There are ways to tweak Kan-Ra without reworking him totally. I think he’s a cool design that launched super hella broken (though it wasn’t put into practice back then) and they’ve been slowly trying to bring him back to earth. Maybe they didn’t fully get there by the end of Season 2 but I also don’t think he is ruining the game. He has bad matchups and has similar top 8 representation as other characters right now.
Also, he’s one of the few characters that actually got labbed up by a team of people who were sick of losing with him. That’s why there’s a lot of tech for him… rather than complain about stuff, the Kan-Ra players banded together. I think the hard work that’s gone into developing his playstyle shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Infil, in my opinion, the game seems very balanced to me. I do think, still, that some characters need some “tweaks”
Glacius, Riptor, and specially Aganos need someting more in their pockets, but nothing very… extreme. Maybe only Aganos need it due his size and “dead zone” over his head. We touched this topic a bit in Aganos forum.
And maybe Kan-Ra has some loopsided MU that needs something, but only a tweak, not a total rework.
This is only my opinion, and many will disagree.
From the starting point of giving that the game it’s very well balanced, but not perfectly, which characters do you think that should be improved/tweaked, and how?
If we’re just talking balance, then probably Kan-Ra, Wulf, Maya, Aganos, and maybe Spinal. (tweaked = a combination of nerfs and buffs)
But I think one of the important things to consider for S3 is that IG is likely to make changes that aren’t just for the sake of balance. They will probably give some characters fun new tools “just because”, which is important because when the PC version comes with S3, there will be double (or more) the players getting into the game. Giving a bunch of characters new stuff will really help them not just get destroyed by 2 year old veterans, because there will be lots of new stuff to discover. Balancing a game like KI is not just about trying to achieve parity (although that’s important), it also is … strategic, if that makes sense. You want to keep players excited about finding new stuff out, help new players break into the game, but not make certain characters too good or too bad.
Hard to say! I’d have to give it a bunch of thought. Aganos needs better anti-air coverage around his head with AA flick (there should be no gap between his hand and his head), and maybe back throw should be long enough to give him a chunk. I also really hate that back+LP is the command for AA flick… I try to jab while blocking (or jab a fireball) and constantly get AA flick. Don’t really know what I would change it to, though… forward+LP is probably just as annoying, just in different situations.
I personally dislike characters who are extremely active on wakeup and control air amazingly well, so Maya and Sadira would probably just get a fairly substantial reworking from me (no dagger toss on blocked DP for Maya is the primary change I’d make).
Wulf’s ground game is terrifying and his mixups are unreactable (unsafe, sure, but still amazing and even better in instinct). I think if he didn’t struggle with some zoners, he would be unquestionably in the top 2 characters in the game. I would lower his damage in instinct a little more and maybe increase the cooldown on feral cancel just a tad. Would have to think on it more, though.
So the problems you see are (more or less):
-Aganos AA game and better re-chunk from throws
-Maya and Sadira preassure over wakeup
-Wulf unreactable and damage.
What problems do you see in the other characters you mention, Kan-Ra and Spinal?
Even though I love him to death, I agree that in his current state Kan Ra needs to change. Even if its small changes such as opener version of swarm being substantially less positive on block, or maybe ant lion doing less damage.
Maya needs to be reworked completely in my opinion. when she throws a dagger, you must either dodge it (which is much easier said than done) block it (and give her the opportunity for huge damage or an unblockable reset) or just let them hit you and eat a combo. I don’t think they can really change the current pip system without making it either really good or really bad, so a new system altogether would likely be the best option.
That may be a bit much. I think that will really hurt him in his already hard matchups. Maybe they can take away the multiple hits from the sand traps as to give him less advantage. But I honestly have no idea on how to change him.
You be right on saying it’s more a Sadira problem but she has already been redesigned and she seems really solid outside of the Kan-Ra matchups.
This is going to make me seem like a stupid nostalgia warrior, but I would love to see Fulgore’s DP get reworked visually to look like the spinning DP he has in the first two KIs. This always made his four hit ender look like he was getting you with his other laser blade as a backhand at the end and was pretty iconic…
As a possible idea for Kan-Ra, I think that if Kan-Ra is on the ground he should not be able to leave swarms but perhaps replace it by a Dhalsim type Yoga Flame move: a move where Kan-Ra can do a big swarm but one that leaves him standing in one place while it. So only mid air can he leave swarms.
I agree it’s probably too much, but if there’s some sort of way to balance it so that it’s particularly targeted to prevent the spamming of certain moves, I wouldn’t mind it if he got something that helped balance him in his harder matchups to help compensate. No idea what that “something” would be, but if doing all of this somehow corrected his shadier tactics and helped him against his worst matchups, he could potentially come out of season 3 a better, but more balanced character.
I know that’s a tall order though. But I do hope that they work on him a bit. I think he’s a great character. One of my favorites. But at high level play, he seems to be getting abused a bit, or at least to the point where it’s making everyone hate him or worse, think he’s boring.
How different do you think they (Kan Ra and Glacius) might actually be though? Are we talking about changing how the zone or what? Just curious what you might think.
[quote=“Iago407, post:57, topic:1835”]
How different do you think they (Kan Ra and Glacius) might actually be though? Are we talking about changing how the zone or what? Just curious what you might think.
[/quote] We really can’t say. When I think about these reworks, I compare it to the reworks of characters in the season 1 to season 2 transition. If Kan Ra gets reworked (which I’m almost certain he will) I ask myself if he will get minor changes like Thunder or giant changes like Fulgore. I love Kan Ra and don’t want to see him get nerfed into the ground, but I would still be really excited to see a brand new flavor of one of my favorite characters.
But back to the original question, I think Kan Ra will get big changes (probably involving his scarabs) and Glacius will likely get minor changes (probably a liquidize buff and an instinct rework)
Wow. I have to give you all the credit in the world here. I see a lot of people on this board that don’t want their characters changed in any way. I’m not saying everyone’s resistant to change. Not by a long shot. But still, props to you for looking at it this way.
I’m guessing that something will be changed with Kan Ra’s scarabs as well. A sand meter that somehow restricted the amount of scarabs you could spam wouldn’t shock me, but if there’s a more subtle way that they can remove the temptation for people to spam scarabs without making drastic changes, I’d be curious to see what that might look like.
I also tend to wonder if his sand teleport might wind up being an “instinct only” type of move. Or if they don’t remove it entirely. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about that move; about how it’s so hard to get in on him, and once you do, he can use the teleport as a free pass out of harms way.
Honestly, he and Glacius are two characters that I’m curious about the most. I actually like Glacius a lot. But his instinct could definitely use some new ideas, as the single hit of armor feels a bit plain compared to other characters’ instincts (or Aganos’ chunk mechanic). I know some have mentioned wanting to see him get ranged manuals on instinct, so that might be a cool option.
I’d still kinda like to see Glacius get another long distance attack that he can combo with, if nothing else, than for variety’s sake. Maybe something similar to his arm stretch throw from KI2, only as an opener and not a throw (and it could be blocked on reaction). Perhaps one of his arms reaches to mid range distance and grabs the opponent by the neck, then pulls the opponent in with and the other strikes them in the face with a large battle axe shaped hand, starting the combo off?
That might be a big change for him, but I tend to think that both Glacius and the rest of the original six characters could use some more flash in their move sets.
I have mixed feelings. I really didn’t want Glacius to get “reworked” but if that’s the case I would almost rather see them toss out everything and start from scratch. Why not?
Now that we’re all atwitter about it I suspect we are going to be disappointed with how minor the changes are…
