...Holy crap what did I just read through? 7 pages of this... I come to this topic expecting whining and a bunch of bull being spouted and it was definitely there but certainly not what I expected.
Ok.. first off.
Also ban Akira. I don't know his match up well and he seems too powerful.
No. I can SERIOUSLY go into depth on why that's a load of bull. At that point just ban all the VF characters.
Now I'll say in my own experience that Alpha has never been a huge problem, hold her, knock her down and pressure her once she's on the ground. Wake up parry? ok grab, wakeup mashing? Better not cause I have advantage. Or I can get cute and throw a low out. If she's at a wall then she's screwed but see... after reading through everything everyone's said I had to consider these things.
- She may lack wakeup kicks and be fairly bad on defense but it's not nearly a tradeoff for how ridiculous her offense really is.
- 9 frame jab so she's one of the fastest characters, great stuns, endless strings, the most powerful standing AND crouching throws in the game, three,
THREE CBs, a safe get off me move (7K) and now she's getting a buff covering one of the aspects of her defense which is supposedly supposed to be her "weakpoint". Oh and offensive holds that cover half the screen and can't be sidestepped while we're at it.
So let me get this straight. She's got better damage than Akira, Bass and Bayman, better vortexes than Sarah and Christie, better OH's than Lei and just about every other grappler. And she's one of the fastest characters in the game. And this is compensated... by the fact that she doesn't have wakeup kicks and struggles at a wall?
Ok.
1. EVERYONE struggles at the wall, and guess what Alpha has a sidestep just like everyone else. What separates her however is her holds and parries which completely reverse the situation and put YOU at the wall instead.
2. Yeah she doesn't have wakeup kicks and you get a good bit of pressure once you knock her down, problem is there's no reliable way to keep pressure. You grab she might mash, you use a mid or high she might parry, you use a low she might crush it. And once it returns to the neutral game (and it
WILL return to the neutral game) she's back to having the advantage 90% of the time. Difference being, you don't have
nearly as many options against her on defense. Her options basically lock you down and there's no safe way to deal with what she has.
I've never had trouble against any Alpha except XCal (and you still have to account for online + lag) but I can see what a character like this can potentially do in the right hands once she's really been mastered. And once people really pay attention and begin to take advantage of her tools I could see her being the best character in the game by a long shot.
Now as you know 5U she appears to be mostly getting buffs which is insane. I've always been one to say wait and see. Waiting until 5U drops to see what she can really do and give the verdict after she's been broken down but it's a tough call and a week isn't enough time to evaluate her before TFC... It's a really tough call... but...
...
*sigh*
Ban her.
