For me its the opposite. It fires me up because I know that if I win I didn’t win by gimmicks or op characters or playing lame or anything like that. There are no excuses. When you win with F.A.N.G you did more work, you made tons of correct reads, you played the opponent not the character. He got beat, fair and square, you were the better player. To me that is one of the reasons to play him. F.A.N.G is fair and a good test for you as a player:)
At very least for me, after having played Chun in the beta, I got very tired with how auto pilot I could be with her and still win. Might have changed at some point, but I highly value the thought that goes into my gameplay with FANG. I do feel he needs to do a little more work than he should have to in order to win, but only just slightly more.
I can understand the burn out though, particularly if you’re hitting that bump in the road. Hope you don’t give up with him and can see more success soon!
I don’t really play ranked anymore, so I don’t care if I lose because of F.A.N.G’s weakness, and I know I win thanks to my own skill. Besides, playing with F.A.N.G forces you to become really solid - confirm from single-hit attacks, don’t jump unless you punish something, improve your footsies and anti-airs… All of this will be useful if I switch to Juri later as I intend to (but I will keep a pocket F.A.N.G anyway because I love this character).
One of the things that stress me out is people doing unsafe normals or specials.Especially when it’s -4 or -5 and you can only punish with a light button and hopefully you can link st.lk. Then you watch other characters cancel their lights into specials. That’s silly. We can’t link mediums in to mediums.
Another thing is that to be good with this character, you have to be good at linking cr.mp after a CH light normal. For most people, it’s hard. Even with the input buffer.
Pretty much this…
I’m bored! And I should be working, but instead I can’t help but toy with the ideas of buffs/nerfs I’d like FANG to get next year!
Also could help generate discussion.
BUFFS
Poison mechanic buffed to 70 Damage over 8 seconds (Up from 50)
c.MK +5 on Hit (Up from +4)
c.LP +4 on hit (up from +3)
s.MK 1st has slightly more horizontal reach
Shishiruirui no longer has opponents pop out of the corner early
V-Trigger increases poison mechanic to 120 Damage over 8 seconds (up from 70)
NERFS
Nishikyu damage reduced to 15-15 (down from 20-20)
Medium and Heavy Ryobenda damage reduced to 30 (down from 40)
Shishiruirui damage reduced to 282 (Down from 292)
Shishiruirui’s 1st poison orb no longer hits cross up if the critical art is blocked.
V-Trigger duration reduced by 25%.
CHANGES
s.MK damage reallocated (20-40, changed from 30-30)
Reasoning:
FANG’s damage is on the lower side, and it should probably stay that way. Still, I think if Poison gets to last its full duration his combos should do at least comparable damage to most of the cast. The buff to poison helps compensate for that, primarily for his light and medium combos. His heavy combos do good damage, and the poison buff won’t be quite as substantial an increase for them.
c.MK being +5 on hit will allow it to combo into s.MK at close range. This is simply another buff to FANG’s damage. Off a 7 frame normal at point blank range, this combo would do around 200 damage if poison lasted its full duration.
c.LP is one of FANG’s most lack luster normals. If it was +4 on hit, at least on counter hit, you could combo into c.MP. I think this is really vital, as there are times when using c.LP is wise, but the reward for doing so isn’t there.
s.MK having slightly more reach may not be necessary, but it would be nice to have. I forget if c.MK pushes too far (on counter hit) to connect to s.MK, but if it does then I’d like s.MK to reach far enough to connect with it at least.
Almost every V-Trigger in the game has some game-changing power, but FANG’s is definitely one of the weakest in that regard. Even with poison being buffed to 70, I don’t think this would be a V-Trigger the opponent will ever really be worried about. I’d like to see the damage for poison increase during it. 120 may be too high, but that’s also why I think it could use a nerf elsewhere.
It doesn’t happen often if you know how to circumvent it, but it is still annoying for people to pop out of the corner when you land the super. Consistently is always nice.
With the buff to poison, FANG’s zoning specials could use a slight nerf, especially if they’d get the huge potency increase in V-Trigger. -10 damage from them seems fair to me. In the same train of thought, -10 on his super as well.
FANG’s Critical Art crossing up after a block probably shouldn’t be a thing. A lot of people know by now how to block it properly, but anyone that wakes up with super shouldn’t have a “second chance” to get away with it in my opinion.
V-Trigger getting a large buff would probably mean its duration would need to be reduced. The value for this definitely could use more looking into, so I just put it at 25% for now (more than fair since it’s increasing poison potency by almost 70%).
s.MK change is to balance his combo damage a bit better, as well as make it so anti airing with s.MK is slightly more rewarding. s.LP, s.MK, MP Sotoja would still do 174 damage if the poison lasted fully, which is already high for a combo starting from a light attack.
I think an interesting change to his v-trigger would be to make the poison affect grey health twice(or more) as much. It would give Fang a boost in damage but only while in v-trigger, they could shorten the timer on it to balance it if it’s too strong. Or increase the stun of his specials a bit? I think a small change could go a long way with making his v-trigger useful for more than a combo extender plus some poison damage. It’s not as interesting or useful compared to other triggers as it stands now.
Don’t hold your breath about that. :s
“When we look at our pool of online data, we notice that character win ratios are about even across the board. We look at tournament results, they seem to be fairly varied,” said Fiend.
Ryu has a 47% online win ratio and F.A.N.G has 50%, so obviously it means that F.A.N.G is stronger than Ryu, right ? 
It can’t be that many weak players jump on the Ryu bandwagon while only the most dedicated players use F.A.N.G. Seriously, did he even try to play F.A.N.G ? At this point he’s either incompetent, or too dishonest to admit Capcom botched the balance.
I mean, I do agree the game IS quite balanced. FANG may not get as many buffs as I’d like next year, but I’m very confident he’ll receive some that will put him in a better spot. I’m pretty sure he won’t get the Deejay treatment (I don’t think anyone will).
They probably won’t worry about rebalancing until much later into the year, maybe after all the DLC characters have been released. That’d give them about half a year or more to finalize any changes to the cast.
Derp
I’m dumb
Yeah slight tweaks are more than likely not going to happen till after the full roster for the year is out and season 2 is starting or till after capcom cup. As I figure that is the logical end to the competitive season in their eyes.
As for buff wishes I don’t think the poison off his specials needs buffed but you should should get a bit more dmg off of his v-skill poison if not stacking with the normal poison for 50% increase to make it 75 over the 6 seconds. As I don’t really find it worth throwing out most of the time. Though I still prefer the poison to how it is at the moment compared to the idea it originally did white life dmg faster.
But, a general dmg buff for his moves would be nice nothing game breaking just throw some 10s on the later half of the two hit moves and on the second hit of the poison balls. It might just be me but s.mk seems to fail me as an anti-air more often than not, if it’s happening across the board maybe a slight hurt box shift on his upper body but again nothing to big just make the tip of his toes trade less.
I don’t feel the plus frames on s.hk would be needed as you can already frame trap with it decently and combo off of it fine. Plus the frame data for it makes it better than cammy’s f.hk by being +3 frames safer than hers on block and +1 more on hit and hers is already pretty good. Though I have not looked at the forward distance each of them move you comparatively.
(I played Deejay from 2012 onward I don’t as for much really)
Mostly agree with @Rhyllis
Poison dmg needs a buff,dunno if its gonna be 70 or 65 or whatever,its just too low now,only redeeming qualities are eating away the last 5% health to get a 50/50 crlk/instant overhead for the kill and how white life interacts with it.
Crlp is just a worse stlp in every way,worse frame data,worse range,way worse counterhit conversion (nvm that it only works point blank for crlp whereas with stlp you get max range conversions cause you get stmp link),stlp leads to super at any range on non counter hit,crlp does not etc etc. The fact that it can kinda low profile things like ken air tatsu doesnt really mean much considering coward crouch does that too for more reward and crlk does that better anyway.Hell even crmp is better at it imo cause it moves the hurtbox forward. Even against stuff that doesnt hit crouchers where you want to stay away from stlp,crlk outshines it cause it already links to crmp on ch,is a better tick throw button and hits low.Definately needs a change. +4 on hit sounds good but i still dont see why one should use it instead of stlp or crlk apart from situational stuff.Id really like to hear rhyllis take on when to use crlp
Crmk +5 on hit and stmk is a bit more complicated imo. Looking at a +5 on hit crmk in a vacuum we have a 7f startup,+2 on block,2hit (blows up armor),5 frames active,good range,1st hit special cancellable (meaning fang can blow up most vreversals in the game on a read),counterhit convertable at any range since stmp will link,leading to full combo+knockdown on both hit and counterhit. It isnt that big of a buff that will skyrocket fang into top tier of course,but on paper this will be like top 3 normals to use as a meaty in the game,if not the best. Considering that 1/4 of the cast has trouble getting in on fang anyway does he really need something like that? I mean he certainly needs a similar in power buff or maybe something even better but this will push him even further away from his archetype and more into a rushdown char. Id increase the stmk hitbox horizontally so crmk>stlp>stmk is possible point blank/close to point blank and leave crmk at +4 on hit. And for the love of god make stmk able to anti air on the first hit. It doesnt even need to be special cancellable as an anti air,it doesnt even need to aa on the 1st active frame.
Vtrigger needs more dmg on poison or something,safe sweep into full combo/super is a good tool,but making his vt crap just because fang can do that is a terrible tradeoff
You’re right, c.MK is already a super good button, so maybe it’s undeserving of being +5 on hit. I suppose I was comparing it to some buttons like Ryu’s s.MP, which comes out 2 frames faster, +1 on block, and +6 on hit. I thought with the restriction that s.MK can only combo at point blank c.MK would be fair, but maybe not.
I actually think making s.MK reach as far as you suggest would be an even bigger buff to the character though, which maybe was the intention. I’d love to be able to punish overheads on block, as it stands now we’re never close enough to connect s.LP to s.MK I find. Either way, your suggestion or mine, this is an area I’d like to see FANG improve upon :).
As for our poor c.LP… The only times I find it important to use is against moves with upper body invincibility, such as Guile’s flash kick. Force him to block s.HK, and try pressuring with s.LP. It will lose to Flash Kick, which means you’re forced to use c.LP, but it’s such an unrewarding choice I’d rather give up pressure/try to bait the flash kick instead. Bleh.
Liking most everything here, but I have some more ideas:
-Let FANG VTC his specials. The combos would hardly be broken, maybe change your cancel from st.HP to st.HP xx MK Ryobenda. This is mostly to get more frame advantage for okizeme and cancel when Ryobenda is jumped or Nishikyu is dashed under.
-Make st.HK a 2 hit target combo. Currently, V-Reversals blow this move up badly.
-Increase the damage on the second hit of st.MK. At functionally 7f start up, this move gets ignored a lot because its damage is bad and it’s slower than st.LP.
-Let coward crouch cancel into any special
I wonder how you would all think about this idea, Fang’s poison only killing an opponent when he has V trigger active. I am aware that you have balance it out as best you can so it isn’t broken but when I see Fang matches people in high level matches don’t care if they are poisoned like they should because they know they won’t die from it. This is an idea I came up with randomly and wonder if you people might think this is a good idea to make people respect him and worry about the poison as it stacks especially when FANG has V trigger active. This would result in them losing the round unless they kill FANG first. FANG could use this to his advantage for sure. He has other issues too but I feel the lack of respect for his poison is the major reason why he struggles so much.
I would advise against that because Capcom made sure you only die from direct hits unless you blow a super. Also, killing someone during their throw could cause major glitches.
Leaving them at 1 HP is fine. He has an instant overhead and long range jabs to open people up in that situation.
Starting to think FANG isn’t all that bad in this game. As of now, I’d for sure rank him above Rashid, Birdie, M. Bison, Zangief, Alex, Guile, and maybe Ibuki. He seems like a mid tier character that’s looked at as a bottom tier character, which is the best place to be when Capcom starts buffing characters. In contrast, Bison is a bottom tier character that people think is mid tier, he’s screwed.
I also think he’s about mid tier, but you know… I believe the only character who probably needs help the in this game is Zangief. The rest you mentioned have weaknesses, but at least as many strengths in my mind.
FANG just takes more work than the rest of them to see results. Probably.
Fang need a damage buff in order to raise in the tiers. I think Sotoja shouldn’t be this slow and this punishable with this kind of damage, its a charge moves for god sake, it is so weak from all aspects even hitbox wise.
Also, a light into special is a most for Fang currently.
Seriously tho, why Mp,HP Sotoja cannot be comboed from mediums despite having this kind of damage is baffling to me when top tiers can do that from lights notwithstanding all their other available options.
A change that will suit a rush down style Fang is making Fang able to cancel into coward crouch from normals, but that might be a bit crazy tho unless they balance it accordingly.
I am not sure about Alex, Guile , I think they are better than Fang. Ibuki is new and she seems strong but need some time to unlock her full potential so she might end up being one of the best.
Bison is screwed because his gimmicky stuff make people thinks he is broken , but in reality it all smokes and mirrors and the guy need serious help to be competitive in the current meta. It doesn’t help that Bison has the lowest stun output in the game, below everyone else 