OK by random selection Wario came up. He’s one of the characters I wanted to give another shot since I’ve improved my skills since last year. And since he is (or was) universally considered a high-tier I was planning on giving him another week.
Night One
So Night One, I started as normal. I did a lot of research on his moves, his bread and butters and his kill confirms. I watched a lot of videos. I also researched his fastest moves using https://ultimateframedata.com/ and https://kuroganehammer.com/Ultimate which are excellent Smash research resources. So I thought I was pretty prepared
Then I went into Training Mode and worked on his moves, combos, and kill moves. And worked on 2-framing with his forward tilt and practiced neutral a bit.
Then I played against three Level 5 CPUs for warm-up. I actually lost one match, which wasn’t good. Though I was trying to finish the last stock with a certain move so there’s that. Then I played my 10 Online Quickplay matches. I won three of them, but two of the wins were because of my opponent SDing. And I didn’t really have fun playing at all. I fought multiple sword characters, fought two Nesses, and two Falcos. And finally ended the night by winning against a Pichu who was actually destroying me the whole time but SDed twice. Looking it up it looks like most of those are actual bad match-ups. They didn’t really feel winnable. I kept getting combo’d and couldn’t break the combos until I burned one of my special moves. And I couldn’t do anything to win in neutral. Also, I kept getting punished when I missed my smash attacks and Up-B. I know now, not to use those moves unless you’re absolutely sure they’ll hit, but that’s pretty limiting.
Then I played through Classic Mode with Wario. Starting on the highest difficulty, I died a few times and just barely made it over 6.0 difficulty by completion.
I was contemplating giving Wario up after one night, so I random selected a new match. I got Greninja and was destroyed by a Level 9 Duck Hunt. So, I think I was just having an off night overall, so I decided to give Wario some more time. And my next character will be a week of Greninja. I want to give Greninja and Sheik a week since I think they’re good play-style matches for Joker.
Night Two
I decided to keep pushing forward with Wario for the rest of the week on Night Two. After all I didn’t really get Robin and Rosalina’s gameplay down until the end of their weeks.Though that seems more related to how much tech those characters use.
Anyway first I started off watching N64 Josh’s video How to Get Better at Smash. There were a number of things that I needed to work on in there including always pushing your advantage, knowing why you died, knowing why you took a stock, making sure every movement is intentional, knowing the optimal punish in each situation, trying to win each match with a different move, and knowing that while you’re going from being unconsciously bad at Smash to unconsciously good you’re going to have to be consciously bad. This night I mainly concentrated on making sure to keep pushing my advantage.
After practicing in Training Mode, I warmed up against Level 6 CPUs. I worked on finishing each stock a different way. Which did make me lose one out of three games, but it was worth it I think.
Then I went into Online Quickplay. I played three Best of 3 sets like normal. I lost each set technically, but I did win two matches. I tried to re-match after each time, but didn’t get any rematches. Even though 2-6 isn’t much better than 2-8; it felt better. Though two matches I won, I won them, it wasn’t because of SDs. And the losses felt closer. I did still struggle a lot with disadvantage. But I did a lot better at not just throwing out Smash attacks, and got more varied kills.
Then I played entered three Omega No Items tournaments. Well actually four, but the first one was so laggy I didn’t count that one. I lost every match. But I saved replays so I can review them and see why I died.
Night Three
On Night Three I started out watching replays of my tournament matches from Night Two. Concentrating on the why I died, and it was mostly to do with recovery or standing in one place too long. I also noticed I was doing nothing when the opponent went offstage. Wario isn’t great offstage but just trying to get the 2 frame on the forward tilt each time wasn’t scaring anyone.
So, then I went the usual – Training Mode, warming up against three CPUs (Level 7 this night), and then going to Online Quickplay. This night also went better. Again overall I lost all three sets, but at least this time I got a win each set. It seems the same for every fighter – as the week goes on the matches are getting closer both because I’m getting a bit better and because I’m facing lower competition from dropping GSP.
Then since it was the last night of the Omega tournament I entered it three times. And lost immediately each time. For whatever reason on this night in both Online Quickplay and the Omega tournaments it was almost all Links and Ikes. And I think those are bad match-ups for Wario. Actually looking at Wario’s match-up chart, it’s not great. Off the rest of the top 25 characters he’s got losing or even match-ups with 20 of them! No one else in the top 10 has more than 11 losing or even match-ups to the Top 25. Which makes me think those rating him in the Top 5 overall characters are crazy.
Later in the night I tried to jump onto Anther’s Ladder to see if I could get a ranked game in. And I didn’t get any matches after 10 minutes and gave up. It seems like a real cool idea, especially since no one’s going to locals now. But I think the player base may be too small.
Night Four
At the beginning of Night Four I wasn’t feeling great, but I started to feel better so ended up playing. Practice Mode, warmed up against Level 8 CPUs, then went into Online Quickplay. Each night this week I practicing taking stocks differently in my warm-up against the CPUs.
Honestly, I don’t remember how well the Online Quickplay went. I lost. I did try out Anther’s Ladder again this night. This time just joined a friendly. I lost as Wario three times in a row to a good King Dedede. I think I took one stock overall. I got destroyed, but I think it did help me with Wario.
Night Five
Night Five I upped the CPU Level to 9 and changed the preferred stage to Omega. I actually did better in Online Quickplay. I think I won about four matches. Omega is not bad for Wario.
Night Six
So starting off in Training Mode on Night Six, in addition to normal combo practice I also worked on practicing my edgeguarding and ledge trapping. Practiced going offstage to get a kill and staying onstage and ledge guarding with forward dilt, down smash, and forward smash. I warmed up against Level 9 CPUs again. Wasn’t sure if continuing to use Level 9 CPUs was wise this night, because when I concentrate on winning I’m not really practicing a character’s whole arsenal. But when I concentrate on hitting multiple bread and butters and kill confirms I’m often losing. I’m leaning toward concentrating on using the whole arsenal. If you can’t hit a combo against a CPU it’s not going to work online.
Then I thought I was streaming my Online Quickplay matches. But I actually recorded instead of Streaming it. You can still watch it here – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC02yrjzVY4PGDPrqX9EHMYg. Watching it you can see I don’t win a lot, but I do complain a lot about Wario lack of combo breakers or neutral tools. I also switched back to normal Battlefield stages but still ended up playing mainly on Small Battlefied.
Night Seven
Repeat of Night Six, practiced combos and edgeguarding in Training Mode, warmed up against CPUs, and then went online. Switched back to Small Battlefield. I think I finally sort of had the hang of Wario, but I still only won 3 out of 10 matches during about three Best of 3 sets.
There was an Omega tournament going on so I entered it twice with Wario and was bounced very quickly both times. Then I entered twice with Rosalina & Luma. First tournament again lost very quickly. In the second tournament I won the first round and faced off against a Ness in Round Two. I really should have won match-up wise, but I just wasn’t that sharp and lost.
Wrap-Up
So, now that that the week is done, I’m glad I stuck with Wario. Not because I loved it, but I think it was good for me to stick with him the whole week and struggle to improve. I think it will make me a better overall smasher.
What are his good points? Very good aerials and aerial speed. He can live a while because of his weight. Waft, forward tilt, and forward smash can take stocks early. His dash attack is really good, a good spacing tool, a good move to confirm into, and even a solo kill move at higher percents.
But I think his weak points are multiple as well. He has pretty much no neutral tools. At the start of stocks Wario is basically just throwing out aerials. Faster characters, sword characters, projectile characters, and characters with longer reach can all just destroy him in neutral. His recovery is not good. His up-B has an alright vertical distance but no horizontal distance. If you get hit off the stage at all you have to use Wario Bike to return. The bike can be destroyed with a large hit. And it takes six seconds to regenerate. He has no combo breaking tools. He has to jump or air dodge out of combos. You see even the best Wario players in the world losing stocks early because of this. And while he’s got a lot of kill options, it is pretty hard to confirm into a Wario Waft or a dash attack. Most of the setups involve tilt attacks or obvious aerials. His smash attacks and his Up-B have very long endlag.
Overall, I don’t think Wario is a top 10 character. Maybe top 25. For a newer player I wouldn’t recommend Wario at all. I thought Wolf was the worst top-tier for newer players, but I think Wario is actually worse now. But I don’t actually consider Wario a top-tier either.
Ok, so next week is all Greninja, I have hope for him as a potential pocket/secondary character.