User blog:The shy platypi/My Super Smash Bros 4 Tier List: Part 1 - Bottom and Low Tiers

Tier lists. They're practical. They're interesting. They're controversial. They're trigger inducers. Whatever the case, there's been multiple different versions across every single game. My personal opinion? I hate them. I hate how some people worship them and look down on anybody who doesn't main Diddy Kong, Cloud, or Sheik. Those people really chap my hide. Nonetheless, I'm intrigued by them. I've made several tiers for Sm4sh over the past two years, but I think this is probably the best one I've made yet. And the weirdest. However, I have to get two things out of the way before we get this show rolling. One, try to focus on the tiers. Not the number. Yes, technically Little Mac is bottom 10, but he's simply just Low-Mid. This is a tier list not a numbered list. Some people get a bit too wrapped up in who's Top 5, 10, or 20 and seem to forget that the actual tier placements are the ones that matter. Two, I don't give a hoot about results. The definition of a tier list does not mention anything about results affecting a character's decency. Results won't affect a character's placement, but I may mention them from time to time. Anyway, I've separated my tier list into five different sections: Top, High, Mid, Low, Bottom. I'm covering the bottom and low sections today which consists of three tiers, Bottom, Lower, and Low. Let's start with the bottom tiers first.

Also, T R I G G E R warning.

Jigglypuff
Y'know, honestly, this tier is almost a tie between Jiggz and the next character in my eyes. I guess I just kinda joined in on the bandwagon in this respect. Anyway, let's talk about this character's strengths.

Jigglypuff's airgame is just plain great. Her air speed, exceptional aerials, and multiple jumps combined make for a relatively fearful menace in the air. Pretty solid edgeguarding, gimping, and recovery game because of this. Imo, Jiggs' matchup against Cloud isn't as bad as it could be. Sure, Cloud destroys her completely, but if the Jiggs gets the advantage in any way, it only takes like two or three solid fairs or bairs for him to be beyond the reach of the ledge. Idk, that's like the only advantage she has against him. Anyway, Rest is a super hype tool that rewards strong reads. It's not as strong as it once was, but it killing at like 20-something% in Melee was jank. So many people claim that Rest is a high risk, low reward move in this game, but I beg to differ. I have yet to be completely disappointed with a Rest. More of a high risk, medium-high reward, yeah? Pound's a pretty decent tool that can break shields pretty easily, but you might have to suffer from some substantial endlag afterwards. Sing is good for a ledge trap, but really nothing else. Her light weight and fast airdodge makes it super easy to get out of combos. Oh, her crouch is low and might get on tall character/projectile user's nerves. Search Master Puffy on Youtube, he makes this character look amazing.

Ohi boi...here come the weaknesses. Jiggz grab game is just absolute vomit. No guarantees other than a back throw potentially killing at extremely high percents. Her short reach and slow mobility on the ground make her grab game practically nonexistent. Jiggs doesn't have very reliable KO options other than Rest, which is really hard to land, or a sweetspot bair (which is a pretty good option to wall off opponents with). Even though its low weight prevents it from being comboed, it also allows it to be killed much earlier than your standard character. Not to even mention its horrible landing options. That and light weight are a disgusting mixture. Rollout. Just rollout. Since it's the only character in the game who doesn't have a true up-B recovery, and the fact she can simply be footstooled once or twice to be gimped, her recovery kinda balances itself out in the end. Finally, you certainly don't want your shield to be broken. If you're a noob to this game, you'll find out at some point.

In short, Jiggs does have some pretty cool pros, but has so many cons that it's hard to look at the pros in a good light. The people who do play this character are very devoted and actually give her some pretty good results. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to be so devoted to a character and wanting it to be better only for it to never receive a buff through all of these patches. It's kind've a shame. She has a lot of potential.

Ganondorf
This is easily one of my most favorite characters in the game. It's the King of Disrespect himself.

Ganondorf's damage output and power is just plain stupid. An F-tilt killing at ~80% at the ledge is ridiculous. This character actually has a surprisingly decent combo game. Down throw-->dash attack-->sweetspot up air is a really good combo. Most of Ganondorf's attacks come out surprisingly fast too. Jab frame 7, f-tilt frame 10, up air frame 6. It's pretty impressive. All of his aerials auto-cancel too. Let's not even get into the fact that a grounded dair from Ganon is untechable for absolutely no reason. Not to even mention that footstool to down B combo off the ledge. Flame Choke is a really good tool too. Not only can you get a series of well read follow ups from it, but Ganoncide. Ah...Ganoncide. This character just relies on opponent's slipups and punished them with a surprise string of combos usually finished off with some stupidly strong attack. How could such as great sounding character be so low?

Mobility. I really don't have to go on much from here. Ganondorf has arguably the worst mobility in the game. His air speed is dismal. His ground speed is dismal (that foxtrot tho, amirite?). His only approach options are Down B, which is slow, predictable, and doesn't have many follow ups, or Side B, which is slow, predictable, but does have some great follow ups if you can land it. Walling opponents off with bairs is your only option most times. His weight and hurtbox make him combo food. His recovery is pretty slow and predictable, but does go pretty far for a character like him. Very few OOS options. His best would probably be either bair, nari, or possibly jab, though none are very reliable. Theoretically, every single character in the game could out space him, which is the only reason I would say he could be the worst in the game. He has the worst matchup spread of any other character.

Ganon is slept on. He just plain is. Probably because everybody is just so afraid to play a character like this. However, even though he's the second worst character in the game, he's also one of the most terrifying. One slip up and that's it. There goes that stock. Even though his cons are absolutely horrible, I want to see more players pick him up in the future.

Yep, that's it. I think that there are only two characters who are the absolute worst in the game. To be fair, there are only four more characters from here that I'd truly consider "Low" tier. Weird opinions, huh?

1111 Mii Swordfighter
I'm not going to be including custom Mii characters here, only the now unbanned 1111 forms. Anyway let's get into this character who some people think is the absolute worst in the game for some reason.

Solid combo game. Fastfalling fair-->down throw-->up air is one of my favorites. A series of up tilts to either bair or a potential fair combo is really great too. Swordfighter actually has one of the fastest grabs in the game. That's pretty swell too, considering his down throw combo is great. His range is okay, though garbage by comparison to other sword users. His nair's decent, as well as his pivot f-tilt. His dair is also a pretty jank move imo. Pretty high priority, not a stall-then-fall, and a pretty well guaranteed spike. Down tilt is a pretty good poking move too.

Mii Swordfighter's specials are some of the worst in the game. If a counter's the best special move you have, that says something. Custom Swordfighter is a completely different story though. His KO power is suprisingly lackluster and his range is pretty bad by swordsmen standards. Unsafe approach due to a combo of poor ground speed and range.

Swordfighter is probably the most unpopular character in the game. That's a shame because I'm a fairly avid player of them and find them to be pretty fun. However, without customs, they don't make for a super good character, which is why he's so low. Maybe some players will come about now that the Miis are frii?

King Dedede
King Dedede is another one of my most favorite characters in the game. *insert meme here*

Because he's a heavy weight, he has incredibly good survivability. He's arguably the hardest character to kill reliably. D3 boasts an excellent recovery which can help him get back on stage even when he's right by the blast zones. The power of Dedede's hammer is astonishing. Not only does it have great disjointed range but it makes for a great finishing/punishing tool. His down throw combos reliably into fair, nair, bair, or up air at higher percents, and he can even get a really neat footstool reset out of it. Gordo can lead into dangerous ledge traps and can even be a pretty reliable kill option, but it's usually overlooked by some of his other powerful blows.

Because he's a heavy weight, he is plain combo food. Having such a large hitbox combined with being the second fastest faller and the third heaviest is just asking for up tilt spam. Dedede is just overall a slow and predictable character not only on the ground, but in the air. The man only has two moves that come out before frame 9! Gordo Throw, while it does have its uses, is extremely predictable and is reflected by practically every single attack in the game. His one chance for a solid approach option was overruled by startup lag.

I'm gonna be honest, if D3 didn't have his down throw, he'd probably be the worst in the game. Thank goodness he has what he has, because he can actually be a force to reckon with in the hands of a master (*cough* *cough* Girthquake). Unfortunately, his many, many weaknesses are pretty big. That's why he's right at the top of "Lower" tier.

Zelda
I've suddenly come to the realization that Zelda is one of the most fun characters to play. It's a shame that she's been receiving the short end of the stick for so long now. (Autocancelling fair and bair, please?)

Down throw-->nair-->lightning kick. Really great combo. Zelda has quite a few solid combos, such as down tilt to dash attack, or down tilt to grab. A few up tilts into nair is probably the best. Heck, I've even seen dash attack to dash attack before! Jab is a really good shield poking tool and comes out very quickly with minimal end lag. Farore's Wind is ridiculously powerful and can kill ~50-70%. F-Smash, both lightning kicks, up air, f-tilt, and Up Smash are really powerful moves too. Nayru's Love, while probably the worst reflector, is a reflector that can help you against projectile users. Speaking of which, Zelda has two projectiles (we'll get into those more here in a sec) that she can use to keep opponents at bay.

Her ground mobility is horrific and her air speed isn't phenomenal either. She has to rely on her two projectiles to be able to approach at all, and both of them are very slow and predictable, specifically Din's Fire (which leaves you helpless in the air btw). As a result, Zelda has hardly any spacing options. Farore's Wind is kinda...odd sometimes. It just kinda decides to go to the left or right when you deliberately use it into the stage, oftentimes shoving you off stage like Mario just used F.L.U.D.D. or something. Then you have to wait for several frames before you can even attempt to DI. Great.

Despite her glaring flaws, Zelda has some few very devoted players. Elder is probably the first that comes to my mind for some reason. I personally think this character has some potential and I'm anxious to see how (or if) her meta develops in the future.

1111 Mii Gunner
I personally pocket this guy, but I'm having a harder time playing them lately after discovering some of their flaws. Anyway, let's talk about the good stuff first.

Mii Gunner, obviously, is based around projectile attacks. And boy, do they do it well. They like to slowly eat away at opponents with a series of super quick, and very annoying, projectiles that a lot of character would have a hard time getting around. This makes them a pretty versatile character. Fair is probably their best spacing option. Side B is pretty good for making sure opponents don't come any closer to you. Down B is a clone of Fox's reflector (I don't think anything else is different). Up Special is a very good edge guarding option when trying to make sure opponents beneath you don't get near the ledge. Finally, Neutral B is probably their best kill option. It's pretty similar to Samus's (it's called Charge Shot instead of Charge Blast). Fast-falling up air to up tilt is a neat little combo and the back hit of nair can lock (still experimenting with the follow ups). I'm pretty sure bair to bair is a thing (from my personal experience, try finding information about these guys). Up Tilt can kill pretty early (I've had it kill Ike at 132% with very low rage) and so can their down tilt.

They have no kill options. I know I just described two, but they aren't reliable and Mii Gunner relies on keeping opponents away, not being right next to them. Charge Shot is probably their best. Even though they have a fast grab, they don't have any decent follow ups, although up air can work out of down throw. They don't have very good ground mobility either (which is bearable because you're gonna spend most of your time spacing with fair anyway).

It doesn't sound like they have too many weaknesses, but they are pretty noticeable in battle when you have your opponent at 160% and still can't do anything. I can see Mii Gunner being the type of character that everybody hates because on the rare occasion that you find somebody who knows how to use them, it's gonna be cancerous, and you're gonna get rekt. Hoping to see more of these players sometime eventually too.

Conclusion
Quick recap:

I hope you guys find this interesting at all. I only covered six characters today, but it took me quite some time to do this. I have some weird picks coming up, as I'm sure you guys can already tell. Also, I may or may not just copy this over to my Amino account and post this series there too. Anyway, I'll catch you guys in the next part (whenever I decide to post that, that is).