'Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition' News: Season 3.5 Patch to Nerf Character That Apparently Had It Coming
Even though it was April Fool's, Capcom was not in any way kidding around when it announced a Season 3.5 patch for "Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition."
This, of course, took gamers by surprise, so they immediately pored over the patch notes when they were made available. Needless to say, they showed signs of a lot of nerfing on the way.
The "Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition" season 3.5 patch comes with a handful of balance changes for each of the 30 characters in the roster in addition to some tweaks on the Crush Counters, throws, and V-Reversals.
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The fighter that got the biggest nerf in the latest patch is Abigail, which comes as no surprise, having been buffed to a level of almost indestructibility that a lot of gamers who found it unusually difficult to beat him took notice. However, this is a bit heartbreaking for those who love to play as the big man.
The largest contender in "Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition" still matches the size of his health bar, despite a 25-point decrease. Thankfully, these points were transferred to his stun level, so it becomes a bit tougher to conk him out.
Inflicting the same level of damage before the patch will take greater effort for Abigail this time though as the stun levels of his V-Trigger techniques have been decreased for the charge by 50.
The same goes for the dreaded Abigail Punch. After "Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition" gets the latest patch, all versions of this move will have decreased stun.
While the damage for the non-rapid button EX version was increased from 130 to 140, Capcom made it a point to take those 10 points from the rapid button press iteration instead, which is now down to 160.
His EX Giant Flip gets nerfed big time, too. Starting a combo will be a more challenging affair for Abigail after the season 3.5 patch as the damage is down to 80 from 140. The stun level is now at 150 from 200.
Lighter attacks by Abigail would not be much of a threat for opponents, at least compared to how they were in before the "Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition" patch.
His crouching light punches and the accompanying recovery have increased to six frames, making him slower and easier to tag and counter. The standing light kicks get the same alteration, but the pushback on the block was increased.
It is not all bad news though. Thanks to the "Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition" season 3.5 update, Abigail can take greater advantage of his Metro Crash, which will now deal damage instead of recoverable health when countered.
The damage on both the non-charged and max-charge versions got a boost of 30 points with the former getting an extra stun increase of 50 points.
Gamers can read all about the detailed nerf and buff changes on Abigail and all other characters via the "Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition" patch here.
The season 3.5 update will be rolled out later today. There will be a six-hour downtime for this that will begin at 11 a.m. PDT on April 3.
