As a Jago player, I wouldn’t be too worried about this. He doesn’t benefit much from flipout. It’s there to enhance Jago’s anti-air game and give launcher ender a reason to exist (you’re not getting serious juggle damage after an ender, so the only reason to do launcher is to control the next phase of the match via either flipout or sweep), but Jago’s anti-airs are plenty strong and I can live without launcher ender
Jago still isn’t a serious zoner. Fireball charging/cancelling is useful for creating a nuisance for zoners to help Jago get in, but Jago does need to close space in matchups against zoners (including Fulgore and Shago), and the fireballs aren’t a serious problem for most rushdown-oriented characters – in fact in many matchups they’re a good way to get yourself murdered from midscreen. The strongest use of fireballs is for pressure extension outside of the range of laser sword.
Two things:
- There are better frame trappers in the game. Wulf and Riptor outclass Jago handily in this department, with better ways of getting (back) in whilst preserving their offensive turn. Fulgore has most of the frame trapping capabilities of Jago, but with respectable zoning and projectile rushdown games which flow into each other.
- Patience generally beats Jago’s pressure. His throw range is terrible (press MK in your opponent’s face and you’re already slightly out of range), meaning he largely relies on his (reactable) overhead and dash cancels to open up opponents. Against a Wulf or Riptor player every offensive turn could be another trap or any one of three or four strong mixups.
As such, strong damage helps Jago make his openings count, and getting the big two-meter unbreakable damage requires (1) holding onto two bars, even using battery ender to generate them; (2) racking up a few levels of PD the honest way first; and (3) giving up important meter-requiring neutral tools afterwards.
My concern if Jago’s damage gets nerfed too much, is that even if Jago can still get in enough damage during a match to contend with the rest of the cast (which would depend on the size of the nerf), his attritional strategy of getting damage by punishing things like walking foward in neutral and pressing buttons when at frame disadvantage could become this boring, death-by-a-thousand-papercuts grind if it has to drag on long enough to convert enough scarce openings.
I guess I’d also like to spare a moment for reflection, though I’ve aired similar thoughts before.
If I’ve been worried about anything IG has done this season (by-and-large I haven’t been all that worried and think IG has done a great job, but nevertheless), it’s that there seems to have been a tapering down of things which made other characters powerful and dirty – this which made Killer Instinct Killer Instinct – which I sense has bouyed Jago to the top, and I worry that it’s gone a little far, and that it’s got the “yesssss, sensible, patient foo-foo-FOOTSIES” crowd salivating at the prospect of toning down Jago as well. It reminds me of a libertarian politician cutting taxes during an economic boom, then during the following bust breaking it to the public that services are gonna have to be cut. Given a few more generations of this I could wake up to a game where we play fireball-DP and trade normal pokes and whiff-punishes from roughly a character-length away.
Also, when you learn to throw something like shadow fireball, fireball xx shadow DP onto the end of a combo, you feel like a ■■■■■■■ wizard. That seems to be why IG brought back mantis cashouts, why you can find things with Riptor like backrun tail into light tailflip recap, why they made juggles more of a thing in general, etc. If all the cool things have to be taken out of the game for the sake of keeping characters honest across the board, then that’s disappointing.
^What this guy here said.
Mira gets access to tools that no other character gets just for spending life, and doing so brings live a command grab with just about the same properties and lifeswing as shadow CotE.
Honestly, if someone came back through time from a year from now and said “haha, yeah, uh it turns out Mira was busted,” I wouldn’t be too surprised.
lol, Mira is the worst character to attempt to guess break.