Anyway, I recently thought that maybe I was being unfair to MLM, calling him the worst character and all. So, I decided to play him some and see if he wasn't as terrible as I thought. In my third game with him I missed two vampiric touches in a row and got pilebunkered to death. While I know that this certainly isn't the norm I took it as a sign from god that regardless of MLM quality, I definetely shouldn't be playing him.
Twinge: I've had people express the opinion that MLM beats Tafari before but, I cannot fathom why. Unless MLM is wearing ring of curses his options are a) eat Ambush and die or b) get slowly poisoned to death. Maybe you've never encountered a decent Tafari player before but, given decent players on both sides Tafari definetely wins. MLM can't use any of his regen moves without taking a spear to the face and teleport/get far is way too expensive a method to deal 10 damage. Blood burn helps MLMs terrible energy game a little but in the Tafari matchup its the poison that does the damage, not the dart. Even 4 times debuffed Ambush does more than 50 damage and if Tafari hasn't poisoned MLM a couple of times in there he doesn't know what he's doing.
While Tafari is good vs. low energy or health characters, almost anyone at full power can beat him. However, he does have one of the most powerful innate abilities in the game and really shows MLM the business. He's should mostly be used in a get in, shoot a dart, get out sort of way although the high miss on dart can ruin his best laid plans. 65 might seem like a lot of damage but Ambush is actually too weak for Tafari to go toe-to-toe with close-only characters. Generally, if someone isn't within 1 hit KO range, don't waste your energy. Perhaps Tafari's greatest strength is that he doesn't see a lot of action and so people don't know how to play against him, especially when it comes to intercepting. I could count on one hand the number times someone has successfully intercepted my Tafari.
Cain's real problem isn't that he's particularly bad, it who he's bad against. He has a pretty good game vs. a lot of characters but two characters he really takes a beating from are Anex and CC, both of whom he'll have to face a lot. He's potentially the most damaging character in the game but, he lives on the corner of inaccurate st. and poor matchup ave. Not a good place to make your home.
Twinge: I'm with you on a lot of those. Personally I'd hate to see Amaya's SC hit fleeing. Being SC'd is irritating and if you're unlucky, game changing. Its good that there is a way to avoid it other than being lucky. As for MLM, I recognize that he can be devastating when played well but, it seems like he's always 1 mistake away from dead. If you get intercepted, rest when you should switch, or miss an attack, he's dead. It would be great if there was a way to move him out of 1 hit KO range from VV but, other than nerfing VV too much, I don't know how to do that. You're right about Cain, switching the voidstreams is a start, an accuracy buff would go a long way as well. I liked the idea of a high crit chance on Helene's frenzy strikes as it fits the flavor of the move, an additional turn to EB also good. SB is alright as is, more of a threat than enything else. The only comparable move is Knee Bash, which is a lot worse for only 5 less energy.
Ideas for small card changes for additional game balance: Amaya and Rumiko: make ninja port 100% to hit, 95% to proc (same as MLMs teleport). Oni: make both of his ancestral moves 95% to proc, maybe even 100. Andromeda: make Rain of Arrows 95% to hit, 95% to proc, increase speed of trueshot to 3. Anex: make her moves do what they say they do (boomerang 90% proc, chakkra slash only a 1 turn slow). Ashi: reduce damage on axe handle but give it back its chance to interrupt (exact amount of each tbd). Helene: increase sword slash’s hit chance to 95%. Possibly give frenzy strikes increased crit? Cain and CC: switch their voidstreams so cain's reduces dark by 2 and CC's reduces by 1. MLM: I dunno, they buffed the hell out of him and I still think he's terrible. Maybe 5 more health? VV: make it so her intercepts are not affected by her innate ability.
mrpops, alblaka: The problem with touch of doom is not that it takes 4 turns, its that its the most expensive move in the game and is easily disruptable. But, once you've hit an opponent with it you get to enjoy my favorite aspect of juju, which is surviving 4 turns against an opponent who knows he's going to die. Healing Touch, switching, range-dancing, and, if you're wearing a feather, hopefully dodging can all be utilized to make those 4 turns relatively damage free. Personally, I like to play juju and rumiko in concert as her easy switches and eviscerate can make those 4 turns fly by. Just because you won't TOD very often doesn't mean it isn't a useful ability.
If you don't like the comments, don't read them. I'd much rather hear about something strategy related than any of the following (all taken from the same comment page)
gameloser: the game is so hard
gameloser: i oni got 4 card
artix00000: ( o Y o )
fighter21z: do fun no point sory kongreate
king_robert: if anybody wishes to chalange me my name is king_robert, i will destroy any1
Math: You're absolutely right, what makes characters like Anex and CC so amazing is that they have viable moves even at the range where they should be least comfortable. Phoebe is probably better at ranged damage than Anex (vs. all characters, not just each other) but is forced to use weak stalling moves at close range where Anex can still brawl fairly effectively. Also, it doesn't help that Phoebe's rapid lashes do great damage at high speed against a lot of characters, Anex just doesn't happen to be one of them.
Twinge: my point was not that the metagame requires that you play the top 5 characters it was that it gets boring playing against them. As for phoebe vs anex, I'm pretty sure that you'd agree phoebe's best item is sharpening stone and given that, her chances of winning the power lash/power toss gambit are about 50/50. Also, anex might never have been bad but the difference between 90% and 100% on BS is huge. I think all chase attacks should follow spectral choke's example, 95% to hit and 95% to proc is fairly reliable but, it doesn't put players in situations where they're going to die to rising dragon and there is absolutely nothing they can do about it.
Anyway, I don't think I'll convince you or Twinge that Helene isn't terrible but I'd suggest going to sirlin's page and checking out beta-Helene, she used to be ridiculous and they just went a little overboard when they nerfed her.
Also, the metagame you mentioned (anex, cc, vv) was around long before ranked was popular (though at the time yoshi was more popular than anex because she had yet to recieve her buffs) and let me tell you, I know how boring playing against the same decks gets; its the main reason I stopped playing top tier kongai. The aspect of the game that has always been the most fun for me is priming my opponents and then violating their expectations for tactical gain. People these days tend to rely on attacks like boomerang chakra in order to finish characters with 100% certainty. While this is a good way to kill a character its much more fun (and certainly better if you can pull it off) to kill with an intercept. Helene, despite her faults (and lord knows she has a few) is useful for forcing switches as people try and take advantage of her less than stellar energy costs.
Dick: i'm not a mathematician but, 65+4+3=72 potential light damage from an insignia using higashi and anex has 70 hp plus 6 light defense, leaving her at 4. And, while she will die in subsequent turns to the burn, she is alive at least long enough to kill higashi with a toss.
Dick: I honestly do not know what you're talking about. Are you discussing the value of valked anex vs. higashi? I believe that all that the valk does in this case is make a winning matchup for anex slightly worse. Unvalked anex takes a chi blast and then kills higashi with power toss. Valked anex simultaneously takes the blast, and probably knocks higashi into the bench. In both cases anex ends up exactly the same but, without the valk higashi is dead and with it he is alive. Also, I don't understand your reference to phoebe (although I realize I've left out powerlash in my previous post).
Twinge: Finally, 99% of the more than 2000 games I've played occured before the shift to ranked matches. While my skill rank is relatively low (I played to the badge and then pretty much gave up on 3-card) I'm confident I've encountered players of all different skill levels (if not ranks). You claim that high skill rank matches are different from others but, I'm fairly certain the mechanics of the game remain the same. The difference between speed 7 and 5 at range still boils down to 8 moves: chi blast, dark chi blast, tiger frenzy, eye of the tiger, voidstreams, teleport, and ray of light. There are also many speed 7 moves that boomerang now equals but this is of dubious value as it has the potential to prevent Anex from attacking within her innate range. Regardless of skill rank, these are the moves affected by Anex's change in speed, if you think thats worth it then, by all means, valk your Anex.
As for ashi vs. helene, I bring up the topic only because you claim that there can be no arguement made about Helene's quality, when I can make several. Helene has several viable moves in many situations whereas many characters considered superior have only one. VV for instance, is just Double-Slash on a stick, feast of blood is overcosted, ditto ray of light and radiance burst only has limited use as a bench killer (leaving the issue of 5-card tactics to another time). Ashi is similar, she will spend most of her time spamming bleeding slice, handle is a poor finisher despite its speed and power swing is only really useful in preventing pilebunker. Its true that Helene doesn't have a move as good as bleeding slice but, having multiple options makes her much less predictable which is of incalcuable value.
Twinge: The "drastically important" aspect of the anex vs. valk anex mirror is irrelevant. Anex can't use power toss but, it is simple to prevent valk anex from using hers. Anex is better than Cain without charm and the scarcity of Cain hardly makes schooling him an incentive for charm.
Cornelius Constantine deals with Onimaru on every front, he can beat him at far obviously, he can't be cursed, he can blood burn sword flurry into uselessness, and can hypnotic stare double slash.
Players tend to overvalue valk charm on Anex. Anex is excellent but, I don't think the charm is her best item. Charmed, Anex's long-bomb is slower than all others except Cain's, Ubuntu's and Higashi's, which is now the same speed. This is actually worse than when Anex could take the blast and then deliver a one-hit kill with the toss. Close, CS already makes Anex faster than almost everything, rendering charm useless. I used to think that charm was a help in the mirror but, if you get close then the above still applies. Also, the valked Anex has to be careful to avoid pushing the slow Anex into extra damage. The real benefit to the charm is increasing the speed of boomerang chakra, allowing Anex to use it as a finisher before getting tagged with a voidstream or teleport. While there are a few benefits to the charm, I'd rather play sharpening stone or generals insignia, the increase in damage being useful in general, compared to the few specific uses of the charm.
Twinge: Consider Ashi vs. Helene, Helene comes with more HP, and higher physical resistance, at the cost of one less dark resistance. The average cost of Helene's moves is 30 while the average cost of Ashi's is 35. Helene has a dark attack, ashi does not. The average speed of their moves are the same yet all of Helene's abilities have a potential use, compared to Ashi whose Axe Handle is one of the worst attacks in the game. You say that FS has a poor damage to energy ratio yet it is almost identical to signature slice in that respect and with enchant blade it is significantly better. These are several reasons why Helene could be considered superior to Ashi and I don't even consider Ashi the worst character in the game; I'd probably save that distinction for MLM.
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