Palutena (SSB4): Difference between revisions

Palutena's characteristics are unique, and defy archetypes set up by characters such as {{SSB4|Mewtwo}}, {{SSB4|Zelda}} and [[Rosalina & Luma (SSB4)|Rosalina]]. She is tall, she has a great [[walking]] speed, a very fast [[dashing]] speed, high [[traction]], below average [[weight]], [[falling speed]] and [[air speed]], high [[gravity]], high [[jump]] force and is tied for the highest air acceleration. These characteristics give Palutena amazing ground movement, great ground-to-air transitioning, a decent perfect pivot, and allow her to quickly change direction in mid-air. However, they also make her very susceptible to [[juggling]], and while her weight isn't that low, her high gravity makes her susceptible to vertical [[knockback]].

Palutena's greatest strength is her solid aerial game. All of her aerial moves have good utility, fast start-up, and in most cases, low landing lag (excluding neutral and up air). Her neutral air is a useful damage racking move, dealing 11%, and a decent protection move, coming out on frame 5. Her up air is her most gimmicky aerial move, having the strongest knockback while lacking range, having 24 frames of landing lag, and being [[Interruptibility|interruptible]] before it can even [[autocancel]]. Her down air, lasts only one frame, but its lack of sourspots makes it an easy-to-use [[meteor smash]], as well as a relatively safe [[out of shield]] option. Her forward and back air, however, are her most useful aerials. Forward air has the longest range of her aerial moves and the least landing lag, as well as completely autocancelling in a [[SHFF]]. Her back air is her most damaging one, dealing 12%, and having [[invincibility frame]]s during start-up and as long as the hitbox is out. However, most of her aerial moves have high ending lag in proportion to their power and range, meaning they must be spaced accordingly.

Her grab game is also very capable. She has one of the longest, non-tether grab ranges in the game. Her [[pummel]] is one of the best, as it is fairly damaging and decently fast, being a great move to rack up damage. Her back throw, while being a rather weak KO throw, having an easily [[DI|DIed]] launch angle (the [[Sakurai angle]]) and, ironically, the lowest base knockback of all her throws, is nevertheless highly damaging, dealing 10%, and a great way to send the opponent offstage and set up an [[Edgeguarding|edgeguard]]. Her forward throw has high base knockback, deals a good 9% damage, and while it has very low knockback scaling it is even better than her back throw at setting up edgeguards, as well as an almost infallible trigger if [[Autoreticle]] is used. Her most versatile throw, however, is her down throw: possessing the right amount of base knockback and extremely low knockback scaling, it can combo into almost any aerial move, the exception being down air, and perhaps an up smash if the player can read the opponent's reaction. It can even combo at KO percentages into up air.

Despite these advantages, Palutena is hindered significantly by her grounded moveset, which is infamously known for its very poor frame data, being a major issue that sets her apart from other characters of her weight. Even though her moves come out relatively quickly, and her smash attacks have a quick [[charge]] release, all of her grounded moves (except jab and down tilt) have disproportionately high ending lag. Her forward and up tilt, as well as her dash attack, have more than 25 frames of ending lag, and all of her smash attacks have more than 40. This makes her missed attacks heavily susceptible to [[punishment]], even if the opponent is a good distance away from her, making it crucial for her to never miss a single ground move, or rely solely on her jab and down tilt. Due to this, she suffers from notable KO problems, despite her smash attacks and up tilt possesing high knockback scaling. The exceptions to this rule are admittedly her only safe grounded moves. Her jab comes out slowly, on frame 8, and the finisher has noticeable ending lag, but it can be a very reliable damage racker, especially if taking into account its high interruptibility which allows an easy [[jab cancel]]. Her down tilt is highly interruptible, having only 16 frames of true ending lag, making it a good spacing and dodge punishing tool, and her least punishable ground move. Her dash attack, while being very unsafe on shield, has actual KO power, as well as the same kind of invincibility her back air does.

On top of this, Palutena's default special moveset is also infamously poor, possibly being the worst set among the cast, along with Mewtwo. Even though her Autoreticle has homing capabilities, the same can't be said about its projectiles, as they move only towards the fixed reticle, and on top of being incredibly sluggish, each one deals very slightly less than 3%, giving them abysmal [[priority]]. [[Reflect Barrier]], while having an [[unblockable]] hitbox, a [[push]] effect and being a long lasting [[Reflection|reflector]], does not cover her entirely, and does not move along with her in mid-air, making it the worst reflector in the game. [[Warp]], while being extremely quick and allowing a safe recovery and swift repositioning, has absolutely no hitboxes, leaving her wide open to attacks before and after she moves. Lastly, even though her [[Counter (Palutena)|Counter]] has a high damage multiplier, it comes out slower than any other [[counterattack]] (except for [[Toad (move)|Toad]]), has low KO power, a sourspot (the only one to do so), less range and more ending lag than most other counters (only {{SSB4|Lucario}}'s is slower), making it the worst counter.

All of these traits make Palutena a frail, though defensively-minded character, as without punishing, her offensive options are severely lacking, moreso than most other characters. She relies on shielding attacks at close range and [[turtling]] for a good portion of the match until an opening can be found, due to her overall sluggish moveset and lack of approach options.

Game updates have seen Palutena has received a mix of buffs and nerfs starting in update [[1.0.4]]. The range on her attacks and her [[neutral game]] are slightly better than before, but the lag problems on her moveset still linger. She has also lost some of the utility she had in her large pivot grab and some of the gimmicks on her specials moveset have been removed. However, while her buffs outweighted her nerfs until [[1.1.0]], the many changes on shield mechanics in 1.1.0 and [[1.1.1]] have seriously harmed her indirectly, moreso than any other character: the fact that [[hitlag]] modifiers are now applied on shields make her attacks less safe on shield, due to their low hitlag and high ending lag, making her easier to punish [[out of shield]]. The significant increase in [[shieldstun]] also makes shielding less safe for her to find an opening, and due to her reliance on it, as well as her slow out of shield options, her defensive game is less effective. Only her forward tilt can be considered to benefit from these changes at all.

|bairdesc=Hits with her shield behind herself. The shield can block attacks due to the attack granting her invincibility frames (8 frames). Can beat out most aerial attacks and certain projectiles. Comes out one frame faster than her forward air, it has low landing lag and can be auto-cancelled from a short hop. However, it is easy to miss if the opponents is too close to Palutena since it does not have a hitbox around her, and it has very high ending lag for an aerial (41 frames).

|dairdesc=Performs an arcing kick below herself, meteor smashing anyone below her. This attack has no late hits, meaning it will always meteor smash. Can be used as an out of shield option. However, it lasts for only one frame and it has very low range, making it difficult to land. While it has high end lag, it doesn't have high landing lag.