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Question - Predator Final Patch?! - What should be changed?


Character Loyalist
So if there is one final balance patch in the making, what should be changed for Predator?

Personally I only know HQT, so what I would suggest are these changes:


- Let the framedata of lowplasma remain the same, but slightly increase the duration of blockstun (e.g. by increasing the amount of active frames once the plasmashot hits the floor).
The idea is to make it easier for the opponent to gain momentum, once a low plasmashot has been blocked. Right now spamming "d4 into another lowplasma" is encouraged, mostly because it is hard to react to. If this was easier, the opponent could make better use of his plusframes.

Besides increasing the active frames would make it easier to punish whiffed lowplasma shots, which is not necessarily a bad thing either.


- ex-scimitar should get double armor
Right now heavy pressure kills Predator. To a certain degree this is perfectly fine, because Predator is an offensive powerhouse. Then again some rushdown characters don't rely on fast multihitting strings (e.g. Goro) while others do (e.g. Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Tanya). Thus against some characters ex-scimitar works like every other armored combostarter, while against other characters it is simply not worth the meter. Besides Predator has no backdash either, so some sort of universal defensive option is much needed. Giving ex-scimitar two hits of armor would be such an option. The move by itself could still be reacted and easily punished, but not by "accidentally" mashing buttons.

- b1~plasma cancel should be like +8 on block. (or b1 should get a 10f start-up and be +5 on block.)
If Predators lowplasma shots were nerfed (as suggested below), his rushdowngame would suffer too. Thus I suggest to give him some (execution heavy and not-braindead) options upclose. The b1-string offers no mixups by itself. Currently noone uses it anyway, mostly because upclose 2 is superior while at sweep distance people go for d4-lowplasma (faster, hitting low, better plusframes, ...). However if b1~plasma cancel would provide 8 plusframes, all of a sudden this would become a threat of some sort. Even though there was an armourable gap, 21[hitconfirm]2 would be a great frametrap. Due to autoblock having f12 link would not be a big deal, yet some sort of mindgame. Generally Predator could then work around his biggest flaw that hinders his rushdown: not having a viable mid.


PSN: MaxKayX3
As someone who just started learning predator the issue with not having a decent mid really made this character hard for me to learn :(

So yeah I approve lol

tafka Djinn

One for three off the roof
I... I honestly don't know how to feel about the fact that I agree with double armor on EX Scimitar Stab. It feels like it makes more sense that way, to have it be respected but negative, than to make the start-up faster and still get beat at both ends by the characters that already beat it.


It's too soon to get cocky.
I'm not a predator user, and I may get flamed for this, but his lasers need to be toned down a bit.

I'm all for learning to get around zoning, and I do a decent job, but the recovery on his lasers are too good. It's like dealing with mileena and her sais at a faster rate of speed lol


While the double armor thing is appealing it's unnecessary. I think his backdash, anti air options, and recovery on his throw need to his primary improvements. If they improved those aspects of his game he would benefit more than adding on extra armor.


The Artman
Ultimately my major gripe with Predator is his movement. His inability to move in and out of the opponent's attack range at will is a big reason I think his neutral is so hot and cold. Other than that there isn't much I think he "needs" but for the sake of change, here a few things I'd like to see.

- Noticeably FASTER walk speed (This would greatly help in the neutral)

- Change the opponent's hit reaction to 2,1 so that it's easier to combo after a Plasma cancel in HQT (similar to 3,2's reaction)

- Make f4 +8 on block, completely crushes lows, but slightly slower

- Extend the hitbox on f1 so that some punishes are more consistent

- Remove 2 frames of startup on b2

- Less recovery on Medic Kit in Hunter

- Less landing recovery on air disc

- Make 3 a mid again (It's clearly a mid and seeing Predator's foot go through everyone's head while crouching is just ridiculous.)

- Predator's cloak last the full amount of time no matter how many hits he blocks while it's active

- Self Destruct counts down faster in Warrior

- Increase the speed of db2 in Warrior

tafka Djinn

One for three off the roof
- Remove 2 frames of startup on b2

- Less landing recovery on air disc
Oh man, I'd drop Debbie in a hearbeat to pick Pred back up with just those. Not even pewpewpew, I'd be playing Hunter if they reduced landing recovery on air Disc. IASD would be such a fun way to troll approaches.
You would need to increase blockstun + recovery frames by an equal amount to do your purpose nerf. Increasing the active frames would probably buff low laser since it would be harder to run past lol x.x

Also they should make ex stab 2 hits of armor and even slower to give him a even more unique armor option
Double armor lol. That's asking for too much. Just reduce the startup of ex stab from 23 frames to 14 or 15 (nerf the range if you have to) and make his d1 6 frames (only around +5 on hit) so he can get out of pressure better. Please don't touch his lasers again. They gave prepatch Quan and Dvorah better defensive options, I don't see why predator can't have them also.
Okay so here goes nothing:
- either make ex stab have 2 hits of armor or ex straight plasma has 1 hit of armor but only on wake up. This would give predator an option to get off the ground instead of just having to hold that every time you get knocked down.

-make f2 an overhead or increase the start up by 5ish frames. I just want more of a purpose for this normal/string since it looks so cool.

- Greatly increase walk speed forward and backwards. Seriously it looks stupid having this extremely agile beast look like he's crawling when he walks.

-decreased air disc recovery. Seriously every move has less recovery than its grounded version so why does air disc feel like the same speed as regulars disc.

-and make s3 a mid :DOGE


Hell no. You want armor? pick up warrior. Slightly increase the recovery on his lasers and decrease the hitbox on them so you can actually jump in on him if he fires the straight one from a bad distance (this is fair). Buff Warrior the variation is garbage.


Your hole is mine!
You're really gonna use Quan as an example? Skydrop is still the worst armor move in the game free.

And as some people have said Pred has already been given good defensive options. It's called Warrior.

Dankster Morgan

she don’t call me daddy she call me Grandmaster
I agree. Once Predator gets knocked down, life is very hard. He may not even get to move again. I hate doing ex straight laser in a panic because I'm afraid my armor will get stuffed.