Hiya!

With the release of Yasmine, it’s officially the start of a new season for Street Fighter 6. You know what that means? That means a big balance patch for all characters in the roster. Now, I know Capcom always tries to do good every time the make tweaks and adjustments to the roster. It’s a delicate balancing act as we don’t want anyone to get too strong but we don’t want to make anyone too weak at the same time.

While only time will tell if Capcam actually did a fine job with these balance changes, we can generally look at the surface and make our own deductions… and when I say “we,” that includes myself as well! I’ve actually gone through the balance change list and watched a couple of videos trying to explain all of the buffs and nerfs the Street Fighter 6 roster had got. After all that, I think I can give my opinion on who came out on top as well as those who got hit pretty bad. So, let me go through my picks on who are the biggest winners and losers with Street Fighter 6’s Season 4 major balance patch!

#3 Loser: Sagat

Sagat was already a very solid character when he launched so Capcom hit him with a good balance of buffs and nerfs. One of the bigger buffs I’ve seen is they upped his damage a bit with some of his target combos and these just so happened to be the target combos Sagat can combo out of, making them even more dangerous. However, Capcom did nerf 2 of his really good normals: his crouching medium punch and his crouching medium kick.

Sagat’s crouching medium punch now has additional damage scaling added to it in combos. It may just be 5% (from 10% to 15%) but this does lower his damage output quite a bit, especially in longer combos. This is especially painful as, not only is this a cancellable move which does a good amount of hitstun, his crouching medium punch is the starter for the 2 target combos he can combo out of! He can still do monstrous damage if it connects but it’s not going to be as devastating.

For me, what really hurts is the nerf to Sagat’s crouching medium kick. It does more pushblock on block now. That may not seem like much but the added pushblock takes away one of Sagat’s scarier mixups out of Drive Rush. Before, he could Drive Rush in with a crouching medium kick. You would then have to guess between an attack or a throw if you block it. However, because the move now does more pushback on block, Sagat’s opponent will now be pushed too far for his grab to connect. He can still Drive Rush in with a crouching medium punch for the same effect but at least you don’t also have to guess if Sagat is running in with an overhead or a low attack!

Although I still think Sagat is still pretty strong as Capcom did give him some damage buffs, lessening the damage from his crouching medium punch and adding more pushblock to his crouching medium kick will make him much more manageable. So, yeah. He got nerfed somewhat hard but a good Sagat player would still be able to do a whole lot of damage with the Emperor.

#3 Winner: Cammy

Cammy has always been a pressure machine and Capcom seemingly really wanted to emphasize this fact by giving her a couple more attacks which are now plus on block. Her back and medium punch button is now +1 on block. Although her crouching heavy punch already does this, seeing that her back with medium punch command normal only has 5 frames of startup and doesn’t push back all that much, this now becomes a great way to force a strike or throw mixup. Sure, the range isn’t great but, as an oki tool, this can be scary. They also made the Overdrive version of her Spin Knuckle now +3 on block! While the heavy version of Spin Knuckle can do the same thing, the Overdrive is a few frames faster. So, if you have meter, this becomes a quick but safe way to neutral skip.

Cammy’s biggest buff, in my opinion, is how Capcom made it so much easier for the charged versions of her heavy Spiral Arrow and Cannon Spike to work. You used to kind of find the timing of when to release the heavy kick button before. With the patch, it comes out as long as you’re holding down the button. So, it’s much more braindead to get the more powerful version of these attacks.

What’s actually amazing is Cammy, despite all of these buffs, did not get any nerfs. I guess Capcom felt Cammy was getting too low on the tier list so they just buffed her. Even so, I don’t think these upgrades will move the needle too much but giving Cammy more ways to get in and be safe will definitely make her more dangerous.

#2 Loser: Mai

Ever since Mai was added to Street Fighter 6, she’s been top tier. It was normal for pro players to pull out a pocket Mai when the going gets tough. Heck, even MenaRD pulled out a Mai during EWC so he can win! So, after all of our crying, Capcom finally heard out prayers and nerfed Mai. They did give her some buffs to make up for these nerfs, like adding more damage to the Overdrive version of her Ryuuenbu as well as making the move faster. Still, Capcom did hit Mai hard with the nerf hammer. There are a lot of small changes, like her standing medium punch easier to punish on whiff.

However, the biggest nerf she got was to her Level 1 Super Art, the Kagero no Mai as it is not invincible anymore! This is a very huge nerf to her as Kagero no Mai essentially gave her the world before! When she activates it, she gets stocks to buff all her special special attacks. This was also a “get out of jail free” attack as, before, it would beat out everything, even jump ins! Projectiles would get snuffed by it. Opponents trying to attack or grab her will set them on fire! You couldn’t even try to do an ambiguous cross up against it as it would hit on both sides! Capcom decided to do a 180 on this as you can now hit Mai out of it with almost anything. Yeah, it’ll still beat out any jumping attacks but everything else will beat it now!

I do believe, in the grand scheme of things, this won’t drastically hurt Mai’s standing on the tier list as her already available toolkit is pretty strong. However, removing her “get out of jail” Level 1 Super is going to make her so much easier to deal with, especially in Burnout. It’s not the end of the world but it’s definitely something.

#2 Winner: Ryu

I don’t think Capcom will ever stop buffing Ryu in Street Fighter 6. Sure, he got a few nerfs here and there but, overall, they’ve been giving the Street Fighter poster boy some significant improvements since the game’s release and Season 4 seems to be no different. For one, they reduced the pushback on block on both his standing light punch and his forward and heavy punch, making these very scary as they are now really good ways to force the opponent to guess between strike, throw or shimmy.

The other big buff he got is connected to the Aerial version of his Tatsumakisenpuu Kyaku after he does his forward with heavy kick command normal. This now leaves the opponent closer to Ryu after it connects. This doesn’t seem like much but this makes it easier for Ryu to dash in while his opponent is knocked down, leading to more pressure situations.

Now, Ryu only have gotten a few buffs. So, why am I saying he’s a big winner in this patch? Well, that’s because Ryu was already very strong and could hit like a truck. His pressure game was already intense so I cannot fathom why Capcom would make his pressure game even scarier! If he got a nerf or two to balance out these buffs, I wouldn’t think this highly about these upgrades to these moves. However, since all he got were buffs and wasn’t taken down a peg or two despite already being very strong, I’d say Ryu got away with something atrocious!

#1 Loser: Ed

Besides Mai, if there was one character who deserved to be hit with the nerf hammer, it was definitely Ed. I don’t think Capcom could have predicted how dominant Ed was going to be when he was released. Slowly but surely, pro players dissected how good he could be by creating things like his Dream Combo out of his Level 2 Super Art. They tried to tone him down but, after several attempts, this is the first time they actually did some meaningful nerfs to his toolkit.

They did give him a couple of buffs in this patch, like changing the speeds of the Overdrive versions of his light and heavy Psycho Shoot projectiles. What Ed mostly got were big nerfs, like totally removing his frame advantage after his back throw and adding 30% combo scaling to both the light and Overdrive versions of his Psycho Blitz. The latter is huge as this means the aforementioned Dream Combo will now hurt much less.

However, the biggest nerf Ed received in this patch has something to do with the charged version of his light and medium Psycho Flicker. It does not drag in his opponent into point blank range anymore when blocked! This used to be a really tough thing to handle when fighting Ed players as, if Ed pulls in his opponent with Psycho Flicker, he was +4 and right next to him! This gave Ed a huge advantage in the strike, throw and shimmy mixup afterwards. This won’t happen anymore because, if it is blocked, Ed would be too far away for a throw. He can still get his opponent with any of his far reaching normals if his opponent tries to attack but by removing the throw option, this is much easier to handle.

Is this enough to get Ed out of his top tier status? Honestly, it’s possible as it removes one of the biggest tools which made him a huge threat. I do think true Ed players will adjust to this change, though. Also, Capcom didn’t touch his really good normals and most of his combos still do a lot of damage. So, while it’s possible Ed will slip down the tier list, if it does happen, it won’t be by much.

#1 Winner: Dhalsim

Dhalsim is always a character who is hard to place on a tier list because, well, no one really plays him. He’s always been an oddball character and only specialists pick him. I bet even Capcom don’t really know what to do with him so they’re kind of terrified to touch him. As such, Dhalsim only got 3 buffs, however, one of them is significant enough to may be change how frustrating it’s going to be to fight against him.

The first buff is they made his standing light punch better at taking out jumping opponents. That seems like a weird thing to give him as Dhalsim already has several anti-air normals with his back with medium punch, back with heavy punch and back with heavy kick. However, all of his anti-air options are situational and it does seem like Capcom did this buff to give him an anti-air which works when the opponent is right on top of him, meaning you might even be able to snipe crossup with it. The 2nd buff he got is he recovers faster from the Overdrive version of Yoga Comet, his jumping projectile. This is neat as you can either attack out of it quicker if your opponent tries to dash under the projectile.

However, those are small potatoes when compared to his 3rd and biggest buff yet: Dhalsim can now have 2 projectiles on screen at the same time! He can now toss out both a Yoga Fire while a Yoga Arch is on the screen and vice versa as long as one of them is the Overdrive version of the attack. It kind of work like how Ingrid can have 2 projectiles on the screen at the same time. Unlike Ingrid, though, the projectiles will stay on the screen even if Dhalsim is hit!

So, why is this possibly the biggest buff of Street Fighter 6’s Season 4 patch? Well, it’s because of who got the buff. Dhalsim is a zoner and his goal is to play keepaway as much as possible before sneaking in to do some damage. With this buff, he can definitely do just that! It’ll be very difficult to jump over his projectiles now as he can have one flying at you horizontally as well as in an arch. Add in his ability to teleport behind his opponents and his stretchy normals and this will be a nightmare for opponents who just want to get in! Like I said, I don’t know where he is in the tier list and I don’t think anybody does but with this buff, I do think he’s going to end up a couple of tiers higher.

Byee!

Who do you think won and lost in this balance patch? Let me know in the comments section below!