Rage
|
This article or section may require additional technical data. The editor who added this tag elaborates: Needs exact percents rage starts and ends, and exact data on the knockback multiplier rage provides at each level. You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to improve it. |
Rage is a new mechanic in Super Smash Bros. 4, where a character's attacks will deal increased knockback as their damage rises. The effect is similar to Lucario's aura mechanic, though the damage dealt by attacks does not increase, and the increase in knockback is much less significant. Rage begins to take effect at approximately 50% damage, and maxes out at approximately 150% damage. At maximum rage, attacks will KO about 25% sooner than they would at their default strength, with attacks experiencing more significant knockback increase the more base knockback they possess. Rage is visually denoted by characters flashing red and smoke rising out of them when they reach 100%, and the effect grows more visually intense as damage rises farther until the aforementioned approximate 150%; this visual effect making characters appear to be enraged is what led to the mechanic being named "rage" by the Smash community.
The obvious application of rage is that it allows players at higher damages to land KOs sooner than they would be able to otherwise, which can help aid a losing player staging a comeback. Rage is not necessarily a comeback-friendly mechanic however, as the increased knockback can prevent combos from working sooner than they normally would, especially if the combo involves a setup from a high base knockback throw, making it more difficult for a highly-damaged player to rack up damage on a lower-damaged player. For example, R.O.B.'s effective down throw to up aerial combo is normally guaranteed to work well over 50%; when rage starts factoring in, however, the combo stops working at lower percentages, and a high rage amount can prevent it from working at damages as low as 20%.
Generally, heavyweight characters such as Bowser benefit the most from rage, as their greater survivability allows them to both experience rage longer and to a greater degree, and the fact heavyweights rely less on combos allows them to make greater use of the knockback increase, with little concern of it preventing vital combos.
