Ike Main Reacts to "Why No One Plays Ike"

[@SoloJones]

Do you think the Ike changes were overall a nerf or buff?

[@Chris-vx5kp]

Ike didn't get nerfed, people figured out how to play all the other characters to counter Ike.

[@azuremoon4372]

Buff made him way less linear

[@GambitX37]

A buff. I understand what you're saying though, his buffs were all to unsafe moves and the nair nerf made his main (safe) kill option more narrow, so I get your argument. But his gameplan after all the changes became way less linear, and nair is still good too. He now has more combo and kill options (yes they're unsafe but that's still better than ONLY having nair), and I think pre-patched Ike would have fallen off even harder than post-patch Ike did, because I think people getting better at parrying was more instrumental in his decline than the nair nerf, personally. His buffs weren't revolutionary but I do believe they made him a slightly better character overall and they definitely made him way more fun to play.

[@michaelrugel774]

what they really shouldn't have changed was the n-air that did affect a lot in true kill combos that I had before min min but the other changes like dash attack, side-b, d-tilt and up-b have been really good changes although as sebwind4 said people over valued it for mkleo and when they tried to use it they couldn't with the style and patience that is required to use it, only few can take advantage of its full potential.

[@nah4467]

As an Ike player for years since Brawl, it blows my mind how much they make him unsafe even with good reads lol. Idk if you knew this but in Brawl his recovery with his meme-able move aka the move you don't wanna misinput aka Forward Smash is even more slower/and punishing on the recovery by an extra 4 frames lol. And it's in comparison 10 frames slow and more punishable to counter than King Dedede Forward Smash even though that move starts at frame 40 whereas Ike's hits and starts at 31 and charges at 24. I also legit agree that Bowser's movement for a hulking heavy hitter being way faster is nuts. I'd say changes is increase overall speed, no he was never that slow in either version of a game and it does matter because that's why Sakurai designed him that's a take I disagree with. Literally Sakurai has said he designs characters based off the material and while he does do a few smash here moves, plenty of Ike's movesets are from his games actually or animations similar. Aether should have a flip when landing so you can input to back off and hit back if they try punishing while you're down or mix it up because Originally it had two hits in his games and trying to shield the last hit will damage it severely to call back to the Luna part of the hit that hits stronger. Neutral B should be a sword slash/wind attack. And his Neutral Down B instead of counter should be Eruption. And of course lower the punish windows in general because they have no reason to being that bad.

[@VarsVerum]

I didn't realize someone reacted to my Ike video haha! Glad you liked it :)

[@SoloJones]

It was a good video, very thought out!

[@IzzyIsntReal]

He’s back!!! ❤❤

[@BaselardFE]

I have such fond memories about Patch 8.0, being incredibly excited for Ike's changes, making content, discussing it with you and other people in the community. It was such a great time for Ike mains. Turns out the changes weren't as good as people thought and Ike really needed pre-patch Nair to be able to keep up with the rest. I love Ike, he's been my training wheels for the past 3 games. But now Pyra has 100% replaced Ike for me. She does everything he does, but far better. She makes people scared, and actually has the tools to seal out stocks :)

[@rondoudoushiney3868]

She's much slower and has a worst range tho

[@Azurald55]

​@@rondoudoushiney3868she has mythra to compensate for some of her weakness. Pyra still has better range out of the two.

[@xdoubt4113]

Been a fan of Ike since Brawl, played him as my main ever since then as well. He got me into Fire Emblem and to this day he has been one of my favorite fictional characters to exist ever in any media. When it came to ultimate, despite doing much better with him I was always his biggest critique. Anyone who complained about fighting him frustrated me, because as every Ike main says: he's not that good. Almost everything brought up was too accurate, as well as being my biggest issues. Everyone does his job better. Ganon stole his smash attack moveset and uses it better. Cloud stole his concept and game plan and does it better. I know everyone is tired of hearing this, but as an Ike main, the existence of Mythra/Pyra is LITERALLY the biggest insult to his character! Stronger, more range, better mobility and frame data, less punishable, more frustrating to play against, safer, the list continues. I don't know man, at this point so much needs to be changed to fix his issues. Regardless!! He is still one of my favorites, he is my main, and I will NEVER abandon him

[@MerryBlind]

Fun fact: Jab3 now deals as much hitlag as uncharged F-Smash for no reason (~22 frames IIRC). That's why it feels so meaty. The move probably had an increased hitlag modifier before the buff and they forgot to reduce it to compensate for the higher damage.

[@btags]

Always a good day when solojones uploads a new video

[@JuhMall01]

Welcome back!

[@SebWind4]

I'd say the changes to Ike done through out the patches made his playstyle more versatile, notably d-tilt and up-b were the two moves that changed how you play the character. The nerf of nair was somewhat big in my opinion, and should have been a bit more moderate. I hate the fact that you can kill with that move because of the nerf... Pre-DLC MU's were manageable to say the least, but with each addition of new chars, it felt like a new bad / annoying MU was added for Ike... Joker, MinMin, Aegis, Steve... heck even Banjo is annoying to deal with. Ever since smash ultimate released, I felt that people were vastly overrating Ike, mainly due to Leo, thinking that the changes done to him from Smash 4 were so good, being top tier in the first weeks (lol). Now it looks like people are starting to understand why he isn't so great. And what he said regarding other characters doing the same / better job than Ike is quite accurate, you could get better results just by picking a different swordy. Regardless of all of that, I always loved playing Ike, and will probably never change that :)

[@michaelrugel774]

The same I say, although there are swordsmen with more versatility of combos when one is really a fan of a character uses it until the end. Sincerely yours: Lord Ike the self-proclaimed best Ike of Ecuador.

[@donflores2611]

Buff the air speed, make d-tilt safer with a better angle, and make nair/up-air safe on shield (-3), Ike could become high tier. But what I would really like to see, which probably wouldn’t happen til smash 6, is a revamp of his recovery. If Ike/chrom had up-b’s like cloud in which they didn’t have to finish the move downward, that would significantly buff them. Imagine Ike/Chrom being able to up-b, go upward and then special fall like cloud, press b again to do the downward motion. If the opponent was falling out of the upwards up-b on stage, we could choose to go into special fall, like cloud, and mix up landing with drift. As it is right now, like SoloJones said, a whiffed up is just a free punish which could lead to a stock. Shaving some frames on up-b would be good too, making it a better OOS option, as would doing the same with fair. Overall, Ike just needs the better frame data. Lucina really shouldn’t have a longer/better fair than Ike, who has a longer sword. Wouldn’t also mind having his grab/jab come out just a little faster or have more range (for grab). I feel he benefits from grab combos better than other FE swordies

[@awshitcuz7064]

I just always come back to playing Ike cuz hes my soul character and he's basically fundies the character, feels very good when you get in the zone with Ike. Wish he had some cooler changes, like his counter being able to deal with projectiles or his up b being less exploitable when used as a recovery move. Regardless tho we like Ike

[@andrewcavallo1877]

Shoutout to the boys Yez, Ravenking, PsyKod, IzAw, and of course, Solo

[@ShinOrashi]

I miss Ike’s 1.0 NAIR, but overall I’ll always be an Ike purist (ever since Brawl)

[@Evello37]

Ike in Smash4 went through a similar results dropoff as Ult Ike, but starting about a tier down. He got destroyed by all the dominant top tiers like Sheik, Diddy, Cloud, and Bayo and didn't really have many notable winning MU's, so he landed in Low tier. Virtually every good Ike main switched to Corrin or Cloud. But there was a brief window when Ryo, San, and Ryuga were winning enough to delude people into thinking he was High tier. They gave Ike a 7 frame jump squat in S4. 7 frames! That's Kazuya jumps. On a character whose only good moves were aerials.

[@sliced8669]

I know this is 10 months late, but genuinely where do you think ike would be on the tier list if he had pre-patch nair, but also all the changes he has now

[@ADIOSal]

Hey, Ike is my main since the beginning. I just found your channel and love it!

[@SoloJones]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@KLRCAT]

I remember (when Ultimate was released) watching my friends getting pissed off and switching their Main's every couple of weeks trying to Counter my Ike (which they did eventually with Incineroar and King K. Rool). I switch between Link, Zelda, Ike & Robin, as they all accomplish some form of counter playstyle depending on who I'm up against. I don't know how to explain it, but even though Roy is better in most regards (I main'd Roy for Melee), I just prefer the "Feel" of Ike. I don't know why, but I just have slightly better timing with Ike (with Counters, Shield & Smashes), and I think that's the key to playing him at higher levels, its a combination of Timing and Spacing (although, "Spacing" is completely dependant on who you are matched against), but I could be wrong. At lower levels you can win most matches with just side & up B.

[@brysonmcfaull1218]

Thanks for this video because, and no offense to vars III but, i feel vars can get ahead of themself with some of their presuppositions so a reality check like this is nice

[@QwertYuiop-yt3uh]

The thing with ike for me rn is that he's just way too slow. The rework spread out his kill power over multiple moves, but they didn't compensate him with the required frame data. Now he relies mostly on getting a strong hit in neutral into a kill but if you're gonna have that gameplan you better hope you have the framedata of lucina or Roy. Being simple is fine if you have the frame data as evidenced by lucina and ike just doesn't have that. A character like byleth is strong because although they're slow, they have a much more versatile, multifaceted moveset and easy kill confirms to make up for it. Ikes a combination of slow AND simple which is a bad combo. Ike's old nair up air kill confirm was perfect because nair is one of the few moves he can actually reliably hit in neutral with how slow he is.

[@unbantwin3900]

Finally you’re back.

[@stuckinabucket6873]

He has finally returned from his training VOD slumber

[@Kramburger11]

Whether or not Ike was buffed or nerfed overall, MY Ike was buffed significantly, since I didn't use nair very much to begin with. Haha!

[@Likiung]

Old nair may have be broken when it landed but nothing can compensate for his slow punishable moves with mediocre movespeed. It was inevitable that this character got skill gapped by the player base from the start

[@jorgeabaezp9365]

Like... back when 8.0 released, we didn't have the cast we have now so the changes done to nair felt fair at the moment... come fighters pass 2 however... ike could really use that old nair plus the buffs now

[@milesv5579]

I saw ike on the profile pic and Immediately subed

[@asuramaru8180]

Yo I miss ur uploads man :(

[@Flare8295]

Ike's recovery is both bad and exploitable some examples of recoveries that are not bad but only expliotable are Fox,Chrom,etc

[@aramisbetances572]

I just looked at this video lol. thanks YT for the recommendation

[@DiegoMartinez-ov2vi]

Yo juego ike es mi main soy de Honduras

[@DiegoMartinez-ov2vi]

Ike is the greatest

[@thesuperiorkitten]

I’m a Ike main and he feels slower

[@goosebottleYT]

whatsuppp

[@pigboi666]

I like your voice

[@ErtM-vh5vs]

8.0 was def a buff. His results fell off cuz ike is mid.

[@joshandri]

Dude, if your going to react to a video, please stop pausing so often, at least watch 30 seconds before pausing. Was almost impossible to follow due to the choppy pacing of your constant, Unnecessary interruptions.

[@SoloJones]

Then go watch the original video!