Just blowing off some steam:
I'm still in training mode right now trying to get my muscle memory back, but playing sub again reminds me once again how undercooked he feels.
1. His core identity of "DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TRADE WITH THIS CHARACTER" is just neutered. Slide isn't going under anything reliably and ice ball isn't hitting anyone between the startup and kameos blocking it. IF you somehow hit the iceball it's probably a trade, and by the time you're done recovering you'll get a slide at best. It just blows my mind that he requires a kameo to have any fullscreen presence.
2. Deadly vapors is a super interesting concept, and yet I feel it rarely matters. There's some neat stuff to punish armored wakeups and the like, but often this unique move is relegated to combo extension.
3. Clone into slide into combo is one of my favorite things and I hate that it not only costs 2 bars to do, but also fucking blows.
It's extra weird that he's got his legs broken so badly, because it's not like counter zoning would be extremely strong in this game anyways. It seems that with the recent DLC characters having way more complete kits, and the recent path, they're moving towards giving characters a full kit at base so they have more choices in kameos, and I really hope that's the case. Still I think sub is going to need a bit more, and I hope it's in fixing some of the above rather than just making him also decent at being a blender (not that I don't love me some clone corner jail).
There's probably a lot of likely buffs, but I'd love if sub got his MK9 EX ice beam back and it pierced kameos, allowing you to freeze people for bad calls/catch jumps. I doubt that's ever going to happen for a lot of reasons, but god would it do wonders for his identity.
Edit-
And while i'm whinging, shujinko can combo into ice ball? Like i get it from a balance perspective but come on.
Oh and I forgot: WORST OF ALL WE HAVE SHIT BRUTALS.
Slide and the combo are fine, but they're all you ever see.
Punch rarely happens, and who the hell is landing ice ball with those conditions?, Both have the same issue D2 had where the physics don't feel right, because they're just "spawning" in the pieces and letting them fall, rather than inheriting the inertia of the hit that should send their torso/parts flying.
Vapors also feels lackluster since their lower body just vanishes. Having it freeze then shatter would give it more impact.