i was wrong. after getting the game for myself and playing through all the changes to phoenix myself, ive come to realize a couple things…
she deserved every single one of her nerfs - 1.looking back at vanilla online, i would completely shit on people with phoenix if their skill level was lower than mine, and if my opponent was more experienced than me, the decisive factor of the fight would always be phoenix with 5 meters. it wasnt really me that was scary, it was the character. dark phoenix with xf-3, even in the hands of a complete novice, can dish out fatal L combos with 1 right guess. (you all already know that.) i probably didnt deserve my rank - i used phoenix because i like the character, and the character concept. so the nerf on xf power/duration? had it coming. 2.tk shot spam - its actually all still there. not hard to do, just remember to fly before using any tk shots in the air. you can still play around with different speed combinations on the tk shot to hog the screen, and you have time to 8-way air dash between the shots. if you dash downward before the second shot, you also land very quickly, and follow up with a ground tk shot. she still has an amazing projectile pressure game - its just overpowered anymore. i feel like its right where it should be. 3.meter build - its slower to build and can now be taken away. its a nerf to phoenix’s game, but its one that i as a genuine enthusiast of the character (i chose her before i learned how to play, and later realized she was a top-tier game breaker that everyone used) really appreciate. i always felt like the concept was to choose - use meter, or resurrect. its not hard to put healing field in a ground bounce combo, and phoenix rage has insane damage and priority. if your team is taken out before youre anywhere near 5 meters, just using them is not a bad choice. dark phoenix on the other hand starts off with no meter. she will build it up eventually - and very fast at that, its just that phoenix rage and healing field wont be immediately available to you.
after all her nerfs, she feels a lot more like a character. i enjoy playing her more, its more challenging to fight people at my level. sure shes a lot more fragile and vulnerable, but still, shes anything but a pushover - if youre saying shes too weak, you just “cant control it”. she really got smashed in the face HARD by the nerf hammer. but still she returns as a very strong character. just a testament to how overpowered she was in vanilla.