MK1 Patch Notes

[Bulletz4Breakfast]

Of course they could but the outcome wouldnt change much.

Prior state made so many things safe (from strongs, which could be looped to specials that normally were unsafe on block). It also generated massive amount of meter. A lot characters did not have specials with such properties so rising the cost results in reduction of mentioned above advantages. Also the price of breaker could be another aspect to support this change.

Cyrax still does what he did but at higher price and cannot be used as often. What may rise a doubt is the other changes - this change assessment will come later on as the meta evolves.

I suspect it wasnt even about the fact that other assists are less used. It was all about what Cyrax does and how effective it is, that other simply dont.
Stryker is somewhere in the shades of Cyrax but its too soon to tell atm imo.

A lot of people say that KL is going to replace Cyrax, even if he does, the low hat properties are nothing alike. I might be wrong but first thing comes to mind: you can armor through, while armoring through Cyrax was not possible as you would go through special move but get hit by the cy-copter.

Looking at NRS Patch history I can confidently say, tha in terms of "patching" this is way healthier in compare to MKX.. I hope they maintain their "Cool" and let the current game breath.

I understand what your saying but I feel making something safe with assists in a assist game comes with the territory. Without Cyrax you can still make stupid choices safe if not +30
Lao hat is strong but I'm noticing Ninjakilla flawless blocking them vs Xombats Johnny/Lao.
I feel one forward of Cyrax isn't oppressive. Put a 10 second freeze on forward Kopter and keep it half cost, what worked with Rain and lower tier characters to fix their gaps, weak buttons, range anxiety doesn't work with Cyrax anymore. You simply can't blockstring with Forward Helicopter then combo with Up Kopter after, then your on a long 24 seconds wait to use Forward again. Crazy hard nerf.
Obviously Cyrax needed toning he did to much off of a single option.

The scary part is putting a Kameo Regen delay after using two in combo with nearly every Kameo. That was uncalled for IMO.

But the worst part is not slightly buffing the bottom and mid tiers.
Obviously if a lower tier gets Cyrax to make things safe and pressure so does Johnny and the S Tiers but that's where the buffs come in. Reptile and Sub Zero not having those gaps, maybe give some a better mid or adjust startup of something. It doesn't have to be a basket of buffs just small tweaks every few months until we see lower tiers being able to counter the Top Tiers.
It truly does scare me to see only Nerfs and blanket nerfs to assists in a assist game.

I also do hope breaker is two bars, maybe I'm wrong but definitely wanna see some minor buffs to many characters.

 

[GeoffBedlam]

Has the game been crashing more for anyone else since the patch? I'm in PS5.

 

[M2Dave]

Bruh, nobody complaining actually plays.

This hot take is quiet presumption and ignorant.

I complain about this patch and I play this game two hours every day.

Why else would I (and many others) be on this website? LOL.

When I was playing Street Fighter 6, I was not browsing TYM at all.

Much of the staleness of MK11 gameplay came from there being few reasons to do anything unsafe, because there were so many safe options. Pre patch MK1 ended with everyone doing blockstrings into Kung low hat or Cyrax spin because theres few reasons to roll risky dice when you can choose guaranteed attrition.

You have just described every fighting game ever created.

The reason people such as me despised Mortal Kombat 11 is because the game is counterintuitive to tournament and casual players alike.

Have you knocked someone down and tried to press the advantage? You may get punished.

Have you launched someone and tried to do a combo that you have been practicing? You may get punished.

Have you been playing footsies? Well, you had better stop now that your opponent has access to fatal blow. You may get punished.

This is an assist game and doing blanket nerfs to Kameos are scary AF. They could have just done damage scaling on Cyrax and pylut a ten second freeze on using forward Chopper after it's been used but keeping both 50% Kameo meter so other lower tier characters can use Cyrax for their holes and keep their flow

At least some people understand.

 

[Tony at Home]

what should be touched about him.

About half his strings could be more negative than they are now and he'd still be top tier. There's no sense in nitpicking about Johnny because he needs a complete overhaul.

 

[rifraf]

The scary part is putting a Kameo Regen delay after using two in combo with nearly every Kameo. That was uncalled for IMO.

That's one change I hope they take back. Straight up revert it. What was the reasoning behind it?

 

[Marinjuana]

That's one change I hope they take back. Straight up revert it. What was the reasoning behind it?

#1 Kameo complained about might actually be Sareena with her week 1 combos but people found cheaper stuff to focus on

 

[ShaolinGunFu]

High level players punish the whiffed sareena boomarang so its not so OP, i do however think itd be nice to balance it in a way where they can only do the boomarang once a combo and buff the regular knife throw.
Nerf every move people use too often, buff every move people dont use a lot

solved

 

[FoughtDragon01]

Do we know for sure if Omni-Man's release comes with another patch? That second balance patch, whenever it drops, is the one that I'll be paying attention to in order to really determine NRS's intentions with this game moving forward.

 

[Juggs]

High level players punish the whiffed sareena boomarang so its not so OP, i do however think itd be nice to balance it in a way where they can only do the boomarang once a combo and buff the regular knife throw.
Nerf every move people use too often, buff every move people dont use a lot

solved

It didn’t need to be nerfed at all. And that’s an absolute TERRIBLE mindset to “nerf every move people use too often”. That’ll just lead once again to a completely boring game that no one has fun playing. The reason moves like Cyrax’s horizontal kopter chopper was so overused is because one, of course it’s a very good move and it’s versatile. But also, there’s no other Kameo move close to being as good. Especially when you factor in that upwards kopter chopper is also super good and useful. His other Kameo moves are not nearly as useful, his bomb for instance is never used and his net is rarely used. The reason is because both have way too long of a startup, aren’t versatile, AND using them takes away Kameo meter for the much MUCH stronger kopter chopper.

You don’t nerf moves that are used too often, you look at why they’re used as often as they are. For instance if it’s a Kameo move, instead of gutting that move that is used a lot, you’d understand why it was used so much, then you’d reexamine the other Kameos and their moves and why they’re hardly used. Then it’s a matter of fixing these Kameos and Kameo moves so that 1 Kameo and 1 Kameo move isn’t dominating the meta.

NRS seemingly doesn’t care about the competitive longevity of their games. So it’s MUCH easier for them to just gut whatever the overused move is so that they don’t have to worry about it again. This is an abysmal way to go about it if you, as I said, care about the competitive longevity of your game as well as the competitive integrity, freedom of expression, giving players more options not less, etc.

If how NRS games perform competitively have very little impact on their overall sales, why would they not be making balancing changes based on feedback from the competitive community? Like in games like the Souls series, and most recently Elden Ring. Multiple balance patches for the PvP in Elden Ring were almost a 1:1 from what the competitive community wanted and the decisions that were ultimately made. Of course, not everything that they comp community asked for or wanted was implemented, but a very large portion was, which showed very clearly that FromSoft cared about the competitive community and didn’t just do whatever they wanted based on the cries of scrubs. The PvP in Elden Ring or other Souls games is similar to the competitive scene in NRS games. In that the overwhelming majority of sales in NRS games are from casuals who probably will never play the game competitively at all, and a lot never even play the game online. And similarly, in FromSoft games, most of the playerbase never PvP, and only do so when they are forced to via the games system where if you summon other players to help you, that opens you up to be “invaded” by another player whose goal is to find and kill you. So, any balance changes they make to the PvP is solely for the small % of players that actually partake in the PvP. And an even smaller % that participates in the PvP competitively. They do this because the quality of their games matters to them, as well as the games longevity. And the PvP community who plays their games also matters to them.

Just wish NRS cared more about the quality and longevity of their games especially competitively.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

It didn’t need to be nerfed at all. And that’s an absolute TERRIBLE mindset to “nerf every move people use too often”. That’ll just lead once again to a completely boring game that no one has fun playing. The reason moves like Cyrax’s horizontal kopter chopper was so overused is because one, of course it’s a very good move and it’s versatile. But also, there’s no other Kameo move close to being as good. Especially when you factor in that upwards kopter chopper is also super good and useful. His other Kameo moves are not nearly as useful, his bomb for instance is never used and his net is rarely used. The reason is because both have way too long of a startup, aren’t versatile, AND using them takes away Kameo meter for the much MUCH stronger kopter chopper.

You don’t nerf moves that are used too often, you look at why they’re used as often as they are. For instance if it’s a Kameo move, instead of gutting that move that is used a lot, you’d understand why it was used so much, then you’d reexamine the other Kameos and their moves and why they’re hardly used. Then it’s a matter of fixing these Kameos and Kameo moves so that 1 Kameo and 1 Kameo move isn’t dominating the meta.

NRS seemingly doesn’t care about the competitive longevity of their games. So it’s MUCH easier for them to just gut whatever the overused move is so that they don’t have to worry about it again. This is an abysmal way to go about it if you, as I said, care about the competitive longevity of your game as well as the competitive integrity, freedom of expression, giving players more options not less, etc.

If how NRS games perform competitively have very little impact on their overall sales, why would they not be making balancing changes based on feedback from the competitive community? Like in games like the Souls series, and most recently Elden Ring. Multiple balance patches for the PvP in Elden Ring were almost a 1:1 from what the competitive community wanted and the decisions that were ultimately made. Of course, not everything that they comp community asked for or wanted was implemented, but a very large portion was, which showed very clearly that FromSoft cared about the competitive community and didn’t just do whatever they wanted based on the cries of scrubs. The PvP in Elden Ring or other Souls games is similar to the competitive scene in NRS games. In that the overwhelming majority of sales in NRS games are from casuals who probably will never play the game competitively at all, and a lot never even play the game online. And similarly, in FromSoft games, most of the playerbase never PvP, and only do so when they are forced to via the games system where if you summon other players to help you, that opens you up to be “invaded” by another player whose goal is to find and kill you. So, any balance changes they make to the PvP is solely for the small % of players that actually partake in the PvP. And an even smaller % that participates in the PvP competitively. They do this because the quality of their games matters to them, as well as the games longevity. And the PvP community who plays their games also matters to them.

Just wish NRS cared more about the quality and longevity of their games especially competitively.

I don’t think I’d say the move was gutted. It still has all the utility that it did before, just not as frequently.

If you majorly buff every single other Kameo to be as powerful and safe, the chances of ending up with a new move that has the exact same issue of being the best in every situation is extremely high. Toning down braindead options automatically makes others more attractive and opens up the meta of the game.

 

[Juggs]

I don’t think I’d say the move was gutted. It still has all the utility that it did before, just not as frequently.

If you majorly buff every single other Kameo to be as powerful and safe, the chances of ending up with a new move that has the exact same issue of being the best in every situation is extremely high. Toning down braindead options automatically makes others more attractive and opens up the meta of the game.

Didn’t say it was. But it was objectively overnerfed.

And also didn’t say to “majorly buff” “every single Kameo to be as powerful and safe”.

The concept is fairly simple. And I’ve already said it multiple times. But here, I’ll put it in another way.

Let’s say that how good a move is has a number 1-10 attributed to it, 10 being strongest 1 being weakest. And this is all encompassing. Meaning how strong or weak a move is taking all factors into consideration. Nerfing a move that is perceived to be a 9 or 10 all the way down to a 3 or 4 is overnerfing said move. Nerf it to he a 1 or 2 would be gutting it. A slight nerf would be bringing it down to a 6 or 7. And you do this while simultaneously bringing some other Kameos/Kameo moves that are 1-4’s to 5-7’s. This of course doesn’t mean you buff ALL moves to this. And I know this is an oversimplification but I did that on purpose because for some reason people aren’t seeming to get it. No one is saying that, for instance, horizontal kopter chopper should not have been touched. It obviously was too powerful especially in comparison to all the other Kameo moves with the closest in strength being KL’s low hat. But you don’t need to nerf it so much in order to fix the problem. A slight nerf while buffing some of the other Kameos would’ve been a much better decision. You of course don’t have to buff every Kameo and/or every Kameo move in a single patch as that’d take a lot of work and would take a lot longer.

But yeah, I sound like a broken record at this point.
¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[kabelfritz]

Didn’t say it was. But it was objectively overnerfed.

And also didn’t say to “majorly buff” “every single Kameo to be as powerful and safe”.

The concept is fairly simple. And I’ve already said it multiple times. But here, I’ll put it in another way.

Let’s say that how good a move is has a number 1-10 attributed to it, 10 being strongest 1 being weakest. And this is all encompassing. Meaning how strong or weak a move is taking all factors into consideration. Nerfing a move that is perceived to be a 9 or 10 all the way down to a 3 or 4 is overnerfing said move. Nerf it to he a 1 or 2 would be gutting it. A slight nerf would be bringing it down to a 6 or 7. And you do this while simultaneously bringing some other Kameos/Kameo moves that are 1-4’s to 5-7’s. This of course doesn’t mean you buff ALL moves to this. And I know this is an oversimplification but I did that on purpose because for some reason people aren’t seeming to get it. No one is saying that, for instance, horizontal kopter chopper should not have been touched. It obviously was too powerful especially in comparison to all the other Kameo moves with the closest in strength being KL’s low hat. But you don’t need to nerf it so much in order to fix the problem. A slight nerf while buffing some of the other Kameos would’ve been a much better decision. You of course don’t have to buff every Kameo and/or every Kameo move in a single patch as that’d take a lot of work and would take a lot longer.

But yeah, I sound like a broken record at this point.
¯\(ツ)/¯

well, consider the nerf cyrax has taken as a whole. both copters still exist, he has the popup throw and i barely see net and timebomb utilized. overall id say cyrax is still in a good place at least.

 

[Saltea Moonspell]

I understand what your saying but I feel making something safe with assists in a assist game comes with the territory. Without Cyrax you can still make stupid choices safe if not +30

There are other assists, that do give safety. But here clearly it wasn’t only about safety.

• The meter building was insane – with some super moves combination some characters had way much more meter. We all remember what Millena was doing in MKX etc. By the time you manage to get to your opponent, he’d be already pissing on your offense having full stick.
• 
  
• With some moves (due to their properties) armoring was not possible. So, it was safer to touch the cy-copter rather than special moves and resulting killing he character.

Lao hat is strong but I'm noticing Ninjakilla flawless blocking them vs Xombats Johnny/Lao.

Taking advantage of these gaps will separate the scrubs/decent players from very good players. Maybe this wont be the level of parries in SF3rd Strike but still.

I feel one forward of Cyrax isn't oppressive. Put a 10 second freeze on forward Kopter and keep it half cost, what worked with Rain and lower tier characters to fix their gaps, weak buttons, range anxiety doesn't work with Cyrax anymore. You simply can't blockstring with Forward Helicopter then combo with Up Kopter after, then your on a long 24 seconds wait to use Forward again. Crazy hard nerf.
Obviously Cyrax needed toning he did to much off of a single option.

The solution to lower-mid tiers shouldn’t be an assist. If you look at the TOPs, you will realize that they can be played without assists – kameos are addition. I hope, and believe, that NRS will buff low-mid tier with time. This is the only path that for me makes sense. Going after Kameos, not characters.

The scary part is putting a Kameo Regen delay after using two in combo with nearly every Kameo. That was uncalled for IMO.

Now here the assessment will depend on the analysis. I could agree here with you but if you sit for a while and think about all the damage in certain scenarios (think of different ones on both sides) I can see reason to it. The best answer I see for this is to prevent matches from ending often (as quickly) with assist juggles. This change may allow the rounds to finish in diverse endings (like footsies, block string, throws etc). IMO too juggles ending in mid 48%-50-ish% damage with two assists at some point will be boring to watch, and will shrink the depth by maintaining strong focus on this tactics solely. But as I said, this is a thin ice, and really difficult to be certain here.

But the worst part is not slightly buffing the bottom and mid tiers.
Obviously if a lower tier gets Cyrax to make things safe and pressure so does Johnny and the S Tiers but that's where the buffs come in. Reptile and Sub Zero not having those gaps, maybe give some a better mid or adjust startup of something. It doesn't have to be a basket of buffs just small tweaks every few months until we see lower tiers being able to counter the Top Tiers.
It truly does scare me to see only Nerfs and blanket nerfs to assists in a assist game.

I also do hope breaker is two bars, maybe I'm wrong but definitely wanna see some minor buffs to many characters.

NRS did terrible job in balancing characters in the past early in the game. As I said, fixing the problem with low-mid tier IMO shouldnt be via kameos. Not that I don’t like the idea, I do, but it is not valid anymore when you have TOP’s that don’t need Kameos to be where they are. Either all characters fall in to a spot where the assist is the answer to overcome certain discrepancies or we go with the idea that assist remains only an add-on.

It seems that NRS policy shifted. The fact that they stray so far from MK11 is a solid indication of that fact. If we follow up the logic this time around characters bold buffs/Nerfs may come later in the game. We know for fact, that in past they did a sloppy job at patching. With MK1, I really have hopes it did change.

In regard to “Breakers” If we had traditional Kombat without the assists, two bars would be there. In the old day we use to maximize stun for meter building when it was possible. Here you get the butter fast, so that is the reason it costs whole stick.

 

[Juggs]

well, consider the nerf cyrax has taken as a whole. both copters still exist, he has the popup throw and i barely see net and timebomb utilized. overall id say cyrax is still in a good place at least.

Idk if them both “still existing” is a salient point. And as I said earlier, there’s a reason net and his timebomb are hardly used especially in comparison. His timebomb isn’t worth using especially when it takes up Kameo meter. His net can and is used in certain situations, but all this nerf and the overall Kameo nerf did was make it less likely that they’ll be “utilized”.

 

[rifraf]

Do we know for sure if Omni-Man's release comes with another patch? That second balance patch, whenever it drops, is the one that I'll be paying attention to in order to really determine NRS's intentions with this game moving forward.

No idea what or when they're planning on doing. Considering the backlash this patch had, I'd hope for some course correction although I'm not holding my breath. I didn't see many people applauding the nerfs for beta SZ, yet all we got a month later was nerfs across the board.

 

[Saltea Moonspell]

No idea what or when they're planning on doing. Considering the backlash this patch had

I can still remember when MK11 was launched FB reversals had different input per character. Then they changed to due to massive backlash. I highly doubt they will be susceptible as they were back then to general audience.

Note, that these changes were made after Pro League which could indicate, that it was a reference they based their change upon. All those Youtubers whining "this and that" wont even bother with the game in three months time.

I didn't see many people applauding the nerfs for beta SZ, yet all we got a month later was nerfs across the board.

You make it sound like NRS nerffed the entire cast while that certainly was not the case. Check the MKX Character patch notes - now that is what I would call a "nerf across the board".

 

[JDE]

This felt like a hotfix patch more than anything with something bigger down the line if I'm being honest. I just felt that some of the changes to characters were egregious. I didn't think Baraka was a problem. What they did to Raiden was fine imo. I wanted them to look into the spin move for Cyrax on block as special cancels & off certain strings instead of what they did because I felt that it would've made people rethink just special canceling with it as a get out of jail free card while keeping him fresh for the variety of the game. It would've been a good tradeoff.

I don't really think people care about how bad the nerf really is because they were so triggered by the kameo playing against it, that they've already made up their minds that it was a justified nerf & it'll be fine. It's a questionable change for competitive reasons. With the amount of cooldown that it has now, there's a lot that could happen in between rounds before you even get it back. I'm not saying that it won't be good still, but I doubt you see him pop up a lot (which is good a on the surface for other kameos, but you will also see him get left behind). Characters that felt weaker relied on him as a kameo too because he might've been their best option. It's an assist based game. So kameos are really vital to the game rather than just the character themselves.

This is why I've always been on board with toning characters down with tradeoffs keeping them attractive while buffing the others who need it to give them more traction. I don't think people realize that not everyone likes what they're playing either lol. The quickest thing to say always is "Pro players will adapt because it's what they do." Yes, but just because they're playing & adapting, it doesn't necessarily mean that they enjoy what they're playing. I didn't enjoy MKX as much because as "fun" as it was, I thought it favored too much rushdown into 50/50s with virtually no kind of neutral being played. Injustice 2 I enjoyed a little more but it had its problem. Mk11 contrary to belief had godlike neutral, just the game was barebones with no depth. So it got dry & stale. There's a lot of people that play because they're signed & are obligated to competing but dislike games. They don't want to play a game that isn't fun to them. People should be more mindful of that. I myself have gone through it & still do since I'm still on a team myself.

My point is that I don't think it's any justification for just shooting characters like this other than to respond to the reactionary outcries of the loud minority. I agreed with him being changed because him staying the way he was wasn't going to be good for the health of the game going forward. There's just better ways of making changes than this. It just didn't feel well thought out. I hope that they do better. Mk1 has a lot of potential. It's fun to play.

 

[rifraf]

You make it sound like NRS nerffed the entire cast while that certainly was not the case.

I consider the Kameo regen delay after using two in combo a nerf across the board since it affects all characters and kameos in the game.

 

[Juggs]

I consider the Kameo regen delay after using two in combo a nerf across the board since it affects all characters and kameos in the game.

Is that the nerf? Or is it if you use the full Kameo meter at all it regens slower? Meaning if you use Sektor’s homing missile or now Cyrax’s horizontal kopter chopper it also regens slower. I genuinely don’t know as Idek if the patch notes were ever actually made available

 

[kabelfritz]

Idk if them both “still existing” is a salient point. And as I said earlier, there’s a reason net and his timebomb are hardly used especially in comparison. His timebomb isn’t worth using especially when it takes up Kameo meter. His net can and is used in certain situations, but all this nerf and the overall Kameo nerf did was make it less likely that they’ll be “utilized”.

maybe its just not "one size fits all" anymore. i can imagine good timebomb usage with any character that has a stun, like sub, geras or scorp.

I genuinely don’t know as Idek if the patch notes were ever actually made available

mortalkombat1.bugs.wbgames.com/patch-notes

 

[rifraf]

Is that the nerf? Or is it if you use the full Kameo meter at all it regens slower? Meaning if you use Sektor’s homing missile or now Cyrax’s horizontal kopter chopper it also regens slower. I genuinely don’t know as Idek if the patch notes were ever actually made available

Patch notes are here: https://mortalkombat1.bugs.wbgames.com/patch-notes

I did run through them quickly to make sure, and the delay is mentioned under specific kameos not every single one. So, it shouldn't be universal. Not sure why I thought this was a universal change to all kameos, my bad.

 

[kabelfritz]

Patch notes are here: https://mortalkombat1.bugs.wbgames.com/patch-notes

I did run through them quickly to make sure, and the delay is mentioned under specific kameos not every single one. So, it shouldn't be universal. Not sure why I thought this was a universal change to all kameos, my bad.

i think it is universal for juggling ambushes.

 

[Tony at Home]

I was wrong when I said they overnerfed Cyrax. He's still really good

Source: got bodied all last night

 

[kabelfritz]

Has the game been crashing more for anyone else since the patch? I'm in PS5.

game stability is still a mess for me.

 

[Saltea Moonspell]

I consider the Kameo regen delay after using two in combo a nerf across the board since it affects all characters and kameos in the game.

Fair enough.