Ivysaur (SSBU): Difference between revisions

<!--REMEMBER: Nintendo's official stance is that Ivysaur, like all Pokémon, go by gender-neutral pronouns. Be sure to use "it" instead of "he" or "she".-->

Justin Anselmi, Inuko Inuyama, Jean-Marc Delhausse and Achim Barrenstein, its respective English, Japanese, French and German [[voice actor]]s from ''Pokémon the Series: XY'', reprise their roles in the game, the former two replacing Craig Blair and late Tomoko Kawakami from ''Brawl''.

<!--REMEMBER: Nintendo's official stance is that Ivysaur, like all Pokémon, go by gender-neutral pronouns. Be sure to use "it" instead of "he" or "she".-->

Another strength that Ivysaur has is its strong air game. While its back aerial is among the weakest of aerial attacks in the game, its aforementioned range allows it to keep foes at a distance. Its neutral aerial has use as a combo extender due to its looping hits using the autolink angle, although its low power makes it easy to intercept. Its up and down aerials are notorious for their KO power and large hitboxes, while its forward aerial, despite its slow startup, is a reliable combo starter into Vine Whip due to its diagonal knockback. Additionally, none of its aerial attacks have more than 17 frames of landing lag, making them good for air-to-ground approaches.

Finally, Ivysaur has a useful array of special moves. [[Bullet Seed]] is a fast, multi-hitting attack that hits foes directly above Ivysaur with decent damage, allowing it to work well as an anti-air. [[Razor Leaf]] is a projectile that despite its slow startup, lingers for a short time and has low knockback, allowing it to be used effectively for stage control and combo setups. Lastly, Vine Whip is Ivysaur's primary recovery move and a strong KO option when sweetspotted, and like other tethers in ''Ultimate'', has a very long range.

However, Ivysaur is held back by various flaws. Perhaps Ivysaur's most prominent issue is its ground game: while its tilt attacks have strong range, they are also equally lacking in power, while its smash attacks are generally predictable due to slow startup. Its up smash is among the strongest in the game, but it has very slow startup at 26 frames, while its horizontal range renders it hard to approach with against grounded opponents. Its dash attack is a good burst option, but also suffers from low knockback scaling and cannot KO reliably. Finally, due to said problems, Ivysaur is very susceptible to stale-move negation, meaning it will almost constantly rely on its ranged attacks, all of which deal low damage.

<!--REMEMBER: Nintendo's official stance is that Ivysaur, like all Pokémon, go by gender-neutral pronouns. Be sure to use "it" instead of "he" or "she".-->

Ivysaur was previously considered the worst Pokémon in the {{SSBU|Pokémon Trainer}}'s party and one of the worst characters in ''Brawl'' (especially if judged as a standalone fighter), due to its large amount of significant weaknesses, namely poor damage outputs on its attacks, notable KO problems due to laggy finishers, poor aerial game, terrible recovery, and one of the worst special movesets in the game. In the transition to ''Ultimate'', Ivysaur has been heavily buffed, and is by far the most buffed Pokémon in the Pokémon Trainer's party.

Ivysaur's biggest buffs come from the adjustments to the Pokémon Trainer's mechanics alongside universal gameplay changes. The [[type effectiveness]] mechanic, which previously gave Ivysaur a disproportionate weakness to the common [[flame]]-type attacks throughout the cast, has been removed, while the elimination of [[Pokémon Change#Stamina|stamina]] allows Ivysaur to stay in the fight without weakening its moves. Ivysaur's [[air speed]] is also much higher, which alongside the universally decreased [[landing lag]] on aerials, and the removal of [[edgehogging]] in favor of ledge trumping, considerably improves two of its most glaring weaknesses: its poor aerial approach and its exploitable recovery. This is further helped by the ability to use [[Pokémon Change]] in the air, allowing Ivysaur to gain access to {{SSBU|Charizard}}'s better recovery.

A large part of Ivysaur's moveset has been modified and is significantly more useful overall. The addition of a finisher and the changes to neutral infinites makes its [[neutral attack]] more reliable for racking up damage, while [[down tilt]] consists of a single hit that [[semi-spike]]s. Some of Ivysaur's notoriously weak attacks, such as [[down smash]] and [[back aerial]], have had their damage and knockback considerably increased, with down smash gaining a sweetspot that can KO at realistic percents. Ivysaur's entire aerial game has received several enhancements: it has a new, disjointed [[neutral aerial]] that performs much better than its old one, due to its [[autolink angle]] and the weakening of [[SDI]] from ''Brawl'' enabling it to connect much more reliably, and the changes to [[hitstun canceling]] allow Ivysaur to start and extend combos much more effectively with all its aerials. [[Up aerial|Up]] and [[down aerial]]s' momentum changes are less extreme, and down aerial has been heavily buffed, as its small meteor smash sweetspot deals more damage and is slightly larger, and its large sourspot now meteor smashes as well, turning the move into a powerful edgeguarding tool. In addition, Ivysaur's throw game is vastly more useful; it now has a KO throw in the form of [[back throw]], alongside reliable combos from [[up throw]] and [[down throw]] due to the changes to hitstun canceling, while it is also one of the characters to be the least affected by the universal nerfs to [[grab]]s, as only its pivot grab's lag was increased, and all grabs except its dash grab have more range. Lastly, its entire special moveset has been improved in several ways: [[Bullet Seed]] has gained a finisher, [[Razor Leaf]] is noticeably more useful as a [[camp]]able [[projectile]] due to its previously unreliable trajectory being more consistent, and [[Vine Whip]] has faster startup, can be angled, and no longer causes helplessness, which grants Ivysaur a powerful combo finisher and more opportunities to recover. Altogether, these changes immensely improve Ivysaur's neutral game, damage racking, and zoning abilities, putting them more in line with the rest of the cast.

However, Ivysaur did receive a few notable nerfs from ''Brawl''. Ivysaur's [[weight]] has been decreased, which combined with the removal of [[momentum canceling]] hinders its survivability. Although [[forward tilt]] connects much more reliably due to the weakening of SDI, it has noticeably more startup, while it retains high ending lag and a lack of KO power. Some of Ivysaur's KO options were toned down as well, such as [[dash attack]], [[forward smash]], [[forward aerial]], and its notorious up aerial and [[up smash]], with the latter no longer being the strongest in the game. Most importantly, however, Bullet Seed has slower startup with no intangibility, and racks up a significantly lower amount of damage due to its shortened duration, greatly reducing its utility despite the new finisher. As a result, Ivysaur is more reliant on racking up damage with its various buffed moves to KO effectively, which is exacerbated by all its aerials except neutral and down aerial launching at upward angles that are ineffective for edgeguarding, often compelling the player to switch to Charizard and utilize its greater KO potential once opponents are at high percents.

Overall, Ivysaur has become a drastically better character since its introduction in ''Brawl'', especially relative to the rest of the cast. It now performs more effectively as a well-rounded middleweight character in the Pokémon Trainer's party, fulfilling the role of the "zoning" fighter with disjointed range on its attacks, a conventional projectile, and setups into its powerful bud-based moves, but lacking Squirtle's speedy attacks and Charizard's sheer power.

|fsmashdesc=Plants its vines on the ground and launches itself forward to headbutt. The move can be angled up or down, though its power does not change. Deals good knockback, is rather fast, and has deceptively good range, although it shifts Ivysaur's hurtbox forward and has noticeable ending lag. The earliest hit deals the most knockback and damage, and can KO at 85% from the edge of Final Destination.

|dsmashdesc=Quickly whips two vines across the ground in both sides of it. This is its fastest smash attack both in terms of startup and ending lag. While it has decent range and can two-frame, its forward smash does a better job for KOing. However, it deals relatively low knockback and damage for an attack of its kind. The tips of Ivysaur's vines do the most knockback and damage, and they can hit opponents hanging on ledges. The sweetspot KOs at 127% near the edge of Final Destination.

|dairdesc=Turns upside-down and expels a burst of spores downwards from its bulb, similarly to up aerial. Ivysaur's descent is stalled slightly when this move is used. Like up aerial, it is a powerful aerial, dealing decent knockback for a [[meteor smash]], while having fast startup and an extremely large disjointed hitbox. The move has a sweetspot closer to the bulb that deals much more knockback, though the sourspot still meteor smashes. It is capable of hitting opponents easily out of a short hop, even from above platforms; at higher percents, it will cause grounded opponents to launch off the floor, allowing Ivysaur to punish missed techs and/or tech-chase with a multitude of moves, including any ground move or [[Bullet Seed]]. At even higher percents, up aerial will work as a KO combo at 130%, while up smash can act as a potent hard read from a wide range of percentages. Its enormous hitbox allows it to hit most characters below the stage before they can even sweetspot the ledge. As a result, down aerial is one of Ivysaur's most useful aerial moves.

|bthrowdesc=Spins around and tosses the opponent away. This causes Ivysaur to turn to face the other direction when it is used. Deals good diagonal knockback, being Ivysaur's most powerful throw in terms of damage and knockback, and KOs rather early at 109% near the edge of Final Destination.

|dthrowdesc=Frontflips and smashes the opponent against the ground. Ivysaur's best combo throw, which can start combos into up aerial or dash canceled up tilt at 0%. At around 60%, it can lead to Vine Whip, which can KO at around 83% if the sweetspot lands. Surprisingly, this is also the strongest down throw in the game, being able to KO middleweights at around 161%.

SSBUIvysaurIdle1.gif|Ivysaur's first idle pose

SSBUIvysaurIdle2.gif|Ivysaur's second idle pose

==In Spirit battles==