Lucario (SSB4): Difference between revisions

Lucario was considered to be a viable character since the game's release. The aura buffs, which vastly increased Lucario's kill power to the point where a max-aura Lucario could consistently KO opponents under 75%, and improved its recovery to become one of the best, as well as a powerful combo game, leaded to many professionals thinking of Lucario as a blanket high-tier. Despite his low tournament representation, it achieved lukewarm results in the game's early lifespan thanks to notable players such as {{Sm|Day}}, {{Sm|Motsunabe}} and {{Sm|Serge}}, and would eventually rank at 23rd on the first ''4BR'' [[tier list]]. More recently, Lucario has achieved better tournament representation in competitive play. At [[Smash Factor 5]], Serge, along with fellow smashers Daimy and Richi, placed among the top 12 using Lucario. Day also managed to place 17th at [[Super Smash Con 2016]], a much bigger tournament which had many top level players attending and notably saw him defeat {{sm|ZeRo}}, which sent him into the losers bracket of said tournament, a feat achieved by only a select few. {{Sm|Gomamugitya}} also managed to place 1st with his partner in the [[Super Smash Con 2016#Super Smash Bros. for Wii U doubles|doubles tournament of Super Smash Con 2016]] while using Lucario. This caused it to slightly rise to 22nd place on the second tier list.

However, Lucario's tier position was considered one of the most contentious of all characters, as a group of players that grew steadily bigger around late-2015 began seeing Lucario as having one of the worst neutral games due to its laggy attacks and subpar movement speed, and viewed its recovery as blown out of proportion as its flaws were surprisingly easy to exploit, especially with its extreme landing from a helpless state lag post 1.0.4. This group considered Lucario as a poor character who suffered from overspecializing with the aura gimmick, thus leaving it as little threat to a cautious player. As time went on, Lucario's tournament results grew barren, with fewer players maining it, thus causing more and more to look down on it. However, Lucario's results then notably improved as time went on due to some new developments in its metagame, and has seen generally improved results, especially in Japan, leading it to be perceived more positively again in spite of very skilled competition. This allowed Lucario to rise to 19th on the third and current tier list. As such, Lucario is still seen as a viable pick in tournaments. This placement is also currently considered to be too low, most notably after {{Sm|Tsu-}} surprisingly achieved 2nd place at [[Frostbite 2017]], while sending ZeRo to the losers bracket and having very close games with him on the tournament's grand finals.