Also, I'VE CRACKED IT... whatever it is.
As a result
I'm confident that with this image, I could probably explain the entirety of everything you need to be almost as good as MikeNeko.
So let's start.
Here's a key for my image's amazingly beautiful coloured semi transparent lines/ruler marks.
First (Purple) - Maximum reach of Marth's hurtbox while stationary
Second (Aqua) - Furthest reach of Marth's hurtbox while shielding (dat foot)
Third (Lime) - Where power shields extend to [and possibly slightly beyond]) and the reach of a pretty healthy shield.
What does this image tell you?
It shows you what spacing really is.
It gives you a logic for what you're doing and how you're manoeuvring to maximise safety.
It is also a strong example of how much space is given or restricted to you by your various animations. Bodies and extremities skew and stretch in all types of weird and wonderful directions for EVERYTHING YOU DO. On another positive point is that as a clearly viewable sphere, it gives me enough to help explain to you the peculiarities of Marth's hitboxes on various moves, and their implications.
Marth's Hitboxes
Similar to the shield, hitboxes are spheres
centred at a certain point. From the image above, the furthest reach of Marth's hurtbox (his foot) is significantly shorter than the maximum reach of the shield. Pretending for a second that this is a hitbox, by that logic the maximum
horizontal reach of a move comes only from a centre point.
When it comes to nearly every move in the game, hitboxes of moves overlap; in Marth's case the game prioritises our non-tipper hits to register in areas of overlap. Assuming hitboxes ontop of each other in the way they are in Brawl (look them up if you're not sure), the maximum "area" of no overlap will be coming towards the "corners" (in other words the "foot" area of a hitbox will be the most area available for tippering).
Every one of Marth's moves has an area both horizontally/vertically which will have the tipper hitbox most protruding - and I tend to call them auto tippers. I know, from practise, where the auto tipper areas of Fair, Bair, Uair, Dair, dtilt and dsmash are. The spacing for tipper fsmashing people on platforms is easy as well.
A general rule here is that the most protruding tipper point exists in the opposite direction in which it travels. For fair/bair, this means I space/swing at specific vertical heights to auto tipper (with the first and last hits of fair hitbox being what you hit with), for dair and uair you pick horizontal positions to "easily" tipper [or in the case of uair, avoid tippering] them.
Back to the
centre point. Knowing where the centres are for moves are important. In Marth's case, it is rarely directly aligned with his sword.
This is a contrast to Meta Knight. Meta Knight's down tilt hitbox is centred on the ground, and hence its maximum horizontal range matches with the animation. In Marth's case his hitbox for down tilt is slightly higher, at his furthest reach of his sword animation, there is no hitbox -
the maximum reach comes above the sword, giving it's auto tipper area above the ground and being quite a mimic of Down Smash in this regard (this is easy to see with how MikeNeko uses dtilt). What does this difference (re: MK) mean? It means that MK's down tilt can reach 'below' the maximum range of a shield and shield poke our feet. What does this mean for Marth though?
It means our down tilt will be hitting people's shields at their maximum range when perfectly spaced. Consider this as "****" in it's purest form.
For our aerials, the hitboxes aren't directly aligned with 'bones' but adjusted. This gives Marth
disjoints that do not align with our sword (in other words, we're getting bull **** disjoints). This means that at the maximum horizontal reach of frame 4 of fair, I'm just 500 light years further away from hurtbox than the maximum reach of frame 5 and 6. Frame 7 has the same distinct property.
This means that spacing at those points gives us the maximum safety.
Down tilt hitting shields rather than feet means our maximum range for dtilt is actually longer against shield's than MKs. I'm starting to feel I prefer this.
If you want the best example of a hitbox not centred onto a bone and what effects it has, look at Zero Suit Samus' Uair animation with hitbubbles. It has a "fake" MASSIVE disjoint because of this property.
Actually spacing...
Knowing that there are, in this small scenario, 3 different distances of interaction. It's important to know that for every swing you make, you need to have a reason and goal for that swing.
When I swing my sword, I think "hitting shield". When I play with any character I'm trying to space with, if I'm trying to hit the maximum extremities of shields, I'm very unlikely to be punished (I love Sheik and Falco). When I'm hitting someone I'm consciously choosing to do so - they're in lag or
I'm gambling on some commitment which I believe I won't be punished on. For the most part, the commitment part is all I feel I get punished for and everything else just comes naturally.
The beauty of forward air is that when spacing for frame 4 and 7 hits (at the right horizontal/vertical displacements) aiming for maximum reaches of shields, there are these slightly longer horizontally reaching places in frame 5 and 6 which based on my opponent stopping his shield I'm actually "reaching" towards in the case they extend.
This same beauty comes in Neutral air in a more "obvious" form. When spacing for nair, the first hit being shorter than the second - you aim it for their shield or their protruding body parts from hitboxes, but not where they actually "are" at the time. The second hit being longer ranged means that at the same spacing, assuming they didn't "protrude", I'm still reaching and potentially hitting them. I call this 'mechanic'
"Carrot and Stick" (poor Horse) strategies. This beautiful nair thing is broken against just about everyone until higher levels of play where people become confident with power shielding. Forward Air is the higher-level play replacement that is a lot more ickly with timing but affords the extra safety against shields.
I'd just like to note that C+S Nair is still ****, using it appropriately for beating
everyone's moves. Nair used properly only loses to shield. It's still worth learning because it allows us to beat through every character with more range but less disjoint than us (it's reaaaaaaaaaaally good against ZSS, DK, ROB and Wolf)
So back to shields for a second. Beautiful shield animation.
The fact that there is such a huge distance difference between not doing anything and shielding, there must be some really obvious things that I've never really thought of that I can abuse right?
Not shielding is over powered.
Because suddenly I have a significant area in front of me that if I were to shield, would suddenly "catch" any incoming hitboxes that
weren't even close to hitting me; giving me this amazing POWER SHIELD.
Furthermore, there are situations where people are naturally aiming for a maximum reach shield or they happen 'accidentally'. Take getting hit on the shield by MK's second hit of dsmash. If you stay in shield, the SECOND down smash (I know its sickening to think there's an MK that bad) will still hit your shield, but in another situation you're sitting without shield, that Dsmash whiffs and you get to punish them for a whiff. Crazy. AbUSE IT.
Power shielding is a tool of spacing. Knowing how much extra horizontal space exists that is hittable, there's the vertical alternative as well. It's known as
CROUCHING. Crouching reduces our vertical height by about 60%. His head reaches about where his knees are in the shielding animation. And when you shield from a crouch, all that space above you
and also in front of you still becomes your POWER SHIELD ZONE.
Walking coupled with blinking (fast shield drops to reshields, and the same thing while walking) gives you a ridiculous horizontally reaching POWER SHIELD ZONE.
For example
Walk -> shield (sliding) -> unshield (still sliding) -> a little bit of forward walking (your momentum carries over) -> reshield
is
BROKEN on Marth because of his walk.