Decentralize grabs for real#837

Grabs were nerfed to decentralize them, but I think that missed the point. It’s not that grabs are too good, it’s that they’re serve way too many purposes: they’re the only universal (fast) anti-floorhug attack, they’re the anti-parry callout, they’re the only reliable combo starter at low percents, and they’re combo filler. They’re just carrying too much.

Grabs need callouts and other moves need to pick up the slack. I don’t think making them weaker solves the problem at all.

The obvious thing would be to make spot dodge beat them cleanly, but you could also do something like making dairs grab invlun or something so you can call out grabs with short hops.

Additionally I think there needs to be some way to universally call out floorhugging during a jab string. It makes jabbing really scary to do at low percents and it makes gameplay feel very linear. Something like being able to spot dodge and/or parry as a cancel option like tilts are. Killer Instinct counter breakers are sick and I think that kind of back and forth gameplay would fit well here.

Additionally I think there needs to be some way to universally call out floorhugging during a jab string

We have that. That’s called jabbing again to catch opponent’s floorhug grab (which is unfloorhuggable)
or floorhug grabbing their counterattack
or grabbing if you callout floorhug shield / parry
or resetting pressure if you callout floorhug spotdodge or want to minimize risks

That’s not a universal callout, that’s a bunch of gambling on offense which is exactly my point.

I don’t think the reward for hitting someone should be that you’re at just as much risk as the defender and have to call out their specific option. The aggressor shouldn’t have to call out specifically between floorhug grab/floorhug strike/parry/etc. Offensive options need to cover multiple defensive options so risk is weighted in the attacker’s favor, that should be the reward for winning neutral. It’s tried and true game design.

Defender is in a much higher risk in this situation. They get punished for any mistake and have less options while the attacker can hit jab 2 into a shield and still have options or hit it into a parry and still retreat.

Jabs are always a commitment into a risk because of how powerful they are with tilt cancels and tiltboost and shield pushback and if you don’t want to commit to that you should have enough advantage to start pressure with a move that will tumble.

This is just how the game is built and of course up to your taste and i doubt we’ll go away from that

This do be the place to make suggestions on changing how the game is built.

Grabs do be the swiss-arm-knife tool that does everything, they definitely need to be toned down or adjusted in some fashion. Not even considering characters who ULTRA benefit from grabbing. Just adds more power on top of more power.