I main Dee Jay, so I'm all about dat zoning, but I've told you before, there is no projectile zoning without some form of projectile trades, because the aggressor must submit to the actions of the "zoner" when projectiles don't cancel each other out.
No, it isn't irrelevant, and NRS nerfing gunshots and heat vision proves my point. It's no different than MK2 Mileena's sai or Liu Kang's instant fireball. Because projectiles never trade, and yet some characters are given strong defense, the strategy of the game is reduced to a lopsided game of chase. It's an antiquated way to design these games, and when they make these characters do this stuff it's actually insulting to the intelligence of their players. They're essentially saying, we know some of you are kind of bad, but we still want your money, so here's a character that no one can attack--Yay you win because no one can fight you...in a fighting game....
NRS wants some things to seem "random" in order to give everyone the sense that they have a chance to play the game without having skill levels totally dictate the choices in matches. However, they also know that by having simple strategy keepaway characters like MK2 Mileena (hold a button to keep people out), Kenshi (buy dlc to gain the satisfaction of strong keepaway), and Deathstroke that they can appease weaker players who either aren't skilled yet or don't like playing the guessing game, and they can claim a balance of offense and defense in their games.
You can't have a character in a game whose dominate strategy is to stand on the far side of the screen and attack and force you to take damage or chip before you get near them. That's a ridiculous design. The only reason it works for Guile, or any character in SF is because projectiles trade, so space can be lost(by the retreating player) and gained (by the attacking player) HONESTLY, and control isn't established until they actually clash when one breaks the other's strategy. In non trading projectile games the control is established too easily by who has the strongest keepaway attack. That losing and gaining space was always a gripe I had when they allowed teleport ninjas to escape corners.
When they did that, they partially destroyed some of the integrity of the old games, because it allowed players to act without consequence, which they have made even stronger in their modern games by having a good amount of safe attacks.
