After the recent patch, it has occurred to me that not everyone understands why exactly they hate Shatter (A & C specifically), so today I'm going to clear that up.
Shatter A is a back-swaying, high-crushing, 3/4ths of the screen, lingering low that can be cancelled into snowballs and linked into all of Velvet’s highly damaging combo routes. Despite it being 18 frames, in a game where you can make a frame trap in almost any string, makes this move outrageously good for what Velvet is supposed to do.
Velvet for no reason, makes you not want to press buttons or rather, it’s preferred because of the amount of damage you take if you guess wrong or hesitate and she is designed in a way where you do want to counterattack her at some point because of eruption being +2 on block, 5B being 0 and the insane amount of grinding you will take from her trying to get back into the midrange. When you finally do get back to the midrange, you will probably evaporate in one combo if not, the next moment you don’t feel like getting further grinded into orange juice. Shatter A can also be used as meaty with 8 active frames to safely keep people in place with D’s where Velvet can avoid the risk of being counterattacked.
Shatter B is actually fine besides MAYBE the Suki cancel Shatter B 3C loop in the combo that gives Velvet even more damage potential in the corner without the need for resources. With only 2 reps, Velvet can hit around 1.5 before actually hitting max JD for no resources. I don’t see why a zoning character has this but it’s not an issue and I really think Shatter B is fine from a design standpoint.
Shatter C can be spaced and made completely safe on block by the use of snowballs or icicles. The bigger problem with this move is that there is no deadzone for it despite the character archetype. Examples of zoning characters like Hilda or Nu where there are dead-zones right in-front of the character and the majority of the recovery of this move is done in the air rather than Velvet recovering on the ground so you will often float Velvet instead of getting a full proper ground combo for maximum damage. The reward for this move hitting is way higher than any of the other characters in the game closest being to Arizona.
Shatter A is a back-swaying, high-crushing, 3/4ths of the screen, lingering low that can be cancelled into snowballs and linked into all of Velvet’s highly damaging combo routes. Despite it being 18 frames, in a game where you can make a frame trap in almost any string, makes this move outrageously good for what Velvet is supposed to do.
Velvet for no reason, makes you not want to press buttons or rather, it’s preferred because of the amount of damage you take if you guess wrong or hesitate and she is designed in a way where you do want to counterattack her at some point because of eruption being +2 on block, 5B being 0 and the insane amount of grinding you will take from her trying to get back into the midrange. When you finally do get back to the midrange, you will probably evaporate in one combo if not, the next moment you don’t feel like getting further grinded into orange juice. Shatter A can also be used as meaty with 8 active frames to safely keep people in place with D’s where Velvet can avoid the risk of being counterattacked.
Shatter B is actually fine besides MAYBE the Suki cancel Shatter B 3C loop in the combo that gives Velvet even more damage potential in the corner without the need for resources. With only 2 reps, Velvet can hit around 1.5 before actually hitting max JD for no resources. I don’t see why a zoning character has this but it’s not an issue and I really think Shatter B is fine from a design standpoint.
Shatter C can be spaced and made completely safe on block by the use of snowballs or icicles. The bigger problem with this move is that there is no deadzone for it despite the character archetype. Examples of zoning characters like Hilda or Nu where there are dead-zones right in-front of the character and the majority of the recovery of this move is done in the air rather than Velvet recovering on the ground so you will often float Velvet instead of getting a full proper ground combo for maximum damage. The reward for this move hitting is way higher than any of the other characters in the game closest being to Arizona.