Chrom (SSBU): Difference between revisions

However, the drastic difference in tier placement compared to Roy is due to Chrom's infamously poor recovery. Soaring Slash is Chrom's only recovery move and acts like [[Aether]], offering very little horizontal distance compared to Roy's [[Blazer]]; it also lacks protection outside of its high [[super armor]] frames on startup, and cannot snap the ledge till Chrom begins falling. This makes it incredibly easy to [[gimp]] Chrom, as an opponent can simply bat him away with any attack (including holding down certain neutral attacks) or [[counterattack]] his recovery. As a result, he has one of the worst recoveries in the game despite his high air speed, making him highly dependable on recovery mixups and his [[air dodge]]; this also translates to him having a very poor disadvantage state, especially offstage. Finally, his balanced blade sacrifices the stronger, polarized sweetspots of Roy's sword, meaning he often has to win more neutral exchanges to compensate for the lack of stronger punishes, while his KO ability is still weaker than Roy's, most notably with [[Dancing Blade]].

Update 2.0.0 reduced the knockback of Soaring Slash's meteor smash hitbox, making it more likely for Chrom to be KOed first during the descent. Previously, this move was quite infamous for being a fairly reliable [[sacrificial KO]] that could be easily confirmed from his aerials, mainly forward aerial and neutral aerial, a series of kill confirms collectively referred to as the "Chrombo"; the consistency of the "Chrombo" made Chrom incredibly proficient at capitalizing from comeback situations. After the update, it is still possible to perform a "Chrombo", but it will only be reliable if Chrom has a stock advantage. It is now also safer to go offstage to edgeguard a Chrom at his last stock, as even being caught by Soaring Slash won't result in Chrom suddenly gaining the advantage, though this is still slightly inconsistent depending from Chrom's height when initiating the move. The same update, however, also buffed his down aerial as well; the move now autocancels earlier, matching its interruptibility. Update 3.0.0 increased the vertical range of Chrom's dash grab, much like with {{SSBU|Marth}}, {{SSBU|Roy}} and {{SSBU|Lucina}}, fixing an issue that prevented them from grabbing a shielding {{SSBU|R.O.B.}}. Update 3.1.0 improved his up smash, enabling its linking hits to connect into each other more reliably, a problem that update 7.0.0 once again addressed by removing the rare instances where opponents would trip out of the last hit.

This would not last very long. For one, Chrom experienced a precipitous drop in terms of results and representation in the online meta, with a [https://www.pgstats.com/articles/who-is-picked-and-used-deep-in-brackets-super-smash-bros-ultimate-character-analysis PGstats analysis] of deep bracket picks suggesting that Chrom is the worst online character in the game by a large margin based on paltry win rates and pick rates. This can be attributed to the online environment exacerbating Chrom's fragile disadvantage state, particularly off-stage, making his echo counterpart Roy a much safer pick. Chrom's issues were particularly brought to light when Mr.R fell early in bracket and failed to qualify for [[Smash World Tour 2021]] in the European online qualifiers, citing his inability to play the character online as a big reason for his underperformance. A few other disappointing results offline, notably at {{Trn|Smash Factor 9}}, ultimately led to Mr.R's decision to drop the character. In addition, even more players began dropping Chrom (Rivers) or relegating him to a secondary or co-main (Lancelot). Although there were still dedicated Chrom mains during this time such as {{Sm|Lax}}, it was not enough to counter Chrom's decline in the metagame. As such, Chrom is ranked 43rd on the current tier list as a mid-tier character, a far cry from his status in the early metagame.