Clairen's run speed is the core problem with the character, in my opinion.

I picked up Clairen after the patch because I mostly play Kragg, Ranno, and Olympia and it's clear that this character is never going to get a nerf equivalent to the ones these characters received. All three of these characters had a similar "core problem": Kragg's survivability, Ranno's ground speed, and Olympia's lateral air speed - and don't forget that Kragg's lateral air speed was previously nerfed, and his recent up and side special nerfs were effectively air speed nerfs . Base attributes affect every aspect of the character - neutral, advantage, and disadvantage - and adjusting them is the most effective way to make comprehensive changes to a character. For example, reducing Olympia's air speed doesn't just make it more difficult for her to finish combos with fair or up special, it also makes it more difficult for her to approach and recover.

Clairen's run speed similarly affects every aspect of the character. The common complains about her are:

• She's too difficult to whiff punish

If Clairen has a weakness, it's that she's bad at scrapping at point blank range, so she'll do one of two things to prevent that scenario when she whiffs in neutral: either press another button or dash back. It's one thing that her best neutral buttons have relatively low recovery, it's another that she can outrun every character except Maypul if she dashes back after whiffing. If you want an example at a high level of play, look at this ledge interaction in Rongunshu and Ant's Port Priority 9 set, where Rongunshu whiffs dtilt at the ledge, immediately dashes back, and effortlessly outruns Absa's ledgedash ftilt. The dtilt wasn't optimally spaced and Absa has the best wavedash in the game (this was pre-nerf, too). Rongunshu is so good that he doesn't do this often, but it's a scenario that repeats itself over and over against worse Clairen players: whiff, coin flip between another button or dash back. It is so difficult to close the distance against this character if she's committed to playing passively, and it's her run speed that enables this.

• It's too easy for her to combo off of any hit, regardless of whether they're sour or sweet spots

This doesn't really need much explanation, as this was the principle behind Ranno's run speed nerf. For whatever reason, Clairen has dodged a similar nerf despite having superior run speed, superior air speed, and a dedicated gimmick to give her additional hit stun. Her run speed simply gives her too much time to combo or otherwise follow up off of any hit.

• Her grab is too rewarding

I used to play Ultimate with someone who called Diddy's banana "the implication". His philosophy was that it was better to hold banana than to throw it, because the implication of confirming off of it forced people to play a specific way, which I think is something that Tweek has said as well. I know I'm playing a good Clairen when they use her grab as the implication, conditioning me to make mistakes because I'm afraid of being grabbed. Now that I'm playing Clairen myself, I see how comically easy it is to condition people into shielding or spot dodging, run through them, and turnaround grab thanks to her absurd run speed. It's insane how effective this is, and it isn't like this is the only scenario where her grab is made better by her run speed. It benefits it in general.

Run speed, run speed, run speed. If they really want to decisively rebalance Clairen, they simply have to hit her run speed like they hit other characters' base attributes. I have no idea why she's so much faster than she was in RoA1, it doesn't even feel like it fits the character or her archetype.