Marth (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Marth has been a high-ranking character in all of his appearances in the series, with both ''Melee'' and ''Brawl'' ranking him as one of the best characters, and although ''SSB4'' initially heavily nerfed him, he was significantly buffed by game updates, allowing him to be ranked as top tier once again. Possibly as a result of this, Marth has received a mixture of buffs and nerfs in his transition to ''Ultimate'', but he has been nerfed overall.

However, Marth has received some noteworthy, direct nerfs, most notably to his KO ability and [[neutral attack]]. Some of Marth's sourspotted attacks (most notably forward smash and Dancing Blade's fourth forward hit) and tipper forward aerial now deal less knockback, whereas his neutral, forward and back aerials have had their hitbox positionings worsened, making landing the tippers slightly more difficult. Additionally, his up throw, previously an emergency KO option with the aid of [[rage]], is slightly weaker as well. This makes it more important for Marth to carefully space his attacks in order to land his tippers to finish strings to deal more damage and score KOs. His neutral attack, previously an excellent combo starter and neutral tool due to its first hit, has been altered as with most neutral attacks so that it can only follow up into the second hit from the first, removing its powerful [[jab cancel]] from ''SSB4'' that was useful to Marth's gameplan in exchange of more situational jab [[lock]] capabilities.

Marth's specials and grab game have also been weakened. [[Dolphin Slash]] and [[Counter]] are a bit more punishable than before, and Dancing Blade deals less damage in exchange for its improved linking potential. Aside from the nerf to his up throw, forward throw has also lost its combo potential. His less rewarding grab and larger reliance on sweetspotted attacks now weakens Marth's options against shields.

Despite benefitting from some of them, Marth has been also hindered by the gameplay mechanics, due to his defensive playstyle. Particularly, the universal increase in mobility, while improving his approach and further increasing his already fast mobility, has also made landing his tippers more difficult, as the game's faster pace fosters more aggressive playstyles than in ''SSB4''. The removal of perfect pivoting and lack of quick, safe, and reliable grounded micro spacing options further magnifies his spacing troubles. On top of it, Marth's already linear recovery was also made more telegraphed by the changes to air dodging as well as the reduction in [[edge sweet spot]] size, making him easier to edgeguard and thus worsening his survivability. Lastly, the weakening of rage weakens Marth's ability to close out stocks at ludicrously low percentages.

Overall, the buffs he got and the benefits Marth gained from the engine do not compensate the nerfs he received and the hindrances the engine has also indirectly given him, as Marth now has a harder time landing his tipper sweet spots, which is especially troublesome as he relies on spacing in order to KO opponents below high percentages. In addition, the knockback nerfs to some of his attacks have made it more difficult for him to consistently KO his opponents at low percentages. This causes Marth to shift to a more offensive playstyle, where he relies more on his sourspotted hits to combo his opponents while remaining at a safe distance from where he can poke them with tippered attacks. Game updates have remedied some of Marth's issues, making it slightly easier and more rewarding for him to land some of his tipper hitboxes and slightly improving his dash grab range, though these buffs did not raise his standing significantly. In the end, while Marth remains a viable character, he performs noticeably worse in ''Ultimate'' compared to ''SSB4'', and is generally seen as inferior to {{SSBU|Lucina}} and {{SSBU|Roy}}, who are widely regarded as more rewarding than him and thus superior as a result.