Proverbs
Smash Lord
Disclaimer: I do not main Zelda. Out of my top five most used characters she is number 4. The lower two characters I do not take too seriously. I am also not writing a walkthrough here. I'm only beginning one for someone more qualified to finish (except in the case that I begin taking her more seriously, but I feel that even number 5, G&W, has a better chance as she used to be my secondary before my friend started maining her and then ditched her for Metaknight). All of that being said, let me begin:
Yes, you read the title correctly. That does say sourspots.
It seems to me that some people are "Falling out of love with Zelda," as a previous thread was named, and I can see why. Zelda is a powerhouse, a ridiculous combination of spammable projectiles that force others to approach while you rack up damage and easily executed smashes (Remember when the sliding u-smash would get your friends every time?). Let's not forget her famous lightening kicks (that is why I have aptly named these attacks "The High Heel of Death"). Put that together with a female character that is seemingly weak (consider her Melee self, especially) and you have an extremely attractive character.
But what happens now? Your friends catch on to your obvious smashes, Din's Fire is a joke to them that they chuckle at as they dodge, and they watch out for those oh-so-deadly kicks. So what now? You're stuck with a character that has a stale strategy that's slow and can't juggle for her life--not to mention being weak from below and having a ridiculous lag time after Farore's Wind.
So Zelda went from being the slender house of hidden power to the unattractive and overweight loser who couldn't move her self to save her life from the likes of Metaknight or Marth. So what now? Is there any saving grace or is Zelda doomed to become just slightly above low tier again?
Hardly, Zelda has a lot more tricks up her sleeve than I think we're willing to admit.
Zelda's sourspots are one of the few things that can lead, in my opinion, to legitimate combos when utilized correctly. Use platforms and weak attacks to knock someone down, use a sour d-air into other weak attacks such as an f-tilt into a major attack like an f-smash, then follow up to edgeguard.
If done correctly you could be looking at perhaps a 30% combo that can bring them from the useless point in which you can do nothing to the percentage that we all strive to achieve--that at which she can KO at most reliably.
I actually have a video of a match of me against some CPU Pokemon Trainer as training for myself. But near the end of the match I end up racking up this giant combo on the burning house part of Pokemon Stadium. I did something incredibly similar to what I mentioned above. I'm not sure exactly what I did, but I think I came out with around a five or seven hit combo that I think ended in an f-smash and set up for a Lightening Kick edgeguard as Charizard tried to recover.
Granted, that was a CPU, so it might not work the same exact way. However, I think there is much potential to be found in these sourspots. The fact that it was Charizard is more important, however. The more heavily weighted characters will be easier to do this on and that needs to be taken into consideration. But all in all, I would say that the same combo would have worked on a human player (maybe with the exception of the lightening kick which they might have been able to dodge and still recover).
I have the replay if you want to watch it and see what you can draw from it and use for your playstyle. I can't upload it but I can send it to someone here.
Also, just throwing this out there but running into a shorthopped u-air that will come right above on a platform is something that will help your game a ton. I know this is obvious, but if you're finding your Zelda lacking, chances are you could incorporate this more on stages like Pokemon Stadium or Battlefield.
Thoughts? Comments? Flames?
Yes, you read the title correctly. That does say sourspots.
It seems to me that some people are "Falling out of love with Zelda," as a previous thread was named, and I can see why. Zelda is a powerhouse, a ridiculous combination of spammable projectiles that force others to approach while you rack up damage and easily executed smashes (Remember when the sliding u-smash would get your friends every time?). Let's not forget her famous lightening kicks (that is why I have aptly named these attacks "The High Heel of Death"). Put that together with a female character that is seemingly weak (consider her Melee self, especially) and you have an extremely attractive character.
But what happens now? Your friends catch on to your obvious smashes, Din's Fire is a joke to them that they chuckle at as they dodge, and they watch out for those oh-so-deadly kicks. So what now? You're stuck with a character that has a stale strategy that's slow and can't juggle for her life--not to mention being weak from below and having a ridiculous lag time after Farore's Wind.
So Zelda went from being the slender house of hidden power to the unattractive and overweight loser who couldn't move her self to save her life from the likes of Metaknight or Marth. So what now? Is there any saving grace or is Zelda doomed to become just slightly above low tier again?
Hardly, Zelda has a lot more tricks up her sleeve than I think we're willing to admit.
Zelda's sourspots are one of the few things that can lead, in my opinion, to legitimate combos when utilized correctly. Use platforms and weak attacks to knock someone down, use a sour d-air into other weak attacks such as an f-tilt into a major attack like an f-smash, then follow up to edgeguard.
If done correctly you could be looking at perhaps a 30% combo that can bring them from the useless point in which you can do nothing to the percentage that we all strive to achieve--that at which she can KO at most reliably.
I actually have a video of a match of me against some CPU Pokemon Trainer as training for myself. But near the end of the match I end up racking up this giant combo on the burning house part of Pokemon Stadium. I did something incredibly similar to what I mentioned above. I'm not sure exactly what I did, but I think I came out with around a five or seven hit combo that I think ended in an f-smash and set up for a Lightening Kick edgeguard as Charizard tried to recover.
Granted, that was a CPU, so it might not work the same exact way. However, I think there is much potential to be found in these sourspots. The fact that it was Charizard is more important, however. The more heavily weighted characters will be easier to do this on and that needs to be taken into consideration. But all in all, I would say that the same combo would have worked on a human player (maybe with the exception of the lightening kick which they might have been able to dodge and still recover).
I have the replay if you want to watch it and see what you can draw from it and use for your playstyle. I can't upload it but I can send it to someone here.
Also, just throwing this out there but running into a shorthopped u-air that will come right above on a platform is something that will help your game a ton. I know this is obvious, but if you're finding your Zelda lacking, chances are you could incorporate this more on stages like Pokemon Stadium or Battlefield.
Thoughts? Comments? Flames?
