I Think Arbiter May Need a Buff

I’m worried that Arbiter is under powered. The grenades are not practical at all and with no low attacks the mixup potential is non existent.

I’ll still body with him but what do you guys think?

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But… but… the stream said he was broken!

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I also had this thought as well. Maybe he needs a battery ender to counteract this (if he doesn’t have one)

Really? I thought he looked super strong. His lack of low game is pretty crippling, but he has so much utility I feel like it evens out. And the grenades have their uses, the re-capture potential combined with the new flip-out game is absolutely crazy, plus the defensive burst is really use. The shield is where I feel most of his shadow meter should be dedicated, extra health and another defensive tool to push back to mid-range is crazy good, and don’t get me started on the carbine, probably the best thing in his entire kit.

IMO I didn’t like the way the grenades worked. Out of all the times they were thrown on stream I’d wager that 90% of them were blocked and did damage to the Arbiter. Maybe a quicker detonation time? Unlimited supply? I don’t know.

A forced block is very powerful. As a Shago player, not being able to remove the sticky by hitting Arby like I do to deal with Cinder, is very problematic.

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Aganos only have a low projectile and low stomp, yet his normals make up for it. Seems the same way with arbiter.

Truthfully though I never see the sense in these types of posts. How can you have any idea at all whether or not he is under/over power when all you’ve seen is a short set between the devs while they probably haven’t had extensive experience with him.

Same goes for all the s2 releases, Kan-Ra being the best example. Considered low tier at release, considered too good once some time goes by.

Give it some time.

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I’m a Shago main too. I get where you’re coming from, however, I don’t see tools to make a forced block worth anything with Arbiter. With Shago it’s easy. (blockstring into teleport divekick and your pretty much guaranteed a combo)

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We’re speculating, it’s not like our feedback isn’t constructive.

Think we’ll have to agree to disagree until he actually releases. He went from being a character I had no interest in to being the first one I wanted to try when Season 3 drops all from today’s Dev trailer alone.

We’ll see. I really hope I’m wrong.

This IS what will make him OP. He can use his shadow meter to activate his energy shield, effectively giving him 25% additional health each time he does it.

Ok why not give him an energy shield ender that behaves similar to battery ender
level 1 25% energy shield
level 2 50% energy shield
level 3 75% energy shield
level 4 100% energy shield

Is that better for you? Besides, it doesn’t take much to eat up his energy shields.

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I don’t think this is a bad idea…

Arbiter’s plan it’s simple:

1-Get one shadow bar and use overshield
2-Land a grab or a combo and finish it with a grenade or launch one in neutral
3-The grenade staggers, so when it’s going to explode, opponent will try to block in most cases. You can then:
a) Overhead or low depending if they are standing or not. If not, overhead into combo. If standing, low into launcher into grenade(back to 3) for setup/Carbine for damage
b) Command grab into carbine for damage or grenade for setups(back to 3)
c) Regular throw into carbine for damage or grenade for setups(again, back to 3)

Long story short, Arbiter works like in a similar way to Maya in S2: You want to force the opponent into blocking, and then take advantage of it. Maya got pips for her daggers, Arbiter gets mix ups.

Also, during exibition matches, Arbiter was using shadow meter for overshield constantly. He has a lot of meter to spare, due the long range of his pokes and the blocked grenades and carbine shots, he builds shadow meter on block at a very healthy ratio, and this allows him to get really good against zoners in particular, and gives him a bigger health pool than anybody in general

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Maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but are you saying that Arbiter’s Overshield gives him 25% more health?

As far as I heard, I think @TheKeits said around 25 points of life. More or less between a 4 and a 6% IMO. A single medium kick almost depletes all the shield, and Jago’s medium kick doesn’t deals 25% damage

25 POINTS of health. Not 25%. 25% would be 90 extra health.

But yes, having a battery ender would be too strong. As I said on stream, Arbiter feels like a Top 5 threat to me. But by all means discuss to your heart’s content until the 29th when you can try it for yourself.

#RememberKanRa

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It’s a bit too early to determine if a buff is needed, but he has an amazing kit. 3/4 screen overhead that can be kept safe with a shadow move that gives him a type of health, an awesome projectile, a tricky command grab. Although he has some glaring weaknesses, we also thought the same about Aganos upon his release but he proved himself to be a rock solid character (pun intended).

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I never understood or much cared for the whole health point system. It’s just too much conversion for my tastes (IMO, it’s far easier to just work with percentages - speaking of which, why not just put the 25 points into percentage terms in the 1st place?). Although, I will admit, I did wonder why a single medium kick would remove most of the energy shield…

Since we’re talking about it though, what is the conversion rate of points vs. percentage and where can I see these points you’re referring to? In training? I’ve only ever heard of them once before and it was back when Infil tried (and failed) to explain it to me.

Personally, I think Arbiter is a force of nature at this point. Lack of low attacks or not, the shear range and offensive power of his give him such amazing utility. Playing Cinder a lot too, I know how good a lockdown mechanism like the plasma nades can be. The overshields also make him extremely threating, and he had so much utility.

I believe someone already made the comparison earlier, but imagine him as this season’s Aganos sized character. The elites are actually frighteningly huge, and IG and 343 have both made sure that the scale of the arbiter and the sanghelli specie is preserved correctly. As big as the spartans are, the sanghelli were always bigger, and they are also like the samurai of the universe.

Arbiter can in one sense be considered a rushdown/pressure character, and in another, can be considered a forward moving wall of solid defense. Guys like that are tricky to play, but can shine pretty brightly when used right.

That said, I do question the utility of the grenade recapture, but until I can play and try some setups and experiment with options, not able to yay or nay the situation.

So far though, he looks good. Season 3 is looking very good to me.

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