What Happened To Inkling? - Why People Stopped Playing Them | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As one of Smash Ultimate's new roster members, Inkling started out very strong in the meta. Countless veteran players have rated them favorably in tier lists, frequently citing them as a top tier character for much of the early parts of the game. But over time, public opinion of them has greatly diminished, and now there's very little, if any, representation for them at all. Today we're gonna find out what happened to Inkling - why people stopped playing them!

~Editor (Mash)~

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#SSBU #WhyNoOnePlays #Inkling

[bbqchipspls]

Inkling is one of those characters that you should be afraid of if someone still mains and knows what they are doing

[yhamigato]

simple change: ink moves apply ink against shield, thus, shield pressure is increased in a way that makes inkling substantial, the fact that if you guard too much in a short amount of time, even with a full shield, it could suddenly get popped

[skylander]

As an inkling main hearing the "jack of all trait master of nothing" really made sense of why I click with the character, lol.

[carbonrick-roller]

I personally love inkling for their mobility. the character feels very fluid to play. Also Inkling and splatoon in general is so expressive. I love how much personality it all has.

[MB-nwwu]

I think I’m more attracted uncommon characters.
The Aegis was my most requested character since this game was announced but after seeing how popular she was I didn’t want to just be another Aegis main.
I stayed with Shulk and Inkling

[Heinrich_Hein]

I play'em, admittedly I play a rather toxic Inkling where I will stay at range and splatbomb anyone whos within range. But good luck getting a solid kill confirm option with them, they can rack up the damage with ink and various attacks; but its the kill thats the problem. But if I recall she's ranked pretty high on tier lists despite how tricky she is to use. I dont hear anyone calling her bad.

[YOSSARIAN]

I'd like to see one on wii fit. A+ tier character with bizarre hit boxes but great specials

[yoyovvitch]

They nerfed Rollers hitbox pretty early into the game's life. It is not able to challenge anything so you need to find a place to frame trap or read your opponent. This nerf is probably the reason that the characters is so blah now. They can't force a kill and their best tool to finish stocks got nerfed too hard before we even understood the meta. Personally I think this is one of the most frustrating changes in the entire game Inkling was never top teir and they didn't deserve it getting nerfed because kids on wifi got hit by Roller to easy.

[zinfuldreams]

Vars having to add a disclaimer before the disclaimer explaining why the first disclaimer was necessary while also adding additional disclaimers

[sonofdusk]

I knew this video was coming since I found out about this series! Inkling has so much potential, but as an Inkling main I'd say these would be small but significant buffs:
- Bair and fair sweet spot covers the entire hitbox but only last for the first 2 frames. Gives them more consistent kill options and shield pressure
- Nair covers Inklings whole body (including their head). This gives inkling a usable OOS option besides Bair that hits in front of them. Ideally it's frame 4 vs frame 6 but that might be asking for too much.
- D tilt and f tilt launch angle lowered significantly. Let's them set up tech chases more often and get better ledgeguards as d tilt already hits barely below ledge
- Up throw increased hitstun. Like the first buff, it gives more consistent kill options since the window for up throw up air will be longer and work across a wider percent range.

[diegohd]

Inkling main problem in this meta Is her kill power, I would probably trade rollers killing power for some other kill option like backthrow or Bair killing earlier

[kingmeprime]

In low level play, the higher skilled player usually wins.
In high level play, the better character wins.
When your skill level is equal, the only difference is what your character brings to the table

[irra]

Nice video. As an Inkling main, I think making F-Air being more disjointed and having more active frames on the sweet spot would be good, F-Tilt should kill better or have better range, and N-Air should have more active frames.

[Kro-RissaVirus]

Inkling was my favorite fighter at launch and I still love them. Hit and run is a lot of fun imo. They carried me through like 99% of all the most tricky WoL fights. 👍🏻

[Sickmmaner]

She can't kill! Simple as that, I think. More specifically, she doesn't have reliable ways of killing. Roller covers a lot of distance, but it doesn't have any way to be properly set up into. It's used mostly as a read that covers a lot of GROUNDED ONLY horizontal distance. It's pretty slow if you miss, as well.

Her only kill confirm besides that is up throw up air, but it has a very tight window because not only does the opponent need to be at high percent, she also needs to be at low percent. Too much rage on Inkling and the opponent is sent too high up from the up throw fir the up air to hit properly.

[Exceed_HS]

Another great video but with a few misconceptions:
- Sheik while great and underused now, at the start of the game she was seen as low-tier because of Smash 4 bias
- Roy’s damage is DEFINITELY not mediocre, both his damage and kill power are way above average

[phantasy]

Ngl I think the music you chose rlly fit the style of the video so I think it works just fine (tho it may be because i am a big DR fan and Beautiful Dead is my favorite song of all time lol) I also remember you used the song in the Why no one plays: Aloy for Genshin Impact

[shuando]

As an inkling main, i would change 2 things
Up throw giving a little more hitstun and making it less DIble just to have the booyah being more consistent and giving Inkling Kill power with either Back air or F tilt
Between the 2 changes i would make, the booyah one is waaay better
And the F tilt and Back air having kill power
That would make them like top 15 or something idk

[DoMorrMusic]

I remember back when the game first came out (as in December 7th, 2018), one of my friends was playing and I asked to join. He picked Inkling and basically destroyed me. I resolved to main Inkling once I got the game.

Then Joker came out and was basically Inkling with better kill power.

[cardboard-boxgames]

As a casual player this is the most interesting episode to me so far. Inkling is easily one of my favourite characters to play Ultimate, if not my top (I like to switch between characters very frequently, and piranha plant is up there too) so it's fascinating to see them being dissected. I think what makes this series so good however is that it's not just focused on the moveset itself but the mindset behind not choosing said moveset. I think the specific discussion of 'why people don't pick this character' versus 'why people shouldn't pick this character' not only makes it more positive but also more interesting. This was a really messy comment, but I just really appreciate this series and the effort that clearly goes in