Absa's up special needs more landing lag#688

Absa’s recovery feels basically impossible to contest offstage, and it would feel a bit more balanced if up special had meaningful landing lag onstage. 9-12 frames (up special 1, 2) is too narrow of a window for a punish, especially considering landing onstage with up special should be the second worst case scenario for a recovering Absa (the first being forced to fall to ledge). Contrast this with the 15 frames of landing lag on Zetterburn’s up special, which is:

• Slower
• More linear
• More predictable
• Less likely to hit you, narrowing that 9 frame punish window even further

More generally, the issue with this is that the offstage / edgeguarding phase doesn’t feel like it matters at all against Absa. Edgeguarding Absa never feels like edgeguarding any other character, where you’re waging a war of attrition against their recovery resources while using your own; rather, it feels like I’m praying for stray hits against Absa when she’s offstage… which is often what it feels like fighting Absa onstage, since her floatiness makes her difficult to combo. Regardless of the character I’m playing, onstage and offstage blends together into a homogeneous sludge in the Absa MU, and it often feels like I’m just waiting for Absa to get back for free.

To offer contrasting, postitive examples, I think Etalus and Galvan have a much better balance of offstage offense and defense. Both of them are excellent edgeguarders with good recoveries (conditionally, in Galvan’s case), but those recoveries are also exploitable when they’re on the defensive. It’s satisfying for both sides, which is something I can’t say for Absa.

absa recovery makes me scream

Her landing lag is only reduced if she hits you. If she doesn’t or you block, she goes through a minimum of 20 frames of landing lag. Her up special itself is very contestable as its hurtbox is twice the size of the hitbox. Active moves are very good against. Absa also struggles to land, so even if she goes past ledge and recovers high, you can quite easily contest her and convert into a juggle

she never hits me and it is almost as if she doesnt even enter free fall all the time. her up special is absolutely dog shit dumb. im not even going to get into how fucking stupid the rest of her kit is

If she transitions from the ground to the air she will be actionable put of up b. This happens if any part of the up b “zips” collide with the ground and then end in the air

To clarify, there’s nothing wrong with the actionable up special