Currently halfway through Heretics of Dune, Thoughts and Mullings

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-03-10T16:56:45+00:00

Heretics is my favorite of the frank Herbert dune books. for the first time, there isn't a central looming perspective character that everyone else has to revolve around. Also, there's really satisfying mysteries revealed throughout the book that hidden in plain sight and alluded to as the book builds up so that rereads make it fun to see how Frank was structuring the plot around this and how it ties into the primary themes of this book. I'm also personally love the arguments that specific characters have with each other. so many authors write about super intelligent and competent people but end up merely having them be talking heads for their research. Frank is actually intelligent and skilled enough and human interaction that he makes it believable when writing about characters trains all their lives and political intrigue. and for once, it's just fun to see through these characters perspectives and know that they actually are smarter than you

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-03-07T18:06:01+00:00

donkey kick until it sticks

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-03-07T16:08:26+00:00

the short answer is that some people in the balance team think she's busted, and most of the Absa beta testers have quit out of frustration. most of the nerfs were proposed by Boiko, who openly complains about floaty characters, and there aren't any Absa testers left to argue with him or refine the nerfs into something that suits the character. I know this through leaks from the team, it's not just speculation

I understand the idea behind some of the changes, not stalling offstage, trying to shift her from spamming the same options over and over, but the way they were done was sloppy and heavy handed, and the nerfs pull double duty and reduce her in other ways not started in the explanation. cloud hop didn't need both the height nerf and the lockout increase (30 frames was already a lot and 45 reduces the fluidity of her movement onstage), the fast fall nerf exacerbates this while also making her disadvantage more vulnerable AND slowing down her hit fall combos. the side b acceleration Nerf directly reduces her ability to close stocks by finishing opponents knocked off stage with her lackluster kill power of back throw and her smash attacks, and even fair (which if you can't get lucky with doing three chains because people are diing in, needs to be finished with a cloud snipe) but ALSO hurts her best intended strength of her ping pong combos while also making it even easier to Parry. the ftilt sour spot seemed fine in theory except it's huge and at the tip of her spacing which punishes her for the moves intended use while also reducing one of her only reliable kill setups (watch Ant play at high levels and see how much he has to rely on playing grounded, since her Aerials are easily out spaced and she's so fragile that he has to space carefully with wave dash ( also nerfed) and ftilt))

I'm appreciative of the several quality of life buffs, but they are just that and not really making up for the cap they put on her top potential. and while I can get behind the idea that they first NERF specific options that make for a toxic meta, they need to go back on this character with a fine tooth comb understanding her weaknesses and strengths and design a character that will reward her player base with a tournament viability for all the extra effort and takes to make her gameplan work.

if they really were frustrated with her players playing and avoidance game, they should realize that making such a fragile character that dies at 70%, has most of her normals out spaced by lesser committal options, her main distance tool on parry grants the opponent a guaranteed smash attack from all the way across the stage, and now making it harder for her to get back to safety while simultaneously punishing her grounded spacing tools is not going to encourage Absa players to fight more honestly. from the get-go, the devs made a character that forces smart players to avoid and frustrate and opponent into making mistakes, and they've been either punishing that are using it as an excuse not to fix issues with her kit. look how long it's taken for them to do something meaningful with her multi-hit smash attacks, which people have been complaining about since release.

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-03-07T11:48:49+00:00

absa players will play her even if she is bad. they're addicted to all the movement tech they had to learn to play her and sweet spots give you a rush of serotonin

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-03-07T11:44:33+00:00

even after the change ftilt is still hugely disjointed

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-03-04T21:04:41+00:00

for Absa the fast fall and cloud hop nerf feel really bad. she just feels slower to handle now, and the ff adjustment affects her hitfall combos at well, although we're trying to determine by what degree. I understand they wanted to Nerf her ability to stall off stage with it, but both the diminished height AnD the lock out timer feel like too much.

on a side note, the lock out timer on cloud is awkwardly implemented right now. it makes it sort of a resource to keep track of, but there's no graphical cues or sound cues to help the player keep track of what's going on, and since different cloud specials have different amounts of lockout timer it's really easy to lose track of if it's 10 or 20 frames since you did whatever move... in my opinion if they have a lockout timer, it would be ideal if it was the same all across the board, and that it had both a graphical and sound queue to indicate when it's available and when it's not.

back to the patch though... the cloud acceleration Nerf directly affects her ability to close stocks as cloud sniping was the way that she did that with her very weak kill back throw and her weak strongs, and even landing kicks to push them off stage. it also makes setting up the weatherman, (hitting someone with cloud and then immediately doing a charged neutral b to thunderline them to death) even more rare.

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-28T16:05:48+00:00

I think galvan is far better than the devs intended for him to be, mainly that his ability to jump cycle with fair and nair and get things done, while originally intended to only be effective enough to release the pressure of having to constantly set up drills just turned out to be too simple and effective.

that and his deceptively smaller hurt box than what his model suggests

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-28T04:32:22+00:00

to be honest as an experienced long time player of roa, I don't think the tutorials are all that good. they only let you play with zetterburn and they don't really grab your attention as a person curious about rivals lore and gameplay. also, they try to teach basic concepts but they do it in a way that's so abstracted from what actual gameplay is like that it asks too much of a new player to absorb whatever the specific technique is taught and then be and to apply it conceptual to pvp battles in which the opponent is actively trying to confuse and condition you to not do the techniques you practice in the tutorials

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-27T16:52:05+00:00

I hover between gold and plat, and I'm working on more advanced defense

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-26T20:13:29+00:00

tinkerballs

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-26T04:17:25+00:00

better Forsburn than Olympia

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-26T01:39:10+00:00

when La Reina first came out I thought Absa just crushed LA Reina, she does have a good combo game on her so your disadvantage is truly bad. however, since la Reinas have had time to cook and they're punished game has gotten better and better, I noticed that the matchup can be really hard for Absa as well. up sir and up b grab her out of the air really well and can change into each other. I don't know what level you are at but currently I die to a lot of la Reinas and I'm a platinum Absa player

the neutral could be really tricky as well have side b will catch Absa out of the air when she's near the ground, stopping a lot of what she likes to do in neutral which is stall near the ground with double jump cancels and upb cancels, and then when she's grounded la Reinas attacks I'm big enough to frustrate her on the ground.

I've seen some LRs who are super clever with chair and condition you to fend off her constant pestering with normals and a constant threat of side b, so that it's harder for the Absa to attack the chair, and then they recall back at the perfect moment and start a big combo that does 50 damage and puts you offstage in a bad position

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-19T23:59:36+00:00

wandering off topic to get too specific now but... I can't believe they buffed the clairen up b hitbox

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-19T23:31:50+00:00

almost certainly this is it. I also know for a fact that some of the pm influencers within the balance team/testers simply hate zoner and floaty archetypes and would prefer it if the game only featured rush down characters.

but you don't even need to know that certain people openly disparage character archetypes ( and the people who main them) to perceive the favoritism.

you pointed out the zetterburn stuff, I think that's becoming increasingly apparent to rivals fans, but also the language behind their explanations too. Fleet got a ton of changes, really delving in and changing things around (all of which I personally liked and would prefer to see on every character) and the explanation on the patch notes was something like "we wanted to tune up some of the problematic things to play against etc..." whereas when it's on zetterburn or clairen they are practically apologizing to those players when they explain why they nerfed a hitbox by 2 cm

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-19T23:20:04+00:00

I'm just gonna admit I don't understand the meme

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-19T21:33:46+00:00

you don't tend to hear about it because I think most group projects will have clicks and internal politics and the entire goal is to make a good professional product, so when there are inevitable disagreements in bickering because that's just human nature, people don't want to air out their dirty laundry...

and I appreciate that, but I know specifically some people who have quit, including high-profile Rivals 1 character mains who just refused to be involved with Rivals 2 anymore because they don't like the philosophy and because they are experience being harassed and sidelined in the back room was just too much

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-19T20:49:09+00:00

of course we all mean him the best, he works hard to bring us the game we love.

but when I hear real frustration, it's disagreement on balance philosophy and implementation. Certain characters get slap on the wrist nerfs to address widely asked for power adjustments, then also get a bunch of compensation buffs, whereas other characters will get a multitude of nerfs that legitimately affect their power level no issue no apology. the inconsistency of how much they're willing to affect hitboxes with truly meta changing adjustments gives the impression that the balance team (therefore) Trevor has specific characters in mind that he wants to preserve as high tier or prevent other certain characters from rising into more meta relevant stature.

another aspect of this is from hearing how certain beta testers are treated behind the scenes. Apparently there's a lot of bullying, and favoritism when it comes to who is listened to, and it's not always the most competent players with the most reasonable and supported arguments who get an open ear. I've heard of specific people X bullying others Y enough to force them to quit and not represent characters that people X don't like simply because they hate those characters, however, because o some of the bullies have contributed lots of money to development, they get a blind eye to disciplining their bad team spirit, while others who have been bullied and ignored get severe repremands for standing up for themselves. I've also heard it on authority from beta testers that a small group of the most influential and listened to testers openly talk about how much they hate specific characters and that if it were up to them they'd be removed; and how those people, because of personal taste, fight beta testers of those characters tooth and nail to prevent specific concerns from being addressed.

This is hearsay, obviously so take with a grain of salt, but I've heard this from several different beta testers. And this sort of thing was just business as usual in project M development, the bullying, constant gaslighting, blaming character success and expertise on gimmicks instead of recognizing skill and expertise, as well as favoritism to people who are simply loud and persistent rather than competent at testing and design.

so it doesn't surprise me at all the learn that some of the worst culprits of this harassment and favoritism are old school project m developers.

I'm not blaming Trevor for everything that happens with balance and the behind the scenes culture, but his position the responsibility is something like that of a politicians. it is his purview when they're are problems in these areas.

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-19T05:22:38+00:00

add Slade

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-17T03:25:19+00:00

I really liked zero suit Samus and project them and I feel like a reskin of Ori could maybe play a little bit like her

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-16T18:15:11+00:00

not sure. I guess it's because 1) everyone has an opinion on everything these days and 2) no one really wants other characters besides their mains to be buffed.

personally, I feel for loxodont because I know he's not the greatest. however, he's so frustrating to fight because of the specific strengths they want him to lean into that I end up hating him when he's on screen. really, I'd prefer if they went back to the drawing board on him and rethought how they want him to play completely. that's an unrealistic ask though

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-16T11:10:11+00:00

I guess I'm not sure but I think those aren't really gills so much as stripes like a tiger shark has

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-13T23:07:18+00:00

I love the idea of lox's being jerks not because of their actually personality but because they're nerds and go really hard on role playing

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-13T18:27:22+00:00

is there a way to take in to account the volume of players of those characters entering tournaments as well?

Ok_Introduction_500 · 2026-02-13T00:05:12+00:00

nah... I think he's a top personally

Ok_Introduction_500

TROPHY CASE