A few of us were having a discussion about Skull Man on Skype, and I had certainly had an opinion about him before, but I began to develop it more. I shall present this now. This is pretty long, so I spoiler'd it. This is also my first big public analysis, so yeah.
The way I see it, the problem with Skull Man is NOT combat with him. If you wind up in a double circle-strafe lock with him, the more skilled player WILL win, or at least, the fight is as fair as any other match-up can be expected to be. The problem when talking about Skull Man’s OPness, in my opinion, is the approach; that is to say, he flexes his OP muscles when you’re trying to START a skirmish with him.
There two ways of starting a fight: shooting from a distance (i.e., behind cover), and just attacking (as in, mid to close range, not behind cover). The problem is neither of these two methods works well at all against Skull Man.
It was suggested by some on Skype that the best way to deal with (approach) Skull Man is to stand back, and shoot a ‘feint’ shot from afar. This feint shot, it was said, should be directed to a point just above Skull Man, where standing still an activating the barrier won’t give Skull Man hyper mode (as I will call his boosted mode), and it would be too difficult to catch the bullet (meaning, it’s juuust too high or impeccable timing would be needed to jump into it). Then, when Skull Man activates his shield, and he doesn’t enter hyper mode, you can move in and take advantage of his recharge time. This, then, is why many have advocated a recharge time nerf, so that once you fake out Skull Man, you have more time to inflict damage.
There are quite a few flaws with this plan, the first of which introduces my first big beef with Skull Man. As we all knew, the good Skull Man user camps and waits for someone foolish enough to approach. In most good camping spots, you should be able to see any opponent that could be gunning for you. If someone tries to shoot at Skull Man from afar, he has no reason not to fire back even if he isn’t in hyper mode yet. His projectiles travel extremely fast even outside of hyper mode. He has a far greater chance of hitting you than you do of hitting him, and he’ll hit you more. But, disregarding this very important fact for a moment, let’s say you're able to get off an accurate shot or two before getting return fire. The feint does not have the desired effect. Shot from a distance that keeps you out of critical range, the projectiles won’t hit a camping Skull Man before he has time to react. His most reasonable option, when the firing opponent is out of sight, is not to activate his shield, but to dodge and relocate. This is NOT because he sees through the feint, but because, in this situation, this is the most sensible thing for Skull Man to do. If you decide to try and catch up to him as he flees, he uses his fast bullets to either pick you off or keep you at bay. The distance approach has failed.
So, now that Skull Man is at new camping spot, you decide to try the second approach method. Direct assault. This has one major flaw right off the bat. The only way to physically approach Skull Man without putting yourself in immediate and usually (due to the sheer speed of his projectiles) realized danger is by approaching from behind him. This possibility is eliminated by Skull Man’s camping. Charging from the peripherals or from the front is nearly suicide, as he’ll either bombard you with easy to aim, very easy-to-hit-with bullets as he catches your rushed shots and enters hyper mode, OR his barrage of bullets will cause you to flee, in which case he’ll pick you off with those same fast bullets as you do so, probably giving physical chase as well.
Now, perhaps after reading this you are thinking, ‘Skull Man’s too fragile to survive most charges’, or ‘His bullets are so weak that I can frag him far before he can frag me’. These issues are eliminated by the Skull Man class’s signature strong point, his hyper mode. As described above, you’ll be in mid to close range if you can manage to get Skull Man into hyper mode. As these ranges in hyper mode, he can dodge any attack, land any hit with very swift projectiles at a close range, and now he can frag anything this side of Hardman with ease, too, as his extremely accurate shots deal twice as much damage, and to an opponent who has already probably been hit once or twice at least during his/her approach towards Skull Man.
Now, how does one go about fixing this problem? The shield itself cannot be changed; that is the class’s calling card. While a boot up time on firing up the shield could help, it would not be welcomed at all by the community, and it would merely delay the conclusion of a skirmish, ending in either the retreat of the Skull Man who missed his chance to enter hyper mode and doesn’t want to keep fighting until he can try again, or the entrance of the Skull Man into hyper mode, despite the rev-up time. A recharge rate nerf would do nearly nothing to solve the problem, as if can manage to get into a fierce skirmish with a Skull Man with little chance and too little reason (i.e., he’ll have an easier time entering hyper mode when his shield comes up instantly) to flee, you’re back in a ‘fair’ fight. Skull Man needs only one hyper mode stint plus the damage he does to you on your approach to frag you; he won’t mind a recharge nerf as much as, say, Needle Man or Yamato Man would.
Therefore, I have arrived at two possible solutions. The first is to nerf the speed and/or firing rate of his projectiles (probably both, though I haven’t worked out the numbers yet). This would open up the distance approach as a more viable option, because not every single Skull Man player will think to dodge rather than catch bullets, and now he’ll have less of a counter to long-range attacks. It would also help those wishing to charge, as with slower or fewer projectiles coming at you as you charge toward Skull Man, you’ll sustain less damage before you accidentally set off hyper mode. This allows you a far greater chance of surviving until you get into the heat of the skirmish. The second option I can see is to give Skull Man a rev-up time on his buster, as well as a recharge rate nerf on the shield (the degree of which would probably have to be adjusted once or twice).
In essence, the first option makes it easier for players to avoid sustaining so much damage on both the distance and the charging approaches, while the second gives them more time to charge safely on the charging approach, and more of a chance to take advantage of any good that could possibly come out of the distance approach.
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