Official Art management- Shulk moveset analysis (Current move: D-throw)

[Berserker.]

I'll start making the write up for d-smash then. U-smash discussion starts when Erico concludes this discussion (about d-smash)

DONE

D-smash: Monado Cyclone

This move is known for being really amazing but... truth be told, it's definitely not as good as most people say. Don't get me wrong, this move is definitely good. Not amazing or superb but it's good at doing what its designed to do. D-smash is mostly known for its huge horizontal range and multiple active hitboxes. It also has fairly decent damage output (~14% at the sweetspot) but its knockback is surprisingly more powerful and potent than it looks. Even the second hit is capable of KO'ing at surprisingly low percentages. In Smash art, d-smash is extremely scary. One right read near the edge and you can possibly take a stock easily. The start up (frame 18) and end lag of d-smash are its main disadvantages and it's also why you need to think twice when using d-smash.

D-smash's primary use is to catch opponents off from rolls thanks to its multiple hitboxes. Once you figure out the rolling habits of your opponent, you can at least know when to use d-smash. D-smash's utility is at its peak once you have the opponent cornered near the edge where in their only option against you is to camp at the ledge (which is a bad idea), roll at your back (a horrible idea also), to retaliate by attacking, to shield, or to jump over you. D-smash is able to cover 4 of 5 options thanks to its active hitboxes and its generally long range.

Other than roll punishing, you can also use d-smash for landing KO's, for edgeguarding and for punishing whiffed aerials. As said earlier, d-smash's KO power is a lot more potent than it seems. With Smash art, d-smash is able to KO at fraudulent percentages. D-smash's horizontal range also makes it effective for edgeguarding. With buster art, you can increase the reward for landing d-smash on your opponent. Additionally if you land this against a shielding opponent while they're near the edge, you have a good chance of breaking their shield and possibly taking their stock if they fall off the edge. With jump art, you can do a sliding d-smash with jump's slippery momentum which can catch opponents off guard

Overall, d-smash has certain uses but overall, it performs its job fairly well and it's not really hard to use for as long as you aren't dumb with it. It's not really a move to spam and whiffing it will get you punished really hard.

Rating:
普盾
翔疾1/2
斬撃

 

[Masonomace]

@ Berserker. Great write-up. I suggest adding in more to the point about Buster D-smash used against shielding opponents near the ledge.

An opponent who ledge-climbs onto the stage may put up shield to block the on coming attack since shield comes out on frame 1-2. When that's happening, Buster D-smash could of been uncharged, semi-charged, or even fully charged, but the most important thing to add is that no matter how fresh their shield was, if the D-smash didn't break their shield the D-smash will definitely shield-stab them. They lose so much shield health from the 1st hit of D-smash that the 3rd & 5th hits from the Front add onto the chance of breaking their shield or poking through their shield since their hurt-box is mostly exposed underneath them. That shield-stab is important because it knocks them off-stage & repeats the ledge zoning that Shulk continues to capitalize on, & with Buster Art active or the opportunity to deactivate Buster & cycle to Smash Art. So as a result from the shield-stab, they either continue to receive more damage, lose their stock from cycling to Smash Art, or if the Smash Art augmented move didn't KO then that sets up a Jump or Speed Art edge-guard to finish it.

So yeah. Adding in shield-stabbing as an extra point to that works nicely. I'm also ready to discuss U-smash whenever @ erico9001 gives the word.

 

[Berserker.]

I might make a case for making buster and speed f-tilt a 4/5 but the thing is, I might as well be reiterating about buster's safety and speed f-tilt's amazing ability to work as a tech chasing tool or for spacing in general. Ugh, I've been using f-tilt a lot and it's been really helpful. Idk.

D-smash's summary was updated with shield stabbing (made a tldr version for it so that it won't seem too long)

Anyway, I'm ready with my thoughts on u-smash (this post will be reserved for it)

~~

Moderator powers. Erico won't mind. I think

Discuss u-smash

 

[Masonomace]

Has anyone realized that U-smash's first hitbox (not the grounded hitbox) lasts from frame 18 until frame 29 or at least took notice or brought this up in this thread?

They did, they just indirectly pointed it out with all the discussion about using U-smash for punishing the Ledge-climb option because it's so good of an answer to that. --- Oop I've begun my U-smash discussion. . .
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

1. U-smash
2. Frame 18-21: 4.5% 100f/110w 105° Ground-Target-Only
3. Frame 18-29: 4.5% 40f/70w 92°
4. Frame 18-29: 4.5% 100f/60w 92°
5. Frame 30-33: 13.5% 45b/98g (KO@ 124%) 89° Pierce
6. Max Damage: 13.5%
7. Smash charge window on real frame 11

U-smash is our vertical F-smash basically. The move doesn't reach vertically higher than U-tilt but it still has a great vertical reach nonetheless, & it has a handful of applications not to the mention using the Ground-only knockup effect from the 1st hit or connecting the attack up close with that Frame 18 - 29 window. The 2nd hit up close starting on Frame 30 being 1 frame later than the ending of the 1st hit's active hitbox doesn't make it easy for the ledge-climber to put up shield if you've timed this move successfully for a hard read.

Something important to note about U-smash that I've learned from using this move against many character MUs is to never truly feel safe relying on the close-ranged attack of the 1st hit on characters with high fall speeds because they can drop to the floor & put up shield thus perfect shielding the 2nd hit following later. I don't need to address what the cost could be, but I'll say that I've been punished by a Greninja who perfect shielded the 2nd hit & dropped shield quickly to punish with a hard-hitting F-smash or Sheik who can grab us & commence her aerial string of doom with a Bouncing Fish for the finisher. On top of that, I've also learned that it is possible to avoid the 2nd hit from being launched by the grounded 1st hit & all you have to do is hold your away from the direction you're knocked up into. This is especially easy for lighter / floaty characters & even heavy characters can avoid it too. Not very many people know about it yet though. . .

Fun Important Fact: It doesn't look it, but I've confirmed that the 2nd hitting Beam shooting up has a larger hitbox in front than behind Shulk. The grounded 1st hit knock-up also reaches farther from the front than the backside as well, which favors the idea of utilizing Reverse Jump Canceled Up Smash or RJCU for short.

EDIT: I just tested the up close range of U-smash 2nd hit, & even the 2nd hit from the floor in front of Shulk reaches farther than from behind Shulk as well. So basically everything in front of U-smash reaches farther than the backside.

Monado Arts and U-smash
Jump Arts using the sliding feature upon landing can make U-smash slide some distance but it's not too much of an advantage albeit can do nicely. Shield Arts makes your running U-smash distance too small. Buster Arts are a mixed result because too much shield knockback from the just the 1st hit can push them far enough that the 2nd hit won't reach & even then, it's not wise to try using both hits of U-smash as it won't be safe. Smash Arts make this move eye-opening & terrifying by using the grounded knockup effect since it KOs so much earlier than one would expect.

Most of all, the Speed Arts are what defines this move most because of our movement speed & positioning performed such as:

• Dashing U-smash
• Running into Jump Canceled Up Smash / RJCU
• & Perfect Pivot U-smash towards the ledge in the same manner as Fox Perfect Pivoting D-smash

My overall rating is a .5

Jump = .5
Speed = .5
Shield = .5
Buster =
Smash =

 

[Goesasu]

Just gonna say 1 thing because time:

1- Dspeed Dthrown--> running upsmash is my bread and butter.

My gameplay is Dspeed focused so to me running Upsmash is part of my core plays.

 

[Berserker.]

What to say about u-smash....

When it comes to making any read or hard read, my go-to move will always be u-smash. The grounded hitbox (aka: fartbox) is surprisingly useful, deceptive, and somewhat disjointed. The damage output and KO power of u-smash is also amazing and among Shulk's arsenal, u-smash is the most consistent with KO'ing due to it being primarily a vertical KO'ing move. U-smash is also a fantastic ledge trapping tool. You can see it in most videos, it's either u-smash or u-tilt Shulks go to when it comes to covering ledge options.

Problem is, that's about it. U-smash is only useful for reads or ledge trapping. Outside those, you can use u-smash for punishing but you have better options like f-smash unless you're trying to kill (but if it comes to killing horizontally, that depends on where you are and how you're positioned in a match). This isn't really a move you can combo into either unlike f-smash.

I should note though, u-smash with smash art is insane and speed art allows Shulk to slide while doing u-smash which makes it easier to land reads and catch opponents. U-smash is unsafe on hit no matter which art you use btw. It's also not the fastest attack in the world or anything. It comes out on frame 18 which is pretty bad.

tldr: when to use u-smash:
- ledge trapping
- punishing
- reads

That's about it. It's not a bad move because the damage and KO potential is insane. Plus, the range is deceivingly huge (referring to the fart box since the beam is obviously long ranged vertically). Just be wary of its start up and ending lag. You can't just throw it out of no where. I would have said the same for f-smash but yeah, it kind of applies for it too but you can pivot that to make it more unpredictable and harder to react to.

Vanilla/Jump
Speed/Smash
Buster 1/2
Shield

 

[S.F.L.R_9]

Well I stopped getting notifications from this thread...sigh. Just want to say everything is looking great and I loved the idea of this thread so much that I created a similar one for the Zelda boards. Great job everyone <3

Anyways, usmash is my favorite smash attack. The basics have been covered by Mace and Berserker so I'll just go over some other things. It's amazing at catching standard ledge getups to get the kill since it lasts so long. You can either do this in Smash or in Speed. I prefer Speed because you can stand far away from the ledge near center stage so your opponent thinks it's safe to do a standard ledge getup, but since you're in Speed you can just be like lolnope, run over, and usmash them to their death :^)

Something very interesting I've noticed is that if you space yourself properly at the ledge, usmash can cover a standard ledge getup AND some character's rolls. This needs more testing on who it works on though. I'll try and do that within the next week or so, and assuming we're done with usmash by then, I'll post my results in the metagame thread

If you're going to get a hard punish with this move, make sure you space it at the tip of Shulk's feet rather than near his body. The reason for this is because if you hit with the tip of his feet it pushes your opponent up into the beam, rather than staying on the ground. In other words, they'll be sent up higher if they're hit with the tip of his feet and thus will be killed earlier.

A way to get that hard punish is by conditioning an airdodge off of uthrow. Attack everytime after uthrow so your opponent thinks it's safe to airdodge to avoid those attacks. Once they're conditioned, the best way to punish it is with Buster so the uthrow barely sends them anywhere, they airdodge, suffer landing lag, and you can deactivate Buster to get the kill with usmash.

Vanilla/Jump .5
Speed .5
Shield
Buster
Smash


Overall, I'd give usmash a .5

 

[ExcaliburGuy]

Out of all of Shulk's smashes, I find up smash to be the least useful. It doesn't combo from anything, it has long startup lag, and its skinny vertical hitbox makes it difficult to punish opponents in the air. However, should you land this move, the damage and knockback are substantial, as with all of Shulk's smashes. While up smash is indeed situational, that doesn't mean you should never throw it out. It can be a very unexpected read, especially in Speed mode. One of the ways I use it is after a down throw. Opponents will be expecting forward air most of the time, so if they airdodge you can capitalize with a dash cancel-up smash. In general, dash canceling up smash in Speed mode is the most effective way to utilize the good ol' beam tower of death in my opinion. Don't forget about the staggeringly high KO power this move receives from Smash mode, either.

Speed:
Smash/Jump: 1/2
Vanilla/Buster:
Shield:

 

[kenniky]

Not much to add on other than the fact that usmash isn't actually a true combo iirc, which means that Jigglypuff can Rest out of it and Charizard can Rock Hurl out of it.

After testing, if the first hit is with the body, it's not a true combo. Hitting the first hit with Shulk's feet is a true combo.

Don't punish whiffed Rests with upclose usmash, spacing is important even when the opponent is sleeping

 

[Berserker.]

While we wait for additional comments about u-smash, take note that everyone's favorite move (n-air) is coming up next in 2 days! More or less

 

[Masonomace]

In regards to U-smash not being a true combo, it's unfortunately true but there is hope. The more Rage effect we have as well as the higher the opponent's damage is, the more effective U-smash gets even at point-blank range. So even characters that are heavy, fall fast, or a character's quick frame option to attempt interrupting the U-smash will get hit by both hits.

Fun Fact: Anyone who crouches like these fests?: --- U-smash will knock them up. So anytime someone crouches, U-smash guarantees a ground-only knock-up effect even if they try to crouch cancel the knockback.

Edit: You recall all those times characters crouch right beside you at a very close range or when they do an aerial causing their hurt-box to sink even lower that your grab won't get them? U-smash answers that too, or pivot grab works too.

 

[Berserker.]

Alright, I left this thread alone for quite a while. Let's move on to N-air

I'll start with u-smash's write up. This post will be reserved for it

Edit:

U-smash : Screw Edge

Visually, you'd get the sense that u-smash is basically a vertical f-smash and in some ways, you're right. Although it may seem like f-smash has more kill power (it does though if it's angled upward), u-smash is much more consistent when it comes to KO'ing since it KO's opponents vertically. U-smash is a rewarding smash attack for Shulk to land. It deals a total of ~17% damage and KO's at 102% (84% with Smash art). Having 150% rage allows you to KO at 70% (54% with Smash art, holy ****). The range of u-smash is deceiving. Although it is true that vertically, its range is amazing but the horizontal range is actually deceptively bigger than it seems.

U-smash has its uses. First, it's notable for ledge trapping. You can catch ledge rolls with the grounded hitbox thanks to its surprisingly big size (props to @ S.F.L.R_9 for the GIFs below). Even if they try to perform a ledge get-up, they'll get caught by u-smash's grounded hitbox. Catching a ledge hop with u-smash may prove to be tricky but it's still possible to catch ledge hops with u-smash (definitely) due to u-smash's amazing vertical range. Against ledge attacks, you can perform OoS u-smash against that to shield the hit. U-smash is not so usable against players that try to ledge drop and jump back while using an aerial.

Other than being a great option for ledge trapping, it's your go-to attack for making reads. U-smash's KO power lends itself to being good for KO'ing opponents. If you want its maximum KO potential, you need to space u-smash at the tip of Shulk's feet. By doing that, you'll send your opponent up into the beam instead of them staying on the ground if you land u-smash's first hitbox near Shulk's body. You can also land u-smash by conditioning opponents to air dodge from an up throw. This frequently happens in buster art due to the significant knockback decrease on u-throw with the art activated.

U-smash does have issues though. Its start up and end lag are notably long. Its end lag is easy to punish. Basically, you can't really throw this move out nor feel safe when using it. When you use it, you have to make sure that you're really going to land this (kind of applies for a lot of smash attacks in the game if you think about it). U-smash is also not a true combo unless you land it up-close near the opponent.

U-smash is only notable when used with speed and smash art. With buster art, you can perform the aforementioned tactic of conditioning opponents into air dodging off from a u-throw such that you can land a free u-smash punish. Speed art allows you to perform a sliding u-smash which is extremely useful and important for making u-smash reads much safer, and easier to land. This is also one of Shulk's go-to KO options if ever smash art feels to risky. Smash art obviously helps u-smash significantly since it increases u-smash's KO potential (and u-smash already kills really early!) Jump art's traction landing from an air borne state allows for a slight sliding distance but it isn't really notable.

Basically, u-smash is a rewarding move to land and you're gonna see yourself try to land u-smashes for ledge trapping, KO's and reads. The problem with u-smash is basically that it's slow and the end lag is punishable so as always, be careful when using this attack.

普翔1/2
疾1/2
盾1/2
斬
撃

 

[Peppa]

I would reaaaaally love to give nair the max rating, but it being our BnB move I think it can backfire on us.

Nair is obviously an amazing tool, that goes without saying for this board and doesn't really need to go into detail about it. Definitely beware of nairing into shields, try crossing up and landing behind people. It can cover techs, tech rolls, missed techs, almost all ledge get up options.
It keeps strings going, starts strings, has huge coverage. Its frame data is okay for shulk.

But the more I developed my own Shulk metagame, the more I liked fair for the neutral spacing and using nair for coverage and strings.
I think nair is a great move, when you have stage control or are on the offensive. I think as a move its overrated, still our best move, but overrated.


Jump: I think fair and bair work better here due to the sheer aerial agility of jump, and fair is better for zoning a space and can connect better with strings in jump.




Speed: Definitely the best art for nair in my opinion. The quick short hops with speed are amazing for strings and cross ups, and can cover a landing decently well in a lot of match ups. Grabs, pivot grabs into nair are pretty standard for Shulk.




Shield: I absolutely hate being in the air as shield unless I'm being juggled and I need to get down. I see Shield as a lot more of a grounded art outside of landing purposes, and you'll get punished for overly nairing in the art. If you have to, once again I think retreating fairs are better in this art. Still all purpose and good, just better options in my opinion.




Buster: I feel sacrilege here but once again nair isn't just the godsend it seems. a few other moves have A LOT better shield pressure in buster and this is not an art you want to get grabbed and punished in, due to taking more percent, and every percent matters at a higher level of play. Absolutely gorgeous for strings and once you're in, but its still not what helps you get in.



Smash: I don't know why you would use nair in Smash art.



I love nair, don't get me wrong. I just hate seeing Shulks overly rely on it, people have gotten much much better at power shield punishing and it makes a lot of Shulks extremely obvious. Always remember to mix up your options!

 

[Berserker.]

Okay okay... N-air. Tbh, I don't really have to go in-depth with what n-air can do because it does like... almost everything. Spacing, combo-starting, tech chasing, catching rolls, (things DeMo mentioned), halting ground approaches, breaking zones (against campers specifically). Yeah, you get the point. N-air is important for Shulk. Problem is because it's useful for everything, so most Shulks become over-reliant on n-air. Most Shulks forget that it comes out at frame 13.... the first hitbox comes out at frame 13, behind Shulk. At his front, it comes out much later. This is something you need to remember. N-air is a great move and all but take note of the frame speed, seriously.

With jump art, n-air is active from frame 13-30 so you get where I'm coming from. Take advantage of the duration, zone out opponents with n-air, while taking control of the stage with your sheer mobility. N-air is also important since it is your primary combo starter (secondary being u-tilt and the tertiary is probably a tie between d-tilt and d-throw). Once you land n-air, you can potentially end the opponent's stock really early. N-air > F-air x2 for mid percentages or mid-high. N-air > B-air at higher percentages. N-air > D-air for mid percentages or mid-high. N-air > U-tilt > F-air > Air slash at low percentages. N-air > F-air > Air slash also works at mid percents. You get the point. Jump art drastically increases the potential profit from landing n-air

Speed art, SH N-air. Great for breaking zones, tech chases and roll punishing. Oh, and cross ups. Very pivotal for speed art usage. Similar to jump, n-air is also a combo starter for speed art combos although due to the shortened jump height, you don't have that much combos in speed art. You have n-air > grab (d-throw) > f-air, n-air > jab, n-air > d-tilt > grab (d-throw) > f-air, etc. Although air speed would suggest that jump art is superior to speed art for breaking zones if we're talking SH N-airing into opponents, speed art's air acceleration is better than jump's so speed art SH N-air is better.

Shield art, meh. It's vanilla except with worse damage output and less safety on shield. Nothing special. Slightly worse if anything

Buster art n-air is safe if you tipper n-air. Otherwise, it isn't safe on shield if you land the base hitbox. It's also not safe if you don't space it from the opponent. If you use buster n-air while rushing toward the opponent, even if you tipped it while going in, you're definitely going to get shield grabbed. You need to space n-air away from the opponent. Make sure you aren't totally committing to going toward the opponent while n-airing. Buster n-air is really good though since it deals more damage (although still not much in general) and it allows you to follow up into several attacks. Low percentages, you can do n-air > jab which deals a lot of damage for a combo that's so simple to execute. There's n-air > d-tilt which can be followed up into either d-tilt, d-throw, f-smash, or f-tilt for insane damage output. At higher percentages (~50-70%), n-air > f-tilt becomes doable and it deals 28% damage in total. At ~60-80%, n-air > f-smash becomes a true combo and it deals a whopping ~35% damage

Smash art, no. Don't. Not completely useless. Almost useless. It's good for setting up edgeguarding opportunities but there are better options than n-air. Becomes really unsafe on shield because of the damage reduction.... so no

Rating:
Vanilla
Jump/Speed
Shield
Buster 1/2
Smash

 

[Abaasy]

I really don't think that I have to go into detail with Nair, as most people already know what it is capable of. I'm still quite unsure about if Nair autocancels or if it has little to no lag, so if someone could clear that up for me, that would be great. Anyways, one of the first things that I usually say to other people about Shulk is the fact that you should not use Nair offstage. Sure, it has a large hitbox and the hitbox lasts quite a while, about 18 frames I believe. This means that you can not do anything within those 18 frames. I've actually SD'd a few times by tapping the diagonal on the c-stick off stage, trying to edgeguard opponents with a fair, which brought my too low to recover without Monado Jump Air Slash on. (RIP)

You shouldn't even need to use Nair to edgeguard, Fair is by far a more superior option. Nair starts below you, and Fair starts above you. Fair can catch your opponent if they try to jump over you, and if they are too low for you, you can fast fall the Fair and catch them off guards in certain situations. But I'm going to stop talking about Fair because I'm supposed to be talking about Nair.

Do not use Nair when your opponent is in their shield, it is a very easy way for you to get shield grabbed, as most of you have probably experienced during our early days playing as Shulk. With Vanilla Shulk, there is almost no way to make it safe on shield, unless you potentially fade away with Nair, but they can still run up and grab.

Nair in Jump art is amazing. Fast fall Nairs -> Jump Fair or something similar works around 70% on most characters. The air mobility that Jump art gives makes Nair such a good move to land and combo off of. Personally I think that Nair shouldn't be used in Jump art if you are short hopping, unless you fast fall, the hitbox is relatively small under Shulk compared to the rest of the move, because Shulk is still activating the Monado during those frames.
Jump Art Nair /5

Nair in Speed art is just as amazing as Nair in Jump art. If I remember correctly, Jump art gives Shulk the fastest air speed in the game, while Speed art gives him the 3rd fastest air speed in the game. The difference is the fact that Shulk's jump is lower, and his ground speed is amazing. Run up Nair in Speed art is just as good as Fast Fall Nair in Jump art IMO. Short Hop Nair in Speed art is really good (Almost certain it's a bad idea to Fast Fall the Short Hop Nair, because the Monado will hardly come out, at least in Hyper Speed, and yes I use Hyper arts). It acts the same way as Nair in Jump art being able to follow up with such good options like a grab or another aerial because of how fast Shulk is in those arts.
Speed Art Nair /5

Personally I think that Nair in Shield mode isn't all that great. You're so slow and can hardly get any follow ups. The 1 potentially decent follow up in Shield Mode from Nair at low to mid percents is Dash Attack.

I really only find a use with Dash Attack in Shield mode. You run really slow and Dash Attack gives you a little boost which can sometimes be used to punish unsafe attacks on your shield.

Like I said when I was talking about Dash Attack, it gives a little boost which could help in netting a followup. Other than that, I don't see much use with Nair in Shield art unless you want to try and zone your opponent out.
Shield Art Nair .5 /5

Nair in Buster art is really good. I'm pretty sure that it can still be punished from some characters even from a tipper buster Nair, because I think that since tippers do less damage, it gives less shield pushback. That could just be me however. If you land a Nair in buster art, you are in to give some massive damage. Nair -> Jab, Nair -> Grab -> Fair, Nair -> FTilt, and many more follow ups from Nair give crazy amounts of damage.
Buster Art Nair /5

Nair in Smash Art is a joke. Why are you even using it in this art if you are ._. If you're in Smash art you obviously want to finish the stock off. Nair is not the move to seal that deal.
Smash Art Nair .5 /5

 

[Berserker.]

I'm pretty sure that it can still be punished from some characters even from a tipper buster Nair, because I think that since tippers do less damage, it gives less shield pushback.

Tipper n-air deals more damage than landing its base hitbox

Oh and your input is well appreciated :D (applies to everyone that posted here)

Edit: N-air doesn't autocancel. It just has low landing lag

 

[kenniky]

Not sure what I can say that hasn't been said here already... it's a pretty cool move.

unsafe on shield though

the fact that the hitbox starts below you makes it a decent antiantiair option I guess, although it's shorter than fair, fsmash, bair so it's easier to misspace

decent landing option I guess? One of the better landing options outside of MALLC at least.

Vanilla:
4
Jump:
4.5
Speed:
5
Shield:
3.5
Buster:
4.5
Smash:
1.5
Average:
3.83 (RIP Smash)

 

[ExcaliburGuy]

The nair, or neutch as I like to call it, is probably Shulk's most important move in his repertoire sans Monado Arts. The attack goes completely around Shulk's body and it has low landing lag. Couple this with Monado Arts and you have one of the most versatile attacks in the game. That doesn't mean you should throw strategy out the window, however, as it is still unsafe on shield.
In Jump, you can just jump around and throw this move out to discourage aerial approaches. In addition, if you see an opening when your opponent is at mid-high percents, you can perform a dive-bomb neutch to set up a death combo. Nair->Fair->Fair/Air Slash is a true combo on many characters at these percents. You can also use the backwards hitbox of nair to lead into a free bair KO. Overall, nair benefits greatly from Jump.
The neutch is also fantastic in Speed, as it can punish even slight amounts of lag your opponent experiences. It also is a great combo starter at low percents. Nair->Dtilt->Grab->Dthrow->Fair->Fair is one of my favorite strings. Just make sure you're not being reckless with nair approaches, because you can be shield grabbed easily.
The foundation of my strategem in Shield is based on the neutch. I like to stay in the air as much as I can (because of the increased mobility compared to running) and out space my opponent with nair. In this case, nair is being used defensively as opposed to more offensively with Jump and Speed.
I use nair more defensively in Buster as well. When you see an opening, you can nair into grab into bthrow for a hefty sum of damage. Mostly though, I use the neutch to wall out opponents.
Nair is the least useful in Smash in my opinion. However it still has its uses. One of my favorite tricks is to edgeguard with the backwards upper hitbox (the part that goes over Shulk's head). If you jump backwards off the stage at the opponent, they'll be expecting a back air. However, if you use the delayed overhead backwards hitbox of nair, you can easily read the air dodge and net the KO, or at least put them far away from the ledge.

So yeah, overall neutral air is a fantastic move. Easily Shulk's best aerial, and one of the best in the game overall.

Jump/Speed:
Vanilla/Shield/Buster: 1/2
Smash: 1/2

 

[Berserker.]

I'm not sure if I can make a confident conclusion with smash art n-air. Anyone here have any additional opinion about smash n-air before I conclude the discussion?

 

[TrueSapphire]

I'm not sure if I can make a confident conclusion with smash art n-air. Anyone here have any additional opinion about smash n-air before I conclude the discussion?

I actually have one input on Smash Art N-air. You can use this when you and your opponent (130-150%+) are very close to the blast line. With rage, it's even easier to KO. Still, it is hard to successfully land this, so I can understand everyone's opinion on it.

Since I play on Anther's Ladder on the 3DS, Prism Tower is one of the counterpicks. There are some sections where the blast lines are close.

So if you're on these platforms, Smash Art N-air is one way to kill.

...Or you could be like me where I accidentally used N-air instead of F-air and won a very close game.

 

[Masonomace]

N-air
I'll make this as brief as I can. N-air is Shulk's longest active move starting on Frame 13 & ending on Frame 30, while dealing more damage & knockback with the outer region of the attack aka the Beam rather than the Blade hitbox we're so used to being the sweetspot. Many say that N-air is unsafe on shield but Jump Shulk's N-air is safe on block given enough drifting, fast falling / falling, & spacing with the Beam portion of the move while utilizing the sliding feature upon landing. The same can be said for Speed Shulk's N-air in a manner of retreating backwards & inputting SH > N-air in case you feel too close to the opponent who would happen to already be closing the gap quickly. Buster Shulk's N-air can also become safe on shield as long as you spaced with the Beam portion since drifting & fast falling aren't as required. And to an extent, Shield Shulk's N-air & Smash Shulk's N-air COULD be safe but you'd need solid spacing with the Beam portion as well as retreating drift speed & fast falling.

What do I mainly use N-air for? Beating out common options like:

1. Airdodge
2. Ledge-climb

If at all you feel that U-smash is too much of a hard-read commitment to use for the Ledge-climb getup like F-smash angled down for edge-guarding, then N-air is an ideal secondary & safer option. The move is active for quite a while & once you've read the Ledge-climb, you can choose to fast fall N-air while driftin towards them to set up into Jab combo, D-tilt, U-tilt, F-tilt, F-smash?, F-air strings, Air Slash, Advancing Air Slash, Mighty Air Slash?, maybe even a D-air?, possibly U-air??, or anything else you feel is suitable. The current Art heavily affects what you'd do after the N-air read.

Airdodge is something I find annoying to deal with as Shulk despite that his hitboxes on his aerials are large, but they still possess poor frame data as you can't repeatedly use them to frame trap Airdodge (Exceptions can be patience, U-air, or D-air, or even N-air offstage depending how low you are & whether you have Jump already cycled to or you're able to cycle to Jump Art right as you're doublejumping right after N-air finishes). Not even F-air swiping helps me all that much, which is why playing patient & not mindlessly throwing out hitboxes is a good plan. So to catch these Airdodges, no matter what Art you have on, watch their drifting movement & follow them with a N-air at ready. Most likely with the right drifting & fast falling, you can catch Airdodge with N-air due to how long the move stays active, so long that it won't be uncommon to cover their pattern with the backside of N-air upon nearing the end of the move.

I won't give Art votes but overall, I give N-air / 5 because N-air still has setbacks & can be used improperly.

 

[Berserker.]

That's all?

Alright, time for f-air

 

[ExcaliburGuy]

I don't have time for a full move analysis right now, but as for the name... eh? Stream Edge has a similar animation to fair if you turn it 90 degrees on the z axis. Or you could call it something topical like "Monado Marth Forward Air".
On a side note, where on Bionis is Erico?

 

[Abaasy]

Oh boy. Fair.

Personally I think that Fair is an amazing edgeguarding tool.

You shouldn't even need to use Nair to edgeguard, Fair is by far a more superior option. Nair starts below you, and Fair starts above you. Fair can catch your opponent if they try to jump over you, and if they are too low for you, you can fast fall the Fair and catch them off guards in certain situations.

Fair comes out fairly slow, on Frame 14, and it only lasts for 4-5 frames I believe. Fair's range however makes it really easy to gimp other characters, and it will potentially kill at higher percents, because usually you'll hit the opponent when both of you are near the blast zone offstage. Fair is another one of Shulk's spacing moves IMO, along with Nair and Bair. It's a really good follow up from DThrow/BThrow/FThrow, though as far as I'm aware none are true combos without any Monado art buffs. (Personally I don't use DThrow to combo, it does pathetic damage compared to FThrow and BThrow.)

Another thing that I like to do with Fair is when your opponent is offstage, run to the ledge and Reverse Aerial Rush so that you face the stage. Then, I usually do a Fast Fall Fair which would stage spike them, unless they tech it. I prefer this over the simple run off Bair because simply put, Fair comes out faster than Bair and covers more range. I do not recommend doing this all the time, simply just going for a standard Fair to get the opponent further away from the stage for a potential gimp/kill could be better than stage spiking, as they are able to tech it, and it would give them stage control. I still think that it was something to note.

With Vanilla Shulk, there really are no guaranteed follow ups from Fair, but it does put you in a better position. Fair on shield is unsafe though. That is a free shield grab for the opponent if you try and do that with Vanilla Shulk. Don't hit their shield with Fair. There aren't many bad things for using it without any arts on, but there aren't really any good things in using it without any arts on.
Vanilla Shulk Fair /5

Fair in Jump art is really good. Because of the fact that Jump art makes you have the fastest air speed in the game, Short Hop Fast Fall Fair covers pretty much everything in front of you. At higher percents, Jump art Fair can combo into itself, potentially leading into those Air Slash kills too. However, I've seen the 2nd hit of Air Slash miss before because the first hit in Jump art sends you extra high (I have no idea why both hits aren't a guaranteed connect). Jump art Fairs are a very good option for catching opponents trying to attack from above. Also, you'll have no problem making it back to the stage after chasing them in the air with Jump art.
Jump art Fair /5

Speed art Fair is pretty much the same thing as Fair in Jump art, except better for lower percents, because your attacks would not be sending the opponent so high. In Speed art, the Throw -> Fair is much easier to land, especially at low percents. Speed art doesn't change Air Slash drastically, so from my experience, I've landed more Fairs -> Air Slash's, as I find it harder to whiff the 2nd hit of Air Slash without the large boost to how high the first hit goes from the Jump art boost.
Speed art Fair .5/5

Shield art Fair is nothing special. You can try and zone your opponent out with Fairs, but it's pretty much impossible to get any follow ups from a Fair in Shield art. Not even edgeguarding with Fair in Shield art is that good. Sure your knockback remains the same but you're just so slow in the air.
Shield art Fair /5

Buster art Fair is somewhat like Vanilla Shulk, because of the fact that there are no guaranteed follow ups from Fair, but you do a decent chunk of damage with it in Buster. Hitting your opponent's shield with a Buster Fair is still pretty unsafe. It isn't like Nair where the tipper is stronger. Even though the range on Fair is amazing, it is still punishable. If you're attempting to gimp or kill your opponent offstage with Fair, don't do it in Buster art, for obvious reasons. If your opponent is offstage, what even is the point of keeping buster on when you're trying to edgeguard them with Fair? It still has solid damage output nonetheless.
Buster art Fair /5

Smash art Fair is deadly offstage. It kills quite early, and even if they do live they'll be really far away from making it back to the stage. Even if you hit them with a tipper Fair, it still sends them far regardless, enough for it to kill/gimp, depending on the character. Fair in Smash art is a great way to kill the opponent, with its superior range to pretty much most other non projectile aerials.
Smash art Fair /5

 

[Berserker.]

On a side note, where on Bionis is Erico?

I honestly have no clue. He's probably taking a break

I don't have to take thread ownership since I have the power to edit any post in the Shulk boards

N-air : Soaring Tempest

Behold. Everyone's favorite move or should I say, the move that basically is Shulk's identity (other than Monado Arts). So what makes this move so important and so good for Shulk? Comes out at frame 13, deals 8% damage tipped and 7% damage at its base hitbox. It has low landing lag, exactly sitting at 12 frames of landing lag. The range n-air covers is insane. It goes around Shulk. It starts behind him then it goes at his frontal area until the hitbox reaches the area above him. Basically, n-air's hitbox goes in a circular motion, and the hitbox stays out for so long

Well, let's start with the bad things about n-air because apparently, a lot of Shulk mains tend to forget that n-air isn't as perfect as they think it is. N-air comes out at frame 13, from behind Shulk. This means that n-air actually comes out much later when the hitbox finally appears in front of Shulk. Basically, anyone can react to this if they are able to condition themselves to react to the move. You know you're not using the move properly when you're frequently getting shield grabbed when you're using it. Another thing is that without any art, n-air is unsafe on shield especially if you approach with it.

Now we're done with what's not good about n-air, let's talk about why n-air is an important move for Shulk. Shulk's n-air is an amazing tool against grounded approaches. If you're trying to stop approaches, this is your go-to move due to its hitbox and landing lag. This is also Shulk's primary combo-starter whether he's in any art or not. You can follow up moves such as f-tilt, jab, grab, d-tilt, or f-smash off from a hit with n-air. Asides from being a good spacing tool, it's also your primary tool for mid-range pressure. N-air's sweetspot, unlike all of Shulk's moves with base/tip hitboxes, is located at the tip so basically, landing the tipper hitbox will apply more shield pressure. Whenever you try to apply pressure with n-air, always make it a point to land the tip, instead of the base hitbox.

Along with using it for spacing and mid-range pressure, you can use n-air also to catch rolls and basically tech chase. N-air's hitbox is big and it does go under Shulk at first. N-air is also an efficient tool for ledge trapping. If well spaced, you're mostly safe from any attempt for the opponent to perform a ledge attack. If they ledge hop, the upper hitbox of n-air may catch them. If they roll, n-air's hitbox (under Shulk) will most likely catch them. This is all possible depending on how well you time and space n-air. In stages with platforms, you can use n-air along with u-tilt to cover platforms/pressure opponents that are camping or are staying on the platforms. You can also use n-air's long lasting hitbox to catch air dodges. Due to its under-hitbox, it's also one of Shulk's tools for landing (which he sucks at).

With Monado arts, the uses for n-air varies a LOT. What makes n-air really unique is that depending on the art you're using, you can either go on the full-feral offensive with it or play defensive with the move. Without arts (vanilla mode), n-air is a defensive tool used to stop approaches. It's somewhat unsafe though if you try using it for mid-range. With jump art, spacing it correctly, fast falling properly will make N-air safe on shield. Also with jump art, n-air increases the potential of your advantage by a LOT. You can take out a stock really early if you pull of jump art combos correctly. With speed art, you can use n-air for your offense if you can cross-up your opponent using the move. Take advantage of your faster aerial acceleration and faster air speed. You can also play defensively with speed art n-air by retreating while using the move. Buster art's n-air is basically pretty much like utilizing vanilla n-air but instead, tipping n-air with buster art activated will make the move safe on shield. Also, your potential damage off from one single n-air is insanely high. Smash art n-air is somewhat problematic since it's basically REALLY unsafe on shield. You're not gonna find yourself using n-air a lot unless you plan on sneaking in some kills using the move. Smash art n-air is pretty decent for setting up edgeguarding opportunities, so there's that. I guess. Shield art n-air is purely used for defensive purposes since you can't really go on the offensive with shield art anyway. It's not that unsafe though if you space it right.

Shulk's n-air is really good. It's one of, if not, his best moves and it's really important for Shulk's offensive and defensive playstyle. Using its range and exploiting its duration and its low landing lag properly will be the key to your victory. One mistake that a lot of Shulk players do is that they rely on n-air, rather too much. Try to mix it up every now and then instead of spamming one move that loses to dash to shield

Rating:
普
翔疾
盾1/2
斬1/2
撃1/2

 

[Peppa]

I absolutely love fair.

Its arguably, in my opinion, a better spacing tool for retreating the nair is, its probably jump art's best move for chasing, especially on stage, it continues a lot of strings off of throws in jump. Depending on the character you're going against, (larger ranged characters) you can short hop fairs to zone out, since it just feels, though doesn't I'm pretty sure, it has better horizontal coverage then nair. Nair is definitely better then buster then fair, due to string follow ups.

I love this move in speed too, in tandem with nair. If you can't get there in time to nair off a throw at low percents using speed, fair is your man. If they mess their first tech, you can string short hop fairs as a pseudo jab reset, since its so hard teching the consecutive fair hits from the ground. This gets beat out by nair in every situation as a combo starter, and its an awful attack to throw out offensively in neutral, even spaced well its a lot more punishable then nair due to the landing lag, so just don't engage the enemy with it.

I'll get this out of the way. Shulk mains are split between buster or speed meta style. I am a jump centric Shulk, I freaking love jump, so it'll be more then bias. In my opinion fair is better then anything in jump. It can follow up throws, gimp, you can go to the depths of hell and fair for a kill on an air dodge read and recover with ease with Air Slash. It makes you a scarier Yoshi in the air. This move is just insane in jump mode, there isn't much else to say.

Its a decent move in buster, but nothing I didn't touch on earlier. Nair is usually then better option since you want to space perfectly in buster or you'll take a lot of percents. What I love to do is edgeguard with any art really, but buster, shield, and smash are my favorite to do it in. Short hop or even full hop fairs when you time it right and read people's habits is the absolute easiest way to edgeguard. You can knock them out of a roll, a get up, a plank, a jump, EVERYTHING with a perfect fair on the edge. Its gotten me upwards to 50 or 60 percent in a tourney with just fairing get-ups.

Its decent to do retreating fairs in shield, I don't use this art much but to survive when I'm sitting at 150% in neutral after an advantage or disadvantage. I just don't like shield.

Smash art I like this move in situationally. A stage drop off smash fair will kill early or send them far enough back to gimp their recovery. If they are falling for aerial approaches, smash art with fair will knock them off the stage, and you can switch to jump or stay to edgeguard.

Fair is our second best art, if not first best depending on your playstyle. Absolutely god-awful for engaging, but covers a lot of space.


Rating:

普
翔
疾
盾
斬.5
撃.5

I like your rating method the best

 

[Berserker.]

Shulk mains are split between buster or speed meta style

Mwahahahahaha

Hahaha *evil laugh*

---

Okay. Now it's f-air time.

Now, f-air as a move is important for Shulk but it definitely has weaknesses. Without buster art (actually, sometimes even with buster art), it isn't safe on shield. Unless you're retreating, it's not going to be safe. A misconception with f-air is that it's an aerial you rushdown with. Oh hell no, you do NOT rush down with f-air. Frame 14. 18 frames of landing. Doesn't even deal THAT much damage and worse, landing it on its tip hitbox deals less damage (although not by that much). Er... this is basically a defensive spacing tool BUT despite everything I said, f-air is still really good. It's just not good for offensive purposes. I use f-air to contest aerial approaches primarily. You're always going to win or trade with opponents if you space f-air right. Along with it being good for spacing/keeping away, it's amazing for ledge trapping and it's good for tech chasing. F-air is also your main tool for edgeguarding and it's fantastic for that job. Only issue is that if you're predictable with f-air, your opponent will most likely preemptively air dodge it. Your best option is to wait for them and see how they react once they're within f-air's range. If they air dodge, punish it by using f-air. F-air is also involved in combos although you don't start combos using the move. Instead, you use this to keep combo'ing the opponent. MALLC f-air is amazing though. Now THAT'S the only time f-air is actually good for offensive purposes. Because of MALLC, you can cancel f-air into jab or f-tilt or f-smash for a true combo.

Jump art f-air is amazing. You can wall opponents out with f-air. You can also go deep and have a safe and free attempt to go off-stage and edgeguard your opponents with f-air. Speed f-air is also great. You can wall opponents out with retreating SH f-airs. With your air speed, you can catch rolls with much more ease. You can also use f-air after n-air > d-throw or just d-throw since it's a true combo and from that, you can string f-air into another f-air and possibly into air slash after the second f-air. Shield art f-air is well.... whatever, it's alright. Not really good tbh. Nothing spectacular. You're still going to use this move a lot along with maybe n-air and b-air because it's your only option to defend yourself. Buster art f-air's damage is great but you need to FF and time the hitbox placement really well to make buster f-air truly safe. Even then, f-air is restricted at mid-range or being defensive with buster. Buster f-air is basically a direct upgrade from vanilla f-air so you're given much more reason to use this. Also another note, when you manage to catch opponents off from their rolls, they don't receive that much knockback from buster art f-air so you can continue applying pressure from landing f-air. Smash art f-air kills but it's very unsafe on shield. Off-stage though, it's really useful for landing early kills (via gimp or killing them off-stage at ~70%)

普
翔
疾
盾1/2
斬1/2
撃

 

[TheHopefulHero]

F-Air: Stream Edge

Theres’ a lot of love for this move and for good reason. It’s got some reach and also one Shulk’s faster attacks. This moves covers a lot range in front of Shulk and can stop several advances from most of the cast. Despite the range and speed, it’s best used as a defensive tool as the recovery time on F-Air isn’t the best, which can result in a lot of punishes if you’re reckless with F-Air (I know I’m guilty of that). The Arts can change this move drastically and make it more of a multi-purpose tool, from making F-Air a combo extender to a kill-move.

Any Art Activation - Turn Strike: For those who might not know, Shulk can change his direction upon activating an Art if you flick the control stick in the opposite direction with the right timing. The biggest reason why this can help is that if done in the air, Shulk can carry his remaining momentum and change his direction, allowing you to sneak an F-Air on unsuspecting opponent. It’s a great way to mix-up between B-Air / N-Air, and can give Shulk some offensive support if spaced right. (This also applies for all Shulk’s aerials, so this can be something to give you an edge)

Jump: F-Air gets huge buff when Jump is equipped. The increased jump height and air-mobility means you have a lot of chances to use F-Air. Shulk can chase foes off-stage and score stocks by gimping them with F-Air, and he can still make it back on-stage. Not only that, but Jump’s Air-Mobility allows Shulk use F-Air as a combo extender of sorts, which is why N-Air -> F-Air x 2 -3 and Up-Tilt -> F-Air’s are even possible. In Jump, F-Air becomes a powerful tool in which you can gimp, combo, and harass people in all sorts of ways. Always treasure this move when you’re in Jump. (But don’t be reckless or you’ll get punished even harder…)

Speed: While not as prominent as Jump, F-Air also get some fun tools work with in this art. More air-mobility helps you score hits with F-Air, just like in Jump, and you have access to some combos. D-Throw -> F-Air does wonders at early %’s and you can also do F-Air -> Jab’s if you’re close enough. Think of F-Air getting a boost while in Speed Art at early %’s and gaining more utility in Jump Art at mid to late %’s.

Shield: Shield doesn’t give F-Air much out side of reduced damage if you whiff. It does help with the defensive strategy that Shulk specializes in, but the low mobility doesn’t help with keeping people out.

Buster: An odd benefit at times because of how F-Air tends to work. Buster gives F-Air some respectable damage, but it still doesn’t make F-Air safe on block unless you’re very close to the shield. It does make for some interesting combos and a good damage racker for spacing things out, so use your judgement for Buster F-Air’s.

Smash: Like with Buster, this is more of a situational advantage for F-Air. On one hand, you can gimp foes much sooner if you land F-Air off-stage and it does give Shulk a kill-move onstage. On the other hand, there’s not much to gain outside of sending foes really far. With that said, Smash can help turn the tide sooner, so it’s something to think about.


Overall: A very useful move that should be kept in the forfront of your mind. Don’t get too trigger happy with this move though. People will catch on and start shielding your F-Air’s for a punish if you approach or swing recklessly. Use with caution just like Shulk's other moves.

Vanilla : 3 / 5 - Doesn’t get much out of a hit, but it’s range is always a good thing to have.
- Turn Strike: 3.5 / 5: Amazing when pulled off correctly, especially with the right art activated. But it’s not always easy to do, and you’re taking a risk by going outside of your comfort zone along with using an Art.

Jump: 5/5 - There’s so many benefits to F-Air with Jump. It’s just that good.

Speed: 4.5 / 5 - It may not give as many benefits as Jump and lower the damage, but Air-Mobility + Range + Early Combos make F-Air a strong move in this Art.

Shield: 2.5 / 5 - It’s not terrible and does give Shulk some range to space things out. But don’t expect more than that.

Buster: 3 / 5 - More % for spacing things out is always a good thing. But that weakened knock-back doesn’t make it more than that.

Smash: 3.5 / 5 - Gimps ahoy if you can land this off-stage. Gives F-Air some nice Knock-back for spacing things out though.

 

[Berserker.]

but it still doesn’t make F-Air safe on block unless you’re very close to the shield

Really? I'm not really sure about that. I've gotten shield grabbed when I used f-air up close to shields. Idk if it was power shielded or not though so correct me if I'm wrong. Retreating buster f-airs are definitely safe btw if FF'd

 

[Masonomace]

(Btw. . .the nearing end of N-air is still hitbox-worthy, it's just that the move isn't active the whole time Shulk swings the Monado. I'd say around 135° / 45° angle is where it finishes.)
F-air
A lot has been said so I'll cover some stuff that wasn't mentioned or wasn't talked about that much.

Hitbox
F-air's hitbox all-around is interesting. The very startup appears to be hitbox-worthy roughly around the 88° angle which is basically above Shulk but only for the Blade, not the Beam. The Blade seems to be active right above Shulk, but the range at that moment is very poor. Meanwhile the Beam appears soon after the Blade startup & the Beam starts appearing at a diagonal position possessing more range ofc, but it won't hit directly above Shulk like the Blade will. F-air's hitbox directly in front of Shulk reaches farther than N-air, so if you only needed the longest portion of F-air in front of you then you'd just input F-air & Fast Fall it so that you land with the 17 - 18 frames of landing lag ending on a great range. As for the end of F-air's hitbox, it starts finishing as the Monado passes Shulk's left foot. So like N-air, the entire animation can throw you off thinking that there's a hitbox behind Shulk, but no, there isn't any notable hitbox past Shulk's left foot. So with all that said, F-air has a wide & fantastic hitbox capable of many things. This is why I enjoy RAR'ing my jump & prepare the F-air & relying on the ending part of the F-air near Shulk's foot to whack them away from the stage which becomes a potential gimp, & it's still faster than B-air, but in the regular case RAR F-air would be commonly used for hitting characters who recover from low resulting in a stage spike. The very startup & ending of F-air hitting someone from behind hits them away so there's that.

Autocancel?
The only decent autocancel Vanilla Shulk has is quickly inputting Full Hop F-air without fast falling. Full Hopping any other aerial won't autocancel. . .which is lame. Jump Shulk can Short Hop F-air & doublejump right before landing to avoid taking landing lag, or autocancel from a Full Hop F-air.

EDIT: HJump Shulk can FH F-air & it'll autocancel. Yay. And if HJump Shulk can do it, DJump Shulk can definitely do this it.

How I Use F-air
I've studied & took the time to measure Shulk's hitboxes, so I tried finding ways of how to use each move no matter how silly it may seem. For starters, F-air is truthfully our fastest aerial even though N-air is Frame 13, but N-air is active for so long that it's slow getting a hitbox in front of Shulk. F-air starts on Frame 14 while starting almost directly above Shulk & finishes being active at Frame 18 around Shulk's left foot like I said earlier.

Whenever I'm recovering back to the ledge mostly with the Jump Art & the opponent stands near the ledge waiting to punish Air Slash, I like to catch them by surprise with a rising doublejump drifted F-air so that you use the beginning of the move to hit from above & through the stage! I dig how much range F-air has, so I enjoy using that massive range to attack through the stage's ledge / lip area to establish my bubble space when I grab the ledge. Speaking of F-air in this kind of situation, if you correctly time using a F-air near the ledge, you can snap to the ledge by buffering an Air Slash input & there won't be any regret to it (Thank you Ace from the Shulk Skype Group for discussing about this particular strategy with F-air > Air Slash ledge-snap. After I messed around with it more, I realize I could come back to the stage's ledge & safely snap to the stage without Air SLash overshooting & rising far higher resulting in a likely punish). Aside from using F-air for edge-guard-breaking the ledge area, I use F-air in a slightly different way with each Art:

Jump Art feels the best with F-air for many reasons that players here have already mentioned, but it's the freedom of Short Hopping / Full Hopping F-air that I admire so much because it allows much more aerial time going from point A to B jumping over our opponent & swiping the air with F-air whether it's in front of them or jumping backward & using F-air upon landing while using the slide effect. It's also fun to approach with SH F-air from a distance in attempts hitting with the Beam or even not hitting their shield at all & watching them drop shield to try punishing, but since we're able to doublejump before landing, we can perform a footstool right on top of them & lightly footstool jump off their head & answer with D-air to hit with the 2nd hitting Beam for a guaranteed 10% on some characters. Now if they still have shield up, footstooling will result in a footstool hop that won't affect them but we return to the air by either lightly footstool jumping or holding the jump button to perform a higher footstool jump which would make us safe from their out of shield option. This keeps them guessing what we'll do next since we could keep jumping around & hopping around their shield or use aerials. To end off Jump Art, it's unfortunate that the Decisive Jump & Hyper Jump Arts cannot perform a SH F-air & be able to doublejump afterwards, which has made me grateful to Jump Shulk for possessing that option, but then again, DJump Shulk can cancel SH F-air's landing lag with any special move like Air Slash. HJump Shulk can't even SH F-air & interrupt F-air's landing lag with anything, so get used to that huge slide effect while you land 'cus it's amazing.

Speed Art naturally improving pivoted controls, RAR F-air out of a dashing SH or a running FH are both swell movement options in conjunction with F-air & continuing drifted movement to ensure you won't be that easily punished. Basically when I approach by air, Speed Shulk's FH F-air feels almost like Jump Shulk's SH F-air. They're similar except the whole falling speed increase from Jump Arts but yeah. I enjoy RAR F-air & hitting with the ending of the attack near Shulk's left foot so that it launches them backwards toward the blastline & follow it up with another backwards drifted F-air. It's so stylish & lovely on the eyes.

Shield Art helps me establish my ground-game & with F-air, walling off a zone with retreating fast falling F-airs isn't too bad. Air Slash is completely unaffected by the Shield Arts unlike Speed Arts that slightly reduce if not heavily reducing the overall height with the Hyper Speed Art, so it's also not a bad idea to go off-stage to edge-guard as Shield Shulk with patient F-airs staying relatively near the stage's ledge area. And let's face it, you know as well as I do that Shield's air speed decrease won't allow you to go too far out there even with Mighty Air Slash. If you don't feel comfortable going out there with Shield Art active, you can always stay right at the ledge & either SH or FH your F-air & time the landing to use the hitbox swinging downward. This kind of edge-guard mentioned earlier by players can hit them as they're rising up after recovering from low. . .& sometimes, if you hit with the very end of F-air as the Monado passes Shulk's left foot, it can potentially hit them toward the stage which results in a stage spike. .& you don't even have to go off-stage!

Buster Art has the ability to combo F-air to F-air for big damage when we catch them with the first F-air from a airdodge read or whatever read you get from the air, we just need some Rage to do so. When your Shield Art is on cooldown & you feel gutsy, increase your lead by activating the Buster Art with high percent per-say, ~110%, is more than enough Rage to assist in combo'ing Buster F-airs from a mid-low to mid-high percentage depending on the opponent's weight & all that.

Smash Art gives me that confidence of a potential gimp or KO using F-air by stringing F-airs together early on with Vanilla movement, or I meet the opponent off-stage as Smash Shulk & bully their return to the stage & force a reaction out of them. Get the right reaction with the right read, & you answer with F-air, ending their stock mad early with the Deadly Blow spark effect to prove it. While it's undeniably true that Smash Shulk's F-air is unsafe on shield, that doesn't matter when you have the potential to seal the deal early with a move like F-air off-stage. Eh that wasn't a strong point but yeah.

So yeah, I rate F-air an overall .5

 

[Berserker.]

On one hand, you might be confused as to how or why but I don't take overall ratings. Although on one hand, it seems like a good idea since it basically gives the overall effectiveness of the move. On the other hand, it makes giving individual art ratings much harder since I have to interpret it from what you're saying ;~;

 

[Masonomace]

On one hand, you might be confused as to how or why but I don't take overall ratings. Although on one hand, it seems like a good idea since it basically gives the overall effectiveness of the move. On the other hand, it makes giving individual art ratings much harder since I have to interpret it from what you're saying ;~;

Jump: .5 / 5
Speed: / 5
Shield: .5 / 5
Buster: .5 / 5
Smash: / 5

There's your Art ratings. Sorry for not including Arts.

 

[Berserker.]

I'm open to the idea of overall ratings. Just saying

I'm open to any ideas

 

[ExcaliburGuy]

Fair is yet another versatile aerial to add to Shulk's repertoire. I find fair to be a perfect compliment to nair. Much like with nair, I use fair more offensively in Jump, Speed, and Smash, while it's used more defensively in Shield and Buster. However, unlike nair, forward air is not a move you should be approaching a grounded opponent with.
In Jump, fair will combo out of a dive bomb nair and can set up for another fair. Forward air is also your most important edgeguarding tool in Jump, as you can go waaaay off the stage to land a KO and make it back to safety.
In Speed you can follow up a down throw with a forward air. Sometimes you can land another fair after that. Another use of fair is after a down tilt. If your opponent doesn't DI or air dodge correctly you can perform nair into down tilt into multiple fast fall forward airs.
I use a similar strategy for fair in Shield and Buster. That is: to generally out-space the opponent. In Buster, sometimes you can land a fair out a down throw or down tilt. These setups can put you in an unfavorable position, however, so exercise caution.
Finally, a Smash forward air offstage is one of my most efficient KO options. Just read the air dodge, and you'll be fine against most characters (keyword: MOST).
And yeah, that's pretty much it. As I said, it's the perfect compliment to neutral air.
Jump:
Speed/Smash: 1/2
Buster:
Vanilla/Shield: 1/2

 

[Berserker.]

Discussion on f-air seems to have lasted long enough

Any final word on f-air?

Because if you guys don't have any, we'll move on to b-air and for b-air... I have mine ready but I added some things :>

 

[Masonomace]

Any final word on f-air?

I forgot to mention this but I kinda mentioned about it briefly in my 1st post. So anyways, F-air's First Actionable Frame being 41 allows for many great things like inputting a special move upon landing to the floor.

A common example of this would be DJump Shulk's SH > F-air input like I said in my 1st post. You can't doublejump after the SH F-air but you can cancel F-air's landing lag with a special move like Air Slash Back Slash or Vision, or we could mention the more dangerous custom specials Back Slash Leap or Power Vision. . .

There's more examples of Arts performing some kind of hop or mixture of hops & aerials, but another example I like utilizing the FAF of F-air is from the ledge. Ledge-dropping away or down & inputting a doublejump F-air as Vanilla Shulk will always result in taking landing lag upon landing, but you can input AS / AAS / MAS, BS / BSL / BSC, or Vision / DVision / PVision (Props to @ Linkmario00 for the Jargon term idea :D) right before you land or right as you're landing. Any Art combination can do this same strategy too. Heck, Jump Shulk on Battlefield can Ledge-drop from the ledge & doublejump F-air towards the lower level platform closest to the ledge & cancel the landing lag with any special. This looks sick with BS & BSL btw, but Ledge-dropping from BF's ledge & doublejumping F-air towards the platform only works with Jump Art since the DJump & HJump Arts have more falling speed / gravity & won't be able to input a special upon landing. And don't hold back too much on your joystick that you're trying to be near the platform's edge 'cus your BS will make Shulk leap suicide off the stage. . .Jump Shulk's BS or BSL look great doing this & Vision works fine too. You could counter a move that the opponent might regret throwing out to hit you on the platform. AS & AAS also can hit opponents underneath you depending on if you need to reverse it or not.

You can do this kind of strategy with all of Shulk's aerials, but it's more common, easier, & better to do it with F-air since it is Shulk's fastest aerial that also happens to have the earliest FAF.

 

[Berserker.]

F-air : Stream edge

Shulk's f-air is another important asset for Shulk's spacing. Although its offensive utility is limited due to its generally mediocre damage output (7.5% sweetspotted, 6% sourspotted), it's more known for its defensive utility. It comes out at frame 14 and lasts until frame 18. It has an FAF of 41, and its horizontal range is actually smaller than it seems. Although its overall range is still amazing, horizontally, take note that its horizontal hitbox size is in between d-tilt's and f-tilt's. The vertical coverage though of f-air is what makes it really good. The landing lag of f-air is 17 frames so if you don't perform this move while retreating, you're likely to get punished especially if you get shield grabbed.

This is easily one of Shulk's most used moves so it's best to know its disadvantages because it has some glaring issues as a move. First off, its shield stun is laughable. You need to activate buster art to make it decent but even then, it doesn't guarantee shield safety. This move should NOT be used for offensive purposes. It's easy to shield grab and you can't really follow up any attack from f-air due to its landing lag. F-air is made for defensive purposes.

This move has 5 main functions: Edgeguarding, spacing, tech chasing, combo'ing and ledge trapping. F-air is very ideal for edgeguarding due to how much area it covers with its own hitbox. If well-spaced, you can easily beat out any recovering attempt/s, or air dodging attempts. The frame speed of f-air though is slightly telegraph-able so make sure you use it when your opponent commits to recovering or air dodging. Shulk's f-air is also good for spacing. Retreating f-airs are what come into mind when you're using this move. It allows you to keep away your opponent while making sure that f-air is safe on shield. You should ALWAYS use f-air to contest aerial approaches and basically any SH aerials. Take advantage of its range to beat out any incoming aerials. Due to its amazing range, f-air also lends itself to being a good option for tech chasing and ledge trapping.

F-air's utility with arts activated drastically changes. With jump art, you can string this off from throws (d-throw or u-throw most notably). F-air is also an important part in jump art combos. While n-air is used for starting combos (most of the time), f-air is used as a follow up. Jump art f-air is also an efficient edgeguarding and gimping tool. If you read an air dodge, just go deep and whack the opponent with f-air. You should fear nothing when going off-stage with jump art. Due to f-air's vertical coverage, jump art allows f-air's keep away efficiency to be much better than usual. The coverage of f-air and jump art's jump height synergize very well to create a wall. With speed art, the improved air mobility and decreased jump height actually helps with tech chasing with f-air. Retreating f-airs are much better with speed art activated (due to the increased air mobility). F-air is also a follow-up from d-throw in speed art although it's a lot easier to combo into. Shield art f-air... well, it's basically a downgraded f-air tbh. Buster f-air is an amazing retreating option and it rewards you more for keeping opponents away. The issue is the knockback is weak so you aren't really "keeping" the opponent away. They're still likely near your zone but this is a double-edge'd sword, really. They don't move anywhere by that much if you land buster f-air but they are at range for you to actually apply pressure on them with some buster tilts, b-air and n-air which are all infinitely better than buster f-air for offensive pressure. Smash art f-air is actually really good and it actually rivals jump art f-air when it comes to edgeguarding. You can seriously snag early kills by landing this off-stage at ~65-80%. You'd be shocked. Plus, the slower fall speed allows you to have an easier time in positioning, spacing, and timing with f-air's hitbox.

Overall, f-air is a great defensive tool for Shulk. It's indeed an important asset to Shulk's defense. The landing lag of f-air can be punished easily unless you use it from a safe distance. Avoid using f-air offensively or you'll find yourself getting shield grabbed. It has it even worse than n-air in that regard to be honest

Rating:
普
翔
疾撃
盾
斬1/2

---
Already did my thing for b-air back in the meta thread but I'll slap it here also with more additional notes, I guess

Spoiler: Wall of text (From the Shulk meta thread)

B-air is now my personal favorite aerial. Even more than n-air. For many reasons. Well, the landing lag and start up are turn offs but the range and damage is really what makes b-air. Since the moveset discussion thread won't tackle b-air anytime soon, I'll just preemptively make my post about b-air right now.

B-air
Hitbox active: 18-20 / 21-22
Damage: 12 / 8
FAF: 55
Angle: 361

B-air is pretty much one of Shulk's best moves despite its start up. It's also extremely important to Shulk's spacing due to its tremendous range. B-air has one of the longest range among any move in the game. If well spaced, you can beat out any move in the game using b-air (except invincibility and counters of course). Solely because of its range, b-air has a ton of utility and to top it off, b-air also deals a lot of damage (12% sweetspotted, 8% sourspotted). Be wary of the start up, end lag and landing lag though.

B-air has multiple uses which we'll go over one by one:
1) Spacing
2) Tech chasing/get-up retaliation
3) Ledge trapping
4) Going against campers

For spacing, well this is obvious but anyway. Spacing with b-air is a lot less straight forward than you'd think. The start up makes it feel awkward to use at first. The first thing you need to do to get over it is to learn how to use b-air while FF'ing at the right time such that the hitbox comes out before it disappears via landing lag. But anyway, even if you get the timing of using b-air, you still need to learn how to properly utilize right for spacing. DO NOT SPAM B-AIR OR USE IT OUT OF NO WHERE. If you keep spamming it, foes can easily shield/powershield it and punish the lag quite hard. The best way to utilize b-air is to use it to contest approaches and basically any attack. If you notice your opponent rushing in with a dash attack or an SH aerial, you can perform a retreating b-air to easily outrange or shut down whatever they do. It's also usable for tech chasing because of its sheer range, you can actually catch rolls with b-air if you manage to predict the direction of the roll. Although you'll have to use b-air early due to its start up. The easiest way to catch opponents off their rolls is by maintaining a certain distance from the opponent while they're lying on the ground or while they're teching. You need to keep yourself from a distance such that if ever they roll to the opposite direction, you can catch them off by performing a RAR b-air. If they get up or perform a get-up attack, you can shut that down easily with an SH B-air (short hop a bit forward though to be sure). If they roll at your direction, well.... just b-air them. Using b-air for ledge trapping works the same way as how you deal with tech chasing using b-air. B-air is effective against ledge rolls, ledge get-ups and ledge attacks. It CAN work against ledge hops but that requires timing and precision with the slightly angled hitbox (b-air's hitbox in generally isn't totally straight. Slightly slanted but not that much). RAR b-airs are also a thing against campers. B-air's range is so long, you can thrash through projectiles with it while also hitting opponents in the process if you space it right so in a way, b-air is quite a potent option for rushing through projectiles. It requires a good understanding, precision and timing of its hitbox though.

B-air also lends itself to being good for sealing stocks and gimping opponents. Other than those uses mentioned earlier, b-air's knockback is very impressive. You can use b-air to KO opponents. B-air is also good for edgeguarding. You can use its range to beat out recoveries. You can mix it up with f-air too in case b-air gets too predictable (it's also kinda easy to react to since it's frame 18).

With arts, b-air's utility changes obviously. It has notable changes with buster, jump and speed. In buster, b-air becomes safe on shield. It becomes one of your main tools in your mid-range offense. In addition to that, its increased damage output allows you to destroy more projectiles with on par or less damage output than it. With speed art, basically the increased air mobility and acceleration allows RAR b-airs and retreating b-airs to be much more reliable than usual so it's easier to catch opponents off their tech rolls/get-ups and it's also easier to use RAR b-air against campers because of this. With jump art, you can take advantage of jump's increased recovery capabilities and fall speed when you're off-stage. You can basically try to land b-air off stage without fearing that you won't be able to return back on-stage. The only issue with this is that b-air can be telegraphed easily and f-air seems to be the more practical option. B-air in jump is also good for poking opponents (and their shields if you FF correctly and space correctly). Shield art b-air is a downgrade from vanilla b-air but you'll still be using it anyway like vanilla b-air. Smash art b-air's KO power is incredible but the safety on shield makes it a risk to use. You really need to restrict smash art b-air as a retaliation against aerial/ground approaches, or when the opponent basically does anything and your b-air can hit your opponent from where you are (example: Treluh uses smash art b-air once Ness performs f-air to land the kill)

B-air is also the most frequently used aerial with MALLC. MALLC cancels landing lag which solves one of b-air's main issues: the landing lag (21 frames is gross). B-air basically becomes a safe and free-to-use hitbox with MALLC. With MALLC b-air, you can combo off a hitconfirm or even a hit-on-shield with a dash grab or f-tilt or basically any move you can think of. Make sure you space well though because even if you manage to pull off MALLC with b-air, if you execute it up close to the opponent, don't expect yourself to have much options because your frame data is garbage.

B-air is an amazing tool for Shulk. Despite its start up and end lag (plus landing lag), its range is what makes it truly shine. B-air's range alone makes it useful in a lot of situations (ledge trapping, tech chasing, going against campers, spacing, etc.) and the arts further modify the rewards and utility of b-air. Learn to love b-air (like how you love n-air and f-air).[/quote]
Honestly, I prefer this aerial more than n-air tbh. It's Shulk's safest aerial imo in a sense that you land it on shield. It's safe on shield with buster, jump and even (most of the time) vanilla, correct me if I'm wrong, since I'm usually left unpunished when I use it in the following modes.

Rating:
Vanilla
Jump
Speed 1/2
Shield 1/2
Buster
Smash 1/2

 

[ExcaliburGuy]

As my friend likes to say, "That bair ain't fair!" It's a very potent punish and spacing tool. A successfully landed bair in jump mode can put you in a good position for a follow up. It's also a great edgeguarding tool if your not predictable with it. One unexpected option is a fast fall kamikaze bair offstage. It takes the accuracy of a rocket scientist, but if you manage to land it, MLG airhorns will be sounding off. Just make sure to not kill yourself.
Bair also greatly benefits from Buster. The absurd damage and range it has makes it a great roll-punisher. And of course, Smash bair is a great KO move.
Again, the main thing about using this offstage is be unpredictable.

Jump/Buster: 1/2
Speed/Smash:
Vanilla: 1/2
Shield:

Also take note that some moves are more useful for certain playstyles. To a more Speed-oriented Shulk player like myself, back air is definitely a great move, but not essential to the core strategy of the Speed meta. While Berserker, a more Buster-heavy player, finds back air to be essential to the Buster meta. It makes sense, too. The slower, but wide ranged and powerful move that back air is lends itself to the Buster stratagem very well. It's all different strokes for different folks.

 

[Berserker.]

From what I can tell, I guess I've given so much info about b-air (along with ExacliburGuy) to the point that we should look at u-air or d-air now. So, any final words on b-air?

 

[Linkmario00]

Only one thing. Bair work amazing with MALLC, but I'd does even better if we use consecutive MALLC. Using consecutive MALLC Bair make us incredible difficult to punish, frustrate the opponent and make us unpredictable about what art we're going to use at a lesser extent. Such a great tool