Babajabadahut
Smash Rookie
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2019
- Messages
- 7
Okay so I want to preface this thread with this, this thread is intended as a hypothetical discussion of the minimum viable buffs necessary to make Robin a viable pick in majors. Please do not cry about Robin's kit being unusable, it's not it really isn't in-fact I wouldn't say any character in this game is unusable and anyone should be able to learn even Kirbro to a competitive level for locals. My issue with past balance threads is that the tone has quickly become "Don't cry, this is what we've got just learn to use it as is" which, as has been mentioned, completely glosses over the fact that the character has glaring issues and is not necessarily in line with even top-mid tier or bottom-high tier characters. Again, I am not crying for buffs or even thinking this thread will have any influence on the matter but simply want to open a serious discourse to collect and show where the Robin community feels she lacks.
Personally I was aiming to be a Robin main initially, I still play her as a secondary but I have since switched to Link as I felt I was looking only at the characters flaws which was overshadowing the things that drew me to her in the first place. My personal set of buffs I think would make the character major viable would be:
The other option would be to slightly increase her ground speed allowing for better follow-up and making it slightly harder to put her into a disadvantage state. I don't think she needs both at least from the state she's in now I feel one or the other would be absolutely fine, my personal preference would be FAF buffs as it makes arc-fire more versatile and I like the idea of that.
Levin sword coming out after 10 seconds is ridiculous, on a character with already bad disadvantage you start the game with a massive gimp makes no sense, I see this buff as completely necessary as currently what should be done is a game of keep-away using ledge invulnerability and el-thunder to zone which isn't fun to play and isn't fun to play against IMO.
Now I'd like to address some common buff suggestions and why I think they're not necessary
Personally I was aiming to be a Robin main initially, I still play her as a secondary but I have since switched to Link as I felt I was looking only at the characters flaws which was overshadowing the things that drew me to her in the first place. My personal set of buffs I think would make the character major viable would be:
- Earlier FAF for Arc-fire (no need for a casting speed increase) OR slight increase to ground speed.
- Levin sword comes out after 4-5 seconds rather than 10.
The other option would be to slightly increase her ground speed allowing for better follow-up and making it slightly harder to put her into a disadvantage state. I don't think she needs both at least from the state she's in now I feel one or the other would be absolutely fine, my personal preference would be FAF buffs as it makes arc-fire more versatile and I like the idea of that.
Levin sword coming out after 10 seconds is ridiculous, on a character with already bad disadvantage you start the game with a massive gimp makes no sense, I see this buff as completely necessary as currently what should be done is a game of keep-away using ledge invulnerability and el-thunder to zone which isn't fun to play and isn't fun to play against IMO.
Now I'd like to address some common buff suggestions and why I think they're not necessary
- FAF + casting speed buff to arc-fire aka ARCFIRE IS USELESS - I think this is complete rubbish, arcfire is a great tool that has real advantages over ness' PK Fire and fit into the respective characters kits differently. Arc-fire shouldn't be spammed and shouldn't be used in neutral even if this buff came through as with only 6 uses you should really be thinking about how and when to use the ability. It's also much better than holy fire so people who say its worse really don't know what they're saying.
- Start with levin sword - I think this idea is in the right direction but ignores why you don't start with it as is, levin sword is a power spike and really scary for your opponent, in the same way robin feels gimped by not starting with levin sword your opponent would feel massively pressured by fairs and up-airs coming out right out the gate, I think the 4-5 second compromise works well however 10 seconds is definitely too much.
- Remove degradation/ give abilities infinite uses - no, just no in my opinion - tome management is one of the draws to Robin (at least for me) she can do really neat stuff with the depleted tomes and sword and the cooldowns really aren't that unfair its a fun mechanic and frankly if this buff was in game at launch robin would be boring and it would be much harder to make a claim that she should have any buffs at all and would still feel unviable at a major level. There's more to be said on this but I don't think that most Robin mains think this would actually benefit the character that much so nuff said really.
- Buff el-wind so it has a hitbox above Robin - this one is a hard one for me as I suffer from the same issue that I think a lot of Robin players have who want this buff, its far too easy to punish Robins recovery. However, El-winds saving grace is that it goes super far, you can recover from most places low and be absolutely fine which is great for stalling while you wait on tomes or sword. Oh and you can spike with it although that doesn't really come in to play at least with me and not seen other Robins get much use out of it either. I think that if this buff would go through there would need to be a nerf to the distance that El-wind travels and I don't know if I'd even want that tbh. Most curious about peoples thoughts on this one.