My 2 cents:
1- 6P: it''s now 19f recovery, that's on whiff not on block right? Wasn't it 9f recovery on block? She still has the followup knee to keep opponents honest, but I do agree it will affect her poking game and fishing for CH.
2- Takedown (TD): it's not clear how badly TD has been affected and how TD cancel moves will be affected by the TD nerf. Still, this is what scares me the most out of the whole patch. This is what makes her a grappler. TD to Mila is like Izuna Otoshi to Hayabusa...
3- 4K and 4K TD cancel variants (P/K/2P): Nerfing 4K by itself is no big deal (speed and range remains unchanged), but how will the recovery from the kick now effect the TD cancel options? Once more depending on how TD was corrected cancels may still be good. If they no longer are, then my play style will need major adjustments. This is my second greatest concern...
4- 1P and TD cancel 2P: They nerfed this punch on NH but what about CH what will it be? +2 frame advantage isn't great but it's still advantage I guess. It won't be too bad considering followups like P and 6P. Still they could've made it crush faster to compensate for the loss f advantage (honestly this move was fine, why touch it? if it was a problem learn to stagger escape, the stun wasn't broken).
5- 9P: It now bounces on CH or HCH. What does it do on NH? Ain't too bad since this move was mainly used for forcetech loops and besides 3F+K is still there to pick up the mantle. Furthermore, 9P had issues mainly because it was a high mid so it was succeptible to certain high crushes. It's advantages were mostly its hold resistant properties and how safe it was. This being said, a question still remains. Will a juggle be possible off the new bounce this moves offers on CH?I'm hoping it does. Provided the bounce is good enough, we could very well see 3F+K forcetech into pseudo which would be sexy (too good to be true)...
6- 5K, PPK, Pk, BT K: The only real issue with this kick is how is now changes our options after using 6T. The kick is still guaranteed but now just stuns better. Since the stun is different, I'm guessin we'll simply have to either launch or push for CB off of it, possibly leading to into pseudo juggles. Before, the stun was too short to continue stun, rather we had to mixup TD and 66K after it or loop 6T again (which is a loss). Nontheless, KP shenanigans will still be possible too, so i thinks her 6T won't have lost too much.
7- Damage modifications to mount/side/sprawl kicks and punches: This is another thing that bothers me. I mean if you're going to do this, at least make the throw harder to break or allow the use of the throw versions instead of a punch/kick. I mean the alreadt nerfed TD, why needlessly nerf options once it connects? This is like beating a dead horse!
8- Loss of her special backsdash: Although it was awesome, it was weird, felt wrong to use (glitchy), and all other characters who had similar movement lost theirs as well. I mainly used her special backdash to escape get up kicks, but then again they nerfed get up kicks, so I'm ok with it.
9- Loss her throw setups that could beat out trikes on getup: For those who didn't know, After a CB Mila had a pseudo for lightweights and midweights that changed properties of two of her throws. Basically, when used on the first two frames of the opponents teching animation, these throws would beat out any staning attack beside croushing attacks of jumping attacks. These throws were 6T for lightweights (OP!!!) and 5T for midwights (OK). This shit was awesome, but kind of felt wrong since it went against the basic rock/paper/scissor concept central to DOA. I'm not surprised this was removed. The pseudo is still good after CB, however, now we'll have to use TD instead which could be bad depending on how TD turns out...
10- 66P: Nerfing her high power punch means she won't get the natural jab followup near the wall anymore which hurts her wall game somewhat. It will still be good near a wall but now the opponent will be able to block any followup attack. This will basically force us to switch between a good mid and 6T for her wall game (somewhat lackluster)...
11- SSP/SST/SSK: Her sidestep has been nerfed, but not too much. SS T is slower but if used to evade attacks and not just throw out there (as it should) it should still do the job. I never was a big fan of SS P but it sucks SS K will be the good one now since it's a high. Still if the stun is like 5K on CH, might have something to salvage.
So basically, I feel that how Mila will be from now on depends mostly on two things:
First: How bad they nerfed TD. Having it 50 frames total is no big deal, but as pointed out previously, startup/active/recovery frames distribution will tell us how bad the damage is. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having a lot of time to properly throw punish TD, but make it worth the risk for Mila! I mean, she is a grappler for Christ sake and the throw is easily escapable! If TD is badly nerfed, then she'll be stuck using 214 T in situations where she would use TD which makes her look like a pseudo grappler
Second: How bad the 4K nerfs and TD nerfs will change her TD cancel variants: If these are too slow, then she looses a lot of her setups that lead to pseudo force tech juggles. Mila doesn't need many stuns to launch, this is common knowledge. Usually one stun (ex: 6P) followed by either 4K~TD cancel~K for example is enough to go into a pseudo juggle and her pressuring. Another example after the initial stun is to follow with 4K~TD cancel~P and then CB (or launch) into a pseudo juggle. For me, this is the way to go with her. The faster you go into pseudo juggles, the better. Making 4K into TD/TD cancel variants too slow forces her to use her crappier stuns (2KP, 3KK, PPP, 4PP, 4PK, 4P2K, 6K, 6PK, etc) and rather limited launchers (6F+K/33P are too slow and 9K is a high). Outside 3P/3PP (Ok maybe 4PP), her stuns offer little chance to go for CB or launch (because of stagger escape). This is why she had TD cancel variants like the punch and K, stagger escape couldn't help against those. Futhermore, add all this to her now more punishable pokes and it will be riskier up close to fish for CH which will make her pseudos hard to use outside of whiff punishing with 4F+K.
Funny because I know some people will say: At least she'll still have 3F+K...
Time will tell.
