Winners and Losers From Street Fighter 6's Season 2 Patch
The newest patch in Street Fighter 6 is less than a week old and it's already brought major changes to some characters in the game. While every fighter in SF6 received adjustments, some won out more than others. And universally, there were a couple of universal changes like parry animations being longer and Drive Reversal can now come out in recovery. So with that out of the way, here's a look at who got the big buffs and who was hit with the nerf gun. You can check out the full patch notes here.
Major Buffs
1. Big Winner: Ryu
Ryu's state in Season 1 was pretty disappointing. To rectify this, Ryu's seen a ton of buffs that should improve him significantly. Players can now choose if they want to use his Denjin Fireball or not, but that not the bulk of his changes.
Ryu's got some major wins on his command normals. Solar Plexus Punch (forward+medium punch) has much more advantage and combo potential. Back heavy kick is now a true anti-air and can be combed. Virtually all of his specials do more damage now and his level two super does more damage as well.
2. Big Winner: A.K.I.
When A.K.I. was first released, she was considered to be lower mid to low tier at best. She depended way too much on her poison mechanic and didn't have great buttons to back it up. Well, now she does.
AKI's crouching and standing medium kicks are now a great tools to poke with. Standing heavy punch is better to poke with. Her light Serpent Lash can crumple on Punish Counter and she can combo directly into level 3 super from Cruel Fate. A.K.I.'s gameplan as a neutral monster is further bolstered with her buffs.
3. Big Winner: Jamie
Jamie has received additional advantage frames on many of his normals and specials. His heavy Palm Strike is now completely safe on block, meaning he can't be punished for throwing it out. Also his Freeflow Strikes do more guard damage and give him more super meter. In addition, to that, his divekick is safer to do and his spin kicks are now fully projectile invincible.
4. Big Winner: Kimberly
Kimberly was already solid in the middle of the pack in SF6, but now she's got some additional tools that's opening up her combo potential. She can now activate her level 2 super, Bushin Scramble from an EX Tatsu kick which she couldn't do before. She can now also EX air grab from Heavy Vagabond Edge which makes it easier for her to get big damage.
Lastly, she can choose if she uses her paint can on her level 1 super, Bushin Beats, which just gives players more control over the character.
5. Big Winner: Zangief
The big changes with 'Gief have a lot to do with his normals. His standing, charged heavy punch now does a whopping 400 more damage. It will also now eat an entire block of drive gauge if blocked. His crouching heavy punch is now also faster and has more combo potential and his piledriver now will gain you more super meter. And in one of the strangest buffs in the patch, if you do the EX version of the Siberian Express you'll run VERY fast if you absorb an attack while charging it up. It's hilarious to see.
Got Nerfed
6. Big Loser: Blanka
In Season 1, we didn't even know Blanka's potential until MenaRD starting going crazy with him in big tournaments. Some of Blanka's set play with the "blanka-chan" dolls was insane when combined with his ball attacks. Now he's going to have to work a bit harder.
His EX air Blanka Ball has more recovery now and many of his moves are a bit easier to hit if he whiffs his moves. But the big change is that there's now additional damage scaling on his Blanka-chan moves which means the longer the combo the less damage it does.
7. Big Loser: Dee Jay
Across the board, Dee Jay just does less damage. His standing heavy punch has more scaling and that was one of his primary combo starter tools. He's also had some combos that flat out don't exist any more mostly extending out of his heavy kick. His jumping down light kick will now also lose most air to air attacks as well.
8. Big Loser: JP
He's got more push back on virtually everything which means he won't be as close to his opponents. This limits his combo potential. Also, like Dee Jay, many of his special moves are more heavily scaled which means he does less damage. He can now combo into his command throw, Embrace, but the scaling on it drops its damage by quite a bit.
9. (Kinda) Big Loser: Chun-Li
Chun was a strong charachters in season 1 and if you look at the patch notes you'd think she's been nerfed into the ground. Hazanshu, one of her primary moves to get around fireballs, is less invulnerable now. She gains less meter from her combos out of her level 2 super.
However, her core game plan hasn't changed very much and her standing heavy punch is an even better poke tool.
