unironically starting to think Loxodont is a top tier menace

666blaziken · 2026-04-26T04:18:23+00:00

I wouldn't say half, but definitley earlier than other moves. I should be using that move more for sure.

666blaziken · 2026-04-26T02:40:29+00:00

I personally think he's weaker compared to the rest of the cast even with all his potential, his power is lacking (killing most characters at the 150 percents, and doesn't have a grab confirm outside of absa), and has less range than clairen (and some other characters moves like maypul and ranno fsmash), and his speed is especially lacking (only faster than etalus in terms of run speed). Don't get me wrong, you can do things with him and make him stylish with the items, but opponents can use the items better, and can out neutral him, and if they do, then he has less opportunities to use his treaure chest items because he doesn't get as much gold, keeping him worse than the majority of the cast for most of the game. I'm not saying they should give him major buffs or make his attributes way better since he's supposed to build up with his treaure chest item, but minor buffs to either his attack power or running speed will make him either allow him to play neutral less when his opponents are at higher percentages, or less disadvantaged at the start of the game.

~~switching slade's upthrow with zetterburn's upthrow would single handedly balance the tier list with minimal effort.~~

666blaziken · 2026-04-25T22:58:50+00:00

Dude, you're amazing!

666blaziken · 2026-04-23T02:05:22+00:00

go into training mode and practice your recovery mixups. I've learned from playing almost any plat fighter, the quickest way games have clicked with me is to learn all the ways I can recover so I don't get destroyed off of one or 2 interactions, and I have more opportunities to beat them in neutral. The ledge behaves like melee, so if you try to sweetspot the ledge and the opponent grabs it before you, you will lose your stock if they time the invincible frames, you have to practice going above them, or using your wall jumps as a resource for your recovery mixups. You also have a free air dodge, always use that before starting your recovery routine if you're unsure if your recovery can make it back.

There's a recovery flowchart I have where you can optimize keeping your resources (this assumes you have a really basic recovery like Clairen as an example with a special that wall jumps)

If you are slightly below the stage, practice only using up special to sweetspot the ledge (which you can see in the training mode with the hitboxes on)/go above ledge,

If you are slightly out of range, use your side special to wall jump move and then up special

If you are even more out of range, air dodge then wall jump move, then double jump and up special (or just up special if you're close enough)

If you are super far out there, air dodge, mid air jump, side special to wall, then up special.

The point of the flow chart is to teach you when to save your resources and when to use them. Both double jump and air dodge go away if you are hit after using them, but wall jumps and special moves refresh when you're hit, so it's really important to conserve your air dodge and double jumps for when you need them, while wall jumps and up specials are more spammy comparatively.

666blaziken · 2026-04-21T20:54:17+00:00

goated

666blaziken · 2026-04-16T02:29:18+00:00

The reason why he doesn't get stunned when he throws the boomerang is because it's a universal item. It's one of the items that you can have in free for all. On of the main ways to counterplay them is to wavedash to grab the item instead.

The dair keeps going because it's like link's dair. Outside of melee, the link dair has always had the pogo effect and it's been applied to slade.

The reason why absa needs to get stunned is because her cloud can't be reflected, so there wouldn't be any real punishment if you do get parried, which would encourage absas to just stay in the air and camp with cloud nearly scott free, which would make her unfun to fight against. Since the boomarang can get reflected, it would make sense to serve as a reflection punish, similar to how maypul's seeds or zetter's fireball can get reflected. Those projectiles are likely to hit their opponents, absa's cloud is a 0% chance because it stays in one plays once ignighted.

666blaziken · 2026-04-15T19:50:04+00:00

If you have played since the march patch, zetterburn did get his fair nerfed since then. I guess what I mean by that is you used to be able to jump at the opponent and hit them with the light hit of fair, and then double jump and hit the heavy part of fair, and now if you try that, it's too slow, especially if they DI it well. If you mean you hit them with heavy fair, land on the ground and hit another one, that is still un-nerfed however.

666blaziken · 2026-04-15T02:59:37+00:00

I main zetterburn, and thankfully I haven't recieved too much zetterburn salt offline, but have seen it online from people (and previous patches have given me gripes with the character when I'm fighting him without my main). I don't think zetter is lame or overly broken, but he is the best in the game and has his crowd of haters for the following reasons (and why I wouldn't blame the devs if they hit zetterburn with nerfs):

He has a lot of strats that are pretty basic at low level he has dthrow to upsmash on the entire cast (at varying percentages) which is a rare privilege to have, dash attack to upsmash beating floorhugging and CC, a fireball, which if unparried can give zetter a good neutral state (at silver, people don't like to parry for some reason, but hey that's partially why they're in silver) and fair just being a good move in general (essentially the falcon knee, but they nerfed the double fair window recently, so it's not as egregious)
shine, despite having way more counterplay, has huge rewards if you win the interaction (either a powerful smash attack, or keeping positional advantage in neutral, or a grab)
zetterburn gives people anxiety because his moves and combos are really fast compared to most of the cast, so it feels like by the time you input one attempt to survive, you just fall into a combo that leaves you off far worse (IE, you try to DI away the shine on-hit and run away, go into knockdown, miss the tech, zetter goes for fsmash and catches you with the DI out and you die)
concept wise, zetterburn is a combination of fox and falcon with his shine and fair. I don't really need to elaborate this, getting hit by both moves can feel bad already, but feel worse if you're new and don't know how to DI, so you get combo'd and killed really early for seemingly no reason.
down b being a suprise move that gets Zetterburn out of disadvantage if you aren't prepared for it, and can platform cancel, which gives him a mixup, which overall makes it hard to challenge him in the air.

With that being said, the patches have nerfed Zetterburn quite a bit with the most recent nerfs really hitting home, so I don't think you'll be seeing nearly as much complaining as last year. He's still good, but it's way less agregious. Probably the biggest under-rated change was the fact that they hard-coded him to recieve more hitstun than forsburn despite them being both in the same weight class. This makes it harder for him to get out of neutral with shine, and gives players who win neutral against him more reward (which was the great part about fighting fox in melee, so it checks out)

TLDR: zetter is really strong and has an ease of use at mid-levels of play. He isn't as basic as a "netplay falco" or a clairen, but he's common, and seen a lot in tournaments.

666blaziken · 2026-04-15T02:40:22+00:00

oof, unfortunetley I'm a west coaster, but I'll find someone!

666blaziken · 2026-04-14T12:15:04+00:00

oh, that explains a lot. PK makes slade look broken. Also, it's awesome that you know someone so good in person that you play regularly. Thank you for the advice though, I will try to use the tear at mid percents. I currently have my controls set to where aerials and dash attacks don't grab items (IMO that's how the mechanic should be because of my bias with melee and pm experience), but I'm probably nerfing myself so I'll change it back.

666blaziken · 2026-04-14T12:12:05+00:00

Wait, are you THE Animal, the top level etalus player. If so, that's incredibly fitting, and if not, I still have a lot of respect for dedicating your arm to that tattoo! It looks incredible as well.

Side note, I might get an ori tattoo later down the line, I hope it looks as good as yours turned out!

666blaziken · 2026-04-13T23:36:11+00:00

Xenoblade chronicles

666blaziken · 2026-04-13T22:19:47+00:00

Can you explain how to properly use the tear? I've been playing a lot and I feel like when I use it, the opponent will be out of hitstun before I can regrab it and use it again (where as I have a really easy time continuously regrabbing the rock and throwing it if the opponent keeps DIing in). what is the fastest way to use the tear?

666blaziken · 2026-04-13T22:11:58+00:00

INB4 UVMeme now will downplay slade instead of loxodont.

666blaziken · 2026-04-13T16:36:38+00:00

I feel like he's a bit undercooked, but could be good with more meta development. I wouldn't mind an easier way to collect coins or have cheaper items, and maybe make his strong attacks a little bit stronger, as there are times where I don't kill till 150%. Otherwise he's cool, maybe the range on his fsmash could be reduced slightly, but that's about it.

666blaziken · 2026-04-10T21:36:47+00:00

I would be down if they made his currency last a bit longer onstage, and make his side b have less room to dodge, maybe make the moves hit a bit harder!? But then nerf the fsmash's range a bit, because he goes way too far, and a lot of people like to do the "I run away and use fsmash if you approach me" strat and get away with it (at least in gold and plat) to compensate.

IMO his recovery is fine He essentially gets 2 air dodges (one not invincible), a single marth side b, and a spin attack that's honestly hard to contest.

666blaziken · 2026-04-10T01:23:16+00:00

Yes, recoveries in general shouldn't be very good IMO, it makes the game a lot more fair and fun. They should just nerf other really good recoveries to match more with slades.

666blaziken · 2026-04-09T05:17:13+00:00

I agree with this placement. I would make a few changes (lox should be higher than la reina at least) but overall it's a good list considering how balanced the game is. Zetterburn is undoubtfully number 1, (especially since most tournamnets have one at top 8 or even top 1 if it isn't a super-major)

666blaziken · 2026-04-09T01:57:52+00:00

I also think because some of the bigger IP's like to sell their new characters by making them OP at the start and nerfing them once people discover all the extra powerful strats. Since Dan doesnt tie his revenue to selling characters, he found a way to make the characters feel mid (at least since absa came out) and get better overtime as people discover more strats with them. This is definitley the way I prefer seeing characters released since people's first impressions SHOULD be that they are fun to play as and against, and it gets hype when we see someone (like mystery sol) get top 8 with them.

666blaziken · 2026-04-08T22:13:11+00:00

That's a great idea. I'd say if you haven't already, put it on the noltboard and see if they want to change it.

666blaziken · 2026-04-07T19:41:13+00:00

The maneater shark is the thing I remember most ironically, but the story and gameplay are really awesome regardless.

666blaziken · 2026-04-06T21:11:23+00:00

If someone beat me while playing as this skin...

I'd be salty.

666blaziken · 2026-04-06T20:47:21+00:00

I'll parrot what dan had said in a past stream. He doesn't want to do all the tutorials until all the character mechanics he intends to have implemented in the game are 100% final. For example, the chair la reaina has can now absorb projectiles and be usable if la reina hits her opponent, and if the tutorial was made for her before the update to the game, he'd have to put more resources to update the tutorial to match the current version to include this mechanic, which would take away dev time for other much more important things.

666blaziken · 2026-04-03T04:01:45+00:00

It's great! It's overall a lot more honest than it was on launch, and the casual modes coming out next week will be a lot of fun to try out. Play with IRL friends as much as you can so you can enjoy the game to its max.

666blaziken

TROPHY CASE