The ARMS Update Will Include a Mode That Allows Players to Become Hedlok

Ahhh, I saw this leaked the other day. I wondered what was going on.

Its great that they are handling updates in a way that doesn't just nerf who people complain about the most. I like the 'buff everyone else' philosophy over the easier 'nerf one guy' one.

I wonder which charachters have gotten nerfed/balanced. I hope not my main ones

Woo hoo so pumped nintendo keeps rolling out great updates for there games im cant wait for this one

Neat.

If only humans had six arms so we could control each arm individually.

I'm sure they will do something to lessen the Ninjara block/throw repeat that is 60% of lower level ranked matches

@KirbyTheVampire hahahaha, quick, set up two more full joy cons, I'm playing headlok with motion controls.

I bought this at launch but Zelda is to big lol not even got round to playing it yet , least it's a good problem 🎮😀
Loved the test punch, I was on the fence until I got to try it

Not enjoying this game as much as I thought I would - something about the actual moving/walking around the ring feels like a chore to me. Especially if it's a 1 on 1 on 1, and you're trying to change which opponent you're targeting. Just doesn't feel good - the rest does tho.

@KirbyTheVampire
Did you mean this ?

Lakshmi

Asuraman from Kinnikuman

Nerf grabbing, especially for Ninjara, and that'll make me happy.

I think grabbing is too effective, but other than that I am good. My sons and I both enjoy the game.

@Equinox so we've gone from "not enough games" to "too many games". What a time to be alive.

@IPrino @Whopper744 Grabbing is fairly easy to punish, if you're playing defensively. A single punch will knock grabbing arms out of the air, and if you dodge a grab the opponent is wide open. You just have to learn how to work around a grab-happy player, and you can easily get the upper hand.

I'm still liking Arms but I don't play as often as I did Mario Kart or BOTW. If I have trouble winning a fight, like fighting the same person 3 times and I keep losing, I'll put it away and move onto something else. But I do come back for more later.

I do like saving up $ to get more Arms.

I've got to get off of Kid Cobra, he's really the only character I've played so far. Once I win this current tournament I'm playing I'll start using the other characters more. Max Brass will be interesting, looking forward to the update.

@thesilverbrick Yeah I can get around it, I guess the biggest issue is that it promotes almost mindless gameplay which can make the matches boring. Thanks for the reply. Take care.

Looking great!

I hope all the update data will be included on future print runs of the physical game. I won't be getting my HANDS on ARMS before the holidays, and I'd appreciate not needing to download and store several gigabytes. :9

@IPrino I hear you. It is frustratingly annoying to come up against a player who just grabs over and over again. Even if you can get around it, it makes for a boring, predictable match. I get it.

Awesome stuff. I've long said I prefer buffing to nerfing.

Also, I think it'd be great if they give us a glimpse of the next character as the grand prix boss or something. They did say they have a specific number of additional fighters in their plans, which implies they have the concepts in mind, at least. This would be a great way to build interest for each update.

@IPrino I mean, that is risk we take when we play online... Some opponents are going to be really good or really bad or really obnoxious. At least these grab-happy people are still playing, unlike players in Splatoon who promote squid parties or squid-bagging.

@Kalmaro That's called powercreep. That's not good in game balance. It's also much easier to nerf the one down to an appropriate place than it is to buff everything else.

This game is ok but it hasn't grabbed me yet, I keep going back to Zelda and Mario Kart. I'll keep plugging away for a bit to see if it clicks with me though

Hedlock with Slapmanders and Megatons?!? I hope I don't run into that!!

The new hedlock mode sounds great. A shine thief/rainmaker mode for ARMS.

Thinking about it a bit... I do think Rushs could use a nerd. As it now they are too versatile and free. If you have one, you can pretty much hop around goading the other player to attack you and then Rush canceling his attack into a nearly guaranteed Rush.

Either they need to reduce or remove the deflection from Rush cancel or make it easier to hit and disrupt someone in their Rush. I feel a Rush activation should be able to cancel other Rush attacks but not normal attacks because that encourages a game of footsie. Along these lines they also need to consider the formula to build Rush as it has become vogue to spam attacks to acquire Rush as quickly as possible. Another option is to have a health drain on Rush activation to further punish careless use.

Me & my wife Iove this game. It's a great workout! I hope the updates keep coming.

So basically king of the hill.
I like it!

@RupeeClock I actually guessed this awhile ago. I would make it to where you control your 2 ARMS and PC controls the other like barq.

@Indielink Power creep is only a problem if they still have people trying to catch up. In this case, everyone at the same time is trying to be kept at the same level and with the amount of fighters they have it is easier to do.

Nerfing one person is lazy. I'd rather look at the real problem and bring people up to where they belong.

@RupeeClock If you look closely, Hedlok always throws punches on one side in sequence. Therefore, it stands to reason that whenever you throw a right punch, for example, as Hedlok, you'll launch all of your right arms one after the other rapidly. Alternating left and right punches with good timing is what lets Hedlok unleash a seeming never-ending barrage of punches.

@Dang69 are you playing motion controls? Moving feels less like a chore with button controls (each had their own pros and cons).

@Kalmaro I don't know if you play League of Legends at all but the developers talk about this ALL THE TIME. It's much easier to bring one character down to the level of the other nine. Doing it the other way risks making any of the other characters the overpowered one.

You try to make the FEWEST number of changes possible to the game mechanics to avoid any unforeseen circumstances. Buffing everyone else introduces too many variables.

@ACK I think rush works quite okay in this case, if it got any easier to cancel rush, anyone can just spam attack whenever rush is coming. I like the current way, if we can move away from direct hit, then we can attack or grab from the side to cancel it.

If anything, there is this trick that I see a lot of high ranked player use to ensure guaranteed rush: do a grab -> we response with punch to cancel the grab -> rush, which cancel our punch -> guaranteed hit. I think that is one technique that need to be nerfed, seems like the ARMS returns too quickly after we cancel the grab. I also encounter a couple of times that successful grab can be switched to rush immediately, which also another guaranteed hit.

I'm looking forward to this update, more content than we thought. I wonder what else they have up their sleeves.

Can't wait for the "Nerfjara" update.

@thesilverbrick Part of it is probably my own fault since I like to use Mummy, even with as slow as he is.

@Indielink I know it's easier to do it that way, that's what I've been saying from the beginning. My issue is that if they just nerf one person who is strong then what happens is that you get a bunch of people who feel weak. That's not really addressing the real problem. What happens when you nerf someone a tad too much? They get left behind and then forgotten about by the player base.

This only applies though when you have a bunch of characters who feel weak in the first place or a team that is too heavy handed with their nerfs. Riot has had a history of Nerfing as one characters so hard that people forget about the character and that character stops being considered competitive. Heimerdinger dropped off the radar for ages after they nerfs him near the beginning.

@ShadJV Yeah - I've been using motion only. Bought an extra set of Joy-Con for it, instead of getting a Pro Controller. I'll give traditional a shot. Random question for you, have you ever had really bad initial de-syncing issues with your joy-cons when starting up the game, but then never again once it does sync? I have had to press the power button on the console then it's fine for as long as I play. Same thing happened to me with the Splatoon demo, in the reg grip form. Had nothing to do with placement of the console.

@Kalmaro Nerfing the one person who is too strong is addressing the real problem though. No one is complaining that Twintelle or Spring Man are too weak, they are complaining about Ninjara's VERY easily exploitable dodge>grab combo. Or that bug that allowed Kid Cobra to use his fast dash all the time. Buffing everyone else doesn't solve that problem. It just creates more frustration for people who don't play Ninjara or the other broken characters.

Riot typically only nerfs characters into the ground when they are considered unhealthy at a core level. Those are characters who need to be rebuilt, which Hiemer was. How long it took for that to happen is a totally different conversation though. I have been a Karma main since 2011, I know that ignored feeling.

Per hedlok, I was wondering if he might become playable. Could be interesting if he was controlled by multiple players (with some just controlling the ARMS, perhaps? Guarding and grabbing may be tricky though)

@Indielink Oh man Karma, I remember that fiasco, and Soraka was in pain for years with her goofy walk.

Still though, when I talk about nerf I'm thinking more along the lines of a character that is working as intended but is too strong. I don't think exploits count for that. Nintendo probably did not plan for Ninjara to have his dodge grab combo work so well or the Kid cobra issue.

I guess my biggest issue is what you mentioned earlier, when someone gets beefed into the ground and gets forgotten. If a character is working fine but is strong, perhaps the problem isn't just that one character. Perhaps what may have happened is that a problem with the other characters has been revealed that makes the one that's perfectly fine look too strong in comparison.

Naturally, the easiest thing to do is nerf them but that doesn't really solve the main issue in that instance. That's why I'm against constantly nerfing people who seem strong since that isn't always the problem.

This game is like a fine wine for me. It's just gotten better and better with time. I'm downright in love with the game now. Legitimately feels like an equal alongside Splatoon and Mario Kart.

@Kalmaro Still think Karma was better pre-rework. Even after hitting Plat with only her last season.

I'm fine with buffing a character who is weak. But in this case we have Ninjara who is clearly too strong and we also know WHY he is too strong. Exploits are still part of a characters strength, intentional or not. I suppose then it becomes a matter of whether said exploit is integral to the characters image and, if it is, how to balance it out.

Any character should have very specific highs and lows and Ninjara unfortunately doesn't have lows.I think it would be a cool trade off for him to KEEP the dodge>grab if they lowered it's damage a ton. That could turn his throw into a defensive zoning tool rather than spammable murder weapon. Make him choose between 100 damage charged punch or a 50 damage throw to the Master Mummy who is bearing down on him.

I think it's a lot harder to say that this one character is fine and these other nine or ten aren't. Look at Smash Bros Brawl; the competitive community INSTANTLY became healthier after removing Meta Knight.

Master Mummy could totally benefit from one or two buffs. He will be completely outclassed once Max Brass comes out.

@Indielink Not really... most of the competitive Brawl players were so invested into the broken Meta Knight that when he was banned, many of them just stopped playing the game entirely. They only came back after un-banning him and introducing ledge-grab limits, but the damage to the scene was done.

@Dang69 nope, I've had the Switch since launch and haven't had an issue with desyncing yet, other than if the batteries die. As for controllers, yeah, I played motion controls in the demo and then a bit after launch but movement felt too chunky, traditions buttons end up fixing that. I can dodge and move around easily now.

@Indielink I miss pre karma so much. You want to talk about clutch saves... Us healer mains never get to have fun since healing is toxic apparently.

You're idea if balancing his damage sounds fine. That's a nerf but it's such a minor one that I wouldn't even make a fuss, and I hate nerfs. Instead, they will probably just remove the combo, which is sad because that combo makes him unique from what I'm hearing.

@meleebrawler
Also, meta knight single handedly ruined brawl competitively. The game should have been called 'Super meta knight brawl' as it was clearly all about him.

@Kalmaro Using the ult shield on a Malphite right after they dove to blow the enemy team up was the coolest thing ever. Ugh she could do so many cool things.

Like I said, highs and lows for everyone. Mummy has his lack of speed, Twintelle's movements are predictable, Spring Man doesn't have access to his strength til his health is super low, Bark and Byte are...Bark and Byte. Ninjara has so few (read: no) weaknesses that something HAS to be changed somewhere.

Making his throw more defensively focused is a good change. Spammers can still use it aggressively but they're going to have to use it a hell of a lot more to get the same effect. Honestly though I think everyone's throws should be readjusted a little bit. Throws are ridiculous.

@Indielink Throws made me miserable when I tried the test punch as Master mummy

@ACK Squid-bagging, I love it! You should coin that! I agree with you. Take care.