Balancing wishes and suggestions, a text by your average cat.
After a long while, I finally got enough resolve to make a really long and detailed text with some of the recurrent thoughts I have about the game's balancing in general.
I will try keeping things as well explained and well categorized as I can, but I will apologize in advance for the size of this post.
I ask you guys to please read carefully and I hope it doesn't lead to much confusion.
Squigly:
Squigly currently stands in a very comfortable spot in balancing, to me, so most of my suggestions will be very minor.
Major:
QoL: Charge indicator.
It is just for convenience's sake but would make the life of players a lot better to always know at a glance whether they have a full charge and which one they currently have
Minor:
Uncharged H DP.
I would like for it to have a similar property of the charged version, of having invul through Seria (although for the uncharged version it would be at most strike invul, not a full invul), while still keeping its considerably slower startup in comparison. As it stands it has a use in combos, but not much else, and giving Squigly this extra defensive tool wouldn't be way too strong in my eyes, while increasing her potential at the beginning of the round and especially solo.
Daisy.
It would be very good for Daisy to have an extended DHC window to allow DHCs after its full damage. I don't think this change would affect Squigly damage reward too much in combos, but would allow for some more DHC shenanigans with different positioning and/or not needing to make super quick inputs to early cancel SBO.
Lvl5.
This lvl5 is not worth ever using, as it stands. The requirements of a Taunt and a charge together with the 5 meters cost make it very unappealing, especially since Squigly needs a lot of meter to get her proper dangerous game going to begin with, she is very meter hungry. That together with the fact that using this super will consume both charges makes it very unsatisfying to work into using.
Removing the Taunt requirement and making it not spend the charges after usage would make it at the very least more appealing.
Hurtboxes.
After getting a hit on Squigly, very commonly she will drop off the combo because of her hurtboxes being very thin. Getting her a little fatter after she takes a hit would be appreciated by her opponents.
Pet peeve:
sMK
I have no specific suggestion for it, but this button does not feel like it serves a purpose at all.
I am well aware that in 6 button games some filler buttons are pretty much unavoidable though, and also aware that this might be very good already in specific situations and I may just not know about it.
Big Band:
As he stands I have a lot of problems with, but that's because I am not very into the idea of character too extremely in its role, Big Band being our only dedicated support character with a lot of struggles on point but granting his teams the arguably best set of assists in the game in their respective categories.
Extremely Minor:
jHK
That being said, I would still appreciate it if the self knockdown on jHK had a little more recovery after he lands and before he can roll away. As it currently stands it feels harder to punish it on block than it should be, and while not a problem per se it is still a little annoying to deal with.
Eliza:
Eliza has gone through a very good chunk of changes since the Annie beta time and is leagues above what she was before, however she is still far from perfect.
As an extra, I would like to ask to give future Eliza's buffs/reworks more time before trying to mess with them again, because truth be told, she is VERY underrepresented and most changes will catch a lot of players by surprise because most of them don't even know what she does to begin with. It is very important in general to let people find ways to deal with new things, but on her case it is even more important because of how little she is seen around
Major:
Throne.
Throne is borderline useless to Eliza, only being used in very specific setups and still being suboptimal even when you get to those. It would be good if it had a more generous hitbox (or less hurtbox, to be a little harder to contest with melees, although a better hitbox would be way better to the move) and maybe 1 or 2 hits of armor against projectiles (preferably I would like it to not neutralize lasers like M Egret, just eat conventional projectiles).
I already gave up on M Spiral, moving on.
Air super.
This super has never been very good. Not very good damage, no conversion, no invul and Eliza can't get very much out of the HKD.
Before Sekhmet's rework the only use of this super was to be DHCed from (since Lady of Slaughter was always a bad super for this job) but now that Neck Bite was introduced it is far better for the same purpose, rendering the air super fairly worthless.
It would really benefit Eliza for this super to have invul frames in its startup, since not only would it give this super a purpose but it would also give her more defensive options since her defense is not great.
Crouch.
Eliza is way too tall while crouched, tall enough to take H Beam assist while she is down. While I understand that decision on Band's case since he is supposed to have the disadvantages of being a Big Body type character, I don't see why Eliza should suffer from this specific problem.
Reducing her hurtbox just enough for her to avoid the Beam would be sufficient.
Minor:
Lady of Slaughter.
This super has 2 flaws in my eyes:
The first problem is in the fact that DHCing from this super is very clunky. The last hit sends the opponent flying away but DHCing before it sacrifices quite a chunk of damage;
The second is more preference, but I feel this super is a little too slow to end after it connects and the animation is not very good (especially the first part where Sekhmet kinda teleports around the opponent). Probably this is because this tries to be a kind of cinematic super while using reused assets, which makes it not the best to watch;
I suggest changing the animation to try mitigating both problems at once, my specific suggestion being for Sekhmet to do a barrage of Axes after the super connects, ending with a HKD or big ground bounce on the final strike with the fade to red effect her supers have, followed by her roaring. The damage and recovery on hit would not have to be changed or anything either, they are good as it.
Horace.
Horace seems to be beat out of his stunts a bit too often, it would be good for him to have some frames of lower body invul or just a small reduction on his hurtboxes to make him still beatable but a bit harder to contest.
jHP.
jHP turns her into a very large box of green, while also being a bit misleading because the animation shows it hitting way further behind her than it currently does. While I think the damage, properties and hitboxes are fine as they are, it would be good to the hurtboxes behind her to be closer to where the hitboxes are, because she exposes herself way more than she reaches, as it currently is.
Fortune:
Fortune is a character that I see as being on a good spot already, so I don't have much to say about her.
Major:
Tag in.
Fortune's headless raw tag is extremely strong as it is, basically bringing her in for free.
While I don't have any specific suggestion, I feel like this is a good place to look at.
Minor:
Assists.
Her assists are not good by design, I do understand that. However, having Nom and Allergies as usable assists (HeadOn Fortune could be using sHP) would give her a few more options for fun shenanigans while not being super strong.
Fiber.
Fiber was fine as is, so it would be okay to revert its invulnerabilies to what they were before the last patch.
Pet Peeves:
sLP.
I feel like this is way too big for how quick it is. I would really prefer it being a little slower.
cLK.
The range and speed are fine and all, but reducing how much/how far it low profiles would be good.
cMK.
Same pet peeve I have with Squigly's sMK.
Peacock:
Getting this out of my chest: fuck jHK, I hate this button.
Currently even with how much Peacock was nerfed she is still arguably the top1 character with a safe, very strong and kinda easy vortex. Just reducing the reward for it is honestly not enough, the same as it wasn't enough for Bella's jHP to have less reward for being overhead.
Major:
Lenny.
Lenny is way too powerful of a tool and even after the meter gain reduction Peacock can still spam them way too often.
My suggestion would be either making it a lvl2 and keep it as it is or, if keeping it as a lvl1, make Peacock take as much damage from it as her opponent and make it easier for the opponent to move Lenny around (currently the advatage for Peacock is way too one sided).
L George.
Two major points.
1 being that L George should be more negative on block point blank, as it is he is very safe-ish for a projectile of its kind.
2 being that L George assist should have the same limitation as Annie's H Cut assist of locking assists as a cooldown. They are the same category of assist and it is unfair that only Annie has to have the downside while assists like L George are way more annoying for longerq (since L George stays onscreen for so long, the point can effectively use both assists simultaneously and that is extremely unfair).
Item lvl2.
Item lvl2 is way too strong for its stage. I think some extra cooldown time (yes, even considering the extra cooldown it already gained in the last patches) and less pull as it connects would make it more bearable and also make her vortex weaker.
Maybe:
L Item.
Nowadays there is no use for L Item as there is no situation where M Item wouldn't do the same job but probably better.
L Item could have some special property to make it stand out and maybe get some use.
Personally, for the Item Drop, I would prefer all of them to have no tracking and be set in position, but at this point I understand this wouldn't be feasible. This has been part of Peacock's set for almost 10 years and it would be way too big of a difference to change like this.
Teleport assist.
I found out a while ago that Peacock had a unique version of her L Teleport as an assist that mimicked her tag in for a while, and it was removed for some reason.
I would really like to have it back because it seemed like a lot of fun and gave Peacock some other assists to work with and with a very different role from her current ones.
I would even suggest that not only L Telepunch was a thing but that all Teleport assists were converted to different versions of the punch, maybe changing in startup and reward or hitting from further away.
Georges.
Peacock's projectiles currently work as a "get out of jail" card, in a way. Very frequently the opponent will hit her and either have to drop their combo or take a George to their face during it, often giving Peacock complete opportunity for retaliation.
It would be extremely helpful for the opponent if Peacock's Georges disappeared after she takes a hit, like some other strong neutral projectiles (SBO and Tears being examples).
Lvl3.
Peacock's lvl3 currently seems to have a very niche use, only being cancellable from her throw. Basically she can use it as a nice reward for mixing up with throws (which is a decent reward) but truth be told, more often than not simply spending the 3 meters into Lenny > Argus > Argus tends to give more reward no matter the situation. Not only that, her lvl3 can only be used in combos if used as a DHC, since normal throws can be teched from even after comboing with stagger.
Making it a proper throw by itself without having to be cancelled from her throw would make it more interesting (while still being a hitgrab as a DHC, of course).
Painwheel:
While I don't want to sound like a complainwheel, Painwheel does struggle a lot in this game, currently.
Major:
jHK.
This button has way too little hitstun, which makes it difficult to link consistently even during combos. Some extra hitstun would be extremely appreciated.
Assists.
To consolidate Painwheel's slot as a mid, it would be very good to have her have some better assists since currently her assists all give a "well, that's what we have" feeling.
Giving some armor to Pinion (0/1/2 hits of armor for L/M/H versions would be good enough) and a way to have charged Nails as an assist too, just like Peacock can charge her Items.
Deathcrawl.
Painwheel lacks some frame 1 reversal options, since her armored normals all take a few frames to defend her. She does have Thresher which is superb as a defensive tool, but on the ground she has a lot of difficulty to get out of pressure.
Deathcrawl could have a better hitbox, to cover herself better and give her a decent ground option as a reversal.
sHK.
This button is not very useful since the initial hitbox is extremely short, it isn't very fast and the launcher sends a little too straight up. While it is usable on some mixups, a better hitbox on the first hit would allow some use later on combos and help her save other more important buttons for later on, giving this some more use.
cLK and cMK.
While I am fairly satisfied with cLK as a button, Painwheel suffers from a very big problem for lacking proper conversion from a max range cLK hit, since cMK is very short. While you can chain it into sHP, it is a bit of a dangerous move to do that if you aren't sure the cLK is gonna connect and you don't have that much time to react to the situation and then her combo ends again.
A way to make this situation better would be to either somehow increase the range of her cMK and reduce its pushback on hit, for it to chain properly and also not push the opponent out of the followup button. Another way to help would be to make L Buer a bit longer, so that in case the player risks a cLK > sHP they can chain into L Buer and continue the combo properly for their reward.
L Buer.
Since I am mentioning L Buer, it would be very good to have its hitbox be slightly taller.
Sometimes trying to catch OTG with a button and follow up with L Buer will result in the opponent flopping over its hitbox and making it whiff, since it is very short.
Minor:
Charged jHP.
Charged jHP is not a bad button per se, but I feel it is quite depressing that combos starting with it deal less damage than combos that start with the uncharged version. A bit of a damage increase on some hits would make it feel rewarding to hit it.
jMK.
This button is far from being bad, but it would benefit Painwheel to have its hitbox larger on the back, just so that using it as a crossup tool isn't as tight as it is now.
Please nothing major either, just a little increase should be fine.
Funnies:
L Nail.
I think it would make for funny shenanigans if L Nail hit low, both as a point and as an assist.
Would give it some interesting utility as an assist and make some funny mixups possible, which I would be all in for seeing.
Filia:
She seems fine to me and I don't have much knowledge of her either.
If I were to suggest anything it would be making her cHP as strong hitbox wise as Fukua's and Double's counterparts.
Cerebella:
Bella is a character I really dislike since there seems to be a lot more extra work on her tools than a lot of other characters in the game. The largest number of specials, everything she has has a proper purpose, she has many tools to mitigate problems her archetype should have and she has a lot of weird and specific privileges. The biggest problem I have with that is that this feels a lot like favoritism, since she is pretty much the only one with those. Due that most of my suggestions will be nerfs, but anything outside of the Major category are things that I would be fine still having in, despite preferring otherwise, while Major points are things that genuinely feel like big problems.
Major:
Anchor point.
As much as it was noted that messing around on boxes was not much of the intent of those patches, Bella's anchor point is extremely troubling to people trying to combo on her. She will sometimes just snap to the ground while seemingly at a combable height and sometimes just ruin combos altogether because of it. This is a bit of bullshit considering no other character has an anchor point so much lower than their bodies and it really is something to be fixed, not ignored.
Lvl3.
Bella's lvl3 is a hyperarmor, quick, strong low (the only low blockbuster in the game, mind you) that is safe on block and even pushblock, does not scale the combo down a lot because it is just 3 hits and does not spend meter until extremely late in. While any of those factors are not bad per se (a blockbuster can have some of those to keep it strong), the fact that literally every possible option is a positive on this particular blockbuster makes it way too good (it is "almost no risk"-"extremely high reward"). In my eyes it should spend meter at the start, while she digs her hands to the ground and if blocked should be very easily punishable.
While you could say no other supers spend meter before the superflash other than Val's, which is a very special case due being a counter, Bella's super is also a special case because it is the super that takes the longest startup to reach the superflash time. Since it is somewhat a special case too, having it spend meter before the superflash is not a stretch.
TK Devil Horns.
It would be good to have a way to prevent TK Devil Horns from ruining a few of her loops. Sometimes, I see it happening a few times of Devil Horns triggering IPS during her loops because it came as a TK and it seems kind of annoying to have it happen.
Minor:
jHP.
jHP has way too much blockstun.
I am not asking for it to not have blockstun that can be seen as long compared to other buttons in the game, it is perfectly fine for her to have strong buttons to compensate for her neutra not being great. However, this button even while blocked renders the opponent helpless for way too long even considering that.
Pummel Horse.
Pummel Horse is used in most of Bella's good/best combos and it takes forever to finish its animation. A speedup would be extremely welcome.
Personally I also find it being overhead a bit overstuffing, but frankly, for its use being overhead or not does not make much of a difference.
Vice-Versa.
This would be a big deal for Bella players, but considering all the rest of the game I really feel like Vice-Versa should have a hurtbox on for all the time. Other characters have their parasites or helpers having a hurtbox on most of the time to facilitate combos on them and not make buttons unfair, i.e. Squigly having Lev most of the time, Peacock having even her hat having a green box, Eliza's and Band's almost every button and now we have even Umbrella having Hungern hittable during all opportunities.
Currently not only Bella has the lowest getting hit standing animation (i.e. Painwheel can do L Nail > jump > jMP on every character but her) but her hurtboxes get a little wonky to worth with, especially in tandem with the low anchor point (a good example being Annie's sHP-HP > ReEntry link on the corner working with the same timing on everyone but her), so I feel like this would be a huge boost to people fighting against her.
That said, I don't want her big staple buttons/specials all to lose disjoint. Keeping disjoing on Excella and jHP and some disjoint on jMP, i.e., is perfectly fine, she does deserve to have some good and hard to contest buttons to keep her game going.
Command run.
Her command run builds a little too much meter. I don't want it to build no meter because while Bella has superb meter build in combos, her build in neutral is not very good so it equals out. Still, it builds too much currently.
General bugfix(?)
Excellebella, like some other multihit assists, sometimes will increase combo stage without the point ever interacting with the second player. In this particular case it sucks a lot because sometimes it will increase undizzy when it shouldn't, and by all means this shouldn't happen to begin with since this assist renders the opponent completely untouchable by the point character.
With some testing doing the same string with the same timing using Excellebella, A-Train and Salt Grinder, the property the latter two have of sending their target to the shadow realm seems to prevent the combo stage from advancing unprompted, so they could be a good starting point to look at.
Valentine:
Val is another character I think would be just fine even if she remains untouched. Still, I have a few suggestions to give.
Minor:
Mortuary Drop.
This special isn't that useful to Val, especially considering it is slow and bad to convert from. It would help a bit to add a buffer to cancel it into scalpels for proper conversions.
Vial assist.
Vial assist load taking longer than a point lvl3 load is not necessary. I understand it has to take long to load because you are giving Val an important resource while she is off point, but considering charging it and using it on the same combo is not doable, having it take longer than the strongest vial load on point is too much. It could be the same as the lvl3 load time.
cMP.
This button sucks a lot. It seems to be aiming to be an antiair of sorts, but its hitbox is way too short to achieve so. It would be good if it could reach higher, to properly impede aerial approaches.
Flatliner.
Making the vacuum stronger for air Flatliner would be good just to make sure that after the first hit connects the opponent won't slip out sometimes. It happens a few times and it is not good when it does.
Parasoul:
I would like to note that while I don't have much to say about Parasoul currently, I am feeling like she will become weaker as new characters are added, since she doesn't properly excel at anything. While being a good for all is a good role to have, I feel it won't be really enough in the future, so it would be good to keep an eye on her.
Major:
Tear assist.
As an advocate for consistency, I will be consistent in advocating. Tears should have the H Cut limitator too since they have a very similar role (this include Napalm Shot tears too).
Minor:
Sniper Shot.
Sniper Shot having extra recovery when hitting an opponent in the air feels a little arbitrary. I understand this was probably done to avoid Napalm Pillar > Sniper loops, but this could have the extra recovery after the first use in the combo, not every time it hits an airborne opponent.
This strikes me as very arbitrary, that's all.
Double:
I have an entire separate rant about Double herself, but I will try to make sure I keep this part of the list as unbiased as possible.
Major:
Double's weight in combos.
A LOT of characters have to do Double specific combos that deal way less damage because Double is extremely small for her weight while in the air for combos. Being Heavy with the average hurtbox of a Medium makes her drop out of combos way too often unless pretty much every opponent loses their reward for getting a hit and have to do suboptimal combos. While character specific things are a thing, the fact that Double's weight makes about every character lose reward while not getting anything in exchange (in comparison we have Fortune whose head sometimes makes combos fail, but if we keep that in mind we can actually increase our reward a lot against her) makes it an actual problem.
Making Double Medium weight during combos would make the life of everyone fighting against her easier and wouldn't change a thing for Double players themselves except them actually being punished properly for mistakes.
Double's vortex.
Double is the character currently with arguably the best risk-reward for her vortex, as her jHP is a very strong button to approach with and as soon as it connects with the opponent (hit or block) she can start using her extremely strong low/throw game, which is probably the best and more rewarding in the game. If playing on teams, she can use Flesh Step as an instant left/right with some assists, and all of this for very little Undizzy and very little reaction opportunities for the opponent.
Her cLK being so fast and long, her throw being long and easy to convert from and her jHP being super strong by itself as well as a very strong fastfall option makes her extremely dangerous in most situations.
I feel like focusing on her low/throw game and increasing its risk is the best way to go, making her throw shorter and/or harder to convert from and making her cLK be slower.
It also would help mitigating a few problems if her jHP had less blockstun and wasn't as useful to keep the opponent locked into her vortex range.
Luger's recovery.
While Luger is harder to convert from after weird stray hits because of the nerfs it took, sometimes it still can turn tides after a random hit in the air, while also being hard to punish even on groundblock because of the stepback Double does. Increasing it's recovery slightly would help mitigate both problems at once and hopefully not alter combo routes too much.
Personally though, I would prefer to have it to not be a Blue Knockdown instead of a Pink one, but I think this might alter her play too much to be feasible.
Minor:
Lvl3.
Her lvl3 could use another speedup since it is still quite lengthy to watch.
Another problem I have with it is that when it hits assists Double teleports all over the screen, sometimes also snatching the point back for most of the damage. It would be food if it behaved differently when hitting assists and only assists, dealing its full damage on the uppercut punch but not following it up afterwards.
Fukua:
I don't have that much to say about Fukua, but I can say she also has a few share of privileges.
Major:
jHK.
This button is overloaded. It is a Heavy quicker and bigger than a lot of Mediums in the game, that is almost entirely safe on block since it forces Fukua herself to landcancel it, combos from her jLP which is a button that is extremely hard to contest and leads into full combos and the opportunity for her strong mixups.
This button can keep being strong and the reward is less a problem of it by itself and more of Fukua having a very strong kit for mixups fue her shadows being a thing. However, this button needs some risk added to it, so I would suggest making it only pull her down on hit instead of doing it on hit and block so that there is some opportunity to punish it properly.
Dart.
As an assist, it also should have the same property as Annie's H Cut, especially L Dart since it fills an extremely similar role to H Cut and L George.
As a point, Darts should also disappear when Fukua is hit for the same reason I gave for Peacock's Georges, because although at a lower frequency, the Darts do get in the way of punishes too, sometimes.
Minor:
Shadows.
I feel like it would be a good experiment to have her Shadows behave similar to how they do as assists, having them hittable while they are being held but losing their hurtboxes a few frames after they are released.
Air Drill.
I think it could have invul through all of its startup. It is not a bad super as is but I think it could be a full air reversal.
PS: Just a genuine question, why does H Drill have strike invul on point anyway?
Beowulf:
Idk...delete him from the game for all I care.
This character is way beyond my imagination. I know he is way too weak by himself (which everyone knows) and also that his synergy with Band should be banned from this game (which also surprises noone) but truth be told? I have 0 ideas on suggestions to give to fix either.
The only thing I can think about is asking for a Hype bar, working like the Hunger bar for Umbrella, having segments to show how much hype and parts of hype he has at a glance.
Robo Fortune:
Someone that I feel is almost on point. Most changes I am gonna suggest involve giving her some general reward to increase both her offensive and defensive game better, but not in ways that would make her overpowered.
Major:
Magnet.
Robo would benefit a lot from being able to convert from Magnet out of her Install, at the cost of one head and OTG or something like this.
Having a way to reliably convert from Magnet would increase her reward game immensely as she would gain a slight bit more of damage, conversion from some of her defensive tools and be able to get something off some wonky hits.
M Danger.
M Danger stagger limitation to only at the start of the string feels very arbitrary and unnecessary, especially since it is the only special in the game that has that limitation.
While I understand that giving her sHP > M Danger stagger sounds too much in reality her damage will be extremely scaled down and sHP is (and it is okay to be the way it is) a not good defensive tool that requires extreme risk to use. Getting some extra reward out of it would just be to offset the risk.
Minor:
QoL: 214K not being usable if Robo has no heads.
It is more centered around making newbie players experience a little better until they get used to paying more attention to their resources.
Her throws.
While I would like to ask for her to be able to convert from her throws better while solo, if the change on Magnet is done then there would be no need to mess with them since Magnet+head spent would give her the conversion she needs.
However, if no Magnet changes are made it would be very vital for her to have a way to convert from her ground throw as I am very sure the only way she can do it currently is wasting meter for a Magnet pull and whiffing it, which is extremely low reward for the resource spent.
Salvo.
While having 3 heads Salvo having the best tracking is not a bad way to go, 1 or 2 heads Salvo's tracking is not useful enough to even bother using those versions.
Pet peeve:
jMP.
Please remove the inner boxes from jMP, there is a giant green square all over Robo when she uses the button so there is no need to have the inner ones.
Annie:
Annie is mostly fine, but the nerf on the past patch was extremely heavy handed.
Major:
Knuckle assists.
Knuckle assist (H Knuckle more specifically) was being able to stand a ground against an assist like Brass because despite having no armor it worked as a strong lockdown on block with really good damage on hit and gave some interesting conversions to the point character. While the damage is pretty high, however, it is still an assist that increases the Undizzy meter by 40 instead of 20, so it was a cost to pay to have the strength.
As it is now, H Knuckle lost a lot of its potential being completely locked to combos and no help otherwise, since it has no armor and now doesn't work as a lockdown either. If it is gonna stay as is, the cost of Undizzy could be reduced to 15+15 instead of 20+20 because it's only use is combo (but it is still an extremely strong combo tool so having more cost than other ones is understandable).
If rolled back, however, I would like to have the first hit's blockstun increased. As it was before, it had a few frames' gap where a pushblock would come as a backdash instead, which is not a big problem per se but it shouldn't happen in the first place, I think.
jMP.
The button was way too strong and enabled too easy mixups for Annie's extremely high reward, I agree. However the hitstun now is way too small, making it have the exact same.problem Painwheel's jHK has of being way too strict to combo from. It could be partially reverted to give it some use back.
Dash speed.
Annie's dash being reverted to how it was before the speed buffs is a very big deal for her, as, being a character with mostly stubby normals, movement is key in her neutral game.
I understand the change was made because of Pillar of Creation conversions being a huge problem, but with the nerfs on Pillar, nerfing the dash speed too was a little bit of overkill.
Annie's Install and a lot of things involving it.
Her Install currently is not worth using because it is way too expensive to keep and a little unwieldy to get off from. I suggest having an increased cost to her buttons but reduce or remove completely the passive cost per second, since it is way too much of a loss currently and forces the Annie player in quite a rush in their gameplan. Currently even in combos if you put the damage to meter spent down it is not that worth it either.
Her burst could go back to spend the rest of the bar instead of a whole one and have a drawback of dealing less damage if less meter is used.
Her Photo Bop super could also be reworked to be a full meter dump, able to be used even with less than 3 meter bars in the Install. The damage could begin very low and scale very fiercely with how much meter she dumps in it, because currently the damage is not that good for the hassle it is to get it going properly.
Personally though, I would prefer for her Install bar to be a bit more like it is on mobile, a completely separate bar that fills over time and the more filled it is the more things you unlock inside of it (like having it at least half filled when you enter Install unlocks the burst while having it entirely filled when entering unlocks the Photo Bop, or something like this) and as you activate it it drains over time. In all honesty this is currently feeling like retail Sekhmet. Meter is way too precious of a resource in a game like Skullgirls to have it draining like this, I think it is way too difficult to have anything that consumes meter like this to be worth it at all in this game.
Extra: Overhead hitgrabs like Chairless Beo’s jHP and Bella’s Pummel Horse do not give the !? sign when you block them wrong, it would be good to have that checked for beginners to learn it the first time instead of getting confused or something.
That hopefully covers everything...I hope I didn't forget anything.
PS: I didn’t forget about Umbrella but it is way too early for me to give any suggestions on her.
Thanks for the patience for reading this, and I would appreciate if you take my arguments seriously. Peace.
After a long while, I finally got enough resolve to make a really long and detailed text with some of the recurrent thoughts I have about the game's balancing in general.
I will try keeping things as well explained and well categorized as I can, but I will apologize in advance for the size of this post.
I ask you guys to please read carefully and I hope it doesn't lead to much confusion.
Squigly:
Squigly currently stands in a very comfortable spot in balancing, to me, so most of my suggestions will be very minor.
Major:
QoL: Charge indicator.
It is just for convenience's sake but would make the life of players a lot better to always know at a glance whether they have a full charge and which one they currently have
Minor:
Uncharged H DP.
I would like for it to have a similar property of the charged version, of having invul through Seria (although for the uncharged version it would be at most strike invul, not a full invul), while still keeping its considerably slower startup in comparison. As it stands it has a use in combos, but not much else, and giving Squigly this extra defensive tool wouldn't be way too strong in my eyes, while increasing her potential at the beginning of the round and especially solo.
Daisy.
It would be very good for Daisy to have an extended DHC window to allow DHCs after its full damage. I don't think this change would affect Squigly damage reward too much in combos, but would allow for some more DHC shenanigans with different positioning and/or not needing to make super quick inputs to early cancel SBO.
Lvl5.
This lvl5 is not worth ever using, as it stands. The requirements of a Taunt and a charge together with the 5 meters cost make it very unappealing, especially since Squigly needs a lot of meter to get her proper dangerous game going to begin with, she is very meter hungry. That together with the fact that using this super will consume both charges makes it very unsatisfying to work into using.
Removing the Taunt requirement and making it not spend the charges after usage would make it at the very least more appealing.
Hurtboxes.
After getting a hit on Squigly, very commonly she will drop off the combo because of her hurtboxes being very thin. Getting her a little fatter after she takes a hit would be appreciated by her opponents.
Pet peeve:
sMK
I have no specific suggestion for it, but this button does not feel like it serves a purpose at all.
I am well aware that in 6 button games some filler buttons are pretty much unavoidable though, and also aware that this might be very good already in specific situations and I may just not know about it.
Big Band:
As he stands I have a lot of problems with, but that's because I am not very into the idea of character too extremely in its role, Big Band being our only dedicated support character with a lot of struggles on point but granting his teams the arguably best set of assists in the game in their respective categories.
Extremely Minor:
jHK
That being said, I would still appreciate it if the self knockdown on jHK had a little more recovery after he lands and before he can roll away. As it currently stands it feels harder to punish it on block than it should be, and while not a problem per se it is still a little annoying to deal with.
Eliza:
Eliza has gone through a very good chunk of changes since the Annie beta time and is leagues above what she was before, however she is still far from perfect.
As an extra, I would like to ask to give future Eliza's buffs/reworks more time before trying to mess with them again, because truth be told, she is VERY underrepresented and most changes will catch a lot of players by surprise because most of them don't even know what she does to begin with. It is very important in general to let people find ways to deal with new things, but on her case it is even more important because of how little she is seen around
Major:
Throne.
Throne is borderline useless to Eliza, only being used in very specific setups and still being suboptimal even when you get to those. It would be good if it had a more generous hitbox (or less hurtbox, to be a little harder to contest with melees, although a better hitbox would be way better to the move) and maybe 1 or 2 hits of armor against projectiles (preferably I would like it to not neutralize lasers like M Egret, just eat conventional projectiles).
I already gave up on M Spiral, moving on.
Air super.
This super has never been very good. Not very good damage, no conversion, no invul and Eliza can't get very much out of the HKD.
Before Sekhmet's rework the only use of this super was to be DHCed from (since Lady of Slaughter was always a bad super for this job) but now that Neck Bite was introduced it is far better for the same purpose, rendering the air super fairly worthless.
It would really benefit Eliza for this super to have invul frames in its startup, since not only would it give this super a purpose but it would also give her more defensive options since her defense is not great.
Crouch.
Eliza is way too tall while crouched, tall enough to take H Beam assist while she is down. While I understand that decision on Band's case since he is supposed to have the disadvantages of being a Big Body type character, I don't see why Eliza should suffer from this specific problem.
Reducing her hurtbox just enough for her to avoid the Beam would be sufficient.
Minor:
Lady of Slaughter.
This super has 2 flaws in my eyes:
The first problem is in the fact that DHCing from this super is very clunky. The last hit sends the opponent flying away but DHCing before it sacrifices quite a chunk of damage;
The second is more preference, but I feel this super is a little too slow to end after it connects and the animation is not very good (especially the first part where Sekhmet kinda teleports around the opponent). Probably this is because this tries to be a kind of cinematic super while using reused assets, which makes it not the best to watch;
I suggest changing the animation to try mitigating both problems at once, my specific suggestion being for Sekhmet to do a barrage of Axes after the super connects, ending with a HKD or big ground bounce on the final strike with the fade to red effect her supers have, followed by her roaring. The damage and recovery on hit would not have to be changed or anything either, they are good as it.
Horace.
Horace seems to be beat out of his stunts a bit too often, it would be good for him to have some frames of lower body invul or just a small reduction on his hurtboxes to make him still beatable but a bit harder to contest.
jHP.
jHP turns her into a very large box of green, while also being a bit misleading because the animation shows it hitting way further behind her than it currently does. While I think the damage, properties and hitboxes are fine as they are, it would be good to the hurtboxes behind her to be closer to where the hitboxes are, because she exposes herself way more than she reaches, as it currently is.
Fortune:
Fortune is a character that I see as being on a good spot already, so I don't have much to say about her.
Major:
Tag in.
Fortune's headless raw tag is extremely strong as it is, basically bringing her in for free.
While I don't have any specific suggestion, I feel like this is a good place to look at.
Minor:
Assists.
Her assists are not good by design, I do understand that. However, having Nom and Allergies as usable assists (HeadOn Fortune could be using sHP) would give her a few more options for fun shenanigans while not being super strong.
Fiber.
Fiber was fine as is, so it would be okay to revert its invulnerabilies to what they were before the last patch.
Pet Peeves:
sLP.
I feel like this is way too big for how quick it is. I would really prefer it being a little slower.
cLK.
The range and speed are fine and all, but reducing how much/how far it low profiles would be good.
cMK.
Same pet peeve I have with Squigly's sMK.
Peacock:
Getting this out of my chest: fuck jHK, I hate this button.
Currently even with how much Peacock was nerfed she is still arguably the top1 character with a safe, very strong and kinda easy vortex. Just reducing the reward for it is honestly not enough, the same as it wasn't enough for Bella's jHP to have less reward for being overhead.
Major:
Lenny.
Lenny is way too powerful of a tool and even after the meter gain reduction Peacock can still spam them way too often.
My suggestion would be either making it a lvl2 and keep it as it is or, if keeping it as a lvl1, make Peacock take as much damage from it as her opponent and make it easier for the opponent to move Lenny around (currently the advatage for Peacock is way too one sided).
L George.
Two major points.
1 being that L George should be more negative on block point blank, as it is he is very safe-ish for a projectile of its kind.
2 being that L George assist should have the same limitation as Annie's H Cut assist of locking assists as a cooldown. They are the same category of assist and it is unfair that only Annie has to have the downside while assists like L George are way more annoying for longerq (since L George stays onscreen for so long, the point can effectively use both assists simultaneously and that is extremely unfair).
Item lvl2.
Item lvl2 is way too strong for its stage. I think some extra cooldown time (yes, even considering the extra cooldown it already gained in the last patches) and less pull as it connects would make it more bearable and also make her vortex weaker.
Maybe:
L Item.
Nowadays there is no use for L Item as there is no situation where M Item wouldn't do the same job but probably better.
L Item could have some special property to make it stand out and maybe get some use.
Personally, for the Item Drop, I would prefer all of them to have no tracking and be set in position, but at this point I understand this wouldn't be feasible. This has been part of Peacock's set for almost 10 years and it would be way too big of a difference to change like this.
Teleport assist.
I found out a while ago that Peacock had a unique version of her L Teleport as an assist that mimicked her tag in for a while, and it was removed for some reason.
I would really like to have it back because it seemed like a lot of fun and gave Peacock some other assists to work with and with a very different role from her current ones.
I would even suggest that not only L Telepunch was a thing but that all Teleport assists were converted to different versions of the punch, maybe changing in startup and reward or hitting from further away.
Georges.
Peacock's projectiles currently work as a "get out of jail" card, in a way. Very frequently the opponent will hit her and either have to drop their combo or take a George to their face during it, often giving Peacock complete opportunity for retaliation.
It would be extremely helpful for the opponent if Peacock's Georges disappeared after she takes a hit, like some other strong neutral projectiles (SBO and Tears being examples).
Lvl3.
Peacock's lvl3 currently seems to have a very niche use, only being cancellable from her throw. Basically she can use it as a nice reward for mixing up with throws (which is a decent reward) but truth be told, more often than not simply spending the 3 meters into Lenny > Argus > Argus tends to give more reward no matter the situation. Not only that, her lvl3 can only be used in combos if used as a DHC, since normal throws can be teched from even after comboing with stagger.
Making it a proper throw by itself without having to be cancelled from her throw would make it more interesting (while still being a hitgrab as a DHC, of course).
Painwheel:
While I don't want to sound like a complainwheel, Painwheel does struggle a lot in this game, currently.
Major:
jHK.
This button has way too little hitstun, which makes it difficult to link consistently even during combos. Some extra hitstun would be extremely appreciated.
Assists.
To consolidate Painwheel's slot as a mid, it would be very good to have her have some better assists since currently her assists all give a "well, that's what we have" feeling.
Giving some armor to Pinion (0/1/2 hits of armor for L/M/H versions would be good enough) and a way to have charged Nails as an assist too, just like Peacock can charge her Items.
Deathcrawl.
Painwheel lacks some frame 1 reversal options, since her armored normals all take a few frames to defend her. She does have Thresher which is superb as a defensive tool, but on the ground she has a lot of difficulty to get out of pressure.
Deathcrawl could have a better hitbox, to cover herself better and give her a decent ground option as a reversal.
sHK.
This button is not very useful since the initial hitbox is extremely short, it isn't very fast and the launcher sends a little too straight up. While it is usable on some mixups, a better hitbox on the first hit would allow some use later on combos and help her save other more important buttons for later on, giving this some more use.
cLK and cMK.
While I am fairly satisfied with cLK as a button, Painwheel suffers from a very big problem for lacking proper conversion from a max range cLK hit, since cMK is very short. While you can chain it into sHP, it is a bit of a dangerous move to do that if you aren't sure the cLK is gonna connect and you don't have that much time to react to the situation and then her combo ends again.
A way to make this situation better would be to either somehow increase the range of her cMK and reduce its pushback on hit, for it to chain properly and also not push the opponent out of the followup button. Another way to help would be to make L Buer a bit longer, so that in case the player risks a cLK > sHP they can chain into L Buer and continue the combo properly for their reward.
L Buer.
Since I am mentioning L Buer, it would be very good to have its hitbox be slightly taller.
Sometimes trying to catch OTG with a button and follow up with L Buer will result in the opponent flopping over its hitbox and making it whiff, since it is very short.
Minor:
Charged jHP.
Charged jHP is not a bad button per se, but I feel it is quite depressing that combos starting with it deal less damage than combos that start with the uncharged version. A bit of a damage increase on some hits would make it feel rewarding to hit it.
jMK.
This button is far from being bad, but it would benefit Painwheel to have its hitbox larger on the back, just so that using it as a crossup tool isn't as tight as it is now.
Please nothing major either, just a little increase should be fine.
Funnies:
L Nail.
I think it would make for funny shenanigans if L Nail hit low, both as a point and as an assist.
Would give it some interesting utility as an assist and make some funny mixups possible, which I would be all in for seeing.
Filia:
She seems fine to me and I don't have much knowledge of her either.
If I were to suggest anything it would be making her cHP as strong hitbox wise as Fukua's and Double's counterparts.
Cerebella:
Bella is a character I really dislike since there seems to be a lot more extra work on her tools than a lot of other characters in the game. The largest number of specials, everything she has has a proper purpose, she has many tools to mitigate problems her archetype should have and she has a lot of weird and specific privileges. The biggest problem I have with that is that this feels a lot like favoritism, since she is pretty much the only one with those. Due that most of my suggestions will be nerfs, but anything outside of the Major category are things that I would be fine still having in, despite preferring otherwise, while Major points are things that genuinely feel like big problems.
Major:
Anchor point.
As much as it was noted that messing around on boxes was not much of the intent of those patches, Bella's anchor point is extremely troubling to people trying to combo on her. She will sometimes just snap to the ground while seemingly at a combable height and sometimes just ruin combos altogether because of it. This is a bit of bullshit considering no other character has an anchor point so much lower than their bodies and it really is something to be fixed, not ignored.
Lvl3.
Bella's lvl3 is a hyperarmor, quick, strong low (the only low blockbuster in the game, mind you) that is safe on block and even pushblock, does not scale the combo down a lot because it is just 3 hits and does not spend meter until extremely late in. While any of those factors are not bad per se (a blockbuster can have some of those to keep it strong), the fact that literally every possible option is a positive on this particular blockbuster makes it way too good (it is "almost no risk"-"extremely high reward"). In my eyes it should spend meter at the start, while she digs her hands to the ground and if blocked should be very easily punishable.
While you could say no other supers spend meter before the superflash other than Val's, which is a very special case due being a counter, Bella's super is also a special case because it is the super that takes the longest startup to reach the superflash time. Since it is somewhat a special case too, having it spend meter before the superflash is not a stretch.
TK Devil Horns.
It would be good to have a way to prevent TK Devil Horns from ruining a few of her loops. Sometimes, I see it happening a few times of Devil Horns triggering IPS during her loops because it came as a TK and it seems kind of annoying to have it happen.
Minor:
jHP.
jHP has way too much blockstun.
I am not asking for it to not have blockstun that can be seen as long compared to other buttons in the game, it is perfectly fine for her to have strong buttons to compensate for her neutra not being great. However, this button even while blocked renders the opponent helpless for way too long even considering that.
Pummel Horse.
Pummel Horse is used in most of Bella's good/best combos and it takes forever to finish its animation. A speedup would be extremely welcome.
Personally I also find it being overhead a bit overstuffing, but frankly, for its use being overhead or not does not make much of a difference.
Vice-Versa.
This would be a big deal for Bella players, but considering all the rest of the game I really feel like Vice-Versa should have a hurtbox on for all the time. Other characters have their parasites or helpers having a hurtbox on most of the time to facilitate combos on them and not make buttons unfair, i.e. Squigly having Lev most of the time, Peacock having even her hat having a green box, Eliza's and Band's almost every button and now we have even Umbrella having Hungern hittable during all opportunities.
Currently not only Bella has the lowest getting hit standing animation (i.e. Painwheel can do L Nail > jump > jMP on every character but her) but her hurtboxes get a little wonky to worth with, especially in tandem with the low anchor point (a good example being Annie's sHP-HP > ReEntry link on the corner working with the same timing on everyone but her), so I feel like this would be a huge boost to people fighting against her.
That said, I don't want her big staple buttons/specials all to lose disjoint. Keeping disjoing on Excella and jHP and some disjoint on jMP, i.e., is perfectly fine, she does deserve to have some good and hard to contest buttons to keep her game going.
Command run.
Her command run builds a little too much meter. I don't want it to build no meter because while Bella has superb meter build in combos, her build in neutral is not very good so it equals out. Still, it builds too much currently.
General bugfix(?)
Excellebella, like some other multihit assists, sometimes will increase combo stage without the point ever interacting with the second player. In this particular case it sucks a lot because sometimes it will increase undizzy when it shouldn't, and by all means this shouldn't happen to begin with since this assist renders the opponent completely untouchable by the point character.
With some testing doing the same string with the same timing using Excellebella, A-Train and Salt Grinder, the property the latter two have of sending their target to the shadow realm seems to prevent the combo stage from advancing unprompted, so they could be a good starting point to look at.
Valentine:
Val is another character I think would be just fine even if she remains untouched. Still, I have a few suggestions to give.
Minor:
Mortuary Drop.
This special isn't that useful to Val, especially considering it is slow and bad to convert from. It would help a bit to add a buffer to cancel it into scalpels for proper conversions.
Vial assist.
Vial assist load taking longer than a point lvl3 load is not necessary. I understand it has to take long to load because you are giving Val an important resource while she is off point, but considering charging it and using it on the same combo is not doable, having it take longer than the strongest vial load on point is too much. It could be the same as the lvl3 load time.
cMP.
This button sucks a lot. It seems to be aiming to be an antiair of sorts, but its hitbox is way too short to achieve so. It would be good if it could reach higher, to properly impede aerial approaches.
Flatliner.
Making the vacuum stronger for air Flatliner would be good just to make sure that after the first hit connects the opponent won't slip out sometimes. It happens a few times and it is not good when it does.
Parasoul:
I would like to note that while I don't have much to say about Parasoul currently, I am feeling like she will become weaker as new characters are added, since she doesn't properly excel at anything. While being a good for all is a good role to have, I feel it won't be really enough in the future, so it would be good to keep an eye on her.
Major:
Tear assist.
As an advocate for consistency, I will be consistent in advocating. Tears should have the H Cut limitator too since they have a very similar role (this include Napalm Shot tears too).
Minor:
Sniper Shot.
Sniper Shot having extra recovery when hitting an opponent in the air feels a little arbitrary. I understand this was probably done to avoid Napalm Pillar > Sniper loops, but this could have the extra recovery after the first use in the combo, not every time it hits an airborne opponent.
This strikes me as very arbitrary, that's all.
Double:
I have an entire separate rant about Double herself, but I will try to make sure I keep this part of the list as unbiased as possible.
Major:
Double's weight in combos.
A LOT of characters have to do Double specific combos that deal way less damage because Double is extremely small for her weight while in the air for combos. Being Heavy with the average hurtbox of a Medium makes her drop out of combos way too often unless pretty much every opponent loses their reward for getting a hit and have to do suboptimal combos. While character specific things are a thing, the fact that Double's weight makes about every character lose reward while not getting anything in exchange (in comparison we have Fortune whose head sometimes makes combos fail, but if we keep that in mind we can actually increase our reward a lot against her) makes it an actual problem.
Making Double Medium weight during combos would make the life of everyone fighting against her easier and wouldn't change a thing for Double players themselves except them actually being punished properly for mistakes.
Double's vortex.
Double is the character currently with arguably the best risk-reward for her vortex, as her jHP is a very strong button to approach with and as soon as it connects with the opponent (hit or block) she can start using her extremely strong low/throw game, which is probably the best and more rewarding in the game. If playing on teams, she can use Flesh Step as an instant left/right with some assists, and all of this for very little Undizzy and very little reaction opportunities for the opponent.
Her cLK being so fast and long, her throw being long and easy to convert from and her jHP being super strong by itself as well as a very strong fastfall option makes her extremely dangerous in most situations.
I feel like focusing on her low/throw game and increasing its risk is the best way to go, making her throw shorter and/or harder to convert from and making her cLK be slower.
It also would help mitigating a few problems if her jHP had less blockstun and wasn't as useful to keep the opponent locked into her vortex range.
Luger's recovery.
While Luger is harder to convert from after weird stray hits because of the nerfs it took, sometimes it still can turn tides after a random hit in the air, while also being hard to punish even on groundblock because of the stepback Double does. Increasing it's recovery slightly would help mitigate both problems at once and hopefully not alter combo routes too much.
Personally though, I would prefer to have it to not be a Blue Knockdown instead of a Pink one, but I think this might alter her play too much to be feasible.
Minor:
Lvl3.
Her lvl3 could use another speedup since it is still quite lengthy to watch.
Another problem I have with it is that when it hits assists Double teleports all over the screen, sometimes also snatching the point back for most of the damage. It would be food if it behaved differently when hitting assists and only assists, dealing its full damage on the uppercut punch but not following it up afterwards.
Fukua:
I don't have that much to say about Fukua, but I can say she also has a few share of privileges.
Major:
jHK.
This button is overloaded. It is a Heavy quicker and bigger than a lot of Mediums in the game, that is almost entirely safe on block since it forces Fukua herself to landcancel it, combos from her jLP which is a button that is extremely hard to contest and leads into full combos and the opportunity for her strong mixups.
This button can keep being strong and the reward is less a problem of it by itself and more of Fukua having a very strong kit for mixups fue her shadows being a thing. However, this button needs some risk added to it, so I would suggest making it only pull her down on hit instead of doing it on hit and block so that there is some opportunity to punish it properly.
Dart.
As an assist, it also should have the same property as Annie's H Cut, especially L Dart since it fills an extremely similar role to H Cut and L George.
As a point, Darts should also disappear when Fukua is hit for the same reason I gave for Peacock's Georges, because although at a lower frequency, the Darts do get in the way of punishes too, sometimes.
Minor:
Shadows.
I feel like it would be a good experiment to have her Shadows behave similar to how they do as assists, having them hittable while they are being held but losing their hurtboxes a few frames after they are released.
Air Drill.
I think it could have invul through all of its startup. It is not a bad super as is but I think it could be a full air reversal.
PS: Just a genuine question, why does H Drill have strike invul on point anyway?
Beowulf:
Idk...delete him from the game for all I care.
This character is way beyond my imagination. I know he is way too weak by himself (which everyone knows) and also that his synergy with Band should be banned from this game (which also surprises noone) but truth be told? I have 0 ideas on suggestions to give to fix either.
The only thing I can think about is asking for a Hype bar, working like the Hunger bar for Umbrella, having segments to show how much hype and parts of hype he has at a glance.
Robo Fortune:
Someone that I feel is almost on point. Most changes I am gonna suggest involve giving her some general reward to increase both her offensive and defensive game better, but not in ways that would make her overpowered.
Major:
Magnet.
Robo would benefit a lot from being able to convert from Magnet out of her Install, at the cost of one head and OTG or something like this.
Having a way to reliably convert from Magnet would increase her reward game immensely as she would gain a slight bit more of damage, conversion from some of her defensive tools and be able to get something off some wonky hits.
M Danger.
M Danger stagger limitation to only at the start of the string feels very arbitrary and unnecessary, especially since it is the only special in the game that has that limitation.
While I understand that giving her sHP > M Danger stagger sounds too much in reality her damage will be extremely scaled down and sHP is (and it is okay to be the way it is) a not good defensive tool that requires extreme risk to use. Getting some extra reward out of it would just be to offset the risk.
Minor:
QoL: 214K not being usable if Robo has no heads.
It is more centered around making newbie players experience a little better until they get used to paying more attention to their resources.
Her throws.
While I would like to ask for her to be able to convert from her throws better while solo, if the change on Magnet is done then there would be no need to mess with them since Magnet+head spent would give her the conversion she needs.
However, if no Magnet changes are made it would be very vital for her to have a way to convert from her ground throw as I am very sure the only way she can do it currently is wasting meter for a Magnet pull and whiffing it, which is extremely low reward for the resource spent.
Salvo.
While having 3 heads Salvo having the best tracking is not a bad way to go, 1 or 2 heads Salvo's tracking is not useful enough to even bother using those versions.
Pet peeve:
jMP.
Please remove the inner boxes from jMP, there is a giant green square all over Robo when she uses the button so there is no need to have the inner ones.
Annie:
Annie is mostly fine, but the nerf on the past patch was extremely heavy handed.
Major:
Knuckle assists.
Knuckle assist (H Knuckle more specifically) was being able to stand a ground against an assist like Brass because despite having no armor it worked as a strong lockdown on block with really good damage on hit and gave some interesting conversions to the point character. While the damage is pretty high, however, it is still an assist that increases the Undizzy meter by 40 instead of 20, so it was a cost to pay to have the strength.
As it is now, H Knuckle lost a lot of its potential being completely locked to combos and no help otherwise, since it has no armor and now doesn't work as a lockdown either. If it is gonna stay as is, the cost of Undizzy could be reduced to 15+15 instead of 20+20 because it's only use is combo (but it is still an extremely strong combo tool so having more cost than other ones is understandable).
If rolled back, however, I would like to have the first hit's blockstun increased. As it was before, it had a few frames' gap where a pushblock would come as a backdash instead, which is not a big problem per se but it shouldn't happen in the first place, I think.
jMP.
The button was way too strong and enabled too easy mixups for Annie's extremely high reward, I agree. However the hitstun now is way too small, making it have the exact same.problem Painwheel's jHK has of being way too strict to combo from. It could be partially reverted to give it some use back.
Dash speed.
Annie's dash being reverted to how it was before the speed buffs is a very big deal for her, as, being a character with mostly stubby normals, movement is key in her neutral game.
I understand the change was made because of Pillar of Creation conversions being a huge problem, but with the nerfs on Pillar, nerfing the dash speed too was a little bit of overkill.
Annie's Install and a lot of things involving it.
Her Install currently is not worth using because it is way too expensive to keep and a little unwieldy to get off from. I suggest having an increased cost to her buttons but reduce or remove completely the passive cost per second, since it is way too much of a loss currently and forces the Annie player in quite a rush in their gameplan. Currently even in combos if you put the damage to meter spent down it is not that worth it either.
Her burst could go back to spend the rest of the bar instead of a whole one and have a drawback of dealing less damage if less meter is used.
Her Photo Bop super could also be reworked to be a full meter dump, able to be used even with less than 3 meter bars in the Install. The damage could begin very low and scale very fiercely with how much meter she dumps in it, because currently the damage is not that good for the hassle it is to get it going properly.
Personally though, I would prefer for her Install bar to be a bit more like it is on mobile, a completely separate bar that fills over time and the more filled it is the more things you unlock inside of it (like having it at least half filled when you enter Install unlocks the burst while having it entirely filled when entering unlocks the Photo Bop, or something like this) and as you activate it it drains over time. In all honesty this is currently feeling like retail Sekhmet. Meter is way too precious of a resource in a game like Skullgirls to have it draining like this, I think it is way too difficult to have anything that consumes meter like this to be worth it at all in this game.
Extra: Overhead hitgrabs like Chairless Beo’s jHP and Bella’s Pummel Horse do not give the !? sign when you block them wrong, it would be good to have that checked for beginners to learn it the first time instead of getting confused or something.
That hopefully covers everything...I hope I didn't forget anything.
PS: I didn’t forget about Umbrella but it is way too early for me to give any suggestions on her.
Thanks for the patience for reading this, and I would appreciate if you take my arguments seriously. Peace.
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