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Jax needs help

Zubro

Noob
Jax is a great character on paper but in practice he struggles to put his game plan in motion. I'm not a pro by any means but I've played close to 3000 matches with him And I'm well acquainted with his flaws.

The way I see it is that Jax has two main problems. The first is that he is pretty bad at footsies and second is that he gets zoned out quite easily.

For footsies. His best button is F2 which is a great button that leads to absolutely nothing (outside of expert grappler) I don't think it's even cancellable into his combo extenders and It's not confirmable anyway. you can use it as a Stagger but on hit it leaves the opponent too far to do any meaningful follow-up except another f2.
And if you do finish the string the overhead has a gap and the low is punishable. His other footsie tool is d3 which is good but other than those two buttons he has nothing else. Maybe f4 but it’s just a worse version of f2.

Im not sure how to fix this but the best thing I can think of is to make expert grappler a universal move because it’s absolutely necessary for any pressure and without it f2 is kinda useless. Also maybe f2 on hit shouldn’t push the opponent so far away allowing for maybe f3 or s2 Also the f4 string should not whiff on Crouch blocking opponents.

Zoning. Jax has great zoning when he has heat but without heat he is a pylon. If he is full screen against a zoner he has absolutely no option but to slowly inch his way forward. You can use stiff armed at a certain distance but it is high risk low reward. My biggest problem with this is that it knocks the opponent full screen and you have to dash up and hope you make a good read on wake up.

The way I think they should fix this is to make mb stiff armed drop the opponent at Jax’s feet so he can start his pressure game. Also they should make Briggs barricade actually useful.

The last fix I think Jax absolutely needs — at least for me, is to his 221122 string. Half the kast can easily poke out on the fourth hit.
What do you guys think Jax needs?
 
I agree with most of these points. Jax is not good for tournament play because of how hard it is to play footsies with him against the stronger footsy characters. I think your suggestion about stiff armed is a great change because it makes the move way less risky. I stiff armed needs to be faster or have some type anti projectile armor added to it.
 
I too have played a lot of Jax and agree with you as regards getting zoned out, it’s an absolute nightmare and can be performed by pretty much the entire cast. It would help if they made buckshot a mid with enough hit stun to allow you to get in efficiently but not make it so broken you’re always stupidly + against a grounded opponent up close. You need a good wave dash to get in with Jax I feel, otherwise you’re a sitting duck.

Once Jax is in his staggers are pretty monstrous, most people respect F2 options enough to allow you to transition into F33 or D1 cmd grab/D1,2 amp stiff armed and continue pressure.

I think most people are split on opinion with Jax. Anyone that watches Ninjakilla will swear he’s broken and oppressive but Ninjakilla has some of the most flawless execution in the scene for movement and consistent corner combos that aren’t as easy as they appear.
 

LaidbackOne

Scrubby nice guy
Not really. Imo his base kit needs only fixes. Any buffs would be a luxury because he is a really good upper, mid tier character. His customs (except 2211, air grab, command grab and 1+3) the other hand are underwhelming and could use some changes.

1.I’d love the stance cancels to have usable frames (for a defensive bar) cuz at this point they are super punishable and gimmicky.
  1. Would be nice if his stance bf2 amp was a bit faster, it goes under highs but it really has to be a super good read to actually hit most characters before they recover.
  2. Buff the startup to his parry and let him hold it. This would actually help him in some mu’s. Right now he can use it in matchups in which he doesnt really loose the zoning war that much.
 
he do needs help. but not dmg wise he does very good damage now because of the launcher.

but here a quick summary (AGAIN IMO)

since the patch not a single of his mu changed. meaning that he got dmg buffs and thats it nothing as changed for him.

12 (+1) still means nothing for anyone with 6f d1.
F4 still sucks and doesnt crush lows.
f2 leads to nothing and isnt hit confirmable.
F2d4 on hit still puts a huge wide gap between your opponent that can just walk back and punish you if you try to dash up and oki.
quad grab kb still hard as fuck online for no reasons.
f33 staggers a gimmick that you can react to cause you can just wait for jax to drop his foot on the ground then its your turn.
he doesnt have a real armor breaker beside his FB
gotcha corner resets (wall bounce) frames are a lie they arent +14 like they said
 

LaidbackOne

Scrubby nice guy
he do needs help. but not dmg wise he does very good damage now because of the launcher.

but here a quick summary (AGAIN IMO)

since the patch not a single of his mu changed. meaning that he got dmg buffs and thats it nothing as changed for him.

12 (+1) still means nothing for anyone with 6f d1.
F4 still sucks and doesnt crush lows.
f2 leads to nothing and isnt hit confirmable.
F2d4 on hit still puts a huge wide gap between your opponent that can just walk back and punish you if you try to dash up and oki.
quad grab kb still hard as fuck online for no reasons.
f33 staggers a gimmick that you can react to cause you can just wait for jax to drop his foot on the ground then its your turn.
he doesnt have a real armor breaker beside his FB
gotcha corner resets (wall bounce) frames are a lie they arent +14 like they said
I’d agee with your first point if NRS had a history of buffing lower tier characters to the level of the top ones but I don’t believe it will happen. In the current situation you’d have another Jacqui with +2 jabs ( much worse jabs in Jax’s case ) and a 9 frame hit confirmable safe mid.