Veril
Frame Savant
epic response, ptI-III
When I spoke with you on the phone today, before I had read this but well after you had written it, I think a lot got cleared up. The major reason moves kill earlier is that the boundaries have been altered on the majority of stages. This affects every character and every KO move. It lets KO moves function before the strings/combos into them cease functioning, gets rid of the remnants of momentum canceling, and decreases the average match length. I could go into how this is the final step to tweaking the ratio of risk to reward, but that's for another wall of text...
So, let me address your points:
Aerials being difficult to punish on shield is also something that isn't at all unique to Bowser, its a quality many aerials share, across the cast we see examples of this with SHFF aerials (Marth, Ganon, Jiggs, Bowser, Peach, Pikachu, Ike, etc).
Pt II.
Bowser's aerials are no more safe now than they were in 6.0. If you have seriously decided to hold off on mentioning them until now, but still call it 'obvious stupidity'. H***, bowser's aerials are no more safe than they were in 5.0! So its been like over 6 months that these aerials have been **** and NOW they are getting brought up... right... >.<
Pt III.
This move has also been absurdly powerful for as long as I can remember playing B+.
A few important things to note about it: only the strongest hitbox kills at 42%. That's if the weaker faster hitbox (which pokes you up into the stronger one) does not hit, because the second strong hit is less weak than the strongest possible hit. The first hitbox appears relatively fast (frame 11), does 4 damage and without any DI will knock you into a stronger hit (but not necessarily the strongest hit). The later hitbox is gonna land around frame 33 (minimum aerial) to 43 (grounded estimate). The notable hitboxes are the weak initial setup hit, the omegadeath a**box, the less strong early aerial a**box, and weaker hitboxes lateral to the central hitbox (noticable when you land but don't get a direct hit).
As to it being difficult or impossible to punish on block (which you brought up when we spoke), this isn't true if the spacing is such that the strong hit collides with the shield. The adv is around -50. The pushback isn't enough to even come close to preventing a dash-grab after shield drop, even from characters with garbage dash grabs. The only character who might not be able to punish is Luigi and that's due to his incredibly low friction.
Closing comments on Bowser:
1. Glick get in here.
2. VaNz most legit concern imo is how safe Bowser's aerials are on block. If they really are substantially safer than the norm than this is a problem. If it is shown that there are ways to punish say, fair on block, than I will post them.
3. Bowser has been like this for a while. Its not what I did, merely that this new set exists. Bowser's down-b might have killed Jiggs at 50 or so in 6.0. I know I was killed by that move at extremely low (40ish) percents as Jigglypuff on FD before the boundary adjustments.
So, Bowser... he's really good. But seriously, this is not new. Its old. Really old in fact. And for the 3 months I wanted feedback. ???
So now I'm in a tricky situation, going into 7.03 where I shouldn't make character changes that aren't related to coding accidents (ex. Sonic's nair and arguably up-smash due to overlapping changes). And to really address what you brought up, I'd have to alter ALR on his aerials and the up-b OOS. Both huge changes.
Discuss.
Ouch. None of what you posted shows that either Bowser or Sonic are leagues ahead of even the majority of the cast. Your argument, if it is based around ease of use, may have some truth in the case of Bowser, but this alone isn't enough to justify nerfing him. If your argument is that Bowser and Sonic have radically better options, or even just better options than most or all of the cast, that is simply not true....No one character should be LEAGUES ahead of another.
Lastly. Sorry if I sound all high and mighty/ demanding. But I get really angry when I see blatant.. stupidity.
When I spoke with you on the phone today, before I had read this but well after you had written it, I think a lot got cleared up. The major reason moves kill earlier is that the boundaries have been altered on the majority of stages. This affects every character and every KO move. It lets KO moves function before the strings/combos into them cease functioning, gets rid of the remnants of momentum canceling, and decreases the average match length. I could go into how this is the final step to tweaking the ratio of risk to reward, but that's for another wall of text...
So, let me address your points:
The only angle we changed on bair was on the weak hit, not the strong hit. The bair was really good prior to this set. It kills better off the side in this set, but so does every other move... it wasn't buffed damage or kb-wise. Off the side aerial KOs are earlier across the board. It affects Jiggs fair, Lucas's f-smash, Ganon's fair, Peach's f-throw... its not a matter of any individual move. The bair weak hit simply got changed from the sakurai angle to having the same 20° angle as the strong hit....
1. Bowser.
- Bair. Insanely powerful. comes out in 8 frames and can be done from the ledge with (invulnerability and) more than enough time for bowser to come back on stage. And because of the bairs launch angle, he can easily thwart good recoveries. About it's landing lag, I do know exact numbers, but I know it isn't much and it's not like it matters because If he bairs your shield you'll be well out of range to do anything meaningful. This move is atrociously OP. Solution: raise the launch angle and make it slower. No character should be a huge threat facing you, and facing away from you. and should the move fail, it deserves to be punished.
Aerials being difficult to punish on shield is also something that isn't at all unique to Bowser, its a quality many aerials share, across the cast we see examples of this with SHFF aerials (Marth, Ganon, Jiggs, Bowser, Peach, Pikachu, Ike, etc).
Pt II.
Jigglypuff WAS brought up fairly often as a character who had been massively overbuffed in 6.0, everything we nerfed about her was voted on. In fact, removing her bair size buff was something you voted for (Gurukid was the only person opposed). She also lost her killing up-throw.Jigglypuff is considered to be at least top 3 by most people. But no one (in the WBR) has brought attention to anything that should be changed about her. As good as she his, no scrub is going to pick her up and be ready for tournament right away. Jigglypuff requires a decent amount of mastery to be effective with, where as bowser just gets away with flailing. This is almost exactly what happened with Dedede. Dedede got fixed and now he's fine, i know Bowser will be too
Bowser's aerials are no more safe now than they were in 6.0. If you have seriously decided to hold off on mentioning them until now, but still call it 'obvious stupidity'. H***, bowser's aerials are no more safe than they were in 5.0! So its been like over 6 months that these aerials have been **** and NOW they are getting brought up... right... >.<
Pt III.
Down-b on prediction against someone who missed a tech covering several options isn't really that bad. You could say the exact same thing about Ganon's down-b, or DK's/DDD's d-smash (Buuman trap anyone?), or any number of other moves. Missing a tech when near the ledge is really bad. If the person DOES tech, this no MUST be done on prediction and if you are wrong Bowser is gonna get punished fairly hard. Its forced Yomi. Again, not unique to Bowser.- DownB. =| This move is just really ********. As if the power wasn't insane enough, the shield damage is astronomical. It kills Jigglypuff as early as 42% and kills DK as early as 66% It doesn't hurt to mention that this can be done easily from armor crouch and if Bowser grounds you near the ledge, he can cover 3/4 of your get up options, the 4th option being to roll TOWARDS him. =|
Solution: Reduce knockback. Seriously, the move does at least 20 damage. It shouldn't be killing that early.
This move has also been absurdly powerful for as long as I can remember playing B+.
A few important things to note about it: only the strongest hitbox kills at 42%. That's if the weaker faster hitbox (which pokes you up into the stronger one) does not hit, because the second strong hit is less weak than the strongest possible hit. The first hitbox appears relatively fast (frame 11), does 4 damage and without any DI will knock you into a stronger hit (but not necessarily the strongest hit). The later hitbox is gonna land around frame 33 (minimum aerial) to 43 (grounded estimate). The notable hitboxes are the weak initial setup hit, the omegadeath a**box, the less strong early aerial a**box, and weaker hitboxes lateral to the central hitbox (noticable when you land but don't get a direct hit).
As to it being difficult or impossible to punish on block (which you brought up when we spoke), this isn't true if the spacing is such that the strong hit collides with the shield. The adv is around -50. The pushback isn't enough to even come close to preventing a dash-grab after shield drop, even from characters with garbage dash grabs. The only character who might not be able to punish is Luigi and that's due to his incredibly low friction.
Bowser's up-b OOS has been a problematically good defensive tactic forever. Moreso than any other use of the up-b, OOS is by far the most useful. It is a very powerful KO move and has invincibility. That said, it is literally the single most important defensive tactic Bowser has, and altering it is a very significant move on our parts....
- Whirling Fortress. I see that the move was fixed up some what and it's a start, but I still feel like it's not enough. I'd say bring the damage down to 8. It comes out in 5 frames making it an amazing combo break move. Not only that but the speed makes it easy to spam, and it's an easy way to punish spaced attacks. Not only that but it's a very potent vertical kill move. It can easily survive on 8%
Closing comments on Bowser:
1. Glick get in here.
2. VaNz most legit concern imo is how safe Bowser's aerials are on block. If they really are substantially safer than the norm than this is a problem. If it is shown that there are ways to punish say, fair on block, than I will post them.
3. Bowser has been like this for a while. Its not what I did, merely that this new set exists. Bowser's down-b might have killed Jiggs at 50 or so in 6.0. I know I was killed by that move at extremely low (40ish) percents as Jigglypuff on FD before the boundary adjustments.
That was a mistake. The angle was not supposed to be that low. Blind has explained already iirc.2. Sonic.
Sonic has been given so much in plus, it's a wonder that Sonic mains play vBrawl at all. But this latest build.. is what set me off. (i remember now)
- Nair. This is critical because I think this is the worst thing to happen to B+ (next to that Dedede hammer thing <_<) The first question I want to ask is, who decided on this change? And why was there never a vote for this? We could have addressed it earlier and possibly avoided putting it out in the first place. First off.. I believe this Nair is stronger than Pikachu's (which is one of Pikachu's primary kill techniques) except.. Sonic has INSANE aerial mobility so he can literally put that Nair where ever he wants. He can combo into it from one of his roll attacks. He can gain running momentum and cross the shield with it (out of harm's way). I knew this move looked dumb when I first noticed it was different, but when I saw it knock Snake out of his recovery with it and kill him a painfully low percentage. (can't remember it, double digits tho) I had to know who did this. Solution: Revert back to the previous Nair fix. It was fine the way it was. If it isn't broken, why fix it?
Except Zelda's up-smash hits on frame 6 and Sonic's hits on frame 19. Also Zelda's will poke shields more effectively and cannot (reasonably) be escaped, whereas at KO% on floaties they still will fall out of the move before the knockback hit (Jiggs can do this without DI STILL). The hitboxes aren't at all comparable and Zelda has partial invincibility. That said, up-smash may have been overbuffed. My position is that time will tell with this, but if everyone wants the kbg adjustment to the move taken out than... well I really hope that isn't the case.- Usmash. Oh.My.God. At first I was alarmed when this killed my Jigglypuff at 85. But I soon learned that an uncharged Usmash can kill her as early as 71% I wanted to shoot myself. Seriously, how the hell did this get into circulation. Has anyone seen Sonic's running Usmash? It's clearly made for getting some easy chip damage. And it's safe. Does anyone remember the last multi-hit move that was a ridiculous vertical killer? I do. It was Zelda's Usmash. The same move that has been kicking our ***** here in the WBR.. has been reincarnated in Sonic. Only new and improved with running speed and it hits through platforms =D Solution: Revert back to previous fix. It had a moderate power boost and it was more likely to land all hits. THAT WAS FINE.
I agree with this, but not that Bowser/Sonic are leagues ahead of everyone.And another thing, people are always, always, ALWAYS going to complain about how they feel their character isn't good enough, or their character is at the bottom.. or w/e. And the truth is, HALF OF THE CAST IS GOING TO BE AT THE BOTTOM. No matter how balanced the game gets, there are going to be characters/players who win more and that's how tier lists/rankings are made. We just have to tell people to live with it. My goal is to help make sure that all of the characters we have can compete with one another. No one character should be LEAGUES ahead of another.
So, Bowser... he's really good. But seriously, this is not new. Its old. Really old in fact. And for the 3 months I wanted feedback. ???
So now I'm in a tricky situation, going into 7.03 where I shouldn't make character changes that aren't related to coding accidents (ex. Sonic's nair and arguably up-smash due to overlapping changes). And to really address what you brought up, I'd have to alter ALR on his aerials and the up-b OOS. Both huge changes.
Discuss.