Skill Gate Characters: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (revise quote template spacing) |
FlashRebel (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| (3 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 2:
Characters that are easy to use effectively for an amateur, but also easy to counter for an expert. These tend to be [[Mighty Glacier|extremely slow]], so that a faster character can bash them around without ever getting hit, or [[Glass Cannon|extremely frail]] (and possibly [[Fragile Speedster|fast]]), with sturdier characters demonstrating that the most important [[Hit Point]] is the [[Critical Existence Failure|last]]. [[Crippling Overspecialization]] may also be at play. However, these characters may sometimes stay solid past the end of their "glory days" if used well enough and not have their once powerful weapon expected to be a [[Game Breaker]].
Contrast the [[Lethal Joke Character]], which is weak unless used by an expert player who knows the trick(s). Also contrast [[Difficult but Awesome]], who is more obviously useful but appears worthless at first because (s)he/it is, well... [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|difficult]] to use. Sometimes a Skill Gate can also be either, creating an inverted bell-curve where it does well at both the newbie and expert levels but appears to be horrid for average players. Not to be confused with a [[Crutch Character]], which starts strong, but is inferior to other characters, sometimes because they [[Can't Catch Up|have trouble keeping up]]. Compare [["Wake
{{examples}}
* ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl'' has Pit, neither a [[Glass Cannon]] or a [[Mighty Glacier]]. Being based off of Cupid, Pit is annoying because he uses speedy arrows that cause interruption to make the lives of decent players miserable, and touching him, let alone gimping him, can be made bothersome what with him being able to ''fly''. Aside from that, however, Pit has no glaring strengths and slightly sub-par melee (although said melee has multiple multi-hit attacks so it can't be all bad).
** A much better example is Zelda, who has an amazing projectile, kills at ridiculously low percents, and outprioritizes everything... until you realize that her projectile can be spotdodged/powershielded/whatever on reaction. Then you realize her grab is slower then reaction time meaning she has no real answers to a shielding opponent, and suddenly her approach game becomes awful. Then you realize that her slow grab combined with slow moves out of shield means bad punishment and you get the idea. Furthermore, multi-hit moves are becoming [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hQIy7P7RWo#t=0m60s less effective]. This in turn makes characters that depended on them skill gate characters.
** Some players consider Ike this as well. He's slow and cannot take as much punishment as the other [[Mighty Glacier|Mighty Glacier's]] but he hits like a freight train, his moves are hard to interrupt, and his attacks have a wide reach. Again, he is a case of: stomps newbies, walked all over by more skilled opponents, DEADLY in skilled hands.
** On a similar note, Super Smash Brothers Melee has a case of this in the top tiers. Early on Sheik was considered the undisputed best, and even considered for banning. However with the rise of improved technical ability, Fox showed that Sheik was, relative to him, a skill-gate character. Later Falco and Jigglypuff illustrated this as well.
Line 14:
* Zangief from ''[[Street Fighter]] IV''. He has a spammable spinning attack that average/new players will get creamed against, but it is severely punishable by expert players.
** [[That Damn Ken]] and his [[Hurricane Kick]] spam! Until you notice his upper body is completely unprotected...
** The [[Shotoclone|Shoto Clones]] are arguably an example of the "bell curve" type of
** Vega's speed and claw range would overwhelm new players until they learned his fairly simple patterns. He gets better in expert play though, because of the skill and timing required to perform his [[Difficult but Awesome]] tricks, such as the safe claw dive/grab mixup in ''II'' and ''IV'', and his infinite combo in the ''Alpha'' series.
* In ''[[Rise of Nations]]'', the Russians were mildly overpowered in matches between casual players but were considered one of the worst factions by expert players. The developers didn't think this was a problem because there were nearly 20 factions to choose from.
Line 20:
* In ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'', Pyros end up as these in higher levels of gameplay.
** Pyros can seem overpowered to new players but at higher levels of gameplay, they lack any form of advanced movement (which is very important in this game) and are near useless outside of close range. Their only decent competitive tactic is reliant on the enemy to attack them with specific weapons they can [[Attack Reflector|deflect]] and is easily countered. However, it should be noted that expert Pyros may retain their usefulness by taking advantage of ambush tactics and the aforementioned deflector, as well as presenting constant threats to Spies and making enemies temporarily retreat. Only the [[Leeroy Jenkins|W+M1]] strategy is what makes newbies a bit dangerous.
** Although not useless at high level per se, the Heavy also performs very well at low levels of play for his very simple spray-and-pray gameplay and lack of reliance on advanced movement, but gets countered easily by Snipers and Spys, two classes that perform extremely well in the hands of experienced players (but quite poorly otherwise), and is shunned and considered boring at high levels of play for his sluggishness. There is a saying among dedicated TF2 players: "There is no such thing as a Heavy main".
* Hunters from ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' until halfway through ''Burning Crusade''. High damage output by mashing three buttons, a pet to push back castbars, and plenty of ways to escape an opponent. Also had a 3-yard yellow zone between their melee and range radii wherein they couldn't do anything but watch their pet attack if you managed to root them in the appropriate place.
** Warriors also have a 'donut of safety' where you're out of their melee range, but not far enough to get charged... Except Tauren Warriors, whose hitbox is 8 yards instead of 5, the minimum Charge range.
Line 27 ⟶ 28:
*** But in fitting with the trope Circle of Protection can be very useful depending on the opponent's deck. Stopping that giant creature with trample and lifelink from ever doing damage is worth one mana a turn.
*** The pre-packaged decks [[Wizards of the Coast]] sells are generally skill gates in themselves: Competitive against each other, but will get crushed against tournament-level decks. But they are useful in teaching newer players how to modify their decks to win more (first tip: Buy two of the same pre-packaged decks and smoosh 'em together.)
* ''[[
** Note that ice car spam is nowhere near the best way to play Jin, and he does his [[Game Breaker|Game Breaking]] in serious tournament play by having boatloads of [[Invulnerable Attack|invincibility frames]] and frame advantage. But Ice Car Jins are most certainly Skill Gate Characters.
** Noel is also one easy-to-pick-up character whose confusing and seemingly relentless Drive attacks can overwhelm novices but can be taken apart by experts who recognise the openings.
** Iron Tager has become this in ''Continuum Shift''. His incredible power coupled with the fact that he is much easier to use than he looks makes him widely hated by new [[
*** It has reached a point where people at low levels are [[Rage Quit]] ing on the VS screen because of their opponent picking Tager.
* Gado in ''[[Bloody Roar]] 2'', degraded from a [[Game Breaker]] in the first game. [[Mighty Glacier|Hits like a truck, and has some nice combos that can chew off life if you don't know how to handle it, but moves so slow]]. Seems devastating when your first fight against him or unlocked, but seems less and less fearsome as you understand the game and get better at it. Still makes a helluva annoying boss for new players. Unfortunately, in later games he was [[Nerf
* There was a time during ''[[
** Near the end of the ''Starcraft'' era however, "Fast Mutas" were considered to be the best Zerg opening, and most Terran and Protoss builds were judged against this build. Said Terran and Protoss builds were only considered viable if they were fast enough to outproduce or counter the initial [[Zerg Rush]] of Mutalisks. Certainly an example of the "bell curve" Skill Gate.
** Most beginners and intermediate players gravitate to the Protoss because their playstyle is based around having fewer, stronger units without too many special abilities to make them 'work'. In armies of equal cost, it's typically easier to control 10 beefy units rather than 30 units that die instantly if you make a mistake. Add to this that building 30 units takes more work than building 10 and you'll see why most new players like the toss: easier micro and easier macro. Of course, once you get good ''none'' of that matters in any meaningful way anymore and player skill becomes increasingly important.
* Eddy Gordo got this reputation in ''[[Tekken]] 3''. Novice players would enjoy [[Button Mashing]] and the flips and spins he'd do, stymieing most others..except those who figured out his patterns. Or just picked Kuma and smashed him to bits before he could even get in range.
** Eddy is an interesting case, because of two reasons. One is that until mastered, most players will do better with him if they just employ [[Button Mashing]] and joystick waggling. The other is that it takes a disproportionately high degree of skill to beat button mashing Eddy players ''consistently''. Even ''experts'' that are below master caliber lose to button mashing Eddy players on occasion. This tends to start a lot of [[Trash Talk
* One team tends to take on this role every season in ''[[Madden NFL]]'', depending on whichever play or group of plays are considered Game Breakers that year.
* ''[[League of Legends]]'' has a few:
Line 54 ⟶ 55:
* From the ''[[Soul Series]]'', the nunchaku-wielders (Li Long and later Maxi) have somewhat erratic attack patterns and several easy-to-abuse moves that trap the opponent in them for multiple hits. For maxi, this is thanks to the Pure Soul Loop system. Pure Soul Loop allows you successfully button-mash forever, but at the same time, Maxi can only move in a straight line while combo-ing in general. Thus, stepping around him makes all the difference. Even still, Maxi has really high base attack, so Pure Soul Loop combos only have to succeed but a few times.
** Kilik is a notorious "easy to pick up and defeat opponents" character. However, a patient user of Guard Impacts and parries can quickly dissect and destroy a button-mashing Kilik player with relative ease.
** [[The Scrappy|Necrid]] is generally considered this by those that don't call him a broken character because they think he's a [[Game Breaker]]. Necrid's movelist and gameplay tends to revolve entirely around [[Whoring]], which means he can often get perfects against new players by simply pressing a button over and over. People that understand spacing and guard impacts, however, will usually curb-stomp Necrid since [[Spam Attacks]] are one of the only things his poorly-designed movelist is good for.
* Shotia from ''[[Do Don Pachi]] dai ou jou''. Powerful regular shot, starts off with 3 bombs and maxes out at 6 (most of any character in the game)...but she also moves very slowly when she's firing her laser, and if she dies she loses all laser power, which is a horrible thing to have happen to you against a boss or midboss.
* ''[[Robot Arena]] 2'' has EMERGENCY, whose powerful drive train and armor, and ''very'' powerful flipper make him a nuisance for new players... until you realize that [[Technical Pacifist|flippers do almost no damage]]. Avoid edges with out-of-bounds zones and make sure your bot can (or doesn't need to) self-right.
| |||