MookieRah
Kinda Sorta OK at Smash
Here is a quick chart I made, mainly to show that Link still needs some more help (establishing my bias here) that looks at a handful of characters and their damages for a comparison.
http://www.angelfire.com/ms3/jasonsmith/Damage_Chart.html
The main culprit in the lineup is Fox. Why is the 3rd fastest character in the game beating other fast (but not quite as fast) characters such as Squirtle, TL, and Sheik in damage? Why does Fox more often than not go even, or do more damage on attacks than Link?
I took note in Chiibo's tournament, as many others did, that Fox was able to rack up a ton of percent, beyond 100% within 10 seconds of the match. I don't think that a character that has excellent speed and combo-ability should be able to dish out raw numbers this high. On top of this, Fox has a really amazing projectile for racking up more damage from a safe distance.
I'm not entirely sure how and where to nerf Fox in his entirety, but I wouldn't even consider this to be balanced.
A few basic principles I think we can all agree on come to mind:
Moves that combo into themselves should not do significant damage, as they can be done repeatedly and usually set up other attacks to continue a combo. You can see in this chart that Squirtle's utilt and Sheik's ftilt have been toned down for this very reason. I believe Fox's utlit should be toned down as well, knocking it down from 9% to 6% damage. It should also mimic the current knockback as much as possible, as to not affect how he plays other than lowering his damage output.
Incredibly safe moves that also link into combos should not do much damage. Fox's drill is easy to land, very safe, and links into several other moves. The reward for this move is so great that people would still do it all the time if it did no damage at all. I think it should be toned down to doing a maximum of 9%, making the average drill in a match do around 4-6%.
Moves that are hard to land or combo should do a lot of damage. Link's upB only does a paltry 12%. While it's knockback is amazing and seemingly perfect, it should still lay down some hurt percentage wise. I honestly think making it do 25% uncharged, and 30% charged is not even overdoing it. Ganon's stop does 22% and when performed correctly it has no lag, and it can even follow into other attacks. So yeah, where is the love for Link's spin attack? It isn't instant like it was in Melee, you can't just toss it out at any given moment, so it doing massive damage is not a bad thing. There are also very few setups for his upB to be comboed into, and if they do set up it would be at low percent and would likely have a better follow up than an upB finisher.
Speed vs Power should trade off if we want to make this a balanced game. Of course there are other factors as well, such as combo-ability, recovery, weight, and whether or not a character has projectiles, but for the most part speedy characters shouldn't be able to dominate most of the cast. Fox should be adjusted. His other combo-ending aerials should not be beating the damage of characters that are in a slower speed class. I'm also pretty sure that Sonic isn't gifted with the massive damage Fox has (I will include him into the chart, and I might make a comprehensive character chart soon), and he lacks a projectile and doesn't combo as well/as easy as Fox does.
After all that being said, I'm not saying that all of the nerfs I suggested should be in play. I think if we did every idea I thought of it would be way too much of a hit on Fox and it would come way to early. I do think, at the very least, that his dair and utilt should be nerfed on damage, as they are the moves that currently combo into most everything else. I think that would be enough of a change for now, and for later stuff we could just wait for more tournament information.
http://www.angelfire.com/ms3/jasonsmith/Damage_Chart.html
The main culprit in the lineup is Fox. Why is the 3rd fastest character in the game beating other fast (but not quite as fast) characters such as Squirtle, TL, and Sheik in damage? Why does Fox more often than not go even, or do more damage on attacks than Link?
I took note in Chiibo's tournament, as many others did, that Fox was able to rack up a ton of percent, beyond 100% within 10 seconds of the match. I don't think that a character that has excellent speed and combo-ability should be able to dish out raw numbers this high. On top of this, Fox has a really amazing projectile for racking up more damage from a safe distance.
I'm not entirely sure how and where to nerf Fox in his entirety, but I wouldn't even consider this to be balanced.
A few basic principles I think we can all agree on come to mind:
Moves that combo into themselves should not do significant damage, as they can be done repeatedly and usually set up other attacks to continue a combo. You can see in this chart that Squirtle's utilt and Sheik's ftilt have been toned down for this very reason. I believe Fox's utlit should be toned down as well, knocking it down from 9% to 6% damage. It should also mimic the current knockback as much as possible, as to not affect how he plays other than lowering his damage output.
Incredibly safe moves that also link into combos should not do much damage. Fox's drill is easy to land, very safe, and links into several other moves. The reward for this move is so great that people would still do it all the time if it did no damage at all. I think it should be toned down to doing a maximum of 9%, making the average drill in a match do around 4-6%.
Moves that are hard to land or combo should do a lot of damage. Link's upB only does a paltry 12%. While it's knockback is amazing and seemingly perfect, it should still lay down some hurt percentage wise. I honestly think making it do 25% uncharged, and 30% charged is not even overdoing it. Ganon's stop does 22% and when performed correctly it has no lag, and it can even follow into other attacks. So yeah, where is the love for Link's spin attack? It isn't instant like it was in Melee, you can't just toss it out at any given moment, so it doing massive damage is not a bad thing. There are also very few setups for his upB to be comboed into, and if they do set up it would be at low percent and would likely have a better follow up than an upB finisher.
Speed vs Power should trade off if we want to make this a balanced game. Of course there are other factors as well, such as combo-ability, recovery, weight, and whether or not a character has projectiles, but for the most part speedy characters shouldn't be able to dominate most of the cast. Fox should be adjusted. His other combo-ending aerials should not be beating the damage of characters that are in a slower speed class. I'm also pretty sure that Sonic isn't gifted with the massive damage Fox has (I will include him into the chart, and I might make a comprehensive character chart soon), and he lacks a projectile and doesn't combo as well/as easy as Fox does.
After all that being said, I'm not saying that all of the nerfs I suggested should be in play. I think if we did every idea I thought of it would be way too much of a hit on Fox and it would come way to early. I do think, at the very least, that his dair and utilt should be nerfed on damage, as they are the moves that currently combo into most everything else. I think that would be enough of a change for now, and for later stuff we could just wait for more tournament information.
