SSF4 AE v2012 - Official Akuma Changes Discussion

After all those nerfs I think they need to boost Akuma U1 damage as well as his stun rate. Otherwise he’ll get too weak.

You guys are making it sound like Akuma is turning into a low tier, the character design itself is top tier material. His DFP is whiffing on crouching opponents, and for his double dash Jump/air tatsu/DF after frwd throw; like 2 more frames is gonna make a huge difference. Most of you are playing online anyway, you won’t even notice it due the bad netcode

Comments like this only demonstrate your ignorance of the character. As it stands currently, this change is huge and cuts away a significant portion of Akuma’s offensive game-plan. He is a setup oriented character, of which a wide array of character specific scenarios apply. Key to the many of these setups is his forward throw which invokes to-the-frame timing. When you add two frames all of this changes as there is a large run-on effect that stems from this change.

You might as well say “adding an additional two frames of recovery to Ryu’s c.mp won’t make a huge difference” which is equally absurd. Subtle frame data tweaks can totally change a character for the better or worse - even something is minuscule as or or two frames.

I agree that these changes will not kill the character and that he remains completely viable. The main thing that Akuma players are irked about is how his setups and offensive game-plan is about to be heavily reworked and much weaker. Nobody is arguing that Akuma will overnight become absolutely useless, they’re lamenting the fundamental changes to how he will be used in many situations. Damage and stun nerfs are fine, but when you alter the feel and function of a character’s moves for the worse people obviously pipe up about it.

Akuma has been nerfed with every iteration of the game and frankly it comes as no surprise he’d be reviewed again. He will remain a strong character, but once again weaker.

Huge difference? In some sense yes, but in his overall viability as a character, no.

^ this

The sad thing about this nerf is how its going to kill the exploding heart technique. The 2 added frames is only going to let reversals pass their grounded frames (think ken) and end in a reset instead of a full blown punish and that 6 frame or faster reversals will no longer be safe jumpable on dashx2 in.

False. You make it sound like it can’t hit crouchers at all.

Palm can hit crouching opponents.

His palm can whiff on any opponent if we choose to make it so. That’s the beauty of it.

Oh well, if this is my bliss to not take everything so negatively or make an unnecessary seizure over it, I’ll take it with a big grin. I understand your frustration they do on our beloved demon on each game recapitulation, and how confusing it is to pick it up once again and play it differently, but even with 2more frames added you’ll still be in an advantageous position with your opponent in an untechable knockdown; Akuma has more than 3tricks up his sleeve… and as for my absurd character ignorance, I’ll leave it as it is. Lets just say that not everyone follows the rules by the book.

Now take your shoes off step onto my grass and look at the bright side; you’ll have your “heavily reworked setup” posted on youtube 24hrs after the title update and you’ll realize that it ain’t that bad of a tweak.

props to figure it out, sherlock

LOL.

Blah I’ve started jumping ship to E. Ryu for now. If I have to relearn these setups I may as well wait until 2012 comes along and work on making my alts better…

If stating that 2 frames in this game are nothing wasn’t dumb enough you go ahead and say 24 hours after v2012 drops every setup will be available?

What’s next, +21 damage on Armageddon and Akuma’s OP?

They do say “ignorance is bliss”. Come again when you understand how things work.

To be honest this really isn’t all that bad. Palm nerf is upsetting but it will still serve as a solid part of his mixup game considering we can still OS with it. I know I kind of complained about the 2 frames added to throw but atleast well be able to pressure blanka of 2x dash in throw lol. Sure we have to learn new setups but our character is still intact for the most part. We just have to learn to adapt as players. And who knows, throw nerf could possibly open up new possibilities for pressure and not just take away.

That green bastard always wakes up 2 frames slower EXCEPT after forward throw which has normal timing lol.

Oh silly me you’re right. Well atleast we can pressure deejay of forward throw haha.

All in favor of banning GAME OVER from Akuma forums, say aye (ie: “like” this post)

I think Gamogo put it in a very good way, and no, honestly I don’t agree, the changes do have impact: the loss of options off a throw is bad when you consider both the palm nerf and the add frames. The opponent now only has to guess between throw and blocking low, since we won’t be able to crossup effectively and he doesn’t have to block high.

Some smartasses were like “people will still block high”, but no, that won’t happen, not if it’s a skilled player we’re talking about. Even I can react to Guy’s jump/flips, a decent player shouldn’t have any trouble recognizing whether he has to block high (Akuma jumps) and when he can safely stay low because our divekick crossups once in a blue moon. We’ve also already mentioned charge characters, which till AE still lost their charge when blocking a palm, now they can just down/back and threaten us with a reversal if we choose to continue the pressure.

Add to this the fact that we’ve got to relearn all the unblockable setups, corner shenanigans and midscreen safejumps (having to rely on riskier ones here since 2x dash, j.HK wasn’t hard), and it sure pisses us off. We already know we’ll have to adapt, but sadly it doesn’t really help.

I don’t see any new possibility being added or allow something which wasn’t possible before. Of course time will tell, we need to have the game in our hands, but when you’re losing frames of advantage (not gaining them) it doesn’t help.

Sure, Akuma doesn’t become non-viable because of this (again, Gamogo’s post), but he still loses effectiveness, when there wasn’t any need to and when the 80 % of the roster got basically stronger.

at least they could make only a “small” buff like fadc cancelable u2 :stuck_out_tongue:

Well put. Downback will be the go to option against Akuma’s flips. We’re gonna need setups for flip grabs combined with using crossup j.mk/lk on charge characters.

I actually suspect f.throw dash dash flip GRAB will actually be a ripe setup but also somewhat of a guess, as they can dash back (make grab whiff > punish) or reversal. Catch is, we can potentially bait with a palm still, but the trade is that the 50/50 also becomes a 50/50 for us. This sucks given our poor health.

Either way, Akuma’s sweep just become a LOT more important I feel. Still, its all very speculative at this stage and I’m not one for theory fighter, especially on an unreleased (and arguably unfinalised) game. The more I think about it though, Akuma’s poor health combined with his weakened setups is really starting to chip away at his viability at high levels for people not on par with Tokido’s skill in this area of his gameplay. Another thought is that with Akuma’s weakened setups is that I’m personally going to be less inclined to mount setup based offense due to them potentially putting me at risk. Its almost as if flip setups and offense stemming from grabs are going to be a bit of a gamble and as such, any Akuma player worth his salt isn’t exactly going to be willing to expose themselves in this way.

I think its important for many people to understand is that Akuma players aren’t exactly writing him off, we’re just miffed at how our attack and offensive options are being cut back. Nobody likes a stand offish and run-away style Akuma (which could increase given his weakened attack setups), but at the same time I understand that Akuma’s vortex setups on a lot of the cast are a right bitch to deal with and this nerf certainly brings him into line with a lot more of the cast as a result.

I have no doubts that new setups will emerge but frankly I’m really going to miss the current ones.

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[LEFT]This is how I literally imagine most of you raging about his changes. lol[/LEFT]

You have no idea how these changes will affect his gameplay because you have no idea how to play Akuma, as someone above commented

Just because I don’t have a huge vein on my forehead doesn’t mean I can’t play my main. We all have our opinions and points of views towards the situation and I respect yours, even thought your previous two comments were off topic and not really helpful. Well, I don’t really consider “this^” as a comment and as for your fail attempt on trying to gang up on me to ban me of this thread sigh… well that comment warped me back into the 4th grade for a sec. Anyway, I’m just trying to convince you guys that brainiacs like us will find new set-ups in no time and that everything is gonna be alright.