Lucas (SSBU): Difference between revisions

|tier = C+

|ranking = 58

As in ''[[Smash 4]]'', {{s|wikipedia|Lani Minella}}'s portrayal of Lucas from ''[[Brawl]]'' was repurposed for ''Ultimate''.

Lucas is ranked 58th out of 82 on the ''Ultimate'' current [[tier list]], placing him in the C+ tier. This is a sizeable drop from his previous ranking in ''SSB4'', where he was ranked 28-29th out of 55 characters, tied with {{SSB4|Ness}}. Lucas' greatest strength lies in his dangerous [[edgeguarding]] game and zoning capabilities, thanks to the flexibility of his [[special move]]s, especially [[PK Freeze]], [[PK Fire]] and [[PK Thunder]]. Despite being a middleweight, Lucas boasts superb KO potential and high damage output in his aerials, forward tilt, dash attack, and smash attacks. Finally, Lucas' [[recovery]] is among the longest and most flexible thanks to buffs to PK Thunder and PK Thunder 2, and having the longest distance in his directional [[air dodge]]s in the game, alongside {{SSBU|Ness}}.

However, Lucas suffers from an almost non-existent [[out of shield]] game and the lack of anti-pressuring options. Because none of Lucas' options hit out of shield before frame 7, his defensive game is horrible, as Lucas lacks the ability to reliably [[punishment|punish]] out of shield or deal with high shield pressure. In addition, Lucas' sub-par [[range]] and overall average mobility also means he primarily struggles against characters with fast mobility (such as {{SSBU|Sonic}} and {{SSBU|Captain Falcon}}) and characters with superior disjoints (such as {{SSBU|Marth}}), respectively. Lucas' floatiness and lack of a reliable combo-breaking move or landing option means he is also vulnerable to [[juggling]] and has a terrible disavantage state. Despite his solid [[neutral game]], it still retains its flaws from ''Smash 4'', such as his mediocre grounded mobility, predictable approach, over-reliance on zoning and sub-par frame-data. Although his throws are fairly strong, his grab game is limited exclusively to KOing and edgeguarding. Despite its improvements, PK Thunder remains as one of the more exploitable recoveries in the game.

 

Initially, Lucas' results and representation were scarce. However, his playerbase has slowly expanded as the metagame has progressed. As of now, Lucas' competitive viability is as strong as in ''Smash 4'', with the likes of {{Sm|Mekos}}, {{Sm|ChocoTaco}}, {{Sm|Remi}}, {{Sm|WhYYZ}}, {{Sm|Nitox}} and {{Sm|Regalo}} achieving respectable results at regional and even national tournaments.

Being a pseudo-clone of {{SSBU|Ness}}, Lucas shares a number of attributes with him, especially in terms of [[special move]]sets. However, the duo have notable differences within each other in gameplay. Lucas is a [[weight|middleweight]], tied with Ness, {{SSBU|Mii Brawler}}, and {{SSBU|Inkling}}, with attributes that make him stand out against most characters of his weight class. He has a slow [[walking]] speed (the 16th-slowest), average [[dashing]] speed and [[gravity]], fast [[air speed]] (tied for the 20th-fastest), above-average [[air acceleration]] (16th-highest), and below-average [[falling speed]]. While Lucas' mobility is overall mediocre at best, the speed of his attacks compensates for it, with many possessing low lag, allowing him to rack up damage quickly and safely, while he also boasts a large number of damaging and powerful attacks that can KO at early percents. Notable examples include his [[neutral attack]], which comes out on frame 2, and his [[down tilt]], which comes out on frame 3 and is tied with Ness, {{SSBU|Little Mac}}, {{SSBU|R.O.B.}}, and {{SSBU|Meta Knight}}'s down tilts for being the fastest down tilt in ''Ultimate''. As a result, Lucas' attacks are useful for damage-racking and initiating combos, while several of his grounded attacks are safe in many situations due to their minimal ending lag.

Arguably Lucas's greatest strength is his extremely dangerous edgeguarding game, which is among the greatest in ''Ultimate'', and allows him to easily KO off-stage opponents at unusually early %. PK Freeze freezes opponents and now launches opponents horizontally with powerful knockback, enabling it to KO off-stage opponents at ludicrously low % and making it one of his most infamous edge-guarding techniques. Its incredibly large hitbox makes it an excellent 2-frame punish tool, can be used to punish rolls or techs, and can also be used as a deadly stage spike and ledgetrapping option. PK Fire can be used to snipe offstage opponents for a KO. The orb of PK-Thunder has very high base knockback and hitstun making it extremely useful for dragging the opponent to the blastline, stage spiking them, and sending off-stage opponents far enough from the stage to completely prevent them from recovering. PK Thunder is especially effective against characters with poor horizontal recoveries, who rely on tether recoveries or characters who recover from below, and Lucas can nearly effortlessly gimp them at awkwardly early percents (as low as 0%), while he remains almost completely safely on-stage. PSI Magnet contains a windbox at the start-up of the move that will pull opponents closer to Lucas, in the air, the strength of the windbox scales based on the opponents percentage, which can be useful for setting up an edge-guard situation or even outright gimping opponents. The move's semi-spike hitbox can KO off-stage opponents at reasonable percentages or put them in a bad position off-stage. Alongside his special moves, Lucas has some of the strongest smash attacks that are also excellent at edgeguarding and KOing, especially his down smash; the first hit is among the most powerful in the game and can KO under 60% at the ledge. Similarily to PK Freeze, it has an extremely large hitbox and a long duration that make it an incredibly deadly tool for 2-frame punishes, and ledgetrapping, while it can successfully catch opponents under certain stages and punish rolling or teching opponents. Also, a reverse down smash can potentially stage spike opponents at the edge, and all 3 hits can even sometimes land if the opponents don't tech the individual hits successfully. Lucas's forward smash is a strong and quick smash attack that can efficiently KO opponents who recklessly air dodge towards the stage. Lucas's up smash is among the absolute strongest and has invincibility on frames 1-7, which allows it to punish ledge attacks with proper timing (although it is situational), and can catch some characters hanging on the edge (although it doesn't work on about half of the cast). Lucas's back and forward throws are strong (with the former being among the strongest) and can force edgeguarding situations and KO at high percentages at the ledge. Lucas also possesses two meteor smash aerials, his back and down aerials, while his forward aerial deals strong knockback and is a reliable KOing option. Overall, Lucas has one of the best 2-frame punish abilities in ''Ultimate'', with his PK Freeze, down smash, forward tilt, dash attack, and down tilt being very efficient (especially the former three), while forward tilt and dash attack are surprisingly powerful for attacks of their type.

Despite his powerful throws, Lucas' grab game has its issues. Despite having decent range, his grab is slow and is easily punishable, while his throws have little utility outside of edgeguarding and KOing. His down throw, in particular, which has been severely nerfed from ''SSB4'', is completely unreliable at setting up follow-ups above low percentages, while it is by far his weakest throw and cannot KO reliably at realistic percentages. Additionally, his DJCZ, while extremely dangerous when mastered, requires perfect timing as to correctly chain it. As such, Lucas' combo game, while extremely deadly, is very hard to master and thus requires good reads and additional high execution in order to get high damage started, and gives him a relatively high learning curve.  

In the end, Lucas is gifted with an extremely versatile moveset, with one of the best edgeguarding games in the game, some of the most powerful smash attacks and throws, a long and flexible recovery and great comboing and pressuring tools, Lucas has an excellent advantage state and can rack up damage very easily with his highly-damaging combo strings or with his high-damaging and powerful moves, while he usually does not have much trouble KOing opponents at early percents either with edgeguarding or with his powerful smash attacks. Lucas fits best into the mix-up type. He has useful zoning options and he can be effective when controlling foes' space and options thanks to his PK Fire, quick disjointed normals, and Rope Snake. However, he can be a formidable foe at close-ranged combat thanks to his amazing comboing and KOing ability, along with his great aerial game. Lucas players must take advantage of his deadly edgeguarding tools by forcing his opponent off-stage with his powerful throws, with many of his aerials, his smash attacks and his special moves being powerful enough to gimp or KO his opponent at exceedingly early percents. However, they must be careful in approaching because his zoning options can quickly become predictable, and he can quickly become overwhelmed by his opponents if he is not careful enough, as his decidedly average mobility and underwhelming defensive game can easily be exploited due to his almost non-existent out of shield options, while his floatiness and lack of a reliable hitbox under him can make him very vulnerable to juggles. As a result of this, Lucas is especially vulnerable against characters with superior mobility and longer disjointed range (such as {{SSBU|Shulk}} or {{SSBU|Zero Suit Samus}}), superior zoning abilities (most notably {{SSBU|Link}}) or great recoveries that are difficult to edgeguard (such as {{SSBU|Peach}}), and has an extremely high learning curve.

Lucas has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition from ''SSB4'' to ''Ultimate''; although he received much more buffs, it is hard to determine whether he has been buffed or nerfed overall. Some of Lucas's biggest strengths from the previous game have been noticeably nerfed, but his moveset as a whole is much more consistent.

Altogether, Lucas is a less polarized character than in ''SSB4''. He no longer has access to KO setups from his down throw and his footstool and locking-based combos are less effective, but many of his most glaring weaknesses were notably improved, some of his less potent moves became much stronger, the significant buffs to his edgeguarding game and his much more powerful and damaging finishers have significantly improved his KOing ability, and the changes to the game's pace have provided more flexibility for him, granting him far more options than he had in ''SSB4''. As a result of this, Lucas has a relatively higher learning curve, and now plays better with a mix-up playstyle. However, given the various buffs to other returning veterans, and the introduction of DLC characters that Lucas struggles against, it's generally agreed that his buffs were not significant enough to improve Lucas, and he is worse relative to the cast than he was in ''SSB4''.

|dsmashdesc=Aims his arm diagonally downward and emits three consecutive blasts of PSI energy towards the ground while holding his hand in a finger gun gesture. With each blast, its range increases at the expense of damage and knockback. It is one of the strongest down smashes in the game when clean, as it is able to KO as low as 60% near the edge depending on the opponent's weight and DI. If well timed, it can also catch recovering opponents before they grab the edge. Has a bit of start-up lag, but surprisingly low ending lag for its power. Unlike in ''SSB4'', each blast is treated as its own hitbox, meaning that it can potentially hit multiple times at low percents, and damages shields more than once.

| jumpsquat=3 | rjumpsquat=1-88

*{{Sm|Nitox|France}} - One of the best Lucas players in the world, and one of two Lucas players ever ranked in the top 100 on a notable global ranking, with his highest ranking being 84th on the [[OrionRank Ultimate: Eclipse]]. His 9th place finish at the supermajor {{Trn|COLOSSEL 2022}} is tied for the highest placement for a Lucas player at a major event.

Initial opinions within Lucas were somewhat negative. Likely due to his high learning curve and being outclassed by other characters with a similar archetype, Lucas' representation has been somewhat below-average throughout most of the competitive lifespan. This is further compounded with the nerfs he received during the transition from ''Smash 4'', especially those to his guaranteed KO setups (from down throw, footstools and locks) he performed in the previous game, as well as his learning curve being slightly higher than before. To make things worse, all of Lucas' players from ''SSB4'' have dropped him in favor of switching to other characters and has a significantly smaller playerbase.

 

However, Lucas' competitive perception has improved overtime, as new players have picked him up and achieved respectable results in tournaments using him. Although he has seen notable representation at a regional level thanks to the likes of {{Sm|Mekos}} and {{Sm|WhYYZ}}, his results at a major level were notably more scarce, although they have since been improving in the post-online metagame thanks to the efforts of dedicated players such as {{Sm|ChocoTaco}}, {{Sm|Nitox}}. and {{Sm|Regalo}}. As a result, most players consider Lucas to be in the mid-tier, with some optimistically reassessing him as a high-tier, like in his days of ''SSB4'', which is reflected in Lucas' current ranking in the current tier list, where he is ranked 58th as the second-highest low-mid tier.