I’d like to go back to the subject of Sekhmet’s usefulness for a minute. About page or two ago this was brought up and I’d like to touch on it again. First off, I actually agree with the sentiment that Sekhmet does not need sweeping changes or buffs; that’s not what this is. However, Sekhmet’s usefulness as a utility seems under utilized and I think this ties directly into Eliza’s vampire ability. I also think it’s surprising that no one has attempted to explain what Sekhmet is as a tool; something I’d actually like to discuss in another thread or maybe write a small guide on it later in the future.
What I’d like to suggest is that Sekhmet’s Lady of Slaughter ability be granted the vampire effect after Eliza taunts; currently, only Eliza’s Lady of Slaughter has the capability of stealing health. This creates two issues:
* In order to steal any substantial health in a single burst, Eliza must spend nearly 4 bar!
* In order to steal health in a single go, Eliza must cut combos short and transform into Sekhmet – this almost always deals less than damage than a straight forward Eliza combo. The amount of health she can steal almost always renders “vampire combos” pointless as the amount of life stolen is usually paltry.
* If not the above, Eliza must constantly taunt in order to nibble health away from the opponent.
In regards to damage vs life stolen, I think Eliza should have to decide between either damage or life; unfortunately there is no point to doing life combos so Eliza usually must resort to nibbling health away as described above.
In all of Eliza’s vampire combos, only Sekhmet’s normals can steal life. This is where the problem of meter vs life stolen comes into play – Sekhment’s meter drain is intense, and the amount of life she gets from doing a vampire combo does not justify the spent meter; she also does not do as much damage as Eliza, making a Sekhmet Lady of Slaughter usually pointless.
I’m going to try and justify this proposal with some numbers; I apologize if this is all a bit of mess and I’ll try to keep this clean and concise as possible.
All health values were calculated with both players starting at 70% regardless of team size.
(Eliza) Raw Lady of Slaughter, Life Stolen
1 v 1: 800 gained, 10,850 -> 11,650
1 v 3: 1,160 gained, 22,242 -> 23,402
This actually provides the largest amount of life stolen for the most reasonable meter; unfortunately doing a raw LOS as Eliza is a great way to get yourself killed and is impractical.
Sekhmet L -> L -> L, M, H Combo, Life Stolen
1 v 1: 616 gained, 10,850 -> 11,466
1 v 3: 891 gained, 22,242 -> 23,133
Right off the bat, we’re doing a combo that drains almost as much meter as the above scenario and yet have taken a reduction in the life stolen. Note that this combo was done “raw” so there was no hit-confirming into it! Also impractical, as Sekhmet really shouldn’t be used as a rush down tool; you'll be snapped out!
(Eliza) Lady of Slaughter After Boatslide BnB, Life Stolen
1 v 1: 300 gained (!!!), 10,850 -> 11,150
1 v 3: 415 gained, 22,242 -> 22,657
This is the safest way to steal life, but hardly steals any at all! If you were doing a taunt setup for this, you likely wasted your time and traded pressure all to steal a negligible amount of life. Obviously, we’ll need to do more than this in order to steal health! We’ll try something different below:
Sekhmet’s L -> L -> L, M, H as an Ender to Boatslide BnB, Life Stolen
1 v 1: 232 gained (yikes!), 10,850 -> 11,082
1 v 3: 330 gained, 22,242 -> 22,572
...so here, we not only did a combo with “more Sekhmet”, we also burned more meter and got less health back. I should also point out that in this test case, I did Sekhmet’s Lady of Slaughter at the end of the LLL M H. That, coupled with the LLL M H, could have given me a non-trivial amount of health back for the meter I spent. This is really silly in that I’m spending more meter, doing more damage, using more Sekhmet, and getting less!
Highest Possible Life Stealing Combo, no Hit Confirms
Combo: (As Sekh) j.mp, s.hp, j.mp, s.hp, j.lp, [Signature Attack], c.lp, s.mp (all hits), s.hp, xx[Lady of Slaughter]
1 v 1
Damage: 7,354
Life Stolen: 1,534
Meter Spent: 3.9 bars
1 v 3
Damage: 10,689
Life Stolen: 2,220
Meter Spent: 3.9 bars
This is only time I’ve seen Eliza steal a meaningful amount of health. The problem is, it required me to do a nuclear level unsafe attack to open the combo, (Sekhmet’s j.mp) and took nearly 4 bar. The Lady of Slaughter on the end only dealt damage too, and stole no life.
What I am suggesting is, by allowing Sekhmet to steal life off of her Lady of Slaughter, she could steal life for a reasonable amount of meter. This would allow Eliza to do “some combo”, cancel into Sekhmet, and use as much Sekhmet as the undizzy bar and meter permits and do Lady of Slaughter at the end cash out the life stealing combo. Damage scaling would likely prevent life stolen from ever passing 1,000 unless Eliza did an unusually long life stealing combo. What I am not suggesting is that Eliza’s vampire ability be directly buffed, or that her vampire ability ignore damage scaling. I hope to hear some responses on this and thanks for taking the time to read this utter mess of a post.
