My initial thoughts after playing with all of his variations for hours:
Balanced: The only real change to this var was the damage. Since you can mb 22 now + slightly increased damage on specials, balanced can now get around 36-40% for a bar easily. (Example: jip f32 RK 22 MB f32 TF)
Possessed: The Ji2 off of teleport is a nice addition since you can jail it into 11 or b3. Combine this with b1-tele or the 421 tele tech and you have some solid block pressure and more mixup options.
Kenjutsu: The b1 buff was huge for this var especially. You can now link your combos consistently off of df1 and db1. The b1 also improves his neutral game. From full screen, you can mix it up with run up throw, run up push, run up b1, and bf3.
General:
7f d1
- Great
B1:
- Fast, great recovery
- Only -1 on block so options such as b1, throw / b1, armor / b1, poke / b1 bf2 work really well
- Helps consistency with Kenjutsu combos*
- Helps neutral game
- Quick double hitting = breaks certain armoured attacks
- Builds a good amount of meter if linked to bf2 (jip b1 bf2 builds about half a bar - all vars)
New parry:
- Works like Kotal's > Parry or Multiple Parrys into RK/ EX RK
Needs more labbing.
Damage/ 22 mb:
- Increased damage on specials
- His 2 bar combos are doing around 45-50% in Kenjutsu and Possessed. Not sure about Balanced.
- Balanced increased 1 bar combo damage thanks to 22mb
Overall, some pretty nice improvements. Having a blast playing him again