Last GG vid for a little bit since we got some new games coming out, but don't worry, I'm still on the game. Are you team #FreeEddie or should Zato stay dead? Again shoutouts to lord Jonathan Tene for the assistance on the vid. (also pls subscribe)
I think it's deserved for the Zato-1 mains that were still huge crybabies while playing a guy who got 2 top 8 placements in Evo one year, but they should rebuff him, carefully. Wild assault for a guy whose next best approaching option is 6H or something (I don't main Zato) sounds like a huge benefit in relation to other characters. As a Ramlethal main, I do like comparing other characters to her as people seem to think she's top 5, even though I only heard about her winning a big tournament over a year and months into the game's lifespan (not to say she's bad at all). She already had better approaching moves than Zato, just sometimes needs rc to be safe from them. So comparatively, Zato probably takes more from gaining wild assault, in my opinion. More of a gain to pressure, combos, wallbreak because he can get closer but Ram doesn't need to tbh. His float is still annoying, he can open a moving wall of armor that he can cancel, sword super is still great, CRAZY damage, his HS is hella active and his 2S is a very good poke, damage has been lowered so he can live longer (especially if he decides not to wa) so Zato has more chance to wall stunlock/combo you for wincon. Zato-1 mains need to get on antidepressants or something if they can't think positively and try, I have never believed a Zato downplayer since Strive. Rams can't ignore burst anymore either, things change. We got a lockdown move mid screen? I've seen Zato throw Eddie behind someone and mix them before that. Zato's always had better mix-up than Ram, her mids are just built different. He can wallbreak off 1 drill Eddie into grounded jabs if he wants, and for me at least, he's always been unpredictable. He's good, bottom 10 or 5 in Strive would still be GOOD by fighting game standards. Zato mains just need to chill and ig play a new character if he isn't fun anymore, this isn't anything like the 'literally unplayable' low tier ass of the olden days, any Zato main can still win. . . . And after writing this, FreeEddie. I WANT Zato-1 to be good, the better my opponent and their character is, the better it feels to beat them (except HC pre-nerfs). Bugs me to the moon when anyone tries to blame their main or credit my character for my win, I'd prefer if everyone thought their character carries
@@dirges1239 That's a fair point. Was looking up him up for now and this was the first that popped up. lol, didn't realize that at the time of my comment
For what it's worth the cooldown being the same as xrd isn't entirely true, in xrd eddie came back during hitstop, while in strive he does not. So strive cooldown is effectively a good amount longer than xrd despite appearing the same
As a zato main, im fine with them increasing eddie cooldown.. as long as we keep our tools for protecting and replenishing eddie! The one-two punch of lazier eddie in combination with being forced to block baited bursts/YRC AND command grab no longer replenishing eddie AND having flight time reduced was so brutal. Its like if they doubled the blood cost of nago's moves.. and removed the blood drain from command grab at the same time.
Other things that could have been mentioned: Key normals like his P buttons getting nerfed The introduction of WA locking him out of burst more often Losing Gold Burst -> Sword super; Zato was definitely one of the best abusers of gold burst in previous patches The burst attack level scaling rework: Zato *used* to be able to get Eddieless conversions via c.s/5k j.d, regardless of if the defensive option was baited with BTL or c.s/5k jc. Now he cannot wall break or reliably convert for big damage in these instances. The invite hell thing actually is kind of a pain in the ass, since invite hell was already a normal hit launcher when done meaty, but the buffs actually changed the routing/timing for the launch. Can Zato still win games? Of course, his offense has gone from best in class to like 3rd or 4th best offense in the game. I don't think the BTL change was accidental, I think Arcsys was generally pretty worried about him baiting burst/defensive options to maintain offense. Additionally, Arcsys has been making 5H sword super less and less interactable over the patches, making it more viable to loop pressure (it still has a gap if you have reversals, but still). Personally, just giving us BTL back as an option to bait defensive mechanics would be fine. Everything else *can* be played around, or selected better for, but our routing got incredibly homogenized, more predictable, and less burst safe while being more punishing if we got bursted ends up being like 3 or 4 compounding nerfs in one.
I mean considering all of the nerfs, giving BTL back the capability of ignoring burst (and, if I am being being greedy, also making Eddie come back faster while using it) would probably not make him busted asf. It just feels like right now, his entire kit has been completely bogged down by the system changes.
I think giving break the law back and making his command grab auto regen Eddie would already make him way more viable. Zato's strengths came from the fact that he interacted with the system mechanics in a way that most characters outside of top 5 didn't. If he called out your YRC or Burst, you're done for. Now, you as the opposing player gets a slap on the wrist and back to neutral where Eddie hasn't come back yet. Bursting or YRCing Eddie out is almost a win-con against him. Why would you pick a char where his main selling point was how overwhelming he is when he gets going, if he loses badly agaisnt the overrall defensive mechanics of the game while reaping no substantial rewards for calling it out?
Thank you for this vid. Honestly as a mid level player that just returned to the game a couple of weeks ago the changes feel like an overkill of the character; it's not as if he's unplayable or can't win anymore, the damage is still there, but it feels like i have to work so much more than my opponent to win, plus these changes emphasize the worst aspect of the character imo, the run away style when eddie is dead. I'm no expert, but probably shaving 1/1.5 seconds off from eddie recovery and bringing break the law to its working condition (because rn honestly the move has no purpose and feels like a demo version of what it should be) should be enough
Break the Law might be a reference to the Judas Priest song Breaking the Law. Zato did not deserve what was done. I struggled facing him but I had respect for the people playing him, they worked hard for their damage.
I kind of feel like Zato was a perfect designed character before season 3, clear flaws that could be exploited but he could work around them, but the combination of nerfs and system changes destroyed him. :(
@@80me16 Personally disagree, it was really easy for him to have you block 1 thing from a neutral position and run uncontestable 50/50s on you into big damage rinse repeat and even if Eddie died he still had some of the best buttons in the game, flight and invite hell to reasonably stall until he could just do it again. I think the only thing they should revert back for him is Break the law and maybe not have Eddie die from burst considering they're fullscreen now
People put L at the beginning of the character’s name because of Faust in S1. Laust kinda looks like the word last, and some people thought he was bottom one then.
1. Zato has a big problem with strive mechanic: burst killing eddie, yrc killing eddie, rrc bypasses oppose when opponent airdash-giving everyone free air super against zato. At least make eddie recover faster if it's hit by a defensive mechanism 2. Flight change is great imo because now the delay before drop down is shortened and can catch your opponent off guard. There is no way to cancel flight without hitting one of the attack buttons. 3. Btl switch is.... almost useless? It's great for catching opponents off guard at far range playing defensive, but doesn't exactly do anything that current eddie can't in combo 4. Invite +2 is cool. Playing neutral feels much easier and I didn't know why before this vid.
Quick correction... faultless block drops you straight to the ground, so you can back out of flight that way... also, btl switch is a great side switch tool. As just an approach tool, it really is useless because just sprinting up gets you just fine.
The disconnect of perceived character strength between casual and pro levels is insane. It does make ASW's job of balancing between the two extremely hard. Still though, as much as I hated fighting Zato as a very casual player it sucks for Zato mains to have their man die from a patch like he did in canon that one time xD
This may be due to junking his effort to payout ratio, especially compared to pre-Strive (which generally dumbed down Zato and others IMO) But characters like Zato are played due to how the difficulty is rewarded well, junk that and there goes 99% the interest. By this measure, nerfs hit them harder than simple types. These characters often have targets on them for nerfs because the majority, who prefer simpler characters, hate dealing with lockdowns, heavy mix ups, etc. Topic is on my mind as same thing happened to Idol Showdown's Aki That's general stuff before getting into season 3's new stuff
I see Daisuke’s vision I picture a future where is zato gone reduced to ashes never have to fight one ever again and it’s working I won’t stop until the zato isn’t even a cliff note in strive meta
The first time I heard a bad character with an “L” in replace of their first letter was my main Faust. KizzyKay was the first person I heard that from😂😂
I learned the game to play him and I've lab him for hours and hours before playin him onlin, I've dropped the game the moment the nerf dropped. It was already really hard to learn the basics as it was now it's horrible to play him as a new player.
Thank you for addressing our suffering. We have been ruined, bruised, and battered by the season 3 patch. But we must hold out brothers, they could fix our Boi. Even if they don't, we must keep moving, we must keep fighting, WE WILL CARVE OUR OWN WAY!!!!
As a Ky main who downplayed our character into being even LESS honest despite what we say, this just sounds like a shenanigan issue, condition Arcsys better next time
If they wanna give him a new move it could just be a variant of break the law that speeds up Eddie meter charge and is unaffected by burst, at the cost of being unable to move. Idk, that might be too busted.
the break the law thing was in the patchnotes btw because it's not a change to break the law, it's a change to yrc and burst it said that they can not be invuln'd through anymore in general My guess on intent is that they didnt wannna see people white assault through those
I'm fine with nerfs, but they really just killed him again. There's just no juice worth the squeeze with zato in this version, even with decades of experience. I'm just waiting till he's playable again.
It bothers me when I hear people say that things in the patch notes weren't there when they are. The break the law change was in the patch notes just not under Zato's. It was the universal change that made it so that YRC would hit characters who are strike invulnerable, because BTL functions as invincibility not like a super low profile or something. I think blue burst always hit invun but for that BTL avoided the hit box so in that case it was the full screen part that affected the interaction.
I mained zato but quit strive entirely because they just want everyone to play boring characters like ram, may, nago. Taking away everything interesting in the game, like axel bomber loops, making all the complex characters either bad, or at least, never worth it when you can just pick one of the previously mentioned characters and get celestial with a controller in the drier.
Ikr, I’ve poured my heart and soul into Bedman, but got tired of the struggle. As soon as I switched to Ram (I was only lvl 15 on her), floor 10 was no longer an issue. I decided to use Bedman for the celestial challenge since I have honor, but he, of course, lost to a Nago Blaming the beasts? Yes. I am. The beasts are boring.
Just make eddie easier to recall... Why is the manual recall, which literally removes hakf your character, unsafe from everything on block? It should be safe when done empty out of nothing in neutral.
Iam team #free zato though I liked seeing him doesn't feel like guilty gear without him. Same thing happened to kokonoe/ Leroy. You just saw zato too much. But the Nerf was unessary system machanics made already made him harder play
Its actually kinda crazy how you also have to learn the PR patch culture matchup nowadays. Ky mains downplayed him as too honest and got heavily rewarded. GL players downplayed him to the bottom to bring him to the top Zato players downplayed him for years but what did they get? Nerfed even deeper into the shadows. Skill issue I guess next time get better propaganda…?
I don’t have any problem with having to wait a bit longer for Eddie. Just don’t make me lose Eddie for blocking YRC and burst, I made the right play, why am I getting punished?
I’m hoping they rework zato, he was broken before but now hes bad. If they made Eddie into a stance summon he would be a lot more playable, they just have to tie supers in with his stance and then make moves change according to it
So you’re saying that the only thing keeping Zato top tier was 1) not actually having to manage his resource 2) being un-burstable? Why couldn’t they let him keep that?
I think he deals with deflect shield better than most characters. In the clip you showed the opponent was still in block stun so Zato1 could of just ran up for additional strike throw pressure Compare that to other characters who may need to play the f.s/6p/2s rps game after getting deflect shield'd and ide say he wins out there. Esspecially since that means that 50% less burst the opponent now has just to block more? Just an observation im not saying it doesnt hurt his mix just that compared to others it looks like he deals with it better than most. Good vid LK!
I dropped him entirely in season 3 and i kinda stopped playing the game since because Zato was pretty much the only fun character for me to play aside from Goldlewis and Bedman. I think Asuka is cool and Sol is fun but eh
Zato did just get a nice buff. He does more damage and resets eddie on command throw. Not sure why people still say he sucks. No one else can bait burst like BTL, so it makes sense he can't do that any more. If anything, i wish red RC after hitting oppose didn't put you in a full combo... a successful oppose bait shouldn't be rewarded with half of your life bar down the drain. And make it so chaos can't just shoot oppose... id say the same for Pots face slam, but he needs that to get in, plus i can argue he is hitting the floor hard enough that eddie looses his footing and slips, lol. Chaos can zone or rush down, so its not as necessary for him to do his thing.
I play zato and the reason I still think he is bad is because you are punished so hard for Eddie dying ever. His offense has a big weakness to deflect shield and yrc. Without Eddie he is god awful also that sucks
@ijusmix2585 well, he is supposed to be bad without eddie, that's his whole gimmick. A solid neutral game can get around the eddie timer, and utilizing unsummon routes can make it so you almost always have eddie... after playing him more this season, I am finding other problems, like his 6p being nowhere as good as it used to be. I also feel like the gap between oppose and drunkard shade has widened, making it easier to get counter hit out of that set up, but that might not be accurate. Also seems like zato struggles to hit a standing opponent from the air and continue the combo on the ground unless he hits them really low, whereas the rest of the cast seems like they can full combo or throw me no problem after they land on the ground no matter how high I get it.
He’s still good, Zato players want you to think he’s the worst character in the game while you block 7 mixups into eddy recall over and over while he builds 13 bars of meter
Lmao, except you forget yrc and burst immediately gets rid of eddie and leave Zato on his own for about 7 seconds. You literally can't bait anything with Zato because even if he the read is correct, he still loses eddie on block. Just watch his matches against slayer, its probably the hardest matchup in the game.
What I got from this video is that Zato used to be able to nullify defensive system mechanics and his main weakness (Eddie downtime) was negligible. Now he has to deal with system mechanics and Eddie dying is really bad for him. Sounds good to me.
He wasn't able to just nullify them he just had really good ways around them and he was balanced around that fact. Eddie downtime was also not his main weakness, just part of it. They were awful changes,
Worst character you say ? I always wanted to learn Zato, this might be the time. Thanks for the breakdown, haven’t been keeping up with the patch notes, been a while since I ran into Zato.
Bitch anyone can cook with any character 😂. Thats like saying that 12 from SF3 isn’t the worst character in the series because one pro player can play him well
i don't personally like how zato was able to force noninteractions for the majority of season 2 and as much as im not keen on letting him have those tools back for free, he is one of the characters right now who should reasonably stand to gain something from the coming patch. based on current patch trajectory, arcsys definitely wants him to be interacting with the rest of the roster more often so if he's going to going to get improvements to BTL then he's going to get something taken away somewhere else that makes the threat of what comes after successfully using BTL not hit the opponent as hard as it would conversely if arcsys wants to maintain how things like BTL works currently then they could do things like maybe giving back a second on eddie's gauge but changing oppose to drain eddie's gauge more depending on what eddie gets hit by when using it or maybe something else like nerfing sun void somehow or do something very different like making zato's own moves better and making something like drills less active maybe in any case, i think zato is positioned to receive a net buff in the next patch but i doubt it will be only buffs for him next patch
Character isn't completely safe against interaction at all points in his offense, while recovering his win condition for free by just flying away if you ever do manage to hit the puppet? Character's dead. Removed from the game even. How can Zato mains be expected to actually *play the game*?
@@water-111 If you think he couldn't just fly away for Eddie you clearly never watched a single tournament for S1/2 Strive, because that happened constantly even at the highest levels of play. Merely having Eddie be a win condition is obviously hyperbole but he was (and frankly, is) exceptionally strong in neutral and on offense with a full Eddie bar. Fighting against any half-decent Zato was an endless game where hitting Eddie meant essentially nothing, and blocking a single hit in neutral let Zato transition into offense in a way few other characters could (though many now CAN due to WA funnily enough). Was he comprehensively stronger than other top tiers? No. But he was very strong and incredibly obnoxious to play against.
Counterpoint, that was really funny though. But I mean more realistically I think most people would still rather deal with him killing time flying around the screen than the average HC or Ram during s2
@@Squiddy00 Not only did i watch high level play during S1 and 2, but i participated in it lmao. Flight was great, but anyone who simply resorted to flying away for eddie back ended up in a pretty fucked situation when they landed, and simply jumping into flight can get you air to aired. If you think all anyone was doing was jumping and flying away with no consequence you just dont understand whats happening. His neutral was not exceptionally strong when he had eddie bar, only when eddie was already out. In fact Zato has relatively mid neutral in practice as about half the cast didnt make it easy to summon at all and some character like Axl and HC didnt even care if eddie was out or not. Eddie getting hit was in fact a pretty bad thing for Zato. He wasnt gone for not but he had to proceed to play a very sub par, non rewarding neutral or stall with flight for it back, to then be put on defense a lot of the time. The whole meme where Zato makes you block anything and kills you is first thing people who dont know the matchup say lol. If he makes you hold drills in the corner then yes, youre holding that shit. But a majority of the time, when he makes you block normals, nothing is guaranteed after. Off normal moves or pierce theres a FUCKTON of interaction where depending on the risk you wanna take Zato could actually just die. Yes, he was annoying lol, but almost everything youve said is half true at best.
Last GG vid for a little bit since we got some new games coming out, but don't worry, I'm still on the game. Are you team #FreeEddie or should Zato stay dead?
Again shoutouts to lord Jonathan Tene for the assistance on the vid.
(also pls subscribe)
Free Eddie!
Leave Eddie as is and give Zato his wings back , nerfing both of them in the same patch was ridiculous
Zato needs his legs back. all he has now is Leap Frog in neutral
I wouldn't mind buffs to Zato as long as he remains having to respect defensive system mechanics and Eddie downtime is still meaningful.
I think it's deserved for the Zato-1 mains that were still huge crybabies while playing a guy who got 2 top 8 placements in Evo one year, but they should rebuff him, carefully. Wild assault for a guy whose next best approaching option is 6H or something (I don't main Zato) sounds like a huge benefit in relation to other characters.
As a Ramlethal main, I do like comparing other characters to her as people seem to think she's top 5, even though I only heard about her winning a big tournament over a year and months into the game's lifespan (not to say she's bad at all). She already had better approaching moves than Zato, just sometimes needs rc to be safe from them. So comparatively, Zato probably takes more from gaining wild assault, in my opinion. More of a gain to pressure, combos, wallbreak because he can get closer but Ram doesn't need to tbh.
His float is still annoying, he can open a moving wall of armor that he can cancel, sword super is still great, CRAZY damage, his HS is hella active and his 2S is a very good poke, damage has been lowered so he can live longer (especially if he decides not to wa) so Zato has more chance to wall stunlock/combo you for wincon. Zato-1 mains need to get on antidepressants or something if they can't think positively and try, I have never believed a Zato downplayer since Strive.
Rams can't ignore burst anymore either, things change. We got a lockdown move mid screen? I've seen Zato throw Eddie behind someone and mix them before that. Zato's always had better mix-up than Ram, her mids are just built different. He can wallbreak off 1 drill Eddie into grounded jabs if he wants, and for me at least, he's always been unpredictable. He's good, bottom 10 or 5 in Strive would still be GOOD by fighting game standards. Zato mains just need to chill and ig play a new character if he isn't fun anymore, this isn't anything like the 'literally unplayable' low tier ass of the olden days, any Zato main can still win.
. . . And after writing this, FreeEddie. I WANT Zato-1 to be good, the better my opponent and their character is, the better it feels to beat them (except HC pre-nerfs). Bugs me to the moon when anyone tries to blame their main or credit my character for my win, I'd prefer if everyone thought their character carries
Biggest thing imo is the character just loses to bursts. Losing eddie to a blocked burst is such a dumb interaction.
I think that Zato should get Eddie back in 3-4 seconds again considering how common burst is built now.
Nothing like getting punished for baiting burst.
Just run up and command throw. It's free and you have Eddie back
@@kevintrent7485This was ten months ago lol
@@dirges1239 That's a fair point. Was looking up him up for now and this was the first that popped up. lol, didn't realize that at the time of my comment
For what it's worth the cooldown being the same as xrd isn't entirely true, in xrd eddie came back during hitstop, while in strive he does not. So strive cooldown is effectively a good amount longer than xrd despite appearing the same
I love you
As a zato main, im fine with them increasing eddie cooldown.. as long as we keep our tools for protecting and replenishing eddie! The one-two punch of lazier eddie in combination with being forced to block baited bursts/YRC AND command grab no longer replenishing eddie AND having flight time reduced was so brutal. Its like if they doubled the blood cost of nago's moves.. and removed the blood drain from command grab at the same time.
Zato players were punished for their perpetual downplaying, and it's rather harsh.
Can we do this with Sol now? Tired of people downplaying sol when he can do 70% combos off a 4 frame
@@liljon042 downplayer, its a 3 frame.
@@Alsry1 3 FRAMES? what the hell
@@liljon042you must not have been here at launch. I have "3f 5k" burned into my brain from how much people whined about it.
@@evilded2 oh no I was there at launch. I just don't keep up with the community at launch since most launch communities are super toxic.
Give me the tools to live in the past 😔😔😔
Oof 😔
It’s all gone down so deep i can’t see anymore
Daisuke you cheeky bastard, forshadowing how he would kill my character
zottom-1
Arcsys has a habit of releasing games with top tier or broken puppet characters, and then all but deleting them from the game a couple patches later
Xrd Zato also suffered from the same fate.
Continuum Shift 1 Rachel kek
Carl's still top three to this day...
This is the curse of zato in every game, ac and rev 😢
Zappa though
Other things that could have been mentioned:
Key normals like his P buttons getting nerfed
The introduction of WA locking him out of burst more often
Losing Gold Burst -> Sword super; Zato was definitely one of the best abusers of gold burst in previous patches
The burst attack level scaling rework: Zato *used* to be able to get Eddieless conversions via c.s/5k j.d, regardless of if the defensive option was baited with BTL or c.s/5k jc. Now he cannot wall break or reliably convert for big damage in these instances.
The invite hell thing actually is kind of a pain in the ass, since invite hell was already a normal hit launcher when done meaty, but the buffs actually changed the routing/timing for the launch.
Can Zato still win games? Of course, his offense has gone from best in class to like 3rd or 4th best offense in the game. I don't think the BTL change was accidental, I think Arcsys was generally pretty worried about him baiting burst/defensive options to maintain offense. Additionally, Arcsys has been making 5H sword super less and less interactable over the patches, making it more viable to loop pressure (it still has a gap if you have reversals, but still).
Personally, just giving us BTL back as an option to bait defensive mechanics would be fine. Everything else *can* be played around, or selected better for, but our routing got incredibly homogenized, more predictable, and less burst safe while being more punishing if we got bursted ends up being like 3 or 4 compounding nerfs in one.
I mean considering all of the nerfs, giving BTL back the capability of ignoring burst (and, if I am being being greedy, also making Eddie come back faster while using it) would probably not make him busted asf. It just feels like right now, his entire kit has been completely bogged down by the system changes.
@@konakonizumi1869 nah
I think giving break the law back and making his command grab auto regen Eddie would already make him way more viable. Zato's strengths came from the fact that he interacted with the system mechanics in a way that most characters outside of top 5 didn't. If he called out your YRC or Burst, you're done for. Now, you as the opposing player gets a slap on the wrist and back to neutral where Eddie hasn't come back yet. Bursting or YRCing Eddie out is almost a win-con against him. Why would you pick a char where his main selling point was how overwhelming he is when he gets going, if he loses badly agaisnt the overrall defensive mechanics of the game while reaping no substantial rewards for calling it out?
Fr arcsys really killed him before o even tried to learn and i cant find any resources
Help our boy…
Thank you for this vid.
Honestly as a mid level player that just returned to the game a couple of weeks ago the changes feel like an overkill of the character; it's not as if he's unplayable or can't win anymore, the damage is still there, but it feels like i have to work so much more than my opponent to win, plus these changes emphasize the worst aspect of the character imo, the run away style when eddie is dead. I'm no expert, but probably shaving 1/1.5 seconds off from eddie recovery and bringing break the law to its working condition (because rn honestly the move has no purpose and feels like a demo version of what it should be) should be enough
@konakonizumi1869 bruh this vod is season 2
@konakonizumi1869GOATAGON HIMZUMI IN THE WILD
Break the Law might be a reference to the Judas Priest song Breaking the Law.
Zato did not deserve what was done. I struggled facing him but I had respect for the people playing him, they worked hard for their damage.
They were not working that hard before😂
@@having765 I have some news for you, no character in this game works hard
I kind of feel like Zato was a perfect designed character before season 3, clear flaws that could be exploited but he could work around them, but the combination of nerfs and system changes destroyed him. :(
@@80me16 Personally disagree, it was really easy for him to have you block 1 thing from a neutral position and run uncontestable 50/50s on you into big damage rinse repeat and even if Eddie died he still had some of the best buttons in the game, flight and invite hell to reasonably stall until he could just do it again. I think the only thing they should revert back for him is Break the law and maybe not have Eddie die from burst considering they're fullscreen now
@@alexreda7805 I think Faust and Testament generally work pretty hard
People put L at the beginning of the character’s name because of Faust in S1. Laust kinda looks like the word last, and some people thought he was bottom one then.
I think the L stuff isn't BECAUSE of Faust lol, but yeah it was one of the bigger ones at the start of the whole trend
it's from Hook and east coast dbfz
season 2 lamcha
i always thought it was meant to sound like the word "Lost" which is funnier to me lol
1. Zato has a big problem with strive mechanic: burst killing eddie, yrc killing eddie, rrc bypasses oppose when opponent airdash-giving everyone free air super against zato. At least make eddie recover faster if it's hit by a defensive mechanism
2. Flight change is great imo because now the delay before drop down is shortened and can catch your opponent off guard. There is no way to cancel flight without hitting one of the attack buttons.
3. Btl switch is.... almost useless? It's great for catching opponents off guard at far range playing defensive, but doesn't exactly do anything that current eddie can't in combo
4. Invite +2 is cool. Playing neutral feels much easier and I didn't know why before this vid.
Quick correction... faultless block drops you straight to the ground, so you can back out of flight that way... also, btl switch is a great side switch tool. As just an approach tool, it really is useless because just sprinting up gets you just fine.
The disconnect of perceived character strength between casual and pro levels is insane. It does make ASW's job of balancing between the two extremely hard.
Still though, as much as I hated fighting Zato as a very casual player it sucks for Zato mains to have their man die from a patch like he did in canon that one time xD
7:08 the way he said it im cackling. They way they did my boy Eddie is criminal
Zato bros... THEY DONT WANT TO SEE US EAT
zato rn feeling like the ending of his song
This may be due to junking his effort to payout ratio, especially compared to pre-Strive (which generally dumbed down Zato and others IMO)
But characters like Zato are played due to how the difficulty is rewarded well, junk that and there goes 99% the interest. By this measure, nerfs hit them harder than simple types.
These characters often have targets on them for nerfs because the majority, who prefer simpler characters, hate dealing with lockdowns, heavy mix ups, etc.
Topic is on my mind as same thing happened to Idol Showdown's Aki
That's general stuff before getting into season 3's new stuff
I see Daisuke’s vision I picture a future where is zato gone reduced to ashes never have to fight one ever again and it’s working I won’t stop until the zato isn’t even a cliff note in strive meta
Someone couldn’t handle the mix and resorted to blaming the beasts.
@@feedingz7132 zato players have only themselves to blame they downplayed him to hell and back and got nothing for it
Zato should die and Eddie should take over his corpse again.
based
I believe "breaking the law" is a reference to an old judas priest song also called braking the law, but it's just a guess.
The first time I heard a bad character with an “L” in replace of their first letter was my main Faust. KizzyKay was the first person I heard that from😂😂
I learned the game to play him and I've lab him for hours and hours before playin him onlin, I've dropped the game the moment the nerf dropped. It was already really hard to learn the basics as it was now it's horrible to play him as a new player.
Pickup Jacko or Asuka brother. Or wait for Zappa
It's been 6 months, Zato has yet been fixed
It took 9 months to fix him, apparently
Thank you for addressing our suffering. We have been ruined, bruised, and battered by the season 3 patch. But we must hold out brothers, they could fix our Boi. Even if they don't, we must keep moving, we must keep fighting, WE WILL CARVE OUR OWN WAY!!!!
I did not expect to hear the Lamment of Innocence ost here, I absolutely adore it.
As a Ky main who downplayed our character into being even LESS honest despite what we say, this just sounds like a shenanigan issue, condition Arcsys better next time
Nah kybro, season one sucked. S2 was at least mid.
@@pairofrooks Exactly dude we propaganda'd our way into a higher tier
@@lemone630 it's not propaganda if it's true tho
Zato's low points feel so bad that it makes it not fun to play even when you win
If they wanna give him a new move it could just be a variant of break the law that speeds up Eddie meter charge and is unaffected by burst, at the cost of being unable to move.
Idk, that might be too busted.
I played Gran for a week, so I didn't watch some of your videos, LordKnight, but I'm back now, so no need to worry :)
His situation after getting bursted is so sad
the break the law thing was in the patchnotes btw
because it's not a change to break the law, it's a change to yrc and burst
it said that they can not be invuln'd through anymore in general
My guess on intent is that they didnt wannna see people white assault through those
I'm fine with nerfs, but they really just killed him again. There's just no juice worth the squeeze with zato in this version, even with decades of experience. I'm just waiting till he's playable again.
no the nerfs are unfair he should have had no ner_s
It bothers me when I hear people say that things in the patch notes weren't there when they are. The break the law change was in the patch notes just not under Zato's. It was the universal change that made it so that YRC would hit characters who are strike invulnerable, because BTL functions as invincibility not like a super low profile or something. I think blue burst always hit invun but for that BTL avoided the hit box so in that case it was the full screen part that affected the interaction.
Anji gets to spin past YRC for free and Faust gets to tank a burst after pull, I'm not saying they don't deserve it, but I want my shit too
I mained zato but quit strive entirely because they just want everyone to play boring characters like ram, may, nago. Taking away everything interesting in the game, like axel bomber loops, making all the complex characters either bad, or at least, never worth it when you can just pick one of the previously mentioned characters and get celestial with a controller in the drier.
Ikr, I’ve poured my heart and soul into Bedman, but got tired of the struggle. As soon as I switched to Ram (I was only lvl 15 on her), floor 10 was no longer an issue. I decided to use Bedman for the celestial challenge since I have honor, but he, of course, lost to a Nago
Blaming the beasts? Yes. I am. The beasts are boring.
I stop playing for netcode issues tbh
Calling Nago and Ram boring is wild man
@@AubergineWomans you must be new. Idk how anyone finds SH throw sword, or Beyblade into sssss or command grab fun and engaging
Slayer dropped and this aged like fine wine
Wasn't zato really good in xrd before they nerfed him to the ground? I don't actually know because I never played xrd, but that's what I heard.
He was yes.
I'd love a more approachable puppet character, like how bb has Carl for the high tier tech demons and relius for the puppet enjoyers
Zato did get a new move, the break the law switch with eddie thingy, it just sucks.
It isn't his new move, he's going to get 2
Just make eddie easier to recall... Why is the manual recall, which literally removes hakf your character, unsafe from everything on block? It should be safe when done empty out of nothing in neutral.
I literally shout this from rooftops.
Iam team #free zato though I liked seeing him doesn't feel like guilty gear without him. Same thing happened to kokonoe/ Leroy. You just saw zato too much. But the Nerf was unessary system machanics made already made him harder play
Good soundtrack choice at the start. I love Lament of Innocence.
Why he doing the “Jeice!” in the thumbnail though?
It makes me sad that they made me quit my main. I was really close to celestial on Zato
As someone currently playing through the castlevanias, I did not expect to hear lament of innocence at the start lmao
A lot of this video reads like "Why Zato deserved it"
great coverage
ZATO MAINS, ASSEMBLE!!!
Haven't tuned in for a couple of months, I dig the salt and pepper beard + hair.
a good comparison to Zato is Carl since they both manually control their puppets, while still playing completely different from each other.
Would love to see you on a podcast collaborating with other FG players as guest hosts talking about various topics weekly
Its actually kinda crazy how you also have to learn the PR patch culture matchup nowadays. Ky mains downplayed him as too honest and got heavily rewarded. GL players downplayed him to the bottom to bring him to the top
Zato players downplayed him for years but what did they get? Nerfed even deeper into the shadows. Skill issue I guess next time get better propaganda…?
Get a more honest character.
Y'all forgave too many shenanigans
Zato wasnt a bad character when Zato clowns were downplaying him.
Zato is also like Potemkin because nobody likes to play him so people nerf him.
@@heracrossz7701Potemkin is who I see the most, even in floor 10
I don’t have any problem with having to wait a bit longer for Eddie. Just don’t make me lose Eddie for blocking YRC and burst, I made the right play, why am I getting punished?
Guess what
@Spectrik that burst\yrc change still sucks. barely does anything thanks to awful guarenteed burst points
I never get to face him now and i'm mad because I wanna practice the matchup so bad since I played marlinpie* and he kicked my ass with it.
Anjis Kou being my favorite anti air in the game helps a lot of Zato’s air stalling, same with Millias
I’m hoping they rework zato, he was broken before but now hes bad. If they made Eddie into a stance summon he would be a lot more playable, they just have to tie supers in with his stance and then make moves change according to it
Its sad to not see all the legends compete with zato, guess this gg wasnt make it for all legacy players
So you’re saying that the only thing keeping Zato top tier was 1) not actually having to manage his resource 2) being un-burstable? Why couldn’t they let him keep that?
LK IS SO FINE. I LOVE WATCHING YOU PLAY IN TOURNEYS
RELEASE EDWARD FROM THESE SHACKLES DAISUKEEEEE
Started playing literally last night and all I've been using is zato is that wrong
yes
I think he deals with deflect shield better than most characters.
In the clip you showed the opponent was still in block stun so Zato1 could of just ran up for additional strike throw pressure
Compare that to other characters who may need to play the f.s/6p/2s rps game after getting deflect shield'd and ide say he wins out there. Esspecially since that means that 50% less burst the opponent now has just to block more?
Just an observation im not saying it doesnt hurt his mix just that compared to others it looks like he deals with it better than most.
Good vid LK!
Eyyyyy its a real guilty gear game now, zato went from top tier to trash in a single patch.
yup
Just reverting BTL nerfs would be big
Bruh I wish he was lato that gun got an incarnon form
He's no longer breaking the law 😭
When he said shawty example it was because Baiken was the other character
Strive players will always be afraid of characters returning to their TRUE GG Form
This was a preemptive nerf for the crazy ass new move: Invite heaven. Idk what it does, but it gonna be busted.
yo that catherine music
I dropped him entirely in season 3 and i kinda stopped playing the game since because Zato was pretty much the only fun character for me to play aside from Goldlewis and Bedman. I think Asuka is cool and Sol is fun but eh
forgot to mention 5p\2p
What Did they do to him? They took Eddie away
Zato did just get a nice buff. He does more damage and resets eddie on command throw. Not sure why people still say he sucks. No one else can bait burst like BTL, so it makes sense he can't do that any more. If anything, i wish red RC after hitting oppose didn't put you in a full combo... a successful oppose bait shouldn't be rewarded with half of your life bar down the drain. And make it so chaos can't just shoot oppose... id say the same for Pots face slam, but he needs that to get in, plus i can argue he is hitting the floor hard enough that eddie looses his footing and slips, lol. Chaos can zone or rush down, so its not as necessary for him to do his thing.
I play zato and the reason I still think he is bad is because you are punished so hard for Eddie dying ever. His offense has a big weakness to deflect shield and yrc. Without Eddie he is god awful also that sucks
@ijusmix2585 well, he is supposed to be bad without eddie, that's his whole gimmick. A solid neutral game can get around the eddie timer, and utilizing unsummon routes can make it so you almost always have eddie... after playing him more this season, I am finding other problems, like his 6p being nowhere as good as it used to be. I also feel like the gap between oppose and drunkard shade has widened, making it easier to get counter hit out of that set up, but that might not be accurate. Also seems like zato struggles to hit a standing opponent from the air and continue the combo on the ground unless he hits them really low, whereas the rest of the cast seems like they can full combo or throw me no problem after they land on the ground no matter how high I get it.
Rather have a god tier Zato and a bottom tier happy chaos nago
he's paying for his sins
He’s still good, Zato players want you to think he’s the worst character in the game while you block 7 mixups into eddy recall over and over while he builds 13 bars of meter
Lmao, except you forget yrc and burst immediately gets rid of eddie and leave Zato on his own for about 7 seconds. You literally can't bait anything with Zato because even if he the read is correct, he still loses eddie on block. Just watch his matches against slayer, its probably the hardest matchup in the game.
ur an id1ot
Zato players were cooking too hard we had to nerf them
patches happened to Eddie
Nerfs kill characters, nerfs kill games
PLEASE #FreeEddie but i didn't know how to fight him so i don't miss him. It's just the right thing to do
#FreeEddie
Why did you have to use Millia as a training dummy like that's his wife :(
Buff Tager
Cf3 plz
They murdered my boy in cold blood
What I got from this video is that Zato used to be able to nullify defensive system mechanics and his main weakness (Eddie downtime) was negligible. Now he has to deal with system mechanics and Eddie dying is really bad for him. Sounds good to me.
He wasn't able to just nullify them he just had really good ways around them and he was balanced around that fact. Eddie downtime was also not his main weakness, just part of it. They were awful changes,
Worst character you say ?
I always wanted to learn Zato, this might be the time.
Thanks for the breakdown, haven’t been keeping up with the patch notes, been a while since I ran into Zato.
zato and may feel so bad to play now
Me: *Checks tier lists and sees May is still really good*
Hmm. Interesting
@@dragonic22 a character can be strong and still not fun to play
@@greedsin555 My fault. When I see the words 'bad to play', I think 'weak', not 'boring'
@@greedsin555 You find Zato boring?
@@dragonic22 don't play him my self so can't say but most zato players have either switched or changed game so that's a pretty good indicator
I think the Eddie nerf time is good but nerfing other neutral options may have been much 😭
Doesn't matter if they keep nerfing zato they'll still be players cooking out there with him
Bitch anyone can cook with any character 😂. Thats like saying that 12 from SF3 isn’t the worst character in the series because one pro player can play him well
# freeeddie
They butchered my boy😢
i don't personally like how zato was able to force noninteractions for the majority of season 2 and as much as im not keen on letting him have those tools back for free, he is one of the characters right now who should reasonably stand to gain something from the coming patch.
based on current patch trajectory, arcsys definitely wants him to be interacting with the rest of the roster more often so if he's going to going to get improvements to BTL then he's going to get something taken away somewhere else that makes the threat of what comes after successfully using BTL not hit the opponent as hard as it would
conversely if arcsys wants to maintain how things like BTL works currently then they could do things like maybe giving back a second on eddie's gauge but changing oppose to drain eddie's gauge more depending on what eddie gets hit by when using it or maybe something else like nerfing sun void somehow or do something very different like making zato's own moves better and making something like drills less active maybe
in any case, i think zato is positioned to receive a net buff in the next patch but i doubt it will be only buffs for him next patch
Giving Eddie one second faster recovery but nerfing Oppose or Sun Void would be a net nerf.
im beginer? playing Zato cause hi cool jojo references who use darkness and demons, questions?))))))
I'm a hater, he can stay down there
That Zato pack hittin rn, rest in piss you wont be missed
scrub detected
@@belaidi_hichemyour char got cooked cope🤡
Super Scrub Detected 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡☢️☢️☢️☢️☢️☢️
bro you blink sm
Everyone is worst on strive compared to the real guilty gears 😏
They kneecapped the man and im not mad about it
Character isn't completely safe against interaction at all points in his offense, while recovering his win condition for free by just flying away if you ever do manage to hit the puppet?
Character's dead. Removed from the game even. How can Zato mains be expected to actually *play the game*?
If you think Zato can just fly away for eddie, and you think having eddie is the win condition then im sorry to inform you that you might be ass.
@@water-111 If you think he couldn't just fly away for Eddie you clearly never watched a single tournament for S1/2 Strive, because that happened constantly even at the highest levels of play.
Merely having Eddie be a win condition is obviously hyperbole but he was (and frankly, is) exceptionally strong in neutral and on offense with a full Eddie bar. Fighting against any half-decent Zato was an endless game where hitting Eddie meant essentially nothing, and blocking a single hit in neutral let Zato transition into offense in a way few other characters could (though many now CAN due to WA funnily enough).
Was he comprehensively stronger than other top tiers? No. But he was very strong and incredibly obnoxious to play against.
Counterpoint, that was really funny though. But I mean more realistically I think most people would still rather deal with him killing time flying around the screen than the average HC or Ram during s2
@@Squiddy00 Not only did i watch high level play during S1 and 2, but i participated in it lmao.
Flight was great, but anyone who simply resorted to flying away for eddie back ended up in a pretty fucked situation when they landed, and simply jumping into flight can get you air to aired. If you think all anyone was doing was jumping and flying away with no consequence you just dont understand whats happening.
His neutral was not exceptionally strong when he had eddie bar, only when eddie was already out. In fact Zato has relatively mid neutral in practice as about half the cast didnt make it easy to summon at all and some character like Axl and HC didnt even care if eddie was out or not.
Eddie getting hit was in fact a pretty bad thing for Zato. He wasnt gone for not but he had to proceed to play a very sub par, non rewarding neutral or stall with flight for it back, to then be put on defense a lot of the time.
The whole meme where Zato makes you block anything and kills you is first thing people who dont know the matchup say lol. If he makes you hold drills in the corner then yes, youre holding that shit. But a majority of the time, when he makes you block normals, nothing is guaranteed after. Off normal moves or pierce theres a FUCKTON of interaction where depending on the risk you wanna take Zato could actually just die.
Yes, he was annoying lol, but almost everything youve said is half true at best.