Question Why is Aquaman so hard to fight?

[bluesman461]

His lower trident is very fast. Also, almost all of his attacks cannot be punished.

IMHO he should be nerfed ASAP.

This isn't true. His 'from the deep' special is completely unsafe on block making it a poor move to spam at long range and especially close range. His overhead is also very slow and his wake up game is pretty free to crossup pressure. What makes him hard to beat is he's one of the few characters with a really nice normal anti air, and he can extend nearly any hit into an easy 30%+ combo. That and he has a great trait that allows him to slip out of ground combos.

 

[HGTV Soapboxfan]

This isn't true. His 'from the deep' special is completely unsafe on block making it a poor move to spam at long range and especially close range. His overhead is also very slow and his wake up game is pretty free to crossup pressure. What makes him hard to beat is he's one of the few characters with a really nice normal anti air, and he can extend nearly any hit into an easy 30%+ combo. That and he has a great trait that allows him to slip out of ground combos.

From the deep is not used to randomly check an opponent, it stops them from jumping or dashing, and most characters cannot punish it at range. Also only like 3 caracters can punish triident rush, and only a few more can punish trident scoop. However I do not agree with him that Aquaman should be nerfed, that isn't true obviously.

 

[Vagrant]

He is also practically handed free combos by the nature of his combos.

huh..?

 

[DoctrineDark]

HeavyRisk413 Because of the following:

1. He can keep you at distance with his ground trident (specially against chars without zoning, low range or slow dash)
2. He has a great range with his trident, specially b2 overhead (normals and some especials like db1)
3. He has insane armor (Meterless parry, so can start a full combo)
4. One of the best trait of the game.
5. High range of d2 (jumping is a bad decision, sometimes even punishes on cross up)
6. And very good mixups, lows, mids, very fast...

So, all this conjugate and agree to the rules of the game (very low walking, no dash cancel) make it one of the best characters, if not the best.

Aquaman keeps you at a distance (not all day) but when you get close enough the hard part begins, his long range attacks does not let you get close and is quite effective pressure, this is so predictable because it forces you to get closer especially if your character does not have good range normals/specials so we'll have out of range but you'll be within the range of aquaman. Once you get close enough (before a hard work) to connect a combo you will have to deal to his trait, Here you must be careful because if your normal or special attacks are not safe you can be punished easily.

 

[Crathen]

The only thing that needs nerfing is his trait , it should have more cooldown , as of right now he can take risks too frequently then turtle until he has his trait back.

 

[Sage Leviathan]

Well, currently all of his overhead/low mixups are safe,
he has arguably the best trait, his normals have the best range (other than NWs staff),
he has amazing zoning, an anti-zoning parry, and a vortex of sorts.

...what exactly is keeping him from being the current best?

 

[Ben Reed]

Calling AM's oki a "vortex" is way too generous, lol. It's good but it's nowhere near true vortex territory (and it's peanuts to characters like Wonder Woman and her 50/50s, or Doomsday and his 1-move oki of God).

Water Shield is also kind of a hard move to use against good opponents for anything other than a fake-out. it's kind of something to do to SUGGEST to impressionable players that you might go for silly gimmicks with it and leave yourself open to throws or whiff punishment on a dash cancel...and then the joke's on them when you never do it again, but instead respond to and/or punish the impulsive thing they did trying to bait it. I really hate when people call it a "parry" because that's not actually how it works. It's NOT something you mash under pressure because unlike a true "parry" (Batman, WW), you don't gain its benefits on the first frame, and there's not enough wakeup invincibility to just wake up with it and shit on people's oki (though I really wish I could against Doomsday DF+2). It's not useless, but it's very situational, and it's NOT godlike.

He has amazing zoning at mid range, but certainly not at long range unless your opponent is TERRIBLE (all caps) or plays a character that has extremely poor punishes or counters for DB+2. 90% of Aquaman's zoning is trying to get your opponent to either jump at d+2 range or get whiff punished/just plain hit by b+1 or b+2. If you control that range, yeah, he's pretty godlike, lol. But his projectiles are ass unless your opponent won't stop hitting stupid buttons at VERY stupid ranges. He's NOT a long-range character.

The best Aquaman is a minimalist Aquaman IMO. Don't hit any more buttons than you need to, unless your opponent is for some reason absolutely terrified of you. This is part of what makes him such a dominant character, he makes people pay DEARLY for basic footsie mistakes compared to most other characters.

tl;dr most of what you said is right, he is pretty godlike, lol...rock on Arthur