Some Dragon Ball FighterZ pros believe the new balance update actually made the game worse
The first half of 2022 was likely the darkest period in Dragon Ball FighterZ's competitive history with Lab Coat Android 21 running rampant as a meta-warping monster.
Bandai Namco and Arc System Works finally attempted to rectify problems facing the game this past week in the Version 1.31 balance update, but some pros and longtime players seem to believe DBFZ is still in a bad spot if not worse off than it was previously.
The main complaints we're currently seeing regarding the new patch are the developers not nerfing Lab Coat 21 hard enough, buffing already strong options and pushing FighterZ towards a more single-minded competitive meta.
Pro player Cloud805 is perhaps the most outspoken about the changes saying in a recent video that this is the "worst patch in Dragon Ball history and maybe fighting game history."
His biggest complaints about the update stem from the adjustments made from Sparking Blast combined with Super Dash, which no longer launches an opponent on hit and creates better combo routes — while also seemingly making them harder to punish on block.
One thing I hate about fighting game devs in my experience is they will never 100% revert a change they made no matter how stupid it was because they don’t want to admit they were wrong.
— Jonathan M (@cloud805) June 29, 2022
He's also in the camp that Lab Coat 21 is still likely the best character in the game with her combo routes left intact, and even though the command grab Super can no longer be combo'd into, the fact that she can end a blockstring with it at any time means players will still have to remain on their toes to not get their damage reduced.
Player, coach and commentator Sephyr also released a video as a message to Bandai about the direction the game appears to be heading in and how it hurts competition.
One of his biggest worries is that DBFZ appears to be pushing scramble situations much more often now, which is / may push the meta into a more simplified game of rock, paper, scissors where the fastest button will more often win out.
The long term competitive scene have been the ones to continually support FighterZ for over 4 years now, but there's a growing sense of frustration for where things are going.
With the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour 2022-2023 announced yesterday, we'll have a better opportunity to see just how much of an impact this re-balancing made and how many players are going to be sticking around to continue participating in events.
Gonna abstain from going to the dbfz world finals.
— SonicFox (@SonicFox) July 2, 2022
Just don’t like this version of the game at all and then they also decided to release a brand new patch for it two weeks prior to the finale.
Just wanna keep my focus on Evo for Skullgirls.
Former DBFZ Evo champion EG|SonicFox is one who will seemingly be dropping out of that for the time being with their statement yesterday that they won't be participating in the World Finals tournament taking place in just a few weeks.
You can check out Cloud805 and Sephyr's full videos below to get a fuller sense on their thoughts surrounding Dragon Ball FighterZ's current state and potential future below where there is some NSFW language present.
