Directional influence: Difference between revisions

'''Directional influence''' (usually abbreviated '''DI''', and known officially as '''launch shuffling''') is the control the receiver of an attack has over their trajectory. Each attack sends its target in a particular direction; DI can be used to alter, but not completely change, this original trajectory. DI is executed by holding the control stick in any direction during [[freeze frames]] from an attack, before the character is launched.  

Directional influence is used for different purposes depending on a player's situation when hit by an attack. There are two main applications for DI: '''combo DI''' and '''survival DI''', both based on the same game mechanics. Combo DI refers to a player altering their knockback trajectory at low percentages while getting comboed. This makes it more difficult for the opponent to follow up or extend their combo, and can allow the player to escape some setups, such as the [[space animal slayer]] in ''Melee''.

 

Survival DI refers to a player altering their knockback trajectory at high percents in order to increase their travel distance towards the [[blast line]]. Good survival DI produces a trajectory that creates the greatest distance between the character and the blast line, or one that will help the character recover back on stage. In most situations, angling towards the upper-left or upper-right corners will grant the greatest chance of surviving a high knockback attack. This means DI'ing to the side when hit by a vertical attack, or DI'ing upwards when hit by a horizontal attack. Good DI allows a player to survive high-knockback attacks to higher percents than they would with no DI inputs.

 

Conversely, "poor DI" (often informally referred to with some form of mockery towards a certain region/player, such as "West Coast DI", or "{{Sm|PatG}} DI" in ''Brawl'') occurs when the shortest distance between the character and the blast line is created, or the angle sends the player into a position they cannot recover from when they normally easily would, such as [[Semi-spike|down and away from the stage]]. All control stick inputs will result in a DI input when a player is hit by an attack, so a player inputting another action (such as [[dashdancing]]) while getting hit can result in poor DI. Bad DI that results in a KO commonly occurs near the sides of the stage, when a character is hit diagonally while holding the [[control stick]] downward (commonly as a result of intentional [[fast falling]]), which sends them on a more horizontal trajectory, towards the closest blast line.

 

The technique should not be confused with [[smash directional influence]] (also known as smash DI or SDI). Although both techniques are used for escaping combos and surviving high knockback attacks, smash DI refers to altering a character's position during freeze frames, and the two are completely separate mechanics.

Because survival DI generally involves DIing upwards, and combo DI generally involves DIing outwards and away, the combo game in ''Melee'' often comes down to a series of DI mixups. Using survival DI on a weak hit can lead to easy followups by the opponent, while using combo DI on a strong move can result in getting KOed at extremely low percents. Many players will preemptively DI outward while getting comboed. As a result, the attacking player will often throw out an unexpected move which punishes the player for their DI. Powerful horizontal moves are most frequently used as DI mixups, because a poorly DI'ed horizontal move can KO extremely early off the side blast zones, or send the opponent too far from the stage to recover. {{Mvsub|Falco|SSBM|forward smash|poss=y}} and {{Mvsub|Marth|SSBM|forward smash|poss=y}} are two of the most commonly used DI mixups.