One of the Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition universal system changes is a nerf to V-Trigger damage scaling. During Season 2, a lot of players complained about characters like Ibuki, Balrog, Urien, and Laura stealing rounds with easy V-Trigger confirms into big damage. Activating V-Trigger during a combo will now add an additional layer of damage scaling, making all hits after activation do ten percent less damage than they did in Season 2, reducing their comeback potential.

In addition to increased damage scaling, Capcom also added some character-specific nerfs, like lowering the damage on Akuma’s V-Trigger Goshoryuken, preventing Balrog from comboing crouching heavy punch after his crouching medium kick target combo, and adding a juggle limit to Ibuki’s bomb. Due to scaling, combos from activation lose about 40 to 60 damage and stun compared to season 2, though it can vary between characters. Urien seems to be the character most impacted by the scaling nerf, because each hit of Aegis Reflector adds to the scaling but does low damage.

Because of this, characters like Menat, Urien and Guile who get a specific amount of resources during their V-Trigger may want to go for an easier combo with similar damage to keep their trigger active. While it may be harder to score easy damage with the old standard combos, Capcom has also opened up new combo routes for much of the cast with V-Trigger II and other changes. And as always, Critical Arts have a maximum scaling of 50 percent, so VT combos confirming directly into CA will still pack a big punch. Be sure to get in the lab and find new ways to punish your opponents and push your damage to the brink!

For more Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition tips, check out our Rising Up series, and keep your eyes on ShoryukenTube!