Improving Surge Slide for a better Shago

Characters Shadow Jago
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I don’t think many of us will argue that Shago is amongst the weaker end of the roster, and that’s okay. I would, however, like to discuss the possibility of a subtle buff that could go a long way for our Real Boy -

Surge Slide. On hit, it pops up for a juggle, which on the surface is a mixed bag of upside and downside. Upside being that your followup damage is difficult to break. Downsides being that your followup damage will be overall less, and you’ll need an extra bar to cashout with (for either EX.DP cashout or EX.Divekick recap). Of course, the juggle state makes it more “difficult” to follow up on as well, as a juggle is more technically challenging than engaging in the combo system.

These things wouldn’t really warrant a topic of their own if it weren’t for one major detail - the vertical pop-up angle of Sg.Slide tends to cause a moment of rapid side-switching in place, making following up on this option incredibly difficult, and I daresay random (as I have not been able to discern any reliable timings of the side switching). Considering this is perhaps his most potent option off of Stepkick, and most expensive (requiring a Surge pip to perform, plus a full bar to cashout), I don’t think it’s unreasonable to hope for it to be equally reliable. After all, this is the option that really gives his non-throw options teeth - if we can’t reliably represent it, our crossup option is relegated to the much slower and more reactable Divekick (or I guess dash>DP?) wherein we lose out on the low element (not that we have a crossup OH anyway).

Anyway, my suggestion is thus: adjust the launch angle of Surge Slide such that the opponent is slightly in front of Shago, thus making the followup juggle reliable to perform. Alternately, it could be made a grounded Opener, but I think such a potent option should bear the implied cost of cashout, and the difficult-to-break element of juggles is something of a bonus reward that falls in line with Shago’s overall design.

Thoughts, disagreements, alternative suggestions?
@developers & Community (both Shago players & haters alike)?

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I dunno if the devs will implement your suggestion, but if all you’re asking for is slightly more reliable juggles after surge slide (something I’m sure the devs thought/hoped was already true of the character), then it seems pretty reasonable to me.

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Yeah… I’m always unsure of how/where to apply a dev tag, this was more like “in case you were unaware…”

Cuz that launch angle is dookie.

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I definitely agree with the spacing adjustment. For me, its almost always the case that when I do the surged slide and it connects, the attack amounts to nothing because the character models are so close that the follow up attack misses, which (depending on the follow up) causes another side switch, or I don’t have the meter to cash out damage, leading the opponent sit back and recover potential damage. I mostly just use this option to stop opponents from crouch+blocking at mid-to-full screen.

As for the surge-slide being an opener, I’m ok with this, too. Like you said, at half a shadow meter, it’s an expensive attack that is incredibly easy to beat. It barely connects because players either block/jump over it (leading to either a grab or full combo), or a learned player will wait for the attack and punish the surge-slide (mid-attack) with a light attack, which is a bit silly.

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Just adjusting the launch angle is fine by me. I’m very opposed to it being an opener.

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Never really thought of that. I’ve learned through practice where the characters will fall an it’s generally the same. But it’d be nice if lss kept you on the opposite side, medium does the same an heavy switches. That way there’s no guessing an it’s easier to know.

1 Like