I enjoy playing Hero, don’t get me wrong, he’s fun as hell and his gimmick is... creative. At the same time though, he feels a little too gimmicky, to the extent that his defining characteristic is randomness. So here are my 4 simple steps to not only remove this randomness, but also make Hero a more consistent for competitive scenes and more accessible in casual play.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m75c1j7UK13YM3QN7fvJSq69-gyP_L3zo2TM7kp0c9E/edit?usp=sharing
Let me know if you have questions about why I made certain changes and if you would personally prefer any of these changes. I’m not saying this version of Hero would be a finished product, but I do believe it's a significant step in the right direction.
- Remove Critical Hits: Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first. Sorry all you masochists out there, but random, game-changing crits really don’t belong in SSB.
- Streamline & Derandomize Command Select: Reduce the number of spells on the menu from 4 to 3, with each slot having a dedicated type of move, and tie each move’s appearance to how much MP Hero has (with a few exceptions). See Figures 1 & 2 for details. This change allows players to know what spells are available without even needing to open the command select menu. At the competitive level, this will lead to faster, more fluid gameplay while opening the door for more diverse and dynamic strategies. At the causal level, players won’t be slowed down by needing to read 4 random spells every time and, if they’re new, wondering which does what. To help new players, the move list on the pause menu should clarify that Command Select’s first slot is for melee attacks, second slot is for projectiles, and third slot is for boosts.
- Tone Down the Power of Special Attacks: Since Step 2 would be a significant buff, Hero’s now more consistent specials should be slightly nerfed for the sake of balance. Don’t worry, he'll still hit plenty hard since I only reduced the damage by ~0.8x. See Figure 3 for details.
- Slow the Recovery of MP: Slightly slowing the passive recovery MP will reward sound resource management, while also punishing outright camping and introducing additional tradeoffs for using boosts. See figures 4 and 5 for details.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m75c1j7UK13YM3QN7fvJSq69-gyP_L3zo2TM7kp0c9E/edit?usp=sharing
Let me know if you have questions about why I made certain changes and if you would personally prefer any of these changes. I’m not saying this version of Hero would be a finished product, but I do believe it's a significant step in the right direction.