Collaboration Project: Link Training Routine (WIP)

[Douchey McDoucheface]

I've recently joined the competitive Smash community and decided to pick up Link as my main. Although he's low tier and regarded by many as an all-around bad character, I believe there's a lot of unexplored potential to be found within the character. This lack of knowledge about the character is in part due to the rather low amount of actual Link mains in the community. To attract more people to play the character, and to ease them into the intricacies of our favorite Hylian swordsman, I've decided to put together a training routine to practice playing Link. I don't claim to be an expert on Link, let alone Smash (I'm still a noob myself), so this routine might turn out to be complete garbage. So feel free to suggest your own ideas and changes. Let's develop a somewhat definitive training routine for Link!

I propose this for a start:

Setup: FD, D-Pad Down, Y+D-Pad Up (on 20XX)
1. Dash > Wavedash (2 lengths of the stage, 1 right, 1 left)
2. Dashdance across stage (2 lengths, 1 right, 1 left)
3. Wavedash Backwards > Grab (2m)
4. Up special OOS (30s)
5. Long Hop > Nair > Double Jump > Dair > Fast Fall > L-Cancel (2m)
6. Long Hop > Bair> Double Jump > Dair > Fast Fall > L-Cancel (2m)
7. Short Hop (30s)
8. SHFFLd Nair (2 lengths of the stage, 1 right, 1 left)
9. SHFFLd Bair (2 lengths of the stage, 1 right, 1 left)
10. SHFFLd Bair > Turnaround > Grab (3m)
11. Ledgedash (2m)
12. Wavedash (1m)
13. Wavedash > Utilt (1m)
14. Bomb Jump (3m)
15. Platform Dash on Battlefield (2m)
16. Platform Dash on Dream Land (2m)
17. Platform Dash on Yoshi's (2m)
18. Bomb Jump Recovery (3m)
Setup (2): FD, Character you're bad against, ~50% then Y+D-Pad Up
19. Reaction Techchase (3m)

(Note: Most of this is based on this video by Remix. I've made some adjustments here and there to better suit Link's play style.)

I know, this might be a bit basic (Like I said, I'm just a noob), so feel free to send in your feedback along with suggestions on how to improve this.

 

[CAUP]

So I don't play link but here's my thoughts on your routine.

Most of these are basic tech skill that will probably benefit you most if you're just starting to play link. Not to say if you're good at melee that you never need to practice these basic things. The basics are always important. But a ton of time is allotted to these basic maneuvers. When you should probably do each for about ten seconds to fifteen, then if you mess up, you practice them more.

But a few of the things you list are more complex skills. Or at least harder to perform. Like ledge dash, bomb jump, bomb jump recovery, and reaction tech chase. I think ledge dash should have more time allotted to it, since it's so important. And I think it'd be good to expand on the ledge options practiced.

Reaction tech chasing is the only thin on this list that isn't tech skill so it seems a little out of place.

Overall, lists like this are nice, but of course, players should just play it by ear and practice what they need to practice.

I two really important parts of practice are: 1, comboing cpus with random DI and tech patterns, and 2, analysis.

If I was going to add some stuff to your list, I'd possibly add:

Bomb drop out of shield
Bomb drop wave dash
Bomb drop wave dash out of shield
Up b to grab ledge
Optimal Rest punishes
Shield drops
Short hop bair -> double jump (I think Link can do that lol)
Invincible ledge stall
Hax dash
Short hop - > z drop so that the bomb doesn't explode
Edge cancelled zairs

Not all these things are equally important