Old flame carpet for season 3?

So one of the things I never agreed with was the change to Riptor’s flame carpet soon after her release. I know she had her predator stance bugs and everything, but the change to flame carpet was random to me. For those who don’t know Riptor’s original flame carpet once laid down on an opponent on the ground would force them to block on wake up, or use a shadow move to get out. (I’m not sure if you could still DP out of it). One of reasons I got from casuals and pros, was that it gave her a free “Meaty” and that wasn’t fair.

Personally speaking I don’t think it was all too bad. As a Riptor main i feel like she doesn’t have anything reliable, everything seems to be 50/50 with her, and that’s fine. But (old) flame carpet allowed her to lock down opponents. If feel like Riptor isn’t rewarded for closing the distance between her and let’s say Kan-Ra or Glacius, or catching spinal so he can’'t teleport.

I know some people will be quick to say her flame carpet as it is now is fine. But if what I’m asking is too much then at least give her the original flame carpet back during her instinct? Right now I feel her instinct lacks the comeback feature a’lot of other characters have. I don’t think it would put her on Wulf, Spinal, or Sadira level instinct but it could help.

Tell me what you think.

Note that Riptor received a buff to hard knockdown duration in exchange for allowing opponents to jump out of the flame carpet on wakeup.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing this happen, but I also can’t claim to have an informed opinion on the matter. My intuition tells me that there are dirtier wakeup antics in KI than the original flame carpet, but I could be wrong.

He couldn’t before? Isn’t skeleport invincible from frame 1?

Yeah even the old flame wasn’t capable of stopping Spinal’s teleports. Though there were set ups that could catch it/cause him to teleport into it that got harder to time with the hard knockdown change. Personally I don’t think the old flame should return, not because I think it’d be too good, but because Riptor players use to be short combo > tail flip ender > flame> free safe mix up > repeat. Now adays Riptors have to be more creative.

I did not get to see how this worked but I do not like the sounds of its context within KI’s system.
I believe it’s like Cinder’s Inferno isn’t a true block string on such a high pressure tool, the FC shouldn’t be used to create an option select that heavily favours the character.

While true, Riptor is a “50-50” character, there always needs to be a 3rd option for all.
The neutral jump allows for that in many situations, though I hear using the armoured heavy headbutt creates a similar situation to what was originally there.
However, the headbutt requires getting into the Shadow Move hit confirm range where before one could lay a carpet and retreat a little while forcing a Shadow Move or DP to escape, and then punish the whiff.

From the sounds of it, there was a proper way to play Riptor, not a flexible way.
Now, I give ya’ll, I haven’t the clue to tell you how to play her, I can only suggest MORE FIRE. That, and, she hits when she has Shadow, she runs when she’s without.
Hit 'n Run.

Edit: And never mind on my base thinking of Hit n Run. I could have swore that’s what I read her as and hadn’t even noticed until just now specifically reading the descriptions that she’s Rushdown intended.
I’ll just leave it all there as my goof

The Spinals on my rank at the time never did so I just assumed lol And I agree there are worse things out there than flame carpet. Like I said before even if it’s too much they could always add it to her instinct since it is lackluster.

If they do it late you can. There is Specific timing to Riptor’s Flame Carpet in order to trap someone.

Flame carpet is one of those things that was (and is) hurt by the fact that it looks automatic when you are getting beaten by it, but the timing is reasonably tricky and you can get stuffed out of it quit a bit if you aren’t on your toes. I wouldn’t cry if it came back (since I main Glacius his floaty jumps aren’t really that great in that situation anyway), but I think the current set up is probably fine. It’s still a useful tool that pretty much all Riptor players throw out.

I feel its mostly thrown out hoping the opponent blocks, players with experience almost never fall for flame carpet. Personally I feel its pretty useless right now since you can just DP,jump, or backdash out of it. There’s no reason for it to be used offensively half the time.

I believe I figured out why she has it regardless. If it’s been mentioned before, I missed it :smile:

She anti-airs with Back+HP, and anti-lows with Down+HP. Her ability to do either while in auto-block low is too much, so a seemingly niche tool is added.

I would say it’s true, Tail Flip and Flame Carpet are overused most times. They’re situational per character with only a couple characters being weak against either or both.
… It’s a normal to mimic Laser Sword Oki but not actually be as useful… It’s a mindgame tool. Literally what the Art of War states to use fire for. A distraction or assisting tool, not a direct form of attack,

Right now Flame Carpet is a poor man’s Swarm. People hate Combo Breaker into Instinct, but out of any Combo Breaker, Kan-Ra gets free block-stun pressure (without using meter or Instinct) that you can’t jump out of, unlike Flame Carpet.

Really, I’d prefer Kan-Ra not having that capability instead of just giving it back to Riptor. It was equally annoying when Riptor had it, and its current state gives a nice little two-way mind game, rather than something guaranteed.

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Yep this all is pretty much true.

It still has its uses. It’s not backdash-able by all characters, and not all characters have reversals that they can use to get out of it either. If you’re worried about them jumping out of it you can simply meaty them normally. I think it’s still very useful, and definitely one of the easiest “meaties” to set up in the game - it’s actually pretty versatile, and one of the better wakeup pressure options in the game IMO.

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