So it's been a few months, and I've been greatly enjoying this game. That said, here are the quality-of-life things I'd love to see changed in a future update:
1) Fatal Blows
I think it goes without saying at this point, but being able to whiff something as powerful as a Fatal Blow, or have it blocked, and simply get it again within a few seconds, is at odds with the careful bit-by-bit way that this game's meta is played. Fatal Blows are simply too powerful to regenerate; and if you use them you should lose them, no questions asked. In addition, although some of them are easily punishable, the pushback on some of these should be lessened. You should always have to take a major risk to use a move that in many cases leads to 30+% unbreakable damage.
2) Krushing Blows
The idea of Krushing Blows is something I like, and many of them are fine. But I think they should function as a reward for actually setting them up. Krushing Blows that gift 30% life by accident via spam (like Sonya's second ring KB) are mindless and don't actually reward intelligent gameplay.
If it were up to me I'd replace some of these with ones that require some forethought and planning to set up in a match (which was the initial attraction of the krushing blow system). It might also be worth supplementing them for characters with requirements so impractical that they're seldom used in competitive play at all.
3) Kombat League
Starting from the lowest rank each season defeats the point of a ranked system altogether. It means that the majority of people are in-transit to their presumed rank, rather than being at their real rank.
Although I rank up pretty quickly, I am often fighting/beating Demi-God and God-level players at the start in ranks like Warrior and Champion. If I know that I have to go through them to get to my eventual rank, how frustrating must that be for players who are actually low-ranked and just want to play with players around their skill level?
The beginning and end of each season is a complete ranking soup, and it must be discouraging to lower-ranked players (the majority of the playerbase) who have no idea why the players they're meeting are crushing them with ease.
I get that the designers want to make Kombat League into a sort of grindy progression in order to get skins and unlocks, but I believe that the way it's currently done actually works against the point of having a ranked/tiered league at all. So I think that NRS should find a way to separate the grind from the league tiers, and let people start where they were ranked last season (like pretty much every other ranked competitive system out there).
Possible 4) Jump Kicks
While it makes sense that the jump kick would be a powerful option for air to airs, etc, the fact that they are plus on block seems overtuned. I like the idea of having jump kicks jip crush air-to-airs and maybe still even contest AA's, but be negative on block. Your turn ends when your jk is blocked. That way jump in punches lead to pressure on block -- but you take the risk of being AA'ed more easily for that reward. And if you jik instead and it's blocked, your pressure ends there.
1. FATAL BLOWS
Running out of them is a good idea. One use, gone.
On that same token, I want it decided whether a Fatal Blow is a special move or a normal.
What I mean is we have FBs like Kabal and Cetrion and we have FBs like Scorpion and Jade.
If we make them reactable normals like the latter two, that you have to combo into for the big damage, they may as well not go away when blocked or whiffed. But if we make Scorpion's FB a teleport punch like his old X-Ray, and Jade's her Vanishing Winds teleport, Kotal's a Sun Ray, Shao's a fullscreen Shoulder Charge, etc. - then they really need to be one-and-gone.
2. KRUSHING BLOWS
I agree, we need them to be more meaningful and take effort and the damages equalised. There are KBs in the game that deal less damage than the meterless combo damage of characters who have KBs that deal 30% plus launcher. It needs balance, needs to be reasonable, really.
3. LEAGUE
I like to work my way up actually. If you're good, stomping 15-20 lowbies will be enough to put you in the higher echelon.
4. THROWS
Throws were supposed to be countered by D2s. So why am I getting grabbed on my last frame by a move that's 1f slower? XD
Throws need to be more reasonable and stop catching lows.
5. D1
I hate how D1s are in this game. Mostly because I play online against Russians with mcdonalds wifi that reads 83ms on the matching screen and then anywhere between 83, 583 and death in the actual game. Randomly. Twice a second.
Anyway, what I'd like is for D1s to be -8 on block. More if they have good range, less if they have bad range.
I want the whole d1d1d1d1throw online "meta" gone.
This is true about some D3 too.
6. Mids
Certain mids get lowprofiled while others are that character's anti-air, d4, and launch-string all in one.
This needs balancing, badly.
