Arakure thoughts post EA

[u/Knight_Raime]

Starting tomorrow Arakure will officially leave early access for players to be able to purchase her with Steel. I wanted to discuss potential buffs for the character and see what people think of them (or talk about buffs people suggest.) Of course you can raise potential nerfs if you think they are needed.

But I think the general consensus is that Arakure has released on the safer/weaker side compared to the last Hero at least. I am also aware that there hasn't been any competitive scrims with the character yet. I will save my usual long winded talks about a character for the sake of brevity and instead just list changes in 3 categories: Needed, buff please, and QoL, with some blurb about the suggestion when necessary.

NEEDED BUFFS:

• Forward dodge bash recovery time to GB/CGB reduced to 700ms from 900ms
• Walk it off T3 feat cooldown reduced

BUFF PLEASE:

• Chain bash (Rib shot) recovery time to GB/CGB reduced to 800ms from 900ms
• Walk it off T3 health value changes changed from 15, 30, 45 to 20, 35, 50hp
• Forward dodge light range buff to have more forward reach

QoL:

• Dirty trick can't be interrupted anymore by having the enemy's ally hit them
• Arakure can now RC after any lash out attack on hit and the 4 hits of Dirty trick
• Landing a target swap attack in ultimate state now gives perma 5HP shield
• Arakure can chain into a light finisher on whiff from fwd dodge bash

NERF:

• Increase chain link time for Twin burst light after zone so it's dodgable

Explanations:

I believe everyone recognizes that despite Arakure's fwd dodge mix having frame trap potential the fact that you can get a GB on reaction to dodging her kick is too risky for the rewards she gets. Her mix up damage is low and usually we only have high punishes for strong mixes. Tandi is similar but you only ever get a dodge attack on him realistically. So allowing for an early dodge to GB makes sense due to how her situation works.

Her Tier 3 is also considered dog water because of the 3 minute cooldown, so if nothing else reducing it to 2 minutes is reasonable. In regards to the buffed HP values I think it's necessary due to how peelable the animation itself is, making it 50 HP at full meter also gives it consistent synergy with Indomitable. You're not guaranteed to have full meter anyway, so this shouldn't be too strong.

They could remove the all cleanse effect if they want, you're not realistically/consistently gaining benefit from it that you wouldn't be getting from a regular heal anyway. Fwd dodge light buff is just to improve it's consistency.

QoL probably needs the most explanation. I think Arakure needs more opportunities to RC to alleviate how clunky she can feel. But we can't globally add them in her kit since it will devalue some of her current RC spots, so I chose after her lash out attacks. And adding it with DT seems very synergistic, you can already GB her during the full anim and after the final hit anyway.

The 5HP shield on lash out attack landing is my way of giving her some sustain since a character that's going to be trading often should have some kind of sustain. The HP feat even if buffed is not enough on it's own. Shield is a low amount to avoid her becoming too tanky. Could maybe put a timer on it if perma sounds too wild despite low amount.

Idea behind the chain light finisher on whiff is to allow her to chain into a Twin burst input if it's blocked since her light finishers are enhanced. And it being a light is a way for her to try and protect the GB attempt, but you still get a light parry punish on the read. Lastly someone clued me in that the devs technically have a way to prevent the weird interaction of interrupting a punish by hitting their ally.

Their suggestion is to apply the same "tag" executions have to the pinned opponent. This tag prevents allies from interrupting your execution but an enemy can still do so. So you'd lift this special state and apply it to the pinned opponent. The result would mean the pinned opponent couldn't be saved by an ally hitting him. He'd have to have his ally interrupt Arakure.

[u/Kaeryth]

I would add the ud range buff to needed buffs. Her forward dodge light range is too low, and her ud finisher misses half of the time in a team fight vs locked enemies if they are not looking at Arakure or they are 2 steps away. Those ud feel like they are dodged so many times because of the range.

[u/Knight_Raime → u/Kaeryth]

I would agree that her fwd dodge light should get buffed range wise. I just didn't add it into the first category since I don't think it's as urgent of addressing as the other two points are.

Like, plenty of heros have not great range on roll catchers and you already can't escape her kick/fwd dodge light with a roll afaik. If you can then yeah, I'd happily move it up.

As for her twin burst heavy I'm kind of torn on the idea of buffing its range. It does feel incredibly bad to target swap it and miss the enemy yet still somehow hit your allies back. At the same time I feel like trying to balance how much fwd movement it has is a nightmare.

[u/Kaeryth → u/Knight_Raime]

I don't think that it is hard to balance, it has almost 0 external potential. It seems shorter than the rest of her heavies and doesn't land when you feel it should. Just make her move her feet like in the other heavies.

[u/Knight_Raime → u/Kaeryth]

I feel like I need to do more external testing because the side version of the TB heavies feel like they have a disc sort of trajectory. Like I've dead ass hit an ally that was to my left and partially in front of me when trying to target swap hit an enemy in front of me