Predicting buffs and nerfs for Season 2 of Street Fighter 6 for the entire cast

Jon & Kate +8 on Block episode 4

Season 2 of Street Fighter 6 is on the horizon, and with it, Capcom will launch balance changes for the entire cast who weren’t touched by the Ed balance patch update.

We prognosticate the whole roster talking about if each fighter will get buffed, nerfed or mostly stay the same on the latest episode of Jon & Kate +8 on Block, but we have a text version of this video below specifically highlighting the three Shoto characters in the game, and some of the most popular characters overall, Luke, Ken and Ryu.

16 out of the 23 final matches played at Capcom Cup X, which is 70% of the sets, featured Luke. We saw a lot of people playing this character, as he was the #1 most represented fighter for all of the people who made it into that the largest eSports tournament ever, in terms of prize money.

We were in attendance of that event, and saw a lot of Luke matches at Capcom Cup X. Someone else who was in attendance at the event and was taking in the matches was Takayuki Nakayama, the director of Street Fighter 6. Anyone who thinks Capcom didn’t notice this as well should think again. Going by usage, Luke is one of the most highly represented characters in the entire game.

Also, when Luke hits you, he just gets far too much reward, and privilege for the risks he must take, as such I propose his main nerf being to his overall damage output. He has some very lopsided match ups in Street Fighter 6, and these are a bad thing for the integrity and balance of the game. You want the playing field to be reasonably fair, and a character who does too much damage relative to their risk and balance can ruin the fun for too many people.

My proposal is to nerf Luke’s damage and leave everything else intact, for now. Damage is a big nerf though, and he needs it. He already got the Crouching Medium Punch nerf, and that was well done. I don’t think the problem is that move anymore, but his overall damage still is an issue.

A big sentiment I see about Luke is that another character can do a huge combo that lasts for 10 seconds and takes refilling gauges and microwalk tech to do, and Luke comes along and beats that in half the time for half the resources — that’s not a good look.

Nerfing his damage would keep his overall gameplay intact, but means he has to work a little harder to get wins, and adjusting Luke further will hopefully increase character variety, which should be a big goal for the community and the developers. Specifically Standing Medium Kick and Standing Heavy Kick have damage that seems too high compared to the other cast members.

Luke was the #1 represented character in Capcom Cup X, but there was a close second, which is Ken. He’s #1 in the vast majority of the stats as well, all of the official ones, in-game and online, that Capcom publishes.

The statistical data for this game is helpful to examine and we cite that stuff here at EventHubs. We use data to inform our opinions, and so do the developers of Street Fighter 6. Ken, by a number of metrics, is just as good as Luke, so I believe he needs to be nerfed further.

I think they should start by nerfing his fireball and leave Jinrai Kicks mostly intact, because Ken is known for that kind of stuff, his Crazy Kicks. Those are really good, and they fit Ken’s motif.

However, Ken is NOT known for having a terrific fireball. It’s a utility move for him, good that he has it, but he needs to set up stuff with his Dragon Lash, and good footsies, along with his Jinrai Kicks, instead of his projectile.

Nerf his fireball, because it should never be near the same level as Ryu’s, just as Ryu’s Dragon Punch should never be as strong as Ken’s. These are the two special moves that define these characters.

That and reduce Ken’s corner carry, because it’s far too easy to push people into the corner with this character.

The corner is absolutely positively where you do not want to be in Street Fighter 6. The corner is deadly and you’ll see a lot of games won quickly and efficiently once you push the opponent there. Ken is very, very strong at doing this, and it should be toned down to help balance him with the rest of the cast.

Ryu’s biggest buff would be theoretical nerfs to Luke and Ken, so that those characters don’t completely overshadow the franchise’s poster boy. If the other two Shotos get nerfed properly, Ryu is going to shoot up the charts a ton by that fact alone.

I’d also like to see Capcom slightly increase the damage on his fireballs to hopefully make that aspect of the character stand out more.

This guy is one of the most powerful characters in the lore, and the fireball is his signature tool. Having this do more damage than Ken or Luke’s fireball seems reasonable to me, since this guy should be one of the better projectile throwers in the game.

However, Capcom has definitely shifted Ryu to be more rushdown, instead of the traditional mid-range zoner we fell in love with. As such, I’d hope that they shift him back to more of the standard role, with strong fireballs, that we knew in the past.

This is just the first three characters from the show. You can find the entire cast of 21 characters in the video embedded above, along with timestamps for each fighter so you can jump to our discussion of each person.