General/Other - Ermac Pointless Ermac

[Phosferrax]

I've been playing with Ermac for a couple of weeks now and I really love the characters design (Master of Souls at least). He's so swaggy, hits like a truck in MoS, and he's an honest character doing an honest days work. But there a few design decisions regarding the character that really leave me scratching my head:

1. Force Lift

If you were designing a fighting game, and one of the team members brought a move that is -51 on block, 4% on hit with no combo ability, and no chip damage to the table, you'd laugh your ass off right? You'd think surely this developer is either drunk or trolling hard. Yet this move has found a home in MKX, and it simply only exists so that there is an ex version of the move.

It might be argued that it is an ok combo ender due to it granting a hard knockdown, but when f43 and b1d2 give a closer positioning I wouldn't use this move unless I wanted the brutality.

2. b2 (3+4, 1, 2)

b2 has got to be in contenting for one of the worst normals in the game. At 32f start-up, you would think this move must have something under the hood to justify it. Maybe the charge function is useful for cancels? Can you get unblockable setups? NOPE. This move existed in MK9, and was essentially the exact same except that at fully charged it became unblockable, leading into a gimmicky mixup. Why it is not unblockable in MKX is beyond me, given that only MoS would actually be able to use the move anyway. The move is only useful for maximum swag and I'm convinced it was only put into the game so that casual fanbase could gawk at it's awesomeness, considering it does less damage and scales harder than his other 2 launching strings, whilst starting up around 3 times slower.

3. Ex Force Choke (Mystic)

For a bar of meter, Ermac receives 5% health, deals and extra 3% (that scales during combos) and takes approximately 50% of a bar of meter. However, because the opponent also gains back meter whilst taking the damage from the move that is suppose to drain it, it actually only takes about 20% of a bar.... Even writing about this move had me laughing my ass off.

So there you go, there are some things I find hilariously ridiculous about Ermac's moveset. I did not make this thread with the intention of buff requests, but after reading it back I can't really see why these moves shouldn't be looked at in any patches that happen in the future.

Can you think of anymore hysterically shitty aspects of the characters moveset? No downplaying please...

@zaf @Temjiin @FOREVER EL1TE @Big D @BoromiRofGeo @Metzos @otherermacsidontknow

 

[juicepouch]

Can lift anti air or something? It can't just be completely useless, can it?

 

[Phosferrax]

Can lift anti air or something? It can't just be completely useless, can it?

I mean, it can, but again it's only 4%.

Ermac also has d4, which is one of the best anti-airs in the game and combos into teleport from anti-air, or b12 to trip guard. I would not be using this move the anti air because if I mistime it then they have 51 frames to kill me.

 

[Genei Jin]

is spectral ermac still the definition of useless in mkx?

 

[FOREVER EL1TE]

Can lift anti air or something? It can't just be completely useless, can it?

Lift is more so a confirm for me. I never use the regular one, I'll always use a bar

 

[Phosferrax]

is spectral ermac still the definition of useless in mkx?

IMO it's in the same category as Mystic, possibly a bit better based off of theory fighting alone. I'm not yet good enough or knowledgeable enough with it to properly comment. I just think it sucks that they've given him Hawkgirls air movement but none of her air tools. Not having a projectile in that variation really weakens it for me.

 

[PPJ]

ex push is pretty good tbh, it has armor too

 

[BoromiRofGeo]

i gave up on ermac, and on mkx with it all together. this is a worse nightmare to 20 year ermac veteran character loyalist.
i might come back when ermac wont be bottom 1.
anyways, i agree on all your points. nothing said can justify those. its just pure bad design nothing else, but they are too proud to come forth and say they made a mistake. instead they keep producing kombat packs to grab as much money without even fixing their game or balancing it. hell my mk on pc barely even works.
anyways #2, sorry for long rant. had to vent over. /peace

 

[Scott The Scot]

i might come back when ermac wont be bottom 1.

U wot?


@Nausea

 

[Phosferrax]

ex push is pretty good tbh, it has armor too

But as a reversal you would opt for soul blast anyway because it is safe. The only upside of ex push having armour is that you can armour through projectiles when you've got the life lead. I don't know why ex lift doesn't have armour in Mystic over push.

I however, didn't know it had armour, so thanks for pointing that out. I guess it is better for going through string gaps than soul blast.

 

[Phosferrax]

i might come back when ermac wont be bottom 1.

Good sir, you will find this direction in the second to last line of the OP.

No downplaying please...

Please respect the request.

 

[The Iron Tager]

Its a lot of carry over from mk9 when ermac's design made sense. Force lift and force choke functioned as long range anti airs which was nice because ermac had a decent fireball that made opponents want to jump. If the opponent tried to counter zone, there was teleport, which was risky but that was the game. In mkx however where fireball and the other 2 tools are separated by variation, that playstyle isn't possible and now ermac is a vortex character that plays nothing like he did in mk9. Very stupid.

 

[Icy Black Deep]

But as a reversal you would opt for soul blast anyway because it is safe.

And because you would opt for Master of Souls.

EX push isn't that bad, arguably it's slightly better than EX blast, but it's in the theme of "Mystic doesn't really have anything that makes it worthwhile."

 

[Phosferrax]

And because you would opt for Master of Souls.

EX push isn't that bad, arguably it's slightly better than EX blast, but it's in the theme of "Mystic doesn't really have anything that makes it worthwhile."

Ex push isn't awful, but after writing down the details of the move it should be better. I think it's laughable that's meant to drain meter, but the opponent still gains meter for the damage the move deals. It's just such a contradictory design.

 

[MadeOfMetal]

MOS and across the board is a solid character, not top tier but can hold his own, with a struggle!

with that said, i agree, there is definitely many string in MKX that dont make sense.. like Mileena's F3 which is 33 on start... OMG right, despite it being that long of a startup, i usually find a way to throw it in by conditioning opponent to block low then randomly throwing it out at the right moment.

same goes for Ermacs 32 Frame... but at a competitive level and not a Online scrubzilla matchup perspective. its unreliable and should be fixed, im notsingling out mileenas or ermacs there are meny that need a slight tweek. startup is a must in this game.. with the back and forth poke game that exsist in MKX, throwing a 32-33 fram move can mean the death of you by your opponent simply taking thier turn when they see an opening.

if it was to be changed it should be a universal change to all characters.... do away with these slow ass startups when 6-8 frames exist as the Ground level

 

[SpecialOne88]

I would probably add the Vanish to that list. Not useful to avoid projectiles because its too slow on startup and recovery, plus the teleport deals with that. Also not useful to go through a move on a read for the same reason. I would like to know what was the design idea behind that move and what is the purpose of it. It looks like it was designed to be a gimmick which is kind of weird tbh.

 

[Genei Jin]

Push/ex push needs to either be safer on block or have better reach.

It needs to do more damage too

 

[BoromiRofGeo]

Good sir, you will find this direction in the second to last line of the OP.



Please respect the request.

 

[Phosferrax]

MOS and across the board is a solid character, not top tier but can hold his own, with a struggle!

with that said, i agree, there is definitely many string in MKX that dont make sense.. like Mileena's F3 which is 33 on start... OMG right, despite it being that long of a startup, i usually find a way to throw it in by conditioning opponent to block low then randomly throwing it out at the right moment.

same goes for Ermacs 32 Frame... but at a competitive level and not a Online scrubzilla matchup perspective. its unreliable and should be fixed, im notsingling out mileenas or ermacs there are meny that need a slight tweek. startup is a must in this game.. with the back and forth poke game that exsist in MKX, throwing a 32-33 fram move can mean the death of you by your opponent simply taking thier turn when they see an opening.

if it was to be changed it should be a universal change to all characters.... do away with these slow ass startups when 6-8 frames exist as the Ground level

b2 would still be kind of useless if it had its start-up reduced because it does less damage, would still be slower, and still scale harder than f21d2 anyway.

 

[JTB123]

Swag comes at a price good sir.

 

[I GOT HANDS]

i gave up on ermac, and on mkx with it all together. this is a worse nightmare to 20 year ermac veteran character loyalist.
i might come back when ermac wont be bottom 1.
anyways, i agree on all your points. nothing said can justify those. its just pure bad design nothing else, but they are too proud to come forth and say they made a mistake. instead they keep producing kombat packs to grab as much money without even fixing their game or balancing it. hell my mk on pc barely even works.
anyways #2, sorry for long rant. had to vent over. /peace

If you gave up on Ermac because of MKX, sorry but you are not a loyalist at all, just a fair weather fan. Also, you really threw in the towel at the first sign of any troubles. He really isn't that bad, bottom 1 is absolutely ridiculous, he's in the bottom half of the cast but around the top of it, in my opinion.

 

[Phosferrax]

Swag comes at a price good sir.

With great swag comes great responsibility.

 

[Temjiin]

I've quit this character, love the design but for some reasons the devs cannot work out how to fix his ridiculous moves.

B1.... the world's highest mid.

F43.... full combo punishable.... why?

B2.... useless. Could be made into a cancellable special for plus frames but there's already too many characters like this in the game. Probably best to make it unblockable at full charge and give the uncharged version 19-24f startup instead.

1,1,2.... just why?

Lift.... should be able to meter burn hit confirm this move at least. Mis time this as an anti air and you dead.

Blast.... why is this move full combo punishable? Up blast is a bit safer but still unsafe. Up blast should be either safe or like +2, allowing at least a bad mixup between upblast which you could low profile or blast which should stuff a low. +3 on hit allows NOTHING except D3. Shouldn't guarantee a 50/50 after but should get you more than D3. I would want this +7 to +9 on hit so you can at least get F2 on hit but a 50/50 can be backdashed.

Also why ever anti air with upblast except as a desperate wakeup? You get more damage from D2. To my knowledge unless in the corner this move doesn't combo.... you should be able to combo into EX lift in my opinion.

Mystic.... making this variation competitive is so easy and yet they still can't figure it out.

Spectral.... needs more buffs than I have time to write.

 

[Prinz]

He used to have some more stupid shit like this, but they changed some of it in one of the patches. I think they're gonna sort it out with a couple more patches.

 

[Agilaz]

i gave up on ermac, and on mkx with it all together. this is a worse nightmare to 20 year ermac veteran character loyalist.
i might come back when ermac wont be bottom 1.
anyways, i agree on all your points. nothing said can justify those. its just pure bad design nothing else, but they are too proud to come forth and say they made a mistake. instead they keep producing kombat packs to grab as much money without even fixing their game or balancing it. hell my mk on pc barely even works.
anyways #2, sorry for long rant. had to vent over. /peace

As a Goro player, u fookin' wot m8?