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While I disagree with the idea that projectiles would be invalidated, I do agree that parry reflects wouldn’t have the effect on the game that people want. The goal of parrying projectiles has always been to make it easier to approach, which is why they negate most of shieldstun https://twitter.com/pg_esam/status/1339363045412392960
and hitlag (which makes it easier to time parry > dash, especially compared to “get hit, go through shieldlag, go through shieldstun, go through shield release, THEN dash”)
The problem with it rn is that there’s still too much shieldlag, and since there’s no standard, you need
The problem with it rn is that there’s still too much shieldlag, and since there’s no standard, you need
to have practiced the timing for a given move in order for parrying it in neutral to be viable. This becomes more of a problem online with variable input lag, but for the sake of argument I’m going to assume an offline environment with consistent timings. Granted, this isn’t a
meta most of us are still familiar with, but when you get parry reflects, you get parry reflects for ALL modes, not just online, so I think talking about offline meta is fair game.
ANYWAY, going back to my point, parrying projectiles mostly serves as a way to make approaching
ANYWAY, going back to my point, parrying projectiles mostly serves as a way to make approaching
easier. It fails at this because of too much shieldlag, and the community wants to fix this by... making parries reflect projectiles.
I don’t think I need to explain why parry reflects do nothing to address the flaws of parry’s role in neutral with all of that in mind, but I do
I don’t think I need to explain why parry reflects do nothing to address the flaws of parry’s role in neutral with all of that in mind, but I do
think it’s important to go over what it would do instead. So say you’re playing Ken against Samus, she’s spamming charge shot and missiles at around 3/4 screen on FD. Full screen she isn’t presenting much of a threat, and too much closer and projectiles wouldn’t be a good idea
with OR without reflects, so this is around where those moves would be optimal. I’m playing a rushdown character, I’m is at a range where I’m threatened by Samus but also struggle to get in, and she’s using projectiles to keep me there.
Name one reason to approach.
Name one reason to approach.
With parry reflects, there literally isn’t one. Samus’s main way of keeping me there is through projectiles since I can react to other options and either whiff punish burst options by stepping back or whiff punish other pokes by jumping in. Her strongest noncommittal neutral tool
is to use a projectile, and at this distance, I can just parry it on reaction. Now normally if I were to do this, I’d be able to parry, safely close some distance, and prepare for her next option, which I can definitely counter well.
But why should I get closer to Samus when,
But why should I get closer to Samus when,
from this range, I can effectively shoot a stronger version of her projectiles, with virtually no endlag since I sent the projectile using a parry? Sure, at this point Samus isn’t directly punished, but now we’re back at square one. I’m a rushdown character, and because of
parry reflects, my best option is to sit at a range where I can parry on reaction without any risk. When you guys say you want parry reflects, call me crazy but I don’t think you mean you want the best counterplay to zoners being exactly what you complain about.
CAVEAT: Samus Charge Shot has combos, and parry reflects would actually help with those. This is true. Thing is though, this would ALSO get countered by reducing shieldlag on parry, which wouldn’t have the negative effects I just went over.
Also, even if we want to assume an online meta where my point about parrying on reaction would be moot, here’s a reminder https://twitter.com/shieldlesscap/status/1339347698009468928
