I wish I could play quark but our connection blows. Last time we played I mained Grundy
Honestly, From full screen NW can zone him fairly well with spark and wingding. If Joker can close the distance, NW can switch to staff and out do him up close. Obviously if joker gets the corner its his game.
NW:Joker
6-4 mid screen
6-4 up close
4-6 in the corner
Most of the game is played mid screen or up close so IMO its 6-4 NW favor.
You can say all that and it does sound nice but realistically what Joker experience do you have at a really high lvl? I feel like we have very good Jokers and very good Nightwings yet both characters can seem godlike online, Joker with his gimmicks and NW with flipkick shenanigans.
Here's how I see the matchup. The moment NW goes into staff stance he can attain some sort of mixup assuming he gets hella +, escrima is the runaway stance and staff the up close stance. The problem with his runaway is that it's not the kind that gives Joker problems. You will not chip him out, you will not frustrate him while doing something passive to win the match ( Sinestro trait and Zod Slappy ).
Nightwing zoning is not the kind of projectile you must block either, it's slow as hell, interruptible on startup if Joker reads it ( something that he can't do in other matchups in which zoning gives him hell ) and you can jump it on reaction. A counterargument would be that you can delay it but that's where the mindgames start and you're sitting there holding a 2 way dildo for 40-50 frames trying to catch a jump.
Wingdings are formidable and do send him fullscreen on hit. But they're hella - and the mixup with Joker's jump goes in 2 ways. Early wingding to clip any movement at neutral = Joker will have jumped first, late wingding while jumping back is good defense and will check Joker yet you're very - and Joker gets a free dash and d2/d3/crowbar check and is one of the few times that he can actually punish a backdash on a read with double dash d2 mb rlg. You have decent keepaway but not when Joker's air normal force you to make a read every time you want to jump ( which is always neutral or backwards, defensively ). You can't forcibly chip him out or frustrate him, only delay his getting in and check him with the occasional B2 to keep him honest.
Up close the game is definitely in Joker's favour. Escrima is meh and full of gimmicks during which you must simply see which string he does and block accordingly based on when he cancels flipkick or stance switch/neutral. Nightwing does not want to mix Joker up, he wants to do a string into mb flipkick every time he approaches the corner to get the fuck out. It's not a mixup, it's a +1 side switch which due to your frame data might as well be almost completely useless because Escrima is not fast up close.
Staff has no mixups, you either block crouching and and react to the S2 ( don't wanna hear bullshit on this, I used to do this online with a Greece - US connection ) or block high and react to 1F1 which is more safe but will 99% of the time be blocked on raw ground pound which is harder to react to but way more unsafe. The true mixup with staff is reading when Joker will start disrespecting you and adjusting accordingly. NJ2 for jumps and etc. Ideally you want to poke with F1 and S1, up close you want to cancel something heavily + to escrima backdash to continue keepaway as well as save meter for pushblock.
Once Joker gets in he will hurt much more than NW and he will hit you once and you'll be in the corner due to your runaway and him having 70% total stage length combos. That means a punish, j1, j2 or disrespected frametraps instantly start his corner game with NW being 44-48% down on HP.
You don't want to stay in the corner, ever. Even if you're the one pressuring you want to just throw a few swings, press your + a little bit and then start to back off so he has to chase you fullscreen again. One slip up in the corner is 100% as long as he has meter and he definitely will.
Once Joker has a lifelead he doesn't have to put up with any of NWs shit. He can chill and play footsies with D3 and J3 as well as J1 when needed offensively. Occasionaly gunshot to catch sparks when NW is building meter. Because that's what he'll be doing, building meter. Joker has no reason to approach since you can react to spark release far enough away and windwings obviously don't reach, that range is around 3/4 screen and the reason that it's not fullscreen is that incase he goes into staff stance you're just a dash ~ J3 away from immediately bullying him or playing gunshot cancel mixups since it is way easier to deal with interrupts when he's in stance, yet harder to avoid his projectiles. If NW REALLY wants to get in then I'd suggest MB staff pound into + on block flying grayson.
In general footsies Joker has way better reward and lesser risk vs escrima yet vs staff he has to commit more. 1 ~ staff pound and F1 are low risk moves where J3 and J1 from Joker can be pre emptively J2'd back from NW. At least one thing he has in his favor which doesn't require the Joker player to deviate from gameplan and fuck up.
Oki is better for Joker. NW has guaranteed block setups and safejumps, so does Joker yet NW can remain + and freely chip. The argument is whether you want guaranteed chip on oki and to wake up once a while depending on what mixup Joker goes for or whether you'd rate Joker's 50-50 immediate corner carry 35%+ combos better with the same exact scenario on wakeup flower as before ( if NW goes for a 50 50 you can wake up on a read, same with nightwing ). Difference is Joker CAN open up a respectful alert opponent. Nightwing can't. Chongo had to resort to stuff like BGB double dash underneath speedy gonzales flipkick or B2. That stuff will work once in a while but when people do their homework it will just not cut it.
If you want me to elaborate more then tell me.
. But I believe nw vs joker is 6-4 joker. And Harley vs Joker is 5-5
