Patch 1.1.6 Released: Bayonetta Hit With Nerf Hammer

Late Thursday evening, Nintendo released what could possibly be the final patch for Smash 4. The patch notes had been leaked ahead of time by Twitter user @RandomTBush, revealing that only one major change had occurred within the game: Bayonetta had been nerfed as hard as any other character in the history of Smash 4.

PG | ESAM takes a look at Bayonetta's re-worked specials
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Apparently Nintendo had heard the very vocal voices in the community calling for Bayonetta nerfs and decided to rework the character in a major way. The changes seem to be specifically designed to prevent her from setting up and pulling off her ladder combos, which could be devastating for the character. Her D-tilt has had its hitbox significantly reduced. Both Witch-Twist as well as After-Burner Kick have had their SDI multipliers doubled, which should make it significantly easier for opponents to escape. Also worth noting, is that her hitboxes for several iterations of these moves have been shrunk. Her D-air has also received a nerf in the form of a reduction in knockback growth. You can find the full patch notes here.

Top Smashers seem to be going in both directions on whether or not Bayonetta will remain a top-character:

This nerf to Bayonetta was great. I think she is still a really good character. The best? Probably not.

— NAKAT (@darknakat) May 20, 2016

Bayonetta is not top tier anymore. Like, not even close. MAAAAYBE top 20.

— ESAM (Stride Esports) (@imESAM) May 20, 2016

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Bayonetta nerfed a bunch. Still one of the better characters, but nothing like before. I think Rosa/ZSS/Diddy are the best rn, then sheik.

— Jason Zimmerman (@MVG_Mew2King) May 19, 2016

deer nintendoo

i payed 5.99 for bayonetta and you've ruined her

i would like a refund please

yours truely

kuroganne gammsr

— Kurogane Hammer (@KuroganeHammer) May 20, 2016

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What do you think of the impending Bayonetta nerfs? Will she still be viable? Are you disappointed that no other characters were changed? Is this the final Smash 4 patch? Let us know in the comments below.

 

I think it'll be like diddy where they nerf them hard, then, if they nerfed them a bit more than they wanted too, they'll give them a few compensation buffs.

 

Surprised to see they didn't touched Witch Time.
But I suppose that seems to be the only thing she has going now that she seems to have lost the zero to death combos.

Also, I wonder if this will be the last patch?

 

Personally I'm inclined to agree with PinkFresh

 

Her taunt is still broken

 

Thank....God!!!!!

 

Sakurai after the patch:

 

Surprised to see they didn't touched Witch Time.
But I suppose that seems to be the only thing she has going now that she seems to have lost the zero to death combos.

Also, I wonder if this will be the last patch?

They didn't touch Witch Time because Witch Time is not a particularly good move. And because they nerfed it in 1.1.5.

Their solution to get rid of easy to kill combos was to simply get rid of the combos in and of themselves as opposed to just making it so they weren't easy to kill.

Her most important move, dive kick, appears to be worthless.

Her few approaches are all telegraphed.

Witch Twist seems to be so unsafe you're just as likely to put yourself into a worse position (and probably a KO) depending on the circumstance. Characters can DI below her now. If ZSS didn't win the matchup before, she does now.

She still has her edgeguarding tools and what used to make her "combo heavy character" now makes her a "keep away character". Only she also doesn't have the damage output to really do that, and she gets extra lag if she uses too many moves in the air to get away.

What I'm seeing does not follow the design philosophy outlined in her developer video.

 

Surprised to see they didn't touched Witch Time.
But I suppose that seems to be the only thing she has going now that she seems to have lost the zero to death combos.

Also, I wonder if this will be the last patch?

They touched everything that made her decent, including Witch Twist.

 

What I'm seeing does not follow the design philosophy outlined in her developer video.

Yeah, I agree with that. I suppose they could have reworked the character to still have the combos but to make it less easy to carry players all the way to the upper blastzone for those 'cheap' KO.

 

Yeah, I agree with that. I suppose they could have reworked the character to still have the combos but to make it less easy to carry players all the way to the upper blastzone for those 'cheap' KO.

She was built around being able to string together her specials in the air. That's why she has increased endlag on landing depending on the number of specials she uses.

The Fun Factor, if you will, was being able string the attacks together, not that they killed. Getting rid of the latter without tossing out the former was more than possible.

She is not as true to source material now.

 

 

 

thank goodness

 

im kinda glad. i wanted to use bayonetta for a while but i never wanted to because of how broken she really was. now that they have balenced her out ill have some fun with her

 

so if we allow something considered "broken" in some circles, nintendo nerfs it to hell and back.

does this mean it's finally time?

 

I actually reunited with some friends last night to drink beer and play Smash to celebrate this.

Cheers!!

 

I love how people are now actually complaining that bayonetta is too bad now. Like, seriously, make up your minds. (shes still a great character, imo)

 

"Never Ask For Anything From Me Again" - Sakurai

 

I kinda wish the first use of a move from the ground was still like the original with the second use like this. It seems so wrong Bayonetta's specials being so bad for comboing... Still, this is probably better balanced...

 

I think we should take this whole Bayonetta drama as a lesson and learn from it. Ever since Smash 4's release, people have moaned and complained about the lack of "real" combos and that "D Throw > FAir > FAir" was the only type of combo seen. Then, Sakurai throws Bayonetta, a character filled with legit combos and the ability to reliably 0-death, at us. Yet, everyone complains that she's too OP for these reasons, causing her to get what might be the biggest nerf to any character so far.

Long story short, be careful what you wish for. It might not be as great as you think it will.

 

I have so many more gifs I want to use, too...

 

She is not as true to source material now.

Uh? In Bayonetta 2 every enemy bar two break your combos after a specific theresold.
Every non-grunt has either infinite super armor or 1 frame reactions+dodges
Witch Time was the only way to circumvent those two aspects, being able to see through the right timing in order to have a reward that even just hoped to be higher than dodge offsets
The Infinite One has super armor even during WT
What cut right through all of this and that resembled 0-death Bayonetta is actually Rosa/Alruna+Brace of Time(they were actually infinites but w/e)

I love how people are now actually complaining that bayonetta is too bad now. Like, seriously, make up your minds. (shes still a great character, imo)

That happens everytime, history repeats itself through patches

DURR CHARACTER TOO BROKEN IMMA COMBLAIN UNTIL YOU NERF IT

And then Sakurai said

Let there be nerf

And nerf was
After the nerf

DURR U MADE MY CHARACTER USELESS Y DIDN U GIVE GONNON A SWORD THAT HSOOTS LAZERS AND BRING BAK SNEAK

 

In all honesty, she still has her huge smashes, Witch Time is still good, and her booty game is still OP.

 

Uh? In Bayonetta 2 every enemy bar two break your combos after a specific theresold.
Every non-grunt has either infinite super armor or 1 frame reactions+dodges
Witch Time was the only way to circumvent those two aspects, being able to see through the right timing in order to have a reward that even just hoped to be higher than dodge offsets

Because Bayonetta 2 was scaled around Witch Time.

Bayonetta 1 was scaled around Dodge Offset. That's why in the hardest difficulty in 1, you don't even have WT.

That's not possible in 2 because the of how they made the humanoid bosses.

Regardless, she got a developer overview video. We know what she was built around, we know how it feeds back exactly into how her own game plays.

 

Because Bayonetta 2 was scaled around Witch Time.

Bayonetta 1 was scaled around Dodge Offset. That's why in the hardest difficulty in 1, you don't even have WT.

That's not possible in 2 because the of how they made the humanoid bosses.

Regardless, she got a developer overview video. We know what she was built around, we know how it feeds back exactly into how her own game plays.

Know that, yet I'm prone to think that the baseline was Bayonetta 2, since the only thing that could resemble a Jab Cancel is Fair.
And in that regard I'm pretty sure she has some combos outside of WT, just like Bayonetta 2 was reduced to finisher-less combos against humanoids without her WT.

 

I think we should take this whole Bayonetta drama as a lesson and learn from it. Ever since Smash 4's release, people have moaned and complained about the lack of "real" combos and that "D Throw > FAir > FAir" was the only type of combo seen. Then, Sakurai throws Bayonetta, a character filled with legit combos and the ability to reliably 0-death, at us. Yet, everyone complains that she's too OP for these reasons, causing her to get what might be the biggest nerf to any character so far.

Long story short, be careful what you wish for. It might not be as great as you think it will.

I don't think people took issue with Bayonetta specifically having these types of combos but that she was the only one with these types of combos. Take a look at Smash 64: every character can zero to death every character. Sure the level of execution required is different for each character but they can all do it.

 

I don't even like Bayonetta (let alone use her), and for some reason I am not happy about how hard they nerfed her. I guess i just feel for the people who do like her.

 

I don't think people took issue with Bayonetta specifically having these types of combos but that she was the only one with these types of combos. Take a look at Smash 64: every character can zero to death every character. Sure the level of execution required is different for each character but they can all do it.

*Samus backs to a corner and cries*....

 

The crys of bayo fans are all over the place and I'm just here like...

 

I never used Bayonetta's 0-death combos; I use her as a bait/punish character, and I get a lot of off stage/witch time kills. The nerfs don't affect me too much because of my playstyle (I'm very defensive because I use Zelda/Palutena/Peach). I'm also glad that people won't call me cheap anymore for using Bayonetta, or at the very least the complaints aren't very justified. Most importantly, this patch should end the nonsensical "should Bayonetta be banned?" debacle. I love Bayonetta as a character and her games are some of the best in the genre. I'll use her regardless if she's the best or not; I said that before she was even released.

With that being said, there's little need to celebrate the nerfs of other peoples' mains to this degree. If anything, it would've been more beneficial if lower tier characters received buffs.

 

She got nerfed as people wanted... and people still complain about the nerfs. Like chill out she's still a pretty good character

 

I only picked up Bayo so I can counter that damn RosaLuma. Maybe I can still do it......maybe hopefully....

 

okay, the majority of the spoiled little players got their nerf hammer on the oh-so-evil bit---witch...

Not going to help the scene grow by any real stretch because those same players will just find something else to cry about.

 

Guys. Chill out. A grand total of 4 moves were nerfed. Bayonetta has a whole world of tools that can finally be explored because she doesn't rely on same moves to kill someone off the top.

At the least, wait 2 weeks before crying foul on Nintendo's part. Re-learn the character, and if she turns out to be utterly worthless, then complain as you please.

 

okay, the majority of the spoiled little players got their nerf hammer on the oh-so-evil bit---witch...

Not going to help the scene grow by any real stretch because those same players will just find something else to cry about.

OR...
Bayonetta had some legitimate issues that needed addressing, and now the game can keep developing in a healthy manner.

 

Interesting. I'm curious to see how she'll play from now on.

I'm just glad Robin wasn't touched.

 

I find this patch quite upsetting. First of all, those are some severe nerfs to Bayonetta. They appear to have changed a big portion of her play style, and a good amount of her combo game has been either changed or removed. These seem unnecessary and extreme. I feel as though they could have been a bit less harsh on the nerfs, but only nerfed her this much because of the massive amounts of complaints from players who believed that she was "the new Brawl Meta Knight" or "get hit once and you are dead". These are exaggerated claims, as Bayonetta is nowhere near that level of brokenness. I do agree she needed to be nerfed, but not this much.

Destroying her aerial combo game, which is what made Bayonetta unique, seems, to put it bluntly, stupid. They could have easily changed her death combos to kill later, but still keep the aerial combos. However, they just decided to change her aerial combos entirely, therefore removing what made Bayonetta special. Witch Twist and Dive Kick, her two best moves, have been completely overhauled, with the former being more liable to punish and the latter being basically worthless in combos. This alone is quite unnecessary, but then they had to decrease the hitbox of DTilt, one of her best options in the neutral and a fantastic combo starter. I have no idea why this was needed, and seems completely random and unnecessary. They didn't need to change these moves, as doing so also changed the fundamental idea of Bayonetta as an aerial combo character.

But this isn't it, oh no. Not only did they severely change Bayonetta, they decided not to touch anybody else. Nintendo failed to buff characters like Jigglypuff, who desperately needed it, and other characters who needed nerfs, such as Rosaluma. Why dedicate an entire update for just one character, when other characters needed adjustments, and when that one character didn't need so many nerfs?

Nintendo appears to have used this patch to try to please all of the people who decided to hate on Bayonetta after seeing a death combo montage. However, Bayonetta is now just a shell of her former self, and other characters remain in need of change. I am appalled at what has happened here.

Also, now I need to make massive edits to my guide...

 

I suggest that now is the time to make the "adapt and get good" argument again.

 

This is great to hear.

She is not as true to source material now.

She can join the club with all the other characters that aren't then.