Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Online Thread

[RedShell]

8 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Stamina mode definitely has it's moments. Especially when someone dies in a very anticlimactic way!

I still think time (2:30 or less) is the best setting for online play with a group of 4+ players at very different skill levels.  

It means everyone in a match is participating until the very end, and those that are spectating don’t have long to wait for their turn.

Plus it increases the chance of Sudden Death (which is always fun ) and can create super exciting moments in normal play too, like that last GIF I posted with 3 KOs in the final second! 

Also, stamina was way more entertaining before when the characters remained on the stage after being KO’d.

[Glen-i]

11 hours ago, LazyBoy said:

Can someone teach me how to play Shulk?

I can give a few pointers. Shulk is my main, after all.

As far as basic fighting style goes, Shulk excels at pressurising opponents at a respectable distance. Most of his moves have impressive range to them, especially his Smash attacks. However, I find that his bread and butter involves his neutral air and his front air. These moves are quick and have range. They also have very little end lag when landing, so it's easy to combo someone who gets hit with it. Neutral air into up tilt into another air attack is a pretty easy combo to get to grips with when your opponent is at low damage.

Shulk's Specials are pretty standard for the most part.
Back Slash (Side B) does more damage if you hit someone from behind but it leaves you quite open if you miss. Also, never use this over a hole. Everyone will laugh at you if you do, because it's very funny. You can actually slightly influence the trajectory of the descent by tilting the stick forwards or backwards.
Air Slash (Up B) is a two-hit combo mostly used for recovery, pressing B twice makes him perform a second slash that lifts you a little further.
Vision (Down B) seems like your standard Marth counter, but it has a bit of nuance to it. The activation window is bigger than other counters, making it easy to use. But using it too much in a short space of time reduces that window, so be careful not to use it too much. If you're really good, tilting the stick forward when you pull off a successful counter will make you do a stronger counterattack with great launching power.

Once you get the basics down, you can mess with Shulk's more technical Special.

Monado Arts (Neutral B) allows you to change Shulk's stats in quite dramatic ways. Each of the 5 arts temporarily turns Shulk into a specialised master in some way, but comes at the cost of lowering stats somewhere else.
You can tap B to cycle through each art or hold the button to bring up a quick access wheel.

It's worth memorising where each one is.

Jump increases your jump height and aerial movement. It also increases the height of Air Slash. This lowers your defense, so you take more damage when it's in effect.
This has a great number of uses. You can use it to chase someone trying to get back on to the stage or even to bounce around the place like the annoying flea you are to avoid Final Smashes. But the best way to use it is when you get launched off the stage. You can tap B once to activate Jump even when you're going flying, so quick reactions can pretty much guarantee that you'll get back on the stage.

Speed increases your movement speed, letting Shulk run at Sonic's level of speed, but lowers his attack power and reduces his jump height.
I find this one the least useful, but it is great for running off to grab an item before anyone else, especially on large stages.

Shield increases your defense and weight, it also increases your shield's durability, but it lowers your attack power and movement speed.
Obviously, this one should be used when you have a high amount of damage and want to stop yourself from getting KO'd. That extra living time can be used for racking up a bit more damage before you eventually get offed. It can also be used if you think that getting hit by a Final Smash is something you can't avoid.

Buster increases your attack power, but lowers your defense and launch power.
What this means is that Shulk will deal more damage, but can't launch opponents as well. That launch power reduction is actually a good thing though, because it makes it easier to perform combos and seeing as each hit stings like hell, you can really build up the damage. It's a great art to use at the start of a fight, or when someone is at low damage.

Smash increases your launch power, but lowers your attack power and weight.
Basically, the opposite of Buster, your attacks send people flying, but deal less damage. Naturally, you use this to KO opponents at high damage. But careful, it works both ways, you're easier to launch too.
Smash also has the interesting side effect of making it easier to break the Smash Ball. Which is neat.

A good Shulk player uses his great range and Monado Arts to adapt to a variety of situations and really lay pressure on opponents. You want to be careful with using Buster and Smash when you're fighting more than one person. Getting caught in a hilarious pile up can really make them backfire on you. Remember that you can cancel an art by pressing B three times quickly, but once an art is used, there's a cooldown period before you can use it again.

So yeah, that's Shulk and how to use him well. A bit wordy, but hopefully that helps.
Oh, and side taunt makes him shout "I'm really feeling it!", which is the most important thing.

39 minutes ago, RedShell said:

I still think time (2:30 or less) is the best setting for online play with a group of 4+ players at very different skill levels.  

It means everyone in a match is participating until the very end, and those that are spectating don’t have long to wait for their turn.

Plus it increases the chance of Sudden Death (which is always fun ) and can create super exciting moments in normal play too, like that last GIF I posted with 3 KOs in the final second! 

Also, stamina was way more entertaining before when the characters remained on the stage after being KO’d.

Yeah, I think you kinda turned me around on Time, I guess I've played too many Time matches where people just become opportunistic and snipe people at high damage for points. But the N_E session last week was a lot of fun and funny.
I mean, I still prefer stock, but I wouldn't mind Time showing up in future sessions.
I guess we could cycle through each style each week. So Time - Stock - Stamina- Time and so on?

Edited March 1, 2019 by Glen-i

[LazyBoy]

Cheers Glen, great explanation. What do you tend to use as your killing moves for smashing at high percents?

[Glen-i]

7 minutes ago, LazyBoy said:

Cheers Glen, great explanation. What do you tend to use as your killing moves for smashing at high percents?

When I haven't got Smash in effect, his side Smash and Up Smash are what I use, They've got good range and if you get close enough, you actually hit your opponent with the red part of the sword before the blue glowing part shoots out, making it a surprisingly quick Smash attack.

With Monado Smash in effect however, that's a whole different affair. This cannot be understated. Smash is devastating! For example, Shulk's forward tilt can KO Mario from the middle of Battlefield at 94%. Which is bonkers! Meanwhile, an uncharged forward Smash KO's him at 70%! If someone's at 100% or more, Monado Smash makes the vast majority of Shulk's moves killing moves! So that's what I normally go with.

[LazyBoy]

Nice, I'll give him a go. Thanks mate

[Ike]

On 28/02/2019 at 10:17 PM, RedShell said:

I will never understand how anyone can be good with Snake.  

Anyway, that’s it for me. Eyes are bleeding.  

Cheers for the games everyone!

I got him in our random battles a few weeks ago and I just self destructed then play as him. 

If we're going to play frequently on Thursday, Thursdays aren't always good for me but I'll try and remember to bring my Switch with me.

[Glen-i]

22 minutes ago, Ike said:

I got him in our random battles a few weeks ago and I just self destructed then play as him. 

If we're going to play frequently on Thursday, Thursdays aren't always good for me but I'll try and remember to bring my Switch with me.

I'm free on Fridays and Saturdays as well if anyone wants to give me a shout.

Post Mario Kart gaming just feels like tradition at this point, you see. But I'd be happy to play more Smash anytime then.

Edited March 2, 2019 by Glen-i

[Jonnas]

On 01/03/2019 at 9:52 AM, Glen-i said:

Shield increases your defense and weight, it also increases your shield's durability, but it lowers your attack power and movement speed.
Obviously, this one should be used when you have a high amount of damage and want to stop yourself from getting KO'd. That extra living time can be used for racking up a bit more damage before you eventually get offed. It can also be used if you think that getting hit by a Final Smash is something you can't avoid.

Correct me if I'm wrong but can't Shield also be used at low percentages to throw your opponent off their game? I've seen a few competitive matches where a Shulk main uses Shield to approach a zoner (since he becomes harder to lift/stop) and another where they use Shield to get off an opponent's combo (they activated it in the middle of said combo).

[Glen-i]

17 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but can't Shield also be used at low percentages to throw your opponent off their game? I've seen a few competitive matches where a Shulk main uses Shield to approach a zoner (since he becomes harder to lift/stop) and another where they use Shield to get off an opponent's combo (they activated it in the middle of said combo).

Hmmm... I've never considered using it like that. Interesting. I might have to play around with that.

Wouldn't that cause issues with someone being able to combo Shulk easier seeing as he doesn't go as far?

EDIT: Yeah, you're right, when you're at low damage, Shield really lowers the hitstun you can receive from weaker attacks, letting you get in quick counter attacks before the opponent's end lag ends. I managed to use it to somehow activate Vision in the middle of getting hit by a combo!

That's really cool! It's a great way of switching things up from using Buster at the start and potentially throwing people off. Thanks @Jonnas!

Edited March 2, 2019 by Glen-i

[Jonnas]

1 minute ago, Glen-i said:

Hmmm... I've never considered using it like that. Interesting. I might have to play around with that.

Wouldn't that cause issues with someone being able to combo Shulk easier seeing as he doesn't go as far?

Depends on the combo, I suppose. A combo that involves a ton of tiny jabs, it won't help much. But there are plenty of combos that expect the enemy to stay airborne for a bit (like Incineroar's DownThrow + ForwardAir, or any makeshift combo involving Link's bombs), so I figure that's where Shield would trip up the opponent.

EDIT: Just saw your edit. Good to know it works better than I expected!

Edited March 2, 2019 by Jonnas

[Glen-i]

6 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Depends on the combo, I suppose. A combo that involves a ton of tiny jabs, it won't help much. But there are plenty of combos that expect the enemy to stay airborne for a bit (like Incineroar's DownThrow + ForwardAir, or any makeshift combo involving Link's bombs), so I figure that's where Shield would trip up the opponent.

EDIT: Just saw your edit. Good to know it works better than I expected!

Yeah, I tried it with Little Mac's rapid jab, completely impossible. But this definitely has potential if your reactions are quick enough.

Can't wait to bust this out on that kid at the community centre who's good with Incineroar... That'll teach him for being great with a character I'm rubbish with.

[Glen-i]

You, me, other dudes, Smash, Time Matches, 2 minutes 30, 9pm. YES!

[Glen-i]

Room's open now.

[S.C.G]

I'm going to have to sit it out this week, I got DMC5 a day early and the urge to "pull my devil trigger" is just too strong.

I hope you all have fun in Smash though and I'll no doubt be back next week as I have a couple of weeks off after this week is out.

Also, just to bring it back to Smash again... it's almost a shame that we can't have any Devil May Cry characters in Smash, if only to have Dante face off against Bayonetta.

[Glen-i]

Man, That one on one was awesome!

[Ike]

Thanks for the games. 

Some one needs to tell the game there are over 70 fighters and stop giving up duplicates.

[Glen-i]

19 minutes ago, Ike said:

Thanks for the games. 

Some one needs to tell the game there are over 70 fighters and stop giving up duplicates.

Secretly, we all want a triple Villager match and a Pikachu thrown in there for some reason.

Thanks for the fights guys!

[BowserBasher]

Loved the games too. And thanks for the 1v1 games after @Glen-i  don’t suppose you saved the reply of the Wario Smash KO did you? That was just awesome. 

[Glen-i]

1 minute ago, BowserBasher said:

Loved the games too. And thanks for the 1v1 games after @Glen-i  don’t suppose you saved the reply of the Wario Smash KO did you? That was just awesome. 

Sorry, don't think I did.

[BowserBasher]

I need to start recording the whole night from now on. It’s so easy to forget to save after the match and not allowing us to use the capture button sucks. 

[Glen-i]

Who's up for some Smash at 9:30?

It's stock matches this week.

[LazyBoy]

Yes. Absolutely. I'm playing a sonic at the moment I want to try out.

[Ike]

I'm in if I can. 

[RedShell]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

Who's up for some Smash at 9:30?

It's stock matches this week.

Let's Smash Bro!

Or, you know... do creepy synchronised taunts.

[Glen-i]

Room's Open