Thor
Well-Known Member
EDIT: For the bored and short-of-attention-span, skip the part where I put a big dotted line to see my buff ideas.
Currently, Falco is low-tier on Glyph's list. Maybe he's there, maybe he's not. Why is Falco almost out of C tier? His ridiculously good lasers and grounded side+b - practically teleport halfway across the stage -> shorthop b-reversed double lasers -> more lazarz is infuriating for much of the cast, and his reflector is a great 4% poke that outranges pretty much everything while having a nice suckback effect for an opposite direction fsmash or a quick jab combo.
But why is he still C tier? His abysmal combo game and he has a very linear approach. I'll explain some more below on each.
Falco was meant to be regiven some of his dair combos (at least according to some old Brawl- stuff [when it was still in Beta]) and they wanted him to 'pillar' again (this term actually refers strictly to shield pressure, not hitting the opponent, so I'll call them dair combos [as done above] from here on out). But the truth of the matter is that Falco simply doesn't have strong dair combos. If your opponent can't tech, you can get solid dair combos up to about 60%, maybe higher. But if they can tech, these combos just aren't there past about 40% (when you can't really tech-chase them effectively). There's also the problem that Falco has problems catching up to people he's launched with usmash, utilt, or dtilt (less often with dtilt, most common with usmash). Yes he has 4 jumps and it just means be precise, but if they go too high you have no combo options. Why did Falco combo better in Melee, a game with lower hitstun where he had fewer jumps, than in Brawl-? The answer lies mainly in Falco's primary vertical launching combo tool - his reflector, aka shine.
Now, I DON'T want the Melee reflector on Falco - that would be uncool. But Falco's shine was so potent because it was jump-cancelable - he could jump out on like frame 5 (I think) for insanely fast followup ability. Falco also had a very low lag utilt and a high-knockback dtilt with acceptable endlag.
Fastforward to Brawl- Falco and we see the problem - shine does nothing for dair combos (not that it should) and utilt has more endlag than the Melee utilt, while dtilt seems to have just as much, if not more endlag, and its knockback is less impressive so that hitstun is also net lower. I also haven't even mentioned that Falco's lower jump means he chases a bit more slowly [maybe not?] (despite rapid jumps) and his decent is way slower (he falls slower than Melee Falco), so that he's never really in position for a followup tilt or the tech chase. The end result is that Falco doesn't have much for dair combos, and Falco doesn't have much going for him for other combos either - bair walls last only like 2 or maybe 3 hits with DI given his moderately slow air speed.
Falco also has a rather linear approach. His best option is probably to not approach and just poke, although that's somewhat against the spirit of Minus. If you want to approach, you have 4 options - approach with lasers, approach with side+b jump-cancel, approach with reflector, other. Now, the first is very obvious, and if they just shield lasers you can get a grab, but if they jump over, you're sort of stuck. Side+b doesn't approach for more attacks except at very long range (I don't think a half-Phantasm is jump-cancellable) so it's impractical. Reflector is rather reliable, but it's rather predictable and is more a poke to try to start close-quarters-combat, which brings me to other, which refers to approaching via aerials or the ground - Falco has almost no disjoinsts or momentum-altering approaches, so this is risky in Minus, and his close-quarters-combat is about average (his grab game is probably above average, but still not terribly favorable for risk reward - lowish risk, moderate reward). With things as they are, Falco's best option is camp with lasers while fading in and out, and if they are put in hitstun by lasers, rush in for a few extra blows.
Falco as a result plays rather lame if played well versus a competent opponent. I have some buff ideas to boost his combo ability and approach some. If all were implemented, Falco might surpass Lucario (I exaggerate slightly), but I would highly doubt all are implemented.
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1. Add a jump-cancel to dtilt and base knockback/knockback growth (one? both?) buff to dtilt
This would boost Falco's dair combo ability rapidly by making it much easier to follow up a dtilt and would somewhat be like his Melee shine. I think this cancel should be available regardless of if it hits, to make ground approaches much more viable for Falco, but even just an on-hit cancel would help. This is the buff I'd like to see most.
2. Add a jump-cancel to utilt (or less end-lag?) & a jump-cancel to usmash
This would also boost Falco's dair combo ability by making it easier to follow up after landing utilt. It could just be on-hit - two full cancels would be rather unnecessary to me [a full cancel on usmash would be silly]. The usmash cancel is the cancel I think is least useful.
3. Hold A during dair to rapidly increase fallspeed - dair has no hitbox after normal dair hitbox finishes but landing lag while doing this after hitboxes are not present is 0.
This would fix the fall-speed problem in Falco dair combos and let him combo at later percents. Of my buff ideas, this one is the one I am most unsure about.
4. Reflector becomes an unconventional meteor smash.
To define it, an unconventional meteor smash is a meteor smash that only meteors grounded opponents. Adding this (with proper knockback growth) would cause reflector to pop people up, into the returning hitbox to make combos easier to start, but only at low percents. This would buff Falco's approach some and also not break reflector, since it would not meteor airborne opponents or start lethal combos at high percents.
*I may have had other buff ideas and forgot them. I may add them in here later.*
These buffs would augment Falco's combo game so that he does more well than just camp, possibly making Falco less aggravating to face (you aren't lasered to death). Getting a few of these buffs would certainly make him more fun and interesting to play.
I would love feedback on these ideas, positive or negative.
Currently, Falco is low-tier on Glyph's list. Maybe he's there, maybe he's not. Why is Falco almost out of C tier? His ridiculously good lasers and grounded side+b - practically teleport halfway across the stage -> shorthop b-reversed double lasers -> more lazarz is infuriating for much of the cast, and his reflector is a great 4% poke that outranges pretty much everything while having a nice suckback effect for an opposite direction fsmash or a quick jab combo.
But why is he still C tier? His abysmal combo game and he has a very linear approach. I'll explain some more below on each.
Falco was meant to be regiven some of his dair combos (at least according to some old Brawl- stuff [when it was still in Beta]) and they wanted him to 'pillar' again (this term actually refers strictly to shield pressure, not hitting the opponent, so I'll call them dair combos [as done above] from here on out). But the truth of the matter is that Falco simply doesn't have strong dair combos. If your opponent can't tech, you can get solid dair combos up to about 60%, maybe higher. But if they can tech, these combos just aren't there past about 40% (when you can't really tech-chase them effectively). There's also the problem that Falco has problems catching up to people he's launched with usmash, utilt, or dtilt (less often with dtilt, most common with usmash). Yes he has 4 jumps and it just means be precise, but if they go too high you have no combo options. Why did Falco combo better in Melee, a game with lower hitstun where he had fewer jumps, than in Brawl-? The answer lies mainly in Falco's primary vertical launching combo tool - his reflector, aka shine.
Now, I DON'T want the Melee reflector on Falco - that would be uncool. But Falco's shine was so potent because it was jump-cancelable - he could jump out on like frame 5 (I think) for insanely fast followup ability. Falco also had a very low lag utilt and a high-knockback dtilt with acceptable endlag.
Fastforward to Brawl- Falco and we see the problem - shine does nothing for dair combos (not that it should) and utilt has more endlag than the Melee utilt, while dtilt seems to have just as much, if not more endlag, and its knockback is less impressive so that hitstun is also net lower. I also haven't even mentioned that Falco's lower jump means he chases a bit more slowly [maybe not?] (despite rapid jumps) and his decent is way slower (he falls slower than Melee Falco), so that he's never really in position for a followup tilt or the tech chase. The end result is that Falco doesn't have much for dair combos, and Falco doesn't have much going for him for other combos either - bair walls last only like 2 or maybe 3 hits with DI given his moderately slow air speed.
Falco also has a rather linear approach. His best option is probably to not approach and just poke, although that's somewhat against the spirit of Minus. If you want to approach, you have 4 options - approach with lasers, approach with side+b jump-cancel, approach with reflector, other. Now, the first is very obvious, and if they just shield lasers you can get a grab, but if they jump over, you're sort of stuck. Side+b doesn't approach for more attacks except at very long range (I don't think a half-Phantasm is jump-cancellable) so it's impractical. Reflector is rather reliable, but it's rather predictable and is more a poke to try to start close-quarters-combat, which brings me to other, which refers to approaching via aerials or the ground - Falco has almost no disjoinsts or momentum-altering approaches, so this is risky in Minus, and his close-quarters-combat is about average (his grab game is probably above average, but still not terribly favorable for risk reward - lowish risk, moderate reward). With things as they are, Falco's best option is camp with lasers while fading in and out, and if they are put in hitstun by lasers, rush in for a few extra blows.
Falco as a result plays rather lame if played well versus a competent opponent. I have some buff ideas to boost his combo ability and approach some. If all were implemented, Falco might surpass Lucario (I exaggerate slightly), but I would highly doubt all are implemented.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Add a jump-cancel to dtilt and base knockback/knockback growth (one? both?) buff to dtilt
This would boost Falco's dair combo ability rapidly by making it much easier to follow up a dtilt and would somewhat be like his Melee shine. I think this cancel should be available regardless of if it hits, to make ground approaches much more viable for Falco, but even just an on-hit cancel would help. This is the buff I'd like to see most.
2. Add a jump-cancel to utilt (or less end-lag?) & a jump-cancel to usmash
This would also boost Falco's dair combo ability by making it easier to follow up after landing utilt. It could just be on-hit - two full cancels would be rather unnecessary to me [a full cancel on usmash would be silly]. The usmash cancel is the cancel I think is least useful.
3. Hold A during dair to rapidly increase fallspeed - dair has no hitbox after normal dair hitbox finishes but landing lag while doing this after hitboxes are not present is 0.
This would fix the fall-speed problem in Falco dair combos and let him combo at later percents. Of my buff ideas, this one is the one I am most unsure about.
4. Reflector becomes an unconventional meteor smash.
To define it, an unconventional meteor smash is a meteor smash that only meteors grounded opponents. Adding this (with proper knockback growth) would cause reflector to pop people up, into the returning hitbox to make combos easier to start, but only at low percents. This would buff Falco's approach some and also not break reflector, since it would not meteor airborne opponents or start lethal combos at high percents.
*I may have had other buff ideas and forgot them. I may add them in here later.*
These buffs would augment Falco's combo game so that he does more well than just camp, possibly making Falco less aggravating to face (you aren't lasered to death). Getting a few of these buffs would certainly make him more fun and interesting to play.
I would love feedback on these ideas, positive or negative.
