DarksydeDash
You know me as RisingShieldBro online.
Skarlet is a character with multiple zoning options paired with very long range normals. While this sounds good on paper, her normals lead to very low damage in addition to flawless-blockable gaps. What's more is out side of only one string or Fatal Blow, her damage severely suffers compared to the majority of the cast.
In this thread, I am going to discuss some potential changes to Skarlet's normals, custom moves, and overall game plan in order to help out everyone's favorite blood witch against her competition.
Strings & Normals
To begin, we need to address the overwhelming weaknesses of her strings. Each have a large amount of range but are either full of gaps, or are severely unsafe on block.
- B2 is a slow overhead that is full combo punishable on block, even when spaced correctly. The purpose of this move is to catch opponents neutral ducking or are conditioned to respect her sweep. This normal also has a KB that leads to, as M2Dave would put it, ABYSSMAL damage. I propose that this move is changed from -22 to approximately -12 so she is still combo punished for doing this up close, but entirely safe when spaced correctly. The KB off of this special move would also now have a bleed effect, adding an additional 10% D.O.T. damage.
- S3 is a 19 frame HIGH that has great range and knocks the opponent airborne. When this move is blocked, there is little pushback and Skarlet remains at -3. I propose this move keeps the opponent grounded so the opponent can not break away from the follow up attack. Additionally, this move would now have much more pushback on block, making it a solid spacing tool.
- B12 is a 19 frame mid with solid range at the cost of a flawless-blockable follow-up, and sends the opponent away on hit, and has a KB for landing a kounter hit or punish with it. I propose the first hit of the string is reduced to 11 frames of startup and the follow-up attack of 18 frames reduced to 13 frames to cover up the flawless blockable gap and give this string a new use to be used as an alternative punish for the opponent's unsafe normals, specials, or whiffed grabs. The Skarlet player would also be able to react on hit to cash out with the KB or not. For comparison, the following characters have this exact same option; Kitana, Cetrion, Liu Kang, Scorpion, Kung Lao, Cassie Cage, Baraka, Robocop, Nightwolf, Jacqui, Kollector, Kotal Kahn, etc.
- 124 is her fastest punish option but finishing the string leads to the opponent able to breakaway from the special move cancel, and the last hit of the string has a flawless blockable gap. The flawless blockable gap shall remain as she still has 44 which is +6 on block and has no gap, however, the final hit of 124 will no longer place the opponent in an airborne state, creating unbreakable damage opportunities for Skarlet. On block, should the Skarlet player finish the string, Skarlet will be at +6 frame advantage with pushback (much like 44), regardless of flawless block. This would require the opponent to only be able to think twice about breaking away as without defensive bar, as they can not punish 124 for having a flawless block gap.
- F2 and B3 are Skarlet's are main footsie tools that do not lead to full combos but can be extremely strong when the opponent is cornered. The only change I would give these normals is to properly jail into her Bloodshot as this is heavily affects matchups that she would otherwise be able to jail against.
Special Moves
Continuing onward, are Skarlet's strengths: her special moves. She has multiple zoning options but some of their slow travel speed and startup make them easy to avoid and flawless block. Additionally, the Skarlet player is not rewarded for landing these moves outside of blood tentacle, and has little to no reason to pick some of her custom special moves compared to some of her options. Here's some suggestions to fix that.
- Blood Ball is a slow traveling high projectile with massive hit advantage that lets Skarlet set up her offensive but is once again easily avoided and flawless blocked. This move's frame data shall remain the same, however, Skarlet can now follow-up this move on hit to either dash up for a combo, or choose to either recover health with Bloodshot, or send the opponent full screen with blood tentacle. Because of how powerful this change is, her amplified blood ball custom move, (currently two slots), will remain unchanged, and some damage scaling will be added to compensate.
- Blood Spatter (Bf3) is Skarlet's armor breaker but can also create create combo opportunity in the corner. This move shall remain mostly unchanged for the most part but upon breaking the opponent's armor, Skarlet will recover 7% health. Additionally, this move will also launch the opponent higher after breaking an opponent's armor allowing her to connect a Blood Tentacle or Boiling Point more consistently.
- Cell Siphon will bring the opponent much close to skarlet on hit and the hit advantage will be increaesed form +4 to +10. This change is warrant picking this move over her other custom options, as with the previously proposed changes, she would be able to safely fish for a counter hit KB using B12, or jail into her s1 at all times. After Conditioning the opponent, Skarlet could stagger s2 to further setup her offensive.
- Blood Ritual, the damage to Skarlet would be reduced from .5% to .3% and the longer this move is held, (max 3 seconds), Skarlet will no longer receive damage from Blood Ritual. Again, the purpose of this change is warrant usage of this special move compared to her other options. A simple scenario such as a blood tentacle knockdown could lead to the Skarlet player setting up a blood ball and performing the Blood Ritual to score an easy 6% D.O.T. damage at the cost of losing a small portion of their own health.
- Red Rain now has multiple versions to place the rain on Skarlet or on the opponent.
- Krimson Shield now prevents Skarlet from being Armor Broken by the opponent when she performs a breakaway. Most Armor breaks in the game have a KB attached to it and as we all know, KBs remove buff status effects. By choosing to use Krimson Shield, not only does Skarlet take less damage, but now she can safely breakaway when punished.
- Dagger Dance KB requirement now changed to "Triggers after parrying an opponent's wakeup attack." For those that do not know, a flawless block U2/U3 is registered as a wakeup attack so should the Skarlet Player parry a Flawless block attack from the opponent, she can now choose to trigger the KB, and thus make the opponent more afraid of flawless blocking.
- Retch-Rebution now has a KB that triggers if the opponent is standing in Red Rain. This KB causes a grounded stun state, (Similar to Sindel's Scream, or Johnny's Shades KB), that allows Skarlet to follow up with a combo.
- Red Mist can now be applied to the opponent, healing Skarlet by .3% when she makes contact against the opponent.
- Bloodport shall remain unchanged as with the proposed changes to Bloodball, Skarlet could now use this move for full-screen conversions.
- BloodShot Travel speed would be slightly increased to more consistently jail off of Skarlet's key normals of F2 and B3.
- Bloodtrail would have slightly reduced startup to allow Skarlet to duck enemy projectiles more often and allow the amplify version to connect at the end of combos in the corner more consistently.
- Lastly, is Skarlet's currently banned special move of Killer Clot. This move would be unbanned, however, performing this move will cost 3% of Skarlet's HP.
Conclusion
The following changes are meant to enhance Skarlet's strengths, while also increasing the viability and likelihood of choosing ALL of Skarlet's custom moves. A lot of Skarlet's core issues come from Skarlet's strings having multiple flawless gaps with maximum risk and little reward. Additionally, in her current state, the only way to somewhat cover these gaps is to equip her parry which is a risk in itself as it must be performed on a read, and again, the reward is miniscule for guessing right. Factoring in the many mobile special moves such as Sub Zero's Slide, Cetrion's teleport, Jacqui's Leap, and many more, her zoning was extremely easy to counter and punish in most scenarios, especially with flawless block thrown in the mix. I personally believe that every custom move should have its use, and every player's style should have place. If you wish to play a rushdown Skarlet, now you have more offensive options, and if you wish to play a more defensive Skarlet, you can do that too. Lastly, I wanted to make sure I maintain Skarlet's unique design of "give and take", where she heals off the damage she GIVES, but further enhancing the special moves that TAKE her HP away. A character having weaknesses is not a bad thing so long as they have options to cover said weakness via equip-able custom moves, or safer options at the cost of less reward, and that is what I kept in mind when proposing these changes. Thank you all for taking the time to read this very long thread, and always, I'm curious to know how you would help out Skarlet in the game!
In this thread, I am going to discuss some potential changes to Skarlet's normals, custom moves, and overall game plan in order to help out everyone's favorite blood witch against her competition.
Strings & Normals
To begin, we need to address the overwhelming weaknesses of her strings. Each have a large amount of range but are either full of gaps, or are severely unsafe on block.
- B2 is a slow overhead that is full combo punishable on block, even when spaced correctly. The purpose of this move is to catch opponents neutral ducking or are conditioned to respect her sweep. This normal also has a KB that leads to, as M2Dave would put it, ABYSSMAL damage. I propose that this move is changed from -22 to approximately -12 so she is still combo punished for doing this up close, but entirely safe when spaced correctly. The KB off of this special move would also now have a bleed effect, adding an additional 10% D.O.T. damage.
- S3 is a 19 frame HIGH that has great range and knocks the opponent airborne. When this move is blocked, there is little pushback and Skarlet remains at -3. I propose this move keeps the opponent grounded so the opponent can not break away from the follow up attack. Additionally, this move would now have much more pushback on block, making it a solid spacing tool.
- B12 is a 19 frame mid with solid range at the cost of a flawless-blockable follow-up, and sends the opponent away on hit, and has a KB for landing a kounter hit or punish with it. I propose the first hit of the string is reduced to 11 frames of startup and the follow-up attack of 18 frames reduced to 13 frames to cover up the flawless blockable gap and give this string a new use to be used as an alternative punish for the opponent's unsafe normals, specials, or whiffed grabs. The Skarlet player would also be able to react on hit to cash out with the KB or not. For comparison, the following characters have this exact same option; Kitana, Cetrion, Liu Kang, Scorpion, Kung Lao, Cassie Cage, Baraka, Robocop, Nightwolf, Jacqui, Kollector, Kotal Kahn, etc.
- 124 is her fastest punish option but finishing the string leads to the opponent able to breakaway from the special move cancel, and the last hit of the string has a flawless blockable gap. The flawless blockable gap shall remain as she still has 44 which is +6 on block and has no gap, however, the final hit of 124 will no longer place the opponent in an airborne state, creating unbreakable damage opportunities for Skarlet. On block, should the Skarlet player finish the string, Skarlet will be at +6 frame advantage with pushback (much like 44), regardless of flawless block. This would require the opponent to only be able to think twice about breaking away as without defensive bar, as they can not punish 124 for having a flawless block gap.
- F2 and B3 are Skarlet's are main footsie tools that do not lead to full combos but can be extremely strong when the opponent is cornered. The only change I would give these normals is to properly jail into her Bloodshot as this is heavily affects matchups that she would otherwise be able to jail against.
Special Moves
Continuing onward, are Skarlet's strengths: her special moves. She has multiple zoning options but some of their slow travel speed and startup make them easy to avoid and flawless block. Additionally, the Skarlet player is not rewarded for landing these moves outside of blood tentacle, and has little to no reason to pick some of her custom special moves compared to some of her options. Here's some suggestions to fix that.
- Blood Ball is a slow traveling high projectile with massive hit advantage that lets Skarlet set up her offensive but is once again easily avoided and flawless blocked. This move's frame data shall remain the same, however, Skarlet can now follow-up this move on hit to either dash up for a combo, or choose to either recover health with Bloodshot, or send the opponent full screen with blood tentacle. Because of how powerful this change is, her amplified blood ball custom move, (currently two slots), will remain unchanged, and some damage scaling will be added to compensate.
- Blood Spatter (Bf3) is Skarlet's armor breaker but can also create create combo opportunity in the corner. This move shall remain mostly unchanged for the most part but upon breaking the opponent's armor, Skarlet will recover 7% health. Additionally, this move will also launch the opponent higher after breaking an opponent's armor allowing her to connect a Blood Tentacle or Boiling Point more consistently.
- Cell Siphon will bring the opponent much close to skarlet on hit and the hit advantage will be increaesed form +4 to +10. This change is warrant picking this move over her other custom options, as with the previously proposed changes, she would be able to safely fish for a counter hit KB using B12, or jail into her s1 at all times. After Conditioning the opponent, Skarlet could stagger s2 to further setup her offensive.
- Blood Ritual, the damage to Skarlet would be reduced from .5% to .3% and the longer this move is held, (max 3 seconds), Skarlet will no longer receive damage from Blood Ritual. Again, the purpose of this change is warrant usage of this special move compared to her other options. A simple scenario such as a blood tentacle knockdown could lead to the Skarlet player setting up a blood ball and performing the Blood Ritual to score an easy 6% D.O.T. damage at the cost of losing a small portion of their own health.
- Red Rain now has multiple versions to place the rain on Skarlet or on the opponent.
- Krimson Shield now prevents Skarlet from being Armor Broken by the opponent when she performs a breakaway. Most Armor breaks in the game have a KB attached to it and as we all know, KBs remove buff status effects. By choosing to use Krimson Shield, not only does Skarlet take less damage, but now she can safely breakaway when punished.
- Dagger Dance KB requirement now changed to "Triggers after parrying an opponent's wakeup attack." For those that do not know, a flawless block U2/U3 is registered as a wakeup attack so should the Skarlet Player parry a Flawless block attack from the opponent, she can now choose to trigger the KB, and thus make the opponent more afraid of flawless blocking.
- Retch-Rebution now has a KB that triggers if the opponent is standing in Red Rain. This KB causes a grounded stun state, (Similar to Sindel's Scream, or Johnny's Shades KB), that allows Skarlet to follow up with a combo.
- Red Mist can now be applied to the opponent, healing Skarlet by .3% when she makes contact against the opponent.
- Bloodport shall remain unchanged as with the proposed changes to Bloodball, Skarlet could now use this move for full-screen conversions.
- BloodShot Travel speed would be slightly increased to more consistently jail off of Skarlet's key normals of F2 and B3.
- Bloodtrail would have slightly reduced startup to allow Skarlet to duck enemy projectiles more often and allow the amplify version to connect at the end of combos in the corner more consistently.
- Lastly, is Skarlet's currently banned special move of Killer Clot. This move would be unbanned, however, performing this move will cost 3% of Skarlet's HP.
Conclusion
The following changes are meant to enhance Skarlet's strengths, while also increasing the viability and likelihood of choosing ALL of Skarlet's custom moves. A lot of Skarlet's core issues come from Skarlet's strings having multiple flawless gaps with maximum risk and little reward. Additionally, in her current state, the only way to somewhat cover these gaps is to equip her parry which is a risk in itself as it must be performed on a read, and again, the reward is miniscule for guessing right. Factoring in the many mobile special moves such as Sub Zero's Slide, Cetrion's teleport, Jacqui's Leap, and many more, her zoning was extremely easy to counter and punish in most scenarios, especially with flawless block thrown in the mix. I personally believe that every custom move should have its use, and every player's style should have place. If you wish to play a rushdown Skarlet, now you have more offensive options, and if you wish to play a more defensive Skarlet, you can do that too. Lastly, I wanted to make sure I maintain Skarlet's unique design of "give and take", where she heals off the damage she GIVES, but further enhancing the special moves that TAKE her HP away. A character having weaknesses is not a bad thing so long as they have options to cover said weakness via equip-able custom moves, or safer options at the cost of less reward, and that is what I kept in mind when proposing these changes. Thank you all for taking the time to read this very long thread, and always, I'm curious to know how you would help out Skarlet in the game!
