Rate NRS's Balancing Job of Your Main Character(s)!

[OutworldKeith]

Lord Raiden - A+
NRS did an excellent job making Raijin work, and giving players a reason to choose it. Raiden now has 2 viable variations. Thunder Wave can combo a bit easier, can play keep away, & deal with heavy zoning. Raijin has damage, space control, and extreme safety.

Scorpion - A-
Everyone knew the TP nerf was inevitable lol. Never hurt my game because I use Searing Rage. However, I didn't like the nerf to his D4 though.

Jade - C
She's my zoning character. I don't use her 2nd variation. Not even sure if the changes are good.

Liu Kang - S+
He's still pretty stupid.

 

[M2Dave]

After a few days of using him, I still have him as the #1 best character in the game.

No, you don't. In your "Erron Black Nerf Breakdown" video that was posted a couple of days ago, you said he was no longer top tier. Now you claim he is the best character in the game. LOL. Absurd.

 

[REO]

No, you don't. In your "Erron Black Nerf Breakdown" video that was posted a couple of days ago, you said he was no longer top tier. Now you claim he is the best character in the game. LOL. Absurd.

To be fair, when I made that video it was on the same day the patch released and I didn't get to play any matches with the character, yet. After playing Erron Black for a few days now, he feels exactly the same to me.

I guess that is what happens when you theorize and speculate instead of just playing the game. Erron Black is practically the same character, and I assume most will agree once they play against one.

 

[MrArcher15]

 

[M2Dave]

To be fair, when I made that video it was on the same day the patch released and I didn't get to play any matches with the character, yet. After playing Erron Black for a few days now, he feels exactly the same to me.

I guess that is what happens when you theorize and speculate instead of just playing the game. Erron Black is practically the same character, and I assume most will agree once they play against one.

Fair enough. We will see how tournament players respond to the changes. Hayatei seems to think the character is much worse now.

 

[iNoScopedJFK]

Baraka D
2 combos to kill someone is too much still. Need damage buff

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

Shang Tsung: B
He is an amazing character that I feel it doesn't hurt him too much losing 4-6%. But I don't feel he needed to lose 6% on certain combos. F24 combos do 24% now down from 29%. If he did 28% I'd say they did got an A. I felt they could have made Ground Skulls -18 from -16 and when FB -24 from -21 but I can't complain. Many characters lost damage if not more.

Cassie Yaas Queen: C
The Glow kick nerf makes it punishable on every use. I feel FB able would be enough it didn't need to be more than -7 when FB.
The F4 nerf I felt was a little too much and -3 makes it far too unsafe. The reason im saying this is at max range it requires a micro-dash adding 2-4 more frames on next F4. So 9f + MDash = 12f give or take till next F4 hits at max range. This is very interuptable with mids at a high level.
Overall I feel Cassie is still at least A tier but definitely dropped out of top 5 so props to NRS for normalizing her a bit.
I felt it could have been done differently though.

Cetrion Force Of Nature: A+
I'm glad her Rocks are more counterable with FB. So players who lab can get in. The Earthquake cancel was an awesome addition and allows counterplay to opponents jumping it.

Kotal: B

I feel he is better because he can jail from pokes (at least something up close) but there are still fundamental issues with him in both variations. The CMD Grab sacrifices position and carry for a small damage boost but he is lacking in damage and punish department. Several moves still wiff which hurts but getting 20-24% off 12/22 starters is lackluster for a footsie/upclose character that has below average zoning and closeup.
God Ray needs to go in Ascension, either that or allow him to input a self beam on himself by holding up or down, Totemic seems to be fine now ability wise. I am using him a ton more and he feels mid tierish but maybe its my opponents?

D'Vorah: A++

Sonya: B
Its good she got a damage reduction but I feel it was handled the wrong way. I'm still getting 37% one bar midscreen From overhead and 25% from a low. all that was accomplished was removing player expression. Would have been better to scale combos without removing the combo extension.

Geras: B
Its a good thing that he can be fuzzy blocked now on 111/11sand but with the tools he has he is getting way to much damage. Good that they removed fist high damage corner combos & one of his KB's needing to be in the corner. He is more honest and it was good changes just that damage is way to high.

Kollector S+

Kano C
Ripper and Dirtbag need buffs but I'm glad they got some help. Risk vs reward needs to be more favorable or even.

 

[RexyWrecks]

Lao - A. I don't know what else these people want. They added more hit advantage to orbiting hat. He has even better turn stealing capabilities now that orb hat amplify comes out on block and hit. His d1 now jails into s1 which creates a another strike/throw mixup. Orb hat Lao is a top 7-10 character tbh. His ability to steal turns is unrivaled.

 

[Matix218]

Scorpion - B+
I am a reborn main but I still agree with making teleport a high. I dont think the d4 nerf was necessary which is the reason I didn't give it an A. Ultimately the character is still good. Searing rage was barely affected and reborn can still use his mobility and block confirm into away teleport to stay safe. Given I knew the teleport would be nerfed in some way i think making it a high was the best way to make it reasonable but still keep the great counterzoning properties that come with its start up speed. I also dont think it made the offensive aspects of the reborn "behind" cancel mixups as "bad" as everyone says, unless you are overusing it in a predictable manner.

Noob Saibot - A
Took a character with 1 good variation and 1 bad variation and made it into a more complete character with 2 good variations. Each variation has its strengths (damage or zoning/safety) and weaknesses. This is how variations should be.

 

[GLoRToR]

Jade - D
The character has trash normals, deals no damage and she's unsafe on most things. This wouldn't be a problem if the rest of the cast wasn't the exact opposite of that. Jade plays a different game: an MK11 that we were promised and that NRS forgot about when they went back on their promises not to have gigantic combos, advancing safe mid launchers and the works.

Jade's as good as the top tier nerfs let her be, but I'm giving this a D because it feels like we're headed in the right direction with the rest of the cast.
Jade is just kinda meh is all.

 

[BarakaTile]

Kollector: A+

All of his buffs are big improvements on his general gameplay whilst retaining the core gameplay of Kollector in my opinion. A risk/reward character jack of all trades with a bunch of tricks up his sleeve too. 443 launching is an especially smart buff because yeah Kollector had meterless damage...but that also meant the opponent had plenty of meter to spare too. Now I want you to think about using your meter because I might just hit you with 443 and if it connects? It will hurt.

Again this is my opinion but I think he's perfect as is now. Wouldn't change a thing after this.

Baraka: A
Changing little tourney wise is great. But the one thing I kinda want is in Kasual and its for War Banner Bash to be looked at cuz I believe All Flag Move loadout has fun gimmicky potential but right now its pretty crummy. I'd personally like to see Bash kept as is but the regular War Banner Plant to be included with it and that Plants universal input changed to dd4

 

[Johnny Based Cage]

Geras S++++: would fake-nerf/actually-buff again

 

[Gruntypants]

Geras - 10/10 A+ Geras got nerfed slightly more than they buffed him.

NERFS​

> I'm glad that they removed his true 50/50 (both options used to come out at 18 frames) completely and made it now just a fuzzyable mix. ​

True 50/50s are cancer and I think NRS has done a very good job - Balance wise - by keeping most of the "50/50s" as either fuzzable, or the 2 options have staggered start up frames.​

>Quicksand KB requirements (counter-hit OR punish) replaced with KB if quicksand hits after whiffing it twice.​

Geras now has different KB shenanigans, but you can't expect this one to hit every game (like the other one did LOL)​

>No more charge gauntlet KB corner combos for like 60% (4 recovery frames added to the KB)​

>11(1) overhead attack of this string now hits 4 frames later, it may be flawless blockable now?​

​

The BIGGEST buff he recieved is that he now has a krushing blow that he can do on command if he gets a combo near the corner. Lul


-side note-
Overall, I'm very happy with the balance patch, NRS truly made this game even MORE balanced than it was by nerfing a lot of the bullshit top tier stuff while buffing the bottom of the cast (D'vorah looks sick af now). Looking forward to the patch hitting tomorrow (I'm a PC player).
Dissappointed that a few characters didn't get much of any change. The Johnny Cage changes are basically non-existent and he still has the most ridiculous KB requirements in the game lmao.
9/10 job by NRS on the balance patch! I'm greatly anticipating the release of the rest of the Kombat Pack characters

 

[Thingy]

Sonya: B


I am 100% an online player since no one I know gives a shit about getting good at MK. When playing online, Sonya was damn near God mode in MK11. The nerfs were warranted, and even with the nerfs, she is still a wrecking ball. I still enjoy playing her. Sonya is one of those characters I have always felt was lame as hell, but her playstyle has fit me from MK9-MK11. When Nightwolf is out, she will be my go to secondary for sure.

 

[PreNerf_]

Baraka D
2 combos to kill someone is too much still. Need damage buff

Is this a joke? Did you mean Nerf?!? Either way. Baraka is fine the way he is. It's harder to open people up with him than almost all of the cast and by the time you do get someone open they almost always drop out. He is fine the way he is.

 

[exflyingbooty]

Kitana: D

• Highborne's Razor fans "buff" hurt her pretty bad. They made her execution a lot harder but at least from her qcb+41 krushing blow i can get a jump kick in.
• Pointless buffs for fanfare, they didn't fix the proper issues of the character which is her strings. and her garbage anti-airs

Sonya: D
- Literally none of the changes really hurt her. She can still get a shit ton of damage meterless off of b+132. In one of the variations she can use her ex air grab as a combo extender and 950 really doesn't matter in this game at all.

cetrion force of nature: S

• earthquake cancel gives me a safe mixup option from her 213/f+234 string
• Earthquake cancel is also a +18 on hit standing reset so yay

 

[Brown Cow 54]

Skarlet- A+, they made her pokes much better which is pretty much all she needed. No unnecessary nerfs either.

 

[Hellbringer]

Lao - A. I don't know what else these people want. They added more hit advantage to orbiting hat. He has even better turn stealing capabilities now that orb hat amplify comes out on block and hit. His d1 now jails into s1 which creates a another strike/throw mixup. Orb hat Lao is a top 7-10 character tbh. His ability to steal turns is unrivaled.

Agreed its insane that ppl still think hes the same, they even want his orb hat to be plus on block.
I give it a few weeks before ppl realise how good he actually is.

 

[Second Saint]

D'vorah - B+
I'm reticent to give them too much credit because most of her buffs were just them reneging on the reactionary nerfs they made in the first place. They did a great job of making Arachnophobia better, but Buzzed is in some ways worse. The b34 buffs also made all of her corner combos from that string side switch without doing a micro backdash, which is a problem for a character with a 17f low that had many strong setups that were only +14 at best. It could already be difficult to make people stop jumping out (b34 has a very low to the ground, easily jumpable hitbox), but now the setups we can do are more limited.

 

[M2Dave]

Kitana: D

• Highborne's Razor fans "buff" hurt her pretty bad. They made her execution a lot harder but at least from her qcb+41 krushing blow i can get a jump kick in.

The improved razors...

• are very safe on block and can even result in slight frame advantage.
• may create mind games on block depending how many razors are blocked.
• cause 7% of chip damage after b+1,4 and b+2,3,1.
• lead to significant hit advantage, usually as low as +16 and as high as +24, which allows you to forward dash and apply mix up.

I do not understand how these changes "hurt her pretty bad".

 

[NRF CharlieMurphy]

who cares?

Per character buff/nerf doesn't help a ton when there are other issues that plague this game.

Number 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 being hitboxes. Jesus christ these are so bad right now. Things hitting behind... or when there aren't actually physical hitbox collisions.

KB requirements are still a joke for the most part.

half of each characters moves aren't able to be used at all.

Priorities to fix the root would help fix the overall feel.

I've come to terms with NRS being inconsistent with just about everything. Hell... the game decides who wins a trade per frame ona throw/strike hitting on the same frame.

NRS literally stand for inconsistent... and this Patch basically is just an extension.

 

[Groove Heaven]

Cetrion - B
They made her zoning, specifically the synergy between boulder and geyser, more interesting. The teleport is less fraudulent but I think it's still too strong in that it costs one defensive bar that recovers quite quickly. She can still always escape the corner or cancel an errant jump kick while sacrificing next to nothing. Her damage is slightly nerfed which I don't really understand given how low her damage output was to begin with...just didn't feel necessary.

Frost - A
The b1 buff + the hitbox fix are crucial and pretty much gave her what she needs to be real. Great job with her since they didn't compromise the vision of how the character plays but fixed the issues that made her unable to really compete well. The one nitpicky thing I'll say is they could have given AMP Glacial Calving 2 hits instead of making it travel to its own doom...for a longer time.

Erron Black - C
It all feels fair and yet it feels like too much at the same time. It's not so much that they ruined the character, he's still totally competitive and strong, but they changed his whole feel and game. Absolutely HATE what they did to the rifle cancels, totally pointless and makes all his mains have to adjust their muscle memory. He lost damage on literally every single bnb and kept some of his wonky-ass hitbox issues. He got nerfed way harder than the other top tiers which is also sort of a head scratcher.

 

[exflyingbooty]

The improved razors...

• are very safe on block and can even result in slight frame advantage.
• may create mind games on block depending how many razors are blocked.
• cause 7% of chip damage after b+1,4 and b+2,3,1.
• lead to significant hit advantage, usually as low as +16 and as high as +24, which allows you to forward dash and apply mix up.

I do not understand how these changes "hurt her pretty bad".

• Razors instead of slight frame advantage could of went up to +9 on block
• It was so + before you got a free hop mixup on hit
• yeah it was practically the same before so??? it got nerfed

So no, not improved.

 

[Raidenwins]

Lord Raiden - A+
NRS did an excellent job making Raijin work, and giving players a reason to choose it. Raiden now has 2 viable variations. Thunder Wave can combo a bit easier, can play keep away, & deal with heavy zoning. Raijin has damage, space control, and extreme safety.

Can you explain how Thunder Wave can combo a bit easier now? The only changes to Thunder Wave were his far teleport's recovery being increased from 19 to 21 frames and Lightning Strike being able to "track" (not really tracking). None of the two really help his combo ability, as far as I can tell.

 

[Marlow]

Can you explain how Thunder Wave can combo a bit easier now? The only changes to Thunder Wave were his far teleport's recovery being increased from 19 to 21 frames and Lightning Strike being able to "track" (not really tracking). None of the two really help his combo ability, as far as I can tell.

I think he was saying that Thunder Wave can combo easier in relation to Raijin. Not that Thunder Wave received buffs.