Sephiroth (SSBU)/Neutral aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Sephiroth's neutral aerial.

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Overview

Sephiroth snaps his fingers, causing a burst of energy around himself. Being among the faster moves on Sephiroth's moveset, this is one of his most important moves as it fulfills a number of roles. Firstly, its speed and range compared to his other out of shield options such as up smash and shield grab greatly aids him with relieving pressure to his shield. Its low landing lag makes it both quite safe to use on opponents shields and a potent move for setting up combos; notably, comboing into moves like itself, forward aerial and back aerial, the former working at very low percentages and the latter two for a surprisingly long time, typically until the opponent reaches high damage. Although these combos can be effected by the opponents weight and their directional influence, some of these combos are especially dangerous near the ledge, with neutral aerial to back aerial serving as a simple yet effective kill confirm, being able to kill as early as 40% depending on the aforementioned factors.

A few noteworthy drawbacks to this move are its start-up, hitbox length and short range compared to other moves on Sephiroth's moveset. While the hitbox consists of a large circle covering Sephiroth's character model, it only lasts for 2 frames and due to its frequent use in Sephiroth's neutral, it runs the risk of staling very quickly, causing it to become less safe on shield. Furthermore while it is his fastest option out of shield, it is still frame 12 when buffered out of a short hop, limiting its use as an immediate counterattack after blocking an opponents move.