Thoughts on this HP changes and Shao Khan F3,4 still not total crap?

[ForeverKlone]

Summed up by the title. I wanna know what yall think bout these "health patches". To me it's just lazy and I don't see the purpose of it.
And would it kill NRS to actually, properly correct Shao Khan's F3,4. I'm not even a Shao Khan main, but he's so much fun to play, and it's agonizing looking at NRS with their vision elsewhere.

 

[RoboCop]

The health buff is a band-aid, for sure. They're trying to just blindly buff the characters without addressing the root issues that are causing them to need buffs. RoboCop's problem isn't a lack of health, it's a lack of any usable tool other than bf1.

 

[VELL1]

What do they mean by 2in1 cancelling? Do you need an U2 to punish? Otherwise it doesn't do anything?

 

[Arqwart]

Even outside the F34, Shao was just given two meterburn options on block to keep himself safe which is a huge deal for someone like him who is so unsafe. Also, we need to see if the special cancel property off F34 can cover options. If he can now read reversal U2s and stuff them with a fast enough special, that is an enormous deal.

 

[TheJaxLife]

I'm all for health changes to balance, but it needs to be more impactful and make sense. 5% isn't ultimately doing a whole lot.

1100 for RoboCop and a completely safe 121 is nice, but I still can't fight my way out of the corner against a half decent opponent controlling any number of half the cast.

I never ever fought a Joker, getting pushed into another ass time zone by gloves on block and thought, 'Boy, if only he had one less pokes worth of health!'

 

[DixieFlatline78]

It would be nice if F34 was just safe with no gaps, yes. Lots of characters have safe, confirmable mid-strings, and the characters who don't have reliable highs. Even characters in the low tier with him dont have this issue.

I'm noticing a cycle for myself where I'm like "the patch fixed him, I can play my boy now" then I go back to Raiden/Baraka/Nightwolf. I think this may be the point when I go all in on him

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

we need to see if the special cancel property off F34 can cover options. If he can now read reversal U2s

He cannot. Rambo U2 is 12 frames, and it still interrupts Shao boi trying to do f34 xx Annihilation.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Different health values can be a good thing - if you're going to have some characters be easier to hit than others (Kotal, Shao) it just balances that weakness out. Plus, importantly, it just feels right for certain characters.

But of course what NRS is doing, is just being lazy and throwing +-50 health around like candy, because otherwise they'd have to take 5 minutes to think through damage scaling / frame change effects.

And so now we end with Robo having 1100 health and still no tools besides low shot low shot low shot. And Sheeva goes to a meek 950 health, which makes no sense when she's a big girl (but apparently Skarlet and Jade are just that much physically tougher than her, uhhuh).

The whole reason they buffed stomp with the Ultimate patch was because Sheeva was kind of weak when she released and not seeing any use. NRS just chose to pick the most toxic way to force her to get picked, and now hyper-kneejerks 6 months later by making her weaker than she was when she launched and was already not worth picking.

 

[Arqwart]

The whole reason they buffed stomp with the Ultimate patch was because Sheeva was kind of weak when she released and not seeing any use. NRS just chose to pick the most toxic way to force her to get picked, and now hyper-kneejerks 7 months later by making her weaker than she was when she launched and was already not worth picking.

Doesn't she still have Dragon Stance to abuse? I also disagree with her health being lowered as that makes little to no sense, but I thought she was solid overall courtesy of her decent pressure and great zoning.

 

[theotherguy]

NRS just chose to pick the most toxic way to force her to get picked,

I don't get comments like this. The dev's consciously think "what can we give to a character so people choose them specifically to annoy people". To what end does it benefit NRS if people choose Sheeva with a broken move? What agenda are they trying to push with that thinking?

What does it matter if a person chooses Jacqui or Kano or Fujin or Sheeva? It's not like there aren't other reasons why people might choose a character, looks, gameplay, character loyalist, archetype etc. So long as someone bought the game or DLC they would be happy.

The exception could be guest characters, if easy wins = more sales = more "proof" that customers like guest characters.

 

[Gooberking]

I really don't like life being a balance dial. I'm not entirely sure why, but I'm not into it. I know some of it is I just want life bars to be consistent. It breaks down your ability to look at the length of bar and get a feel for what will and won't kill. You are (the good players anyway) doing decision making off of that.

In this case, Sheeva's seems like a total wut? I really don't get why she would need a general reduction. Stomp is being heavily discouraged, so maybe they think good players just won't do it at all, and therefore you will actually get fewer stomp punishes?

If someone is stomping all day she is going to die so fast with how easy it is to get away from, Without stomp, I don't see how she is/was in such an advantaged position that she needed dealing with by taking away life. I usually don't care about the patches fiddling with things, but I'm not sure how to make this one make sense.