I'd say Zero is close to Phoenix in the mixups department if he has a good assist like Sentinel backing him up.
Without an assist, his mixups are still good but pushblock hurts him really bad.
I used to think the health nerf was a bit much but ok, but now I find it stupid. It didn't address any of the problems with Sentinel. Sentinel's problem wasn't about lots of timeouts, it was about dealing way too much damage. I think they should buff his health a bit but lower his damage a little and he'd be fine. But I really don't want to see another patch so soon.
Um... yeah lol. Phoenix's projectiles and traps help her so much. It's like not needing an assist to cover her mixups.
And obviously you don't know how to play Phoenix since you can teleport from the air to the ground. Phoenix can even do her standing overhead after that or combo into it. Zero has nice high low combos, but he has to commit to high attacks from the start of his blockstring.
Zero's Hard attack with H command dash is way more obvious than Phoenix's projectiles/traps to teleports, IMO.
Plus Zero can only do that up close anyways while Phoenix can do her mixups anywhere.
Pushblock doesn't hurt him as bad as you'd think with his command dash.
He can get right back up in your face after pushblock with a M command dash.
I didn't say the problem with sent was time outs. I said that lowing his damage aids to how strong timing out is. I'd rather see too much damage than not enough.
I don't need to play phoenix in order to know how she works. Learning how characters work in traditional fighters is mad simple. Also, she only teleports directly to the ground when she's not in flight mode. I neglected to say that in my previous post, so that's my bad. But when she's in flight mode, she stays in flight mode when she teleports.
And Zero doesn't have to commit to his normals since he can command dash out of everything and stay maaad safe.
Yeah Zero can only do his stuff close, because that's how he's designed. But they're still more potent imo.