Second Saint
A man with too many names.
I want to know what characters/variations are struggling in the new meta and why. The patch has been out for a little over a month now, so we've all had some time to formulate opinions, reach conclusions, and possibly even refine those conclusions. I don't really want to hear buffs because, frankly, that's not a useful discussion. I certainly have my own thoughts on how I would help my main, but they will have no real impact, even on the off chance Paulo reads them. What we can do is present issues and possibly raise awareness of those issues throughout the community. Make the case for what the problems are and how they affect your variation negatively.
I'll start with D'vorah, the only character I feel qualified to judge. Venomous is not doing well, which isn't really new. I legitimately think she might be bottom 5. The addition of safe armor was a boon, but at the cost of her chip damage, it has thrown her offense off entirely. The character was balanced around being able to do ~13% chip after a restand. That was the only justification for her complete lack of comboability off the majority of her strings.
This has been an issue throughout the game's life. Only being able to do 17.5% off of f1, her best whiff punisher by far, has always held her back. There used to be a notion that Venomous had the best footsies of D'vorah's variations, but I've always considered that erroneous specifically because she can't convert off of f1. The purpose of footsies is not to land pokes, but actual hits. It takes far more pokes than you are going to land to make up the difference between the damage done by the other variations landing a f1 combo.
While she does have a vortex (not quite a true vortex as the overhead is now armorable) the difference in damage between them is so high that it requires a great deal of conditioning to force someone to block low, as you must land 3 b1~df1's to marginally surpass the damage of one f34 combo. 12% is the best she has, while keeping the opponent standing. It goes up to a whopping 17% for b12~air grab. This threat imbalance between overhead/low doesn't work without the chip. I can't think of any other vortex character that doesn't have the ability to go for max damage combos that end the vortex.
On top of this, Venomous has possibly the least anti-zoning options in the game. She has x-ray and puddle, which is definitely not what it once was at +12 on block, still full combo punishable if baited, and might get you a dash on hit if you traded. Her run speed is, of course, great, but her walk speed is about the same as Bo Rai Cho, possibly worse. No advancing armor, no teleports, no dive kick, no projectile absorb or parries. I actually like that I have to get in honestly. Having a weakness is great, but they need to be off set by strengths, and she is just not particularly strong up close.
Brood Mother I think is actually pretty close to perfect. Her only real problem is the massive amount of gaps and certain characters (Kano, Reptile, Scorpion, Sub, Mileena, Jacqui, and D'vorah herself) low profile blocking her projectiles, which completely changes how she can pressure. Whenever BM attempts an ex bug blast combo, there are 2 gaps. First, it can be interrupted meterlessly for a full combo by jabbing between the normal and the bug blast itself. Then the ex bug blast also has a gap between the projectiles, allowing the second one to be low profiled for either a poke or d2. So b1()ex df1(), both meterlessly punishable. BM also gets zoned as hard as Venomous in many matchups due to how slow her projectile is.
Swarm Queen, I don't feel qualified to speak on. I never could get the cancels down in an actual game, which is why I played the other two more. Seems like it's not what it was, but not horrible either.
Anyways, your characters and their issues. Tell me, I want to know.
I'll start with D'vorah, the only character I feel qualified to judge. Venomous is not doing well, which isn't really new. I legitimately think she might be bottom 5. The addition of safe armor was a boon, but at the cost of her chip damage, it has thrown her offense off entirely. The character was balanced around being able to do ~13% chip after a restand. That was the only justification for her complete lack of comboability off the majority of her strings.
This has been an issue throughout the game's life. Only being able to do 17.5% off of f1, her best whiff punisher by far, has always held her back. There used to be a notion that Venomous had the best footsies of D'vorah's variations, but I've always considered that erroneous specifically because she can't convert off of f1. The purpose of footsies is not to land pokes, but actual hits. It takes far more pokes than you are going to land to make up the difference between the damage done by the other variations landing a f1 combo.
While she does have a vortex (not quite a true vortex as the overhead is now armorable) the difference in damage between them is so high that it requires a great deal of conditioning to force someone to block low, as you must land 3 b1~df1's to marginally surpass the damage of one f34 combo. 12% is the best she has, while keeping the opponent standing. It goes up to a whopping 17% for b12~air grab. This threat imbalance between overhead/low doesn't work without the chip. I can't think of any other vortex character that doesn't have the ability to go for max damage combos that end the vortex.
On top of this, Venomous has possibly the least anti-zoning options in the game. She has x-ray and puddle, which is definitely not what it once was at +12 on block, still full combo punishable if baited, and might get you a dash on hit if you traded. Her run speed is, of course, great, but her walk speed is about the same as Bo Rai Cho, possibly worse. No advancing armor, no teleports, no dive kick, no projectile absorb or parries. I actually like that I have to get in honestly. Having a weakness is great, but they need to be off set by strengths, and she is just not particularly strong up close.
Brood Mother I think is actually pretty close to perfect. Her only real problem is the massive amount of gaps and certain characters (Kano, Reptile, Scorpion, Sub, Mileena, Jacqui, and D'vorah herself) low profile blocking her projectiles, which completely changes how she can pressure. Whenever BM attempts an ex bug blast combo, there are 2 gaps. First, it can be interrupted meterlessly for a full combo by jabbing between the normal and the bug blast itself. Then the ex bug blast also has a gap between the projectiles, allowing the second one to be low profiled for either a poke or d2. So b1()ex df1(), both meterlessly punishable. BM also gets zoned as hard as Venomous in many matchups due to how slow her projectile is.
Swarm Queen, I don't feel qualified to speak on. I never could get the cancels down in an actual game, which is why I played the other two more. Seems like it's not what it was, but not horrible either.
Anyways, your characters and their issues. Tell me, I want to know.
