Rage - Will the mechanic return

[A Distant Demon]

For anyone who needs a refresher course.
https://www.ssbwiki.com/rage

Rage is a mechanic introduced in Super Smash Bros. 4. Rage functions similarly to Aura: a character's attacks will deal increased knockback as they accumulate more damage, though it does not affect an attack's damage output. Rage begins to take effect past 35%, and caps at 150%. At maximum rage, an attack's knockback will be 15% higher than normal. Rage is visually denoted by characters flashing red and emitting steam when they reach 100%,[1] which become more visually intense as the characters' damage increases until 150%. However, rage starts applying long before the visual indicators appear.

TLDR: Get hit, hit the other guy farther.

Do you think it will return? Do you want it to return?

Personally, I want it gone. I hate the idea of being rewarded for doing badly. I assume it's to help players who arent as good compete with their friends, but it just isn't fun for the other player. And if you want to help some characters that use it to get kills that have a hard time otherwise, there are better ways to handle it than adding a huge mechanic like this.


How about y'all?

 

[andimidna]

I see it more as a comeback mechanic. With complaints about how long it takes to take a stock (more commonly from less prominent melee/pm players), it’s an interesting response. I definitely don’t think it was implemented exactly how it should’ve, but the concept is interesting. I wouldn’t be mad if it came back with significantly less prevalence as before (as in, each additional percent gives you more kb, but not to the extent it did before), but there’s probably a better way of going about it altogether. It is kind of weird to give everyone a weaker aura essentially when’s lucario is still around lmao. Beefy Smash Doods suggested translating it into increased damage, not kb, which seems fine too. Idk how to go about it, but I think part of me would miss those rage early hits of multi-hits that don’t link that can kill at 10 randomly lmao
But yea, it doesn’t serve a purpose honestly

 

[Deleted member 269706]

I'm not a huge fan of the mechanic but I don't really hate it as much as some people seem to. I mean seeing some of the jank with Mario and Rosa was ridiculous so yeah, eliminating that would be preferable. Still makes for a nice way to vary up endgame battles though.

ESAM made a nice point about the return of rage in his video. I tend to disagree with him on a lot of what he says but I'd still say it's worth a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BG5rYZJPC0

 

[xipimax]

For anyone who needs a refresher course.
https://www.ssbwiki.com/rage


TLDR: Get hit, hit the other guy farther.

Do you think it will return? Do you want it to return?

Personally, I want it gone. I hate the idea of being rewarded for doing badly. I assume it's to help players who arent as good compete with their friends, but it just isn't fun for the other player. And if you want to help some characters that use it to get kills that have a hard time otherwise, there are better ways to handle it than adding a huge mechanic like this.


How about y'all?

I don't agree that the game rewards you to doing badly, do not die is doing goodly, being at high percents it risky.

Say that, the mechanic needs further balance, like custom initial and final percents for every ch or max intensity.. At the end
is a powerful tool to balance the game

 

[Metalex]

It's a interesting concept but i don't really like it. Maybe first and foremost cause it makes it very unpredictable if precise combos or strings will connect, especially since we already have to take into account move staleness, opponents weight and percentage.

 

[DakotaBonez]

Personally, I'm a huge fan of rage.
It's not a reward for playing badly, it's a reward for surviving.
If you survive to a high percent, it means that your opponent is playing badly, or that you are really good at the game.
Players who can successfully tech, dodge meteor smashes, and DI get rewarded with rage's higher knockback attacks.

I like how the mechanic constantly changes what combos and follow-ups are possible, keeping the viewing experience fresh. Smash already does this well by having opponents get launched further when at higher-percents, but having them get launched further at lower-percents, when one player has high rage, adds another level of freshness.

Certain combos are only possible when the opponent is at 50%. Some comboes require a little bit of rage.
Likewise, higher rage means that certain low percent combos will not connect.
I can see why a large part of the community doesn't like rage, as it can affect some throw comboes, typically making some grab combos inaffective with rage. Like I said before, when watching smash, I like seeing a variety of combos and followups.
A match that consists entirely of Diddy's Up-Throw Up-Air combo will get old fast. If Rage forces Diddy to do something else besides Up-Throw Up-Air, I'm all for it.


Rage seems to benefit heavyweights like Bowser, who can more easily survive to higher percents and make use of maximum rage. It might not balance out the metagame, but it's nice to see the heavyweights get an advantage in one regard. However, lighter weight characters can benefit from just a little bit of rage as well.
Here's a video showing how the dynamic between your Rage and your opponents percent opens up different possible comboes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w_RV-oXG2s

Actually, now that I think about it, lightweights still get more benefits out of rage than heavyweights.
Mario's Up-Air into Side-Air kill confirm is only available when Mario's at 60-80% rage, depending on the opponents weight. Likewise, Mario's down-throw can combo into a meteor smash when both Mario and his Opponent are in the 90-100% range. A bit ridiculous considering Mario's down-throw already comboes into up-tilts and up-special at lower percents. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwzGQ-RQg-E

 

[FunAtParties]

Please no.

 

[maybe.]

I hope to god it doesn't come back, but if it does I would like to see it come back in defined tiers, like 40%-60% is tier one rage, 60%-80% is tier 2 etc. etc. This would help with practicing combos as you would have an easier time figuring out what combos work at what levels of rage, that's one thing that kind of annoys me, when I get to rage and it's supposed to help me but it actually just messes with my setups.

My main reasons for disliking rage are: I think it gives a massive disadvantage to many characters. When you look at characters who can tack on % but have a hard time killing, pac-man, duck hunt, sheik if you're looking for a high tier, these characters are rough because they struggle to kill in general, then that's compounded by the fact that tacking on % without being able to kill is simply making your opponent stronger. I think projectile and nickel and dime % style characters would be much more viable without rage. On the other hand, when it helps a character, it helps them infinitely, bayonetta would be much less insane if there was no rage, zss wouldn't have her super jank up air up air up b setups, I think in general its a large reason for alot of things that people see as jank and/or unfair. I also don't like the idea that at times it literally controls the pace and playstyle of entire games. Way too many times you see a really close first stock, player A takes the stock, player B is on second stock now with 0% so they have no rage and their opponent is still at high % and can play conservatively to maintain their rage and a lot of time will end up turning what was a really close game into a steam roll because of how easy it is to maintain stage position when you have max rage and are putting your opponent off stage with any hit. For sure there is a skill based aspect to maintaining your rage and playing around it when your opponent has it, I just think this idea dominates the game way too much and takes away from the actual fighting skill alot of the time.

 

[LancerStaff]

Of course it will. Only a teeny tiny sub fraction of the fanbase is complaining about it. And like another 40% of that fraction actually likes it like me lol.

 

[KingDoop]

Personally, I'm a huge fan of rage.
It's not a reward for playing badly, it's a reward for surviving.
If you survive to a high percent, it means that your opponent is playing badly, or that you are really good at the game.
Players who can successfully tech, dodge meteor smashes, and DI get rewarded with rage's higher knockback attacks.

I like how the mechanic constantly changes what combos and follow-ups are possible, keeping the viewing experience fresh. Smash already does this well by having opponents get launched further when at higher-percents, but having them get launched further at lower-percents, when one player has high rage, adds another level of freshness.

Certain combos are only possible when the opponent is at 50%. Some comboes require a little bit of rage.
Likewise, higher rage means that certain low percent combos will not connect.
I can see why a large part of the community doesn't like rage, as it can affect some throw comboes, typically making some grab combos inaffective with rage. Like I said before, when watching smash, I like seeing a variety of combos and followups.
A match that consists entirely of Diddy's Up-Throw Up-Air combo will get old fast. If Rage forces Diddy to do something else besides Up-Throw Up-Air, I'm all for it.


Rage seems to benefit heavyweights like Bowser, who can more easily survive to higher percents and make use of maximum rage. It might not balance out the metagame, but it's nice to see the heavyweights get an advantage in one regard. However, lighter weight characters can benefit from just a little bit of rage as well.
Here's a video showing how the dynamic between your Rage and your opponents percent opens up different possible comboes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w_RV-oXG2s

Actually, now that I think about it, lightweights still get more benefits out of rage than heavyweights.
Mario's Up-Air into Side-Air kill confirm is only available when Mario's at 60-80% rage, depending on the opponents weight. Likewise, Mario's down-throw can combo into a meteor smash when both Mario and his Opponent are in the 90-100% range. A bit ridiculous considering Mario's down-throw already comboes into up-tilts and up-special at lower percents. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwzGQ-RQg-E

This. Does everyone remember a Sakurai quote, where he said something about how he doesn't care for traditional fighting games because the combos make the games formulaic? Smash is the only esport I enjoy watching and I think this is why, it just always seems new.

 

[Tollhouse]

While it may reward the player surviving, it can potentially punish the player who dealt that damage. I'm not a fan of the idea of getting killed at 40 or 50 after dealing 130%. There is definitely a need for balancing.

With official tournament rules at 2 stock, players can easily take out the opponent's 2nd stock with the same rage they had from their first KO. That's another reason why I hate it. You shouldn't have rage when you're ahead in stocks!! That's why I say it rewards the wrong player.

Rage is a handicap. The game's winner should be the one who had the best reads. Not the one who got knockback boosts for getting beat up.

 

[Ze Diglett]

While I personally want it gone for good, I have a feeling Sakurai will make the executive decision to keep it in, albeit toning it down a bit (because let's face it, even supporters of the mechanic have to admit its implementation in Smash 4 was spotty at best and undoubtedly resulted in more than a few questionable kills).

 

[SaltyKracka]

I don't care about it one way or the other, as long as whoever's making the game includes a mechanic that actually gives advantages to heavyweights after 20-odd years of Smash being dominated by combo-heavy fast lightweights.

 

[DJ3DS]

I don't like the way it's implemented - it feels like much less of a comeback mechanic than an added buff to whomever takes the first stock to me.