If you're really aware and able to pick the right moments to roll, it's probably fine. Most people definitely do it on habit and make it really apparent though.
I need to learn roll cancelling. I tried it out some on Little Mac, but I'm still not sure what the exact input is. Also, has anyone tried it much with Sheik, and is it worth it?
What is this roll cancel grab I hear about?
Also, someone teach me how to punish rolls.
Roll Cancelling:
Enter the following inputs, rapidly, in order: hard forward (run) -> Shield button -> Attack button. If you practice with palutena it's easy to spot it worked because you'll get the dash grab animation but you'll also see her roll spark and hear the roll noise :3
quick edit: I figure I should expand on this and note one important element: You can't do this while already running. If you're already dashing when you try this input it straight up won't work.
Punishing Rolls:
There's basically 3 'roll' options and each requires it's own punish.
1) Roll away - this one is pretty common as most people instinctively go away from danger and it's fairly easy to punish. If someone always rolls away, just over-extend your attacks or use a ranged attack. For example, when i want to grab a back-roller, I just run past where they are and grab about a roll's length beyond it and catch them every time :3
2) Roll past - now you're dealing with someone who's rolling with some intelligence. It's not intuitive to roll at your attacker but it puts you in the best position to punish anything you just rolled past and isn't vulnerable to over-extended attacks. On the other hand, almost anyone can punish this easily with a quick down smash (the majority of the cast hit on both sides of themselves when you down smash. While Lucina does too, I'd actually recommend punishing people rolling past you with up-smash on her as it's a better smash and the hitboxes on it are crazy
)
3) Spot Dodge - techinically not a roll, though the inputs are similar (it's shield and DOWN for those who haven't discovered it.) Hardest one to deal with if done right. If someone spot dodges on you a lot you'll have to read when they'd spot dodge and either use a meaty/multi-hitting attack that'll still be hitting when they lose their invincibility OR just treat it like a counter and delay your attacks in general when you think they'll spot and punish when they come out of it. Spot dodges are a great way of dealing someone who's super grabby, as long as you can time it right :3
It is the fault of the game. Rolls give you intangibily whenever you want and, for that reason alone, it should be unsafe to roll. Rolls should be slower and have more recovery. Oh, wait!! we already had that in melee...
The defensive options are definitely one of the weaker points of the game (because of how great those are)
Just played Melee last night and I have to say, I'm spoiled by Smash 4's inputs. It felt like Melee was ignoring me half the time. I don't know if the gamecube controller demands a more rigorous input than I'm used to (I'm a very light touch as I like precision :3 ) or if Melee just lacks buffering but it just felt clunky and sticky after not playing it for a few months and going back (I've played more Project M than melee in the past year, I'd wager)
I'm not sure I feel that rolls need to be slower per se, but perhaps a short window where you can't roll again or your next roll is delayed if you try it after immediately rolling would be nice. That said, i'd be lying if I said I've really struggled with rollers much... most people are fairly predictable with their movements so I often just over-extend my attacks or delay to see what they'll do and punish accordingly :3
