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MK1 December 14th 2023 Update Patch Notes

Felipe_Gewehr

Twinktile
I don’t think that’s “safe to say”. This is only the 2nd somewhat significant balance patch. They could just be giving it a little more time before they make actual balancing decisions with the main roster. Which imo is a good thing in general. But I DO think there’s been enough time to where they could’ve done slight nerfs and slight buffs, but I’m completely fine with them waiting a little longer. I sound like a broken record but I still hope they buff Cyrax to where Horizontal Kopter Chopper uses 75% Kameo meter instead of 100% though.
I agree with this and hope I'm dead wrong. But usually, by this time, mk9 and mkx had significant balance changes IIRC, while MK11 kept the same lukewarm approach. I cant comment on Injustice 1 or 2, as I didnt play any of them. We did receive a major patch in mk11 that addressed the breakway with new breakway-breaking combos/krushing blows, which is what I am anticipating somewhere by the end of 2024/early 2025.
 

Shawi

Noob
Balance is not an exact science. Adjusting health is just one way to try and create balance without changing a character's tool kit in a meaningful way.
Completely agree, its a good point. I would really love it if NRS would engage with the community more, where we could actually get responses to these kinds of questions...like "what is your logic for giving Quan and Nitara 600". We don't all have to agree, but at least they engage with us that way.
 

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
My guess with Quan is that he probably has some fairly strong dirt that was found in testing, and rather than balancing him by making him less interesting, they opted for keeping the dirt and implementing some other safeguards instead (2-bar low launcher, 900 HP, slower d1).

But we'll find out as people lab more.
 

Onilordasmodeus

My GT: UncappedWheel82
Completely agree, its a good point. I would really love it if NRS would engage with the community more, where we could actually get responses to these kinds of questions...like "what is your logic for giving Quan and Nitara 600". We don't all have to agree, but at least they engage with us that way.
I sort agree with you about communication, but really what do you think would be the out come? Plenty of people in the community just like to complain, or would just never agree with what any explanation given. Objectivity is not a common as you may like to believe. Ultimately I think the best idea is to let the devs make the decision, BUT listen to a select few trusted and experienced community members who have a proven track record.
 

Felipe_Gewehr

Twinktile
My guess with Quan is that he probably has some fairly strong dirt that was found in testing, and rather than balancing him by making him less interesting, they opted for keeping the dirt and implementing some other safeguards instead (the 2-bar low launcher, 900 HP, slower d1).

But we'll find out as people lab more.
Its could also just be an arbitrary decision. An example is Scorpion, who is universally agreed upon as having shit buttons. He doesnt have a health buff, despite that - not that +50 health would do anything for him.

Nitara has 950 health because, supposedly, she has to spend health to get some buffs - buffs that are slow and circunstantial, offering little, and sometimes might have her get some small health back. Would she be broken if she had 1000 health and not spend life when activating her buffs? I very much doubt so - and maybe she would still be a bottom tier character lol.

Another example is Havik, who has more health presumably because he has a 3 hit armored move, so he is "supposed" to be hit more often. At the end of the day, they could simply keep him at 1000 health and give his armored hits damage reduction and achieve the same effect.

tldr: changing health values are a lazy and inconsenquential way of balancing.
 
I sort agree with you about communication, but really what do you think would be the out come? Plenty of people in the community just like to complain, or would just never agree with what any explanation given. Objectivity is not a common as you may like to believe. Ultimately I think the best idea is to let the devs make the decision, BUT listen to a select few trusted and experienced community members who have a proven track record.
Let's also not forget what happened to Iron Galaxy and their extremely open communication with Killer Instinct.

tldr: changing health values are a lazy and inconsenquential way of balancing.
I've never been a fan of health changes in fighting games for balance either. The exception being a character like Shao having more health, but that's because of who he is.
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
Premium Supporter
I agree with this and hope I'm dead wrong. But usually, by this time, mk9 and mkx had significant balance changes IIRC, while MK11 kept the same lukewarm approach. I cant comment on Injustice 1 or 2, as I didnt play any of them. We did receive a major patch in mk11 that addressed the breakway with new breakway-breaking combos/krushing blows, which is what I am anticipating somewhere by the end of 2024/early 2025.
My theory is that since Kameos play such a vital role in this game, they’re being more cautious with main Character balance changes. Once Khameleon drops, the Characters + the Kameos = 42 characters you have to balance. That plus there not being many Characters that are TOO overpowered right now and/or even any Characters that are TOO weak. Of course there’s Characters that need a little toning down, and likewise Characters that need a little beefing up. But nothing, imo, that is “urgent”.

Its could also just be an arbitrary decision. An example is Scorpion, who is universally agreed upon as having shit buttons. He doesnt have a health buff, despite that - not that +50 health would do anything for him.

Nitara has 950 health because, supposedly, she has to spend health to get some buffs - buffs that are slow and circunstantial, offering little, and sometimes might have her get some small health back. Would she be broken if she had 1000 health and not spend life when activating her buffs? I very much doubt so - and maybe she would still be a bottom tier character lol.

Another example is Havik, who has more health presumably because he has a 3 hit armored move, so he is "supposed" to be hit more often. At the end of the day, they could simply keep him at 1000 health and give his armored hits damage reduction and achieve the same effect.

tldr: changing health values are a lazy and inconsenquential way of balancing.
Nitara has 600 Health btw, at least according to the new HP values chart. So she’ll only have 950 HP with Darrius, Sareena and Sub. And 1000 HP with Jax, Shujinko and Tremor. With the rest of the Kameos she’ll have either 900 or 850 HP.

I personally don’t mind using HP values as one of the ways you balance the Characters and Kameos. As long as it’s only a small part of the balancing process. My issue is that some of the HP values that they’ve assigned don’t make a whole lotta sense imo. Like why does Nitara only have 600 HP? Why does General Shao (and Havik) have 800 HP? Why does Jax have +400 HP? Maybe they’ve addressed this and I just haven’t seen it, not sure
 

Marlow

Premium Supporter
Premium Supporter
If I had to balance using health, just in theory I'd probably do it based on some kind of matrix based on footsie tools/walk speed, preferred range, and maybe potential damage output.

A character who is rush down/up close fighter but has poor walk speed and an extra large hurt box and depends on landing one BIG hitting combo, and has poor "get in" tools probably makes sense having more health. Treating health as a resource, they'll like need to "spend" more health to try and get in. Think a big body grappler in Street Fighter.

On the other hand, a character with solid walk speed, or good neutral/footsies, or high mobility should in theory have an easier time getting in, so they probably don't need a health buff, and if they have that Big Damage, then it makes more sense to treat them as more of a glass cannon. Kind of like a spellcaster in D&D style games.

It's obviously more complicated and subjective than that, and I'm not saying NRS is correct with their assessments, just saying that you could probably come up with a theory or reasonable explanation for why some characters have more base health than others.

The Kameos I'm not sure, other than just to make it a feature of the Kameo. Maybe you give up more pressure/combo potential with Jax, but he gives your character that extra health as a trade off.
 

Ray'sGoodLiquor

I don't care I'm not a competitive player anymore
The premium skins look pretty cool but all the stuff you can earn in game is the predictable blue/white shite.
 

Son ov Timett

Bork, No Jin
@Ptehu

"sidenote: I can't stand Derek. Dude, you have designed literally the worst single player experience in the history o fighting games. Take the L and stop laughing to us from the screen like an idiot."

This**

I can't stand dude either something about him... Always laughing not addressing the major issues. Ugh, he thanked me for playing the game at EVO I'm like sir I don't need u to tell me that. I been playing mk for how long?
All three Kombat Kast lackeys are insufferable to the senses. LBSH
 

rifraf

Noob
Maybe they’ve addressed this and I just haven’t seen it, not sure
I don't think so but I would love to hear a lead developer talk a bit about their philosophy, especially since it seems we're going to be getting content updates for the game for quite a while.

I got to say, I'm quite pleased with the latest patch though. They seem to be slightly buffing kameos for now which is great, you don't want them go crazy with balancing. Hopefully the characters are next.
 
Is it just me or the new filtering option is a little dumb? Basically each player must OK a match even if they're both <100ms & ethernet?

Surely the smart option was if you're matched with a wifi connection, or if the ping was >150ms like it was already, you get the option to decline?
 
My guess with Quan is that he probably has some fairly strong dirt that was found in testing, and rather than balancing him by making him less interesting, they opted for keeping the dirt and implementing some other safeguards instead (2-bar low launcher,900 HP, slower d1).

But we'll find out as people lab more.
What type of dirt would he have to have to justify this haha,i mean sindel is in the game and she has a loopable vortext htb that also bypasses the htb safeguard that takes away 80%of your life for like what 1 or 2 bars of meter.and as a base she has great buttons and spacing,zoning etc a pretty stacked kit.Yet she has normal health and no bs handicaps like a scuffed d1,or a 2 meter base special ex move.

considering whats in the game,db4 ex being 2 bars makes zero sense,i mean look at his combo damage and the conversions thay come from it lol,you spend 2 bars to do combos in the 30 percent range,or extend existing combos to do 40 ish for 3 bars or the 2 bars with multiple kameo usage.

This smells like they made these decision not for balacing reasons but just for the sake of him being different.And thats dumb.
 

rifraf

Noob
Is it just me or the new filtering option is a little dumb? Basically each player must OK a match even if they're both <100ms & ethernet?

Surely the smart option was if you're matched with a wifi connection, or if the ping was >150ms like it was already, you get the option to decline?
Yeah, there's no filter in place really. They basically give everyone the choice decline no matter what, but the fact you can't see your opponent before declining makes it fair. An actual filter would be better of course, but what we have right now at least makes Ranked playable compared to before. I'm actually having fun. We still need FT3 though.
 

Shawi

Noob
One reason I find this game infuriating sometimes is that I’m always concerned about my win/loss ratio. It literally stares me in the face EVERY time I play online. Has NRS ever implemented an option in the settings like “Hide Win/Loss Numbers”?
 

rifraf

Noob
One reason I find this game infuriating sometimes is that I’m always concerned about my win/loss ratio. It literally stares me in the face EVERY time I play online. Has NRS ever implemented an option in the settings like “Hide Win/Loss Numbers”?
You mean it affects you in ranked specifically or in kasual as well?
 

rifraf

Noob
I don’t really play kasual. The suggestion from me was to hide it just for me though, so I don’t see it on my side.
Yeah, I get it. One thing I find a bit backwards in ranked is the fact there are no "pillows", where after reaching it you can no longer derank. In most modern games with a ranking ladder, this is very common. Having milestones or "pillows" along the way during a ladder, keeps the players more focused on gameplay rather than their win/loss ratio or fear of losing points and deranking.
 

Shawi

Noob
Yeah, I get it. One thing I find a bit backwards in ranked is the fact there are no "pillows", where after reaching it you can no longer derank. In most modern games with a ranking ladder, this is very common. Having milestones or "pillows" along the way during a ladder, keeps the players more focused on gameplay rather than their win/loss ratio or fear of losing points and deranking.
Omg this!!! This is infuriating. Might dm Tyler and ask lol

How was it on MK11? I just completely missed that game I hated it that much.
 
Interesting approach. Instead of direct changes to most of the main roster outside of bug fixes, the kameos are what saw the more significant changes. I kinda like that philosophy if it's what NRS has planned moving forward.

And yeah, it seems like they're fine with where the top tiers are power-wise, at least for now. I wonder how much these kameo changes will affect certain match-ups.
I like the patch overall, they did nerf Johnny damage on Parry and his damage with Sonya and actually found a way to only nerf Johnny using Lao on strings, everyone else used it differently but while also keeping function of low hat since many characters rely on it to cover their flaws.
Remember they could have gutted Lao Kameo hard. There was several tournament players who cried about Lao hat and wanted it turned into a mid which would have gutted so many mid to low tiers.




Is Sonya's leg grab overhead?
It's a Mid

I just came here to mention this game flaw and you already hinted at it.
Up-Block is an anti-overhead mechanic (best new gameplay mechanic to MK1 btw), if we can now make a +3 into a -32 situation, the players need to know it, without reading patchnotes.
How should you know you can UP-Block the second mid attack? There needs to be at least a note under sektors fKameo move.
Note: you can sadly not Up-Block if you block the first hit

Now I am asking myself, does this game have more mids you can UP-Block?
Yes there are multiple Mids you can UpBlock. Sub Zero Divekick is Mid and UpBlockable. All early Jump ins that hit MID before you start fall down are UpBlockable and I know there's more but it's escaping me. Maybe a few Fatal Blow moves?