What do I do with this character?

[HillsOshire1214]

I am an Aquaman player and have been playing him since igau launch and for the first time I do not how how to play this character anymore. I know he is supposed to be a defensive zoner, but his zoning is worse then most characters and his trait is mostly useless (you take the same damage as if you had not trained out of the combo). His tentacle strike is very minus and trident toss is a high. His damage is decent but he has terrible conversions and less mix ups then superman.(who isn't a mixup character lol) I'm reaching out to fellow competitive players as to how I can play to make him somewhat viable again. He has virtually no wake up besides scoop and trident rush which are both non invicible and unsafe and also don't work on crossups(I swear if anyone says wake up water shield I will die inside). The only tool I've been using is his 1123 string which is plus 7(but starts with a high). I feel Aquaman falls into the nightwing category of injustice gods among us. Watch this sajam video to see what I mean. Any tips on how to play would help. Please don't say he is good because if you are a true competitive player, you will know he is not. Thanks for all the help you can give. Peace

 

[riddlesinthedark]

I am an Aquaman player and have been playing him since igau launch and for the first time I do not how how to play this character anymore. I know he is supposed to be a defensive zoner, but his zoning is worse then most characters and his trait is mostly useless (you take the same damage as if you had not trained out of the combo). His tentacle strike is very minus and trident toss is a high. His damage is decent but he has terrible conversions and less mix ups then superman.(who isn't a mixup character lol) I'm reaching out to fellow competitive players as to how I can play to make him somewhat viable again. He has virtually no wake up besides scoop and trident rush which are both non invicible and unsafe and also don't work on crossups(I swear if anyone says wake up water shield I will die inside). The only tool I've been using is his 1123 string which is plus 7(but starts with a high). I feel Aquaman falls into the nightwing category of injustice gods among us. Watch this sajam video to see what I mean. Any tips on how to play would help. Please don't say he is good because if you are a true competitive player, you will know he is not. Thanks for all the help you can give. Peace

Give him this as an air dash. https://goo.gl/images/4WgKLS

 

[Marinjuana]

 

[Cursa]

He's alright I guess.

Not sure I'd but him in the zoner category, but defensive for sure. He either controls fullscreen or is able to contest it well in most MU's since trades with either tentacle strike or trident toss are in your favour like 99% of the time.

Footsies are his strongest point. His D2 and D1 are both super good in terms of range and startup, and strong tools. He has good, decently ranged buttons like B1 and F1, and longer startup buttons with longer range like F2.

Also his trait is still good. I'd say it's one of the stronger ones personally, particularly for his archetype, even if you do take full damage, against most characters it's less than you would've actually taken.

Not sure I'd say he's great or anything but low tier's a bit of a stretch imo. Like he's just a decent character. Has a good amount of strengths and weaknesses. His wakeup game is kinda iffy since they can both be neutral jumped/forward jumped but you can do delayed wakeups and backdashes instead if you need. Hold the jump in and push block if you feel the need against some characters

Trident rush still does good chip and is safe on block when MB'd, just not pre-patch ridiculous damage.

 

[Sage Leviathan]

I know he is supposed to be a defensive zoner, but his zoning is worse then most characters and his trait is mostly useless (you take the same damage as if you had not trained out of the combo).

His tentacle strike is very minus and trident toss is a high.

His damage is decent but he has terrible conversions and less mix ups then superman.(who isn't a mixup character lol)

He has virtually no wake up besides scoop and trident rush which are both non invicible and unsafe and also don't work on crossups(I swear if anyone says wake up water shield I will die inside).

Please don't say he is good because if you are a true competitive player, you will know he is not.

(pretend it's orange)

You are making a lot of assumptions here.

It's really easy to pigeonhole characters—they must exclusively be good at rushing down, or they must be good zoners. This isn't true. The fact is that characters are better defined by the tools they have and plenty of characters work like hybrids of the two. Calling Aquaman's zoning "worse" than what others can do is pretty vague considering how unique From the Deep is and how much the opponent needs to respect it, regardless that it's -24. He controls space incredibly with b1, d2, f2, b2, b3, FTD, etc. Use those.

I'm not sure why the quantity of mixups is more important to you than the quality. He has two safe OH strings and a low special that grants a full combo. Ending combos with Scoop leads to an ambiguous crossup. He can cancel any of his normals at any time into MB Trident Rush and afterward check opponent's with d2 if they try a high or slower mid. Aquaman has plenty to work with.

His damage is great considering that by merely touching the opponent he builds 1/4 of a bar and deals 10% chip at the same time.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Scoop is invincible, right? I'm pretty sure every character in the game has some form of invincible wakeup, even if the i-frames are very few.

And finally, "Please don't say he's good."

He's good.

 

[Baconlord]

I am an Aquaman player and have been playing him since igau launch and for the first time I do not how how to play this character anymore. I know he is supposed to be a defensive zoner, but his zoning is worse then most characters and his trait is mostly useless (you take the same damage as if you had not trained out of the combo). His tentacle strike is very minus and trident toss is a high. His damage is decent but he has terrible conversions and less mix ups then superman.(who isn't a mixup character lol) I'm reaching out to fellow competitive players as to how I can play to make him somewhat viable again. He has virtually no wake up besides scoop and trident rush which are both non invicible and unsafe and also don't work on crossups(I swear if anyone says wake up water shield I will die inside). The only tool I've been using is his 1123 string which is plus 7(but starts with a high). I feel Aquaman falls into the nightwing category of injustice gods among us. Watch this sajam video to see what I mean. Any tips on how to play would help. Please don't say he is good because if you are a true competitive player, you will know he is not. Thanks for all the help you can give. Peace

he's not a zoner in the traditional sense. he's not trying to keep you full screen all game, from the deep is just a way to threaten at fullscreen. aquaman is more of a footsie character. uses his d1, b1, b2, and f2 to out range his opponent and anti airs them with his d2 if they jump. mb trident rush is also a great tool to chip your opponent down and make your range even more threatening.

. Please don't say he is good because if you are a true competitive player, you will know he is not.

He's good

 

[Eldagrin]

Aquaman seems to be a bit of a destroy or get destroyed character right now, he beats my main (Harley) pretty easily, but he gets man handled by my secondary (Ivy). He does have some pretty footsie buttons in his b1, f2, b3, and d1 and regardless of how minus it is, you have to respect FTD, no one wants to trade with it or get hit by a MB by being careless.

Edit: Make sure to pick up a secondary if you're going to compete with him though.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

For one you have to understand Aquaman isn’t meant for all situations. I don’t wanna say he’s utility because he is better than your typical utility character but he basically is just a really strong utility character. Aquaman is very dominiant in situations that he is meant to be used.

His strengths- his trait, godlike D2 anti air, 6 frame D1 that leads to good punishes, D1 xx Trident Rush is probably one of, if not the best counter poke tool in the game. Good defensive normals and strings like the B1 string and B2. Trident Rush gives Aquaman probably the best chip game. Tentacle strike is more of a way to control rushdown characters and the great knockdown on MB Tentacle Strike helps Aquaman for one, get almost 200 damage off a stray hit, and for two helps him gain ground on zoners if he makes the read and lands it. It has to be minus (could be a bit more forgiving though) and can’t launch because it can’t do everything in the game for Aquaman. So all of these give Aquaman a great advantage against characters who spend a lot of time jumping, his excellent footsies will outclass almost any footsie based character, and the aforementioned defensive tools give him what he needs to beat the in your face heavy rushdown or mixup characters.

This gives him advantages, some huge, some slight against characters like Bane, Batman, Black Canary, Cold, Darkseid, Flash, Grodd, Arrow, Harley, Raiden, Robin, Sub-Zero... those types of characters but you get the picture.

His weaknesses- He has amazing defensive tools but almost literally no offense to speak of. He has easily the worst comeback factor in the game. Aquaman wins when the opponent has to come to him without needing to take risks himself, but his strictly defensive toolset doesn’t allow this against some characters. There are characters where Tentacle Strike is virtually unusable because the insane risk involved, and he is forced to try and mount an offense against characters who lame him out either through better footsies, zoning, or elminating Tentacle Strike, or a combination of all three.

This makes Aquaman lose to Atrocitus, Black Adam, Catwoman, Deadshot, Fate, Firestorm, Joker, Poison Ivy, Starfire, and Swamp Thing types of characters. I know some might call bullshit on losing to Joker and Swamp but I’ll explain if need be.

Anyways, Aquaman is good, keep using him, but know when to. Learn a second character.

 

[Invincible Salads]

aquaman is in a really good spot right now, the only thing they could do to make him perfect for the rest of the games life would be to make his tentacle strike less negative, so that characters who can punish him with projectiles or specials like Swamp things command grab will need to be a smidge closer than what they are now.

 

[ATP2014]

He is 100% a counterpick character. No way any Aquaman player makes it through a bracket without running into a Fate/Black Adam/Ivy/Firestorm who wreck his shit.

By the same token, he is a beast and super easy to play vs Grodd, Enchantress, Green Arrow and Flash. Has some other favorable mus as well.

Does the good outweigh the bad? Personally, I think he is just midtier, and only really valuable as a secondary if you are trying to compete. Similar to WW really.

 

[HillsOshire1214]

For one you have to understand Aquaman isn’t meant for all situations. I don’t wanna say he’s utility because he is better than your typical utility character but he basically is just a really strong utility character. Aquaman is very dominiant in situations that he is meant to be used.

His strengths- his trait, godlike D2 anti air, 6 frame D1 that leads to good punishes, D1 xx Trident Rush is probably one of, if not the best counter poke tool in the game. Good defensive normals and strings like the B1 string and B2. Trident Rush gives Aquaman probably the best chip game. Tentacle strike is more of a way to control rushdown characters and the great knockdown on MB Tentacle Strike helps Aquaman for one, get almost 200 damage off a stray hit, and for two helps him gain ground on zoners if he makes the read and lands it. It has to be minus (could be a bit more forgiving though) and can’t launch because it can’t do everything in the game for Aquaman. So all of these give Aquaman a great advantage against characters who spend a lot of time jumping, his excellent footsies will outclass almost any footsie based character, and the aforementioned defensive tools give him what he needs to beat the in your face heavy rushdown or mixup characters.

This gives him advantages, some huge, some slight against characters like Bane, Batman, Black Canary, Cold, Darkseid, Flash, Grodd, Arrow, Harley, Raiden, Robin, Sub-Zero... those types of characters but you get the picture.

His weaknesses- He has amazing defensive tools but almost literally no offense to speak of. He has easily the worst comeback factor in the game. Aquaman wins when the opponent has to come to him without needing to take risks himself, but his strictly defensive toolset doesn’t allow this against some characters. There are characters where Tentacle Strike is virtually unusable because the insane risk involved, and he is forced to try and mount an offense against characters who lame him out either through better footsies, zoning, or elminating Tentacle Strike, or a combination of all three.

This makes Aquaman lose to Atrocitus, Black Adam, Catwoman, Deadshot, Fate, Firestorm, Joker, Poison Ivy, Starfire, and Swamp Thing types of characters. I know some might call bullshit on losing to Joker and Swamp but I’ll explain if need be.

Anyways, Aquaman is good, keep using him, but know when to. Learn a second character.

This is true. I tend to complain when I lose to better characters even if it's a bad match up. Aquaman isn't too bad I just need to play A better character in addition

 

[HillsOshire1214]

Thanks for all the responses guys. I'm just gonna have to accept he's not top 5 anymore lol

 

[ChatterBox]

Haha everyone came in here just saying the stuff Sajam warned us about in the video. "He's got tools, no I don't play him, but he's in a good place." Haha!

Pick a new character dude. You can probably play Black Adam exactly the same way and do much better.

 

[Thrash Zoo]

He's good.

But if you're burnt out just try someone else.