I am interested in maining meta knight, but I have been struggling a bit with him. Also, I'd like to understand how is MK a "bait and punish" character, as I have no idea what that means. I (at least expect a punish to be something that makes me regret my decisions in regard of my choices, but I have found no meta knight ever who would make me feel intimidated. The only good meta knights I found are incredibly good players who use all of their skills JUST TO BE ON PAR with average players like me. I felt so incredibly sorry to see such a thing. I don't know how he is efficient. Aside from gimping, which while he is good but does not excels at it, I cannot find a kill option that doesn't require up B on the uppermost blast line, charged smash on stupid oponents or wait until the oponent is 200+%.
I always thought of meta knight a character who would do incredibly well as one of those insanely fast characters who rack up damage fast, but I find myself having a horrible time racking up damage as I feel like his attacks are not worth my time using it. Just to mention a few.
His side special is pointless as it has horrible lag at start and end and no one in good conscience has fallen to it as an aproach, pursuit or whatever.
His up B seems like a good killing move, but as I see, it only kills when you are so high you are nearing the off screen, also the trouble in properly connecting said attack combined with helplessness + eternal endinglag makes me wish i'd rather try to kill my oponent with jabs alone than trying it.
his jabs quickly rack up damage, but are not particularly good at it as other characters can do, also subpar range on a game where range is incredibly important is quite horrible.
Tilts are not good, but not bad.
Aerials seem to be nice, but I feel like they are not efficient in racking up damage, combos or finishing, which is quite shameful.
They are good at gimping, but their knockback and the actual need to go forth and push my oponent to his demise in a wall of pain makes it feel bad. I mean, any character with a slightly above decent aerial capacity can gimp their oponents, so it's like getting a participation ribbon, you have it, but so does everyone and their mother.
I used to main slow, heavy characters, but as I recently aproached fast characters such as captain falcon, Marth, roy and Zero Suit Samus, I wanted to try meta knight, but so far I got nothing. All I get from using him is the feeling that my effort output is not compensated with his potential output. I strugled with Marth for 6 years, learning how to properly space opponents. I struggled with Ness learning the timing of his yo-yos. I struggled with ganon sluggish moves. But all of them rewarded me in different ways. Ness gave me an "untouchable" vibe. Marth gave me a good range and a sick killing potential. Ganondorf made me become one of the most feared players among my friends due to careful timing to use his slow, but incredibly strong attacks to crush my opponents. Meta knight does not follow into that. No matter how much I try, he not only does not excel in anything other than gimping, he feels subpar in all other aspects, making me feel like while he is a cool looking character, you'd only main him to experience "hard mode".
Any tips on how can I go back to main my favorite kirby character?