What's Sakurai's Tier List?

[Pixel_]

Just out of pure curiosity, I'm wondering about how the characters stack up from the game devs' (or whatever they're called) perspective.

Assuming that each buff and nerf is made for a reason (dunno if that's safe to assume), can we piece together what their "tier list" is? For example, every character that was left alone was probably considered just fine, while every character that was nerfed was considered too strong.

Once I thought about it, we can never really find out how strong or weak they consider characters until the next patch comes out, in which case the last patch will become outdated. Basically, right now, we can only find out what the 1.1.4 tier list would look like (but personally I'm fine with that, since we can compare with ZeRo's tier list).

It might be a bit early to post this since I'm not sure if all of the patch notes were found yet, but I still think the results are going to be interesting. I mean, if Jigglypuff wasn't changed, wouldn't that mean every character's supposed to be nerfed down to her level?

 

[~Skelly~]

In my honest opinion, I wouldn't even know. I doubt they even care(d) whether a character was "good" or "bad" so long as they're fun and people will enjoy playing as them (though they did care enough to give out these patches for what it's worth.). That's my two cents.

On a side note, I feel this thread will be closed because people are likely going to blatantly argue over something that's purely speculation. No offense.

 

[Zerp]

I have no clue what it actually looks like, but I'd expect it to be kind of crazy.
Muh guess:
Tippity Top Tier:
A Tier:
B is for Balanced Tier:
C Tier:
D Tier:
F Tier:
Bottom tier:



I'm partially joking, but, for those who don't know, Dedede's actually been nerfed a ton, so if we're assuming this is because of where he thinks he is in the meta-game, it'd land him pretty high up on the list. Also, given how much buffs he's given to Charizard, Robin and Ike, I would not be shocked at all if he thought those three were the worst characters in the game. Why else would he buff the three every other patch?

 

[Wintermelon43]

*Character dieing a horrific death* Ah, perfect. Just how they should be:

The other swordfighters can't be like this, it would be too unbalanced! Ah well, I'll make Cloud like that instead:

I'm bored, I'm just gonna buff this chaaracter for no reason at all:

STOP COMPLAINING THAT HE ISN'T HOW HE IS IN MELEE I BUFFED HIM ALREADY:

R.I.P:

Almost R.I.P:

R.I.P. Okay, On second thought, he should live:

Nerfed, but still alive:

Jigglypuff and Dedede need buffs? Ok. I'll fix that:

America has a differant Metagame? Yeah sure:

So, why exactatly did you nerf me?:

Oh, you need cool buffs to make a balanced character? Alright, just this one move could fix it:

Still havn't been buffed (much), but at least have a chance:

YAY I'M FINALLY OUT OF THE TIER ABOVE:

MY JAB!!!! WHAT DID YOU DO TO IT???:

Ness's throw is fine, yours are not:

Their series needed the representation:

I blame the smash ballot:

Buffed:

Nerfed:

Random characters that don't really need anything, and havn't gotten anything:

Note that the tiers shown above are just jokes, and I am not flaming Sakurai nor complaining about anything (Except Dedede and Jigglypuff not getting any buffs, I've been complaining about that for ages)

 

[Khao]

Just remember that the game is not necesarily balanced around 1v1 itemless matches. Even if the developers fully agree with the competitive community on how effective each character is on a serious match, they're not gonna balance characters with that in mind.

 

[MarioMeteor]

In the mind of Sakurai, Ike and Marth are the worst characters in the game, considering that they've both been buffed 24 times and counting.

 

[MockRock]

First off, Sakurai has said in an interview that he doesn't actually do most of the balancing himself; he has a small team that he hands that off to. As for their rationale, I have no idea. The changes seem to be aimed more at the competitive scene, but they don't ask a single competitive player for input and don't release patch notes, both of which are totally atypical. So I have no idea, honestly.

 

[LancerStaff]

To me it seems most of the patches were aimed at balancing lower level play, such as the Little Mac nerfs and the repeated DDD nerfs.

Even last patch could be argued was casual focused, with the large amount of scrub Sheiks spamming needles and the grab 50/50 and the like populating for Glory.

 

[mrmoneymanguy]

In my honest opinion, I wouldn't even know. I doubt they even care(d) whether a character was "good" or "bad" so long as they're fun and people will enjoy playing as them (though they did care enough to give out these patches for what it's worth.). That's my two cents.

On a side note, I feel this thread will be closed because people are likely going to blatantly argue over something that's purely speculation. No offense.

While for the most part I bet this is true. If a character is really good like Diddy and Sheik were, they'll step in.

 

[Dark Phazon]

Just remember that the game is not necesarily balanced around 1v1 itemless matches. Even if the developers fully agree with the competitive community on how effective each character is on a serious match, they're not gonna balance characters with that in mind.

RealTalk

 

[Splebel]

I have a theory that they cycle though characters and take hard looks at them and change thise while making smaller changes to the rest. Like this Patch. Samus got a lot of attention while other characters, Jigglypuff, didn't. If they continue with the balance patches then I believe some of these neglected characters will get buffed, nerfed respectively. Although then there are the times where they like to keep buffing Ike and Kirby each patch, throwing my theory out the window down the street and into the gutter.