To be fair im not impress with their balancing team and how they handle things.
I will talk about the highest possible level, cause this is where balance should take place.
What they do is inconsistent. For certain characters, that was really good, not broken or OP, they totally smash them and give them "special" treatment, and others who was OP since day 1, the treatment was to tune down a completely broken move with 2 frames, and thats it all.
After some time, it became obvious, that the most important things are fast mids, KBs, FBs, and we can add zoning/anti zoning tools.
I was happy at the beginnings with how KBs/FBs looks and work, and i was happy that there was such diversity, rushdown characters, let said it range characters and zoning characters.
The first thing that comes to mind is that there will be great diversity in matches and different styles will clash and there will be a lot of room for countering certain type of character with other.
On paper everything is good.
But then we have a rushdown character, that also best KBs in game, one of the best FB, that kills the neutral game, and the so call rushdown also have one of the best zoning and anti-zoning ING, there is a big problem.
So how can i be happy with their balance team, when certain characters have zero viable KBs, their FB suck**, and they get nerfed to the ground, because a solid player use them, but character with 7, 5 of them with stupid easy to get KBs, one of the best FB ing, best mid, best zoning anti-zoning and so on just get away with just a +2f to a move, that should have been worst from the start.
At the begining i was happy that there will be big diversity, but thats not paper. I have no problem with strong characters, but when this characters have weak spots.
Examples:
Cassie Cage, she was strong but fair, her FB sucked, she also lacked KBs, still have bad matches and you need to use both of her variation, depends of the MU.
And what they did, they almost erased her from the game, when she was perfectly alright. No one at PRO level have any real success with her. Semij is using her, but his results are so so and he constantly look for a new main.
Erron Black, he was strong, but he was over nerfed.
Geras is getting constantly nerfing from the start of the game, im okay with that.
Sonya was extra strong and get deserved nerf, im okay with that.
Jacqui Briggs was strong and its still strong, but at least she is fair, she is completely lacking at zoning department, her FB is bad, and her KB are lacking.
Upgraded was dumb from the beginning, and makes you wonder how they decide to put her in that state. Yeah they nerfed her straight away, but why not balanced her, before even released her variation ? You just make more work, because you are again working on the same character after that.
And here comes my problem from the beginning - Liu Kang. Ultra OP/Broken from the beginning, its like he is made from other game. So far we were talking about strong characters, but fair, they lack in certain compartment, yet Kang have it all.
You dont even need to switch to his other variation to counter, you have it all in Luohan Quan variation.
The only character ING that you cant dodge his zoning. His amplified low fireball makes you take a damage.
So he is a rushdown character with insane pressure, and for a bonus you give him 2KBs on his throw, and 5 more, 3 of them laughable easy requirement, and the fun to continue with his FB that kills the neutral, and its not ending here, his zoning is insane. And he outzone zoners, because of his Flying Dragon Kick, that counters everything and its a full screen, and you can even amplify it and there is KB on it as well.
And everything you do is to give +2f to the best move ingame, and still make F4 the best move ING ....
And the fun not end here. This character totally erase getup options, because of his KB parry. And of course its not ending here, this is not only the stupiest character, but also its the easiest, you can learn it for a few hours. There is nothing hard about it.
You will guess that if they make some character super strong, at least the character will require some insane skill, but no, they make it also super easy.
And what really got me was the last patch. They decide to nerf Joker throw KBs requirment, a character that is hard to masterAce of Knaves and was totally fair, and his KBs requirement was perfectly okay.
Answer me, why touch Joker KBs requirment, but not Liu Kang ones that are stupid easy ? His requirment on his KBs to both throw are laughable i mean you are punished for teching a throw .... And what was the point to make only use one throw Krushing Blow per match if you have 2x KBs on throws with escape fail requirement. Why not just remove one of the KBs throw ? At least then you will have to choose to tech the throw that have KBs and eat less damage if failure.
But no NRS logic.
Im not happy with their balancing team and im not happy with having a character that is all in one and its kinda the best in every aspect.
Not happy with letting a character that is all in one goes away with just +2f nerf, and in the same time you are nerfing other characters to the ground, that was good, but was lacking in certain departments, aka Cassie in KBs and FB.
Not happy with certain characters, that have like 2 moves and are super boring to play, and have zero options.
Not happy with some characters, that are bad from the begining of the game and they cant fix them to this day, aka Kotal Khan, Shao Khan, Kano, Raiden, Kitana(maybe she will be okay now), Kollector and DVorah for example.
