Unholy Host Balance Adjustments

[Sairus]

Hey everyone,

We are constantly monitoring the performance of the Fighters currently available in Skullgirls Mobile to make sure none are particularly over or under performing. With over 200 Fighters, that’s no small task!

Normally, we aim to make balance adjustments for several Fighters at once rather than singling out specific Fighters, however, Black Dahlia - Unholy Host in particular has been dominating in all modes, so we’ve made some targeted adjustments that will go live in our next major update.

But Unholy Host has been in the game for months! Why are we only adjusting her now?

Put simply, we try to avoid making any balance adjustments too quickly on any new additions. Often Fighters that are deemed extremely low or high tiered after launch eventually settle into more expected ranges. We wanted to keep an eye on Unholy Host before making snap judgements, but she has maintained her overbearing presence, and here we are!

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BLACK DAHLIA - UNHOLY HOST

OCCULT STATUS

OLD SIGNATURE ABILITY:

• When Black Dahlia or her opponent TAGS IN, she removes all enemy BUFFS and inflicts CURSE and HEX for 10/15/20 seconds each.
• DRAIN 1/1.5/2% HEALTH per second from the opponent if they are suffering from a DEBUFF.

NEW SIGNATURE ABILITY:

• When Black Dahlia or her opponent TAGS IN, she removes all enemy BUFFS and inflicts CURSE for 10/15/20 seconds.
• DRAIN 1/1.5/2% HEALTH per second from the opponent if they are suffering from CURSE.

HEX is a notoriously powerful Debuff, and Unholy Host’s easy access to it allowed her to steamroll virtually any defense team with little effort. HEX also made her a juggernaut on defense, as it shut down any attacking Signature Abilities with little way to avoid it. By removing HEX and keeping her access to CURSE, Unholy Host can still deal with many of the heaviest hitting Fighters out there, but she’ll need to work a little harder!

Similarly, having Unholy Host’s health drain trigger off any debuff was a teensy bit far reaching. Now to get maximum benefits you’ll need to maintain the Curse from her first Signature Ability, or inflict it with her EMPOWER Blockbuster.

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If you have any questions about these adjustments, let us know down below!
Thanks so much as always for all your support!

All of us at Hidden Variable <3

 

[Reshiram18]

I think this nerf is quite good, it takes Uhost down from being this perfect goddess of utility while still having value for her since many players who got a hold of her (myself included) invested in her

 

[Wulfden]

I'm extremely grateful that the team has taken the time to let variants test the waters before making adjustments, but I think everyone can agree here that Unholy Host was living up to her title.

I find the changes more reasonable, the health drain over any debuffs made her a nightmare to deal with in particular due to most modes having some level of debuff on fighters. Always looking forward to see new updates from you guys!

EDIT: As an anecdote, I also think this change helps meta wise, because given the nature of her signature abilities making fights a cakewalk with minimal setup, it makes going through the game less fun without some dedicated counter unit people likely won't have. I for one avoided her like the T-Virus because her signature abilities left you without your own, making it a race against the clock (and your own HP stat) hoping to burn through her health and praying your fighter can bleed her down or at least go past the drain rate. She's still a top diamond, but not something that feels useless to go against for lower players / those without high end units.

 

[Tom Kulczewski]

Awesome change

 

[Electrickery]

WE WON!

 

[TonyPartridge30]

My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

 

[Reshiram18]

My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

Can you please elaborate on why your day is ruined by Uhost getting nerfed?

 

[AssistedSun4321]

Dios mío... Cómo lo explico?.... Creo que lo ideal hubiera sido mantener el HEX en lugar de CURSE, de esa manera podrías depender de Supports para luchar contra Unholy Host.
Pero este nerf es demaciado, esto deja a Unholy Host por debajo de varias otras Dahlias.

 

[SpacemanTheOG]

I would let the Hex there and just remove Curse (coz she already have a move that Inflicts it)
I hope you change her a bit again with what I said or something similar and it would be a W move

 

[TonyPartridge30]

Can you please elaborate on why your day is ruined by Uhost getting nerfed?

I enjoyed how powerful she was. Also I liked that one of my favorite palettes happened to be a meta fighter for once. It was also nice having something to deal with all these Model Leader/Rose Tinted defense teams.

 

[LookDesu]

So, iam mad, rlly mad lol, bc i invest so much time on her, Uhost is the top tier fighter rn, BUT you can easily counter her: rose tinted, model leader or a Black Dahlia with "Tea Slip". The nerf is rlly awfull in my opinion, if you guys gonna remove the hex, at least let her regen from any debuff, she will keep easily to counter, A LOT of fighters are broken and do not receive a nerf, assasins greed that do not lose HP, model leader with her 5 auto block, split image with inf HP regen and imunity, these are just some defenses that are broken

 

[Eajisan33]

When will gi jazz get useful adjustments?

 

[Wulfden]

So, iam mad, rlly mad lol, bc i invest so much time on her, Uhost is the top tier fighter rn, BUT you can easily counter her: rose tinted, model leader or a Black Dahlia with "Tea Slip". The nerf is rlly awfull in my opinion, if you guys gonna remove the hex, at least let her regen from any debuff, she will keep easily to counter, A LOT of fighters are broken and do not receive a nerf, assasins greed that do not lose HP, model leader with her 5 auto block, split image with inf HP regen and imunity, these are just some defenses that are broken

I can't say I can agree with this, you can't completely counter her via Rose Tinted if Unholy cleanses your thorns upon tagging in / someone else. Even should you take on the cleanse and wait off curse and hex, that's 20 seconds off the clock, and that does not help with a 3 minute match. Additionally, not everyone has Model Leader either to use. I don't main Dahlia so I can't speak on "Tea Slip", however, this doesn't make your investment for naught either.

Assasin's Greed can still be hit with curse or hex and that shuts down her heal, but that "do not lose HP" only happens if you fight one with Prestige. It also doesn't make her immune to other debuffs such as inverse polarity or a bleed of her own.

Unholy gets to do that health regen *without* prestige through draining opponent's HP via any debuffs and that in itself sets up people for a very bad time should the mode not be on their side.

I can agree that Splitting Image is also annoying with her HP regen, but I wouldn't call that broken, because she's essentially just a damage check. I would absolutely be happy to see a bit of a tweak to her too but I can't consider her broken.

 

[DravTheGuy]

Imo removing the buff cleansing or nerfing the timer would have been enough but hey

 

[DravTheGuy]

So, iam mad, rlly mad lol, bc i invest so much time on her, Uhost is the top tier fighter rn, BUT you can easily counter her: rose tinted, model leader or a Black Dahlia with "Tea Slip". The nerf is rlly awfull in my opinion, if you guys gonna remove the hex, at least let her regen from any debuff, she will keep easily to counter, A LOT of fighters are broken and do not receive a nerf, assasins greed that do not lose HP, model leader with her 5 auto block, split image with inf HP regen and imunity, these are just some defenses that are broken

Some variant don't need to receive nerf because we have other variant that can deal with them, Hex and Deadeye solve alot of those

For M.Leader, you gotta launch her early depending on how many stack of Autoblock she has or rely on a beowulf that does big damage or B.Dhalia S.Crusher's ability to easily access deadeye is huge

For A.Greed, debuff like health block will help or inverse polarity will really help since most of the time she is used with ICU

For S.Image, you could try to lower your hp and then go deal with her

 

[krumb]

Hey everyone,

We are constantly monitoring the performance of the Fighters currently available in Skullgirls Mobile to make sure none are particularly over or under performing. With over 200 Fighters, that’s no small task!

Normally, we aim to make balance adjustments for several Fighters at once rather than singling out specific Fighters, however, Black Dahlia - Unholy Host in particular has been dominating in all modes, so we’ve made some targeted adjustments that will go live in our next major update.

But Unholy Host has been in the game for months! Why are we only adjusting her now?

Put simply, we try to avoid making any balance adjustments too quickly on any new additions. Often Fighters that are deemed extremely low or high tiered after launch eventually settle into more expected ranges. We wanted to keep an eye on Unholy Host before making snap judgements, but she has maintained her overbearing presence, and here we are!

---

BLACK DAHLIA - UNHOLY HOST

OCCULT STATUS

OLD SIGNATURE ABILITY:

NEW SIGNATURE ABILITY:


HEX is a notoriously powerful Debuff, and Unholy Host’s easy access to it allowed her to steamroll virtually any defense team with little effort. HEX also made her a juggernaut on defense, as it shut down any attacking Signature Abilities with little way to avoid it. By removing HEX and keeping her access to CURSE, Unholy Host can still deal with many of the heaviest hitting Fighters out there, but she’ll need to work a little harder!

Similarly, having Unholy Host’s health drain trigger off any debuff was a teensy bit far reaching. Now to get maximum benefits you’ll need to maintain the Curse from her first Signature Ability, or inflict it with her EMPOWER Blockbuster.

---

If you have any questions about these adjustments, let us know down below!
Thanks so much as always for all your support!

All of us at Hidden Variable <3

finally kekw

 

[FriendlyWolf]

Honestly the nerf was very much needed. At high prize fight streaks I was forced to use only filias or hope my jawbreaker double would get lucky since that was my only reliable way to counter her drain and worse if she had her regen and haste marquee AND hoping she didnt tag out have a surgeon general or model to clear out the debuffs.

Unholy host has a lot going for her since she could easily break through the meta defenders while providing also a strong defense against attackers abilities. Now that she doesnt have hex anymore Unholy Host attackers now have to watch out for dreadlocks, immorals, and assassin greeds on defense teams. And attackers such as Beastking and Terror Byte can now have a better shot at disposing her with their abilities. She still does good meta wise because of the buff clear and long curse though and her marquee.

Although I will admit I'm gonna miss the thrill of fighting tanky UH with my filias. Unfortunately this nerf now makes my strong desire for a Death Wish even stronger, but thats another thing.

 

[Aoskull]

It's great that the official responded to player’s feedback relatively early, but I think draining 40% of health in 20 seconds without distance limit is still too strong. It’s acceptable when using it yourself, but on the defending side, countermeasures are still too hard without Model Leader, Rose Tinted, or fighters who has HEX, HEAL BLOCK or INVERSE POLARITY because of signature 1 and “No time to die”. Please check my signature 2 idea below.

•Signature 2
Signature 2: Gain 1stack of MIASMA for 5/6/7 seconds every 5 seconds while your opponent is suffering from CURSE.

• Changing this drain effect to MIASMA allows Unholy’s opponent to prevent the drain effect by getting far away from her and take it to long-range combat.
Also, this change could be a relief for fighters who has no countermeasures. Since miasma is a buff, other countermeasures like Chaos Vanish, Drag'n'Bite, Canopy Bounce etc. are effective.
The addition of distance limit reduces her opportunity of activating the drain effect, but the addition of miasma allows her to drain her opponent’s BB meter.

 

[Irghen]

I think she'll remain a powerhouse, which is nice. Automatic curse on defense does deal with like half of the cast.

I do agree with @Aoskull on the Miasma thing.

 

[•-• R I C E •-•]

It's great that the official responded to player’s feedback relatively early, but I think draining 40% of health in 20 seconds without distance limit is still too strong. It’s acceptable when using it yourself, but on the defending side, countermeasures are still too hard without Model Leader, Rose Tinted, or fighters who has HEX, HEAL BLOCK or INVERSE POLARITY because of signature 1 and “No time to die”. Please check my signature 2 idea below.

•Signature 2
Signature 2: Gain 1stack of MIASMA for 5/6/7 seconds every 5 seconds while your opponent is suffering from CURSE.

• Changing this drain effect to MIASMA allows Unholy’s opponent to prevent the drain effect by getting far away from her and take it to long-range combat.
Also, this change could be a relief for fighters who has no countermeasures. Since miasma is a buff, other countermeasures like Chaos Vanish, Drag'n'Bite, Canopy Bounce etc. are effective.
The addition of distance limit reduces her opportunity of activating the drain effect, but the addition of miasma allows her to drain her opponent’s BB meter.

Miasma feels wrong on a black dahlia, it's has no relationship with the skill set of an assassin.