How Strong is Byleth?

Last week I made a post where I discussed my early thoughts on Byleth and where I thought some of their strengths lied. However, these were just my first impressions. Now that I’ve had over 200 games with this character I believe that I have more reputability and more experience which will let me determine Byleth’s strength’s further. For this post I’m going to jot down the strengths and weaknesses of Byleth’s character and use that information to determine where I think they would be placed on a tier list. Let’s start with Byleth’s strengths.

Byleth’s Strengths:

Great overall killpower

High Ranged attacks

Fair and Bair do over 15 damage when sweetpot is hit.

Attacks spaced to the tip have tremendous shield pressure

Down Smash takes away half a shield and comes out fast

Up Smash is fast, can combo into up b early

Down throw combos into fair until late percentages

Many attacks can set up for Up B

Recovery is one of the best tether recoveries

Forward Smash kills like a Smash 4 Marth tipper

Rapid jab does 15 damage

Neutral air can combo into Side B at low percentages

Overall a decent combo game with solid mix ups to pressure the opponent

Neutral B arrows can be used when opponent recovers high to get surprise kills

Neutral B is good to react to Get Up options

Up B can catch enemies off guard and lead to further damage when you read your opponent

Down Smash can give a quick 27 percent to the opponent when used re actively.

Good Edge Guarding options such as Fair, Bair, Side B, and Dair

Forward Tilt and Dash Attack are surprise kill options

Fair and Bair are Fast and Kill

Up Air Combos into itself and kills

Byleth’s Weaknesses:

Most of the moveset contains a ton of end lag when your attack misses

The Highest Damage moves (Neutral and Down B) are so slow and predictable that a decent player should never get hit or pressured by them

Sour Spots don’t do a lot of damage and will put you in a punishable position

Sometimes enemies can fall out of combos for seemingly no reason

Up B sends Byleth into uncomfortable positions against some characters, making the move itself a risk in certain matchups

Ftilt and Uptilt don’t go far for a sword based attack, but Up Tilt does combo into Up B reliably

Down Smash has the most end lag out of any Smash Attack (feels like it at least)

Forward Smash does not kill early at all if you can’t hit the tipper

No Kill Throw Options means you need to hit an attack to kill

Byleth struggles against quick opponents that are hard to get on

Byleth’s Air Speed is trash

Byleth’s Ground Speed is bad

Recovery is a tether recovery, therefore you must beware of getting edge guarded

The Conclusion:

Byleth seems to have a very balanced amount of Strengths and Weaknesses. While having end lag is certainly a con Byleth has range and high damage to make up for it. The character gets rewarded for every hit, and gaining an advantage state is as easy as catching someone with one attack. Unfortunately for Byleth, it can be highly difficult to extend your advantage state due to the predictability and slow air speed involved in the kit. Byleth excels at punishing landings, but one spacing mistake means Byleth will be getting punished. I think Byleth plays best against characters that struggle landing or have a large hurtbox. Byleth certainly struggles against quick characters or those that have small hurtboxes. At the end of the day, I think Byleth is a mid tier character. For every strength there seems to be another weakness. While Byleth has their decent amount of options, I do not see them being able to keep up with the likes of Peach, Joker, Pokemon Trainer, and other highly popular competitive pics. However, the lack of matchup knowledge and DLC cheese in Byleth’s kit will help them out against top tiers if they don’t end up receiving buffs. Peach 0-death combos won’t kill you if she can never get past your wall of ranged attacks!

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