The issue with Ermac in mk9 was that his point blank game was shit because of his lack of mids. After his 312 string, on block, you were pretty screwed against any good rushdown opponent, as good opponents wont counter poke on 0 or negative frames, they will bait the poke and punish.
After 312, Ermac could only do a d1 after that string or cross up, and nothing really comes from a d1 because his mids were too slow to maintain pressure, so you had to hammer d1, then execute an instant air force blast.
His 121 on hit only granted another 121, unless you hit confirmed the 12 into lift, and on block 121 only grants a short dash back to punish a poke with a lift or AA a jump in with uppercut, so he seriously lacked some sort of push back string, and now that he has the force blast from the ground, it should fix that problem. You can now hit confirm a block string into blast and be safe with pushback, this will make any Ermac players before very happy. It was his one downfall after not having an armoured movie, except X-ray, which was used allot, as Ermac didn't really need meter for combos, that X-ray comes in handy.
His zoning with the fireball didn't grant much, as on block it didn't push back, and it was special mid (If you don't block, its high). On hit it was just a knock back, but now the fully charged fire ball is something to fear, and the regular knocks down, excellent to reset the situation...also he could have an instant air fire ball possibility. If the fireball is mid, we are laughing.
His Force push zoning will be the same, you can get double pushes on some members of the cast with no ranged movies, but just like mk9, most of the cast and punish it with in range, meaning that Ermac will have to walk forward and throw again, and now that his throw doesn't full screen them, it might not be totally worth it.
Its not all about Lift and Push.
. I don't usually make threads, just comment. But this has been an eye opener.
