I'm complaining because I can, simple as that. It's pretty frustrating to see the character you put significant amounts of effort into get nerfed without compensation before he presents himself as a consistent threat. I discuss my ideas on what would make him better for the same reason: I just feel like discussing it.
I've been dealing with the nerfs since they've happened. Most of them happened early on, but I still play the character.
I play to his strengths, but the devs keep nerfing that strength without proper compensation. Pac-Man is a zoning character, but his zoning tools continue to be nerfed. It doesn't make much sense, especially when he's not a dominating character in the slightest.
Just to reiterate, buffs:
- Villager can't pocket trampoline. Big, but only affects 1 MU.
- Pellet heals for 2% instead of 1%. Slightly affects Rosalina MU, otherwise it's a very slight bonus
- Pac-Jump medium strength hit lasts a frame longer. Very slight buff.
Nerfs
- Nerfed galaxian, which I assume made it easier to clank with and nerfed damage output of a projectile that takes around 2 seconds to charge to, is easy to clank with or catch, and can be used against us.
- Trampoline bounce height for opponents. Lowered, directly hurting our zoning game for no reason.
- Hydrant HP increase makes impossible to instant launch unless we already have fruit in hand (locking us into it) or have a Key charged, thereby making easier for opponents to take control over. This one significantly nerfed Melon utility and directly hurt our zoning game. I'll admit, it makes setups easier, but I would've rather kept the instant launch option (only with a fresh Bair, mind you) and gotten used to using Uair for a setup hit.
- Ftilt frame data nerf
- Hydrant acting like a ledge when we run off does absolutely nothing except make it harder to do setups.
- Usmash ending lag increased significantly. This one was justified, but still.
All buffs have been very minor while every nerf has critically afffected our zoning game or KO potential/safety. Meanwhile Sheik can carry you offstage for free with loads of safety and ZSS has true combos into a flexible spike that KO's at relatively low %, and they're virtually untouched.
[COLLAPSE=Compared to a good character like Sonic...]
Buffs:
Dair IASA allowing him to use it from ledge height and not SD (bigger than any buff we've got lol)
Nerfs:
Spin dash damage
Bthrow knockback
Usmash KBG
Fsmash KBG
Like I said, our nerfs are comparable to a character that has actually been a consistent top 5 national/international threat from day 1.
[/COLLAPSE]
If this trend continues, I may drop him. It's becoming less and less worth the effort as everyone around him gets buffed, but most of their moveset can't be used against them. I want Pac-Man to do well competitively because I think most of the community sleeps on him, but it's hard to do that when the devs nerf your main strength while buffing everyone else. Again, all of our specials have counterplay and can be just as deadly to us as our opponents. Yet our grab remains god awful and our specials receive nerfs.
If I'm understanding this correctly, it's a (small...) buff. If the 5% hitbox happens later, I'm assuming the second strongest hitbox lasts for a frame longer, making it have more of a chance of connecting.