I don’t think it’s nearly as intentional and you’re making it.
Capcoms problem has always been buffing weak characters while keeping strong characters strong.
Even still, Mika and her Irish whip were kinda sorta “a thing”
I’m disappointed to hear about the numerous nerfs possibly coming to Mika. Hoping things will turn around a little for my favorite SF5 character, but I will admit the invisible wall was a bit on the lame side, as fun as it was.
Hoping Capcom realizes that.
Also am tired about people hoping for characters (not just Mika or in SF specifically, but all over the FGC) to be ‘nerfed into the ground’ just cause they were considered top tier for a while. That’s not balance. That’s just being salty.
Be honest with yourself and ask if Mika really needed all of the other nerfs that she seems to have received? Even ignoring the corner carry aspects (which several characters can match w/out meter) losing the mid-screen wallbounce is a flat out 25% nerf to her damage and stun output. I’ve seen indications here and there that other characters saw minor damage nerfs but I imagine we’d be hearing more about it if a popular character just got their main BnB damage dropped by that much.
How is it not intentional?
3f normal > 4f normal
Safe or safer on block > less safe or unsafe on block
More damage > less damage
Those are extraordinarily fundamental aspects of fighting game design and we’re talking about a company that has ~30 years of experience making fighting games. The intent seems pretty obvious to me. Namely Capcom is probably thinking: “Man, a fuck-ton more people are complaining about this character than we anticipated let’s make sure that there’s more or less nothing left for them to complain about”. About the only things that haven’t been nerfed at f+HP and her command grabs and it wouldn’t surprise me if there are some unpleasant changes in store for those moves as well.
Where did you see it?
Fubarduck’s twitter page. But not 100% confirmed yet
Didn’t that guy also say you can’t change Irish whip direction?
I know that one is false from videos posted
No no, Fubarduck is a RMika player, he also confirm that Passion rope still directable.
The thing about no direction choiche was said by LPN earlier.
The Cr.HP nerf makes me a sad Raccoon 
We got two Raccons in here ?
You didn’t answer his question.
As it stands its irrelevant whether Mika has good or bad footises currently. She doesn’t play footsies, she ends the footsie game when she lands the Irish Whip. She can easily take 5-6 medium pokes from another character and then by landing one clap she makes it all back and in all likely hood will more than earn what she lost back. The mix up potential she gets from corner trapping characters is huge and it wasn’t really earned by using Irish Whip. Its something to be bull dogged into the corner by a character and get put their fairly but getting stuck put there by whip feels so fraudulent right now.
I also do agree with V-Reversal’s no longer granting pressure on wake up, it was dumb for characters to be punished so heavily for merely attacking. More so in Mika’s case were it lead to her mix up. In one way could you say Mika (and to lesser extent any other character) earned that pressure.
Having said given how significant the loss of invisible wall is, I can understand Mika players feeling aggrieved with receiving additional nerfs.
Well, I didn’t pick Mika to play a top tier character. These changes seem to all be bad, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel - if all these things come in s2 - no meterless invul reversal. I will honestly trade the invisible wall bounce and more to be completely rid of meterless invul reversals. Nothing sucks like getting in on a ryu or cammie to have them just reversal out of your pressure, into their own. If they require a bar now then I can win more with meaty pressure and have a more clear time to bait dp’s. Also ex dp are a lot more punishable than the medium dp was anyway. A small pocket of lag could cause you to eat another dp out of punishing 1. With this change it is more clear 1) when you can be dp’d, and 2) that you can punish dp even online.
Mika is considered weak defensively, but the general nerf’s to V-Reversal and throws mean there is less opportunities to exploit that weakness. I know that doesn’t offset the nerf’s but its something.
I kind of did and I’m going to let you in on a little secret. All losing the midscreen wallbounce was cost Mika midscreen resets and damage. It has ~0 impact on her corner carry. s.MP, f+MP~f+MP dash EX Shooting Peach Or s.MP, s.HP xx HP Shooting Peach will put your ass in the corner just as surely as s.MP, f+MP~f+MP backdash s.[HK] EX Shooting Peach. The reason I find this upsetting is that those first two options represent a 25% damage and stun nerf compared to her current BnB. That’s some bullshit. It’s going to be really funny once people realize that they still have to deal with getting cornered almost automatically.
The issue here is that they only kind of addressed the issues that people had with the character but then decided to gimp her damage and cripple her defensive options for the hell of it which just kind of baffling. I expected some of her nuttier stuff to get toned down going into S2 but that in exchange her more footsies oriented tools would get improved. Yeah, that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen.
It really doesn’t offset at all. If the current changes to s.LP and cr.LP (3f to 4f startup for both) stick then Mika is basically fucked the moment she blocks anything that’s decently plus that doesn’t have tremendous pushback. This compounds the issue of being the only character (I think) who doesn’t have a single medium or heavy button that is natively even or plus on block. That is to that if the opponent is actually paying attention that her turn ends earlier than any other character meaning she’s back in either a neutral or defensive position very quickly.
As I’m not a Mika player, so I went into the lab to test this. s.MP, f+MP~f+MP dash ex Shooting Peach doesn’t work, at least I couldn’t get it too. s.MP, s.HP xx HP Shooting Peach has considerable less corner carry. Although I’d concede the point if you swap in s.MP, s.HP xx EX Shooting Peach. The damage loss with that combo is actually 15% and the stun loss a mere 5%.
If it is simply a damage/stun nerf to her like you say and her corner carry game remains the same, I don’t think the nerf was as bad I thought.
Maybe some of Mika’s medium’s will get + frames on block, that sort of change would not be immediately apparent to testers at PSX and the like. Even though Capcom can nerf characters hard they usually give them something in return.
s.MP, f+MP~f+MP does work though it’s not really worth doing and you’re right that s.MP, s.HP xx EX Shooting Peach is only a 15% damage and 5% stun reduction off her current BnB. If it was simply a damage and stun nerf I wouldn’t be happy but I would deal. The fact that they seem to be nerfing her damage while also killing her neutral and defensive options is where it’s much, much worse than you thought. That’s not to say that losing mid-screen resets doesn’t hurt as you don’t have unlimited EX meter and according to some sources meter gain rate is another thing that’s gotten nerfed in S2. Hooray!!!
You didn’t hear? She did get something in return. s.HK is now -2 on block instead of -4. -_-
I say wait until patch notes come for all the changes.
I remember when Gootecks was at a convention during the beta and said that Chun lost her s.MP, c.MK bnb. Then hours later had to correct.
The passion press stuff sounds like that all over again. “Sky is falling guys, oh wait…no it’s not”.
So some things I’ve been testing without wall bounce dash dash cr.lk Chrage HK (meaty)after a Irish whip. Still leads to 50/50 and if they don’t have meter you can do it for free. This is assuming frame data stays the same. Its at least something I guess.
EDIT: scratch that… my timing is a little off but I’m sure there is a buffer there that’ll work.
@Cowman715 This nice but am afraid that it might be react-able beside with the changes to her frame data, maybe the timing will change. It is a Very nice concept though, thanks for sharing that.
I think it might be pointless to do clap mid-screen now, i would personally just go for the damage and corner carry with st.MP, st.HP (upclose)/st.MP again into HP peach. That seems to be the most optimal thing to do now.
If the neutral is going to be more important then i reckon that EX Rainbow Typhoon is gonna be more important than ever. If i can’t sustain pressure or positioning anymore then i may just go for my most damaging throw more often.
A thought I had watching it was ‘is it technically a hard knock down when you f.mp?’. So there might be merit in that regard. Worth exploring based on what changes ultimately stick. It’s a decent meaty option at the very least. I think that would be the main difference between f.mp vs cashing out on HP peach. Less Damage + hard knockdown vs More Damage + Soft Knockdown.
This is merely speculation though.