The Necessary Orochi Diatribe; An Orochi without risk.
I've mained Orochi for pretty much the whole time so far in the alpha.
Sorry for that, I guess. However I definitely want to throw my opinion out there.
My apologies to the other Orochi mains, this diatribe won't be pretty. Also my Orochi is female, so I'll use these pronouns; Her, She, Kill.
If I go on a tangent about game design that isn't specifically targeted at the Orochi, it'll be in a beautiful red colour.
I come from a fighting game background so I'll be using a healthy amount of fighting game lingo. If anyone doesn't know what a word means in here I could hyperlink a fighting game dictionary entry to those problem words, but I hope it doesn't come to that.
Enough with the Headers. Onwards to the main event.
I wanted to scour the forums in search for how people viewed Orochi, and I definitely got what I was expecting. A majority of the posts complaining about Orochi are coming from people who have a majority of their experience playing against her meanwhile praise is coming from people who are like me, of whom use Orochi as their mainstay hero and hark of her amazingly balanced kit. I therefore wanted to bring two things to light in this post to sit both parties down and think about this before rushing to a conclusion;
- The lie behind her risk/reward gameplay and how some mechanics are more broken than others.
- The few weaknesses that the Orochi has and how to abuse them, so that in the next Alpha I can hopefully fight people who can make more formidable opponents and make the game more fun for me.
I truly want to face more people that make me ponder my options against skilled players, but I have seldom found them. This is my true intention, I cross my heart.
First off, I want to reinforce the idea that the Orochi's numbers feel totally fine. Everything from the damage to health pool feels fair every time I am in a duel regarding an Orochi, even when against one. Orochi fights always seem to be heavily polarised, with health pools clearly leaning to one party. In most of the duels I've been in I either didn't get scratched, or I barely touched my opponent once. In every other scenario where the healthpools were depleted in a back-and-forth manner the fight would take a considerable amount of time and heavy thought, which was by far the most enjoyable. In those fights, I never felt like I had too few or too many chances to harass my opponent and get punished for an incorrect decision, so I'm adamant that the Orochi is numerically sound. Even if she was definitely going to get a solid nerfing, her health pool would not be the way to do it, otherwise she'd just be renamed to the Orochi Minion and be squishier than that fatty stuff you drain from pigs in a slaughterhouse. Risk vs. Reward doesn't directly mean "block this or die" in the same way that the Conqueror doesn't have 2 more health bars than the Warden even though the dude's the tankiest guy we have.
Furthermore, I see a lot of complaints against her guard (or deflect), and the Wind Gust that comes afterwards. I honestly don't know why people keep hitting their heads into the wall for this one. If you're going to use slow and predictable strikes in the same direction after each trade when attacking the most nimble character in the game, you should be happy that you take a small amount of damage, rather than the Orochi straight up dodging your attack and punishing with her own chain, which undoubtedly deals more damage. If you want to win a fight against an Orochi, you'll need to know how to harass her with fast attacks into chains of various attack timings and durations. Most characters have light>light chains, and some even have light>light>light chains. Make sure you make these chains as random as possible, let your subconscious do some of the work instead of overthinking it. Those who don't have these chains will either have unblockables or specific guard-break moves like the Conqueror's shield bash. If you want to harass an Orochi, you have to be willing to take the chance to possibly have it deflected in the same way that Orochi's have to take the chance that they could mistime the deflect. If you're not willing to take that chance, focus your mix-ups on these unblockables or guard-breaks. This would be a good time to take advantage of Feinting for once, since I see practically nobody doing it apart from a few dedicated Kensei mains where it is a necessary skill.
Of course, this is where the ice has to be broken. It's not really that simple. The real problem problem with countering the Orochi lies within the usage of her true strength; her mobility and how unmatched it truly is.
Most people don't realise that the true strength behind the Orochi actually comes from the whiff punishing ability with Riptide Strike and Storm Rush, plus the simultaneous evasion and harassment with Zephyr Slash. The truth is that while all these skills are good and most definitely a core part of her kit, one of these skills does not come with the same level of risk that deflecting does. This is what makes the Orochi frustrating to play against, and makes her feel broken while playing her. This offending skill, is Storm Rush.
For those who don't know which move Storm Rush is; upon using storm rush the Orochi quickly scurries backward while lowering her head and holding her blade horizontally behind her. At this point when locked onto her, you should see the attack prompt appearing on your left or right guard. After staying there for an indiscriminate amount of time, the Orochi quickly sprints forwards and slashes at chest height, passing through you and appearing behind you. This move can be held indefinitely after the backwards scurry and can be cancelled at any time during or after the hold. If this move hits, the Orochi recovers quickly and the opponent is in hit-stun for so long that the Orochi can maintain advantage (There is no confirmed true combo after this skill, however there is anecdotal evidence to support a possible true combo of double top-guard light strike. More testing in the next alpha is required to confirm).
While it is by far the coolest move in the moveset, following up any harassment or pressure with Storm Rush restricts too many of your opponent's options and forces them to play at your speed for the whole duel. If the opponent attempts any retaliation with their own strike or guard-break, it's futile as the opponent's strike will whiff and will then be punished effortlessly by the Orochi. There is simply no strike in the game that both fast enough and ranged enough to hit an Orochi while retreating, especially if both combatants are playing footsies with each other at the tip of their own respective ranges (i.e. midrange). Possibly in the future when pole-arms and other longer ranged weapons are released, such as the weapons for the Nobushi and Valkyrie, there will be a response to this, but then that would make them a different type of perpetrator and would in fact redefine the game as a whole. When pushing this idea even further, if every character had an aggressive strike that chases out Storm rush, then the whole concept of footsies with any other strike would be out the window and the other moves would be ignored in favour of a far superior and harder to block poke tool. This will definitely be a problem where only time will tell if there will be an adequate solution. That is, of course, if Storm Rush is not nerfed by then.
All an Orochi has to do is Harass, then use Storm Rush mindlessly, and then wait for a red reticule to appear - showing an attempted strike or guard-break, and if one does appear, they let the attack go through. By the time the Orochi strikes, the opponent is still recovering from their own strike and gets punished. Even if a standard Heavy Strike and Storm Rush become active at the same time, the Storm Rush usually wins by default because it seems to have a pretty wonky hitbox but a massively generous hurtbox - leading to Storm Rush having a truly outrageous priority. So the only viable response for the opponent after an Orochi has finished their string is to not make a single offensive action under the fear of getting punished. When that happens, the Orochi still wins the engagement because they can just cancel the Storm Rush and reset the space, meaning that the Orochi has harassed for free with little to no room for retaliation. A healthy back-and-forth that players are looking for is trivialised into a free whiff-punish fest for anybody who knows how to efficiently flow-chart this move.
This doesn't happen to any of the other moves. Zephyr Slash simply allows the combination of a fast strike with a dodge, but the dodge direction can only be forwards or sideways so the movement is always aggressive. Even if the sideways Zephyr Slash is used to dodge vertical strikes; the Orochi is still at close range after the Slash hits. She hasn't escaped anywhere and was rewarded for reacting or reading your vertical strike or guard-break. Riptide Strike may have a similar functionality when compared to Storm Rush, but Riptide can't be cancelled and is a prime example of a backwards dodge strike done correctly, because it has a slow recovery and throwing it out while in the footsie game leaves the Orochi open for an easy whiff punish. Also, the distance travelled backwards in Riptide Strike is a lot shorter compared to Storm Rush, so you can still get hit by some far reaching moves that you're trying to punish. The Raider's head bop (Locked forwards dodge + light) is a good example of a move that can interrupt a well-read Riptide Strike. This is the type of mindgame I want to see more, but right now, there is little to no reason to use Riptide strike as it is outclassed by Storm Rush. The only thing that it has that surpasses Storm Rush is that the backwards movement feels like it starts up a little faster, and can be used to dodge faster and shorter strikes - which is only handy when against a mashing Berserker.
There isn't much that can be done to Storm Rush that doesn't just kill the move entirely, but I can think of a couple things that will at least make it an option instead of the option, if you get what I mean:
- Set a limit on the duration that Storm Rush can be held for.
> If you force the Orochi to decide on one action over the course of one second or so Storm Rush can at least reduce the duration of the control that the Orochi has when demanding space with Storm Rush. It can still be used as a whiff punish, but the punish will be harder to confirm. - Don't allow Storm Rush to be held at all.
> A more extreme version of the change mentioned above. You can't hold heavy to delay the strike, it will just go immediately as if you let go of the heavy button after pressing it. You can still cancel anywhere after the retreating scurry has ended, including the run-up. You'll therefore have to make that split second decision as you dash away which could really separate good and bad Orochi players. - Storm Rush can't strike immediately after retreating.
> This change will make Riptide Strike the only backwards dodge+punish tool for Orochi, and Riptide is very easy to punish, so it allows for the opponent to at least counter-play with their own strike. If the Orochi still wants to retreat rapidly, they can do that, but they can't just spam this and confirm the whiff punish. Instead, this can be used against players who buffer their chains too fast, so you whiff the second attack in a chain. This way, you have a perfect response to people who like to harass you with chains instead of single strikes. - Reduce the speed at which the Orochi retreats during Storm Rush.
> A similar design choice as the choice above. Storm Rush will be unable to dodge fast strikes at close range, but slower strikes like heavy attacks will be dodged. This again makes Riptide Strike the go-to choice for dodging and whiff punishing in one unique move, where Riptide Strike is easier to punish when used incorrectly, supporting good reads and healthy counterplay.
While we're here, I'd just like to mention that the AoE attack for the Orochi has some sort of built-in fakeout mechanic which makes it appear to be a top-guard attack which then swaps to a side-guard attack. I just wanted to point this out. It's stupid and doesn't deserve to be in the game. I hope it wasn't intended to appear like that.
Just because Storm Rush shuts down your offensive options, however, it doesn't mean that you are unable to win. The key to beating an Orochi right now is to deny them of their most important advantage - their space. Your goal is to get them as close to a wall as possible. Try to lead them into hallways where there always is a wall nearby. In the footsie game, move horizontally until their back is near the closest wall. Whenever an Orochi retreats, keep following them, but don't commit to an attack until you know that they can't move in a direction that counters you. For example, if their right side is against the wall, then they can't Zephyr Strike to the right because the wall will restrict their movement, so they'll barely move at all. You should therefore attack in the direction of the wall, a left guard attack, or upwards, an up guard attack. If you attack on the opposite side of the wall, they can dodge to the same side and go under your strike. Similarly, if their back is against the wall, they will try to move around you, so your optimal directional attacks are left or right guard strikes. When you are at point-blanc with an Orochi, their sideways movement options usually won't dodge left or right guard strikes due to the way the hurtboxes of the weapons work. Therefore, when their backs are against the wall, get as close as you can to them, making sure not to lose any guard breaks. Once you get their backs to the wall or even better; corner them, they are forced to play the guard game which is the riskiest position they can be in. Even if they successfully guard and Wind Gust you, they'll be in the same position as before, they won't have moved at all. Use this opportunity to throw them into the wall for a free heavy attack while making sure that they can't retreat from you.
Thanks for reading this. I hope you have a wonderful time hating me for playing Orochi. Make sure to give me the most nonsensical abuse you can think of like a good angry mob. That way I'll feel really bad about myself. Peace everyone.
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