User:Sir Teatei Moonlight/Melia (Smasher)

Melia
Universe	Xenoblade
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Elemental Burst
Designed by	Sir Teatei Moonlight (though Toomai made the comment that seeded the idea)

[intro]

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play 88 VS Matches.
• As Shulk, complete Classic mode on Intensity 7.5 or higher.

After completing one of the two methods, Melia must then be fought on [Sky Terrace], where defeating her unlocks her.

Attributes

Melia is a complex character that relies on her summoned elementals to control the stage and deal large bursts of damage. By herself, she's very poor: very light, bad maneuverability, and slow attacks. But her elementals give her the ability to fix many of these issues and cover large swaths of ground, making it difficult for an opponent to reach her.

Much like Olimar, Melia begins each of her stocks with no elementals, and must spend some time summoning some. Until she does, her weaknesses become very apparent. She has very little in the way of fast attacks, with a jab that comes out slower than most characters' tilts, so she has very poor options when under pressure and has difficulty avoiding juggles. She is a small target, but is slow to move about the stage and one of the lightest characters, making it even harder to recover once put on the defensive. And unlike other similar characters, she lacks a "get out of jail free" move such as a counter or armoured attack. Finally, without elementals, the vast majority of her KO moves do not function, instead simply dealing low damage with minimal knockback. Overall, Melia has no time to open a match on the offensive, or to pressure an opponent during respawn invincibility.

Melia does have a few options if she has no time to summon anything. Her tilts and directional aerials have good range and disjointment, so if the opponent's just not close enough yet, she has a chance to keep them away. Her throws are decent for getting an opponent off her, but mediocre otherwise. Starlight Kick is the wildcard; she gains a substantial advantage if the move hits, but she suffers the same effect as a disadvantage if it misses.

Once Melia has elementals, however, she has much more control over the match. Elementals can be set as traps to inhibit opponents' ability to move about the stage, be used to power Melia's KO moves, or simply be kept in reserve to improve her abilities. Bolts deal severe damage and let Melia run faster, making it easier to land the KO blow. Flares let Melia deal more damage with her regular attacks and give her smashes exceptional range, like Shulk's Monado Buster without the knockback downside. Aquas keep Melia's damage low by continuously healing her, or can be used in attacks for short bursts of healing that even surpass Wii Fit Trainer's special moves. Winds make it much more difficult for opponents to punish Melia if she whiffs an attack by blowing them away. Finally, Earths and Ices render Melia more resilient to attacks, improving her longevity as well as having situational attack properties. While there are limits to how much she can keep specific elementals around, Melia should usually have no problem switching up her setup to best suit the occasion.

Moveset

Melia uses her neutral special move to summon elementals. Each one has various effects when summoned and discharged, similar to Pikmin. However, using them to deal damage depletes an equal amount of their HP, and recently-destroyed elementals take much longer to summon. Melia can have three elementals at once, with no duplicates; elementals currently being used in an attack or somewhere else onstage do not have their idle effect applied. Elementals are used first-in-last-out (unlike Pikmin).

Elemental	HP	Damage mult.	Idle effect	Attack effect
Bolt	35	1.35x	Boosts Melia's ground mobility to 1.2x. Small sparks with each footstep.	Most damage of all elementals; get used up quickly as a result.
Flare	30	1.2x	Boosts the damage of Melia's direct attacks to 1.2x. Small flames from wrists during attacks.	Biggest hitboxes of all elementals.
Aqua	25	0.7x	Heals Melia by 0.005% per frame (0.3% per second). Continuous faint bubbly glow from chest.	Heals Melia by 0.25x of the damage dealt. Least damage of all elementals.
Wind	30	1.0x	Boosts Melia's air mobility to 1.2x. Continuous upwards aesthetic wind effect.	Average damage, but provides extra hitboxes that deal no damage and push away opponents that would otherwise be close enough for a punish.
Earth	40	0.8x	Reduces the damage Melia takes from direct attacks to 0.85x. Faint sandy swirl around torso.	Low damage, but flowers opponents.
Ice	35	0.9x	Reduces the damage Melia takes from indirect attacks to 0.60x. Faint icy swirl around torso.	Freezes opponents for fixed knockback.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		Sunrise Slap	15%	Melia winds up and delivers a devastating slap to the face. A slower and stronger version of Ganondorf's palm strike, leaving it with more power than most tilts and terrible for just throwing out willy-nilly. Immensely satisfying to land because of the sound and freeze frames, and KOs below 125% to boot. One of the most amusing shield break/Rest punishes, since it looks like disrespek yet is pretty optimal at high damage.
Forward tilt		Side Swipe	6%	Melia flicks her staff out sideways, a lot like DK's f-tilt. Good range and Melia's fastest ground attack, but doesn't really do much, and just barely KOs in Sudden Death. Can be angled for no change in damage.
Up tilt		Sky Defense	8%	Melia prods her staff upwards. Good vertical range, but awful horizontal range. Chains into itself okay at low damages.
Down tilt		Ankle Prod	5%	Melia pokes her staff forwards along the ground. Decent horizontal range, no vertical range, can catch edge-hangers. Minimal knockback until like the 600%s. Interruptible quickly, but not as quick as some other characters.
Dash attack		Overhead Batter	12%	Melia swings her staff downwards in an arc similar to Little Mac's dash attack. Second-fastest ground attack, and an emergency KO move in the 170%s or so, but slow to finish.
Forward smash		Spear Blast	4% (jab), 11% (burst)	Melia jabs her staff forwards and calls an elemental to deliver a burst hit afterwards, which has high power. Very similar to Shulk's f-smash, except that the second hit doesn't occur if no elementals are present.
Up smash		Radiant Burst	4% (jab), 16% (burst)	Melia jabs her staff upwards and calls an elemental to deliver a massive burst hit, with a radius of her entire body, that KOs vertically. Sort of a blend of Shulk's, Palutena's, and Lucas's up smashes. No elementals means just the poke hit, which has fixed vertical knockback kind of like Marth's.
Down smash		Elemental Vortex	5% (staff), 15% (elemental)	Melia places an elemental into the head of her staff and throws it downwards, where it spins around her like a buzzsaw before rising back up into her hand. The staff itself has horizontal keep-away knockback; if there's an elemental present, it has strong KO knockback.
Neutral aerial		Double Poke	10% (both hits)	Melia jabs her staff forwards, then backwards. Poor range compared to the rest of her attacks, no knockback to speak of, and can't really hit anything vertically. Quite fast however.
Forward aerial		Spin Swipe	11%	Melia swings her staff sideways just like her forward tilt, looks a bit like the first half of Link's forward aerial. Decent range but pretty weak.
Back aerial		Reverse Rally	6% (staff), 14% (elemental)	Melia spins backwards and smacks opponents with her staff. Uses an elemental if present, which is a very powerful semi-spike sweetspot.
Up aerial		Air Fan	8%	Melia softly swings her staff vertically. Links into itself okay, but not much good for anything else.
Down aerial		Banishing Strike	7% (staff), 16% (elemental)	Melia swings her staff downwards. The staff alone has decent sideways power, but if an elemental is used, it becomes a fearsome meteor smash.
Grab		Catch	—	Melia grabs the opponent by the ear.
Pummel		Shin Kick	2.5%	Melia kicks the opponent in the shin.
Forward throw		Offended Slap	12%	Melia slaps the opponent forwards, like Peach's f-throw. Low knockback, high damage.
Back throw		Reversal Toss	6%	Melia throws the opponent into the ground behind her. Poor knockback; non-turnaround back throw.
Up throw		Ether Upper	9%	Melia focuses hard and launches the opponent upwards with both arms. Can KO at 150% or so.
Down throw		Punishing Strike	8% (hit 1), 3% (throw)	Melia pushes the opponent onto the floor and bashes them with her staff, knocking them diagonally. Typical combo d-throw.
Floor attack (front)		Twirl Swirl	7%	Melia lets go of her staff as it circles around.
Floor attack (back)		Two-Swipe Hop	7%	Melia bashes her staff backwards and then forwards.
Floor attack (trip)		Topple Recover	5%	Melia spins around with staff in hand.
Edge attack		Overhand Arc	7%	Melia makes a wide vertical staff swing.
Neutral special		Summon Elemental	—	Melia summons an elemental, which is a decently fast process (slower than plucking Pikmin, faster than choosing a Monado Art). The player picks which elemental by doing something on the 8th frame: Release special, no stick direction: Bolt Keep holding special, no stick direction: Flare Stick left: Aqua Stick up: Wind Stick down: Earth Stick right: Ice Trying to summon an elemental that already exists will recall it from wherever it is and move it to the top of Melia's stack (so it becomes the one that's used in attacks); doing this results in an animation that ends almost instantly and so is pretty safe to do. If an elemental has been destroyed recently, trying to summon it becomes a much slower process that cannot be interrupted (proportional the the time elapsed; after about 20 seconds the delay is gone).
Side special		Elemental Discharge	3% (contact), 12% (burst)	Melia fires an elemental sideways, which can be curved vertically like Din's Fire, and keeps moving until the button is released. Elementals travel through opponents for minor damage until they stop moving, at which point they remain still and become traps: they can be attacked and lose HP, or they can touch a damageable object and detonate. If Melia wants to get rid of an elemental, she can discharge it off the side blast line.
Up special		Elemental Launch	3% (contact), 12% (burst), 7% (meteor)	On the ground, Melia fires an elemental upwards that can be curved horizontally, and otherwise acts the same as Discharge. In the air, she fires the elemental downwards, which detonates on contact with enemies for a decently strong meteor smash and provides her with vertical boost (like Robin's Elwind). If it hits the stage instead, it sits there and acts as a trap like Discharge. If she has no elementals, the move won't do anything, but it also won't put her into helpless. Wind elementals provide a 1.2x boost to the height gained (which doesn't stack on top of their idle effect, as it stops once used in a move).
Down special		Starlight Kick	9% (ground), 12% (air-to-ground), 13% (air-to-air)	On the ground, Melia looses a dropkick into enemies directly in front of her. If she hits an enemy, they get tripped and she can act on the same frame they can (i.e. instant tech chase), but if she hits nothing, she lands on her rear (i.e. trips herself). In the air, she propels herself downwards like the Falcon Kick. If she hits a grounded opponent, they get buried, while if she hits the ground, she gets buried. If she hits an aerial enemy, she pegs them with a mega-strong meteor smash and gets a big footstool boost, but if she hits nothing the move keeps going until she's off the bottom.
Final Smash		Elemental Burst	5% (trapping hit), 5% (per one of each elemental), 10% (third art), 15% (fourth art), 0% (throw)	Upon obtaining the Smash Ball, Melia's Elemental Burst aura is activated, complete with HUD effect. The move begins with her trapping enemies in a circle around her with Shadow Stitch, activating a cinematic-type Final Smash. She unloads one of each elemental into the opponents, meaning that more opponents results in less damage to each one, and seven opponents means someone gets to skip this hit completely. Regardless, she follows it up with Burst End and finally Mind Blast, which ends the cinematic and launches opponents. If a single opponent is caught, the move does a total of 61.5% damage; if seven opponents are caught, it will deal a minimum of 30%.

Taunts

• Up taunt: Turns to face the camera and says "This is for the people."
• Side taunt: Points her staff forward and says "Take me lightly at your peril."
• Down taunt: Holds up her palm, which emits a cloud of multicoloured particles, and says "The ether flows through me."

Idle poses

• Taps her toe on the ground.
• Glances into the sky in both directions.

Cheer

"Me - li - a!"

On-screen appearance

Appears via High Entia transporter.

Victory theme

The second half of the riff of You Will Know Our Names, the battle theme used in Xenoblade Chronicles when fighting a unique monster.

Victory poses

• Collapses her staff and replaces it on her waist before crossing her arms, saying either "Only now have you realized my true power." or "Hmph. That represented no problem whatsoever."
  • If Shulk is present, there is a chance she will instead say "I'm afraid you have much to learn, Shulk."
• Jams her staff into the ground, which emits an ether rainbow, saying either "Oppose me and your destruction is inevitable." or "I prepared myself for the worst."
• Twirls her staff around in the air before taking hold of it and pointing it towards the camera, saying either "Witness my true power!" or "Your fighting spirit is mine!"

Trophies

[...]

Classic Mode: Misstress of the Elements

Each of the opponents represent one of Melia's elementals, in reverse order of her earning them in Xenoblade Chronicles.

Round	Opponent	Stage	Music	Notes
1	Ice Climbers	Summit	Snowman	Represents the Ice elemental.
2	Olimar	Great Cave Offensive (Ω form)	Underground Theme - Super Mario Bros.	Represents the Earth elemental.
3	Falco	Pilotwings	Kass's Theme	Represents the Wind elemental.
4	Squirtle	Kongo Falls	Seaskape	Represents the Aqua elemental.
5	Captain Falcon	Norfair	Melty Monster	Represents the Flare elemental.
6	Pichu	Unova Pokémon League (Battlefield form)	Thunder Cloud Temple	Represents the Bolt elemental.
Bonus Stage
Final	Master Hand and Crazy Hand	Gaur Plains (Ω form)	You Will Know Our Names

Alternate costumes

• Lavender: Default.
• Purple: One of her palette swap-type armours of Xenoblade Chronicles.
• Pink: One of her palette swap-type armours of Xenoblade Chronicles.
• Orange: One of her palette swap-type armours of Xenoblade Chronicles.
• Blue: Resembles Kallian, Melia's brother.
• Magenta: Resembles Lorithia, head of the High Entia Ministry of Research.
• Grey: Resembles Meyneth, goddess of the Mechonis.
• Swimsuit: Her armour-less appearance in Xenoblade Chronicles.

Palutena's Guidance

Pit: Uh, is there something wrong with this angel?

Palutena: Melia's not an angel, she's a High Entia.

Viridi: No, she's only half-High Entia. A real High Entia would have much bigger wings and be able to fly! Stupid half-breeds.

Palutena: Regardless, she's no easy foe. Her elementals will put some serious hurt on you, but if you just leave them alone they'll power her up.

Pit: So just go after the ringleader then? No sweat!

Melia: Excuse me, would you keep it down? I'm trying to focus.

Palutena: What? You can hear us?

Melia: You're blasting your thought waves through the fabric of reality at incredible distances, and you're surprised that a sensitive individual can hear it?

Pit: Maybe we need to switch to another mind channel.

Palutena: Good call, Pit. We can't have our opponent hearing our plans.

Melia: No, don't bother, I'll hear it anyway. I'm far too attuned to the ether to ignore such a brazen shrill. It's not the first time my gift has been both a blessing and a curse.

Palutena: ..."brazen shrill"?!

Extra stuff

• Elementals also apply to nearby teammates.
• Melia uses her staff to pick up items, and holds them in its head rather than her hands. She wears badges on her headdress.
• Melia's food-eating animation includes taking out a handkerchief and dabbing her lips with it. This is interruptible.
• Melia's footspeed when holding a heavy item is by far the worst of anyone, but it is improved considerably when she has more elementals to help carry it.
• When asleep, Melia thrashes about in bad dreams. Nearby opponents may take minor damage.