Mechanical Shield Changes 1.1.1
Okay, implicit beneficiaries:
1. Characters with moves greater than 1.25x hit lag modifier
2. Characters with moves with the electric attribute
3. Characters with multi hit spacing/pressure tools (accidental opponent shield drops may be something players liked pre-patch but it was always the receiver's mistake)*
4. Characters which have higher damage values on their spacing/pressure tools in contrast to their ending lag.
5. Characters with higher mobility (especially aerial mobility)
6. Characters with moves that are more easily power shielded
Implicit benefactors (iono, they're giving their comparative viability to others)
1. Characters with moves less than a 1.0x hit lag modifier
2. Characters with multi hit spacing/pressure tools (shield stun now eating up shield lock frames; anything with 3 or more hits never benefits from shield lock anymore)
3. Characters which have lower damage values on their spacing/pressure tools in contrast to their ending lag.
4. Characters which preferred natural out of shield options instead of shield drop options (shield lock never being apart of it): SHIELD GRAB!!!! MORE TIME TO REACT TO ROLLS OR DODGES!!!! ANY CHARACTER WITH A GOOD RISING JUMP FAIR HAVING MORE OPTIONS THAN THE ENTIRETY OF THE CAST OTHERWISE
5. Characters with faster start up/"harder" to power shield actions.
Am I missing something obvious? Probably.
Point 3-A vs Point 2-B is contradictory, but it will vary. In times where shield lock isn't apart of the equation, they're definitely better. However, in cases of 1 frame active hitboxes with 3 frame loops (quite a few), it should almost always work out better, as an opponent would be getting 2 frames of shield lock removed per hit due to 0 shield stun (?), but that's now counter balanced with the +2 base shield stun. I'm not sure how many characters exist who actually are worse off from this unless they had multi hit moves which could not be shield dropped in between (Greninja's shuriken?, Sheik's needles).
Point 5-A vs Point 4-B: shield stun up means that natural out of shield options are worse 100% of the time. This means that the characters which have more mobility to retreat (or longer/disjointed range) are winners as they can be even safer from natural out of shield options, and characters which had to generally shield drop for any of their punishes are "closer" to characters with great grabs or rising aerials. So as shield drop actions are implicitly stronger in contrast to natural out of shield options, the usefulness is scaling with your mobility specs (for the most part, or just what else you can set up in an extra 4 frames; for Link that could mean a bomb pull or whatever).
[Assumption: 1-3 PS window] How do we compare Point 4(A) to Point 3(B)? Sheik's forward air was 1 frame of shield stun prior to this patch, if she maximised shield lock frames she would be getting an extra artificial 7 frames of shield stun. Shield stun overlapping means she is only able to muster three extra frames at best, now 4 → 7 from 1 → 8.
Characters with slower start up moves, hence being "reactable" or a lot more likely to power shield are now doing comparatively better. Not only is power shielding 25% harder than before, shield dropping actions are "better" than before and in scenarios where shield lock will be nullified, they're not as screwed by missing a power shield as they were before. That feeling of "sheik fairs my shield and I can only do something if it's power shielded" is reduced significantly, and isn't as unique an ability within the cast now as it was before.
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So if you haven't seen the general trend of points and who is better off...
The engine changes have "hit" Sheik harder than most other characters. "Damage" on actions is now more important than before; end lag still is the biggest factor towards things but a high damage move (15%) is doing a lot better off this patch than a 5% move.
Sheik's needles have gone from 0 frames of shield stun to 3 (on fresh; anything else should be 2! late hits should be 2 always), however the hit lag has gone from 5 to 4. I'm not entirely sure of what overlapping produces here, as in the time you experience 4 frames of hit lag, 2 more needles would be hitting you. If shield stun is still being applied through this, then 2 or more needles should always result in no shield lock; while before you would be experiencing 0 stun, 5 frames of hit lag on the final hit and then deal with up to 7 frames of shield lock. Now it should be 4 frames of hit lag, 2 or 3 frames of shield stun and close to 0 frames of shield lock. If my assumptions are correct, you are now getting less screwed by reacting to needles with shielding than you were before (up to 5 frames better).
Sheik has gained 2 to 3 frames safety on her move set, but has had her ability to abuse shield lock better than likely anyone else in the cast reduced.
Unlike nearly every other character in the cast (some exceptions with sub 1.0 hit lag modifiers getting burned and direct nerfs), Sheik gained the least from this patch.
Apparently Rosa is getting the short end of the stick from this too; I'm not entirely mechanically sure how (Luma wouldn't have been dealing much shield stun before anyway? plus has above 1.0 hit lag modifiers?) and then there is Luigi's direct nerfs.
On the "natural out of shield options are nerfed" point; Sheik had the best short hop fair out of shield; one of the only characters in the cast to have one as a viable out of shield option. That being worse now is putting Sheik's punish reliability further in check.
Sheik, Luigi and Rosalina are (or were) the most polarizing characters in the cast. Sheik because of no poor/disadvantaged match ups, Luigi because his simple game plan was 3x as rewarding as anyone else with similar tools, and Rosa due to her walling out ability.
The balance team for Smash4 are.... geniuses... [I think]
