wavedashing

[GRIEF GOBLIN]

does wavedashing in this game do anything?

[PIXZOR]

what do you mean.its a way of moving around

[GRIEF GOBLIN]

Originally posted by Pixzor:

what do you mean.its a way of moving around

like is it actually faster than normal movement and which characters is it beneficial for?

[PIXZOR]

pretty much every character benafits from it

[Ball0fLight]

Its pretty vital at a competitive level

[Xio_the_fluff]

Note: there is a TLDR section at the bottom of this post.

To go into a bit of depth:

When using wave dashing (the varient that cancels the jump squat) you do not need a directional imput to preform it, and as such you can cover a large distance with very little lag, or make a short range adjustment.

For a majority of characters the wave dash has little to no difference in movement speed to their normal dash (As both are effected by their overall ground speed) However wave dashing does have several advantages and disatvantages over normal dashing:

For all characters:

Wave dashing allows you to move in a direction you arent facing (usefull for backing off while using a jab) With the acception of a dash attack, any grounded move can be preformed almost emediately after the wave dash has ended, This is also true for wave landings (using the wave dash mechanic to land on a platform or the ground.)Wave dashing can be ledge cancelled for fast air moves when moving off of a platform. (your milage may vary on this one depending on character and move)

However:

The wave dash animation must end of be cancelled before a move can be outputted while a normal dash attack does not require this as much as a wave dash. A fair amount of dash attacks are either combo starters or can be cancelled in one method or another (depending on character).A tech exists for dashing referred to as cactuar dashing, allowing you to crouch during a normal dash to cancel the animation and be placed in a "neutral" state, allowing you with some practice to be able to preform most grounded moves from a dash, change direction without the turn around lag, or stagger your dash for a moment to throw the opponent off. Dash dancing is also a fairly good tool for spacing but is a tiny bit more limited in that department.

The neutral bit between the two:
Wave dashing can allow you to change direction at high speed without turn around lag or needing to preform the tech called cactuar dashing, while cactuar dashing offers the same for normal dashing.

Character specific:
Though I am not sure if there are many instances of this outside of two characters, wave dashing does have a slight momentum mechanic with two of the characters.

Orcane and etalus have some way of lowering their friction on the stage, be it natural or through their character specific trate respectively. While it is limited, orcane can get a slight amount of extra distance from a wave dash's momentum with his naturally lower friction, and can cause some short range sliding of smash attacks, and tilts.Etalus on the other hand is capable of fairly low friction while over top of ice, which will carry his wave dash momentum considerably farther while still on ice. This effect is really only maintained on ice.

TLDR:

Wave dashing, and as such its air varient wave landing, have a wider varience of uses, but you have to wait for the few frames of an animation to stop before before putting out some moves, and if you imput an attack before the dash actually happens you will simply jump and preform an air attack.

Normal dashing requires considerably less inputs, have varients of dashing that are faster in movement variation without turn around lag called dash dancing (short range) and cactuar dashing (long range).

In both cases if used right you can chain moves into themselves or into moves you normally wouldnt be able to.

It all depends on playstyle, though even if you arent yet comfortable with it, you should still know how to do a wave dash just so you can have it in your "tool belt"

Hope this helps in some compacity.