Tom Brady Video: Is MK11 Balanced?

[santanabar]

He also thinks people are winning with only using F4 and the slide (said that one of them needs to be removed).

His words, not mine!

Agree 100%, but I wonder if he thinks the same about subzero 50/50s with his overhead, low string starter and slide

 

[CaptainCM]

Even though I agree that some variations are clearly better than the others, let the game breathe a little, the picture might change a lot in a couple of months. This will also help NRS to make well-thought-out changes to the game (if needed), than just a quick bandage patch.

 

[ETC AdmiralAugustus]

Lord Brady hath spoketh

 

[CrimsonShadow]

Are you really going to tell me that looking at the non-tournament moves, you can't see anything that would help characters struggling fight better?

I think you missed my point -- once customs are in play, that means that the top characters will also have access to an even bigger toolset than they already do, and be able to counterpick the specials on top of that.

I don't get how people think this will just auto-balance the game out by affecting just the lower tier; it likely make the characters with the best strings and normals even better than they already are.

Give Scorpion Misery Blade for example in whatever variation he wants, and he's going to go to a whole new level. People are already complaining about him without it.

Imo people aren't thinking this through. It might be fun for gameplay, but it is not a shortcut to balance.

 

[Bliss]

It's too balanced. Can barely distinguish between top and low tier. In other words: Boring!!

 

[greedface]

Tom Brady is funnier than Evil Canadian

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

I completely dissagree with Brady on this.
Certain characters won't benefit from custom variations the same as top tiers and ones with bad variations. Certain Characters have fundamental flaws with thier toolkit base it otherwise. Compare top tier base toolkit vs bottom tier and you will see this isn't a fix.

Balance what is truly broke and buff what is clearly lacking and you get balance.

 

[Gamer68]

People keep saying that Brady was suggesting to allow Customs but I didn't really hear him say anything about that in the video.

His main points were that:

• Some characters need easier Krushing Blow requirements. Example: Shao Kahn and Johnny Cage have dumb requirements, but if they didn't it would be a nice buff without completely reworking the characters' frame-data, damage, etc and wouldn't make them broken.
• Some Competitive Variations need tweaks so both Variations have a specific strengths and weaknesses. Example: Erron Black's Barking Irons variation is suppose to make him safer, yet in 52 Kard Pickup he still has moves that keep him safe + way more damage overall. If they remove the safe options from 52 Kard Pickup it would give Barking Irons more of a purpose and make Erron less annoying/top tier.
• These would be slight changes and NRS wouldn't even have to rework anything and it would make the balance better. Despite this, the game balance is in a pretty good place overall.

 

[pmurph24]

Alright bruh is this the real tom brady lmaooo. Sounds exactly like him but Ive never seen anything about MK on his twitter.

Also I didn't watch much but lack of mixups in some characters is my main complaint like kung lao.

 

[Invincibeast]

I think you missed my point -- once customs are in play, that means that the top characters will also have access to an even bigger toolset than they already do, and be able to counterpick the specials on top of that.

I don't get how people think this will just auto-balance the game out by affecting just the lower tier; it likely make the characters with the best strings and normals even better than they already are.

Give Scorpion Misery Blade for example in whatever variation he wants, and he's going to go to a whole new level. People are already complaining about him without it.

Imo people aren't thinking this through. It might be fun for gameplay, but it is not a shortcut to balance.

I agree with what you are saying, although I don't think its so much wanting customs for balance but rather for fun and making the lower tier characters viable. Or hell, just putting your own flavor on things. I think those are the reasons people really want it the most.

 

[wsj515]

Yes please, make New Era's low sand KB after 11 lol.

In all seriousness, I think he's right about a lot of things in the video. The game is pretty balanced, I haven't lost to a single person so far and felt like it was an imbalance issue, rather I just got outplayed. I doubt most of the people complaining have labbed the d1 punishes for Erron's f4 that were on full display during Summit, punishing scorpion's teleport, etc. etc. Just touch up the low tiers, fix buggy hitboxes, potentially look at changing KB requirements for some characters. That's all it needs.

 

[magandi]

Maybe in a darksydephil complete trainwreck kinda way.

dude you just didn't said that about lord brady.

 

[Gamer68]

Maybe in a darksydephil complete trainwreck kinda way.

You will know his name as The Lord as he lays his vengeance down upon you.

 

[Saltea Moonspell]

I lost currently appetite for the game, but I do really look forward, for some adjustments, that will encourage me to play and commit.

 

[grandabx]

I think you missed my point -- once customs are in play, that means that the top characters will also have access to an even bigger toolset than they already do, and be able to counterpick the specials on top of that.

I don't get how people think this will just auto-balance the game out by affecting just the lower tier; it likely make the characters with the best strings and normals even better than they already are.

Give Scorpion Misery Blade for example in whatever variation he wants, and he's going to go to a whole new level. People are already complaining about him without it.

Imo people aren't thinking this through. It might be fun for gameplay, but it is not a shortcut to balance.

That is why they should've let people test them out so they can balance it instead of stagnating the game so fast. Their solution was far worse than letting customs rock for a month and a half.

 

[Lum@na]

Balance is pretty good overall. Definitely some room for tweaking but most characters have enough tools to win games even though some characters have better tools.

Tom Brady delivers another lucid sermon on MK11 and tries to convince the whining masses that the sky isn't falling.

 

[Eji1700]

That is why they should've let people test them out so they can balance it instead of stagnating the game so fast. Their solution was far worse than letting customs rock for a month and a half.

Everyone for customs seems to love to underestimate how hard this process is.

Ok so they let customs rock for a month and a half, turns out literally anyone and everyone is running misery blade on scrop, who knew. What value is gained from that? They get next to no meaningful data on the rest of his kit, or the interactions between moves in his kit, until they finally rework misery blade. The same is what's going to happen for every other character with a "clear best" option in the moveset, except it's even worse than that because if a character doesn't have a clear best that can compete with someone else's clear best, they're not going to get much data on that either.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

That is why they should've let people test them out so they can balance it instead of stagnating the game so fast. Their solution was far worse than letting customs rock for a month and a half.

They did test it out.

 

[grandabx]

They did test it out.

For a couple of days and even then no one complained about anything. If they really wanted to find out if anything was wrong, thousands of people would find issues faster than they ever could in a month's time.

Look at those tournament presets and say they know what they're doing.

 

[Vastly]

Agree 100%, but I wonder if he thinks the same about subzero 50/50s with his overhead, low string starter and slide

I honestly think Sub Zero is pretty ridiculous in this game but not just cause of variations. It's more his fast recovery on many of his moves combined with both his variations and his basic movement speed.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

For a couple of days and even then no one complained about anything. If they really wanted to find out if anything was wrong, thousands of people would find issues faster than they ever could in a month's time.

Look at those tournament presets and say they know what they're doing.

I'm pretty sure they were looking at what the implications would be for much longer than a couple of days.

The betas also had thousands combined (at least most of the people who actually care about competition), I don't think a couple million casual players who mainly play story mode and only know how to punish with d2 are really necessary to know.

 

[grandabx]

I'm pretty sure they were looking at what the implications would be for much longer than a couple of days.

Whatever it was, it would've been better than what we currently have from a creative aspect. Many Characters are severely gimped and can't do anything about it because of the tournament presets. At LEAST they would be able to fight back right now to some degree. From no useful KBs to moves that don't link off current moves to not being to fight certain strategies. It's all because the character's are handcuffed.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

Whatever it was, it would've been better than what we currently have from a creative aspect. Many Characters are severely gimped and can't do anything about it because of the tournament presets. At LEAST they would be able to fight back right now to some degree. From no useful KBs to moves that don't link off current moves to not being to fight certain strategies. It's all because the character's are handcuffed.

"Better from a creative aspect" doesn't mean auto-balanced, which is my point. If they do it they're going to have to carefully work out the balance implications so that they can do it without ruining competitive play.

 

[grandabx]

"Better from a creative aspect" doesn't mean auto-balanced, which is my point. If they do it they're going to have to carefully work out the balance implications so that they can do it without ruining competitive play.

You call Erron black/Geras having their cake and eating it too balance? Characters missing crucial KBs/Specials? One variation being far better than the other? The difference? Players can't at least TRY to compensate at all for their character's problems with TVs.

 

[Scheme Kahn't]

"Balance" means little if the game does not prove fundamentally FUN TO PLAY, and into the medium-to-long term. No one will be watching SonicFox's 50-50 spam orgies if they've become bored of the game and moved on. Frankly, if it wasn't for Jakal's Kahn, I'd not even have watched any scene matches past that atrocious U.K. launch tournament... which nigh on gave me P.T.S.D.!

At this point, I'd encourage NRS to drop some tantalising DLC news -- to rekindle positive interest -- and make their intentions clearer, with respect to allowing customisation in tournament play and, however unlikely, loosening up the 3-slot limit for causal modes. They need to throw some meat to players, because with the vast majority of the player base being capricious casuals, those who want to stick with the game, need some reason to (beyond just the 'joy' of critiquing it, that is).

The way I see it, if people are already onto the "[insert character / set-up] is broken" stage of this game's discussion cycle, MK11 is headed for similarly short life span to the other NRS games that preceded it...