Mildly warm take time. (?)
I think Hero is poorly designed on the whole. I appreciate the goofy fun factor of stuff like top deck but that doesn't make the design good. Being unique doesn't automatically mean it's good design either.
Granted, this is coming from the fighting game side of the brain, not the party side. We know Sakurai balances around FFAs/casual play first and foremost.
Personally, I
do actually really like playing as Hero, especially dittos. It's fun. It's goofy RNG shenanigans and it never fails to make me giggle every time something stupid happens.
However, I disagree with the notion that volatile designs like Hero aren't to be touched just for being "unique."
I'm all in favor of retaining Hero's RNG traits but I do think they need to be toned down a tad. Others have already said it but lowering the rate at which crits appear and making Whack/Thwack function like the other "100% = death" threshold attacks are a good start.
In addition to that, I think it'd be for the best to just adjust these things across the board for 1v1s. We get a lot of odd little half-measure bones thrown our way when it comes to competitive play. The gesture is appreciated but it almost always fails to actually address anything.
1v1s in Ult. have the damage adjustment along with a few character-specific things like the FG characters always facing their opponent. I'd like for 1v1 balancing to be a toggle in the options much like stage hazards, FS meter, etc.
When enabled it applies balance adjustments more suited to competitive play. Casual players lose nothing, competitive players get to finally do away with the more egregious RNG offenders.
So, when enabled you get stuff like:
- Critical Hits are disabled but his normals and Smash attacks all receive slight damage buffs
- Whack, Thwack, Metal Slash, Kaclang, Kamikaze, Magic Burst and Hocus Pocus will not appear when using Command Selection
- The effects of Oomph, Psyche Up and Acceleratle are slightly nerfed. (Either this or they'd be prevented from stacking, so using one would override another if already in effect.)
- Judge retains its 9 different possibilities, but some of their effects have been changed.
- 1 receives a damage buff, now dealing 5%. It will now deal hit stun to opponents and no longer deal recoil damage to G&W. It remains the weakest version of Judge but is no longer completely useless.
- 2 also receives a slight damage buff, now dealing 8%. It no longer has a chance of tripping (RNG within your RNG is a bit much imo) but will instead pop opponents upward.
- 9 receives a slight nerf to damage (from 38% down to 30%) and knockback and is not affected by rage. (Personally, I'd get rid of rage as a mechanic altogether but that's a different conversation.)
Those are just two examples, but you get the idea. The move sets are preserved but they receive adjustments that make them more palatable for comp.
