Which tier would Ryu be in if they removed his special inputs?

[Frihetsanka]

Imagine if patch 1.1.7 arrives and you play some Ryu. You input the commands for True Shoryuken but it just won't work. You try some other inputs and they don't work either. Thankfully, his strong/weak attacks that are based on holding the attack button still work.

So, in this scenario, they decided to nerf Ryu by removing all of his inputs for special moves. He didn't get any buffs at all to compensate. Right now, he is, at worst, high tier and at best top tier. Where would he be without his special inputs? Still high tier? Mid tier? Or would he fall down to low tier?

Discuss! This thread is mostly for fun and doesn't have all that much practical purpose, although it can be used by new Ryu players to estimate how efficient he is when you don't know how to use his commands properly, so it does have some practical use.

Edit: Changed 1.1.6 to 1.1.7. Point still stands, anyway.

 

[Zeriora]

Not gonna happen, if they ever do nerf Ryu, he'll have True shoryuken knockback decreased ALOT, which would mess up his kill chances. Currently, Ryu is most probably top tier, getting nerfed would put him down a tier I guess. Losing true inputs would make him lose ALOT....

 

[Frihetsanka]

I agree that it won't happen. This is mainly a thought experience, partly for fun, and partly to serve as a guide for casual Ryu-players who aren't interested in learning his inputs. It could also give an estimate on just how important learning the inputs are. So, at this point it's pretty clear that Ryu players consider the inputs (perhaps especially True Shoryuken?) very important, but how important? Does he go from top tier to high tier, or high-mid tier? Might he even be mid-mid tier without them?

 

[Zeriora]

I'll probably go with high-mid tier.

 

[AAA Battery]

IF it happened... Ryu still has strong weight, a dangerous recovery, and plenty of set ups to rack up damage with. Just saying... he's probably still be potentially high tier, but would be middle tier since he's have a drastically weaker player-base.

 

[WD40]

Losing true tatsu doesnt matter, so it just comes down to losing tsrk and shakunestu. That's a loss of about 20% kill power on average for your #1 kill move, and a good multi-hit projectile that really rounds out the character. With that said, I think he would still be a solid mid tier because the loss of special input moves makes the characters ceiling easier to achieve.

 

[Frihetsanka]

So, he'd be around Captain Falcon-level or so?

 

[Heracr055]

He wouldn't really be Falcon level, he'd probably be in mid tier. Ryu's great advantage is his hit confirms into Shoryuken. I played Ryu for awhile without hit confirming for awhile, and recently started incorporating it into my gameplay. It's jaw-dropping how early he can take stocks out of a jab or up/down tilt. In addition, losing Shakunetsu Hadouken would have a detrimental impact on his pressure game. They're especially useful at dash-in range since they can force a shield (which can be followed up with a grab or mind game mixup).

 

[VioletSmashfan]

Ryu would be middle of the pack if he lost his inputs in a future patch (which I hope never happens).

Plus I'm just learning how to combo into his True Shoryuken (either from doing the rapid tapped up-tilt or down-tilts) and getting quite used to it (and I'm sure there are more I can pull off), the only major problem is well I'm a bit nervous to use it in risky mid-air situations (such as recovering off-stage).