I am almost certain no one at Ubisoft has played Shinobi in years.
Alternate title: I am convinced Shinobi was not play tested after the Core Combat Update changes internally.
There is absolutely no way possible that the people in charge of quality assurance and testing the update prior to shipping played Shinobi at all. I cannot imagine a situation that would occur that would cause someone to think that this change was good. It is unfathomable to believe someone – or a group of people, God forbid – dropped the ball so hard on something that should have been so easy to do.
New players come to the game, zero experience on any heroes, play Shinobi, and realise they are playing the worst hero in the game by like seven brackets. Shinobi has a whole tier to himself for how bad he is. You would have to nerf the second-worst hero eighteen times before they hit the state that Shinobi is in. Hell, a hero that can only use a zone that costs all of their stamina would still be better than Shinobi.
If Shinobi was overperforming, by some insane degree of luck, removing four damage from his ranged heavy was a good idea and was probably all that was needed to curb stomp him back into rightful position as the worst hero without a doubt. But, no, nerf his combos by changing stamina and not compensating for it, half his light combos, just nullify his out of lock punish, and then, the worst part, completely decimate his deflect without compensation.
I am trying to grasp this. I really am. I am baffled. In what world did someone think completely nerfing his kit and playstyle would go down well? The three Shinobi mains are crying right now. You have made the hero a hindrance to the team he is on. He is an assassin that cannot assassinate. Back to his deflect as I am more annoyed by this than possible.
His light attack deflect does eight damage and something like four or five bleed damage. Thirteen damage for a deflect. His second deflect, the kick, is unreliable but it did huge damage. It barely hits for twenty now. It requires so much thought and thinking, anticipation, and then making sure that you heavy from the right side or it will be blocked or parried by a semi-decent player. Deflecting reliably is already harder to do than parrying, and now the damage for doing it is non-existent. There is no point. Just parry, hold the light to stop the parry attack, and just double light and you do more damage than both deflect combos.
Stop trying to make all assassins the same. Shinobi and Peacekeeper are suffering due to it. No hero should be able to do everything – this is what makes Lawbringer so good. This is what makes Kensei perform above average. This is what makes Warden such a good contender. All three of these heroes can do everything, they can fit into any role or position.
At this point, buffing Shinobi will not work. He is in such an awful state where he requires a complete rework to be viable. His damage is laughable and his selling point of mobility has been overly nerfed. Shinobi was marketed as a glass cannon yet, despite everything, all he seems to be is glass.
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