The teleport simply can't be nerfed. If it recovers any slower it will 1) fuck up his combos, 2) make it unnecessarily difficult to punish anything except projectiles with the slowest recovery. If it's made so it can be stuffed, then the character as a whole is useless because he has no way to counter the fact the two strings his game is based entirely around can be interrupted.
I dont know... I play Raiden, hes a hard character to fight against and honestly, easy to play. You cannot pressure him in the least. Hes got the two fastest specials in the game already... His teleport renders all pressure useless, and can in turn, point the pressure back on his opponent with an easy ass input of down up. His combos are ridiculously strong too.
I reject the notion that Raiden is easy to play. If you win with Raiden it's because you're good with Raiden. It's an entirely psychological thing. The teleport is one of two good tools he has at his disposal, and honestly, on paper it sucks. The entire cast can punish it cleanly. You don't even have to expect it, you just have to not be blocking when he teleports. Why is that so hard? Because Raiden users play with your head to make it so. You can't ask for nerfs to a character based on the fact you get caught in the mind game.
Teleport does render all pressure useless. Pressure is not the way you fight Raiden. Fighting Raiden is all about not doing stupid shit like getting in his face when you know that teleport is there. You know how Smoke is far and away the best anti-zoner in the game? Look at Raiden as the best anti-rushdown character in the game. Going after him is a sure-fire way to get raped. Raiden's answer for handling a neutral situation is "derp," when he can't get anything started because you're not trying to rush that shit down or zone that shit out.
The issue boils down to this. Say you're playing Not-Raiden against an opponent who is playing Raiden. In that situation, you're playing Mortal Kombat 9, but your opponent is just playing Raiden. It's technically the same game, but at the same time, not really. Raiden has to play his own game to get anything going, and if you approach the fight with more a Street Fighter-esque LOL FOOTSIES mindset, you do much better. But if teleport is going unpunished because you're getting up in his grill or won't let go of block because you fear naked superman, then yeah: fight over, Raiden wins. Also, if you read a teleport, you can jump it and get JiP into full combo. Considering Raiden's options, reading teleport isn't hard.
Raiden requires set ups. The character doesn't give you those, the player does that himself. There's a line between asking for a balance adjustment and asking for a character to not be able to do a damn thing to you that is both crossed and shit on every time somebody says it would be a good idea to nerf Raiden's teleport. Nerfing teleport would be as disastrous for Raiden as taking away the launching properties on spin would be for Kung Lao.
You might want that teleport nerfed, but if you've ever fought anyone who isn't worthless and will actually interrupt
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, you know how vital it is that it remain the same.
I mean, fucking seriously people, Raiden is a character whose entire game plan revolves around doing unsafe shit. Let's look at this:
Teleport - Uninterruptible start-up, -12 after reappearance. Unsafe.
Superman - Good on hit, if it hits. -∞ on block.
- Last hit can be interrupted with armor/attacks six frames or faster. Is completely stomped by uppercut if read. Safe, but disadvantage on block.
- Dick slow start up, last
two hits can be interrupted with armor/attacks six frames or faster. Safe, but disadvantage on block.
- A good defensive tool, uninterruptible. +1 on block. Holy shit a good string.
I left out the vicinity blast stuff because that's a no-go after this coming patch.
Raiden is good, but there is NOTHING to him right now that is nerf worthy, aside from the vicinity blast shit which is being handled.
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