To really emphasize how bad low aura is, some moves, up smash in particular, are unsafe ON HIT. - Resident suffering Lucario main Couple replies saying there's a lot of negative hit moves. By unsafe on hit, I mean the opponent can get hit, recover, and attack you back before the end lag of your move is done. I don't know of any other moves like that.
I main doc and doc doesn't have an up b oos before the opponent is at least at 50%. You're not alone. So many characters (low tiers mainly) have attacks that are unsafe on hit. But it is indeed very frustrating. Being punished for hitting your opponent is not what I'd call good game design.
@@Bark_743 very few characters have an up-b oos, that’s a privilege (and a busted one at that) not something characters should have. Doc is still dog water though. Not sure of any other characters that have an attack that the opponent can get hit by, recover, and hit you back before the end lag of the attack is over.
Its wacky and relies far too hard on the comeback mechanic being a straight up "come from behind" to win It's edgey and fun online. But fucking awful in an actual tournament
Lucario has a specific and uncommon win condition that many characters don’t possess, besides someone like Little Mac. He lacks meaningful pressure at the beginning of a match and has to start ‘losing’ or take more damage before he can win. I wouldn’t necessarily call it “bad game design” solely because it widens his margin for error, though it probably could’ve been crafted better. Regardless, this is how the character is supposed to play out.
@@cryguy0000"edgey" and "edgy" I assume mean completely different things in this context, I interpreted it as "edge of your seat gameplay" and not edgy like shadow the hedgehog or something
Tired of people saying losing is his win condition. It's not. His win condition is surviving. Lucario does not want to just go straight to high percentage, that would make him lose faster. What Lucario needs to do is to win neutral consistently. Yes, Lucario won't start killing until higher percentage. However, if Lucario kept their percent lower than you or even got a stock lead the potential for the snowball is huge. THAT'S the win condition. Survival against the opponent. Win neutral. Now you can argue every character has this gameplan, which is why Lucario clearly struggles. Other characters have other win conditions to shoot for outside of the fundamentals, but Lucario solely relies on it. Edit: I guess you could say Lucario's win condition is to just be better than the opponent. New video idea: Lucario is "HONEST"!?!?!?!?
You missed out the fact that similar to incineroar, his unique mechanic does benefit from human error. People do get scared when they fight lucario at high aura. In a long tournament set, this will come up. Not something that invalidates his weakness (by any means), but something worth mentioning.
its not as much to his advantage though since most people by that point are being careful and trying to close out the stock anyway while with incineroar it can be triggered earlier and thus have longer pressure because of how often you can get it.
It is a very rough mechanic, needing to be at high percentage I mean. I don’t main him, but I love to use him 💖💖💖 However, I do not believe he is as bad as a lot of people seem to claim he is. But wherever he is on the tierlist, bottom tier, top tier, I know one thing… I LOVE his mechanic so much. I LOVE getting stronger the more my opponent dares to touch me. I LOVE becoming so powerful that even Bowser is tiptoeing around me. It’s a very “anime” like mechanic. The only issue being that when you translate it to Smash, it becomes very dangerous. But hey, that’s the excitement of it all. Hit me, I dare you 😈
Lucario was the one character I really hoped would get an echo fighter. No aura mechanic but the exact same move set just balanced to be approximately medium aura. Absolutely love his kit and he's got crazy good shmovement but I can't stand having to lose to win.
One thing that also hurt Lucario is that in the transition from smash 4 to ultimate they made him lighter going from 99 to 92 and while it may not seem like a big change it truly is because being at 92 he dies so much sooner then he did at 99
Like 5% sooner if my numbers are right. It's not that much and aura got compensated to reach its good numbers earlier, so I feel is more because characters are better at killing around 100%, the nerf of rage without proper compensation and extreme speed becoming less reliable as a recovery tool, alongside its poor neutral in a game where poor neutrals are punished with half of a touch of death.
@@N12015 ok I did some testing and your right but it seem to be closer to a 10% difference, in smash 4 while on the right platform of battlefield where you start the game at Lucario dies to links fully charged up B at 60% while link is at 0%. While in ultimate he dies at 50%, not really a big difference, plus all of the things you mentioned did have a bigger impact, all in all it's just a shame how far Lucario has fallen
As someone that used to play Lucario in 4, he dies _so much faster_ in Ult than in 4, it’s insane. I main Toon Link, so I’m used to surviving matches by the skin at my teeth at 130% (since I have to hang back and build percent with projectiles, or at least that’s how I usually play him) With Lucario tho you just die to the smallest thing before you get close to 120% in any capacity
he is my favorite character in this game because he is the best character in the game if played to perfection. he literally has turbo on, and nearly all of his combos are safe
I have a lot of griefs with Lucario. That aura power is more of a STARTER mechanic (Blaze/Torrent/Overgrow), not Lucario who should be more about having armor or his stronger moves. Lucario has also a serious lack of flow between moves, which is weird considering the pokemon is known for an insane movepool, able to go special or physical without much sacrifice, and is all because of Aura ruining combos. Everything just works against each other making it so he's very unappealing.
@@maxspecs Indeed would have been a good gimmick for them, and would reward Charizard more while not punishing Squirtle's combo game, aka it fits them better mechanically as well. This Greninja has the exclusive hidden hability (The one where you become Greninja-Ash. We see it on his final smash) so he can't use Torrent, and this Incineroar already has something similar to Blaze in revenge. In general I feel Lucario should play more akin to Samus, half-Zoner half-brawler and a threat at all ranges instead of only short and kinda at long but awful at midrange, a character who wants to setup to get powerful like Cloud, either with powerful aura spheres or combo starters. Aura doesn't help in this state and they should consider a rework, because he's a bottom 6 in terms of design as well alongside Sonic, Steve, Kazuya, Little Mac and Min-Min.
Yeah. Lucario really needs half of his move set to have almost fixed knockback and stun mostly regardless of Aura since he is supposed to be a combo fighter but it is impossible to pull off because of all of the number fluctuating.
@@AngeVNs Well, this is no ordinary Lucario, this is the 9th pokemon movie (I guess the boy with all the Amiibos really liked that movie as a child). That being said, Aura in that movie was mostly used as a perception tool and to have visions of the past and to heal, not as a combat tool outside Aura Sphere.
Your point about Joker, Terry, Sephiroth, etc. makes me realize that a great way to buff Lucario is to do the same thing: have him be normal damage and functioning, and then get stronger as he takes damage.
i think i just realized why i love lucario and have mained him forever. always being on the verge of death is the best way to keep me engaged and focused on the game. otherwise, i often do silly unsafe things because im just not engaged enough. ive always played my best when im last stock in a 1v2, and now i understand why.
Lucario's Aura literally punishes you for trying to avoid taking damage, and rewards you for doing badly. That's the worst kind of mechanic to have in a fighting game. I also don't understand why he's so floaty when he's LITERALLY A STEEL TYPE. He gets stronger the more damage you take, but he's lightwieght enough that he's easy to KO by the time his aura actually gets going. His moveset would fit better on like Meinfoo or something.
I think once you rack up enough damage you have to play more defensively. So if I were fighting Kazuya I would start camping because I know that Kazuya would start reflecting which is what I want him to do then once I get enough damage I think Lucario's aura attacks would be able to outrange Kazu.
Here's my theories, as someone who doesn't play Smash and hasn't yet seen the video: 1. Any durability benefits he may have personally gotten by rages' nerfs and character buffs are WAY outclassed by Ultimate's new environment. He's always been a glass cannon, but with his weight nerf, rage nerf, and the ridiculously volitile "kill you off one interaction" roster of Smash Ultimate (either because of buffed veterans or nuclear newcomers) he's now more glass and less cannon than ever. He's like a boxer who was once a 'roid raging monster who's now a washed up scrapper past his prime, getting KO'd left and right and hitting less hard than ever all the while new youngin's spring up left and right. 2. He's always been pretty underplayed as is (judging by underrated characters lists in Sm4sh), so taking a character that doesn't have a large fanbase to begin with and nerfing him doesn't help.
The main thing is how his Aura mechanic works. With his Aura he gets more damage and range on his attacks meaning that he is stronger at higher percents mainly around his kill percent. So when you have high Aura you can kill better but you also die easier and if you die you are now in a weaker state due to your Aura being reset. And due to the reset it can make a losing situation even worse as you just lost a stock and now you deal less damage and have less range. Basically Lucario needs to lose fights to get stronger but that leads him to losing more.
@WolvesBaseballNine He literally went over it in this video. Bottom Line: Everyone Else got substantially buffed and changes to game mechanics made it difficult for Lucario to win.
@@WolvesBaseballNine Nintendo scrapped away all his prio and his weight... He was 100 in Brawl, he's 92 in Ultimate, with no range, no disjoint, no prio 💀 They gave him mobility but that's clearly not enough
Me and my friends always referred to the comeback mechanic and meter characters as those with a pseudo "Get Out Of Jail Free Card" characters. But with Lucario he just doesn't have it. Like he does but not really. Its like if in Monopoly if you sat in jail but you got an extra 350 every turn. Yeah that's cool and all but what are you going to do if you're still stuck in jail
That metaphor falls apart when you realize that sitting in Jail in Monopoly is actually strategicaly optimal in many situations and that you can just pay 50 to escape whenever you want so gaining 350 every turn in Jail would be absolutely broken
@@Liliana_the_ghost_cat But not in the early and mid game where you are trying to build color groups. In late game once houses go up sure but until then being stuck in Jail is only a determent.
My dad was a lucario main before he got buffed💀 By the time lucario got a bit better he had passed away. For that reason lucario will be a lil special to me but im still gonna trash on em cuz he sucks.
I’m so glad that the margin for error was mentioned. I tell people all the time that while smash is about capitalizing on mistakes and errors, with Lucario it’s some of the worst because he can’t utilize his strengths and whole character design because of said error at a high level. That said, I still think he’s underrated.
I always love how project M changes one of his taunts to set his percent to 300% so for touch of death matchups you access your full power instantly of instantly losing. Similarly in a normal match once you reach the percent for whatever kill combos the other guys has you can say screw it and go max power. Wile often taunting to 300 percent is a suicide button, it gives Lucario something vary important. Agency.
A staple of ultimate's current meta is hard some characters can punish and how overall optimized the punish game is becoming. That's why everyone camps now, to avoid being punished. When your character depends on getting hit and surviving and the meta is decreasing that chance by the day, then yeah, they're inevitably gonna drop lower on the tier list.
I honestly love playing Lucario, his aura creates some crazy extremes where the opponent can just get decimated if I play right (also his Final Smash is very OP and very funny cause it's basically an automatic win button, sometimes I let my opponent beat me up until I reach 100% and make them realize their mistake challenging the funny Super Saiyan Mon as they are blasted into oblivion by the Lucariariha XD
I recently picked up Lucario out of curiosity, and he’s a bit tricky to learn with his aerials in my opinion. But after you get your percentages up and your rage going, it feels so satisfying to kill so quickly
Thank you Vars, been waiting for this since you started this series. Hit the nail on the head on what makes him exhausting to play and why I too give Armadillo and Other fellow Lucario mains praise and respect for sticking with it as much as they can Quick fixes for having Lucario be as feared as Cynthia's Garchomp: 1: Put Lucario's weight at 100 and make him a fast faller and keep his movement while not popping like Jigglypuff post shield break. 2: remove Lucario's (and by extension, Mewtwo's) tail hurt box. 3: Tweak his frame data to compensate for his lack of options out of shield or so that he actually*has* options out of shield. 4: Return Aura Spheres hitbox to smash 4 utility. 5: And most importantly, rework Aura so to be in line with other comeback mechanics. 0% should be the baseline for him as much as it is for any other character on the roster and ramp up as the damage he takes goes up accordingly. Stock Aura Should either be removed or have it so it's only affects Lucario positively but situationally ala Sephiroth One Wing.
I remember in Brawl you could do a very simple combo with Lucario A + A follwoed by force palm this combo was removed from Ultimate yeah with big aura would look cheap but would be a tool for finishing stocks with build up aura
lol this is a myth. Sephiroth has the means to play safely considering his frame data with 3 meter sticks taped together for a sword. Tired of scrubs pretending that Seph is a bad character when he has a major win under his belt.
I tried to pick him up and in my opinion what's holding back the character is that his aerials are just kinda ass on a floaty. They have absolutely no range, deals no damage and don't send at angles that create very powerful combos. Like if he was like marth or sheik having a very good kit balanced by a low damage output he would be quite a good character, he's aerial mobility is amazing and aura sphere is a great move. The problem with Lucario is that half of the time aurasphere feels like the only reliable move in his kit, with the rest of his kit either having awful frame data, leading to nothing or losing to any slight disjoints. Everytime I hear about Lucario being a low tier, it's always about him being killed before aura start to reach any good percentage, but in the grand scheme of things Lucario's kit is just mediocre and the character lacks tool that justify playing other characters
As a Lucario main myself, Im telling you that playing Lucario feels like you're constantly walking on egg shells. When you manage to one-hit KO someone its fun but surviving characters like Kazuya, ROB or even Bowser is not worth the sweat. Thats why I tell people to only play Lucario if they really like Lucario in general, and do not think for a second that its a good idea to let yourself get hit, avoid it like you would with any other character
Thank you Vars for makeing this video. Ive been playing Lucario for like 6 years first in brawl then in ultimate, and i do agree that he needs something to help him at low percent. Like more combo game imo. Ive recently played corrin then switched back to lucario just to see how low his combo game is. But anyway keep the good videos up! :]
As a lucario player I love playing lucario he is so damn fun but please rework aura. Like you can keep the mechanic just rework the scaling like make lucario an average to below average character at 0% then scale it slowly from there.
For me, using Lucario is very much a mentality match thing: I, the player, feel like all proverbial shackles disappear when I'm in a corner-- it's those pulse-pounding moments when something I care about - making it to the top - is at risk, and it all comes down to flow, that I've produced some of my best gameplay. It's exhilarating. Combined with a read-heavy playstyle that wants to exploit the human side of things (notably, opponent errors that become more frequent with higher Aura), Lucario still manages to feel so *good* despite the downsides.
My brother plays him, I'd say he was never really just a hugely popular character and while he is a brawler, he is quite strange with his moves and not easy, so that's already a recipe for being unpopular. I'm honestly quite sad they nerfed his weight from Smash 4, which definitely had a large impact on him since his kit does feel "subpar" without aura and he can't really utilize it anymore since he's much lighter and aura is way less intense.
One word: Aura. Take away Aura and make him play at base damage for the whole match and he'd be instantly more viable competitive. Either that or make it so you don't have to reach 200% to reach his full potential.
2:50 as a Lucario main i prefer to say that he is holding back, which he is, to test out the oponents power to see if he needs more power. At later% he is casually breaking his limit like a window getting shot with canons
I will say for the only fighting type pokemon in smash, its kinda sad that he has one of the most underwhelming combo games and shortest strings out of all of them.
It would be nice if lucario could damage himself by taunting, like whenever you taunt you receive 15%, that way if you get a kill you will become a bit stronger since you have time to taunt
I often switch into and out of playing Lucario because it’s thrilling being so cataclysmicly powerful and Lucario is one of my favourite Pokémon and Lucario’s moves are really cool, but sometimes I take long breaks because of how bad it feels going from god of death to wet noodle after losing a stock or fighting a touch of death character where you cannot get a chance to play an actual character
I'm a lucario main, but at the same time I don't really go to big tournaments, mostly just small local things with no reward for fun I always do have fun, though! I oftentimes end up surprising people due to the lower general knowledge of Lucario's workings
@Vars III you forgot to mention that beinga stock down aura will build automatically without damage. it is slowish but it reduces the damage threshold you need to hit for you to reach neutral aura.
I agree that it’s a very rough mechanic, needing to be at high percentage I mean. However, I do not believe he is as bad as a lot of people seem to claim he is, so thank you for mentioning that he isn’t unviable. But wherever he is on the tierlist, bottom tier, top tier, I know one thing… I LOVE his mechanic so much. I LOVE getting stronger the more my opponent dares to touch me. I LOVE becoming so powerful that even Bowser is tiptoeing around me. It’s a very “anime” like mechanic. The only issue being that when you translate it to Smash, it becomes very dangerous. But hey, that’s the excitement of it all. Hit me, I dare you 😈
Lucario just feels washy AF to me. Everything lacks oomph, both in aesthetic and animation, as well as in performance (sans aura). There's plenty of characters i could pick up instead that just have a much more pleasant feeling, as well as consistent perforamnce.
I like lucario. I suspected he was bad but I had no clue why. They should have just given him the default state immediately, but tune when aura starts kicking in.
I think aura might work better as a mechanic if you have to charge it manually . As time passes the aura dissipates and gets weaker. There could also be a mechanic that getting hit causes lucario to lose aura and hitting your opponent is a secondary way to build aura.
The design of Lucario is pretty bad but it also kinda works at the same time because Lucario is designed like an anime character with all the plot armor revolved around aura but it is still bad to play as since u have to be losing to win.
The weight loss Lucario suffered in Ultimate is definitely really frustrating. One of the big things I've always liked about Lucario and Dark Samus is that they are heavy characters with more maneuverable air physics allowing for better air combos and better recovery.
Maybe for the next smash they should have Lucario’s aura only impact his smashes, specials, and throws and then buff the rest of his kit. That way he has a respectable combo game but his kill potential grows stronger the worse situation he’s in.
Lost his very good grab game thanks to directional air dodge. Dmg output from up throw combos are a lot less cause of the kb increase.Bair got nerfed in 3 different ways (rage/aura nerf + the dmg nerf itself). Aurasphere cancel upsmash is way too inconsistent in this game all while being insanely more lighter too? Bro they DID NOT want him to be good in ultimate.
I'm in the mood for a ramble! Have fun :3 Ah Lucario. He maybe #2 favorite Pokemon (supposedly) and Pokemon is the biggest franchise ever, but my gosh you need a very very specific type of person to enjoy playing Lucario in smash. He's got stuff to scare away casuals, and he's got some stuff to scare away competitive players. So you gotta get used to his unique blend of traits to really love playing Lucario. Problem is, with how many characters are in the roster, most people are never going to give Lucario enough time, or get good enough at the game to be able to enjoy Lucario. Reasons why I love playing Lucario in Smash - Aura 1. Different states of play is more unique. Most characters go from low % combos/random damage to kill setups based off of the %. Lucario however makes you have to think about it a bit more because aura is also at play. 2. Aura kinda like smash's emphasis on %s, but in an extreme way. It's smash within smash! All the smash goodness 3. I love seeing the effect aura has on other players and their playstyle. Low aura lulls them into false sense of security, then they start to panic when it gets to higher %, and I get to see them make mistakes more and hesitate more frequently than how they react to any other character doing well and I love it. Reminds me doing things like conditioning some people to be afraid of Meta Knight's Dimensional cape (probably not going to use it, but the fact that it exists adds a layer of constant pressure). Or charging up Samus's charge short, but never actually shooting it because they are so afraid to be hit by the charge shot, that you can freestyle on them with anything you want. 4. Lucario and Sephiroth feel like the only real comeback characters to me, and that fits my playstyle. Maybe that's me having a bad mental game, but I like to toy with my opponents too much when I have a fresh stock because I'm experimenting to see how the opponent reacts. However with Lucario, you need to make the most of everything since in the unlikely event you do get decently high aura, you need to get KO off with that before you get hit from a stray KO move. Sephiroth is weird where you wanna end the stock without wing, then get wing as soon as the opponent respawns so you can abuse the heck out of the benefits wing gives you. Which is similar to the mindset of low vs high aura Lucario, but Lucario is just significantly harder to plan for as it's a gradual thing, which kinda leads Lucario forcing me to get every little hit in whenever I can.... (that said, now I want Lucario to get a burst in movement speed at higher aura. Going from Seph's normal speed, to wing giving him the speed of Fox feels so good you have no idea.) 5. Lucario swaps between being a normal character, to being the most intense thing ever. High aura Lucario is always incredibly intense for me, because I never wanna lose all that power that I have obtained, so there's more stakes to each fight than any other character in the roster. I imagine this is what it feels like to be in tournaments all the time if you actually cared to win. I don't go to tournaments, I just have fun improving and giving my tournament going friends a hard time = ) 6. The Lucario Jv4 is always a goal you can strive for :3 - He's got that floaty flow to him. It's easy to forget he has one of the fastest air speeds because of the other properties of his movement and his animations. - Some things just feel really good to pull off. That said, how his moveset all comes together just makes him feel irreplaceable to me 1. Force palm, especially at higher %s 2. Fair/nair train to the end like what is shown around 8:27 It's pretty much the only long combo Lucario can realistically do, but it feels satisfying. 3. Aura sphere charging and that b-reversing movement in general. Helps a lot of characters, but Lucario thrives off of b-reversing stuff to keep his opponents guessing. I find it fun just moving around this way. Charging aura sphere into back air is always satisfying and a nice KO option 4. Hitting anything with high aura. There's a lot of hitstun on lot of moves for high aura. Bair and fsmash I can't get enough of, but literally all the moves feel better the higher the aura gets 5. Seeing how huge the aura sphere gets. Whether you're charging it on someone, or tossing it out, I love it. - I feel like I earned it when I win with Lucario more than any other character just even looking at his moveset outside of aura: Let's take a look at other characters I like to play (some casual, most previous mains/secondaries) and then look at Lucario. 1. Lucario can't have large disjoints like Meta Knight, Ridley, Marth, Sephiroth, 2213 Mii Swordfighter (and any swordie really) 2. Lucario can't mash crazy frame data like any Mario character, Pichu, Fox, Sheik 3. Lucario doesn't have crazy combos like Falco, Ryu, Kazuya, or Bayonetta 4. Lucario can't trap opponents into going into certain locations like Snake, Duck Hunt, or the Links 5. Lucario can't have oppressive projectile pressure like Joker, Olimar, Links, Mii Gunner, Samus (at least High aura Lucario's aura sphere are pretty scary though, but that's a once every few games reward kind of thing that gets you drunk with that power you usually don't get to have) 6. Lucario isn't even a nice blend of just being good at everything like Mewtwo, Wolf, R.O.B. 7. Lucario lacking all of these things makes him feel like one of the big boys like Ganondorf or other heavies (especially since he even has a command grab), but he can't take a hit like they do (and Incineroar does the command grab & counter thing better, and sacrifices speed and projectile for range and frame data) 8. Lucario does have some crazy air speed, but it's not like he can do much of anything with it like the way Sonic and ZSS do (b-reverse tech helps Lucario immensely for that if you can perform it reliably though, yet I don't see that much from Lucarios in tournament in Ultiamte [though it has been a while]. I remember TSU abusing the heck out of it in Smash 4) It just feels like Lucario has a lot of false pressure, and he can really only do well if he's reading his opponent constantly, whereas all other characters have a way to force their gameplan, or their gameplan is just very very easy/strong Like out of all the characters I listed, I feel Lucario has the worst risk/reward ratio out of all of them (minus Ganondorf of course. You have to be able to hit your opponent) Things that bug me about Lucario in Smash: - Aura in Smash is the Saiyan Zenkai boost. I get it, he's Goku in Smash, and has the same voice actor (and the Down Smash is basically right out of a scene in DBZ). However, being more damaged making it so you can hurt others more has nothing to do with Aura. Though if it stays I won't care 'cuz it's a smash staple at this point, and Lucario can now get justified as a hidden ability (which he couldn't at the time of Brawl apparently). It's just makes me go "why?". Lucario being associated with close combat a bit seems like the closest thing, but even that's a stretch since that's losing defense for each time you do that super strong attack (I honestly like the idea of that being a mechanic for his smash attacks though). It's here to stay probably though. That said, looking at the other abilities Lucario gets, Inner Focus would be an excuse to give Lucario the Tough Guy mechanic in smash as it prevents flinching. Though the more interesting one is steadfast, where you flinch (in smash that'd be taking damage probably), you'd increase in speed. Imagine instead of Lucario having insane damage, he goes from this slow calm type of fighter, to being this incredibly fast character that overwhelms you because he got into that zen-like flow state. - Still no bone rush? I mean you can't remove Aura Sphere, It's like THE aura move, and Lucario is the aura pokemon (and he spams it non-stop in his first movie). With Lucario reading thoughts/actions, along with a lot of counter-like moves, you know he has more of a reason to have a counter than most characters in the roster. Extreme speed is a good recovery and he needs a recovery. While I like the idea of bone rush, force palm just fits the overall vibe of Lucario better, especially since it is another excuse to show off the aura and give him a command grab. So I imagine they'd have to include it in one of his normals, or make a new mechanic for it. (Personally I like the idea of pressing a taunt to swap between stances, but you know they aren't gonna do that with taunts. Another idea I like is depending on how much aura he has, will determine if his bone staff is out, allowing for a different moveset. Whether it be rapidly hitting people at low %s to build up to very powerful aura punches later, or to build off the steadfast idea earlier and he eventually gets the bone rush moveset when things get faster) - No Zeraora as an aura-less echo version of Lucario. The existence of aura scares people away from Lucario, and it'd be nice to have a more "normal" version of Lucario (though personally I'm addicted to Aura now so I don't need the echo). Kinda missing the boat at this point now though, but they could still do it. What they could do for Lucario in Smash 6 I don't know. I do like the "monk that has mastered his chi" sorta thing he has going on with his floatiness and animations, but quite a few other interpretations have him kinda rushing down the opponent and I wonder if they could do something with that. I do hope they just remake all the characters into fresh new updated movesets. I love Lucario's moveset, but I just know they could probably find a way to make it much more fun, and significantly more accessible to more people.
My Fix for lucario: Make him a fast faller. Make his normals have "regular" damage and knockback throught the whole battle (what. Should be his 100%) Add him a unique mechanic in wich when he shields and B, his damage and knockback multiply by his Aura for around how much does a monado Art Last, the fact that it multiplies by Aura, means you can still have minus 100% Lucario for some specific combos, and you can activate his over 100% power boost to go for the Stock when needed!
Honestly. The idea of normals always doing base damage without aura is actually a really good idea. Normally I'm opposed to removing aura but making it only change his specials is an incredibly reasonable middle-ground. I personaly am not a huge fan of the fast faller idea but that's completely ok. It will still get my approval if most of the Lucario mains agree that he should be one.
How dare you go and tell me the truth like this. But yeah I agree, I play Lucario because he's my favorite Pokemon so I am legally obligated to play him. He takes a large time investment to figure out all of his little quirks and nuances but he feels so rewarding to play. The other characters I play (Hero, Bowser, Kirby) are much more fuck around kinda guys I don't have to think too hard with.
Although he’s still fun to play, it’s a shame that in Ultimate they didn’t update his move set to reflect more of his abilities, such as his bone staff, bone daggers, wolverine claws, and more of his martial arts abilities.
Even I stopped playing Lucario for a few years despite playing him since 2010 lol He feel so ass in Ult, but he’s still fun. I just recently got back into him cause bro my soul main gonna try n bring him far haha
Such a weird design philosophy. Why give him negative aura? Why nerf his weight in Ultimate (The game the increased killpower)? Just doesn't make sense.
I remember seeing a lot of pros rank Lucario among the high mid tiers or even the low high tiers and I had to ask myself, "What are they smoking!?" I love Lucario and mained him in Brawl and Smash 4 and I hate Ultimate Lucario. Not only did Sakurai throw EVERYTHING into Aura but he also made Lucario LIGHTER. A character who HAS to take damage to be usable they made LIGHTER THAN MARIO! Frankly he needs to weigh 100 but 98 was mostly fine until Ultimate where he weighs only 92. Such a waste since Lucario can naturally force opponents to adopt a higher risk vs reward style of play since if you let him get going, he is terrifying to fight but at 92 he dies before Aura has a chance to turn the game around.
I would always choose Lucario against my casual friends because of his built in underdog mechanic. It helps fix skill gaps because I can't do too much unless I'm actually losing or at least getting tossed around a bit.
If I was to do something to aura without changng the damage multiplier it provides I would have it give knockback resistence to counteract the threat of being at higher percents and being thrown into the blastzone so easily. Like have him also have less knockback resistence starting at 0 and the higher precent hes at the more knockback is resisted to counteract the threat being at higher percents give. at 65 he'll have the average knockback of somebody at 0 (since at 65 his damage numbers are "normal") and the higher he gets the more resistent he is to flying away after a single hit. With this it becomes even more important to close the stock earlier because he wont be easy to kill at higher percents like everybody else he becomes *harder* to kill. This forces people to create quick stock closing combos that can kill lucario before that happens. If that fails they wont be able to use higher percent combos to kill lucario as easily. This allows the lucario player to more safely reap the benefits of aura while still requiring that they be a little dangerous. Conveniently enough this also solves the problem with lucario against touch of death characters as if they fail to kill lucario from that one hit lucario just got a shit ton of knock back resistence to prevent your strategy from working as effectively as before and now also threatens you with his own power moves.
As a lucario main, as much as it pains me to admit, what has been said here is true imo. While I'm okay with a character being a bit inconsistent (it can bring flavor to he character when done right), with him it's too extreme for his own good. As said, what work against him are : "light" weight and too extreme aura (do I really need the power I get at 190% ?! Hell no !!), leading to this inconsistency. But I'm not like some who want to take out aura mechanic. Imo that's what bring the flavor (and very cool visual effects ^^. I f***ing love when slow mo cam triggers with strong side b) I like so much about him. But it can be tone down for sure. Just take the same starting point at 65 %, and make the power rise less steep. Sure, you won't be the God's destruction at 190 anymore ... But you'll be more useful at 0, and with aura changing less, your combos may be more consistent. And let's be clear : how often do you reach 190 with lucario?? I can with assurance tell : too rarely. If you're feeling generous with buff, I'd give him back the weight he had in Smash 4. Not heavy... But on the heavy side. To not help his case, more characters than ever in Smash can kill pretty quickly, which is clearly not what we're looking for. That's why some additional weight would be benefitial. I think I get why they change him the way he is in Ultimate compared to Smash 4 (which was even more extreme if I'm not mistaking to the point it was absurd)... But they went a little bit too harsch. On that said (after a too long text. If you're still reading it, we'll done you're a hero!), that was a nice summurize video about why not many play him 👍.
i dont know why, but if u unalive yourself immediately u get a bunch of aura when u respawn and can sweep a match. its a silly strat i do in free for alls
1: i wonder how many pokemon players are envious of that shiny giratina just chillin. 2: Lucario could benefit from one of two changes in my opinion, if NINTENDO does an update so Lucario is the same as any other character at 0% or "lower than 60%" he would become viable. Or two, if one of his taunts allows him to "hit himself in confusion." 3: In a completely different game, WARFRAME, there's this warframe you can get called Chroma. it has a special ability that for a while the best way to use him was with a throwing secondary weapon like any throwing stars weapons with a mod that caused those throwing stars to explode. Players would activate the ability and purposely do damage to themselves to get the armor and damage increase out of his ability. DE since changed how his ability works so you never have to feel like your limited to using specific things like before. But i felt this context was necessary. Also, part of POKEMON is that your pokemon friend has a chance to hit itself in confusion, and this i believe would fix/help Lucario. Hopefully they also make him "heavier."
I used to be a lucario secondary and dropped him entirely after i learned thatbhe would never be satosfying to play because of how aura worked. Im already a zelda main, im tired of working way harder than necessary for a kill
I dont play smash at a competitive level, but most of my friends do which sucks, because they want 1v1s and i want 4 man free for alls with items (though no FS meter, the FS ball is the only real way to get your smash, its way more fun than the lousy meter). Though lucario is my main as I usually get my ass beat, but i occasionally get cracked last second allowing me to win with a few lucky combos lol.
Personally i loved playing lucario for a month or so, then i played mewtwo and it was a game changer. I think the concept of lucario was fine but i don’t think they executed it right.
my first Smash main in my first smash game have him in eltie smash and he is ok if you like the play style I’ll say he kinda bets on you opponent making a mistake and your own knolage of him as your game play is changing it makes you play more dynamic i do combos at low and pokes and keep away at high and if you are good he is a mid teir but alot of work for a mid teir my one of my other main is dark pit and he is almost always the same. I would say his serviablity holds him back more then the kill power.
To really emphasize how bad low aura is, some moves, up smash in particular, are unsafe ON HIT.
- Resident suffering Lucario main
Couple replies saying there's a lot of negative hit moves. By unsafe on hit, I mean the opponent can get hit, recover, and attack you back before the end lag of your move is done. I don't know of any other moves like that.
I main doc and doc doesn't have an up b oos before the opponent is at least at 50%.
You're not alone.
So many characters (low tiers mainly) have attacks that are unsafe on hit.
But it is indeed very frustrating.
Being punished for hitting your opponent is not what I'd call good game design.
To be fair alot of characters have negative on hit moves,even characters like sonic
@@Bark_743hehehehe Ganon go Brrrrrrr (help me)
@@Bark_743 very few characters have an up-b oos, that’s a privilege (and a busted one at that) not something characters should have. Doc is still dog water though.
Not sure of any other characters that have an attack that the opponent can get hit by, recover, and hit you back before the end lag of the attack is over.
@@Falcormoor What move is this, it looks terrible. (I've only played Lucario in smash 4 lol, never in ultimate)
As much as I love playing Lucario, losing being your win condition is a recipe for disaster.
Its wacky and relies far too hard on the comeback mechanic being a straight up "come from behind" to win
It's edgey and fun online. But fucking awful in an actual tournament
@@Matanumiit isn't "edgy" wtf
Lucario has a specific and uncommon win condition that many characters don’t possess, besides someone like Little Mac. He lacks meaningful pressure at the beginning of a match and has to start ‘losing’ or take more damage before he can win. I wouldn’t necessarily call it “bad game design” solely because it widens his margin for error, though it probably could’ve been crafted better. Regardless, this is how the character is supposed to play out.
@@cryguy0000"edgey" and "edgy" I assume mean completely different things in this context, I interpreted it as "edge of your seat gameplay" and not edgy like shadow the hedgehog or something
Tired of people saying losing is his win condition.
It's not.
His win condition is surviving.
Lucario does not want to just go straight to high percentage, that would make him lose faster. What Lucario needs to do is to win neutral consistently.
Yes, Lucario won't start killing until higher percentage. However, if Lucario kept their percent lower than you or even got a stock lead the potential for the snowball is huge.
THAT'S the win condition. Survival against the opponent. Win neutral.
Now you can argue every character has this gameplan, which is why Lucario clearly struggles. Other characters have other win conditions to shoot for outside of the fundamentals, but Lucario solely relies on it.
Edit: I guess you could say Lucario's win condition is to just be better than the opponent. New video idea: Lucario is "HONEST"!?!?!?!?
You missed out the fact that similar to incineroar, his unique mechanic does benefit from human error. People do get scared when they fight lucario at high aura. In a long tournament set, this will come up. Not something that invalidates his weakness (by any means), but something worth mentioning.
its not as much to his advantage though since most people by that point are being careful and trying to close out the stock anyway while with incineroar it can be triggered earlier and thus have longer pressure because of how often you can get it.
As the resident Lucario main, I will say.
Yeah, we’re fucked
It is a very rough mechanic, needing to be at high percentage I mean. I don’t main him, but I love to use him 💖💖💖
However, I do not believe he is as bad as a lot of people seem to claim he is.
But wherever he is on the tierlist, bottom tier, top tier, I know one thing…
I LOVE his mechanic so much. I LOVE getting stronger the more my opponent dares to touch me. I LOVE becoming so powerful that even Bowser is tiptoeing around me. It’s a very “anime” like mechanic. The only issue being that when you translate it to Smash, it becomes very dangerous. But hey, that’s the excitement of it all. Hit me, I dare you 😈
Against all odds, we carry on as the underdog 😤
On a scale of 1 to 10, we're (Lucario mains) fucked
@@asuuki2048 Oh, you see.
We’re fucked, but that is what we need to become stronger
Yes, yes we are-
Lucario was the one character I really hoped would get an echo fighter. No aura mechanic but the exact same move set just balanced to be approximately medium aura. Absolutely love his kit and he's got crazy good shmovement but I can't stand having to lose to win.
Maybe infernape with flame effects? I’m struggling to think of a Pokémon that both makes sense and is popular enough to be in smash.
Blaziken would be so fire (pun intended) but no idea about how to do aura sphere
And I’ve always thought he was the coolest pokemon
Zeraora could do it, they have similar abilities (Electro Ball, Plasma Fists, Counter, Volt Switch)
@@maxspecs Zeraora is really the only 'mon that could even remotely work, but even then I don't think most of Lucario's animations fit it.
@@classarank7youtubeherokeyb63 Infernape is a great choice, id love him in the game
One thing that also hurt Lucario is that in the transition from smash 4 to ultimate they made him lighter going from 99 to 92 and while it may not seem like a big change it truly is because being at 92 he dies so much sooner then he did at 99
Like 5% sooner if my numbers are right. It's not that much and aura got compensated to reach its good numbers earlier, so I feel is more because characters are better at killing around 100%, the nerf of rage without proper compensation and extreme speed becoming less reliable as a recovery tool, alongside its poor neutral in a game where poor neutrals are punished with half of a touch of death.
@@N12015 ok I did some testing and your right but it seem to be closer to a 10% difference, in smash 4 while on the right platform of battlefield where you start the game at Lucario dies to links fully charged up B at 60% while link is at 0%.
While in ultimate he dies at 50%, not really a big difference, plus all of the things you mentioned did have a bigger impact, all in all it's just a shame how far Lucario has fallen
@@roberthorn9915 I was using something more realistic, Mario's Up and F-Smash, as well as Pikachu's dash attack.
As someone that used to play Lucario in 4, he dies _so much faster_ in Ult than in 4, it’s insane. I main Toon Link, so I’m used to surviving matches by the skin at my teeth at 130% (since I have to hang back and build percent with projectiles, or at least that’s how I usually play him)
With Lucario tho you just die to the smallest thing before you get close to 120% in any capacity
Project M/+ made him enjoyable even having an air grab spike
he is my favorite character in this game because he is the best character in the game if played to perfection. he literally has turbo on, and nearly all of his combos are safe
I have a lot of griefs with Lucario. That aura power is more of a STARTER mechanic (Blaze/Torrent/Overgrow), not Lucario who should be more about having armor or his stronger moves.
Lucario has also a serious lack of flow between moves, which is weird considering the pokemon is known for an insane movepool, able to go special or physical without much sacrifice, and is all because of Aura ruining combos. Everything just works against each other making it so he's very unappealing.
Imagine if Pokemon Trainer had the mechanic?
@@maxspecs Indeed would have been a good gimmick for them, and would reward Charizard more while not punishing Squirtle's combo game, aka it fits them better mechanically as well.
This Greninja has the exclusive hidden hability (The one where you become Greninja-Ash. We see it on his final smash) so he can't use Torrent, and this Incineroar already has something similar to Blaze in revenge.
In general I feel Lucario should play more akin to Samus, half-Zoner half-brawler and a threat at all ranges instead of only short and kinda at long but awful at midrange, a character who wants to setup to get powerful like Cloud, either with powerful aura spheres or combo starters. Aura doesn't help in this state and they should consider a rework, because he's a bottom 6 in terms of design as well alongside Sonic, Steve, Kazuya, Little Mac and Min-Min.
Yeah. Lucario really needs half of his move set to have almost fixed knockback and stun mostly regardless of Aura since he is supposed to be a combo fighter but it is impossible to pull off because of all of the number fluctuating.
I never understood why Sakurai developed Lucario with a weird comeback like this
It doesn't really make sense for Lucarios lore
@@AngeVNs Well, this is no ordinary Lucario, this is the 9th pokemon movie (I guess the boy with all the Amiibos really liked that movie as a child).
That being said, Aura in that movie was mostly used as a perception tool and to have visions of the past and to heal, not as a combat tool outside Aura Sphere.
Lucario tail hurt box does not help, I am surprised that was not mentioned. Overall VERY solid video as always though!
Your point about Joker, Terry, Sephiroth, etc. makes me realize that a great way to buff Lucario is to do the same thing: have him be normal damage and functioning, and then get stronger as he takes damage.
They would also have to rework aura though because we don't need side b killing at 100
By that I mean when Lucario is at 100
i think i just realized why i love lucario and have mained him forever. always being on the verge of death is the best way to keep me engaged and focused on the game. otherwise, i often do silly unsafe things because im just not engaged enough. ive always played my best when im last stock in a 1v2, and now i understand why.
Lucario's Aura literally punishes you for trying to avoid taking damage, and rewards you for doing badly. That's the worst kind of mechanic to have in a fighting game.
I also don't understand why he's so floaty when he's LITERALLY A STEEL TYPE. He gets stronger the more damage you take, but he's lightwieght enough that he's easy to KO by the time his aura actually gets going. His moveset would fit better on like Meinfoo or something.
I think once you rack up enough damage you have to play more defensively. So if I were fighting Kazuya I would start camping because I know that Kazuya would start reflecting which is what I want him to do then once I get enough damage I think Lucario's aura attacks would be able to outrange Kazu.
He used to weight 100 in Brawl... Now he's 92...
I'm sure he is not heavy in Pokemon, only around 40 kg. Still, they should do something about his gravity, because low fall speed is not.
@@N12015 Yeah, I know he's not canonically super heavy, but come on... He feels like he's made of feathers for no reason!
There are steel type pokemon that float
Here's my theories, as someone who doesn't play Smash and hasn't yet seen the video:
1. Any durability benefits he may have personally gotten by rages' nerfs and character buffs are WAY outclassed by Ultimate's new environment. He's always been a glass cannon, but with his weight nerf, rage nerf, and the ridiculously volitile "kill you off one interaction" roster of Smash Ultimate (either because of buffed veterans or nuclear newcomers) he's now more glass and less cannon than ever.
He's like a boxer who was once a 'roid raging monster who's now a washed up scrapper past his prime, getting KO'd left and right and hitting less hard than ever all the while new youngin's spring up left and right.
2. He's always been pretty underplayed as is (judging by underrated characters lists in Sm4sh), so taking a character that doesn't have a large fanbase to begin with and nerfing him doesn't help.
The main thing is how his Aura mechanic works. With his Aura he gets more damage and range on his attacks meaning that he is stronger at higher percents mainly around his kill percent. So when you have high Aura you can kill better but you also die easier and if you die you are now in a weaker state due to your Aura being reset. And due to the reset it can make a losing situation even worse as you just lost a stock and now you deal less damage and have less range.
Basically Lucario needs to lose fights to get stronger but that leads him to losing more.
If you are a stock behind you get more aura
So in short, very reliant on its gimmick
But I don't get it. Lucario was decent in both Brawl And Smash4 and the mechanic was the same. What happened?
@WolvesBaseballNine
He literally went over it in this video.
Bottom Line: Everyone Else got substantially buffed and changes to game mechanics made it difficult for Lucario to win.
@@WolvesBaseballNine
Nintendo scrapped away all his prio and his weight... He was 100 in Brawl, he's 92 in Ultimate, with no range, no disjoint, no prio 💀
They gave him mobility but that's clearly not enough
Me and my friends always referred to the comeback mechanic and meter characters as those with a pseudo "Get Out Of Jail Free Card" characters.
But with Lucario he just doesn't have it. Like he does but not really. Its like if in Monopoly if you sat in jail but you got an extra 350 every turn. Yeah that's cool and all but what are you going to do if you're still stuck in jail
Brake out and just win the game....
Something lucario can't do well in ultimate
@@MatanumiAnother detail to remember is that air dodges are much worse in Ultimate, making both Lucario and Mewtwo have worse disadvantage.
That metaphor falls apart when you realize that sitting in Jail in Monopoly is actually strategicaly optimal in many situations and that you can just pay 50 to escape whenever you want so gaining 350 every turn in Jail would be absolutely broken
You know, that is a really good analogy.
@@Liliana_the_ghost_cat But not in the early and mid game where you are trying to build color groups. In late game once houses go up sure but until then being stuck in Jail is only a determent.
shoutout to my goat Armadillo
My dad was a lucario main before he got buffed💀
By the time lucario got a bit better he had passed away.
For that reason lucario will be a lil special to me but im still gonna trash on em cuz he sucks.
I’m sorry about that.
@@lucathompson7437 its ok i find it kinda funny
I love it lol I'd do the same thing
I’m so glad that the margin for error was mentioned. I tell people all the time that while smash is about capitalizing on mistakes and errors, with Lucario it’s some of the worst because he can’t utilize his strengths and whole character design because of said error at a high level.
That said, I still think he’s underrated.
I always love how project M changes one of his taunts to set his percent to 300% so for touch of death matchups you access your full power instantly of instantly losing. Similarly in a normal match once you reach the percent for whatever kill combos the other guys has you can say screw it and go max power. Wile often taunting to 300 percent is a suicide button, it gives Lucario something vary important. Agency.
A staple of ultimate's current meta is hard some characters can punish and how overall optimized the punish game is becoming. That's why everyone camps now, to avoid being punished.
When your character depends on getting hit and surviving and the meta is decreasing that chance by the day, then yeah, they're inevitably gonna drop lower on the tier list.
I honestly love playing Lucario, his aura creates some crazy extremes where the opponent can just get decimated if I play right (also his Final Smash is very OP and very funny cause it's basically an automatic win button, sometimes I let my opponent beat me up until I reach 100% and make them realize their mistake challenging the funny Super Saiyan Mon as they are blasted into oblivion by the Lucariariha XD
I recently picked up Lucario out of curiosity, and he’s a bit tricky to learn with his aerials in my opinion. But after you get your percentages up and your rage going, it feels so satisfying to kill so quickly
Yo that charging backwards aura sphere hitbox into back air was SO SICK
Thank you Vars, been waiting for this since you started this series. Hit the nail on the head on what makes him exhausting to play and why I too give Armadillo and Other fellow Lucario mains praise and respect for sticking with it as much as they can
Quick fixes for having Lucario be as feared as Cynthia's Garchomp:
1: Put Lucario's weight at 100 and make him a fast faller and keep his movement while not popping like Jigglypuff post shield break.
2: remove Lucario's (and by extension, Mewtwo's) tail hurt box.
3: Tweak his frame data to compensate for his lack of options out of shield or so that he actually*has* options out of shield.
4: Return Aura Spheres hitbox to smash 4 utility.
5: And most importantly, rework Aura so to be in line with other comeback mechanics. 0% should be the baseline for him as much as it is for any other character on the roster and ramp up as the damage he takes goes up accordingly. Stock Aura Should either be removed or have it so it's only affects Lucario positively but situationally ala Sephiroth One Wing.
It sounds like Lucario needs to become bulkier so that he has the opportunity to use his aura effectively.
I remember in Brawl you could do a very simple combo with Lucario
A + A follwoed by force palm this combo was removed from Ultimate yeah with big aura would look cheap but would be a tool for finishing stocks with build up aura
Lucario should have stayed the same as he was in smash 4. Same with marth and Mewtwo.
If you respect Lucarios Aura you lose. If you remember Lucario is Lucario you win.
You gotta lose to win, it's like Seph's wing: You will most likely die before you can capitalize on your buff. Nice to see a new video!
lol this is a myth. Sephiroth has the means to play safely considering his frame data with 3 meter sticks taped together for a sword. Tired of scrubs pretending that Seph is a bad character when he has a major win under his belt.
Lucario should have a move that does self damage, so that you can get aura without the risk of dying.
I agree. And it's been done before with other characters outside of just Pichu so it's fully reasonable to ask this
I tried to pick him up and in my opinion what's holding back the character is that his aerials are just kinda ass on a floaty. They have absolutely no range, deals no damage and don't send at angles that create very powerful combos. Like if he was like marth or sheik having a very good kit balanced by a low damage output he would be quite a good character, he's aerial mobility is amazing and aura sphere is a great move. The problem with Lucario is that half of the time aurasphere feels like the only reliable move in his kit, with the rest of his kit either having awful frame data, leading to nothing or losing to any slight disjoints. Everytime I hear about Lucario being a low tier, it's always about him being killed before aura start to reach any good percentage, but in the grand scheme of things Lucario's kit is just mediocre and the character lacks tool that justify playing other characters
Yep this is pretty much the biggest reason why he sucks and after playing project plus lucario it becomes even more noticeable.
As a Lucario main myself, Im telling you that playing Lucario feels like you're constantly walking on egg shells. When you manage to one-hit KO someone its fun but surviving characters like Kazuya, ROB or even Bowser is not worth the sweat. Thats why I tell people to only play Lucario if they really like Lucario in general, and do not think for a second that its a good idea to let yourself get hit, avoid it like you would with any other character
Thank you Vars for makeing this video. Ive been playing Lucario for like 6 years first in brawl then in ultimate, and i do agree that he needs something to help him at low percent. Like more combo game imo. Ive recently played corrin then switched back to lucario just to see how low his combo game is. But anyway keep the good videos up! :]
As a lucario player I love playing lucario he is so damn fun but please rework aura. Like you can keep the mechanic just rework the scaling like make lucario an average to below average character at 0% then scale it slowly from there.
Ill never understand why they gave Lucario this mechanic. It was never a thing in the games, anime, or movie. Its so random
It would be a cool ability in Pokémon, he's burnt abilities are pretty lame
For me, using Lucario is very much a mentality match thing: I, the player, feel like all proverbial shackles disappear when I'm in a corner-- it's those pulse-pounding moments when something I care about - making it to the top - is at risk, and it all comes down to flow, that I've produced some of my best gameplay. It's exhilarating. Combined with a read-heavy playstyle that wants to exploit the human side of things (notably, opponent errors that become more frequent with higher Aura), Lucario still manages to feel so *good* despite the downsides.
My brother plays him, I'd say he was never really just a hugely popular character and while he is a brawler, he is quite strange with his moves and not easy, so that's already a recipe for being unpopular.
I'm honestly quite sad they nerfed his weight from Smash 4, which definitely had a large impact on him since his kit does feel "subpar" without aura and he can't really utilize it anymore since he's much lighter and aura is way less intense.
It’s easy to name a bunch of Why No One Plays, but Why Everyone Plays…
-Mario
-Mr. Game & Watch
-Diddy Kong
One word: Aura.
Take away Aura and make him play at base damage for the whole match and he'd be instantly more viable competitive. Either that or make it so you don't have to reach 200% to reach his full potential.
2:50 as a Lucario main i prefer to say that he is holding back, which he is, to test out the oponents power to see if he needs more power. At later% he is casually breaking his limit like a window getting shot with canons
They made Lucario useless without Aura while also being too light to keep his aura
Now look at Joker, Terry and Kazuya
I will say for the only fighting type pokemon in smash, its kinda sad that he has one of the most underwhelming combo games and shortest strings out of all of them.
Everything can be left staying VarsIII came in my feat
You just to have a "Nah, I'd win attitude."
It would be nice if lucario could damage himself by taunting, like whenever you taunt you receive 15%, that way if you get a kill you will become a bit stronger since you have time to taunt
I often switch into and out of playing Lucario because it’s thrilling being so cataclysmicly powerful and Lucario is one of my favourite Pokémon and Lucario’s moves are really cool, but sometimes I take long breaks because of how bad it feels going from god of death to wet noodle after losing a stock or fighting a touch of death character where you cannot get a chance to play an actual character
He may be jank but he’s still my main
I'm a lucario main, but at the same time I don't really go to big tournaments, mostly just small local things with no reward for fun
I always do have fun, though! I oftentimes end up surprising people due to the lower general knowledge of Lucario's workings
@Vars III you forgot to mention that beinga stock down aura will build automatically without damage. it is slowish but it reduces the damage threshold you need to hit for you to reach neutral aura.
I agree that it’s a very rough mechanic, needing to be at high percentage I mean.
However, I do not believe he is as bad as a lot of people seem to claim he is, so thank you for mentioning that he isn’t unviable.
But wherever he is on the tierlist, bottom tier, top tier, I know one thing…
I LOVE his mechanic so much. I LOVE getting stronger the more my opponent dares to touch me. I LOVE becoming so powerful that even Bowser is tiptoeing around me. It’s a very “anime” like mechanic. The only issue being that when you translate it to Smash, it becomes very dangerous. But hey, that’s the excitement of it all. Hit me, I dare you 😈
Lucario just feels washy AF to me.
Everything lacks oomph, both in aesthetic and animation, as well as in performance (sans aura).
There's plenty of characters i could pick up instead that just have a much more pleasant feeling, as well as consistent perforamnce.
Right now as this Video is online, I faced against 2 Lucarios in Quickplay today (lol)
I've been waiting on this one for years!
I like lucario. I suspected he was bad but I had no clue why. They should have just given him the default state immediately, but tune when aura starts kicking in.
I'd love to see Why NO ONE Plays: Little Mac. His aerial game is what makes other players so unlikely to play him at all times.
I unslderstand better and better why I suck at smash with each new why no one plays episode of one of my favorite characters
I think aura might work better as a mechanic if you have to charge it manually . As time passes the aura dissipates and gets weaker. There could also be a mechanic that getting hit causes lucario to lose aura and hitting your opponent is a secondary way to build aura.
The design of Lucario is pretty bad but it also kinda works at the same time because Lucario is designed like an anime character with all the plot armor revolved around aura but it is still bad to play as since u have to be losing to win.
The weight loss Lucario suffered in Ultimate is definitely really frustrating. One of the big things I've always liked about Lucario and Dark Samus is that they are heavy characters with more maneuverable air physics allowing for better air combos and better recovery.
Maybe for the next smash they should have Lucario’s aura only impact his smashes, specials, and throws and then buff the rest of his kit. That way he has a respectable combo game but his kill potential grows stronger the worse situation he’s in.
Lost his very good grab game thanks to directional air dodge. Dmg output from up throw combos are a lot less cause of the kb increase.Bair got nerfed in 3 different ways (rage/aura nerf + the dmg nerf itself). Aurasphere cancel upsmash is way too inconsistent in this game all while being insanely more lighter too? Bro they DID NOT want him to be good in ultimate.
Aura Dog is fun
Kazuya has a super mecha ultra instant death command grab 😂😂😂 That got me laughing real good
at this point no one plays any smash character anymore
So long video short:
Lucario is a literal underdog
I'm in the mood for a ramble! Have fun :3
Ah Lucario. He maybe #2 favorite Pokemon (supposedly) and Pokemon is the biggest franchise ever, but my gosh you need a very very specific type of person to enjoy playing Lucario in smash. He's got stuff to scare away casuals, and he's got some stuff to scare away competitive players. So you gotta get used to his unique blend of traits to really love playing Lucario. Problem is, with how many characters are in the roster, most people are never going to give Lucario enough time, or get good enough at the game to be able to enjoy Lucario.
Reasons why I love playing Lucario in Smash
- Aura
1. Different states of play is more unique. Most characters go from low % combos/random damage to kill setups based off of the %. Lucario however makes you have to think about it a bit more because aura is also at play.
2. Aura kinda like smash's emphasis on %s, but in an extreme way. It's smash within smash! All the smash goodness
3. I love seeing the effect aura has on other players and their playstyle. Low aura lulls them into false sense of security, then they start to panic when it gets to higher %, and I get to see them make mistakes more and hesitate more frequently than how they react to any other character doing well and I love it. Reminds me doing things like conditioning some people to be afraid of Meta Knight's Dimensional cape (probably not going to use it, but the fact that it exists adds a layer of constant pressure). Or charging up Samus's charge short, but never actually shooting it because they are so afraid to be hit by the charge shot, that you can freestyle on them with anything you want.
4. Lucario and Sephiroth feel like the only real comeback characters to me, and that fits my playstyle. Maybe that's me having a bad mental game, but I like to toy with my opponents too much when I have a fresh stock because I'm experimenting to see how the opponent reacts. However with Lucario, you need to make the most of everything since in the unlikely event you do get decently high aura, you need to get KO off with that before you get hit from a stray KO move. Sephiroth is weird where you wanna end the stock without wing, then get wing as soon as the opponent respawns so you can abuse the heck out of the benefits wing gives you. Which is similar to the mindset of low vs high aura Lucario, but Lucario is just significantly harder to plan for as it's a gradual thing, which kinda leads Lucario forcing me to get every little hit in whenever I can.... (that said, now I want Lucario to get a burst in movement speed at higher aura. Going from Seph's normal speed, to wing giving him the speed of Fox feels so good you have no idea.)
5. Lucario swaps between being a normal character, to being the most intense thing ever. High aura Lucario is always incredibly intense for me, because I never wanna lose all that power that I have obtained, so there's more stakes to each fight than any other character in the roster. I imagine this is what it feels like to be in tournaments all the time if you actually cared to win. I don't go to tournaments, I just have fun improving and giving my tournament going friends a hard time = )
6. The Lucario Jv4 is always a goal you can strive for :3
- He's got that floaty flow to him. It's easy to forget he has one of the fastest air speeds because of the other properties of his movement and his animations.
- Some things just feel really good to pull off. That said, how his moveset all comes together just makes him feel irreplaceable to me
1. Force palm, especially at higher %s
2. Fair/nair train to the end like what is shown around 8:27 It's pretty much the only long combo Lucario can realistically do, but it feels satisfying.
3. Aura sphere charging and that b-reversing movement in general. Helps a lot of characters, but Lucario thrives off of b-reversing stuff to keep his opponents guessing. I find it fun just moving around this way. Charging aura sphere into back air is always satisfying and a nice KO option
4. Hitting anything with high aura. There's a lot of hitstun on lot of moves for high aura. Bair and fsmash I can't get enough of, but literally all the moves feel better the higher the aura gets
5. Seeing how huge the aura sphere gets. Whether you're charging it on someone, or tossing it out, I love it.
- I feel like I earned it when I win with Lucario more than any other character just even looking at his moveset outside of aura: Let's take a look at other characters I like to play (some casual, most previous mains/secondaries) and then look at Lucario.
1. Lucario can't have large disjoints like Meta Knight, Ridley, Marth, Sephiroth, 2213 Mii Swordfighter (and any swordie really)
2. Lucario can't mash crazy frame data like any Mario character, Pichu, Fox, Sheik
3. Lucario doesn't have crazy combos like Falco, Ryu, Kazuya, or Bayonetta
4. Lucario can't trap opponents into going into certain locations like Snake, Duck Hunt, or the Links
5. Lucario can't have oppressive projectile pressure like Joker, Olimar, Links, Mii Gunner, Samus (at least High aura Lucario's aura sphere are pretty scary though, but that's a once every few games reward kind of thing that gets you drunk with that power you usually don't get to have)
6. Lucario isn't even a nice blend of just being good at everything like Mewtwo, Wolf, R.O.B.
7. Lucario lacking all of these things makes him feel like one of the big boys like Ganondorf or other heavies (especially since he even has a command grab), but he can't take a hit like they do (and Incineroar does the command grab & counter thing better, and sacrifices speed and projectile for range and frame data)
8. Lucario does have some crazy air speed, but it's not like he can do much of anything with it like the way Sonic and ZSS do (b-reverse tech helps Lucario immensely for that if you can perform it reliably though, yet I don't see that much from Lucarios in tournament in Ultiamte [though it has been a while]. I remember TSU abusing the heck out of it in Smash 4)
It just feels like Lucario has a lot of false pressure, and he can really only do well if he's reading his opponent constantly, whereas all other characters have a way to force their gameplan, or their gameplan is just very very easy/strong Like out of all the characters I listed, I feel Lucario has the worst risk/reward ratio out of all of them (minus Ganondorf of course. You have to be able to hit your opponent)
Things that bug me about Lucario in Smash:
- Aura in Smash is the Saiyan Zenkai boost. I get it, he's Goku in Smash, and has the same voice actor (and the Down Smash is basically right out of a scene in DBZ). However, being more damaged making it so you can hurt others more has nothing to do with Aura. Though if it stays I won't care 'cuz it's a smash staple at this point, and Lucario can now get justified as a hidden ability (which he couldn't at the time of Brawl apparently). It's just makes me go "why?". Lucario being associated with close combat a bit seems like the closest thing, but even that's a stretch since that's losing defense for each time you do that super strong attack (I honestly like the idea of that being a mechanic for his smash attacks though). It's here to stay probably though. That said, looking at the other abilities Lucario gets, Inner Focus would be an excuse to give Lucario the Tough Guy mechanic in smash as it prevents flinching. Though the more interesting one is steadfast, where you flinch (in smash that'd be taking damage probably), you'd increase in speed. Imagine instead of Lucario having insane damage, he goes from this slow calm type of fighter, to being this incredibly fast character that overwhelms you because he got into that zen-like flow state.
- Still no bone rush? I mean you can't remove Aura Sphere, It's like THE aura move, and Lucario is the aura pokemon (and he spams it non-stop in his first movie). With Lucario reading thoughts/actions, along with a lot of counter-like moves, you know he has more of a reason to have a counter than most characters in the roster. Extreme speed is a good recovery and he needs a recovery. While I like the idea of bone rush, force palm just fits the overall vibe of Lucario better, especially since it is another excuse to show off the aura and give him a command grab. So I imagine they'd have to include it in one of his normals, or make a new mechanic for it. (Personally I like the idea of pressing a taunt to swap between stances, but you know they aren't gonna do that with taunts. Another idea I like is depending on how much aura he has, will determine if his bone staff is out, allowing for a different moveset. Whether it be rapidly hitting people at low %s to build up to very powerful aura punches later, or to build off the steadfast idea earlier and he eventually gets the bone rush moveset when things get faster)
- No Zeraora as an aura-less echo version of Lucario. The existence of aura scares people away from Lucario, and it'd be nice to have a more "normal" version of Lucario (though personally I'm addicted to Aura now so I don't need the echo). Kinda missing the boat at this point now though, but they could still do it.
What they could do for Lucario in Smash 6 I don't know. I do like the "monk that has mastered his chi" sorta thing he has going on with his floatiness and animations, but quite a few other interpretations have him kinda rushing down the opponent and I wonder if they could do something with that.
I do hope they just remake all the characters into fresh new updated movesets. I love Lucario's moveset, but I just know they could probably find a way to make it much more fun, and significantly more accessible to more people.
My Fix for lucario:
Make him a fast faller.
Make his normals have "regular" damage and knockback throught the whole battle (what. Should be his 100%)
Add him a unique mechanic in wich when he shields and B, his damage and knockback multiply by his Aura for around how much does a monado Art Last, the fact that it multiplies by Aura, means you can still have minus 100% Lucario for some specific combos, and you can activate his over 100% power boost to go for the Stock when needed!
Honestly. The idea of normals always doing base damage without aura is actually a really good idea. Normally I'm opposed to removing aura but making it only change his specials is an incredibly reasonable middle-ground.
I personaly am not a huge fan of the fast faller idea but that's completely ok. It will still get my approval if most of the Lucario mains agree that he should be one.
How dare you go and tell me the truth like this.
But yeah I agree, I play Lucario because he's my favorite Pokemon so I am legally obligated to play him. He takes a large time investment to figure out all of his little quirks and nuances but he feels so rewarding to play. The other characters I play (Hero, Bowser, Kirby) are much more fuck around kinda guys I don't have to think too hard with.
As a lucario main i like playing as him but sometimes he gets a little tricky to play as
I forgot he existed tbh
Although he’s still fun to play, it’s a shame that in Ultimate they didn’t update his move set to reflect more of his abilities, such as his bone staff, bone daggers, wolverine claws, and more of his martial arts abilities.
300 views in 20 minutes? What a beast
Even I stopped playing Lucario for a few years despite playing him since 2010 lol
He feel so ass in Ult, but he’s still fun. I just recently got back into him cause bro my soul main gonna try n bring him far haha
Such a weird design philosophy. Why give him negative aura? Why nerf his weight in Ultimate (The game the increased killpower)? Just doesn't make sense.
surely why no one plays lucas next, it is fated
Who was mad when Mewtwo was replaced with Lucario in Smash Brawl?
He wasn’t replaced but metwo was added back
I was cheesing. My favorite pokémon got in the game.
Who was more mad that Lucario neutral b has a hitbox on charge but Mewtwo's does not?
@@HesBunz Lucario needs it 🗿
@@henkiestudios5117in Smash 4
Lucario's normals and smash attacks were slightly better too in previous smash games. All they did was make his specials better
Not to mention that when Lucario dies, there’s little to no way of taking a stock back.
Props for the Pokken music
The battle rages on, but I shall not waver in my fight.
Day 69 of asking you to make a “why no one except peanut plays little Mac”
He ain’t no air fighter! In a game about fighting in the air.
I remember seeing a lot of pros rank Lucario among the high mid tiers or even the low high tiers and I had to ask myself, "What are they smoking!?" I love Lucario and mained him in Brawl and Smash 4 and I hate Ultimate Lucario. Not only did Sakurai throw EVERYTHING into Aura but he also made Lucario LIGHTER. A character who HAS to take damage to be usable they made LIGHTER THAN MARIO! Frankly he needs to weigh 100 but 98 was mostly fine until Ultimate where he weighs only 92. Such a waste since Lucario can naturally force opponents to adopt a higher risk vs reward style of play since if you let him get going, he is terrifying to fight but at 92 he dies before Aura has a chance to turn the game around.
I would always choose Lucario against my casual friends because of his built in underdog mechanic. It helps fix skill gaps because I can't do too much unless I'm actually losing or at least getting tossed around a bit.
Are you maybe considering to making a video about Isabelle? I love that dawg c:
They should’ve just made him heavier probably on par with snake and he’d be a little harder to kill
If I was to do something to aura without changng the damage multiplier it provides I would have it give knockback resistence to counteract the threat of being at higher percents and being thrown into the blastzone so easily. Like have him also have less knockback resistence starting at 0 and the higher precent hes at the more knockback is resisted to counteract the threat being at higher percents give. at 65 he'll have the average knockback of somebody at 0 (since at 65 his damage numbers are "normal") and the higher he gets the more resistent he is to flying away after a single hit.
With this it becomes even more important to close the stock earlier because he wont be easy to kill at higher percents like everybody else he becomes *harder* to kill. This forces people to create quick stock closing combos that can kill lucario before that happens. If that fails they wont be able to use higher percent combos to kill lucario as easily. This allows the lucario player to more safely reap the benefits of aura while still requiring that they be a little dangerous. Conveniently enough this also solves the problem with lucario against touch of death characters as if they fail to kill lucario from that one hit lucario just got a shit ton of knock back resistence to prevent your strategy from working as effectively as before and now also threatens you with his own power moves.
As a lucario main, as much as it pains me to admit, what has been said here is true imo. While I'm okay with a character being a bit inconsistent (it can bring flavor to he character when done right), with him it's too extreme for his own good.
As said, what work against him are : "light" weight and too extreme aura (do I really need the power I get at 190% ?! Hell no !!), leading to this inconsistency.
But I'm not like some who want to take out aura mechanic. Imo that's what bring the flavor (and very cool visual effects ^^. I f***ing love when slow mo cam triggers with strong side b) I like so much about him. But it can be tone down for sure. Just take the same starting point at 65 %, and make the power rise less steep. Sure, you won't be the God's destruction at 190 anymore ... But you'll be more useful at 0, and with aura changing less, your combos may be more consistent. And let's be clear : how often do you reach 190 with lucario?? I can with assurance tell : too rarely.
If you're feeling generous with buff, I'd give him back the weight he had in Smash 4. Not heavy... But on the heavy side.
To not help his case, more characters than ever in Smash can kill pretty quickly, which is clearly not what we're looking for. That's why some additional weight would be benefitial.
I think I get why they change him the way he is in Ultimate compared to Smash 4 (which was even more extreme if I'm not mistaking to the point it was absurd)... But they went a little bit too harsch.
On that said (after a too long text. If you're still reading it, we'll done you're a hero!), that was a nice summurize video about why not many play him 👍.
Finally I have been waiting for this ever sense I got here
I love so much Lucario. But he is bad
But, I can say that the crouch make him better
i dont know why, but if u unalive yourself immediately u get a bunch of aura when u respawn and can sweep a match. its a silly strat i do in free for alls
1: i wonder how many pokemon players are envious of that shiny giratina just chillin.
2: Lucario could benefit from one of two changes in my opinion, if NINTENDO does an update so Lucario is the same as any other character at 0% or "lower than 60%" he would become viable. Or two, if one of his taunts allows him to "hit himself in confusion."
3: In a completely different game, WARFRAME, there's this warframe you can get called Chroma. it has a special ability that for a while the best way to use him was with a throwing secondary weapon like any throwing stars weapons with a mod that caused those throwing stars to explode. Players would activate the ability and purposely do damage to themselves to get the armor and damage increase out of his ability. DE since changed how his ability works so you never have to feel like your limited to using specific things like before. But i felt this context was necessary. Also, part of POKEMON is that your pokemon friend has a chance to hit itself in confusion, and this i believe would fix/help Lucario. Hopefully they also make him "heavier."
I used to be a lucario secondary and dropped him entirely after i learned thatbhe would never be satosfying to play because of how aura worked. Im already a zelda main, im tired of working way harder than necessary for a kill
WHERE is the “NO ONE plays Isabell” Video? Lol Vars I need that one brooooo throw the dog a bone lmaoooo
I dont play smash at a competitive level, but most of my friends do which sucks, because they want 1v1s and i want 4 man free for alls with items (though no FS meter, the FS ball is the only real way to get your smash, its way more fun than the lousy meter).
Though lucario is my main as I usually get my ass beat, but i occasionally get cracked last second allowing me to win with a few lucky combos lol.
Can you do “Why No One Plays: Bowser Jr” next?
Personally i loved playing lucario for a month or so, then i played mewtwo and it was a game changer. I think the concept of lucario was fine but i don’t think they executed it right.
my first Smash main in my first smash game have him in eltie smash and he is ok if you like the play style I’ll say he kinda bets on you opponent making a mistake and your own knolage of him as your game play is changing it makes you play more dynamic i do combos at low and pokes and keep away at high and if you are good he is a mid teir but alot of work for a mid teir my one of my other main is dark pit and he is almost always the same. I would say his serviablity holds him back more then the kill power.
as a lucario main we stay struggling out here fr
Welcome back 😁
Lucario is my favorite Pokémon wish I could main him but I just can’t so I’m a Sora and Link Main…which Link do I Main…YES
(All 3)