Soul-Boards

[MrSloth]

A bit more of a balance -

Hello! A short introduction - my name is Sloth. I'm one of the character creators and balancers on the Soul-Arena team. 

We are hoping to provide more regular updates this year. To allow these updates to happen more frequently, I've volunteered to do the write-ups for them. My goal is to provide the reasoning behind them, so that even if you don't agree with a particular balance update, you understand why it happened.

We have a (hopefully) good one this month. We're working on hampering down some of the early pressure a top-performing team has, while also trying to breathe some life into characters that have been forgotten. Also, Aaroniero is back! Yay! Aaroniero!

 Let's go through change by change now, starting with -

Buffs

Arisawa Tatsuki -

• Swift Knee Pounce now has a cooldown of 1, down 1, from 2.
  

Tatsuki has periods of time where you just can't really do much. This isn't good in the modern metagame. Hopefully, this will allow you to feel less restrained by cooldowns when using her.


Shrieker -

• Leeches can no longer be ignored or removed
  

This is to allow Shrieker to just not totally fold to enemy's ignoring harmful effects, or enemies that can remove afflictions. It's definitely a powerful boost. Now, you may be asking, "Sloth, why would you buff an affliction character at a period of time when affliction teams are really strong?" On to the next update.


Shiba Kuukaku -

• Fire Circle can no longer be countered or reflected.
  

Nobody hates uncounterable AoE more than I do, but if a character's whole gimmick is "I can get around counters", they shouldn't lose to counters. To me, that just makes sense. This will hopefully solidify Kuukaku in this role.


Bankai Gin -

• Distance Fighting will have Bankai Gin ignore stun effects for 1 turn.
  

This allows Gin to play around stun effects much better. We're only giving it to one stance, because we still do want their to be counterplay to our characters, but now you can do 25 piercing damage every three turns. Go nuts.


Coyote Starrk -

• Analysis now has a CD of 0, down 1, from 1
  

Starrk used to be a solid character, being able to do 20 aoe damage every other turn with various affects. Unfortunately, he's fallen off. I love his gimmick, so I'm hoping this change will allow him to see more play. Wasting a turn on Analysis and missing in the modern metagame is punishment enough, having to wait another full turn to try to get your character "working" again just feels unnecessary.


Zangetsu -

• Soul Blade now has a cd of 0, down 1, from 1
  

This game may not be checkers, but I bet this change will get a lot of people saying "king me". Zangetsu is in a weird spot. His winrate is consistently at 38-40%, but it feels like any change we give him would make him far too strong. I'm hoping this is a gentle enough of a nudge to bring him closer to 50 without skyrocketing him.


Ruri Iro Kujaku -

• Split and Deviate costs 1 less random, down 1, from 1
  

It's free real estate. When first released, the ability to gain reiatsu was overestimated. Funny enough, if we do get into a "rei-gain meta", it may push rei drainers forward as well. I'm ok with that. Anyway, I dont like free preps, but sometimes you have to give the people what they ask for.


Driscoll Berci -

• O - The Overkill will now increase Driscoll's damage by the amount 'overkilled', instead of healing him for that amount.
  

I made this guy, and I did have this ability as part of his design (as did everyone else, it seems). I thought it'd make him too snowbally, but maybe he needs that? I'm just hoping this buff isn't overkill.


Lloyd Lloyd -

• Shapeshift now has a CD of 1, down 1, from 2
  

We were terrified of Lloyd when he first came out. At the time, the meta was all about stacking a bunch of harmful skills together with damage increasing effects to spike people off for cheap. The general consensus was that our worries were unfounded, so we're allowing him to do "his thing" more often.


White -

• Mad Strike now deals 30 damage, up 5, from 25. 
  
• Destructive Cero now deals 25 damage, up 5, from 20. 
  
• Self-Destruct now costs 1 less random.
  

Three buffs for the price of 1! White was not as much of a menace as we thought he'd be. This buff will hopefully make him a more appealing option.


Ben 10 -

• S4 costs 1 random, down 1, from 2
  

This started when an alien device went on his wrist. But 2 rei was too much to upgrade the omnitrix. Now he's got a great buff it's no ordinary fix it's ben 10.


Nerfs:

Unohana Retsu -

• Minazuki Release now has a CD of 5, up 1, from 4
  

This skill can almost be permanently up with the way it works along with her s4. I don't think giving the enemy team a larger window to take down a character (or, a window at all, as the case may be) is going to ruin her. But if it does, well, like Shunsui says, maybe Unohana was meant to die. (but we can always buff something else)


Quilge Opie -

• Medallion now costs 1 yellow 1 random (up a random)
  

We're costing this in the same (blut) vein as a 2 turn stun. He may need a compensatory buff, but I think people will be ok with not seeing him until then.


Bankai Yamamoto -

• Higashi: Kyokujitsujin will now have a cooldown of 4, up 2, from 2.
  

This is still an incredible skill, even after it got nerfed. We're nerfing it again, as it's clearly his best skill, and possibly one of the strongest in the game. This lets players facing him feel safer "rebuilding" a character after he's used this skill to tear one down. Unfortunately, this ruins the symmetry of his kit. A small price to pay for balance.


Cang Du -

• Iron Ice Slice will no longer stun
  

Cang Du has been in our iron sights for a while. This should make him less of a menace. I think he'll still be a very strong pick, though!


Other:

Mahito  - S3 now correctly swaps for 2 turns, rather than being permanent.

Aaroniero may now be used.


If there's a better way you'd like to see these posts formatted, please let us know! Comments, questions, concerns? Head on over to our discord and chat it up.

Thank you all for giving us this incredible opportunity to work on this game for you! Please keep enjoying Soul-Arena 



-Sloth

[Orihime]

Like in the old school days, you can use Facepic of the changed characters and statistics from the admin panel (win rates, played matches since last BU, the fully reworked skills with skill pics. Its makes the post more interesting.