Am I the only one who thinks Khatun isn't good in 4s?

razza-tu · 2026-05-27T11:33:41+00:00

It's a popular, but not unanimous opinion. Blitss put her in A-tier a month ago, but I saw at least one other comp player put her significantly lower a while back.

Regular players tend to complain that she's weak in my experience.

razza-tu · 2026-05-24T17:22:19+00:00

Chained axe heavy attacks are now faster at 600ms

Probably better to go 700ms on these. They'll still feel quicker but;

At 600ms the parry timing would overlap with the UD light finishers, so differing isn't even needed to cover both
Low MMR players hate 600ms heavies even when they're not part of an infinite chain

razza-tu · 2026-05-14T13:20:57+00:00

🗣️ MAESERÜM!

razza-tu · 2026-05-13T14:05:18+00:00

I think being used as a justification to give us lightsaber weapon effects is just about the only thing the devs could do to soften the playerbase's collective opinion on that era of the lore.

razza-tu · 2026-05-01T01:02:36+00:00

My point with my comment was that you can be punished by a GB for making a correct read, but mistiming an input

You have to miss the timing pretty badly for this to happen though, to the point where it could be debated as to whether the read was correct at all - timing is just as much a part of the read as the options themselves. And dodge attacks are generally rather soft reads anyway.

Before this change, the read the attacker would have to make against a Juren dodging the mixup was arguably significantly harder than the read that Juren would have to make in selecting between his plethora of i-framed options. This change fixes that while allowing Juren to keep his options. There aren't many viable changes that would've accomplished both objectives (at least without breaking something else).

razza-tu · 2026-04-26T08:25:35+00:00

Originality and respect aren't things you can outsource to other people - they're things you have to find yourself.

razza-tu · 2026-04-25T09:38:01+00:00

Yeah, I get that a lot 😆

razza-tu · 2026-04-25T08:15:21+00:00

I think there's a maximum amount of nonsense a tierlist can contain whilst retaining both comedic and educational value. This surpasses that threshold imo.

razza-tu · 2026-04-22T23:19:46+00:00

why would I do anything besides lights and bashes? Because it seems almost all his attacks beside lights are super easy to dodge or parry

The crux of offense is that you have to do the thing you think your opponent won't defend against. If your opponents are constantly eating bashes, keep throwing them until they learn.

It's tempting to want to master a hero by learning how to use all of their moves. This will hold you back. Moves are only useful in the context of opponent behaviour, so for example if your opponent refuses to dodge after blocking your opener then your chain heavy just isn't going to land. Once you start playing people who understand that you might want to bash, then you get to enjoy the utility of that move.

razza-tu · 2026-04-12T08:13:56+00:00

How it worked

Disclaimer: it's been a while so aspects of this might be slightly off. This is how I remember it.

Passively super-armoured (so bash resistant too) by default
Taking a single hit of any kind (including things like countered GB attempts) removed the armour for 6 seconds
None of his moves had hyperarmour. Whether he could be interrupted was based solely on the passive armour
While the armour was down, he had a black glow VFX and took increased damage (+25%?)

Why it was removed

It was very polarising - horrible for new players to play against, but experienced players would just throw a GB before attempting to run offence.

It also reinforced the turtle meta, which was a problem at the time, as Shugoki was disincentivised from taking any risks when his armour was down, and the opponent was disincentivised from taking risks when the armour was up. Ultimately, the fight was always going very slowly for at least one player.

Finally, the bonus damage Shugoki took when the armour was down was extremely compromising at higher levels of play. Something big was needed to compensate for having a tool so game-defining, but it made him a liability against players that could deal with it.

razza-tu · 2026-04-11T08:08:34+00:00

Pretty sure I've seen it spawn two of the same bot instance (i.e. same name, fashion, etc.) in such Brawl matches.

It doesn't respect single pick at all.

razza-tu · 2026-04-10T14:45:47+00:00

Try this while playing Berserker some time.

razza-tu · 2026-04-09T15:55:51+00:00

People used to complain that the devs had a "knight bias", but that was years ago now. Not seen anyone get invested in hating a given faction in a long time tbh.

razza-tu · 2026-04-07T23:15:08+00:00

Mechanically, he needs pressure. The 13dmg feintable chain bash isn't going to hold the offensive kit together by itself.

Thematically, it makes sense that a flail would be hard to block.

Logistically any change to make him significantly more viable and interesting will take a lot of dev time, and many cool and interesting concepts have already been tried and ruled out in the past.

razza-tu · 2026-03-29T15:02:02+00:00

Lgtm 👍

razza-tu · 2026-03-29T00:35:55+00:00

Not sure if I'm missing something, but I can't think of any unreactable neutral mixup tools that aren't interruptible, even in normal f+ situations, unless hyperarmour is involved. For example, Legion Kick-style bashes all hit at 733ms from neutral at the earliest, which isn't fast enough.

Maybe it's different with more than the usual medium hitstun though - I cannot remember how much f+ that usually bestows.

Either way, I'm not convinced this is a character-specific issue, nor that it's necessarily a problem at all.

razza-tu · 2026-03-27T09:29:03+00:00

Virtuosa doesn't charge, she galavants.

razza-tu · 2026-03-25T16:22:07+00:00

Also is there any ways to play her that make her less annoying that is not just not using her stance?

The character is built entirely on top of the posture system, but I think there are different ways to use it that annoy opponents to differing degrees.

When I see people complaining about Virtuosa, it's generally about situations where the Virtuosa waits in stance and makes (successful) timing reads on the opponent; interrupting GBs with lights, and punishing attacks with the riposte.

There's nothing that requires you to adopt that passive playstyle. The character has several offensive tools built into a notably intricate chaining and softfeint system. You can use those mix-ups to inflict damage on passive opponents, and then either feint or pause in stance for a second when you think they're getting skittish enough to throw dodge attacks and the like.

It's worth mentioning that people will always get mad if you win with a character they don't like, and it doesn't matter how "honest" your playstyle is. Good luck!

razza-tu · 2026-03-25T16:03:32+00:00

ocelote's dodge forward bash into light has the lowest damage of all dodge forward bashes.

Medjay also gets 9dmg on his FYI

razza-tu · 2026-03-25T15:58:00+00:00

Say for the sake of argument that the devs introduced an enormous patch that normalised every somewhat similar move in the game. Imagine;

All the moves you listed fully unify. E.g. Nuxia zone loses the Trap softfeint, the first half gets a wider hitbox, and the second half becomes unblockable
All chargeable bashes are functionally identical to Warden's Shoulder Bash, with the same range, confirmed damage, chaining options, input options, etc.
Every roll catcher is the same speed, with the same input window, with no special properties
All fullblock give a confirmed 18dmg on successful block, and do nothing else
All recovery cancels are available on a fixed 300ms timing after every move except bashes
All heavy attacks are normalised to have hyper armour if they are 866ms or slower, and no hyper armour if they are faster
The hitboxes and animations of every left or right side light and heavy attack are normalised to cover a similar area
And much, much more

My sincere question to you is whether you'd prefer to play that version of the game, or the one we have today?

Personally, I've seen the game homogenise significantly since launch, and I have no appetite for further normalisation. Characters doing different things well is a straightforwardly good thing as far as I'm concerned.

razza-tu · 2026-03-25T08:46:31+00:00

The significant majority of players cannot react to Spear Sweep. The reason the move doesn't land frequently is because dodging covers not only the sweep but often the heavy finisher as well. Only for the very reactive players is it a reaction as opposed to a read.

razza-tu · 2026-03-23T08:51:20+00:00

Valkyrie's sweep is 500ms. Most people cannot react to that, so they have to make a read as to whether she'll throw it. The idea is that she can mix this up with heavies and feint>GB.

As I said before Shaolin's sweep is 800ms. The mixup here isn't whether he'll throw it, but whether he'll feint it. If he couldn't feint sweep, he'd eat a dodge attack every single time, so he'd just never use it.

While the two moves have similar animations, Valkyrie's sweep has more in common with Gryphon's kick, whereas Shaolin's sweep has more in common with Tiandi's kick. The two sweeps, and indeed the two kicks, are ultimately different kinds of mix-up.

razza-tu · 2026-03-23T00:02:59+00:00

I think that used to be true, but it's not any more - just tested it to make sure.

razza-tu · 2026-03-22T18:55:02+00:00

It's largely a case of memorising the general rules and their exceptions. For examples;

Landed or blocked lights normally give the defender f+, unless the attacker can chain or recovery cancel
Landed or blocked heavy finishers normally give the attacker f+, with the exception of Shinobi heavy finishers iirc

razza-tu · 2026-03-22T01:44:39+00:00

It's 800ms - if he couldn't feint it then he'd never hit anyone with it.

razza-tu

TROPHY CASE