No decent player is just going to block all day. That's why chip damage exists to discourage that play style. I don't see how adding no chip kills at the last pixel will fix anything. There's plenty of new mechanics Nrs implemented to deal with zoning and being chipped to death. Its not perfect but it works. If it didn't, we'd see nothing but deadshots, black atoms and aquamans in every top 8 grand final.
It will force the opposing player to actually have to fight. For example, if Aquaman has you on critical, all he has to do is use From the Deep to win the match; a move that auto-tracks, you can't jump it on reaction, you can't MB roll to escape it because it will still connect(the patch changed this, now MB roll will make you invisible to auto-tracking moves). It's funny because chip kills allows the player with the life lead to turtle. Like I said before, in a game that has so many auto-tracking moves, I don't think chip kills should exist but that's just my personal opinion. Obviously, NRS disagrees because they didn't patch it out.
I love how the Aquaman community is freaking out about his nerfs. He's still viable imo, he just can't blindly do stuff into 40% combos now. Now, he actually has to THINK. Something they aren't use to. I'm thinking about picking him up now.
My biggest fear has come true: Supergirl got buffed. This character is going to be freakin stupid. She has so many ways to open you up, now she's going to be doing more damage and has another string that's plus?!?!?! Ughh!
Deadshot got the nerf I wanted him to get. Keep his zoning the way it is but take away some of his inside options. Now he can't B1,B1,B1 into overhead you when you finally get in. I'm cool with that.
Look out for Brainiac, his damage now is going to be ridiculous. I expect him to creep up in the top 10 now.
Batman left pretty much unscathed as I predicted.
Cheetah is going to be even better with her plus frames.
Canary now has a legit grab and plus frames.........lol
WW got some good buffs. She didn't get the selectable trait but the recovery frames on it has been removed so now she can activate more often without getting punished. B23 is now plus on block with makes it a lot more viable but it still has a huge gap. F23 is plus but it still has slow start up. I guess you have to condition your opponet to block the overhead then mix it up with F23. The shield throw buff is nice as well. It just increases her overall damage output. She didn't need much so I'm cool with it.
Pretty good patch imo.