Yoshi (SSB4): Difference between revisions

Yoshi has been [[buff]]ed overall in the transition from ''Brawl'' to ''SSB4''. Many of his attacks have more speed, are stronger and have more utility, while the issues that plagued him in ''Brawl'' were fixed: thanks to the changes to [[hitstun canceling]], his combo game has improved to the point of granting him new KO set-up, and his smash attacks while dealing less damage are  stronger. Yoshi's biggest buff however was to his shield game which was previously the main issue that plagued him. Yoshi's shield [[grab]] is faster and for the first time since ''Smash 64'', Yoshi can jump [[out of shield]]. The other issues which plagued his shield in Brawl such as his longer shield drop, his inability to [[powershield canceling|powershield cancel]] and his inability to throw items out of a [[roll]] were all fixed, making his out of shield game much better; no longer being the worst in the game by a huge margin (although his out of shield game is still rather poor). The only new disadvantages Yoshi has while in shield is that he cannot [[shield platform drop]] and his [[spot dodge]] is significantly worse (going from one of the best to being fairly mediocre) but the buffs to his shields far outweigh these nerfs.

However, Yoshi has also received some noticeable [[nerf]]s. Yoshi's grab game was made even worse. He can no longer [[air release]] his opponents while he is pummeling them and the general changes to air releases hinder him more than almost any other character as he has now lost all of the followups he had out of an air release and the removal of [[chain grab]]bing further exacerbates this issue. His previously excellent pivot grab is also much laggier making it far less spammable and much easier to punish. His damage output is also lower and his forward and up tilts are laggier making them worse spacing tools and his down tilt is much weaker. His aerial game has also seen various downgrades. His air speed is lower, neutral aerial lingers for a shorter amount of time, forward aerial is weaker and has a stricter [[auto-cancel]] window, up aerial is weaker and down aerial has less edgeguarding potential. Back aerial while connecting more reliably and having a stronger final hit, it only has three hits making it weaker and it has drastically reduced combo potential as the first two hits have higher knockback and altered angles and the move has much higher ending and landing lag while also being unable to auto-cancel in a short hop which also greatly hinders its safety and spacing potential. The eggs from his [[Egg Throw]] also deal less damage and Yoshi can no longer edge cancel Egg Toss hindering its camping potential when used at the ledge although Egg Throw is faster.

**{{change|Yoshi now moves forwards when performing the second hit however, Yoshi does not stretch hit foot out as far. This gives it a similar amount of range overall.}}

***{{buff|However, the move is still capable of leading into followups at lower percents due to Yoshi's new dash attack.}}

**{{change|Yoshi has a new dash attack, a side kick.}}

**{{nerf|Up smash deals less damage (16% → 14% ).}}

**{{nerf|Up smash has much less downwards range behind Yoshi, with the move now failing to hit smaller characters if they are behind Yoshi.}}

**{{nerf|Up smash grants less intangibility (frames 11-16 → 11-13).}}

***{{buff|However, its total duration was unchanged, slightly decreasing its ending lag.}}

**{{nerf|Down smash has smaller htiboxes which are now extended (6u/5u/4.3u → 3.5u/2u), reducing its range.}}

**{{change|Yoshi has an altered back aerial where he now only performs three tail swipes instead of four.}}

**{{buff|The weakening of SDI makes down aerial more difficult to escape from despite its higher SDI multiplier on its first twelve hits (1.4x → 1.5x).}}

**{{nerf|Eggs travel less distance when the B button is held, hindering its spacing potential.}}

===Most historically significant players===

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''See also: [[:Category:Yoshi players (SSB4)]]''

 

*{{Sm|DIO|Japan}} - One of the best Yoshi players in Japan. He became one of the first Yoshi players to garner results in 2015 at Karisuma and [[Sumabato]] events, most notably placing 5th at {{Trn|Sumabato 14}} and 7th at {{Trn|Sumabato 13}}. He eventually picked up {{SSB4|Ryu}}, but even after the switch in mains, he still used Yoshi at many tournaments to varying success such as 5th at {{Trn|Sumabato 26}}.

*{{Sm|Raptor|USA}} - The best Yoshi player in the United States, in contention for best in the world during early meta. He headlined the character at Tri-state events with 9th at {{Trn|KTAR XIII}} and 13th at {{Trn|Apex 2016}} and also placed 9th at {{Trn|Super Smash Con 2015}} and 17th at {{Trn|Pound 2016}}, marking the best solo-Yoshi placements at a major/supermajor. His major results declined past 2017, but still retained a decent string of placements at regionals before the release of ''Ultimate''.

*{{Sm|Ron|Japan}} - The best Yoshi player in Japan after DIO and the best Yoshi player of ''Smash 4''. While he tri-mained the character with {{SSB4|Mario}} and {{SSB4|Luigi}}, he still has performed notable feats with the character such as winning {{Trn|Sumabato 18}}, using Yoshi to beat {{Sm|Shuton}} and {{Sm|HIKARU}} in his bracket. He was the only player to be ranked globally with Yoshi, placing 57th on the [[PGR 100]] as one of his characters.

*{{Sm|Seth|USA}} - The best solo-Yoshi player by the end of the game's lifespan. He became the highest placing solo-Yoshi at notable majors such as 17th at {{Trn|Smash 'N' Splash 3}}, 25th at {{Trn|Super Smash Con 2017}}, and 33rd at {{Trn|Frostbite 2018}}. He also consistently placed well at multiple [[Midwest Mayhem (tournament series)|Midwest Mayhem]] events, placing 9th at {{Trn|Midwest Mayhem 10}} as an example.

*{{Sm|Snoop|USA}} - A Yoshi player from Las Vegas that notably made top 64 at supermajors on most occasions, including 33rd at {{Trn|GENESIS 5}} defeating {{Sm|6WX}} and 49th at {{Trn|EVO 2018}} defeating {{Sm|K9sbruce}}. In terms of local rankings, he consistently remained a top 5 player, often peaking at 3rd on multiple [[Las Vegas Power Rankings]].

 

Yoshi's perception has been positive since ''SSB4''{{'}}s release, as many considered him to be as one of the best characters in the game with Japan putting him at 2nd on their 3DS tier list. Players pointed out how his buffs made him an extremely threatening character with "a lot of potential". Despite this, his tournament representation and results was never as high as some of the other characters, with very sparse results from professionals, such as {{Sm|Papa Wall}} placing 13th at [[2GGT: Mexico Saga]]. As a result, Yoshi was ranked 15th on the first [[tier list]], which resulted in him becoming the second highest ranking mid-tier character after {{SSB4|Captain Falcon}} with some smashers still claiming that his spot is debatable.

 

Although Yoshi has achieved more tournament success since then, his continually sparse results negatively affected his tier status in subsequent tier lists. On top of this, the additions of {{SSB4|Cloud}}, {{SSB4|Bayonetta}} and {{SSB4|Corrin}} hurt Yoshi as they proved to be very troublesome matchups. {{SSB4|Marth}} and {{SSB4|Lucina}} were also buffed durring patch 1.1.4 and they also proved to be difficult matchups for Yoshi. Yoshi's flaws such as his terrible grab game, poor range, being prone to edgeguarding, and lackluster landing capabilities became much more apparent. He would be ranked 23rd on the second tier list, but because of tier restructuring and Captain Falcon being reassessed as a high-tier character, Yoshi serendipitously became the highest ranking mid-tier character.

 

By the time of the third tier list, Yoshi was ranked 29th, which was largely owed to the debut of both {{SSB4|Cloud}} and {{SSB4|Bayonetta}}, both of whom are widely agreed upon as being his most challenging matchups as well as his results continuing to be inconsistent and not as impressive as other mid- and high-tier characters. In addition to resulting in Yoshi losing his status as the highest ranking mid-tier character, this tier drop was tied with {{SSB4|Kirby}} and {{SSB4|Pit}}'s for the second largest between the second and third tier lists. As of the fourth and current tier list, Yoshi is ranked 33rd, with this tier drop owing to both his results and metagame stagnating with some smashers like {{Sm|ZeRo}} claiming that he should be even lower. Other smashers such as {{Sm|ESAM}} however think that he is slightly underrated and that he should be ranked fairly higher with {{Sm|ESAM}} putting him above some characters ranked above him such as {{SSB4|Link}}, {{SSB4|Ness}}, {{SSB4|Lucas}}, {{SSB4|Pit}} and {{SSB4|Dark Pit}}.