Guilty Gear -STRIVE-

[Swindle]

So season pass 2 is gonna add four characters. Sadly there wasn't any clue in the small teaser they released yesterday and I'm not up to the latest datamine news so I don't know what to expect!

Daisuke gave us the clue during his Story Mode 2 presentation. He said to pay careful attention to the characters that show up. So, we will have a good idea who will be DLC in late April when the mode releases.

 

[Arqwart]

Patch notes dropped this morning for the upcoming June 10th patch. It's.. a lot.

[Ver. 1.18] Patch Notes | NEWS | GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- | ARC SYSTEM WORKS

GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- OFFICIAL SITE

www.guiltygear.com

 

[Gooberking]

I read through them earlier. Not sure what a few of the system changes actually mean, but in general I didn't get the impression they were trying to turn the volume down on much of anything.

 

[Swindle]

Eh, I’ll wait for Rooflemonger’s breakdown.

 

[Second Saint]

Gio changes seem fun. A couple of nerfs (The 214K lower hitbox nerf is potentially very serious depending on degree), but overall buffs across the board and they're differentiating kickflip to be more of a mixup tool than a pressure tool. If we get meterless combos off flip kick....hell yeah. Chip damage at 50% meter, every 7f DP got increased startup, so c.s OTG safe jumps should work on everyone.

As long as 214K can't be 6P'd, I think we made out pretty well. Saw some people saying the directional dash inputs will ruin dash blocking, but I'll believe that when I see it.

 

[Arqwart]

I read through them earlier. Not sure what a few of the system changes actually mean, but in general I didn't get the impression they were trying to turn the volume down on much of anything.

Funny enough, it looks like yet another patch where they're turning the volume UP across the board. The universal mechanical changes are all individually low impact but should mix things up a lot in conjunction. Toss in characters having shitty specials buffed and already there's a plethora of new stuff for everyone.

Testament got buffs all across the board so I'm happy. ArcSys was so clearly terrified of Testament being bonkers that they went way overkill on curbing their power budget to start. Should hopefully move them out of the "Strictly worse Ky" situation.

Depending on how much they lowered the cost of fast RCs, everyone may have to learn more fast RC shenanigans. Not excited for being on the receiving end of more of that, honestly.

 

[Arqwart]

Watched our resident monkey man's update video and, as always, he explains the implications of the changes quite well. For those not interested in spending almost two hours to listen / watch, just know the following:

General Facts

• I-No, Testament, Faust, Axl, Ky, Chipp, Goldlewis, Jack-O', Baiken, and Millia got all or mostly buffs
• Anji, Zato, Sol, May, Potemkin, Nagoriyuki, Giovanna, Ramlethal, and Leo got shifts in power budget via a combination of nerfs and buffs to various things
• Happy Chaos got a seemingly large shift in power budget to focus more on close pressure loops instead of zoning
• Lots of characters just got way more options to control their movement and/or certain specials
• Fast roman cancels into normals / specials got a lot better due to spending less meter AND slowing down close opponents
• Small pokes got a lot better because they can do a counter hit time slow now
• Hopefully no one should have 2k -> 2d whiffs on hit anymore
• 5k and c.S can now be dash canceled by everyone (who has a dash)

Personal Opinions

• Meter is now even MORE important due to fast RC and RRC changes
• Anji is likely to stay bottom 1, but now he'll be alone in his tier as Jack-O', Testament, Goldlewis, and Faust appear to be heading off on a mid-tier adventure
• Many characters are getting more and more "unlocked" as the game goes on. A perfect example is I-No as she will have even MORE movement options
• Testament should now differentiate themselves from big button pressure loopers (Ky and Ram) a lot more due to being a MUCH better zoner now
• Neutral is going to be a little more explosive with pokes causing counter hits and many f.S and 2S buttons being buffed
• Potemkins getting access to more fast RC Busters is going to make me tear my hair out
• The top tiers aren't really going anywhere. It's more that additional characters will be moving further up alongside them
• If you hated fighting Giovanna before, get ready. She can now increase / decrease her dash distance manually, her flip kick is now a manually-controlled cross up option, and she gets chip damage on everything at 50% meter now instead of 100%

 

[Second Saint]

Watched our resident monkey man's update video and, as always, he explains the implications of the changes quite well. For those not interested in spending almost two hours to listen / watch, just know the following:

General Facts

• I-No, Testament, Faust, Axl, Ky, Chipp, Goldlewis, Jack-O', Baiken, and Millia got all or mostly buffs
• Anji, Zato, Sol, May, Potemkin, Nagoriyuki, Giovanna, Ramlethal, and Leo got shifts in power budget via a combination of nerfs and buffs to various things
• Happy Chaos got a seemingly large shift in power budget to focus more on close pressure loops instead of zoning
• Lots of characters just got way more options to control their movement and/or certain specials
• Fast roman cancels into normals / specials got a lot better due to spending less meter AND slowing down close opponents
• Small pokes got a lot better because they can do a counter hit time slow now
• Hopefully no one should have 2k -> 2d whiffs on hit anymore
• 5k and c.S can now be dash canceled by everyone (who has a dash)

Personal Opinions

• Meter is now even MORE important due to fast RC and RRC changes
• Anji is likely to stay bottom 1, but now he'll be alone in his tier as Jack-O', Testament, Goldlewis, and Faust appear to be heading off on a mid-tier adventure
• Many characters are getting more and more "unlocked" as the game goes on. A perfect example is I-No as she will have even MORE movement options
• Testament should now differentiate themselves from big button pressure loopers (Ky and Ram) a lot more due to being a MUCH better zoner now
• Neutral is going to be a little more explosive with pokes causing counter hits and many f.S and 2S buttons being buffed
• Potemkins getting access to more fast RC Busters is going to make me tear my hair out
• The top tiers aren't really going anywhere. It's more that additional characters will be moving further up alongside them
• If you hated fighting Giovanna before, get ready. She can now increase / decrease her dash distance manually, her flip kick is now a manually-controlled cross up option, and she gets chip damage on everything at 50% meter now instead of 100%

To add on to that last point, she also benefits from the light attacks getting ch slowdowns a lot more than most characters. If sepultura wasn't gutted and made 6p-able, I think she'll end up stronger than before, though not necessarily higher on the tier list since who can really say before a patch like this is even here.

My Goldlewis training partner who had dropped the character appears to be going back because the buffs were so significant. I mean, kara BT's can go a long way, especially if that makes it a little easier to actually do the 684 or 862 raw. Lots of potential for these buffs. He went on to main Testament, so right now he is very happy with the patch notes, lol.

 

[Mandolore1123]

Faust buffs are SUBSTANTIAL

 

[Arqwart]

Testament feels like they're not intentionally hampered at every turn now. Each of the frame changes seems pretty small, but there were so many that Testament feels much more "complete." Better neutral, better defense, better confirms, more consistent combos, more options, better speed - just a strictly better state than before

They now have the option to make reads on people attempting to jump Bird and arent hampered by upwards Grave Reaper messing up their ability to Bird due to the manual forward flight option. Though I will say that Bird's manual forward flight is very.. loose. Anything more than a light tap on P when inputting the move is going to result in it going forward instead of to the succubus. Definitely feels odd to get used to.

Additional hitbox on Bird to succubus alongside the increased active frames is bonkers. A succubus at most 2/3rds screen away will result in Bird hitting someone full screen away (an uncharged Grave Reaper will result in a Bird -> succubus hit from full screen). It's a big ass area and it pushes forward a lot more. Jumping or clashing it with a projectile are now the only options to avoid it.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Anji got overall buffed by the changes, and has many times now been described as finally being a real boy. But, he lost the 'hits hard if he does hit' part of his old kit, so he feels less fun to play for some.

Leo got mostly just nerfs, so a lot of Leo players have switched to anything else. His dash sweep is now a missile covering 3/4 of the screen, and Blitzschlag is just better in all the ways.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1536949116491603968

But they have to do something about the fastRC giving everyone infinite blockstrings:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1535358887255281667

 

[Second Saint]

Anji got overall buffed by the changes, and has many times now been described as finally being a real boy. But, he lost the 'hits hard if he does hit' part of his old kit, so he feels less fun to play for some.

Leo got mostly just nerfs, so a lot of Leo players have switched to anything else. His dash sweep is now a missile covering 3/4 of the screen, and Blitzschlag is just better in all the ways.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1536949116491603968

But they have to do something about the fastRC giving everyone infinite blockstrings:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1535358887255281667

Most infinite blockstrings aren't real. I keep seeing them posted, and almost none are shown against FD. I kept seeing it so much, I decided to make the ultimate infinite if no one uses any of the many options available to stop it.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1536038516005687304

 

[Arqwart]

Fun Testament pressure tool: fully charged heavy Grave Reaper at point blank in the corner is basically guard crush levels of plus on block. If you get a stain pop block setup, you can easily do it into said Grave Reaper then do whatever the hell you want.

 

[Second Saint]

Fun Testament pressure tool: fully charged heavy Grave Reaper at point blank in the corner is basically guard crush levels of plus on block. If you get a stain pop block setup, you can easily do it into said Grave Reaper then do whatever the hell you want.

My training partner will also just go for arbiter sign, since stain makes it +4

 

[Mandolore1123]

Fun Testament pressure tool: fully charged heavy Grave Reaper at point blank in the corner is basically guard crush levels of plus on block. If you get a stain pop block setup, you can easily do it into said Grave Reaper then do whatever the hell you want.

Can't people duck under the projectile for H reaper? Or does the point blank make it so they are jailed into blocking it?