Kiligar
Smash Journeyman
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2019
- Messages
- 269
Why Pit is High Tier
Pit is a character who goes underneath the radar for several reasons. Few people use him, because unless there’s something in the works right now, the Kid Icarus franchise is dead. He’s also fairly simple at first glance, and a first glance is all he’ll get because of the above reason. Lastly, he isn’t top tier, which is what separates him and Palutena. With that being said, I’ll present my argument for why Pit is a high tier, and not a mid or even low tier as certain competitive players place him to be.
Neutral
Strengths- Pit’s neutral is overall very solid, covering many different situations through the tools Pit possesses.
- Pit’s initial dash is in the upper 3rd if the cast at 2.09. This makes it easier for him to punish and escape, which is essential to his playstyle
- His tilts aren’t the greatest, but each serves a purpose for strengthening his neutral. Down Tilt is the best, a quick way to start combos or get opponents out of your space. Up tilt is an anti air with some combo potential, and forward tilt is a high damage kill move on the tipper.
- His aerials are each vital tools, every one has a purpose which must be used. His Nair is a frame 4 burst option that is a way to quickly to punish aerial opponents. It shield stabs after meager amounts of shield pressure.His Bair is his safest move on shield, with great knockback at higher percent, a vital kill move on the neutral.
- Pit’s Fair spaces out the opponent and is perhaps his most important aerial in the neutral. It can combo into itself or dash attack, and can cause 0 deaths offstage. It easily shield stabs as well.
- Pit’s Uair is a standard juggling tool, it is more effective in the advantage than the neutral so it will be covered more in depth there.
- Pit’s Dair is a combo extender and spike. It has kill confirms and can be double jumped out of a Short Hop, meaning you don’t have to hit the ground every time you use the move, making it less predictable and more useful in the neutral.
- All of his aerials can be Auto Cancelled, many quite early
- Pit has the overall fastest smash attack frame data in the entire game, complementing his punish playstyle
- Pit’s Nair has low priority in the air on the first few hits, making it easy to interrupt with any other aerial. Still great at catching aerials opponents, but not for contesting aerials. Anti Airing with Up Tilt it Up smash, Whiff punishing or using Fair or Bair are good work-arounds
- Pretty slow air speed means aerial movement is limited, and further compounds the issue
- Pit’s tilts aside from down tilt are not the most effective at their purposes, with Up Tilt’s combo potential being questionable and forward tilt being laggy and requiring precise spacing to hit the tipper
Advantage
Strengths- Pit’s advantage state is where he is the most powerful, due to a variety of factors
- Pit’s grab game is top 10, due to his great grab frame data alongside his fast initial dash and solid grab combos
- Pit’s Forward Throw is one of the strongest forward throws in the game, his down Throw is a great combo throw that combos as high as 80 on most characters, and combos into the 100s on heavies
- Pit’s back Throw doesn’t have that much kill power or damage, but has very very little endlag, to the extent that it combos into dash attack at low percent. This is great for setting up for an edgegaurd or arrow gimp
- Pit’s Up Throw doesn’t have anything too great bar its relatively high damage and juggle set ups
- Pit is a great juggler due to the speed of his up smash alongside his initial dash speed, the utility of arrows to assist with juggling far above his head, and Uair Auto Cancelling the fastest and easiest out of all his aerials, making it great for baiting Air dodges and frame trapping opponents
- His dash attack is a kill move which can catch landings with ease. If the opponent adapts it has enough time to shield his dash grab is great for catching landings as well.
- Pit’s edgeguarding is top 10. His multiple double jumps alongside multihit aerials which combo into each other make him a menace offstage
- Pit’s ledgetrapping is oppressive, due to how many options he can cover at once with Nair, everything else can be punished in reaction out of Pit’s dash dance near ledge. Short Hop Bair at ledge is another great option which grants higher reward or a kill on hit and let’s Pit punish roll easier. Fair is similar, but not quite as good.
- Pit’s kill power is somewhat lacking, and his kill confirms aren’t the best or most varied. In other words, being on top of your edgeguarding game is essential for this character.
Disadvantage
Strengths- Pit has several tools to help him in the disadvantage. Multiple double jumps and Guardian Orbitars help him land, and Dair is slightly disjointed
- Offstage, all of Pit’s specials help him in getting back on. Due to his slower air speed, his side-Special is an option for horizontal recovery with semi-reliable super armor and a hitbox
- His arrows stop the opponent from leaving the stage to edgegaurd, forcing them to shield. His down Special blocks edgegaurd attempts without the suicide air dodge. Finally, his Up Special goes amazingly high and can be mixed up in a variety of angles. Pit can also stall low offstage with his jumps against an opponent who tries to edgeguard him too early, forcing them to recover and deal with ledge grab lag.
- Pit can drop down from ledge and Uair multiple times, guaranteeing a shield stab on someone who stays shielding. Also if they attempt to punish you because you have no invincibility, you can catch them off guard by hitting them
- Pit’s Oos game is top 10. Second highest traction in the game means attacks on shield won’t push him back as much as other characters
- Nair is a frame 7 Oos option factoring jump squat, high traction and great grab frame data give Pit one of the best shield grabs in the game. Pit’s Up Smash is the fastest up smash in the game, a frame 6 Oos option that can end games. Has small grounded range though. Pit’s Dair is decent for covering behind him, frame 13 factoring jumpsquat. Dropping shield gives Pit quick options as well, such as his frame 5 Jab and Down Smash, and even forward Smash due to the size of the disjoint. These will be slightly harder punishes though.
- Pit’s low air speed can be a problem at times, if you have your jumps this is mostly alleviated
- Low end-lag attacks from the back of his shield are more of a problem, as the opponent may shield the Dair and certain characters can punish this. However, reading the shield and dropping your own and pivot/ dash grabbing, tomahawk grabbing, or exiting the situation via roll/dash are options.
- Pit’s Up Special has no hitbox, which means an opponent can edgegaurd you without too much difficulty if you’re reckless with it, furthermore, landing on stage with it is a free punish. It’s very fast at its startup but slows down near the end meaning a shorter recovery is safer than a long distance one. Using the Up Special into the side of the stage and preparing to tech, using your jumps and arrows/side Special are all mix ups which can be used to prevent this, but it’s still a weakness.
Conclusion
Pit is a well balanced character underused due to more oppressive characters with lower skill curves existing, but more importantly his franchise resting in peace. All sorts of high tiers the same thing can be said about in regards to Snake, Lucina, Wolf and Olimar, but everyone is here in this game, and you use who you like best. If you want to win tournaments with Pit, or any high tier, it requires dedication, but it is possible. If you want to win as much as possible regardless of playstyle or character connections, use Olimar and Snake, and counterpicks to these characters. If you want to pick up Pit or try him out, he fits some people’s playstyle preferences and doesn’t sync with others, but overall I find him enjoyable to play, play against and watch.
Pit is a well balanced character underused due to more oppressive characters with lower skill curves existing, but more importantly his franchise resting in peace. All sorts of high tiers the same thing can be said about in regards to Snake, Lucina, Wolf and Olimar, but everyone is here in this game, and you use who you like best. If you want to win tournaments with Pit, or any high tier, it requires dedication, but it is possible. If you want to win as much as possible regardless of playstyle or character connections, use Olimar and Snake, and counterpicks to these characters. If you want to pick up Pit or try him out, he fits some people’s playstyle preferences and doesn’t sync with others, but overall I find him enjoyable to play, play against and watch.