Played him exclusively in the beta (only had it for about a week or two) and I don't know what it is, but the character felt very limited. Shield bash wake up was great. Hard to punish but death on whiff. However, being no practice mode, never really got a chance to master his floating ability. I can see that helping him out a lot in the game though if used properly.
Also, couldn't find much use for his trait but it's use might be MU specific. Watched a video of SonicFox using the character too and even he seemed to be having trouble. Overall, fun character though. I'm sure much with him will have changed from the beta till now. I doubt I'll use him at all, but I'm looking forward to testing him a bit more when I can actually get some real practice in.
You're certainly not the only one that felt that way. The core problems I felt with him were that his stagger game, advancing mids were weak. It's weird seeing Blue Beetle's advancing mid string be full combo punishable when Superman's is significantly faster, cancellable at multiple points AND safe. Trait activation was pretty long considering it removes his projectile and gives him range, you would think a stance change trait would be more quick and forgiving.
I suspect he'll have a safe Forward 2, 3 with legit stagger options on release, quicker trait activation/recovery and maybe slightly better recovery on his diagonal air projectile(Cyborg seems to have this in more recent builds while also being able to cover more parts of the screen with his fireballs). Safety, recovery and damage seemed to be the biggest complaints people gave.
I feel like he just overall wasn't finished and he seems like a character you absolutely need practice mode for him. You can learn stuff on the fly, but refining things just really didn't feel feasible.
He does have some great strengths though too, he just feels incomplete. His ground projectile is great, back 1 is a really good, safe mid that is only minus one and shield bash is great in concert with back 1 it creates immense pushback that makes it even safer.
His overhead string (back 2, 3) also seems like it has the makings of a great corner escape string and it crosses up so he can mix in shield bash, projectile and low to mess with you. Beetle also has great jump normals and great anti-air so he has the makings of a solid character, he just needs some fine tuning, which I'm sure he got.
There's also this video I saw online where he has a new mid match win pose from the beta and it kind of looks like the projectile could hit mid, but the way Deadshot blocks it looks weird so it's up in there air.
Starts at 5:30 and at 10:06 it kind of looks like the projectile could hit mid??
I'm looking forward to playing as him! He's one of my favorite characters and I wanted him since the first game (even made a DLC thread for him). In my view he probably has the best gear and shaders in the game! Legendary Golden Beetle is a thing of beauty!!!
His gear looks great overall, I love the gold and blueish hues on him, but I'm also hoping for gear he gets some unmasked looks he has had over time like this one or his mohawk one from the Teen Titans:
I don't have any intention of using him, but a Ted Kord premier skin would be nice for the people who were fans of one of his older incarnations.
