xSMoKEx
Coward Character User
My issue with the patches is that everything seems so... overdone? I guess that would be a good word for it. I understand that due to certain constraints they can only release x amount of patches, and I believe that this causes them to try to push as much changes into a patch as possible, when realistically very few tweaks are needed.
How many times throughout their previous 3 titles have you read patch notes expecting a fairly obvious nerf/buff to a couple of characters, then continue reading to find that they changed another character's properties, gave him armor, a new attack, more damage, took away some block advantage, etc when it wasn't even a problem to begin with. It's like they just change shit for the sake of changing it sometimes. "We have 4 more patches to go, better buff Mid_Tier_Character123 so that hes not weak in the long run!", only to realize that Mid_Tier_Character123 was already underdeveloped and didnt need changes at all.
If you want to nerf an S Tier character you hit them lightly across multiple iterations until they are at a suitable place, you do NOT want to over nerf these characters. Why? A character being top tier almost always has a direct correlation to how much they are played (unless they have an unbelievably high skill cap, but such a factor is a non-issue in NRS titles thus far, Kabal has probably been the best example but even he was played a lot). If you over nerf a character that is played by a large portion of the community you now run into the issue of A.) not only having the re-tune said character but B.) buffing them enough so that all of the now disgruntled players are happy with the changes. It's a difficult line to walk. Rather than overnerfing, then having to panic buff cause everyone is in a knee-jerk reaction freaking out saying that the character is now trash, JUST SLOWLY TUNE THE CHARACTER.
I'd rather an S tier character remain S Tier for another patch or two, but still be taken down a notch each time, until we finally reach that nice balance of B/A tier, than them flip flop from S, to C, back to A, then to S again. Not only that, but the more time you give the community with a current iteration of a character the more accurate a buff/nerf can be assessed. I apologize for the MK9 analogies but im really not all familliar with MKX so here goes:
Lets assume that MK9 got another balance patch after 1.05 a few months after and patching proceeded as normal. The changes made during that next patch would look a lot different than changes made if they patched the game again right now, because we've had years to sit on the game and it's characters. Now we don't need to go to that extent, but slowly changing that character over a couple months and letting us sit on that "iteration" of the character for awhile can be beneficial.
This leads me to my next point which is that NRS tends to change the properties on moves a little too much. A lot of times characters can be balanced simply by tweaking numbers, but then they add or remove armor to random shit, change hitboxes and hurtboxes occasionally, buff random moves to compensate, etc etc. Its just a huge curveball when it comes to balancing, a lot of times it isnt that difficult to balance a character. You'd be surprised what a few percent can do to a character who relies heavily on mix-ups/resets, a couple percent each combo could be the difference between killing an opponent in 2, 3 or even 4 mixups.
Also obligatory mention that safe/advantage 50/50's are bullshit
How many times throughout their previous 3 titles have you read patch notes expecting a fairly obvious nerf/buff to a couple of characters, then continue reading to find that they changed another character's properties, gave him armor, a new attack, more damage, took away some block advantage, etc when it wasn't even a problem to begin with. It's like they just change shit for the sake of changing it sometimes. "We have 4 more patches to go, better buff Mid_Tier_Character123 so that hes not weak in the long run!", only to realize that Mid_Tier_Character123 was already underdeveloped and didnt need changes at all.
If you want to nerf an S Tier character you hit them lightly across multiple iterations until they are at a suitable place, you do NOT want to over nerf these characters. Why? A character being top tier almost always has a direct correlation to how much they are played (unless they have an unbelievably high skill cap, but such a factor is a non-issue in NRS titles thus far, Kabal has probably been the best example but even he was played a lot). If you over nerf a character that is played by a large portion of the community you now run into the issue of A.) not only having the re-tune said character but B.) buffing them enough so that all of the now disgruntled players are happy with the changes. It's a difficult line to walk. Rather than overnerfing, then having to panic buff cause everyone is in a knee-jerk reaction freaking out saying that the character is now trash, JUST SLOWLY TUNE THE CHARACTER.
I'd rather an S tier character remain S Tier for another patch or two, but still be taken down a notch each time, until we finally reach that nice balance of B/A tier, than them flip flop from S, to C, back to A, then to S again. Not only that, but the more time you give the community with a current iteration of a character the more accurate a buff/nerf can be assessed. I apologize for the MK9 analogies but im really not all familliar with MKX so here goes:
Lets assume that MK9 got another balance patch after 1.05 a few months after and patching proceeded as normal. The changes made during that next patch would look a lot different than changes made if they patched the game again right now, because we've had years to sit on the game and it's characters. Now we don't need to go to that extent, but slowly changing that character over a couple months and letting us sit on that "iteration" of the character for awhile can be beneficial.
This leads me to my next point which is that NRS tends to change the properties on moves a little too much. A lot of times characters can be balanced simply by tweaking numbers, but then they add or remove armor to random shit, change hitboxes and hurtboxes occasionally, buff random moves to compensate, etc etc. Its just a huge curveball when it comes to balancing, a lot of times it isnt that difficult to balance a character. You'd be surprised what a few percent can do to a character who relies heavily on mix-ups/resets, a couple percent each combo could be the difference between killing an opponent in 2, 3 or even 4 mixups.
Also obligatory mention that safe/advantage 50/50's are bullshit