Eddy Wang
Skarlet scientist
I've seen a lot of people saying they prefer to use Blood Drive over Heart Pierce and then i look at Skarlet's options in both variations and nothing really shakes me more in disagreement when i look at everything Heart Pierce does and will continue to do so as the time passes while Blood Drive just looks dry as hell at this point.
Why i prefer Heart Pierce?
There are easy few points than can be made on my preference to Heart Pierce and never really care as much for Blood Drive as many people do here are some of my valid points
1. Skarlet has a lot of gaps in her key strings, in time, those gaps will start to get flawless blocked and she will lose some breathable room to apply some pressure, this is one of the main reasons why i prefer Heart Pierce, due the ability to stand her ground against pressure, fighting relentless players and the ability to counter flawless block counters at any possible point with the right read.
2. The same counter which nulifies flawless block, also recovers more health enough to scare a player to not be as relentless as they want it to be not only because of the amount of damage she will take, but the amount of health she can get from it each time she amplifies it, to remind you that there is a crushing blow activated by it which makes an inclusion of one more on the list she needs to use whenever necessary.
3. Teleport - Her teleport might not be the best in the game but its not all worst either, the problem is a lot of Skarlet players want to teleport on reaction to counter other zoners, which will never work, remember, this is a character which her foundation its built upon neutral, so she does a lot of things different, her teleport its mainly an escaping tool so you can use when she is getting cornered, its basically a reposition tool which gives her neutral back just as quick.
Why i don't prefer Blood Drive?
At glance it might look like both variations are good, but this was before i noticed what happened to Cell Siphon, a move that used to be S tier has been nerfed heavily and there is almost no point in using it for several reasons
1. Siphon nerf affects this variation pretty hard in many aspects
a)The amount of health that gains is very minimal considering she has to amplify to get it, insignificant enough for the attacker to even care or be afraid of commiting a bunch of mistakes
b) The +7 on amplify advantage its gone and its now +4 as regular Siphon, putting Skarlet on a huge risk whenever she tries to gain some health with the big risk of dragging the opponents too much closer to her which its the worse position this variation could be, for that reason i suggest blood drive players using the abridged version which is bf2amp which gives more health back, doesn't restand but you don't have to fight hard to get your neutral back.
c) restand is useless no need for that, look point above if you skipped.
2. Blood Ball gives a massive advantage so i guess having the ability to control it might be excellent, something i never really felt the need of considering Heart Pierce has teleport attached to it so i can teleport while the ball is traveling even if she doesn't get a full combo of it on hit, its still good to apply pressure or perform a throw.
To remind you that B2 also has received a nerf in which Skarlet no longer gains health when the Krushing Blow from that move its activated, it only does slightly more damage, something that its beyond me, NRS could at least make this KB more interesting by giving a launch on KB, would totally bring some ressemblance of the MK9 Overhead, this would make B2 great again.
After looking at this comparition, i see everything on both variations are pretty much equal both do the exact same things thanks to the universal moves, the main difference its on the equipped moves in which i think Blood Drive is way inferior, not only because it gain a lot less health, but everytime she does she loses her optimal spacing at cost of gaining just a little bit of health, reason why i think Siphon might not have use at all since the restand feature and health regain feature are both less preferable now considering she doesn't have an upclose counter for those specific situations.
Why i prefer Heart Pierce?
There are easy few points than can be made on my preference to Heart Pierce and never really care as much for Blood Drive as many people do here are some of my valid points
1. Skarlet has a lot of gaps in her key strings, in time, those gaps will start to get flawless blocked and she will lose some breathable room to apply some pressure, this is one of the main reasons why i prefer Heart Pierce, due the ability to stand her ground against pressure, fighting relentless players and the ability to counter flawless block counters at any possible point with the right read.
2. The same counter which nulifies flawless block, also recovers more health enough to scare a player to not be as relentless as they want it to be not only because of the amount of damage she will take, but the amount of health she can get from it each time she amplifies it, to remind you that there is a crushing blow activated by it which makes an inclusion of one more on the list she needs to use whenever necessary.
3. Teleport - Her teleport might not be the best in the game but its not all worst either, the problem is a lot of Skarlet players want to teleport on reaction to counter other zoners, which will never work, remember, this is a character which her foundation its built upon neutral, so she does a lot of things different, her teleport its mainly an escaping tool so you can use when she is getting cornered, its basically a reposition tool which gives her neutral back just as quick.
Why i don't prefer Blood Drive?
At glance it might look like both variations are good, but this was before i noticed what happened to Cell Siphon, a move that used to be S tier has been nerfed heavily and there is almost no point in using it for several reasons
1. Siphon nerf affects this variation pretty hard in many aspects
a)The amount of health that gains is very minimal considering she has to amplify to get it, insignificant enough for the attacker to even care or be afraid of commiting a bunch of mistakes
b) The +7 on amplify advantage its gone and its now +4 as regular Siphon, putting Skarlet on a huge risk whenever she tries to gain some health with the big risk of dragging the opponents too much closer to her which its the worse position this variation could be, for that reason i suggest blood drive players using the abridged version which is bf2amp which gives more health back, doesn't restand but you don't have to fight hard to get your neutral back.
c) restand is useless no need for that, look point above if you skipped.
2. Blood Ball gives a massive advantage so i guess having the ability to control it might be excellent, something i never really felt the need of considering Heart Pierce has teleport attached to it so i can teleport while the ball is traveling even if she doesn't get a full combo of it on hit, its still good to apply pressure or perform a throw.
To remind you that B2 also has received a nerf in which Skarlet no longer gains health when the Krushing Blow from that move its activated, it only does slightly more damage, something that its beyond me, NRS could at least make this KB more interesting by giving a launch on KB, would totally bring some ressemblance of the MK9 Overhead, this would make B2 great again.
After looking at this comparition, i see everything on both variations are pretty much equal both do the exact same things thanks to the universal moves, the main difference its on the equipped moves in which i think Blood Drive is way inferior, not only because it gain a lot less health, but everytime she does she loses her optimal spacing at cost of gaining just a little bit of health, reason why i think Siphon might not have use at all since the restand feature and health regain feature are both less preferable now considering she doesn't have an upclose counter for those specific situations.
