Teching/ tech rolling is an "advanced" technique. It allows you to go from tumble animation to (almost) instant getup up or an (almost) instant roll by pressing L or R a couple of frames before hitting the ground/a platform. This isn't the best video to explain, but it shows an example and hopefully will show you a rough estimate of the timing:
This is exactly what I wanted... general strategies. I really appreciate the detail as well. For sure putting any of this into effect and feeling out what is best for me with whatever character will only come with experience but getting all the ideas of things I can do is valuable. Also what exactly is tech/tech rolling?
And glad to help like I said, Smash is one of my passions, so you can always ask here or PM me if you want to ask something.
So keviin asked how to become better in a status. An a lot more general question than the ones you had atticus, I started to just reply there but as my post became longer and longer and more and more in-depth I thought I may as well share it here because
1. Maybe someone else will find it useful
2. It'll be a lot easier to just post the whole thing in one go than to split it all up and and spam everyone's not boxes with "WydrA commented on Keviin's Status. WydrA commented on Keviin's Status. WydrA commented on Keviin's Status. WydrA commented on Keviin's Status. WydrA commented on Keviin's Status. WydrA commented on Keviin's Status. WydrA commented on Keviin's Status. WydrA commented on Keviin's Status. WydrA commented on Keviin's Status. WydrA commented on Keviin's Status. WydrA commented on Keviin's Status. "
3. Italics. I love me some italics.
So without further ado, I present "WydrA's Pretty Informal Take With s Bit of Grain of Salt Because Everyone is Different Guide On How to Get better at Smash That is Also Rather Inconclusive Unfortunately"
*Forum (you guys) applauds*
Note: It starts off with online vs. offline because that had been previously brought up. Keviin had mentioned he'd started to e able to beat strangers but his friends were still gladly "having their way with him" as they put it in the olden days
On strangers vs. your friends: Like I said, offline and online play are completely different beasts. Online is pretty unreliable in my experience. Even when it's runnin pretty smoothly there's some input lag so it's hard to really do any of the thing s you want to do. However I would say learning to play offline is better than online. Offline is first of all a much better judge of skill because of minimal input lag, other lag, etc. and some other smaller things I guess. But also because without those things you actually have the freedom to try your options, try you combos and frame traps etc. Things that may not work if you tried them in a laggy setting where your main goal is to win. In other words, if you learn them offline at least you'll /know/ your options, even if you can't always use them. You can't really same the same the other way around. You'll be left floundering.
Now in terms of actually /learning/ these options? That's a /lot/ harder unfortunately. What you're going for is a level where you don't have to really think I guess? You want to reach a point where ou know your character(s)' moves so well that you can literally just close your eyes and play out situations, possible combos, followups, etc. You also should be able to just see what you want to do in your mind and have your hands do those things automatically. I'll just say the closer you get to this level of skill the more fun the game becomes. It honestly just feels like a whole different experience. But tat's not what you asked about so moving quickly along.
Actually learning to do this generally comes from two things I guess. Number 1 is obviously practice, and a /lot/ of it. Mew2King, who's famously one of the best smash players in the world has literally gone through at least a box full of gamecube controllers. As in he just played them to the point they don't work anymore. You can imagine how many hours of playing that takes. He's also been recorded literally practicing smash in his sleep, but that's kind of beside the point. Except maybe to put emphasis on just how much the top level players practice. Not that you would be expected to practice /that/ much. Though I'll admit I've kind of fallen asleep playing smash in my head before.
The second most important thing you need to learn is /what/ to practice. To practice the right way and the right things. This is where things get considerably more complicated. What you're going for is what I mentioned above. You should be able to think the game. But I think the easiest way to start doing this is to mirror someone who already does. Fake it 'til you make it. Look at the combos other people are doing and just try and copy them in the hope that eventually you'll begin to understand just how and /why/ those combos work. From there you can start mixing it up.
Now in my experience I started with montage videos of characters I was interested in playing. But I started playing not only in brawl era but about two years after the game came out I think. Maybe three. There was a pretty good amount of stuff for me to watch. at least one good montage per character. Unfortunately smash 4 is a lot younger. I've checked and the guides and videos are sparse. So I guess the "easiest" way for you to learn may actually be o play a different game if you have one. If you have brawl or melee, there's an abundance of great stuff. You can copy some of that stuff and get bttr I guess. But even that is retty shady. Especially if you're learning from brawl, since brawl is more mindgame based than option based, and I think you might have to end up get pretty good at brawl to actually learn comboing skills that are a lot more present in smash 4. If you learn from melee howver you're a lot more likely to be able to carry those skills across to smash 4. Same goes for Project m of course.
If you don't have those well then you're not as lucky as I was. Like I said there just isn't that much out there yet. However I would of course start learning everything you can. Things like perfect pivoting are pretty useful for several things. As explained in the video below:
But even a lot of that is probably going over your head. Because it kind of assumes you have base knowledge of competitive smash.
So hat's where smashboards.com comes in I guess. You don't have to post or anything, but if you haunt the boards of the character you play then you hopefully learn some basic things. Honestly guides are hugely important. And once again this is where brawl may be of some help. A lot of characters from brawl have very similar movesets, which means that the basic info they give you might still be somewhat applicable. If anything the move is most likely better, which is great for you. It'll also help because I find a lot of guides reference how the character is in comparison to brawl. So yeah, maybe read the guides for your character in brawl, then when you're done try and find a smash 4 guide to get updated on the difference.
Then hopefully you'll have enough base knowledge to understand some stuff. That's when you start looking for some combo videos/montages like the one below:
If you can't find any, then maybe look to places like VGBootcamp and Clash Tournaments for some videos of good people playing. The average person isn't very good. So even if it's a really famous youtuber like cobermani playing or something it's probably not worth your time. But the people who play on VGBC a CT are usually pretty good. Hopefully if you look far enough back you'll at least find a couple of games with your main.
Honestly. After all the research like I said it's just practice. You can go into training mode but I personally prefer to play a level 1-3 CPU and just use it as a punching bag, then once I start to get a decent feel for the character slowly start upping the level.
Final notes: If you're looking for placed to find good content and video like I said, smashboards.com. Seriously. That site is where everyone who takes learning this game even somewhat seriously goes. Pretty much ever new discovery will be posted her first.
For video and stuff, reddit.com/r/smashbros is probably better. A lot of gifs and stuff. A lot more casuals aroun, but generally they try to keep the atmosphere of the sub pretty competitive (though they do try their best to encourage people who play casually and will answer any uestions anyone has very willingly).
Also you should look into some basic stuff from across all the games that, while basic, is incredibly important and still puts a pretty big buffer between you and people who don't know that stuff. So look up DI (directional influence) Teching (which I think I posted about above) etc.
If you're looking for reasons why you should care about any of this stuff. Or why you should even care about smash. Or why people are so into this game, I recommend the smash brothers documenary.
It's really long (4 and a bit hours) but it's broken into episodes, so it's more manageable! And it's good. Rally good. Good enough that's I've watched it twice. I've even linked a playlist of all the episodes, in the their remastered glory for you below. Because not enough people from around here have watched this thing. Even though I recommend it all the time. Hopefully it will also show you that Mournblade is dead wrong about pro smashers. In pretty much every way. I seriously think his mother was killed by a pro smasher. That's the only reason you could hate these guys.
So I think I've covered all I can now. If you have any questions, just ask. Seriously. Maybe you couldn't tell in my 3 and 1/3 page long post, but I really love this game and love having the opportunity of sharing the good news that is competitive smash. If Jehovah's Witnesses were out sharing the news about competitive smash I would actually listen to them when they came to mydoor. Heck I might join them. Okay that's not really true. I already usually at least listen to what they have to say. And I wouldn't ever actually join them since they're pretty borderline cultish. But I digress.
Last I checked, there is no tier list out yet. However, I have seen a few names be tosses around as top tier, namely Zero Suit Samus, Peach, Rosalina, and I think Dhiek,etc. I also heard someone in the Smash community mention Duck Hunt Dog.
Best I've heard is from one of my super obsessed Smash friends is that There is no true broken character(Yet discovered) like MetaKnight was for Brawl.
Edited by Shovel Knight, 03 January 2015 - 06:05 PM.
Games that refuse to use Gameplay effectively to do anything are like films that refuse to use cinematography in film to do anything.
NNID: Lord of Grape Juice /PSN: Nderbert/Steam: Harmonius EX
Last I checked, there is no tier list out yet. However, I have seen a few names be tosses around as top tier, namely Zero Suit Samus, Peach, Rosalina, and I think Dhiek,etc. I also heard someone in the Smash community mention Duck Hunt Dog.
Best I've heard is from one of my super obsessed Smash friends is that There is no true broken character(Yet discovered) like MetaKnight was for Brawl.
mostly people are saying diddy and sheik as top tier. that is followed by Zero Suit Samus, Rosalina, and yoshi.
diddy, sheik and ZSS all fit very well with playstyles from brawl, melee, and project M. Aka they were easy to transition into for those players. I very quickly picked ZSS up coming from project M. Also picked up yoshi who was one of my side characters in melee/PM =/. Didn't even know they were considered high tier till much later. Also started leaning on caption falcon as a secondary character, and hes currently around 8-12 in many early opinion tier-lists.
Games still fairly new with a developing metagame, so its definitely possible for characters to fall and rise as they get figured out and the meta game develops and meta-breaks happen. I personly think villagers going to rise as has a great offstage game and can safly gimp alot of characters, has a very good wall of pain, as well as a fair punish game.
At this point, the tier list will likely see alot of changes.
mostly people are saying diddy and sheik as top tier. that is followed by Zero Suit Samus, Rosalina, and yoshi.
diddy, sheik and ZSS all fit very well with playstyles from brawl, melee, and project M. Aka they were easy to transition into for those players. I very quickly picked ZSS up coming from project M. Also picked up yoshi who was one of my side characters in melee/PM =/. Didn't even know they were considered high tier till much later. Also started leaning on caption falcon as a secondary character, and hes currently around 8-12 in many early opinion tier-lists.
Games still fairly new with a developing metagame, so its definitely possible for characters to fall and rise as they get figured out and the meta game develops and meta-breaks happen. I personly think villagers going to rise as has a great offstage game and can safly gimp alot of characters, has a very good wall of pain, as well as a fair punish game.
At this point, the tier list will likely see alot of changes.
Yep. This is what i've heard being said. I would say there will be at least a couple months before there's a proper tier list confirmed. Then things like making customs available and mii fighters could definitely change things up. it'll be quite a while before there's anything at all reliable. Even longer than it took for the previous 3 installments i would think.
Also do you have smash 4? Always gotten the impression you follow the competitive scene at least a little. Would be fun to pplay a match or two (assuming the lag isn't too bad of course).
So has anyone gotten good at perfect pivoting here? I don't really have the time to dedicate to getting good at smash but I have messed around with perfect pivoting just out of curiosity and can now do it semi consistently. It is quite fun to properly pull off a perfect pivot backwards and then counter attack haha. Shame I can't do it often
So has anyone gotten good at perfect pivoting here? I don't really have the time to dedicate to getting good at smash but I have messed around with perfect pivoting just out of curiosity and can now do it semi consistently. It is quite fun to properly pull off a perfect pivot backwards and then counter attack haha. Shame I can't do it often
Any tips for pulling it off consistently.
Usually just memorize the feel, or get used to the feel of pulling it off, to the point where you can pull it off without thinking about it. This usually involves practicing it in actual games, or with a partner. Once you get used to the feel, you should be able to pull it off much more consistently than if you go for it saying 'okay do a perfect pivot or insert other move here'. I usually pulled moves off more consistently in battle off motions than while intentionally trying to do the move, simply because it removes you from the mindset of which you are playing the game.
That sayed, i still haven't been able to reliably pull off perfect pivots, but i can see how they help. But are you already using normal pivot moves in battle, id recommend being able to use those consistently before trying to preform perfect pivots consistently.
Also worth noting some characters tend to have different timing with moves, i haven't checked to see if perfect pivot execution varies between characters, i don't think it does except for maybe the initial frame(s) before the flick. This can make specific techniques much harder, or easier for specific characters to pull them off, and can throw people off if it varies enough from their main, I found it most noticeable between characters with 4-8 frame vs 20-ish frame short-hops.
Also yes i follow the competitive scene, but have had more difficulty finding good local scene's. Doesn't help that I move fairly often. The college i transferred out of had a competitive scene of 5 people, had to travel off campus to find decent tourneys, though i haven't found competition ones get past 10 near by. Hoping the next college i go to has a decent scene. Guess its also the reason i like online because i see play styles I didn't find often. Or i just like being exposed to fighting more than just a few people. Still missing a lot that local play offers much more fun and more competitively.
NNID is T-Boss, i tend to play online from more than one console but i don't know what the NNID is on the other.
Usually just memorize the feel, or get used to the feel of pulling it off, to the point where you can pull it off without thinking about it. This usually involves practicing it in actual games, or with a partner. Once you get used to the feel, you should be able to pull it off much more consistently than if you go for it saying 'okay do a perfect pivot or insert other move here'. I usually pulled moves off more consistently in battle off motions than while intentionally trying to do the move, simply because it removes you from the mindset of which you are playing the game.
That sayed, i still haven't been able to reliably pull off perfect pivots, but i can see how they help. But are you already using normal pivot moves in battle, id recommend being able to use those consistently before trying to preform perfect pivots consistently.
Also worth noting some characters tend to have different timing with moves, i haven't checked to see if perfect pivot execution varies between characters, i don't think it does except for maybe the initial frame(s) before the flick. This can make specific techniques much harder, or easier for specific characters to pull them off, and can throw people off if it varies enough from their main, I found it most noticeable between characters with 4-8 frame vs 20-ish frame short-hops.
Also yes i follow the competitive scene, but have had more difficulty finding good local scene's. Doesn't help that I move fairly often. The college i transferred out of had a competitive scene of 5 people, had to travel off campus to find decent tourneys, though i haven't found competition ones get past 10 near by. Hoping the next college i go to has a decent scene. Guess its also the reason i like online because i see play styles I didn't find often. Or i just like being exposed to fighting more than just a few people. Still missing a lot that local play offers much more fun and more competitively.
NNID is T-Boss, i tend to play online from more than one console but i don't know what the NNID is on the other.
Alright, I'll try to remember to add you soon
I can actually do perfect pivoting pretty consistently, I just don't actually use it very consistently because I kind of forget I can lol. I think most times it doesn't work it's you doing it too slowly so I would just recommend practicing doing it really quickly I also personally find it easier to do on first party controller than third party (thus what finally made me go out and buy a first party).
And yeah the university in my town might have one (I think I saw posters for a club in there once) but I'm still in high school so I can't say for sure :/
Definitely sucks not having some people to play with though. Gives you way more motivation to play.
like I said, Smash is one of my passions, so you can always ask here or PM me if you want to ask something.
