• News

Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition 3.5 Patch Keeps Menat Rolling Strong

Capcom is issuing a balance patch for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition on Tuesday, but an already-strong Menat looks poised to pull further ahead of the pack.

Ozzie Mejia

April 2, 2018 4:45 PM

5

Less than three months have passed in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition's Season 3, but Capcom is ready to release the season's first major balance patch. The patch is an extensive one, addressing universal changes to game-wide mechanics like the Crush Counter and V-Reversal, while going into much greater depth with each of the game's individual characters.

Capcom has posted the full patch notes in mind-blowing detail. Here's a sample of the fixes set to hit the game on Tuesday:

Crush Counters

• Taking both rewards on hit and frequency into account, changed the combo scaling on crush counters.

Throw Escape

• Changed so that a throw break cannot be performed after the move has been input, with the exception of normal and unique moves. This is to weaken the defensive technique of using certain special moves (primarily movement special moves) together with the throw break. (Note: Previously, throw escapes could not be performed only for moves that gave the character some kind of invincibility or armor.)

Normal Throw Damage

• Increased parameters for characters that have less reward on hit.

V-Reversals

• Overall rebalancing for the moves’ start-up and performance.

Individual character balances are much more detailed. The notable takeaways are that despite doing well on the online and pro circles, Menat is actually getting buffed, with Soul Reflect gaining more V-Gauge meter and getting new cancel options. Let's take a look:

Menat

• Overflowing Nile (Forward Throw) (Bare Handed/Crystal Ball)
  • Added 1F of recovery after the throw
• Standing LP (Crystal Ball)
  • Expanded the downwards hitbox of the crystal ball
• Standing HK (Bare Handed/Crystal Ball)
  • Reduced the backwards hitbox
  • Base of the hitbox only – will not hit opponents who are behind Menat
• Khamun Kick (Bare Handed/Crystal Ball)
  • Changed so that the move can be performed using down-forward and down-backwards diagonal directional inputs
• Soul Reflect: Kamal (Bare Handed)
  • V-Gauge meter gain increased from 50/25 to 80/40
  • Can cancel into Wisdom of Thoth/Prophecy of Thoth
• Soul Reflect: Kamal (Crystal Ball)
  • V-Gauge meter gain increased from 80/40 to 100/50
  • Can cancel into Wisdom of Thoth/Prophecy of Thoth
• Soul Reflect: Stella (Bare Handed)
  • V-Gauge meter gain increased from 50/25 to 80/40
  • Reduced the hurtbox
  • Fixed the phenomenon where if Menat was attacked before the hitbox became active she would take standing damage
  • Can cancel into Wisdom of Thoth/Prophecy of Thoth
• Soul Reflect: Stella (Crystal Ball)
  • V-Gauge meter gain increased from 50/25 to 100/50
  • Reduced the hurtbox
  • Can cancel into Wisdom of Thoth/Prophecy of Thoth
• Guardian of the Sun/EX Guardian of the Sun
  • Changed the command from F, D, DF +P/PP to F, D, DF, +K/KK
• EX Guardian of the Sun
  • Changed the invincibility timing from 6F to 5F
• Soul Spark
  • Changed the command from F, D, DF + P to D, DF, F + K
  • Reduced the damage from 100 to 80
  • Reduced the stun from 200 to 150
  • Increased the chip damage from 7 to 13

Meanwhile, another character that the player base has had an eye on, Abigail, has received some noticeable nerfs. But while he was touched with the nerf bat, he wasn't outright whacked by it. The changes seem to make him less broken, but not unplayable by any means.

Abigail

• Vitality
  • Reduced vitality from 1100 to 1075
• Stun
  • Stun increased from 1050 to 1075
• Hurtbox Shape
  • Changed the height of his hurtbox and collision box for spinning knockdown damage
• Red Leaf (Forward Throw)
  • Increased the spacing distance on hit in the corner
• Standing LK
  • Startup increased from 5F to 6F
  • Increased the pushback on block
• Standing HP (V-Trigger)
  • Stun decreased for the charge version from 200 to 150
• Crouching LP
  • Startup increased from 5F to 6F
  • Reduced the downward hitbox for the second and third active frames
  • Recovery increased from 10F to 12F
  • Removed the counter hit judgment after the attack startup
• Crouching LK
  • Increased the pushback on hit
  • Can only be canceled into V-Trigger
• Crouching HP
  • Stun decreased for the charge version from 200 to 150
• Vroom Vroom
  • Increased the pushback on hit
• Abi Hammer
  • Changed so that only the third active frame will hit a downed opponent
• Abi Blaster (V-Trigger)
  • Stun decreased for the charge version from 200 to 150
• Abi Twist (V-Trigger)
  • Stun decreased for the charge version from 200 to 150
• Ontario Drop (V-Reversal)
  • Startup increased from 16F to 17F
  • Reduced the opponent’s blowback
• EX Giant Flip
  • Damage decreased from 120 to 80
  • Stun decreased from 200 to 150
• M/H Abigail Smash
  • Made the situation after hit the same as L Abigail Smash
  • Expanded the hurtbox during recovery
• EX Abigail Smash
  • Damage decreased from 100 to 80
  • Expanded the hurtbox during recovery
• Bay Area Sunrise
  • Added 4F of recovery after the throw
• EX Bay Area Sunrise
  • Increased the separation distance after hit
  • Added 3F of recovery after the throw
• Hybrid Charge
  • Fixed the phenomenon where the advantage/disadvantage when performed as a cancel from certain regular moves was different than that of Max Power
• Metro Crash
  • On block, opponent takes actual damage instead of recoverable damage
  • Reduced the upwards hitbox
  • Enforced combo count restrictions on the non-charged version
  • Damage increased for the non-charged version from 120 to 150
  • Stun increased for the non-charged version from 150 to 200
  • Damage increased for the charged version from 170 to 200
  • Damage increased for the max-charge version from 220 to 250
• Abigail Punch
  • Enforced combo count restrictions
  • Increased the knockdown time for the first hit
  • Stun decreased for the non-rapid button press version from 180 to 120
  • Stun decreased for the rapid button press version from 200 to 150
  • Added 8F of recovery to the rapid button press version (L/H)
  • Added 7F of recovery to the rapid button press version (M)
• EX Abigail Punch
  • Increased the knockdown time for the first hit
  • Changed the blowback on first hit counter hit to be the same as the regular hit version
  • Damage increased for the non-rapid button press version from 130 to 140
  • Damage decreased for the rapid button press version from 170 to 160
  • Stun decreased for the non-rapid button press version from 200 to 150
  • Stun decreased for the rapid button press version from 230 to 200
  • Recovery increased for the rapid button press version by 8F

The Season 3.5 patch is expected to hit Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition on Tuesday following a six-hour period of server maintenance. Visit Capcom-Unity for the full patch notes.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?