-edit- I changed a few since the last time I posted.
-edit2- I got rid of D tier.
THESE ARE IN ORDER FROM BEST TO WORST, LEFT TO RIGHT. THESE ARE 100% MY OPINION AT THIS POINT FROM WATCHING NUMEROUS, NUMEROUS JAPANESE SLASH VIDEOS. I expect these tiers to change dramatically in the coming months.
A Tier: Sol, Faust, Ky, Potemkin, Millia, Testament, I-No, Johnny, ABA
B Tier: Anji, Venom, Baiken, Slayer, Axl, May, Bridget, Eddie,
C Tier: Chipp, Jam, Robo-Ky, Holy Order Sol, Dizzy, Zappa.
why:
Sol: Very simple style, high damage, easy mix-ups.
Faust: Very simple style, high damage, easy mix-ups, flame-hand from 41236K.
Ky: Very simple style, decent damage, incredible lockdown, slow fireball.
Potemkin: Very simple style, high damage, 6P jumpcancel saves the day.
Millia: Excellent mix-up character, high damage, easy mix-ups.
Testament: Very simple style, mediocre/high/insane damage, incredible combo potential, pressure beast. 6k -> s.HS and key super.
I-No: Difficult style, high/insane damage, incredible pressure. All her changes are too good.
Johnny: Mediocre difficult style, high damage, great pressure, lv2 high mist finer.
ABA: Very difficult character, great damage, great mix-ups, very high risk / reward.
Anji: Very simple style, medium/high damage, easy mix-ups, all his new changes = insane.
Venom: Very difficult character, mediocre/high damage, insane lockdown, Dubious Curve.
Baiken: Very simple character, mediocre/high damage, overall solid, 6HS JC.
Slayer: Very simple character, high/insane damage, good ranged, Undertow / Mappa Fake.
Axl: Very simple style, mediocre/high damage, great keep away.
May: Very simple style, high/insane damage, mix-up/pressure style, far s.S / auto JI dolphins. (I believe)
Bridget: Very simple style, mediocre/high damage, mix-up/pressure style, Roger Get / Yo-Yo hold.
Eddie: Complex style, low/med/high/insane damage, pressure/mix-up/range style.
Chipp: Chipp is basically the same old story with alot more potential for damage and abare (aka random damage from random hits). His j.D is mega beefed up with the new CH, his firepunch is beefed up on CH, his basic combos are beefed up… overall, alot stronger. However, I feel that he’s still weaker than the majority of the heavy hitting cast. D teleport is interesting, and the possible bullshit from the FRC point (1frame) will be insane given time.
Jam: Basically a balanced #R Jam. Her new move has some potential, but it seems that Jam is nearly all based on throw damage at this point. Her mix-ups are old, and growing stale… and the new move will definiately help out in the long run, once people learn to create ridiculous strings with it and FRC it.
Robo-Ky: Simple style, mediocre/high damage, really… shitty style. Overall, I don’t think he’s very strong at all at this point. He’s basically the exact same character as #R, except neutered and no new moves to compensate for his lack of anything.
Holy Order Sol: I don’t honestly know enough about him. He just seems like a character that could either continue sucking, or really climb the tiers rapidly once the game is released on console.
Dizzy: She lost all her major damage options, c.k -> c.d leads to nothing without an FRC, which kills 90% of her damage and okizeme options. Her best combo related to that is c.S -> c.HS, or s.k -c.HS, neither of which start low. Her fish disappears on hit, and her ice spike is techable slightly earlier. Really, really weak at this point.
Zappa: Oh Zappa. They took away Zappa’s really beefy stuff (dog corner trap loops, infinites) and make sword stronger, and ghost stronger. The problem at this point is that every character can do exactly what they did to him before; block all day with ghosts since he has no chainable overhead except s.D, which leads to no damage. Raou is about the same overall, Dog is alot weaker, Ghost is alot stronger, Sword is alot stronger. I view him as the weakest character by far at this point.