Characters Vintage Virtuoso - [ better Precision user ]

[SvenZ]

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​	OLD​	NEW​
Signature Ability 1​	Gain 1 stack of PRECISION every 20/15/10 combo hits.	Gain 1 stack of PRECISION every 15/11/9 combo hits. Combo hit requirement is reduced by 1 for every 9 combo hits.
Signature Ability 2​	PRECISION HITS grant ENRAGE and inflict GUARD BREAK for 5/7/10 seconds	PRECISION HITS grant ENRAGE for 5/7/10 seconds (Guard Break is removed from the SA)

Explanation:
- This means that if you were to do a 50 hit combo, you would gain a PRECISION stack on the following combo break points:

9 - 17 - 24 - 30 - 35 - 39 - 42 - 44 - 45 - 46 - 47 - 48 - 49 - 50​

-That's a total of 14 PRECISION stacks compared to the 5 you'd get from the old SA1
- After reaching a combo of 44, every following hit will be a precision hit one.

Why the change?
- Vintage Virtuoso's biggest problem is timing. You simply can't predict and properly utilize the PRECISION stacks. As such, they're simply left as glorified critical hits. Also due to the big gap between gaining Precision stacks, you often time leave the opponent with very few Guard Breaks inflicted, because they've expired by the time you're done.
- With this change, he'll be much, much better at utilizing Precision and will have much more consistent Enrage as well.
- This change will really encourage a high combo playstyle, and will much better reward the player for doing so.



Overall, VV is not highly impressive right now. His damage is rather low, while utility is a bit loose. Even in the official Tier List it's evident that his Fire Element Bronze counterpart is significantly better, and more widely used. Hopefully these changes will help even out the playing field and make him more viable at his niche

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Spoiler: changelog

Old SA1 proposal:

Signature Ability 1​
Gain 1 stack of PRECISION every 20/15/10 combo hits. Gain 1 stack of PRECISION when the combo ends.

 

[SvenZ]

Made some pretty big changes.

 

[Kheul]

I really like the idea behind the rework. You stayed loyal to the original concept and made improvements so he can get a PRECISION kill more reliably at higher combo counts.

I use Big Band quite a lot and I actually consider him as my main. So let me add some stuff from my personal perspective.

I always felt like Guard Break was the unnecessary one here as he can use various moves like parries or his UNFLINCHING dash (+prestige) to open up enemies anyways. Also I'm not sure removing Enrage would be a good idea even if he will be able to always crit at some point. Because his BASE ATK is even lower than Beat Box. This rework also guts his current synergy with TUBA TUBA. The only reliable way to finish enemies with the last hit (as far as I know).

Big Band's damage scales insanely well with Beat Extend. But he activates so many stuff with prior hits due to his high hit count and low general damage. These changes won't make him any better where he lacks at, but just improves his already good high combo count reliability. But I won't expect a silver variant to be insanely impactful anyways.

I use my Vintage Virtuoso with really high Meter Gain so I aim to finish them up with Tuba Tuba as it is a really strong finishing tool both utility-wise and its synergy with VV but after this it won't work and will force me to get higher combo counts for a reliable PRECISION finish instead. If anything this can make him useful against Death Wish, after the first HEX if he is at +44 combos he won't be get HEX'd again.

With these changes:
- He will always precision hit at +44 hits which has a really good value.
- No more Tuba Tuba synergy thus makes it less reliable in a sense as you can currently get a precision finisher with just the use of a BB3.
- Way less damage overall
- Still won't be useful against squishy units as they will die before perma precision kicks in.

I would propose two changes:
- I think Enrage is way more valuable than Guard Break.
- I would want to preserve his current synergy with Tuba Tuba.

 

[SvenZ]

I really like the idea behind the rework. You stayed loyal to the original concept and made improvements so he can get a PRECISION kill more reliably at higher combo counts.

I use Big Band quite a lot and I actually consider him as my main. So let me add some stuff from my personal perspective.

I always felt like Guard Break was the unnecessary one here as he can use various moves like parries or his UNFLINCHING dash (+prestige) to open up enemies anyways. Also I'm not sure removing Enrage would be a good idea even if he will be able to always crit at some point. Because his BASE ATK is even lower than Beat Box. This rework also guts his current synergy with TUBA TUBA. The only reliable way to finish enemies with the last hit (as far as I know).

Big Band's damage scales insanely well with Beat Extend. But he activates so many stuff with prior hits due to his high hit count and low general damage. These changes won't make him any better where he lacks at, but just improves his already good high combo count reliability. But I won't expect a silver variant to be insanely impactful anyways.

I use my Vintage Virtuoso with really high Meter Gain so I aim to finish them up with Tuba Tuba as it is a really strong finishing tool both utility-wise and its synergy with VV but after this it won't work and will force me to get higher combo counts for a reliable PRECISION finish instead. If anything this can make him useful against Death Wish, after the first HEX if he is at +44 combos he won't be get HEX'd again.

With these changes:
- He will always precision hit at +44 hits which has a really good value.
- No more Tuba Tuba synergy thus makes it less reliable in a sense as you can currently get a precision finisher with just the use of a BB3.
- Way less damage overall
- Still won't be useful against squishy units as they will die before perma precision kicks in.

I would propose two changes:
- I think Enrage is way more valuable than Guard Break.
- I would want to preserve his current synergy with Tuba Tuba.

Thank you for the feedback! I did not think of Tuba Tuba offering exactly 21 hits, so you finish on a Precision hit. Even if you follow it up with Giant Step into Typmani Drive, it's still 41 hits. Just shy away from the next break point. If we change the base combo requirement from 9 to 8, your 21st attack ends up gaining Precision.. so it's still not exact.. I'll ponder on this more. I'm open to ideas.

Good call on the Guard Break. It's indeed quite redundant. Especially given his PA high proc chance, and the fact it works with Accuracy (thanks again for sharing that). I'll change it to Enrage. There has been a lot of Powercreep, so he shouldn't be overwhelming with these changes.