Belial
Noob
These posts have become almost a tradition for me right now. I am not a fan, but a dedicated follower of NRS games. As a top player and someone who has done a lot of theory research on fighting games in the past, I cant help but feel NRS keep struggling with the same problems, which in turn lead to poor gameplay experience for us all. With new balance patch coming up I'd like to explain why MKX design fails to achieve balance we strive for.
1) Jumps
A lot has been said about jumping, yet its critics are not totally correct. Jumps play a huge role it MKX footsies and theres a reason.
There is no drawback to jumping. Many jump attacks can reach standing opponent the moment you leave the ground - see Kung Jin, Sub Zero, Mileena, Jax etc. This forces random. You have to guess (outside of outzoning jumps) - will he hit right away? Delay a bit? Do a deep jump punch? Then there are jump kicks that are even harder to AA, reach further, lead to advantage on block...
RR is shifted toward jumping player. Most characters will AA with d2. it deal 14% where you average jump punch leads into 30%+. So you need to outguess 3 to 1 to have a decent RR. Needless to say you cant outguess jumpers 3 to 1 in MKX.
The real problem however are not jumps itself. its UNEQUALITY, which is the core of IMBALANCE. Not every character has good jumps, few characters have good AA. Many characters with great jumps have great footsie tools. In a matchup where player A can outfootsie(see below) player B jumps get even better, worsening MU, leading to more disbalance.
2) Cancel advantage and advantage on guard overall further disbalance. RC is a new mechanic in MKX that is enchanced by ability to build meter hitting block. Ability to create trueblockstrings by exploding kunai or RC some moves isnt bad by itself, but it also lead to imbalance - in MU that you can easier set up this pressure becomes even better. Thus more 7-3
3) Advancing nomrals. This has been a scourge of nrs games since forever and doesnt seem to go away. Footsies should be played on foot, not normals that carry you across the screen without risk nor hurtbox (most of those also lead to pressure described above). Its ok when you have to read poke that deal 3% its not okay to read a safe launched hitting 3/4 screen and get jailed on block. BUT just as above it doesnt automatically make the game bad. But it creates imbalance b/c to win a MU you NEED to be able to get around such normals. And if you dont you need to switch characters, forcing counterpicks and increasing 7-3 MUs.
4) Poor defence.
Game is very offensive-based. Rare defensive options are either unsafe, or expensive or plain weak - often all of it. You have to realize if you have just ONE way to achieve victory then only characters who are good at this ONE things will be top. And you just cant balance 100 characters (exactly this much in MKX) because of it. Precisely what we see happening. There is 100 characters in MKX but tournaments barely see 10. About 10% of the cast is viable - this is TERRIBLE balance. So when next time you see a tournament and get hype that "many" characters see play, check how many characters are left out.
1) Jumps
A lot has been said about jumping, yet its critics are not totally correct. Jumps play a huge role it MKX footsies and theres a reason.
There is no drawback to jumping. Many jump attacks can reach standing opponent the moment you leave the ground - see Kung Jin, Sub Zero, Mileena, Jax etc. This forces random. You have to guess (outside of outzoning jumps) - will he hit right away? Delay a bit? Do a deep jump punch? Then there are jump kicks that are even harder to AA, reach further, lead to advantage on block...
RR is shifted toward jumping player. Most characters will AA with d2. it deal 14% where you average jump punch leads into 30%+. So you need to outguess 3 to 1 to have a decent RR. Needless to say you cant outguess jumpers 3 to 1 in MKX.
The real problem however are not jumps itself. its UNEQUALITY, which is the core of IMBALANCE. Not every character has good jumps, few characters have good AA. Many characters with great jumps have great footsie tools. In a matchup where player A can outfootsie(see below) player B jumps get even better, worsening MU, leading to more disbalance.
2) Cancel advantage and advantage on guard overall further disbalance. RC is a new mechanic in MKX that is enchanced by ability to build meter hitting block. Ability to create trueblockstrings by exploding kunai or RC some moves isnt bad by itself, but it also lead to imbalance - in MU that you can easier set up this pressure becomes even better. Thus more 7-3
3) Advancing nomrals. This has been a scourge of nrs games since forever and doesnt seem to go away. Footsies should be played on foot, not normals that carry you across the screen without risk nor hurtbox (most of those also lead to pressure described above). Its ok when you have to read poke that deal 3% its not okay to read a safe launched hitting 3/4 screen and get jailed on block. BUT just as above it doesnt automatically make the game bad. But it creates imbalance b/c to win a MU you NEED to be able to get around such normals. And if you dont you need to switch characters, forcing counterpicks and increasing 7-3 MUs.
4) Poor defence.
Game is very offensive-based. Rare defensive options are either unsafe, or expensive or plain weak - often all of it. You have to realize if you have just ONE way to achieve victory then only characters who are good at this ONE things will be top. And you just cant balance 100 characters (exactly this much in MKX) because of it. Precisely what we see happening. There is 100 characters in MKX but tournaments barely see 10. About 10% of the cast is viable - this is TERRIBLE balance. So when next time you see a tournament and get hype that "many" characters see play, check how many characters are left out.
