>>57244787>>57244787If you can, install a mod that adjusts his damage percents and nullifies Lucario's aura, to simulate it not existing, and try him out. You will find that the most difficult thing about him isn't learning his combos, or anything like that, it's hitting at all. His tiny moves get outranged, or his approaches get outsped, he has nearly no shield pressure, truly his best tool (as is demonstrated by every single notable Lucario representative) is aura sphere. Either zoning like Samus charge shot or B reversing for the charging hitbox. Spamming landing back air is fake neutral, and its recovery is too slow to threaten follow-ups. Nair is a fine hitbox but won't help you against short characters or low dashes, because Lucario doesn't land in time to meet a fast approach. He has few out of shield options. He struggles to hit things, and that's why people don't like him and why his best mains won't break through any barriers.
>gutting aura means just leaving Lucario at his 0%1x aura is his base damage, at 0% he has 60% effectiveness, with anywhere between 1-5% differences on his normals (5% on back air and smashes, specifically). Without aura as a mechanic, he'd be getting, at most, ~8% damage total on his opening combos, and KOing what, 10-20% earlier? For losing out on the potential to do even more damage and kill even earlier at the stages of the match you'd want exactly that? The argument that Lucario MUST "lose" to gain the bonus is ridiculous: watch Lucario matches and you'll see that they are already losing and its not because they don't have aura yet, its because his movement is buttcheeks and he can't keep up with better characters. We already had this conversation with Mythra. Low damage per hit, but she makes up for it with:
1) farther range
2) faster moves
3) faster speed
4) second best short hop in the game
5) combos
Traits Lucario does not excel at. Aura is arguably fine, it's his mobility that needs a tune-up.
