My thoughts on ROB

[Dusk]

Disclaimer In no way am I trying to bash the character but rather express my opinion on said character. A lot of my thoughts comes from playing as/against said character. All feedback and discussion is appreciated and encouraged .

R.O.B aka the robotic operating buddy or ROB, is a character that excels at juggling. His up B allows him to fly from one coast to another coast with relative ease. Because of that, he can constantly apply pressure, knock back, and hit stun to juggle his opponents towards the horizontal or vertical blast zones. His ability to do so makes him a solid character.

ROB also comes equipped with a nice set of projectiles that allow him to alleviate or force pressure. His weak laser was altered to now knock up opponents with enough hit stun for Rob to follow up. His strong laser was given a stun if it connects, which gives him ample time to decide if he wants to follow up for some combos, guarantee the kill, or watch as his opponent slowly flies off to there death. ROB's gyro is a good tool for gaining damage or killing. Fully charged it could do some hefty knock back and even when its not fully charged just throwing it out can disengage some situations. It can also be picked up so it could be used as creatively as any other items in the game. ROB's projectiles help him in multiple ways.

ROB relearned how to use his side B. Now it allows him to move around the map easier. Previously you could use his side b, jump cancel it, and dair to move around the map. Now his movement is simplified with his side B change. You could straight cancel it into dair for a smash, a tilt, or a grab follow up. Using his side B, assuming the stage doesn't interfere, allows him to quickly use his aerials which are his bread and butter. Once he gets his opponents in air he could use his aerials to juggle them how he feels.

Speaking of ROB's aerials, they all do neat things. For example his bair not only gives him momentum, which in turn gives him interesting aerial drift it, it also gives him a huge hitbox which he can use for combos if his other aerials won't reach. His dair is not only a good on stage movement tool but it is also a good meteor tool. His upair is a nice multihit, which can be SDI'd out of, can make it so his opponents can't approach him from above unless they have good disjoints. His fair seems like a weak move but depending on the opponents DI it can be used repetitively to kill at low percents. ROB's nair can be used at high percents to guarantee kills. It could also be used to knock the opponent vertically and alter how you would combo. Overall his aerials are good enough to make this character solid.

Edit: I was not content with the original post

 

[Farkus]

So, is the point you're trying to make is that ROB is a good character?

 

[Dusk]

Well the problem with that is that I think everyone is good, he could use some things here and there. He's not the best nor is he the worst, I would say he's an average character. I don't really think he has anything bad about him. It depends on if the dev team wants to alter him or not. The real question is what do you think?

 

[Farkus]

I think he is solid mid tier.

 

[Bent 00]

Well the problem with that is that I think everyone is good, he could use some things here and there. He's not the best nor is he the worst, I would say he's an average character. I don't really think he has anything bad about him. It depends on if the dev team wants to alter him or not. The real question is what do you think?

IIRC, one of the reasons R.O.B. got Nerfed was because it was "too good at everything". R.O.B. was strong across the board, near and far, and had negligible weaknesses in comparison. I remember Glyph's R.O.B. being very frustrating to play against... Check out the channel DukeBattleDrive on YouTube to find some old footage of pre-Nerf R.O.B..

I'm not a R.O.B. player, but I think it's in a good enough spot right now. Do R.O.B. mains have any legit problems with it? I see that some think it got Nerfed too hard, but how exactly? What do you think is too weak? Or is it just that R.O.B. can't compete with the stronger fighters anymore?

 

[Neville]

Shit ROB had that made him god tier

• 4(?) jumps
• 2 gyros out at one time and fully charged ones hit harder when launched
• Fair chained into itself easier and was basically Melee Puff bair
• Side b launch could be used in the air which allawed for basically infinite followups.
• Multilaser

 

[Dusk]

I'm not a R.O.B. player, but I think it's in a good enough spot right now. Do R.O.B. mains have any legit problems with it? I see that some think it got Nerfed too hard, but how exactly? What do you think is too weak? Or is it just that R.O.B. can't compete with the stronger fighters anymore?

I didn't really play ROB back then and I saw that channel already Darx linked it but thanks regardless. He seems similar to what he was back then but toned down. I feel like some of the nerfs where justified according to the one's LB pointed out. His fair can still chain together depending on DI and percentage so he could still get kills off of that. I would say he's balanced or close to it. Also I personally wouldn't know how to alter him in his current state.

 

[Glyph]

For the record, my ROB was frustrating to play against cuz I'm stupid good with ROB. I beat Wadi with him in smash4, and Wadi is prob the second best mewtwo in the world. Took 7th at a Xanadu, 2nd at the Arcadian off the top of my head too.

The only busted thing ROB ever had was multilaser and double gyro, everything else was obv good but not on a level that made him S tier. Still had the same weaknesses he does in Smash4 (zero disengage from being combo'd and loses to patient approaches/rush down)

 

[Pin Clock]

For the record, my ROB was frustrating to play against cuz I'm stupid good with ROB. I beat Wadi with him in smash4, and Wadi is prob the second best mewtwo in the world. Took 7th at a Xanadu, 2nd at the Arcadian off the top of my head too.

The only busted thing ROB ever had was multilaser and double gyro, everything else was obv good but not on a level that made him S tier. Still had the same weaknesses he does in Smash4 (zero disengage from being combo'd and loses to patient approaches/rush down)

We missed you Glyph!

 

[Bent 00]

Hey Glyph, long time no see.

The thing about R.O.B. that I remember being most annoyed at was being carried all the way out to the blast zone by those F-Air chains.

As Falcon, those felt very difficult (if not impossible) to escape from... R.O.B.'s F-Air chains were addressed, weren't they? I forget.

Since Glyph left, I haven't played any really good R.O.B.s (that I recall).

 

[Darxmarx]

As Falcon, those felt very difficult (if not impossible) to escape from... R.O.B.'s F-Air chains were addressed, weren't they? I forget.

I believe fair chains were addressed by giving fair higher base knockback.
R.O.B. definitely feels like a balanced character to me in his current state. His aerials have some fun uses, notably dair and nair personally, and IIRC he has a decent grab game.
Reflecting on past battles, I think I actually had fun fighting R.O.B. Maybe it's because Kirby did not struggle against him as much as other characters in the past, or maybe I was just super pumped about my matches against Glyph in the one BDOT I was a part of. I haven't fought very many R.O.B.s at all in 4.0BC, so I'll prolly do some labbing in the future.
Glyph don't leave me again I love you

 

[Thor]

For the record, my ROB was frustrating to play against cuz I'm stupid good with ROB. I beat Wadi with him in smash4, and Wadi is prob the second best mewtwo in the world. Took 7th at a Xanadu, 2nd at the Arcadian off the top of my head too.

The only busted thing ROB ever had was multilaser and double gyro, everything else was obv good but not on a level that made him S tier. Still had the same weaknesses he does in Smash4 (zero disengage from being combo'd and loses to patient approaches/rush down)

2nd best Mewtwo? Abadango, Rich Brown. I might buy 3rd best but IDK the rest of the Japanese scene or the European scene.

No one in this game has effective ways to escape being combo'd between the hitstun and the speed buffs of most of the cast [except I guess lol Lucario, but Falco/Falcon/Dedede/etc, all suffer from this and no one's saying they're bad, and even floaties who traditionally have combo-breakers like Luigi still get combo'd extremely hard by some characters like Luigi and Falcon (Luigi bodies himself lol)].

I'm not sure how ROB lost to rushdown with a pair of gyros and sideb letting him almost instantly close the gap into any aerial or ground move/grab [lol dair], and patient approaches is extremely vague and something it seems like every single character would lose to [at which point, that's not a flaw, it's just how the game works]. He probably lost to Fox rushdown because lol Fox [shineglides and stuff], but his rushdown weakness would at least seem much more pronounced in Smash 4 than Minus [where he has issues landing as well, something Minus alleviated quite a bit].

P.S: In what bracket did you beat WaDi? I can't find it on YouTube and I can't possibly know what tournament you're referencing to find a challenge or smash.gg bracket [WaDi has been to a lot], but I'm curious when/where you played him.

EDIT: Unrelated: Is there a reason Minus is so against wall of pain moves? Sure, they're annoying to get hit by, but you can escape them with combo DI, and unlike Melee, recoveries are strong enough to where you can combo DI the move and still usually recover [there's an example on YouTube somewhere in Melee where Ice combo DIs an Hbox bair in a 1v1 (during a teams set) to avoid the WoP and gets edgeguarded, but in Minus with the significantly stronger recoveries, that's much less likely].

I'd be fine seeing WoPs come back [ROB, Kirby, Puff] because they rely on bad DI to work [usually] and they also allow for silly combos [bair bair hammer, bair bair bair rest, etc.].

 

[Dusk]

The thing about R.O.B. that I remember being most annoyed at was being carried all the way out to the blast zone by those F-Air chains.

Fair chains are definitely still possible but they are DI dependent, weight dependent, and percent dependent. I like using his Uair chains instead which suffer from the same issues but feel more satisfying when they connect.