Well that's complete bollocks to be honest. Right now, with his tools as they currently are, Stryker is not going to win any tournaments. He just doesn't have the reliability he needs. When NR buffs him and fixes training mode, I will take him to tournaments. Until then, I'm pretty much done with this game.
I'm fucking dumb I hate this character and I have zero patience to learn a new one so I'm stuck with Stryker for Evo and probably still won't want to learn anymore characters (because on blast - learning in this game is dogshit awful so I'll exit that vomit inducing experience and keep playing Stryker).
"When NRS buffs him and fixes training mode"
Oh you mean waiting for MK10?
They didn't even make Stryker hat with the bullshit avatar trash they added for every other character. Clearly an after thought lower tier character who has only gotten worse as far as matchups as none of these DLC characacters even feel 5-5.
As far as a fight gaming player I can't help but feel sort of let down and disapointed. Kind of hyped myself for this game too much I think after Evo I can look forward too not having to play this as right now this game has cost me a lot of my time and money, so I am willing to break even now and say fuck it. But we'll have to see...
So couple things.
I'm noticing that the tools Stryker has are kind of trash when you look at what they lack.
The X-Ray is garbage. Yes it can technically be linked in a combo but apart from being extremly trash in a scaled combo its considerably nerfed. Its a high that can be ducked under, blocked and crossed up super easily - can be hit out of and safe jumped to be baited. In many match ups its worthless and in other matchups its worth is debateable (the only legitimate ones I can think of is Sheeva).
The zoning tools are hard countered by teleports, sky drops, parries, etc, and yet the risk is so high for piddly reward.
Stryker has a lot of worthless Strings.
What the fuck is the point of 1, 1, 4 anyone? Why do 1, 1, 4 for 11% damage when 1 directly into 4 is both safer and pushes them further back.
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What the fuck is the point of 2 , 3 , 2 ? So I can do 2, 3, into roll toss or sweep? Why don't I do a real combo into of a terribly unsafe and unrewarding trash string. Waste of time.
Standing 2 and back 2 are so unsafe and yet both are taking up 25% of Strykers button mapping. If you put a standing 2 or back 2 on screen accidentially - you are going to eat a million dicks for your failure.
Stryker has nothing that auto corrects. Fuck all. A lot of it should, IE if I want to punish someone who I know is going to teleport so I do it on reaction and I'm facing the wrong way because a common bug I found is if I do Strykers X-Ray and my animation for standing is facing one way theres a chance its straightup lying to me so they get a free combo and I lose all my meter.
No combos, no specials, X-Ray, nothing.
This character I have played since release, has been extremely uphill and I have reaped very little reward. A guy who played Tekken picked up MK9 and beat my Stryker with his day old Kung Lao @ PDP. Says that hes a fast learner but shows that even with me playing from release from my character I still lacked the essential bug free-tools that a character should need to compete at a high level. I'd rather they stop expanding the cast and give me an option to give them money to improve the current cast that feels to me - unpolished, and almost still in beta for many characters in the cast.
On a positive note down 1 as an anti-air off a crossup if it lands on an opponent in the corner I can get a 9-6% combo doing a johnny cage style juggle occasinally where the only thing I can hit the opponent with is the down 1 so I can repeatedly hit them in a juggle state crouching for many hits and the potential is high for last time I did it I hit the opponent 5 times.
Rolltoss phases through Johnny Cages enhanced rush kick, as well as nightwolfs charge as well. Also I feel as time goes on rolltoss is going to be less of a useful move as players learn you can poke someone out of it consistently on reaction offline pretty damn easily. My training partner can tell you a lot about the shit Stryker he abuses with Kung Lao I'll get him to give me a list of junk he looks to punish from me.
A change I'd love to see is making back 1, 2, 2 having the first two hits work like subzeros ice sword string where you can check them with it safely - can't tell if thats how it works now but that would make it at least in my mind - more fun than it is now where its an inconsistent punish.
Gripes; revisit standing 2 - this move has potential but falls flat of use outside of safely linking into X-Ray and being a special high is cool (even at 2% chip) - but not if its unrewarding.
I'd also like to see EX-Sweep not lose to normals or specials which are non-enhanced or are just a poke. Sweep in general is highly unsafe for a combination of an offensive and defensive 'wakeup' its sort of does neither properly. Hell even the 2nd hit of ex-sweep won't always come out (ie crossup is non-buggy) but occasionally I will use it and only get the first hit, be unsafe on block AND be punished while costing me bar - health all for nothing.
Stryker is in my opinion a bug infested character that I like to play but when people abuse his holes (just like rape) I want to scream.
And looking at how safe rains teleport is, it seems NRS isn't wanting people to be interested in Stryker outside of his design or aesthetics. As far as a serious fighting game character goes it seems like either I or them is going to do a lot of work to win games. But regardless of how hard I work to make it work, I won't be giving any credit to NRS who has only aided in the uphill battle which is MK9.
Venting is over but seriously NRS pickup your shit.
