Yeah, hes not in a very good spot right now. He has potential but he gets out classed by the rest of the cast. I dont think he needs buffs for real but he needs some quality of life adjustments.
To me, it feels like they worked on Baraka pretty early in the games development before they really knew what the meta would be. They gave him a really high and consistent damage but worried that he would be too strong if they gave him anything else.
In the strike/throw meta he ends up having some of the worst tools. He has the worst throw range in the game, no wave dash to help him with his trouble getting in, He cant really stagger, his only mid is i12 and puts him airborne meaning most of the cast can low profile it with a d3 for a full combo, no throw loops, all of his moves push the opponent away from him, etc. You get the point.
Not to say you cant win with him, but I think hes pretty low tier in the sense that there is no match up he outright wins. Even characters that the rest of the community considers "low tier" have at least 1 or 2 matchups that they outright win(and it's usually against Baraka, imo) Even the thing he's good at, damage, hes not so far ahead of other characters that it really even matters.
Again, I still think you can win with him but he needs some quality of life changes. Give him a wave dash so he can keep his pressure, increase his throw range, get rid of the block stun on f4 to make it a real stagger, reduce the pushback of 11 so he can actually strike throw, re-work flag so that it doesnt have as much recovery or absorbs a projectile to get the damage buff. Shit like that would go a long way for him, honestly if they gave him a good wave dash it would solve most of his problems. But that's just my opinion.
