps resist against vertical knockback, but this also causes Shulk to be prone to being juggled in the air by aerial combos
Q: Is Monado Speed's damage output really severe?
A: No. It sounds bad at first. 20% damage decrease seems to be horrible, but with all the mobility you get, it's not that bad. Also, the damage decrease isn't that bad because the damage output is comparable to pre 1.04 Vanilla Shulk. Although that isn't saying much about its damage output
Q: Is Monado Buster risky?
A: No. Increased damage output means that your attacks have much more shield pressure. In addition to that, the lowered knockback allows you to apply more pressure on the opponent. The damage increase of buster is amazing (+40%) while its defense reduction (-13%) is nothing compared to the potential reward you can gain from using the art
Q: How risky is Monado Smash?
A: Yes. Using Smash at neutral is almost impossible and not advisable due to your decreased damage output. Your attacks are extremely unsafe on shield. Smash art is an extremely situational art only used for KO'ing if you can. You need to put the opponent at a positional disadvantage or you need to switch to Smash precisely once you string into an f-tilt or f-smash to actually utilize Smash art safely
Q: Does the Decisive arts have the same drawbacks like the Monado arts?
A: Mostly yes
Decisive Jump & Monado Jump take the same amount of knockback.
Decisive Speed & Monado Speed deal the same damage.
Decisive Shield & Monado Shield deal the same damage, jump height, ground speed, & air speed.
Decisive Buster & Monado Buster take the same amount of knockback & deal the same amount of knockback.
Decisive Smash & Monado Smash deal the same damage & take the same amount of knockback.
However, Decisive Speed does have a lower jump height stat than Monado Speed
Q: What part of the tier list is Shulk in?
A: No
Q: Does n-air auto-cancel
A: No
Q: Does Shulk have any aerials that auto-cancel from SH?
A: Lol no
Q: Is this the Q&A thread?
A: nope
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