Version 1.05 Report
Team NINJA's latest patch for Dead or Alive 6 is a questionable one that fixes some minuscule annoyances, but also manages to create new problems while major glitches and bugs continue to exist in their current fighting system. Changes to the Side Attack (SA) and gauge meter are the most controversial adjustments, and will be the main focal point of this news post. Though it's worth mentioning that a low number of negligible character balance changes continue within this patch and you can peruse the patch notes via Team NINJA's official website.
The gauge meter now changes to purple once 100% filled, and is now divided up into four separate blocks. Each block is worth 50 gauge points, and is the new cost of inputting an SA. Because of this, you can no longer freely combine the SA to hit environments or furniture after a bound and combo it further into a Break Blow. This can be interpreted as a nerf to the Break Hold and Break Blow more than the desired SA due to how fast the meter can build 50 points.
You can view a plethora of opinions in the forum, the official DOA6 Twitter or in the Competitive Facebook Group, but the community response to the 1.05 update has not been well received:
Making SSA cost meter doesn't nerf it. All that does is nerf break holds and blows. You will always have enough meter to SSA. That was very short sighted design. - @Rikuto
Making side steps take meter, while extending said meter, while also making the meter gain faster on both offense and defense is.... interesting. They just confused the ever living fuck out of themselves and everybody else. Nice purple color though! Yummy slurpee. Purple crutch slurpee. Woo!
Why, in a 3D fighting game, does it cost more meter to side step, than it does to literally get out of every bad situation possible? (Talking about the crutch hold... and the crutch hold with super.) I mean, Soul Calibur 6 wasn't my favorite game but to side step there I just hold up or down? - @lopedo
Should have stayed how it was. A change THIS drastic should have been introduced in a Season 2 or something. Game is only two months old and they’re changing the entire game with this update.
Sidesteps were literally getting blown up by this time in the game. Unsafe on block, can grab them literally as the attacks are coming out, and if timed right, fatal rush literally FUCKS your opponent. And the user actually got less than 10% for landing a sidestep attack successfully. This change was just not needed in my opinion.
People will actually have to use their meter more strategically now. Players that were using break hold randomly at neutral or spamming the sidestep before now actually need think about every single thing they do at neutral. Meter management is now a thing. - @EmeryReigns
It's puzzling that Team NINJA would make a decision like this weeks before their biggest tournament yet, Community Effort Orlando, where fighters should be able to showcase their growth since release instead of stressing over character nerfs and system changes. BAM will be the first offline tournament to demonstrate 1.05 this weekend, and it will be interesting to compare it to the brilliant KVOxTSB tournament that ran on 1.04 earlier this month without a hitch.
Team NINJA has yet to fix the known character and stage glitches in the game, update the ground game as Shimbori said they would in a post-public beta interview, or fix the DOA4 ground glitch that Matt Ponton alerted everyone to two weeks before version 1.04. There are clearly and emphatically other things with the system that need attention before addressing mechanics connected to the meter, and that did not happen with 1.05.
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