another one of the best players explaining why reptile is bottom tier.. gaps in his best strings. Easy flawless block punish on his best special. No sauce compared to other characters. Low damage relatively to other characters.
reptile discussion starts at 37:15
Okay I watched it he prefaced the list with none of the roster is trash, all solid, I could be wrong it is very early and that's why I'm hesitant to listen to these early tier lists as set in stone.
His main reason for listing him lower in this case B above Shao, Sub Zero and Nitara but just below Sindel was lack of Dirt and Gaps
If you remember my reasons listed above for having him in A was I don't believe nor having top tier dirt is a death sentence, his gaps are made safe by Kameos, Motaro makes all his raw slides, and Dash safe in fact allows him to combo off them meterless.
Stryker, Goro, Cyrax and Sektor also keeps him solid.
His tier list has changed dramatically over the last 7 days, he had Li Mei in trash tier for the very same reasons he put Reptile in B.
But we all know Reptile doesn't have Sub Zeros button problems or his reaching issues.
In fact let's compare Li Mei's Mids to Reptiles:
She has a 17 frame mid that has a gap and launches with Kameo but because it requires ambush to stay safe there is no launch if they gap it. A 12 frame mid that knocks down.
Reptiles F211 launches and can be hit confirmed and be used safely and is 12 frame startup and has better range that hers, we all know how strong a hit confirmable 12f mid is, only 3 characters have that in the whole game.
Reptiles F23 has a launcher that's hit confirmable and two other strings for mix F24 (low ender) which is safe with Kameo and launches.
Reptile has far better reach than Li Mei who suffers stubby buttons unless she wants to be unsafe, his 24/F24 reaches damn near full screen and can't be contested by most of the roster, Reptile has the benefit of launching while using Kameo to cover his gaps or making them safe while Li Mei has early large gaps.
The only thing Li Mei has on Reptile is easier damage but I feel that's accounting for her added difficulty of opening up opponents safely and lack of long range wiff punishers.
Reptile has insane range off his F24, S3 and B4 and with Kameo it can be 33-37% the S3 pulls them into his B4 that has great dashback built into the animation while having one of the best disjointed hitboxes where he is basically crouching from the beginning to end where he is left at wiff punish city.
Some of these characters lack 50/50's but have other strong tools to open up the opponent like auto shimmy and wiff baiting moves like Kitanas S1 into B24 who also lacks real 50/50's but is listed in S- obviously she is good, I've seen what Dragon did with her.
I just don't think there is enough of the top 30-50 players maining Reptile and the game is still early. I doubt they all know the matchups and expect the tiers to change.
Just going off what I see with the character, how he works in my sets. The tools he has to abuse certain characters who lack range.
I don't think Reptiles buttons and specials are anywhere near as bad as Subs.
Early on I can find tier lists from notable top players that list my Rain in Low Top to Bottom five, it really matters who you ask. In fact Tweedy only placed Rain in S+ because of his sets with Sonic using Rain/Cyrax and even said Rain has gaps, lacks range, reactable overheads, slow Armor and in the many sets I've seen Sonic playing with Rain he is only netting 30% on average, he wasn't even cracking 40. I use Stryker to get 40-47% midscreen. But I've had Rain in A/A+ since day 1 despite all his flaws.
his tier list is basically based on Cyrax used by most of the roster. Now if Cyrax gets an adjustment where he has longer Regen, higher cost or reduced launching capabilities I can see his Tier list crumbling into dramatically different rankings.
Now I am probably wrong but that's what I feel is right. I still have Reptile in A Tier but I'm still willing to change my mind after I see majors and tech is more developed.
