Alien Substance
Evanesce
Greetings, my fellows. In the I2 patch that landed this month of February, Red Hood received an adjustment: 3,2,3 is no longer a hard knockdown.
The adjustment to the string's Hard Knockdown (HKD) property was part of a blanket change across multiple characters. Characters like Captain Cold, Darkseid, Brainiac and more have lost at least one HKD. Some may have gotten off with a scratch or a bruise, but Red Hood has lost an essential part of his toolset. 3,2,3 being an HKD was critical to him as an okizeme-based character, so RH has suffered a negative impact to the one area he truly shined in. This is rather saddening, especially since he is already one of the most technical and knowledge-intensive fighters to use in Injustice 2, and he has no outstanding characteristics outside of his oki game and perhaps his chip damage; (which happens to leave him at a fundamental disadvantage in all but one situation that the opponent can backdash to negate.)
Over the past eight months, a few Hoodlums have spent hours upon hours of training, match-up labbing and note-taking with RH and his HKD oki. The change to the HKD has made the string obsolete for oki against those who know to tech roll, and all the work that was put into the character's post-3,2,3 knockdown oki has effectively gone to waste. His only remaining HKD is 1,1,2, but it does not adequately replace the purpose of 3,2,3 and the meterless oki it once granted. When 1,1,2 is used raw and canceled into Mine, his 9-frame F2 can barely beat out 14-frame non-invincible wakeups like Deadshot's Wrist Cannon, and when a proper combo is ended with the string, he cannot do anything except block.
Without the 3,2,3 HKD, alternative and cancel-able enders (like F2,3) are better for Mine oki at this point. However, now that tech rolling is an option for the opponent, a wider array of possibilities are present for the RH player to consider. This puts a significant dent in RH's oki potential; which, again, is the only area he truly excelled at. He is weaker in other aspects to make up for his oki: his defense is bad, his damage output is lower than average, his rushdown is sub-par, his zoning is not designed to keep the opponent at bay. Red Hood was balanced around the Mines and the oki they brought, but now his setups are no longer the threat they once were. He has a good neutral game, but what does that matter if he is not great anywhere else?
It is also unhappy to note that he was not given anything to compensate for this loss. I believe it is plausible that this change to Red Hood could not have been foreseen by the elder gods at NRS, because plenty of HKDs were carpet bombed and numerous characters were affected, besides Atrocitus; who happened to be in his underground cabin, drinking tea and snuggling up with Dex-Starr during the event.
Whatever book Atrocitus may have been reading in his cabin, many hours of labbing with Red Hood over the course of eight months were thrown out the window by the loss of the HKD. Although Red Hoodlums may try to accommodate the change, that is still an upsetting outcome. All other changes to RH have been reasonable, but this one is quite questionable. He is a character who has been toned down patch after patch and has barely been relevant in tournaments for the last three months.
My fellow Hoodlums, please lend your strength as we compliment Paulo's nonchalance when he appears on the Watchtower streams. Mr. Paulo, you make me laugh, so it would be greatly appreciated if you gave Red Hood his HKD back or redesigned the character's gameplan to something not as problematic to balance as a setup character, if you so please. Thank you.
Comments, questions and assertions pertaining to Red Hood and his 3,2,3 HKD may be posted here. If anyone wishes to share alternative strategies, that would be nice as well. This thread was made to bring attention to the unpleasant nerfing of Injustice 2's Lord of Edge.
The adjustment to the string's Hard Knockdown (HKD) property was part of a blanket change across multiple characters. Characters like Captain Cold, Darkseid, Brainiac and more have lost at least one HKD. Some may have gotten off with a scratch or a bruise, but Red Hood has lost an essential part of his toolset. 3,2,3 being an HKD was critical to him as an okizeme-based character, so RH has suffered a negative impact to the one area he truly shined in. This is rather saddening, especially since he is already one of the most technical and knowledge-intensive fighters to use in Injustice 2, and he has no outstanding characteristics outside of his oki game and perhaps his chip damage; (which happens to leave him at a fundamental disadvantage in all but one situation that the opponent can backdash to negate.)
Over the past eight months, a few Hoodlums have spent hours upon hours of training, match-up labbing and note-taking with RH and his HKD oki. The change to the HKD has made the string obsolete for oki against those who know to tech roll, and all the work that was put into the character's post-3,2,3 knockdown oki has effectively gone to waste. His only remaining HKD is 1,1,2, but it does not adequately replace the purpose of 3,2,3 and the meterless oki it once granted. When 1,1,2 is used raw and canceled into Mine, his 9-frame F2 can barely beat out 14-frame non-invincible wakeups like Deadshot's Wrist Cannon, and when a proper combo is ended with the string, he cannot do anything except block.
Without the 3,2,3 HKD, alternative and cancel-able enders (like F2,3) are better for Mine oki at this point. However, now that tech rolling is an option for the opponent, a wider array of possibilities are present for the RH player to consider. This puts a significant dent in RH's oki potential; which, again, is the only area he truly excelled at. He is weaker in other aspects to make up for his oki: his defense is bad, his damage output is lower than average, his rushdown is sub-par, his zoning is not designed to keep the opponent at bay. Red Hood was balanced around the Mines and the oki they brought, but now his setups are no longer the threat they once were. He has a good neutral game, but what does that matter if he is not great anywhere else?
It is also unhappy to note that he was not given anything to compensate for this loss. I believe it is plausible that this change to Red Hood could not have been foreseen by the elder gods at NRS, because plenty of HKDs were carpet bombed and numerous characters were affected, besides Atrocitus; who happened to be in his underground cabin, drinking tea and snuggling up with Dex-Starr during the event.
Whatever book Atrocitus may have been reading in his cabin, many hours of labbing with Red Hood over the course of eight months were thrown out the window by the loss of the HKD. Although Red Hoodlums may try to accommodate the change, that is still an upsetting outcome. All other changes to RH have been reasonable, but this one is quite questionable. He is a character who has been toned down patch after patch and has barely been relevant in tournaments for the last three months.
My fellow Hoodlums, please lend your strength as we compliment Paulo's nonchalance when he appears on the Watchtower streams. Mr. Paulo, you make me laugh, so it would be greatly appreciated if you gave Red Hood his HKD back or redesigned the character's gameplan to something not as problematic to balance as a setup character, if you so please. Thank you.
Comments, questions and assertions pertaining to Red Hood and his 3,2,3 HKD may be posted here. If anyone wishes to share alternative strategies, that would be nice as well. This thread was made to bring attention to the unpleasant nerfing of Injustice 2's Lord of Edge.
