Tier Lists

[Knife]

What are your opinions on them? Personally, I acknowledge them, but I don't exactly follow them. I use whoever I want in FE and I use whoever I want in Brawl. Tier bashing is a little immature since they are essentially advice on which characters to use, and bashing advice=no.

Edited December 13, 2008 by Knife

[Zanarkin]

I don't pay much attention to them

[Florete]

I only pay attention to them for Pokemon because I feel they really mean something there.

[DeSu]

I only pay attention to them for Pokemon because I feel they really mean something there.

This. Pokemon tiers are pretty important, seeing as pokemon has a REALLY large variety of combos and what not. Most other games I see them and use them as way to challenge myself( trying to become better with characters looked down upon and what not). Mostly I just do what I like.

[Knife]

This. Pokemon tiers are pretty important, seeing as pokemon has a REALLY large variety of combos and what not. Most other games I see them and use them as way to challenge myself( trying to become better with characters looked down upon and what not). Mostly I just do what I like.

It is pretty satisfying to beat a pro Metaknight with Link.

[Metal Rabbit]

What are your opinions on them? Personally, I acknowledge them, but I don't exactly follow them. I use whoever I want in FE and I use whoever I want in Brawl. Tier bashing is a little immature since they are essentially advice on which characters to use, and bashing advice=no.

Agreed.

People's opinions and tiers won't stop me from using who I use.

[Herr Wozzeck]

I don't follow tier lists, if only because I find certain other characters to be better than the people on those lists most of the time anyway.

[Rei]

They don't tell you what character to use. They tell you which characters are the best. And I think it's ignorant to believe that tiers don't exist unless something is truly random or no difference between characters.

Edited December 13, 2008 by Rei

[uguu]

Tier lists exist. Anyone who denies that is in denial. Although, I don't like it when people point to them and say they're evidence that one character is better than another, because tier lists can't always be 100% correct.

[Icon of Sin]

Tiers do exist, but there's also a lot of X factors.

For example in fighting games, a character may be lower tiered but still have an advantage over an higher tier over X reason. Then there's also the fact not everyone is equally skilled.

[Rehab]

One thing about tiers in a competitive environment etc: Saying they don't exist to me is saying that everybody who uses a "low tier" character and constantly loses to somebody using a "high tier" character (assuming bad matchup) must just suck because no character is better than any other because no tiers. And that's not very nice.

As far as single player stuff goes I don't care too much.

Edit the second: I've noticed that people place too much of their self-worth in what characters they use, and can get overly offended when people say those characters aren't very good, when the characters are pretty much just means for an end, tools.

Edited December 14, 2008 by Mac

[Defeatist Elitist]

I use Tier lists for what they are; tools to see which characters are better. If I disagree, I'll probably try to get said list amended, hopefully having a nice argument on the way.

[The Blind Archer]

TR4Q

I don't care for 'em in the slightest. I find that following 'em takes the fun out of a game. Maybe I don't want to use Meta Knight in Smash Bros. Maybe I want to use characters with a better personality but low averages. Maybe I want to use who I think looks cool or I have a deeper connection to. It's fun to just play how I want to play, as opposed to doing what everyone else says I should.

[Lord Raven]

Tiers do exist, but there's also a lot of X factors.

For example in fighting games, a character may be lower tiered but still have an advantage over an higher tier over X reason. Then there's also the fact not everyone is equally skilled.

In fighting games, matchups > tiers.

In Pokemon tiers are probably really important.

I don't care for 'em in the slightest. I find that following 'em takes the fun out of a game

Understand it's just a ranking thing, no one's forcing you to follow them.

[Krevin]

Tiers in competitive games help you decide on which characters are most likely gonna win matches.

For example: Brawl's top tier includes MetaKnight, Dedede, and Falco, so I've been trying to play them well because they're assumed to have the most favorable matchups. I also try to get good as counters for all the top tier characters, because top tiers are generally more used than other characters. This means I'll be using Yoshi to counter MetaKnight and Snake, Jigglypuff and Squirtle to counter Dedede and Falco (who both rely heavily on chaingrabs), Diddy to counter Game&Watch, and any of my 3 top-tier alts for ROB. This goes for competitive and friendly matches. I care more about winning in Brawl than I do in Melee.

Also, in competitive matches, I try to start with Yoshi because he's my most comfortable character. If I lose a round, I put a lot of thought into my counterpicks, and if I win a round, I try and pick a character that exploits my enemies weaknesses (for example, if he has slow fingers I'll play MetaKnight, if he's bad at mindgames I'll play Falcon, etc.)

In Melee, I realize that the tiers are highly accurate, but I don't take them so heavily. If I find my opponent to be a threat in a tourney, I'll use Marth or Sheik. Not because they're top tier, but because I find I have a higher chance of winning with them. If I find my opponent to be the same level as me or if we're playing friendlies, I'll try to pick my character so that the match-up is fun, regardless of whether I win or lose (Sorry IC players, but I don't like playing against you, so I'll be using Samus to get rid of you ASAP. Other than that I like 50:50 matchups.)

In Pokemon, I really don't give a shit about the metagame aside from RBY. If I decide to start playing any of the newer games competitively, I'll use the Smogon tiers to help me decide on a good team (preferably one that counters the most OU pokemon). In RBY my team was beast, and happened to be purely top tier. In later games I try and use the Water starter, some sort of bird, an HM slave, an uber, and whatever two pokemon I decide to fanboy over for the week.

In FE, tiers are based off Ranked runs, so I find myself using the higher-placed characters more frequently when I'm playing for ranks. If I'm playing for the hell of it or if I'm playing FE8 or 10 (neither of which have ranks AFAIK), I'm gonna play my favorites and I don't care what you think.

TL;DR: I try not to give tiers too much credit, but I encourage their existence.

[Neko Arc Chaos]

I'll look at them, and take in their information. But I wont base my character choice/gameplay/whatever off of them.

[Ike-Mike]

I'm with the others who said that they acknowledge tier lists but don't care about them in the end.

With that being said, I find "tires dont exits" to be the worst meme ever.

[Starwolf_UK]

The problem is most people don't use teirs in the correct way. They don't use the lists to ask questions they just assume it is gospwel.

What I mean is it is one thing to go "Oh Anko is bottom teir she sucks" but another thing to understand why she is in bottom teir and why she sucks from what I remember it was lack of short, safe combos...if a long combo goes wrong with Anko you're basically fucked

Use the list to improve understanding. Its not always a simple case of the character is bad therefore thier position.

[DeSu]

The problem is most people don't use teirs in the correct way. They don't use the lists to ask questions they just assume it is gospwel.

What I mean is it is one thing to go "Oh Anko is bottom teir she sucks" but another thing to understand why she is in bottom teir and why she sucks from what I remember it was lack of short, safe combos...if a long combo goes wrong with Anko you're basically fucked

Use the list to improve understanding. Its not always a simple case of the character is bad therefore thier position.

YES. My thoughts exactly

[Doom103]

I pick who I like, not who is good, I like to know the lists, becuase I like to know who is good and who isn't, I know just because a fox plays mewtwo doesn't mean the fox will win, Mewtwo can win, it's all skill and matchup.

Teirs in fighting games are pretty important imo, not in Pokemon, I use UU ans NU and do fine

[Rodykitty]

Tiers are based on fact, and most of the time characters are placed lower due to glaring weaknesses rather than their strengths.

Although, I don't like it when people point to them and say they're evidence that one character is better than another, because tier lists can't always be 100% correct.

Tier lists are based on known, studied evidence, so they are not 100% correct, but aims to be as accurate as possible based on top level play. If someone points at a mere position of a character on the tier list, they likely do not know why that character is placed there in the first place.

Also keep in mind that tiers are a measurement of characters, not players. Think of tiers as a 'selection of weapons', not a static value of how likely you are to win.

[Killer Poleax]

I'll look at tiers but they don't mean much to me. I just use the characters I like and whoever works for me. I'm not going to base my playstyle and the characters I use on tier lists.

[Not Changed by VASM :(]

They exsist, but I don't follow them.

[Krevin]

Well of course they exist, I can link you to a tier list for just about every game ever made (even Metroid Fusion, lawl), denying their existence is just plain silly.

[Rodykitty]

I'll look at tiers but they don't mean much to me. I just use the characters I like and whoever works for me. I'm not going to base my playstyle and the characters I use on tier lists.

Tiers are based on matchups and strengths/weaknesses, so even if you play your favorite character, you'll need to know why your character is placed there, and learn the matchups he/she has most trouble with.