History Main / SkillGateCharacters

** On a similar note, Super Smash Brothers Melee has a case of this in the top tiers. Early on Sheik was considered the undisputed best, and even considered for banning. However with the rise of improved technical ability, Fox showed that Sheik was relative to him, a skill-gate character. Later Falco illustrated this as well.

** Pit actually isn't at all, he's a solid character even his melee moves all are lacking at least one of range, kill power, and speed. What he HAS is a remarkably good camping game along with an extremely powerful ledge game. A much better example is Zelda, who has an amazing projectile and kills at ridiculously low percents, and outprioritizes everything... until you realize that her projectile can be spotdodged/powershielded/whatever on reaction and everything outprioritizes it in the air. Then you realize her grab is slower then reaction time meaning she has no real answers to a shielding opponent, and suddenly her approach game becomes awful. Then you realize that her slow grab combined with slow moves out of shield means bad punishment and you get the idea. Furthermore, multi-hit moves are becoming more of a skill-gate ability themselves because exploiting [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hQIy7P7RWo#t=0m60s SDI]] is making them less effective. This in turn makes characters that depended on them skill gate characters.
** On a similar note, Super Smash Brothers Melee has a semi case of this in the top tiers. Early on Sheik was considered the undisputed best, and even considered for banning. However with the rise of improved technical ability fox showed that Sheik was relative to him, a skill-gate character. Later Falco illustrated this as well.

** [[BarbarianHero Tryndamere]] is a melee warrior with the highest sustained damage output of any champion in the game, an additional damage bonus when low on life, the [[AscendedGlitch ability]] to [[SpinAttack pass through walls]] for an easy escape, and an ultimate ability that [[PhysicalGod makes him immortal]] for a short time. Many a lowbie has uninstalled the game after confronting this character and getting their ass kicked, only to watch Tryndamere escape through a wall when reinforcements arrive. It takes some experience with the game to realise his weaknesses: he requires [[MagikarpPower very large amounts of gold]] to afford his damage items and become useful, and critically his ultimate does not make him immune to disabling effects or damage over time.
** Other pubstompers are [[OurLichesAreDifferent Karthus]] (ultimate that [[KillSat hits everyone]] on the map; stays alive for a short time after death, often getting free kills in a chaotic teamfight; solution - magic resist and [[TooDumbToLive don't stand in his damage radius]] after he dies) and [[KnifeNut Katarina]] ([[Flash Step offensive teleport]] and an immensely damaging [[DanceBattler channelled ultimate]] that can [[MacrossMissileMassacre kill nearby champions]] in about two seconds; solution - almost all of her damage comes from said ultimate and any stun/bump/knockup/silence/fear/taunt ability [[UselessUsefulSpell interrupts]] it). Neither is viable against good players, but both will single-handedly win the game at low skill levels.

* Evelynn in ''LeagueOfLegends'' is an assassin type with invisibility and a stun attack. Against newbies she tends to get about 30 kills and carry the game. Anyone clever enough to figure out you need to buy an anti-invisibility potion will own her.
** This has actually been established to be more of a massive oddity in effectiveness. When played by bad players? Does the above. Average players? Gets stomped. Very good players? Surprisingly effectual. GREAT players? ...enjoy getting dodged.
*** Now that people have began using her to jungle (kill neutral creeps instead of laning where the enemy can harass them), she's now considered massively frustrating and very good at all levels of play, since she can now get gold and levels, which she needs, without dealing with enemies who easily beat her up early game.

* In ''TeamFortress2'', Scouts and Pyros can be interpreted as this in some situations.

* Ciel of MeltyBlood exemplifies this. Novice players will use her [[SwordSpam Holy Scripture attacks]] it keep you at a distance. Even more so, she can combo these attacks for high damage. Something that is also noteworthy is that ALL of her EX attacks are as strong a your run-of-the-mill [[ThatOneMove Arc Drive]], hitting over 3000 damage when done successfully. Not to mention, her forward dash goes under all high attacks, and most mid attacks, she has high speed and defense, and priority. Competitive players take advantage of all of this. All of what she is is a GameBreaker.

* From the ''SoulSeries'', the nunchaku-wielders (Li Long and later Maxi) have somewhat erratic attack patterns and several easy-to-abuse moves that trap the opponent in them for multiple hits. Naturally, these moves are incredibly easy to avoid, especially if spammed - usually just by stepping to the side.

** The Scout however is considered by some to the most balanced in the game, with high speed and unpredictable movement. However, to balance this he is easily thrown about by explosives (very common in high level gameplay) and has the lowest health of any direct-combat class. His DPS is also pitiful outside of the closest ranges but is compensated by having MASSIVE DPS in close range with a weapon that is hard to aim, especially if you're going that fast. Of course, the pros have incredible aim and control.

** Pit actually isn't at all, he's a solid character even his melee moves all are lacking at least one of range, kill power, and speed. What he HAS is a remarkably good camping game along with an extremely powerful ledge game (though most Americans lack the patience to exploit it). A much better example is Zelda, who has an amazing projectile and kills at ridiculously low percents, and outprioritizes everything... until you realize that her projectile can be spotdodged/powershielded/whatever on reaction and everything outprioritizes it in the air. Then you realize her grab is slower then reaction time meaning she has no real answers to a shielding opponent, and suddenly her approach game becomes awful. Then you realize that her slow grab combined with slow moves out of shield means bad punishment and you get the idea. Furthermore, multi-hit moves are becoming more of a skill-gate ability themselves because exploiting [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hQIy7P7RWo#t=0m60s SDI]] is making them less effective. This in turn makes characters that depended on them skill gate characters.

* Deidara in {{Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2}}.He is also VERY easy to spam with.

* [[TeamFortress2 Scouts and Pyros]] can be interpreted as this in some situations.

** Pyro maybe. But Scout? Hell no. Scout isn't easy to play at all. He takes a lot of skill and precision to play properly, or you will be dying. A lot. Soldiers and Heavies fall much more into this catagory. Scout is more of a LethalJokeCharacter, except [[CompletelyMissingThePoint not a joke.]]

** Eddy is an interesting case, because of two reasons. One is that until mastered, most players will do better with him if they just employ ButtonMashing and joystick waggling. The other is that it takes a disproportionately high degree of skill to beat button mashing Eddy players ''consistently''. Even ''experts'' that are below master caliber lose to button mashing Eddy players on occasion. This tends to start a lot of TrashTalking. The Tekken trash talking FAQ even mentions one of the prime reasons to trash talk is "You just lost to some psychotic crack-addicted button-mashing Eddy player and you feel it is your duty to comment on that particular playstyle."

Characters that are easy to use effectively for an amateur, but also easy to counter for an expert. That said, do not ever subject 5-year-olds to these characters. It would be just plain cruel to have them fight these quite possibly lazy attempts at game balance.

As is noticeable in the examples, these tend to be [[MightyGlacier extremely slow]], so that a faster character can bash them around without ever getting hit, or [[GlassCannon extremely frail]], with sturdier characters demonstrating that the most important HitPoint is the [[CriticalExistenceFailure last]], or [[FragileSpeedster fast but frail]], overwhelming newbies with their speed but easily torn apart by experts who know better. CripplingOverspecialization may also be at play. However, these characters may sometimes stay solid past the end of their "glory days" if used well enough and not have their once powerful weapon expected to be a GameBreaker.

** Closer, though still not flat-out, typical examples are Ike and, to an extent, Lucas and Sonic. Ike's moves are overly powerful for what you'd expect from a guy who carries his two-handed sword with one hand, and he lives long too, but his moves lag, so most characters have no problem breaking through. Lucas is a Glass Cannon, especially with his Up Smash, which is very powerful, but it is telegraphed, allowing even a slow player to punish it every time if they're smart. Sonic moves fast and...that's it, though whether that makes him qualify is debatable.
*** Not sure with Ike.Sure,he has strong attacks,but,unlike Marth,most of his attacks are situational,and he has difficulty mobility,whereas Marth is Fast and has low lag attacks,so[[YourMileageMayVary YMMV]].
** Sonic is meant for people who enjoy SchrodingerFu. All of his moves look the same in order to confuse opponents, which is also the case with his being able to stop on a dime.
** Toon Link, another FragileSpeedster. A Link clone with a high priority Down Air and solid aerials--of course, the Down Air itself is bound to become far less useful against competent players quickly.
** The older Link is a good example as well. It's hard to find a new player who isn't adamant about using his [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning Spin Attack]] over and over, yet the experienced players know how to deal with it. Doesn't help that Link is surprisingly mediocre overall.
*** The same is true of Pikachu's Thunder.
*** [[XJustX Kirby. Just Kirby]]. Down-B (Stone) and Up-B (Final Cutter) are impossible to beat for newbie players.

* Heigan the Unclean from ''WorldOfWarcraft'' is pretty much this trope incarnate. Most people have difficulty getting the timing on the dance right but after the first couple of times the only deaths are from lag and/or cat walking on keyboard.
** To be more specific, the Heigan fight involves a repeated phase during which the room's floor explodes with lethal slime that will instantly kill most players unless they stand in the rotating "safe zone." For this reason, Heigan's encounter is also known as "the Safety Dance," and a lot of players prove poor dancers their first few times.
** Hunters until halfway through Burning Crusade. High damage output by mashing three buttons, a pet to push back castbars, and plenty of ways to escape an opponent. Also had a 3-yard yellow zone between their melee and range radii wherein they couldn't do anything but watch their pet attack if you managed to root them in the appropriate place. [[hottip:*:For that matter, any class that could root to hunters themselves. Good hunters could prepare and react accordingly (usually resulting in a curbstomp), but [[LowestCommonDenominator good did not define most of the hunter playerbase]] -- these preferred to just whine to the devs until the yellow zone got removed.]]
*** Warriors also have a 'donut of safety' where you're out of their melee range, but not far enough to get charged.
*** Except Tauren Warriors, whose hitbox is 8 yards instead of 5, the minimum Charge range.

* [[BlazBlue Jin Kisaragi]], to an extent. Most new players crumple and die against [[MemeticMutation ice car]] spam, but competent players can easily counter these tactics.

* Gado in BloodyRoar 2, degraded from a GameBreaker in the first game. Hits like a truck, and has some nice combos that can chew off life if you don't know how to handle it, but moves so slow. Seems devastating when your first fight against him or unlocked, but seems less and less fearsome as you understand the game and get better at it. Still makes a helluva annoying boss for new players. Unfortunately, in later games he was {{Nerf}}ed to sheer uselessness.

* Vega on StreetFighter classic. His speed would overwhelm new players until they realised that he followed a fairly simple pattern.

* From the SoulSeries, the nunchaku-wielders (Li Long and later Maxi) have somewhat erratic attack patterns and several easy-to-abuse moves that trap the opponent in them for multiple hits. Naturally, these moves are incredibly easy to avoid, especially if spammed - usually just by stepping to the side.

** Note that ice car spam is nowhere near the best way to play Jin, and he does his [[GameBreaker Game Breaking]] in serious tournament play by having boatloads of invincibility frames and frame advantage. But Ice Car Jins are most certainly Skill Gate Characters.

** Iron Tager, despite being a low-tier character, has become this in ''Continuum Shift''. His incredible power coupled with the fact that he is much easier to use than he looks makes him widely hated by new Blazblue players. Expert players who can keep him at arm's length and not get magnetized, however, can skillfully dissect him.

** Closer, though still not flat-out, typical examples are Ike and, to an extent, Lucas and Sonic. Ike's moves are overly powerful even for what you'd expect from a guy who carries his two-handed sword with one hand, and he lives long too, but his moves lag, so most characters have no problem breaking through. Lucas is a Glass Cannon, especially with his Up Smash, which is very powerful, but it is telegraphed, allowing even a slow player to punish it every time if they're smart. Sonic moves fast and...that's it, though whether that makes him qualify is debatable.

*** Kirby. [[JustX Just Kirby]]. Down-B (Stone) and Up-B (Final Cutter) are impossible to beat for newbie players.