OK! So Fisticuffs got a HUGE BUFF!!! The speed bag brutality now happens on hit or block.
In all seriousness though, FC still seems bad.
(sorry this post got longer than intended)
It is still really inconsistent on how many hits you got on block(I still doubt that this is fixable). In addition a number of characters got faster armor and can now armor through of speed bag that couldn't before.
The game wide chip nerf hurts Fist Bump since you get less damage from that overall. I wish they just tripled his chip damage with it active on everything not just speed bag, since with the chip nerf in reality it would only be a 20% buff from what it was pre patch. He still has no safe way to set up Fist Bump off of any block string that isn't s4(which is ~-6/7 but can still be punished by ExSpin depending on where KL is in his breathing animation when he blocks
). So in order to activate Fist Bump you still need to sacrifice a bunch of damage/nut punch off of a clean hit, which is rare enough with FC as it is. I also don't get why they removed b2's cancel.
With the d4 nerf his turn ends after an opponent blocks anything except 11(wish it was made like -3 instead of -6). The d3 change may help with that though, will have to wait and see. The speed bag damage buff while FB is active is cute but doesn't really help him. The throw buff in FB is really nice, but FB is still tough to activate so this doesn't seem game changing for him(maybe I'm wrong though).
Also the second Ex Forceball still goes over some characters heads in block strings.
This is all just first impressions though, so who knows really.
Maybe in another 6 months they will shave another frame off of speed bag's startup/block advantage. After giving a bunch of characters faster armor and nearly every character a 6/7 frame poke idk what they are so worried about. It would still be average even if they made it 9 frames or -2 on block. *still bitter, so don't mind me*
With Fist Bump active the highest damage I've gotten consistently in the corner on small hit boxes is
f24, b12, b12, b12-12, b12-12-12-12-12xxBD3 for 44%
f24, b12, b12, b12, b12-12-12-12-12-12xxBD3 for 44%
Trying to figure out what the most consistent combo to hit is. I'm sure there are others as you just need some combination of 18 hits of speed bag for 44%.
tldr; To sum up Fisticuffs still has no real pressure. Fist Bump was made worse by the games chip nerf. The Fist Bump throw is really nice, but isn't going to help much since Fist Bump is still tough to get out without a knock down. The d4 being -6 hurts FC more than the other variations but may end up fine with the d3 change. Again, just first impressions.
fuck it no big deal
