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General/Other - Balanced Balanced core and identity (hotfix ideas)

ismael4790

Stay focused or get Caged
To all Kenshi players, and in specific, Balanced players,

I was rewatching the last Kombat Kast dedicated to patch notes, and I want to highlight some words of Lord Ed Boon in his introduction:

"We wanted to make sure all the characters mantained their core, strategy and fighting style, and their identity"

Listening to this, first thing that comes to mind is that this objective Boon said they had with the patch, has NOT been accomplished at all with Balanced Kenshi.

If something defined this variation (always considered worse than the other two) and the main reason for players to pick it, was the threat of armor and the strong antiair and anticrossup game he had, that in some sense compensated for his very weak close up game.
That has completely gone, due to a general change in the game that, in this case, didn't took into account the identity of the character nor gave other set of tools to compensate for the loss of that vital function. His signature and consistent antiair/anticrossup move, exrisingkarma, is now basically useless, and without it many of his matchups have become significantly worse.

Let's assume his old armored exrising karma couldn't go back in the same form he had (1 bar, 1 hit of armor, and around 31% damage), even when we can see that Unbreakable sub, another of the bottom tier variations, has kept intact his 1 bar armored launcher.

I will propose here the three options I consider more logical to make this move worthy again:

  1. Give Exrisingkarma 1 hit of armor, but with a similar behaviour to the one Possessed Kenshi exdb1 had, so Kenshi can only do a teleflurry after it, getting 19% damage. This keeps intact his antiair and anticrossup options, but tones down the damage.


  2. Give exrising karma 1 hit of armor, but make it so it doesn't launch the opponents for kombo, just throws them away. If Kenshi wants to get damage, he has to spend another bar (like Mileena or Goro now, for example) to pop up the opponent ang get the usual damage. Again, this gives him back his antiair and anticrossup threat, but reduces the times he can get true damage off it.


  3. Give the move 1 hit of armor and make it launch for combo, but change the scaling, so he can only get around 22-24% maximum of damage after it. I'm not convinced with this third option though, because it will hurt his corner combos relying on exrisingkarma, but I list it too as a possibility.

Seeing characters as Unbreakable having armor launcher (with long range and basically unreactable), or Jax having a 22-24% 1 bar double armor launcher that is -9 on block and works wounders as antiair and anticrossup, I can't see any logical reason why Kenshi couldn't get one of the options above, specially when it was a vital part of his gameplan.


What are the suggestions you would do to change this move so he gets back its old functionality?
Maybe you think he should get a different move/s to cover that? Share all your thoughts.

Although exrisingkarma change has been the main negative "surprise" of this patch, if you have more ideas regarding other moves or things you think this variation should get changed, feel free to share your thoughts.

Discuss!


@Pig Of The Hut @Immortal @DarksydeDash @MrProfDrPepper @Fellow_Swordsman @coconutshrimp @DDutchguy
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PapaRegadetho

All hail emperor Liucifer Kang!
Oh Jesus , another one...Hotfixes should adress bugs, glitches, things that weren't intendet to be in the game. I'm sorry your character apparently is still bad, but don't think for a second that you and your community are the only one who feels the core of your character has been drastically changed. Time to adapt and hit the lab boys.
 

ismael4790

Stay focused or get Caged
Oh Jesus , another one...Hotfixes should adress bugs, glitches, things that weren't intendet to be in the game. I'm sorry your character apparently is still bad, but don't think for a second that you and your community are the only one who feels the core of your character has been drastically changed. Time to adapt and hit the lab boys.
Patch, hotfixes, call it as you want: opportunities to change things.

If you feel your character's identity has been lost, or a move around which his whole gameplan revolved has been destroyed, the forums of that character are there waiting to hear it.
 

coconutshrimp

Damn vro, hadda mess with yo auntie
Any one of these changes would be better than his current EX RK.

I think tho that the armor was only a part of Balanced Kenshi's identity. The rest of it is zoning which as of now is better, but still could use some touching on with The frames of Tele Flurry on whiff imo, and ofc EX Tele Flurry should have all hits come out on block.
 

tatterbug4

Bug of tater's
I honestly feel balanced is alright at what it does. It's not something you can pick every match up. That's why there is multiple variations. In a match up where you need to zone he can zone pretty hard and is a really good counter zoner.
 

PapaRegadetho

All hail emperor Liucifer Kang!
Patch, hotfixes, call it as you want: opportunities to change things.

If you feel your character's identity has been lost, or a move around which his whole gameplan revolved has been destroyed, the forums of that character are there waiting to hear it.
My character has been changed, alot actually. But it is waaay to early to tell if my character needs improvements or not. Point is, we need to give these new meta some time to breath and find some new stuff. You lost armor on your Rising Karma to anti air, so what,use something else to AA. Liu Kang has lost his ability to armor break, which was one of his way to open up people, so what, I now get to zone people for days now, and so do you if im not wrong.
 
I will propose here the three options I consider more logical to make this move worthy again:

  1. Give Exrisingkarma 1 hit of armor, but with a similar behaviour to the one Possessed Kenshi exdb1 had, so Kenshi can only do a teleflurry after it, getting 19% damage. This keeps intact his antiair and anticrossup options, but tones down the damage.


  2. Give exrising karma 1 hit of armor, but make it so it doesn't launch the opponents for kombo, just throws them away. If Kenshi wants to get damage, he has to spend another bar (like Mileena or Goro now, for example) to pop up the opponent ang get the usual damage. Again, this gives him back his antiair and anticrossup threat, but reduces the times he can get true damage off it.
These two ideas make the most sense to me, and would be fair. But is is what it is. You can only hope for some prodigy to pick up Balanced and develop a winning formula with him, or stick to Possessed, until the next patch comes out.
 

Lokheit

Noob
My idea for armor attacks like rising karma, frost bomb, low shatter etc it for them to have armor only as reversals, wake ups, and when the opponent is in the air. And they only launch as an anti air.
I like this idea, heard something similar on the REO podcast with M2Dave, Pig and P2W, armor only as a defensive tool would help a lot with many moves and limiting launching properties for anti-airing helps balancing them.
 

Bruno-NeoSpace

They see me zonin', they hatin'
Yeah, Kenshi really needs a very good anti-air... but I think that armor is not the best solution.

Make his Rising Karma and EX Rising Karma, that sword shoryuken on Kenjutsu and the other one on Possessed 6 frames on startup with better upward hitbox, and put 5 more recovery frames on them to prevent DB1 machine.
 

ismael4790

Stay focused or get Caged
My character has been changed, alot actually. But it is waaay to early to tell if my character needs improvements or not. Point is, we need to give these new meta some time to breath and find some new stuff. You lost armor on your rising karma to anti air, so what,use something else to AA. Liu Kang has lost his ability to armor break, which was one of his way to open up people, so what, I now get to zone people for days now, and so do you if im not wrong.
That is the point, you lost something, you gained something, as you said.

Balanced got no significant buffs to compensate this immense loss (new ex push only impresses people that don't realize that +3 with more pushback means nothing, and exohslash buff was necessary but just complementary). A character that is still so weak up close shouldn't lose his most realiable and threatening antiair. That was basically all he had.

The "give it time" answer is pretty weak, we have been waiting 18 months with a shitty character.
We are experts at identifying when something is shit lol
 

PapaRegadetho

All hail emperor Liucifer Kang!
That is the point, you lost something, you gained something, as you said.

Balanced got no significant buffs to compensate this immense loss (new ex push only impresses people that don't realize that +3 with more pushback means nothing, and exohslash buff was necessary but just complementary). A character that is still so weak up close shouldn't lose his most realiable and threatening antiair. That was basically all he had.

The "give it time" answer is pretty weak, we have been waiting 18 months with a shitty character.
We are experts at identifying when something is shit lol
I only thought Kenshi was bad due to the simple fact that everyone in prepatch MKX was super crazy. Everything has been toned down, you only lost armor on your ONE move to anti air, which in reality is not really that bad, since everyone now can consistently AA with any fast normal.
 

GrimJack

Rock paper scissor specialist
I only thought Kenshi was bad due to the simple fact that everyone in prepatch MKX was super crazy. Everything has been toned down, you only lost armor on your ONE move to anti air, which in reality is not really that bad, since everyone now can consistently AA with any fast normal.
go to the lab. put ermac or scropion to jump 3 and see how many character can aa them consistently.
Hint: not a lot
 

ismael4790

Stay focused or get Caged
I only thought Kenshi was bad due to the simple fact that everyone in prepatch MKX was super crazy. Everything has been toned down, you only lost armor on your ONE move to anti air, which in reality is not really that bad, since everyone now can consistently AA with any fast normal.
Consistently in the lab. In real matches, it's not the same. And even less for crossups.

Losing that move helps the opponent bullying a variation that sucks up close. It's not minor at all.

And all the things that made him bad (mainly bad frames in tf, overheadslash on startup and hit, useless strings, etc...) are still there.
 

errormacro7

Official Sonya simp
You guys the highest eat table to look diamonds Balanced. Balanced if try headphones will hear what say wardrobe according to you. To look more like gets after BnB with a broken meterless dualshock even worse than hideys and catfishes.
 

ismael4790

Stay focused or get Caged
Even with your mentioned buffs, you will continue to lose and then cry for more.
This is not about me or anyone winning or losing.
This is a place to propose changes to improve this variation. If you don't have ideas, this thread is not for you.
 

errormacro7

Official Sonya simp
The thing is, button press buff like the doc has been ships like mermaids. If that machine like a big fish with orange juice could go way higher, then Balanced will red dead like rapping toast dogs.
 

errormacro7

Official Sonya simp
actually yes yes it was 100% necessary
that said make bf3 do the full animation on hit and block i will literally never complain ever again
Here's your answer:

The thing is, button press buff like the doc has been ships like mermaids. If that machine like a big fish with orange juice could go way higher, then Balanced will red dead like rapping toast dogs.