Goat-City-II
Banned
Edit* Sorry Paulo, I didn't know you asked not to be tagged. My bad, man.
To start off, let me say that I love this game. MK is my favorite fighting game franchise and MKX is the best game in that franchise so far in my opinion, but the 2 biggest things limiting the gameplay's quality right now are A. the excessive amount of safe 50/50s that often can't be reacted to, and B. the extremely overpowered and fun killing block pressure. Instead of advocating for mass changes to almost every character in the game in order to balance these features, I think they can both be made almost completely fair with the slight tweaking of block breakers to cost 1 bar instead of 2, but first I'll cover the topic of stamina cost in breakers.
Stamina Cost
I believe block breakers, whether they cost 1 bar or 2, should cost either full stamina or half stamina. At least one of the reasons for both types of breakers costing stamina is to limit running so zoning can be more effective. If a player knows they can't break without stamina, they will know it won't be smart to run in many situations because they won't be able to break if they need to, so the zoning player does not have to worry about being rushed down quite as much.
The problem with this is, since players need 2 whole bars to break anyways, and they'll be using those bars for their metered tools throughout the match, they'll never worry about not being able to break because breakers aren't valuable enough as it is to sacrifice running since they cost so much and don't even guarantee any reward because they then leave you with empty stamina, therefore making it likely that you'll get put right back into the same situation of having to break again.
I'm not sure if block breakers and/or normal breakers should cost half stamina or full, but they should definitely cost some amount. If I had to say, I'd say regular breakers should cost half stamina and block breakers should cost full stamina while only requiring a bar to use, but I doubt it makes too much difference either way, so I'll leave that to Paulo and the game's testers to decide.
How they would fix block pressure
The list of high tier characters in this game almost universally rely on some form of block pressure. That includes Tempest Kung Lao, Kobu Jutsu Tanya, Hish Qu Ten Predator, Tremor, Imposter Shinnok, Bone Shaper Shinnok, Ronin Takeda, Shirai Ryu Takeda, DF Liu Kang, Jax, Erron Black, and to a certain extent Quan Chi. Some of these characters rely on stagger string mixups (Jax), some rely on inescapable loops for chip damage (Shinnok), some rely on a barrage of 50/50s that can either be made plus if blocked (Quan Chi) or if guessed wrong force the character to continue blocking (Takeda), and some rely on certain combinations of all of these (Tempest Lao, Kobu Tanya, Tremor). Someone can correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, but the point is that block pressure is clearly overpowered in MKX and leads to highly unfavorable guessing games and very easy, boring, yet extremely effective block string loops that neither the offensive nor defensive player enjoy.
1 bar block breakers would make all of this much more fair by giving the defensive player the option to spend a bar to completely avoid having to guess to escape the pressure or having to eat chip damage for 10 seconds. This would not underpower any of the characters I listed because A. they reap the benefits of cheaper block breakers too, B. they still get use out of their pressure tools because they are still a threat that forces the opponent to constantly conserve their meter, which means they get much less use out of their metered tools, which means the pressure character does not need to respect their EX moves nearly as much, and C. the breakers would still cost stamina, so once they are used, the player that broke is now at a neutral disadvantage. Block breakers would not be spammed because pressure can still be escaped without them in most cases and if a player thinks they can get out of the pressure without using a bar and stamina, they will usually try.
How they would make 50/50s much more fair
Even if block breakers would do nothing to stop a raw 50/50 attempt, they could still be used to avoid being put under minus frames where the 50/50 would normally be unavoidable, or having to take a 50/50 that would hit in the middle of a string rather than at the start. Besides, most 50/50s aren't done raw anyways. Usually they will come after a blocked jump in punch or during some form of pressure. If a player ends up having to eat a 50/50 attempt after being poked or after being rushed down, then that's mostly their fault for losing the neutral game and not controlling spacing better than their opponent.
Since a blocked JIP gives the offensive player enough plus frames to usually guarantee their 50/50 attempt, if the defensive player wanted to avoid taking the following mix-up, they could just block break that jump in punch. In addition, if a character has a string with a 50/50 in the middle or at the end of it, either with a normal attack or a special that hits low or overhead, then if the opponent knows this they can simply block break the first normal and not have to take the following mix-up. Examples of these cases would be Quan Chi's close EX rune, Mileena's f343/4 string, Buzz Saw Kung Lao's b2 into low hat, War God Kotal Kahn's overhead and low specials mixed into strings, and many more. Obviously it wouldn't always be smart to spend a bar to block break these examples, but at the ends of games where you don't want to leave whether you win or lose up to chance, it's just another option to help facilitate a comeback.
Bonus benefits 1 bar block breakers would bring
They would make grabs less effective and easier to read because, for one, they give the opponent a ton of meter, which is more meter to be used to break out of pressure for a bar, and also if it's at the end of a game and the offensive player knows their opponent has a bar to break their chip damage pressure, they might decide to avoid this by grabbing, which the defending player could then read and neutral duck to get a full combo punish which would bring him much closer to a comeback win.
Matches would also use a significantly larger portion of the clock in at least a fair amount of match ups because the breaker animation not only takes time off the clock itself, but it can also be used to break out of corner pressure and pressure in general which usually leads to losing tons of health in a very short amount of time.
Comebacks would be more likely for many of the reasons I previously explained.
And most of all, I think many people who are turned off by the game in its current state, including some previous NRS game competitors, would end up liking the game a lot more. Other changes would accomplish this too like buffing anti-airs and improving some of the other zoning characters in the game like Kenshi, Pyromancer Tanya, and Necromancer Shinnok, but those are topics for other threads.
In conclusion
I strongly feel that block breakers becoming 1 bar would make Mortal Kombat X go from being a great game to a fantastic game. It would vastly improve the game's roster balance while making MKX in general an even more fun and skill-based experience. Some characters may have to be adjusted after a change like this. Some characters may become even more overpowered like Summoner Quan Chi; it's hard to say, but he needs to be nerfed regardless. Other characters like Flame Fist Liu Kang might need to be buffed to compensate for the change, but I guarantee the good this change would do for the game would massively outweigh the bad it might do.
Anyways, thanks for reading guys. I know it was long but it had to be. If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve this post, please let me know either in this thread or through a private message.
@16 Bit @tylerlansdown @Tom Brady @SonicFox5000 @YOMI REO @YOMI FOREVER KING @PND_Mustard @PND_Ketchup @A F0xy Grampa
To start off, let me say that I love this game. MK is my favorite fighting game franchise and MKX is the best game in that franchise so far in my opinion, but the 2 biggest things limiting the gameplay's quality right now are A. the excessive amount of safe 50/50s that often can't be reacted to, and B. the extremely overpowered and fun killing block pressure. Instead of advocating for mass changes to almost every character in the game in order to balance these features, I think they can both be made almost completely fair with the slight tweaking of block breakers to cost 1 bar instead of 2, but first I'll cover the topic of stamina cost in breakers.
Stamina Cost
I believe block breakers, whether they cost 1 bar or 2, should cost either full stamina or half stamina. At least one of the reasons for both types of breakers costing stamina is to limit running so zoning can be more effective. If a player knows they can't break without stamina, they will know it won't be smart to run in many situations because they won't be able to break if they need to, so the zoning player does not have to worry about being rushed down quite as much.
The problem with this is, since players need 2 whole bars to break anyways, and they'll be using those bars for their metered tools throughout the match, they'll never worry about not being able to break because breakers aren't valuable enough as it is to sacrifice running since they cost so much and don't even guarantee any reward because they then leave you with empty stamina, therefore making it likely that you'll get put right back into the same situation of having to break again.
I'm not sure if block breakers and/or normal breakers should cost half stamina or full, but they should definitely cost some amount. If I had to say, I'd say regular breakers should cost half stamina and block breakers should cost full stamina while only requiring a bar to use, but I doubt it makes too much difference either way, so I'll leave that to Paulo and the game's testers to decide.
How they would fix block pressure
The list of high tier characters in this game almost universally rely on some form of block pressure. That includes Tempest Kung Lao, Kobu Jutsu Tanya, Hish Qu Ten Predator, Tremor, Imposter Shinnok, Bone Shaper Shinnok, Ronin Takeda, Shirai Ryu Takeda, DF Liu Kang, Jax, Erron Black, and to a certain extent Quan Chi. Some of these characters rely on stagger string mixups (Jax), some rely on inescapable loops for chip damage (Shinnok), some rely on a barrage of 50/50s that can either be made plus if blocked (Quan Chi) or if guessed wrong force the character to continue blocking (Takeda), and some rely on certain combinations of all of these (Tempest Lao, Kobu Tanya, Tremor). Someone can correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, but the point is that block pressure is clearly overpowered in MKX and leads to highly unfavorable guessing games and very easy, boring, yet extremely effective block string loops that neither the offensive nor defensive player enjoy.
1 bar block breakers would make all of this much more fair by giving the defensive player the option to spend a bar to completely avoid having to guess to escape the pressure or having to eat chip damage for 10 seconds. This would not underpower any of the characters I listed because A. they reap the benefits of cheaper block breakers too, B. they still get use out of their pressure tools because they are still a threat that forces the opponent to constantly conserve their meter, which means they get much less use out of their metered tools, which means the pressure character does not need to respect their EX moves nearly as much, and C. the breakers would still cost stamina, so once they are used, the player that broke is now at a neutral disadvantage. Block breakers would not be spammed because pressure can still be escaped without them in most cases and if a player thinks they can get out of the pressure without using a bar and stamina, they will usually try.
How they would make 50/50s much more fair
Even if block breakers would do nothing to stop a raw 50/50 attempt, they could still be used to avoid being put under minus frames where the 50/50 would normally be unavoidable, or having to take a 50/50 that would hit in the middle of a string rather than at the start. Besides, most 50/50s aren't done raw anyways. Usually they will come after a blocked jump in punch or during some form of pressure. If a player ends up having to eat a 50/50 attempt after being poked or after being rushed down, then that's mostly their fault for losing the neutral game and not controlling spacing better than their opponent.
Since a blocked JIP gives the offensive player enough plus frames to usually guarantee their 50/50 attempt, if the defensive player wanted to avoid taking the following mix-up, they could just block break that jump in punch. In addition, if a character has a string with a 50/50 in the middle or at the end of it, either with a normal attack or a special that hits low or overhead, then if the opponent knows this they can simply block break the first normal and not have to take the following mix-up. Examples of these cases would be Quan Chi's close EX rune, Mileena's f343/4 string, Buzz Saw Kung Lao's b2 into low hat, War God Kotal Kahn's overhead and low specials mixed into strings, and many more. Obviously it wouldn't always be smart to spend a bar to block break these examples, but at the ends of games where you don't want to leave whether you win or lose up to chance, it's just another option to help facilitate a comeback.
Bonus benefits 1 bar block breakers would bring
They would make grabs less effective and easier to read because, for one, they give the opponent a ton of meter, which is more meter to be used to break out of pressure for a bar, and also if it's at the end of a game and the offensive player knows their opponent has a bar to break their chip damage pressure, they might decide to avoid this by grabbing, which the defending player could then read and neutral duck to get a full combo punish which would bring him much closer to a comeback win.
Matches would also use a significantly larger portion of the clock in at least a fair amount of match ups because the breaker animation not only takes time off the clock itself, but it can also be used to break out of corner pressure and pressure in general which usually leads to losing tons of health in a very short amount of time.
Comebacks would be more likely for many of the reasons I previously explained.
And most of all, I think many people who are turned off by the game in its current state, including some previous NRS game competitors, would end up liking the game a lot more. Other changes would accomplish this too like buffing anti-airs and improving some of the other zoning characters in the game like Kenshi, Pyromancer Tanya, and Necromancer Shinnok, but those are topics for other threads.
In conclusion
I strongly feel that block breakers becoming 1 bar would make Mortal Kombat X go from being a great game to a fantastic game. It would vastly improve the game's roster balance while making MKX in general an even more fun and skill-based experience. Some characters may have to be adjusted after a change like this. Some characters may become even more overpowered like Summoner Quan Chi; it's hard to say, but he needs to be nerfed regardless. Other characters like Flame Fist Liu Kang might need to be buffed to compensate for the change, but I guarantee the good this change would do for the game would massively outweigh the bad it might do.
Anyways, thanks for reading guys. I know it was long but it had to be. If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve this post, please let me know either in this thread or through a private message.
@16 Bit @tylerlansdown @Tom Brady @SonicFox5000 @YOMI REO @YOMI FOREVER KING @PND_Mustard @PND_Ketchup @A F0xy Grampa
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