So I missed the first beta and decided to try out the EU open beta. Is Ruby/Es the early team EZ mode? The four/five people I managed to get who also had good NA connections all played the two, and had high damage combos that seemed really consistent and easy to do. Between that, the decent hitboxes on normals and the zoning, at a glance that seems like the go-to for early effectiveness. Is that accurate?
I'd agree. Not to mention their instant access to Invuln-on-startup supers that can punish from near full screen distances, even if they're whiffed a move. Ruby's normals confirm and flow into full combos from freakin everywhere, and Es seems very hard to punish, in my experience. I never find her open, save for using a command throw on her when it'd overpower everything and any character. Her own character traits just seem REALLY strong in this game.
Game honestly feels kind of terrible to me so far. Might be the characters I've tried so far. The system mechanics and meters in the game are easy to use and understand, especially for an ASW game, but I dunno. Neutral and footsies seem really unintuitive with only a few buttons to work with. Again though, I was playing Waldstein and Azrael mostly so that might be a big reason. Waldstein doesn't have anything resembling mobility and Azrael's 236A being punishable on block makes me have to completely rethink how he plays. The people I played also probably played the first beta too so I was dealing with a climb and no training mode to help ease it. I already paid for it so I'll give it an honest shot, but it seems like something I appreciate much more as a viewer than as a player right now. Maybe it'll be better when Kanji and Labrys are here and no doubt as terrible as they are in their base game. >_>
For me, who never has LOVED Blazblue (I really like Bang! But uh..), it feels no more awkward than BB does itself compared to the SF's or KOF's. "Drive" in BB as always a "Does too much, but not enough" button to me, and that's what the 3rd button feels like here. Except it covers Drive, The EX Button in BB, and Persona's quirks, too.
And it still works as a normal for crouch and air moves. And the way it lets you cancel strings into the instant-overhead just makes it a really powerful button in general button combos, that does more than normal.
Waldstein is one of the most dominant in bbtag.
I don't really agree with this on it's own, having won over 200 matches with him in the Beta. He's easy on his own to zone out, because he's got less powerful tools to control space than he does in UNI. He doesn't have access to his rock throw without it being an assist (not that I saw!), his claps to destroy projectiles is restricted to his DP action, instead of having easy variations, and using his normals to destroy a projectile just mean's he's open to Top Tier characters abilities to punish at near full screen while he jabs. Even if he super-cancels to punish them, he'll just waste a meter, take the damage, and basically be easy to control at far off distances.
Not to mention that normal projectiles (Yoriko's 5BB, Ruby's double Scythe gun blast, All of Rachel's bats firing multiple bullets, etc), all seem much stronger than normal projectiles in other games.
And his normals are really slow to start at close range. He wants you at a mid-close range where he's dominant, but if you opponent KNOWS that, if they stay out of it, or pressure up close with proper meanies and constant jumps, he has a hard time converting errant hits into damage. Jabs Which the common characters have very little trouble with, in this game. Almost anyone else in the game can out-jab him, even hitting his non-super grapples before he can use them.
Even depending on assist isn't too smart, since people who can punish screens with fairly easily gained meter can put a solid hurting on those character.
So... yeah. I love his normals range, I love the fact he still feels UNI in this cross-over game, but I also feel like he obviously needs to instill fear into people, in order to have them play HIS game. If they play theirs, and stay out of his rangers, he doesn't have the strength to effortlessly dominate.
Everytime someone said "He feels broke!" to me, I enjoyed the fact they just... didn't play to his weaknesses. Made me feel good, because it meant I was hiding them well! But I found so many characters that made him feel like a worthless nobody with a one-dimensional game plan, too.
I went up against a Wald/Tager that had 200+ wins and that was the most stressful win I ever had to get.
Tager actually seems to have *almost* everything that Wald is missing, even if it's more limited than it'd be in BB. They definitely compliment each other well. I'd probably give it more of a shot if I ever was a Tager play at all, ha.
Only ones I can think of who're just better in neutral than wald are Ruby and Gordeau. So it just sounds odd to have issues with neutral game with such neutral dominant character.
Wald depends on using UNI's assault hop as an air dash more than the other UNI characters, since he has one of the only non-sprint dashes in the game for movement. Minus the universal DP, I feel like other character AA normals start up a lot faster than his / have easier hitboxes, and have more reliable disappearances of their hurt boxes, than his.
Ruby and Gord also have great Footsies normals, and UNI character still having reverse beat on their combos (as long as the hits land!) feels great. But Gord and Ruby pretty much are 1 direction press from making any mashed string turn into full combos. Ruby has some of the best normals that fit this game's systems like a Glove.
Wald's Double B has awkward start-up and is more of a frame trap when far away. His weak mash starts with a nice up-swipe, but the rest of the blows will miss / leave gaps if they're a little out of range. His crouching attacks are more reliable, but ranged hits will make the auto-grapples strikes completely whiff. So he misses out on points where other character would be getting full conversions. I do love the fact that he can turn his sweep into a fairly consistent 5BB though.
So he can stop and tap you with normals at ranges, but that does little damage here. Burning into EX moves helps this, but it's not a Wald-exclusive tool. Now if you have an ASSIST attack turn those jabs into full combos, awesome! But he either needs a slow start assist to do this, or to burn meter calling in the assist on hit. When Ruby or Gord are doing this for free.
I'm so glad he's strong here, because he's an UNI character I've always liked, and enjoyed a bit of play with, but I have many more to focus on in that game. But I definitely think people will see the reality of his strengths and weaknesses when the game is fully released.
