Rivals of Aether

Rivals of Aether

Lea (CrossCode)
My Thoughts on Lea
I posted here since there's a 1000 character limit for comments.

I want to love the character, especially with how much I loved the hell outta Crosscode, but what really irks me is how suffocating and debilitating it feels trying to work with the elements. Like, it feels like the time I have the element I'm using is so short that by the time I figure something out in the heat of a combo/mixups, the overload is already right on my doorstep, and this is only exacerbated by the fact that the cooldown time is unbelievably long when it happens. A lot of the time I'm trying to fight the response time on neutral special to switch out before all those different moves are just locked out for practically the rest of the stock—God forbid I'm in hitstun for even a second, because it's more or less guaranteed overload at that point. Of course I *could* survive and wait for it to come off cooldown that way, but the length it takes is practically a full match, and you may as well jump off if you want to make use of them any time soon.

Then there's the insane windup in the specials: I have to stand there like a buffoon right in front of an enemy for 1/2 of them, and when I do hit an enemy with a level 2/3 special, it's just... Underwhelming, like there isn't even a final hit for most specials to even launch them away, even though I'm taking the time to risk standing still for what is practically ages with a highly telegraphed move in a game that moves very quickly. I mean, all the windup and hits for Vermilion Echo just to NOT even have a final, powerful hit is demoralizing since I could've just used an fsmash for far better results. Best case scenario: The opponent goes for a parry purely for the disrespect factor and misses it. That's the only way to practically land any of these even if they *were* much stronger.

My suggestions:
-Ease up on how quickly the overload meter fills
-Maybe a game slowdown effect like in the original game when charging specials?
-Give the higher level specials some actual power. The only practical level 2/3 is Ether Snipe assuming you launch an enemy away. Everything else has very little power, minus thunder, *but even then* I still have to stand in front of them like a moron and hope they don't just clown on me instead.
-Maybe an overhaul on ice specials. I think bouncing balls off walls is great in theory, but the payoff is dubious at best, and they tend to serve as an unnecessary neutral obstacle.
-Bounce Ether Snipe (Or even just ranged attacks in general) off blast zones. The fun factor of those moves in particular would skyrocket.

All in all, I think everything suffers from incredibly long and brutally punishing windups for very little payout. Though I think bouncing balls off the different sides of the screen would just be chef's kiss personally, not that it's a flaw they don't.