I’m noticing a lot of Vega mains asking for Rufus nerfs. So they want a character to be bad so the can have a better chance at winning one match-up? They need to stop thinking about their own character and start thinking about the game as a whole.
I think the only characters that really should be looked at thoroughly for nerfs are cammy fei and seth (arguably akuma to, hes ridiculous), with cammy being the only one imo who really NEEDS to be nerfed.
Characters that are high/mid tier like rufus sakura and sagat that happen to float around some top 10s needs to be left alone for the most part as far as nerfs go. If a character is strong but not op thats fine and that is exactly what rufus is. What needs to happen is the weaker characters just need slight buffs.
Rufus honestly needs fixes to his moves like ex messiah and u2 because he gets punished if he doesn’t just block which sucks. Honedtly if his ex messiah and u2 was not a risky ass move he would be solid top 10 instead of a floater like sagat or sakura is.
I think Rufus is just outside of the “nerf zone”. He fits into the 7-10 range IMO. He’s a very strong character and I think he should be kept the same. Maybe just fix EX. Messiah so it no longer whiffs on certain crouching characters.
confirmed rufus ex messiah not whiffing on crouching characters, groovy
EDIT:
0:48
That universal buff! That’s so good for us. No more meaty shorts taking away our swag.
Combofiend hinted towards decreased dmg. in U1, throws, and a nerf to his follow ups after Messiah.
Not sure how I feel about that. But at least his basic BnB will stay in tact.
Has Rufus ever got anything new besides U2? All I recall is nerfs since vanilla.
ex tornado fadc
target combo hitting everyone just like ex messiah now
If you nerf forward throw damage there’s no reason to try to push buttons under Rufus pressure. And with the messiah follow up nerf the risk/reward clearly goes to only doing it with 3 bars.
I was excited about winning out of my Evo pool, and thought I could make the fatman work. But if those changes are true it might be time to head for greener pastures in Ultra.
Rufus
Forward Throw - Damage 150 > 135
U1 - Damage 420
U2 - Damage 360
Neutral Jump/Forward Jump Falcon Kick - 1f extra recovery
Messiah Kick followups - Recovery MK:19F > 22F HK:17F > 19F
Ex Messiah Kick - Does not go over crouching characters
EX Messiah Kick invincibility reduced to 13f(Used to be 16f)
Thoughts? I’m kinda curious about some of these changes, I’m not sure how legit the U2 change is, it must be a translation error or something, cuz I can’t understand why they’d reduce the dmg of an ultra nobody really used by 60. Maybe it’s how much it does as an anti-air?
The Divekick nerf hurts. It’s now punishable by certain characters if done really high, I’m not sure how bad it is until I’ve tested it, startup is still the same and there’s no height restriction.
Messiah’s MK and HK followups are now both -3 which means they are punishable by several characters now, although still safe against some like Abel, Fuerte and Vega.
blech, i really didnt care what they nerfed as long as they stayed away from the dive kick. Low and behold they touched the dive kick…1f shouldnt be too bad but still, after all the other nerfs it seems like a little much. Should have at the very least buffed cr.mk or something to help out a little. And lol at U2 nerf, woulndt be surprised if that’s a typo. Literally noone uses that ultra at this point. Maybe done to make the dual ultra functioning too good?
We got fucked. Rufus is done if those changes go through.
I think Rufus is going to be great in this version. The dual Ultra will be devastating in certain matchups. I think, the reason for the U2 damage nerf is because it is going to be able to used as an anti air again like in super. The 420 dmg on U1 is still huge. With the nerfs to seth and mechanic nerf to akuma; i think Rufus might look even better in this version. Also, because his divekick is instant, i’m not sure how much the wakeup delay will affect him.
- I don’t think double Ultra will be good for Rufus. He got damage nerfs to them so it wont do that much damage and almost
no one uses Ultra 2 even though it is good against matches like Ryu. - The delayed wakeup probably wont be that bad for rufus because he isn’t really a vortex character.
-Red Focus does nothing for him because his focus attack is horrible, and i don’t see red focus really being a threat to him.
-Some of his bad matchups like Sagat, Zangief, and the shotos got buffs so that’s pretty much an indirect nerf to him.
Zangief did get a nerf on his standing medium punch, it is now a little easier to punish. So at least there is one good thing.
I kinda saw most of this coming and i was kind of annoyed at the Ultra change but the only thing that i really don’t like is the extra frame of recovery on his dive kick. This was a huge surprise to me but it might not be as bad as i think it might be.
I’m just scared that if i do a quick dive kick over Ryu’s fire ball and land infront of him, he will be able punish with a dp as soon as he recovers from the fire ball. In the current version Rufus can do this safely if you do it quick enough. I don’t know if the 1 frame difference will actually allow for that to happen but this is really the only nerf that was completely uncalled for. The only reason I can think of for this nerf is all the people that don’t know anything about Rufus or how to beat his dive kick are always complaining about him as if he is broken or top tier.
also if proximity blocking is still in Ultra, matchups against the shotos are going to be really scary.
Yeah, sad days. I think I might be totally done with him. 
the 1f extra recovery was totally unnecessary, i dont care at all about the rest.
anyway rufus is getting nerfs each new version, i dont get why he never get buffs on his normals if dive kick get worse.
While the constant nerfing is quite annoying i dont think any of his changes are substantial to the point that his future as a character is jeopardized. The only nerf i see as being potentially game changing is the extra 1f on the dive kick, and honestly i cant imagine that being a huge problem.
Cant really make judgements as to how viable/unviable he is until we see how rufus does with the new mechanics (red focus, double ultra, delayed wakeup, etc) and until we see how well he interacts with other characters in the context of their own nerfs.Other characters have gotten nerfed to, pretty much the entire cast actually (some quite hard). Things like unblockables are gone, and the buff rufus got is still something that could help him quite a bit. In fact i think i remember hearing justin say at one point that having the messiah not whiff would make rufus too good (dont quote me on this though).
Every time there is a new iteration of this game there are a sea of people (who all play different characters) that prematurely say that their character is quote on quote “ruined” before actually even playing the game. I cant help but roll my eyes, 2012 was a balanced game and im sure rufus will be more than fine (other characters have sustained more than a damage nerf and been a-ok). Lets just not get ahead of ourselves here being all melodramatic about how our character is “shit”…
New change: EX Messiah Kick invincibility reduced to 13f from 16f.