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On Defensive Assists

Do you see my team under my name?
Do you see the changelist?
Do you see this? :PEA:
My team no longer exists.
Add Peacock to the front of it.

These changes have only buffed her.
 
First thoughts:

Lol, double for roll tier with this change now. Her bomber assists have been heavily nerfed and she no longer gets "easy" conversions from updo or pillar. Shes kinda bad now. But whatevs.

Lk bomber... Severely nerfed, but good play can somewhat make up for it. If this stays i know what character I'm dropping for Eliza so... Silver linings in every cloud.

Pillar change:
At first glance this makes pw better. Pillar now knocks characters very far back which painwheels charged wiff j.hp can now move her closer to downed opponents... So very good change for her. Also, no more easy assist conversions against her when I'm flying around... So still good for her. And i can still open up people easy cause painwheel is a can opener that gets abused by dp assists.... Or used to get abused... Haha.


I think that this nerf buffs filia and peacock and painwheel specifically. Peacock still gets easy argus conversion into filia stupidity, and filia on point now has to worry a lot less about dp ruining her day.



As of this version, bella copter, filia hairball hk and fukua drill become the new lk hornet bombers. If this change stays in effect i would like to see lk bomber sped up by a lot... But whatevs if this stays in in any form im probably dropping double for someone else... Maybe. Need more time to tell.
 
Add Peacock to the front of it.
These changes have only buffed her.

How? I would think these changes barely affect her game plan. She still has good AA/defensive assists that she can convert off of with Argus.
 
How? I would think these changes barely affect her game plan.
She benefits from the increased knockback distance on Pillar and Updo, if one happens to be using those assists for her.
 
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Seriously, are people still on this after a sea of changes to those assists. I understand that some people didn't play games like mvc2, or even the assists in mvc1 (there are basically only 2 choices there). But man, some people can't even let the older changes sink in to the game. What's so difficult to come up with solutions for these assists? They feel so much tamer than ever, even Double started to feel okayish.
 
Overall I don't see why anything needs to be changed right now other than to appease some skullfans that would rather complain than use the amazing training mode to learn workarounds for whatever situation is beating them. I don't have much of a problem with dp changes, but double I think can be tweaked differently than just remove invincibility completely. One hit would be terrible, PLS don't do that. mk bomber could either lose invincibility completely or reduce it even more. lk bomber could just have it's active frame invincibility removed, cause why even run it if it has no invincibility at all seeing as how it has like no range.
 
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First thoughts:

Lol, double for roll tier with this change now. Her bomber assists have been heavily nerfed and she no longer gets "easy" conversions from updo or pillar. Shes kinda bad now. But whatevs.
But she still has catheads (especially as a DHC) and a pretty good neutral game. Pretty early to say she'll be bad.
 
Okay, first: People are still hung up on something I never talked about and actually explicitly wanted to sort-of-keep; Defensive Assists when on defence.
Of course Updo is great when you are being pressured. That's the fucking purpose of Updo.
I don't have an issue with my predictable Offense being read and DPd. I don't have a problem with jumping in and getting Antiaird. Again, that's sort of the idea behind a DP.

What I have an issue with is the DP assists, which are chrissakes great on defence (and they are that, despite the "But what if the opponent reads your assistcall and wasn't doing anything and you couldn't absolute guard and you block wrong" talk), also being a highly potent offensive tool and a monstrous space control option.
Yeah, if I jump at my opponent and predict he's gonna call Parasoul, then I see a shadow move in, then I can block, call my own assist with proper timing and get to start my pressure game + his Parasoul took a bunch of hits to the face.

The problem is, when I'm stuck in the corner and the opponents Val is rolling me with IAD j.HP / c.LK / Throw / Pushblock baits / etc while covering the holes in her offence with an invincible Hitbox, there's no "Well just bait it lel", "L2Countercall noop", whatever.

The problem I have with invincible assists is that they can be called at pretty much any time. They keep the opponent from going in (space control in neutral), they keep the opponent from halting your offence (invincible hitbox with frame advantage on block), they keep his offence from rolling over you (obvious), and they are prime countercall assists on top.
The problem in balancing this is that the things which make the offence/neutral great are also a crucial part of the defence. For example you could remove the invinc from them and then yeah, they're not very scary on offence anymore (just a big hitbox you can punch), their neutral control is greatly weakened, but clearly this would also kill their defensive capabilities, which I, repeating myself, do *not* want.
That's why we got the current experiment: Reduced blockstun is not much of a deal in neutral and on defence, but weakens the lockdown part of them considerably. Making you unable to convert easily off of them keeps them as a "GET THE FUCK OFF ME"-tool, and while the reward for landing one of them in the opponents face is smaller, the main reward (not getting hit, gaining breathing space) is untouched. At the same time, they're still strong neutral tools, but you have to call them with more consideration as to what the opponent is gonna do + have to expect to a certain point whether the assist is gonna hit or not + can't be nilly willy safeish jumpblock assistcalling anymore (or well you can, but the reward for doing so is much much smaller)

Why should some assist options being weak negatively reflect on DP assists? The game wasn't balanced around every assist option being viable in every situation.
No, the game was balanced around HK Bomber being the only viable option in every situation. Heh.
Why should some assist options being weak negatively reflect on Vanilla Bomber? Why did that ever get nerfed?

I'm not talking about making s.LP assist viable, so I can't really follow your point (if there is any).

They're a core part of the gameplay and just like MvC2 Psylock and Cyclops and Commando, learning how to deal with them is a skill you just have to learn.
I still have to learn how to deal with them in the current build. It's just that my opponent is now forced to learn how to actually use them.

either make Bomber only one hit if blocked+lower knockdown or not invincible, but not both.
Non-invinc Bomber feels perfect. It's still really, really strong.

Nerf Updo/Bomber/Pillar, and Filia will always pick Hairball, Double will always pick Cilia Slide, and Para just won't be picked at all unless on point.
I think you are misinterpreting "Nerf" as "Remove". You would be surprised, but most people who played Fortune Pre-Nerfs are still playing her. She's still in the game, and she's still good!

Let's get an MvC2 thing out of the way...Psylocke/CapCom/Cyke/Doom are the characters primarily picked for their assists that are not god tier on point. Doom is basically a DP assist as well as chip (he hits in like 2f or something, beats rushdown often, and eats projectiles). Of the good point chars, Cable has a DP assist and it is always chosen. Everyone else is a tossup, but you can bet if they had DP assists those would be always-used as well. DP assist is the way to go there too, it just so happens that the god tier point characters mostly don't have one. The fact remains that of the characters who are added to teams specifically as assists, they are all DPs. And CapCom is vulnerable for 2f before he hits, as well, which makes no difference for choosing him because the utility and damage is so high.
Uh, so this is supposed to back up my statement of "DP assists are most likely too strong", right? Because I can't really pull much else out of it.
Or is this "DP assists were busted good in MvC2 and this is based on MvC2 so clearly we should also have busted DP assists"?

DP assists are more versatile and overall stronger than other ones, is what you say. Is what I said.
I read from that: Maybe they should get a nerf
You read from that: I'm against nerfing, because people should l2p

?? Can't follow this logic, sorry.

IMO every team game is going to have some kind of assist that's the best and have that character be picked primarly for their utility [..]

That sort of 'utility character' archetype is pretty interesting to me and something that doesn't occur in games that don't have assists or DHCs.
- Every Teamgame is gonna have a 'best' assist and a utility character
- You like utility characters

Tell you what: After DP assists are nerfed and Butt is not retarded anymore, SG will still be a teamgame.
So something else will be the best assist, so someone else will become said 'utility character'
So you're really not missing out on anything, things just shift a bit. Woop?

I would prefer an experiment on longer assist lockouts for hitting the assist or longer startup (i.e., a few extra frames of vulnerability before move startup) to any experiments that just hit individual moves or characters and mess with specific teams and players.
The very POINT of the changes is that current Butt is dumb beyond belief and DP assists are too good.
Of course a nerf to them only affects them. I don't really get the reasoning behind "Updo is too good, so lets globally nerf stuff and make Peacock c.HP assist worse".

this new update......not liking it LMFAO
Loving posts like this

People who like the change: People who prefer not to use DP assists in their team order.
Actually I want a DP, is why I want this change ^_^

Everybody who doesn't have a grounded overhead has [..] a command throw.
Command Throws don't grab the assist, so there's no actual risk in calling it. Worst case you get thrown which would've happened anyway.
On the other hand, the mere presence of a DP assist forces your opponent to throw a whole fucking lot more, not just making him more predictable but also weakening his offense tremendously due to 50% scaling on everything.

Lol, double for roll tier with this change now.
You are just who I needed

What's so difficult to come up with solutions for these assists?
What's so difficult in using different assists or calling assist better? Have you actually tried using the changed ones?
If they were from the start like they're now in the Beta, wouldn't you say "Just l2p" to people who'd request easier ways to combo out of DPs and invincibility on their lockdown assist?

Overall I don't see why anything needs to be changed right now other than to appease some skullfans that would rather complain than use the amazing training mode to learn workarounds for whatever situation is beating them.
We've been over this about 50 times, when will people who can't play their character's neutral and just rely on getting assist converts have to l2p?
How many Peacocks are there who don't just drop the stick after you touch them once, followed by snapping Double/Bella in and killing their assist char?
How many Valentines can actually land hits without needing an assist?
How many players in general are capable of defending vs real pressure without Updo calls?
How many of this game's "top players" use neither one of the armor punches, nor a DP, nor Butt assist? I think I count 2. If they're so easy to handle, why is everyone using them?

Or, to simply repeat the question:
If Copter was fully invincible and +5 on block, would you tell someone who says "Yo, I think this is a bit too good" with a shrug "Well l2p!! There are ways to beat it, for example: Call your own Cerecopter"?

lk bomber could just have it's active frame invincibility removed, cause why even run it if it has no invincibility at all seeing as how it has like no range.
Aside from it still being lockdown (how much range do Painwheel c.MP, Filia c.MK, Squigly c.HP, tbc have?) I don't think there's an inborn law that forces LK Bomber to be a good assist?
There are much more cases of single assists being far better (or at least more used) than all other versions, why that'd be so terrible for Butt I can't follow (Filia L/M Hairball, Fortune L/M Fiber, etc)
 
I don't know if this point is valid given the example of [what I assume is] a good/tournament player, especially during "his good period". I mean, I'm going to assume the majority of the playerbase aren't as good as this guy, so I still think "2f doesn't do anything" is a valid point.

About that, It's much easier to take advantage of those 2f than it ever was in mvc2. Since there are many multi-hitting, long active moves for pretty much almost every character. So you can stuff assist calls with good reads much easier than it was in mvc2.
 
My friends, welcome to devil horns.
What? There's still fiber and beat extend? fuck.

(I've already replaced bomber with M rush punch and it does pretty much the same thing. Just gotta use bb...)

Nah, I mean medium bomber makes for much easier hit-confirms and also holds people in place longer on block.
 
On the topic of the armor punches: There's currently a bug; caused by the "If an assist absorbs a hit, it gets locked out" stuff.
That's done by simply making them count as "hit", which has another effect, namely them instantly leaving after completing their move rather than doing the byebye wink thing.
This makes it really difficult to actually punish them as any character that has anything on the screen, ie all characters.

If that's fixed, they'd possibly/probably rate as fine *in my opinion*. Bleeding harder than other assists + being reaction counterable with armorbreaks would make them high risk/high reward options; strong choices that have a distinct list of counters (which isn't just "Well call your own DP assist")
 
Just played a short set with masterdean. I don't actually didn't mind the updo change from an offensive perspective, since on one hand it's far more difficult to convert from midscreen, but it DOES knock the opponent further into the corner, letting you get corner mixups almost instantly. When the opponent is in the corner you can still use updo to convert and blow through their shit.

However, the real problem reared its ugly head when I played Dime in another short set. I played Filia/Bella/Band, he played Pain/Para/Dub and then Pain/Fil/Soul.

The major problem is that all of these other good assists, like H brass and Cerecopter still remain un-nerfed. Let's say I'm IAD j.HPing with Filia and calling cerecopter on backup. Dime calls Pillar. Both me and my assist get hit half screen. Oh well, I took peanuts for damage and I'm safely at half screen, since he couldn't really convert.

Another time, I was rushing in, and pre-Beta change instincts kicked in and I blocked the Pillar, and I got mixed up and killed. I thought, "Man, I really wish I got hit by the pillar instead so that I'd be safely half screen." With this change, GETTING HIT BY A DEFENSIVE DP ASSIST IN A DEFENSIVE SITUATION IS MORE PREFERABLE THAN BLOCKING A DEFENSIVE DP ASSIST THE SAME SITUATION

This is fucking stupid, Filia has been upgraded from almost braindead to completely braindead. I no longer have to give a shit about reversal assist retaliation.

tl;dr - This has nerfed DPs as a DEFENSIVE option far more than it has nerfed them as an offensive option. Braindead offense is now king, and now the B-Tier assists are now A tier assists because DP assists can't keep them in check.
 
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My friends, welcome to devil horns.
What? There's still fiber and beat extend? fuck.

This is kinda my issue. Why nerf Pillar and Updo, but not Fiber and Beat Extend? Unless they're not invincible as assists and I'm unaware
 
This is kinda my issue. Why nerf Pillar and Updo, but not Fiber and Beat Extend? Unless they're not invincible as assists and I'm unaware

Hitbox on Beat Extend is pretty wonky and Fiber has always been difficult for most characters to convert from to begin with so I suppose they were spared because they are thought of as being the weaker DP assists.
 
This is kinda my issue. Why nerf Pillar and Updo, but not Fiber and Beat Extend? Unless they're not invincible as assists and I'm unaware
Fiber is pretty much already what Updo/Pillar are now, hard to convert off. It could maybe use another notch of pushback but it's not really necessary.

Beat Extend isn't touched because ?? Don't ask me why, Mike says "It's an offensive assist" ??? He uses it, so kinda bias? Dunno
 
Pillar is also basically an offensive assist, since it has about 50 million frames of startup.
 
Fiber is pretty much already what Updo/Pillar are now, hard to convert off. It could maybe use another notch of pushback but it's not really necessary

It's character specific, but it's pretty easy to convert from Fiber with Parasoul from a defensive situation. It is impractical to convert off of Updo with Parasoul in a defensive situation.
 
Maaaan this change has only been out for a few hours and people are already trying to state what's what.
Weren't people deciding what tier Fukua was in three or four hours?
 
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Just played a short set with masterdean. I don't actually didn't mind the updo change from an offensive perspective, since on one hand it's far more difficult to convert from midscreen, but it DOES knock the opponent further into the corner, letting you get corner mixups almost instantly. When the opponent is in the corner you can still use updo to convert and blow through their shit.

However, the real problem reared its ugly head when I played Dime in another short set. I played Filia/Bella/Band, he played Pain/Para/Dub and then Pain/Fil/Soul.

The major problem is that all of these other good assists, like H brass and Cerecopter still remain un-nerfed. Let's say I'm IAD j.HPing with Filia and calling cerecopter on backup. Dime calls Pillar. Both me and my assist get hit half screen. Oh well, I took peanuts for damage and I'm safely at half screen, since he couldn't really convert.

Another time, I was rushing in, and pre-Beta change instincts kicked in and I blocked the Pillar, and I got mixed up and killed. I thought, "Man, I really wish I got hit by the pillar instead so that I'd be safely half screen." With this change, GETTING HIT BY A DEFENSIVE DP ASSIST IN A DEFENSIVE SITUATION IS MORE PREFERABLE THAN BLOCKING A DEFENSIVE DP ASSIST THE SAME SITUATION

This is fucking stupid, Filia has been upgraded from almost braindead to completely braindead. I no longer have to give a shit about reversal assist retaliation.


Yeah, those games really bummed me out. The "use an assist as a meatshield to get in and then do a high priority attack and if it works get amazing pressure, but if it doesnt, get reset to neutral and then just jump back/space all day till i get my assist back then rinse and repeat" really bummed me out.

I can beat it but it was no fun and i felt like i had to seriously downgrade my thinking skills to turn it on.


I'm not necessarily against these assist nerfs... I just think that they warrant further assist nerfs all around... Or "other" workarounds.... Such as not being able to tech forward in one direction... "Either forward or backward... So the opponent has to be be predictable in a way after getting hit by a dp assist. Allowing the opponent to tech towards me after i use my dp assist to hit them felt really stupid. Same as having my opponent tech away from me to get space to wait for there assist to cool down...


All in all, i liken the games i just played against Clarence to feel like 3rd week vanilla.

Idk... My second thoughts is to hate this change. I cant think of any way to use this that makes the game fun for me. All the dp assists were easy to play around before... they have no range. Now brass and hp lnl and hairball and stuff comes on and just makes the assist game much more spammy.



Basically exactly what i expected in the first place... Offense gets even more braindead... And i thought braindead was what we were trying to stop...
 
I'm not necessarily against these assist nerfs... I just think that they warrant further assist nerfs all around...

Fuck blanket nerfs. Deciding that one thing is too good and then nerfing literally every other good thing around it to prevent other things from being too good is one of the most soiling balance practises ever.

I like things being good. I don't like it when games become battle of the mediocre.
 
Fiber is pretty much already what Updo/Pillar are now, hard to convert off. It could maybe use another notch of pushback but it's not really necessary.

Beat Extend isn't touched because ?? Don't ask me why, Mike says "It's an offensive assist" ??? He uses it, so kinda bias? Dunno
Beat Extend loses to air, that's a pretty big reason in my opinion.
 
Fuck blanket nerfs. Deciding that one thing is too good and then nerfing literally every other good thing around it to prevent other things from being too good is one of the most soiling balance practises ever.

I like things being good. I don't like it when games become battle of the mediocre.

I agree, but I'm not suggesting blanket nerfs. I'm suggesting precise nerfs to certain moves. Imho the assists that would need it:

Copter,hairball,brass,gdo any other assist that just becomes "i really dont have to space this thing... Just throw it out and im golden" or some such. Copter isnt necessarily like that... But gdo is. As is brass and even hairball to a lesser extent.
 
This has nerfed DPs as a DEFENSIVE option far more than it has nerfed them as an offensive option. Braindead offense is now king, and now the B-Tier assists are now A tier assists because DP assists can't keep them in check.
Nothing but bomber lost invincibility, shouldn't you still be able to counter assists with updo and pillar? Nothing about that exchange should have changed.
 
Nothing but bomber lost invincibility, shouldn't you still be able to counter assists with updo and pillar? Nothing about that exchange should have changed.

Except for the ability to easily convert off of the assist into a combo and then resets, which is what appropriately punished braindead offense. Without the threat of that, there is very little stopping me from just going hamyolo with Fillia.
 
Nothing but bomber lost invincibility, shouldn't you still be able to counter assists with updo and pillar? Nothing about that exchange should have changed.

Think about it this way - if I use my assist on defense I'm getting like 1500 damage and a way out instead of a full combo. That's a pretty huge nerf.

However, using DP assists offensively is almost as good as it was before, just a bit less blockstun. Nobody really gets hit by a jump forward+call updo. Its the stuff you do after they block the updo that counts. You get to fire an invulnerable attack at your opponent that is guaranteed frame advantage that they can't really do much against that they weren't already doing before the patch.

I don't think it is a stretch to say that this change hurts offensive DP assist use less than defense but of course this is all theory fighting.
 
What's so difficult in using different assists or calling assist better? Have you actually tried using the changed ones?

Dude, I play Val + Hairball, I don't even use DPs or even have a "real" team. I used to be bopped by those assists all the time, hell I went to Evo with little to no real practice against those assists, even Double, since my only sparring partner, Lethal, at the time didn't use those. I've still put work to move around those things, better my calls, my pushblocks, my baits etc. My team is there to play neutral with other people, to get a good read and opening and do that again, the hairball is also there to stuff those very 2f etc. I "l2p" vs those things, and I'm still learning, and I consider good learning vs those. Cuz if I keep landing IADs my opponents will have trouble, it'd be weird if they land assists and that doesn't make me rethink what I'm doing. I like trying to learn to block those mix-ups, I stay there the longest trying to block and tech or find a way to beat stuff, I even do way less supers than I should cuz I try to "block one more time". The point this, I do the whole "l2p" thing, so why others can't?

But that's, of course, my two cents. In the end people will always find something to complain about. I like that the game has options, and presents options to every thing considered cheap.

Also, the heavily scaled combo from throws doesn't make as much sense as before, since combos from assists now have similar scaling. Resets are overall still the most rewarding option in SG. Again, I feel it's early to readjust assist after the recent official changes, simply cuz they're "too" good. Iceman was "too good"...
 
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Except for the ability to easily convert off of the assist into a combo and then resets, which is what appropriately punished braindead offense. Without the threat of that, there is very little stopping me from just going hamyolo with Fillia.
Getting hit in the face and having your momentum halted isn't enough of a deterrent to mindlessly run face first into assists? There's also lockout on assists if you get it tagged while you're rolling your face across your buttons. It's obviously not as good, but to say that it's so stupid you don't have to think about offence anymore sounds like a stretch. I'm positive there are still characters who can convert still anyway.
 
Getting hit in the face and having your momentum halted isn't enough of a deterrent to mindlessly run face first into assists?

Not at all. The risk I take ~1000 damage to the face and the situation getting reset to neutral, then I wait until my space control/lockdown assist recovers and then I rush that shit down again. My reward is a full damage combo into resets into dead if they block wrong.

I'm positive there are still characters who can convert still anyway.

The only practical methods of conversion I can think of include spending meter, or committing to moving forward just as your assist hits. The first is character specific, the second is impractical anyway since you're just asking to get slapped in the face.
 
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Not at all. The risk I take ~1000 damage to the face and the situation getting reset to neutral, then I wait until my space control/lockdown assist recovers and then I rush that shit down again. My reward is a full damage combo into resets into dead if they block wrong.
And this is assuming that your opponent can't chase you down/apply pressure/outspace you? Filia for example is only good when she gets in, you're just going to allow yourself to get hit in the face for 1k and get pushed out consistently?

Even that point set aside, characters aren't exclusively reliant on their assists to do things (I feel like I covered this earlier...?). If you forget that then you're asking for trouble. The point character's can have their own reversals, and they can PBGC, Alpha Counter, and some of them even have normals they can use to escape. The defense game is NOT dead just because people don't have convertable updo/pillar/bomber.
 
Again, I feel it's early to readjust assist after the recent official changes, simply cuz they're "too" good. Iceman was "too good"...
Mhh
An often voiced notion is "OBVIOUSLY boomboom invinc is seen as strong right now; the game is *still* in kiddie shoes, and the community is overall not very good, and we haven't found out all the magic on how to deal with shit yet, they are a first-order-optimal-strategy and things are gonna change, etc."
But MvC2 has had a shitton of time to evolve, with a good bunch of really damn strong players putting in honest work, and DP assists are still viewed as the prime thing to pick.
While there *are* weaknesses in SG assists that the MvC2 ones didn't have (2f vuln startup!), I do think that this hints strongly to them not moving from the top of the chart anytime soon.
Let's get an MvC2 thing out of the way...Psylocke/CapCom/Cyke/Doom are the characters primarily picked for their assists that are not god tier on point. Doom is basically a DP assist as well as chip (he hits in like 2f or something, beats rushdown often, and eats projectiles). Of the good point chars, Cable has a DP assist and it is always chosen. Everyone else is a tossup, but you can bet if they had DP assists those would be always-used as well. DP assist is the way to go there too, it just so happens that the god tier point characters mostly don't have one. The fact remains that of the characters who are added to teams specifically as assists, they are all DPs. And CapCom is vulnerable for 2f before he hits, as well, which makes no difference for choosing him because the utility and damage is so high.
I mean, we have 15 years of MvC2 to work with, and DP assists were #1 there.
What exactly makes you think that this would be different here?

Not at all. The risk I take ~1000 damage to the face and the situation getting reset to neutral, then I wait until my space control/lockdown assist recovers and then I rush that shit down again. My reward is a full damage combo if they block wrong.
Parasoul j.HP is a useless button
Every Fireball in every game ever is garbage
tbc

You take 1000 damage to the face + your assist takes 1000 damage to the face, and then you're back at a distance where you really don't want to be.
Then you can jump into the DP assist again, and do that 14 times in a row before you get chipped out by a Tearshot. Have fun?

Peacock Planebomb deals 550 damage, do you keep airdashing into it with no care in the world?

The only practical methods of conversion I can think of include spending meter, or committing to moving forward just as your assist hits. The first is character specific, the second is impractical since you're just asking to get slapped in the face.
I dunno, I landed quite a few converts midscreen in the few matches that I played.

I do agree that most pickups after DP assist are going to happen with the opponents back in the corner, where I want conversions to happen the least. But I'm not sure how to fix that!

P.S. You will not believe it, but there exist a certain few people who played without a DP assist before this change. Dunno, search for Khaos' matches on whether he's completely free to anyone's offense? Or ask Woofly how this game's neutral works when you scratch Updo and Butt out of the picture. Maybe you will even learn that it's possible for Parasoul to zone!
If you think that DP assists don't do their job of GTFO anymore, you could always try switching around your assist, picking Peacock M.Bomb instead which halts opponent's offence when called preemptively, while also giving you a way in. You know, we got options now! Instead of "Pick these 3 and be done with it".
Assistcalls are now something to think about and not just "Oh he's nearby? LPMK, WOOP MY OFFENSE STARTS FOR FREE". I can understand that people have problems adjusting to this!

P.P.S. It's quite possible/likely that these changes aren't perfect. You know, they're a first take toss thing, an idea that Mike to my surprise threw into the Beta before there was any fleshing out on it.
The purpose of this thread was originally to ask "Should something be done, and if yes, what".
I think I laid out quite cleanly why I think something should be done, and the three 'arguments' against it I found in this thread so far were "Just L2P", "I like it the way it is", and "nerfing DP assists will make mixups off Cerecopter harder to defend, and I hate those".
If you are of the opinion that nothing should change, you're free to give better arguments on why, and if you think changes wouldn't hurt then help in coming up with better ones!
For example a possible idea would be reverse spiderman DP thing; can only combo after DP assist if it lands as an AA hit (where most offense comes from) against a rising opponent, similar to how Excel/A-Train work

P.P.P.S. Unrelated to the DP assist nerf, Butt was completely necessary. Revert the DPs if you think that's really less braindead (ha-ha) and can't come up with a better change to them, but for the love of all that is holy do not give Bomber its invincibility back, PLEASE.
 
Having played around with it a bit, I can say that this change is completely terrible.

DP assists STILL create insane corner pressure (in the corner, the increased launch distance doesn't matter), but now they're worse for the defender, because he can't get as much off of his. In other words, they're actually worse on defense, better on offense now.

Plus, in neutral, the reward for getting someone to block a Pillar call is better than the reward for them getting hit by it, which is just stupid.
 
As long as they deal any blockstun, assist deemed "defensive" can be used for frame traps and filling holes in offensive pressure. You would have to make the assist unusable if you're not holding downback or leaving blockstun to stop them from being useful at this.
 
I typed up a long response and then realized I could summarize my opinion in a paragraph

Everything in Skullgirls is committal. There is no FADC or X Factor nonsense in this game to help you make your terrible decisions safe. I constantly hear people complain about DP assists, and "mashed" (I hate this term) supers. Why? You can punish anything in this game by baiting and blocking it. If you know somebody is constantly calling DP assists, bait it! If you KNOW YOUR OPPONENT IS GOING TO DO REVERSAL SUPERS 100% OF THE TIME, then why don't you simply BAIT AND BLOCK THE SUPER and punish with your (counterhit) damage? I don't get it. Reading the thesis on these changes all I could think about was how happy I am Capcom didn't make this game and Parasoul isn't doing a Napalm Pillar in my face and then spending meter to turn her careless reversals into free pressure.

DP assists work completely as intended, aren't overpowered, and the idea that all Skullgirls players are constantly rolling their faces on their arcade sticks and there is NO WAY TO STOP MASHING is really stupid. DP assists being a little too good is way better than the non-committal fully invincible options that exist in other games.

This is my two cents. Its annoying getting tagged by DP assists when I go to punish something sometimes, but 90% of the time I get hit by a DP assist, its my fault, meaning its a defensive option that does its job.
 
We've been over this about 50 times, when will people who can't play their character's neutral and just rely on getting assist converts have to l2p?
How many Peacocks are there who don't just drop the stick after you touch them once, followed by snapping Double/Bella in and killing their assist char?
How many Valentines can actually land hits without needing an assist?
How many players in general are capable of defending vs real pressure without Updo calls?
How many of this game's "top players" use neither one of the armor punches, nor a DP, nor Butt assist? I think I count 2. If they're so easy to handle, why is everyone using them?

Or, to simply repeat the question:
If Copter was fully invincible and +5 on block, would you tell someone who says "Yo, I think this is a bit too good" with a shrug "Well l2p!! There are ways to beat it, for example: Call your own Cerecopter"?


Aside from it still being lockdown (how much range do Painwheel c.MP, Filia c.MK, Squigly c.HP, tbc have?) I don't think there's an inborn law that forces LK Bomber to be a good assist?
There are much more cases of single assists being far better (or at least more used) than all other versions, why that'd be so terrible for Butt I can't follow (Filia L/M Hairball, Fortune L/M Fiber, etc)
That was a really convoluted response to what I had to say, so I'll respond to each question.

People that learn to rely on their assists will be beat by people that spend the time to think about where to put themselves on the screen to deal with those assists in neutral, followed by punishing those assists/ using absolute guard and pbgcing them when they are used for pressure.

If a peacock player gives up because they lost their assist and got hit, that's their problem, not the games fault.

Val is a good character who can land a hit in various circumstances outside of assists, it just so happens that she has the best mobility in the game while being able to call assists out of said mobility, so she naturally uses assists better than anyone else.

Pressure is called pressure for a reason, it can be hard to defend against, but that doesn't make it impossible. Experience helps defense, and a lot of people give up early and don't learn to deal with things because they do not possess the mental ability to deal with the speed of pressure or the patience to try to learn to play against it

Assists do exactly what they're called :assist. The problem is nobody wants to spend the time to actually THINK when they play. Yes assists you listed are used by a lot of players and it's because they lend themselves to optimizing neutral gameplay, and limiting the options your opponent has. Learning the space to avoid and which characters to play to avoid that space/give you good space is what you have to do to play an optimized game. It's what makes matchups important.

If copter was fully invincible, you would just have to learn to not get in the situation of putting yourself in the space it would occupy and then whiff punish it's recovery frames. If you block it you would pushblock and absolute guard right away and then proceed to try to block the 2nd mixup then absolute guard again, then block one more mixup from the +5. Countercalling with your own is the other option as well. But guess what, there is no assist like that because Mike is a competent game dev.

Overall, you have to learn to play the optimized game, or at least how to play against it (see; top players that do well and don't use the "good" assists). What the game devs decide to make that game is is up to them, and I believe Mike has a pretty good grasp on what makes an optimal game and does his best to make a fair game that allows you have relative freedom to play the style that you want without making it too oppressive for other playstyles.

And on a final note, filia cr mk and squigs cr hp hit low, while pw cr mp isn't really an optimal lockdown assist (better for alpha counter.) Butt is different in that the ranges it affects changes depending on the strength used, and lk butt has little to no range. As such, it acts as a lockdown assist with the addition of being invincible(that's what makes it distinct from other lockdown options.) mk bomber covers a midrange well while locking down the space slightly in front of you and is not invincible on the first active frame for this reason. hk bomber has massive horizontal range and covers a good portion of the regular vertical playing field as well, so it has no invincibility. 3 different functions in comparison to hairball or fiber upper, all of which only have one function (lockdown and defense.) I would liken it more to the differences in bella's dp moves. Each strength has a different function.
 
I've kinda gotten around that by mashing tag for Dummy Record, rather than just pressing it once. Turns out the dummy may be pressing the tag a bit too early into hit/blockstun or something.

*EDIT* In my opinion, a "Defensive Assist" should really only be relieving you of pressure the opponent is putting on you. I think it's great as it is right now - giving you a free easy combo as before seemed just a tad overpowered to me for something meant to be used on "Defense".
Except that you still get a full easy combo in the corner, but the risk of getting counter-DPd into a happy birthday is completely gone.

This change doesn't even do what its supporters claim it does.
 
Parasoul j.HP is a useless button
Every Fireball in every game ever is garbage
tbc

Peacock Planebomb deals 550 damage, do you keep airdashing into it with no care in the world?

None of these are equivalent to DP assist and you know it. You have listed neutral game tools, which are used to control space and force opponents into certain patterns of movements and action so that you can gain an advantage and run your shit.

The only space a DP assist controls is directly 45 degrees above you, which is NOT a neutral game scenario, if your opponent has closed in on this are then they have effectively got pressure on you. DP assists can be baited really easily, and are only really useful if you are going ontop of someone, extenting a limb to be ontop of someone, or are trying to defend against someone that is ontop of you.

You take 1000 damage to the face + your assist takes 1000 damage to the face, and then you're back at a distance where you really don't want to be.
Then you can jump into the DP assist again, and do that 14 times in a row before you get chipped out by a Tearshot. Have fun?

Do you really think it's practical to block Filia mixups correctly 14 times in a row, with H Brass as assist to eat DP assist hits?
 
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Flame me out for this, but:
Reduce the knockback slightly from current
Make Updo/Pillar cause blue bounce

Can't combo off from the corner, but still puts pressure in it.
 
Flame me out for this, but:
Reduce the knockback slightly from current
Make Updo/Pillar cause blue bounce

Can't combo off from the corner, but still puts pressure in it.

Can still combo from the corner, just use s.LP instead of OTGing.