Hello everyone, today I’d like to give my thoughts overall about the current version of KI or (3.4).
Overall I was pretty impressed with a lot of the changes that patch 3.4 brought to the game as a lot of it were things influenced or brought up by the community. The developers have hinted that they aren’t done yet and there is still more to come which is a good thing because there are just a few more things I’d personally love to see get addressed as well but nonetheless this patch was a huge step in the right direction.
Below you can find the remaining characters I feel still need some tweaking while others whom I have omitted form this list are most likely balanced in my opinion or are in a good spot and don’t require any real changes or tweaks.
Jago
Quite honestly my problems with Jago were never really spawned from his high damage although it was kind of weird that going into S3 everyone else was hit with damage nerfs except him so I guess 10% decrease to his damage enders were warranted but not necessarily needed in my opinion.
His real problem for me comes down to instinct…
- double fireballs
- meter gain
- chip damage
- unbreakables
- health gain
- frame advantage
…its just too much
My only change to Jago would be to take away his frame advantage in instinct. Characters without reversal struggle against him but that change would probably make him more manageable for those characters. This change would also make his 50/50 overhead/low mixup easier to deal with and wouldn’t lead to more free health gain; he needs to earn it and having constant frame advantage all but guarantees hes going to open you up at some point and during that time already built two bars.
Thunder
I feel he is in a pretty good spot right now and for the most part manageable. My only issue with him currently is his ability to dropkick and skyfall at any distance off the ground. This causes a very hard to react/deal with mixup at all times because it can be very difficult anti-air him from that angle. Giving him a height restriction on these two follow ups would force to him commit and no longer put players in a “forever” mixup every time he does a DP. It would also keep this move in line with other restrictions for other characters like Mantis on Maya and Shadow Lazer on fulgore etc.
I’m also not a fan of Ankle Slicer, Thunder players seem to just throw this move out without repercussions because it’s un-punishable. The heavy version is only -5 coupled with the pushback make this move practically safe which is a little much considering it’s a half screen low crush.
Orchid
I was glad Orchid didn’t receive any changes going into 3.4 as I feel she is probably the most balanced character in the game right now. While I still don’t agree with air throw being breakable it’s still hard to argue that fact that this is kind of made her juggle combos useless to some extent. I can still get all the same vortex and setup potential from grenade without having to do any juggles or launcher ender at all. This coupled with the fact her juggles build absolutely no potential damage and cash out for minuscule amounts I just don’t see the reason to play 50/50s on breakers and wasting shadow meter on that stuff when I can just go for hard knock down/exchange ender for guaranteed oki. The air target combos don’t provide anyway around this either because they both end in heavy so there is no real mixup or reason to do them.
Not much to note here but just an observation.
Shadow Jago
In my most humble opinion I feel Shadow Jago is a little undertuned right now and was probably over nerfed in the past. He feels like no matter how hard he works he doesn’t get a real reward out of it. A slight 5-10% damage increase would probably serve him well.
KanRa
For the longest time people were saying he was weak in S3 but I’m glad people are finally starting to make him shine again especially Fubuki and Sleep as he one of the coolest original KI characters to date (Sako still the coolest) Currently I believe KanRa is fair and balanced outside of a few needed bug fixes( I even had a safe counter breaker done to me the other day).
My only real concern about Ra is that he seems be the only character who is still by passing the universal rule of having everything be breakable; of course I’m talking about his sand trap recapture. I’m not really sure why hes an exception to this rule of recaptures being all breakable except his. Allowing him to do mid-combo unbreakable recaptures is rather silly and is leading to some weird situations. I feel that if everyone else have to play 50/50s on recaptures than so should he especially with Orchid’s air throw and Gargos air throws being breakable; he would function just fine with this restriction in place.
Omen
This character is absurdly strong this season no matter how many people are actively playing him hes definitely always a threat. The change to his fireballs never going away on hit was a really strong change for him. Quite honestly I am perfectly okay with Omen for the most part however I feel him always having meter is a bit too strong at the moment. Basically always having meter has allowed him to constantly be safe on everything which allows for few punish opportunities. I feel omen should probably have his meter gain reduced a bit or perhaps have him go down to 2 bars of meter like everyone else. His pressure game is way to strong a moment and I feel this would alleviate it to tolerable levels.
Aria
I know I’m not alone when I say that Aria is still absurdly difficult to break. With her very ambiguous grenade linkers and medium punch doubles that look like lights we see Aria players abuse these two things in tandum which allows her to get away with a lot a free damage. I would like to see this addressed in some way so that I’m not constantly having to guess what in the heck she is doing; otherwise Aria is fine for me balance wise.
Mira
I’m not really sure whats wrong with this character and I’m sure everyone will disagree with me on this but I don’t think this character is very good or reliable for that matter. Her risk reward just ins’t there and probably should be re-evaluated in my opinion. I’ve never lost a set to any of the top mira players and I always felt bad for winning because they controlled the beginning of the match I hit them with 1 auto double and they were dead. Health management is one thing but I’m not sure what the problem is with her. Just my two cents.
Kim Wu

Again if I didn’t mention a character here it’s because I feel they are balanced or in a pretty good spot this season. Great job to both IG and MS. Season3 was off to a shaky start for me but it’s shaping up to be as good if not better than S2 was near the end. I look forward to what the future holds and of course the KI World Cup!