Chernyy Volk
Wolf lord, footsie bully, chronic corner abuser.
I just want to ramble a bit. I don't like this patch, frankly, simply because it does everything in it's power to not actually address the root problem and instead chose to nerf everything AROUND what was busted. What do I mean by this?
Let's start with Geras
F212 is -6? This was a good change.
U2 is 9F? This was a good change.
F212 now has a flawless block gap and more recovery? Why? You literally just took away combos including a high execution confirm from the game for what seems to be no reason.
Sandtrap is -2 more on block and -24 on flawless block? Come the fuck on dawg.
Sandtrap is literally the thing that pushes this character over the edge into being hella polarizing and over the top yet it seems NRS would rather make Geras less interesting to play on the fun factor side than nerf this sacred cow and it kind of speaks to me that this game really is designed to crunch the skill floor and ceiling to make it easier for lesser players to perform better. While I think F212 being -6 and U2 being 9f were very good changes, there would've been more value in simply making sandtrap death on whiff and block. The entire problem is that this HARD HITTING VORTEX CHARACTER ALSO HAS ONE OF THE BEST NEUTRAL TOOLS IN THE GAME that puts him right on top of you in one variation to start that vortex. Why this move isn't like -40 on block and why it doesn't have 80+ whiff recovery is beyond me. This move is the REAL PROBLEM on this character. 6F U2 and F212 being -3 would be way more tolerable if this character had to take super substantive risk to win neutral. He's already a wave dasher, he doesn't need this mostly super safe fuck neutral get in option.
Also I know sandtrap is now -24 on flawless block but nobody is doing that and this is even more proof that this game is deliberately designed to make it hard to outplay people worse than you. They keep implementing flawless blocks in ways that make it super high execution to perform what should be BASIC ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS instead of it's use as a tool to make reads and to escape pressure. These kinds of decisions are IMO what really take away from the sense of satisfaction of improving at the game. You're putting in 100% work for 10% reward quite often against tools like this.
TL;DR: They nerfed Geras in a way that took away fun factor/depth/skill oriented gameplay (combos etc) along with an arbitrary flawless block gap all to avoid nerfing the one move that makes him top 5. Really disappointing.
I feel this way about the jump-in changes. They did everything to avoid nerfing the real problem, because doing so increases the skill floor/ceiling gap. Let's reexamine what they did.
Flawless blocking jump ins makes them not special cancelable: Um, hello? Who was doing this to begin with? A lot of these mindgames to begin with were already massively risky anyway. You'd rather they take the risk than they just get less plus frames. Really stupid weird change that puts ALL THE RISK on the defender for less reward than before. They reduced the risk of jump ins while putting even more burden on the defender. How is this not a buff?
Jump ins as a whole are -4 less on block: Another very weird arbitrary change in a game with some characters who straight rely on jumping to get in and start offense. Baraka, Nightwolf etc.
The jumpkick auto confirm OS: Definitely not intentional, but this reduced the skill level on doing this for the offender and once again, did buff jump kicks. How the fuck? Originally Geras had to do jump kick into sandtrap for an easy confirm, now he gets jump kick into choke without even trying. Absurd.
So here's why I find these changes so fucking stupid right? THE JUMP INS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. IT'S THE LACK OF CONSISTENT FUNCTIONING ANTI AIRS AND THE DISPARITIES BETWEEN IT IN THE CAST THAT'S EASILY SOLVED BY THIS THING A LOT OF TOP PLAYERS HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR CALLED UPPER BODY INVINCIBLE D2'S. But I guess we can't have that because if we had that, people might actually have to learn to play on the ground and have a better neutral game. Can't have that. So instead we're going to nerf jump in rewards on block instead of making jump ins harder to achieve. Characters lost pressure, the hard to anti air nature of jump kicks technically got buffed due to the auto confirm OS. Instead of keeping them high reward, but making them harder to achieve (REWARDING PEOPLE FOR FUCKING NEUTRAL) they've just made them like... uninteresting instead and didn't buff anti airs?
It really makes me feel like NRS either definitely doesn't care, or that they don't understand their own game, or that this game really is designed to crunch the skill floor/ceiling and that they will literally kill anything in this game to maintain that status quo.
I'm sorry man, I just found this patch really depressing.
Let's start with Geras
F212 is -6? This was a good change.
U2 is 9F? This was a good change.
F212 now has a flawless block gap and more recovery? Why? You literally just took away combos including a high execution confirm from the game for what seems to be no reason.
Sandtrap is -2 more on block and -24 on flawless block? Come the fuck on dawg.
Sandtrap is literally the thing that pushes this character over the edge into being hella polarizing and over the top yet it seems NRS would rather make Geras less interesting to play on the fun factor side than nerf this sacred cow and it kind of speaks to me that this game really is designed to crunch the skill floor and ceiling to make it easier for lesser players to perform better. While I think F212 being -6 and U2 being 9f were very good changes, there would've been more value in simply making sandtrap death on whiff and block. The entire problem is that this HARD HITTING VORTEX CHARACTER ALSO HAS ONE OF THE BEST NEUTRAL TOOLS IN THE GAME that puts him right on top of you in one variation to start that vortex. Why this move isn't like -40 on block and why it doesn't have 80+ whiff recovery is beyond me. This move is the REAL PROBLEM on this character. 6F U2 and F212 being -3 would be way more tolerable if this character had to take super substantive risk to win neutral. He's already a wave dasher, he doesn't need this mostly super safe fuck neutral get in option.
Also I know sandtrap is now -24 on flawless block but nobody is doing that and this is even more proof that this game is deliberately designed to make it hard to outplay people worse than you. They keep implementing flawless blocks in ways that make it super high execution to perform what should be BASIC ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS instead of it's use as a tool to make reads and to escape pressure. These kinds of decisions are IMO what really take away from the sense of satisfaction of improving at the game. You're putting in 100% work for 10% reward quite often against tools like this.
TL;DR: They nerfed Geras in a way that took away fun factor/depth/skill oriented gameplay (combos etc) along with an arbitrary flawless block gap all to avoid nerfing the one move that makes him top 5. Really disappointing.
I feel this way about the jump-in changes. They did everything to avoid nerfing the real problem, because doing so increases the skill floor/ceiling gap. Let's reexamine what they did.
Flawless blocking jump ins makes them not special cancelable: Um, hello? Who was doing this to begin with? A lot of these mindgames to begin with were already massively risky anyway. You'd rather they take the risk than they just get less plus frames. Really stupid weird change that puts ALL THE RISK on the defender for less reward than before. They reduced the risk of jump ins while putting even more burden on the defender. How is this not a buff?
Jump ins as a whole are -4 less on block: Another very weird arbitrary change in a game with some characters who straight rely on jumping to get in and start offense. Baraka, Nightwolf etc.
The jumpkick auto confirm OS: Definitely not intentional, but this reduced the skill level on doing this for the offender and once again, did buff jump kicks. How the fuck? Originally Geras had to do jump kick into sandtrap for an easy confirm, now he gets jump kick into choke without even trying. Absurd.
So here's why I find these changes so fucking stupid right? THE JUMP INS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. IT'S THE LACK OF CONSISTENT FUNCTIONING ANTI AIRS AND THE DISPARITIES BETWEEN IT IN THE CAST THAT'S EASILY SOLVED BY THIS THING A LOT OF TOP PLAYERS HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR CALLED UPPER BODY INVINCIBLE D2'S. But I guess we can't have that because if we had that, people might actually have to learn to play on the ground and have a better neutral game. Can't have that. So instead we're going to nerf jump in rewards on block instead of making jump ins harder to achieve. Characters lost pressure, the hard to anti air nature of jump kicks technically got buffed due to the auto confirm OS. Instead of keeping them high reward, but making them harder to achieve (REWARDING PEOPLE FOR FUCKING NEUTRAL) they've just made them like... uninteresting instead and didn't buff anti airs?
It really makes me feel like NRS either definitely doesn't care, or that they don't understand their own game, or that this game really is designed to crunch the skill floor/ceiling and that they will literally kill anything in this game to maintain that status quo.
I'm sorry man, I just found this patch really depressing.
