3.4 Patch Notes

[quote=“SonicDolphin117, post:29, topic:14774, full:true”]
it’s a shame to see Cinder’s shadow fission opener get nerfed so hard[/quote]

It was actually really REALLY strong as an opener so it made sense to me.

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So:

-Aganos gets buffed. Forward HK now has uses(I see potential here)
-Gargos remains the same for me. Minions not hitting a second time if they are hit it’s expendable, like the changes
-Eyedol remains the same, but different in many areas. Eager to test them
-Tusk new properties seems very fun!
-Kim looks a lot better
-Big like to Raam Krill rush changes!

So overall, I’m very happy with this balance patch!

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I nearly spit out my water reading those Kim and Cinder buffs. Pyrobomb just got so much more fun. :imp:

And High-Low Mixups for Kim, and a resource ender that gives more resources? :heart_eyes:

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I love the idea of pyrobombs launching OTG opponents! That sounds so fun! The reduction on the Shadow Fission opener damage is fair. I can live with it. As for those Kim buffs? I’m super excited to spend more time on her again! Great job, IG! The changes look good.

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Those Kim Wu buffs got me feeling like I have

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http://forums.ultra-combo.com/t/whats-the-purpose-of-forward-hk-again/

  • Stomp Walk now crushes lows until the 1st active frame of each step.
  • Stomp Walk 1st hit is now -3 on block (was -10) at zero chunks
  • Stomp Walk 2nd and 3rd hits are now -3 on block (was -5) at zero chunks (Stomp walk was a pretty bad move. Now it’s a pretty good one.)

Why doesn’t Iron Galaxy LISTEN TO US!? I gave them suggestions in a Twitch chat several times (which then disappeared after 10 seconds) !!!

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Guys, you missed the best change of all:

Riptor:

  • Moved the manual cancel window up 1 frame on both Medium Linkers to allow crouching medium attacks to manual in these situations.

■■■■ YES. No more 1 frame links after medium linkers. Riptor is top tier now.

Seriously, 1 frame links after medium linkers are the moral challenge of our time. Learning to manual after a medium linker is the closest thing to learning a KI character’s BnB’s. If one of the characters you use suffers from this woeful affliction, I encourage you to speak up. (Like I did a bunch of times for Riptor, and look what happened! :slight_smile: )

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Lots of good changes in these patch notes. I have tons to say… I could talk for an hour about them, and I plan to with Sajam tonight on stream! Dunno time yet, but it won’t be earlier than 7 PST, and probably later (I have work deadlines and Sajam is also quite busy this afternoon). Hopefully it happens, though. Tune in if you are interested in my or Sajam’s opinion on KI balance!

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Where will it be streamed? Sajam’s Channel?

It’ll probably be on Sajam’s channel, yeah. We’ll give the time/place on twitter when we are 100% sure we can make it work. We’re both really busy today but we want to try to make it happen.

My thoughts in summary:

  • I like 95% of changes, most of them a lot (Thunder reversal, Gargos minions, Arbiter gun loop)
  • The changes I’m skeptical on aren’t a big deal and will work themselves out in the wash
  • Some characters might still need some help in a future patch, but I think there is still lots of room to explore them vs. the adjusted top tier now.
  • I think they made the Riptor manual change just for @Fnrslvr
  • I think Aria and Omen are really good now
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Still bugs me that Riptor’s mortar damage is reduced by 50% if you move.

Slight dagger assault buff yes it’s better than nothing, Kim is going to be a lot more fun, eyedol fine yay, Finally able to use shadow laser. Looks like 3.4 going to be fun for everyone who got changed well except for jago and eyedol but they were already having too much fun.

ARIA’s bombs breakable now? damn…

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Lab time extended: TBD

I think I’ll need to play With Eyedol to check the changes, Really interested at the changes to j.hp’s animation and how that affects its use in some matches

The biggest question I have is why change the KV for Crushing Destroyer ender? I don’t think the combos were the most powerful he could do and most of the options were reaction breakable as well. I can understand that it gave hmm a damage cash out into longer manual mixups than other characters, so maybe that was the case, just an interesting nuanced change I don’t full understand

The B+mp change is probably a necessary quality of life change, even when they were close enough that you “should” use st.mp I would use b+mp because of its amazing reach, hitbox and cancel-ability so that change is sensible.

I am not sure I am on board with it being uncancelable, especially since mp moves now influence change, and specials, it was already hard to keep wizard unless you were getting rushed down (that seems to still be the case) so now one of his better zoning tools (the highlight of wizard) is much less usable, before the opponent just needed to whether a fairly slow high low mixup for a bit and Eyedol would definitely change and not really be at anything more than far away neutral in Warrior mode (not exactly a strong place).

This combined with the decrease in push back from j.hp and j.mp seem to all contribute to Wizard being much weaker and even more a victim of getting stuck in Wizard mode. Hopefully that does hold true when playing.

The one final change is slowing down the speed of the overhead in addition to making it more minus on block. It may have no effect as I never thought the move was good enough to press ad nauseum but I am somewhat worried it will be worse as a combo tool and worse as a space control tool. I think the animation was already unique enough for people to recognize it and not get caught by it but that is just an opinion I may not have had enough experience using it or fighting it to see how annoying it truly was.

Anyway I am excited to relearn these parts of Eyedol’s game and the changes to stomps and meteoer ender may open up new tactics. Thanks IG for keeping the game fresh.

Extended yes, but not much. This is the only change, it’s not a huge loss. I’d stay it’s a buff/nerf. Least I can CB them now .

Smh.

Ya’ll buffing Sadira while Mira already has a tough time against her? Mother of God…

Mira’s Instinct mist dealing 50% less potential damage hurt. But I really like that embrace linkers give more health. I can basically gain even more health back during the end of the round so there’s that. Not bad Mira changes. Could have been worse, could have nerfed her overall damage. That would have sucked. (No pun intended…ok…maybe a little)

That Kim Wu dragon counter buff though idk. It seems really really powerful. I like everything else she got though. Excited to pick her up again.

Jago:I like it. Much more fair now.
Sabrewulf:Why? I hate this character.
Glacius:Thank you. A zoner should not have a wake up that amazing.
Thunder:Woot. Thanks a lot.
Sadira:This makes her an amazing air character now. Flip out into cross up? Salticide hype.
Orchid:Nothing major. Just a bug fix. Would’ve prefered a slight damage nerf on Shadow Dp.
Spinal:Nothing major.
Fulgore:My gameplay isn’t affected at all. I am good. That shadow laser buff seems really nasty. Shadow laser into heavy laser into teleport for one chance sees really good.
Tj:Bug fixes :sleepy:
Maya:Makes sense.
Kan-Ra:Seems good except the last part. @rukizzel Kan-Ra can do a standing medium punch into a strength of whirl with certain characters. Character specific. Bug or reality?
Riptor:Delete that character please.
Omen:More bug fixes.
Agabos:March is apporaching with peace.
Hisako:Don’t really care.
Cinder:OTG PogChamp. Oral Telephone Grandma hype.
Aria:Blah.
Shago:Buffs smh.
Kim Who:Top tier Wu?
Tusk:I am confused on most of it.
Rash:Lel.
Arbiter:Seems good but I would like shadow command grab to be an ender if you combo into it.
Mira:The new Kim Who
Gargos:Seems good. I like it. I don’t use damage ender for minions anyway.
Raam:Need to try first.
Eyedol:He shall serve me.

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Man, that stream didn’t really do justice to the extent of the changes in this patch.

Anyway, I’m pretty happy with the changes overall. Just a few thoughts from the notes/stream:

  • Sadira didn’t get the damage buff that many were recommending, but the buffs she actually got could go a long way by giving her more opening opportunities and juggle variations.
  • The nerf to Thunder’s reversal was a long-time comin’. :slight_smile:
  • I wonder if IG is being cautious about nerfing Fulgore. The one buff aside, IG’s strategy with Fulgore so far seem to be chipping down the frustrating stuff he can get away with bit by bit.
  • I still think Maya could use a bit more damage on Shadow Leap Kick since she can’t throw daggers after it anymore.
  • Tusk and especially Kim got a lot of help. I’m looking forward people picking them up more often now.
  • I like RAAM’s changes, but I got one trivial nitpick about swapping his Ultra inputs. I would have just put Kryll Shield on 3K since those are his Kryll buttons anyway.
  • Still kinda iffy on Mira, but the changes to Vampire Mist are fair and having better opportunities to recover health should help her out some.
  • The nerfs to Gargos and especially Eyedol are a lot to take in. I’m gonna have to wait and see how these play out before I make any judgement on them now.
  • Twitch chats are insufferable cesspits of trolls and drama queens.
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