[Iron Maw]

Kro_ a Rachel player from dustloop gave a nice overview of how things currently stand at the moment with tier. Looks pretty balanced to me, remember it's still early.

So here are my impressions after a couple weeks of watching videos and playing occasionally in the arcade. I know less about some characters than others so feel free to critique.

Top
Litchi, Bang

-----Insurmountable Wall-----

High
Ragna

Mid
+ Tao, Hakumen, Carl
o Hazama, Jin, Arakune
- Tsubaki, Tager, Lambda

Low
Noel

-----Insurmountable Wall-----

Bottom
Rachel

Reasons:

Arakune - potential is there; very high damage combos and strong everything when curse is active; However, due to how easy it is to stay blocking forever thanks to the guard primer system, he may have very few chances to do any damage even if the opponent does get cursed; probably the character that can fluctuate most from high to low

Bang - fast jabs; better damage; new B nail solves the running out of nails problem; stupidly fast and safe reversal super; strong mixups with command throw, double airdashes, and crossup kick

Carl - no clap loop and j.2c overhead nerf hurts; however punch loops allow him to continue pressure and have many mixup opportunities/unblockables; the overall damage nerf across all characters no longer lets him die in 2 combos; volante and CH j.c are very nice additions; definitely a contender for high tier

Hakumen - escaped the damage nerf; new 4c and j.c are great pokes for zoning; projectile bubble is helpful; high hp and auto-meter gain allows him to hold onto leads very well; still has difficulty catching opponents; poor mixups; strengths generally outweigh weaknesses enough for him to be a contender for high tier

Hazama - strong zoning and great at escaping pressure; IB > reversal super is great with high damage; fairly good mixup game that only has room to improve; flip kick reversal is a relatively safe 'DP'; low mobility without the chain and seems to have trouble dealing with characters up close; his damage has improved with time; could possibly be high tier

Lambchops - low damage, but zoning is still strong and reversal gravity well gives her good AA; new act parsers are good offensive tools for mixups and pressure; leaning toward low-tier, but specific matchup advantages may overcome that

Litchi - improved damage; long range high priority normals for any situation; combos off any hit extremely well into full BnB for knockdown and oki; staff covers all her approaches; better shishin; rc-able tsubame; all combos lead to corner; can use super meter to trap opponents in the corner and make her oki incredibly safe and damaging

Jin - seems to be more defensive now with less ability to end combos in knockdown and oki; new j.c is a great zoning tool; pretty solid but his tier placement depends on how much is discovered about the others rather than on what he can do to improve it; probably mid-high

Noel - damage isn't high enough to justify how unsafe it is to approach with her; short range (tsubaki is just as fast with better range and safer rushdown imo); no more 2d overhead; greatest strength seems to be air-to-air jabs for low damage

Rachel - R.I.P.

Ragna - high damage meterless combos let him save all of his meter for RCing unsafe moves; belial edge allows him to have good positioning after air combos now; great normals (2c greatly improved); not top because he can't cover his approach with projectiles like the other two, more predictable mixups, low health

Tager - damage is relatively high; slightly better AA; easier to magnetize opponents; throw setups are stronger/require more guessing; backdash seems to beat most of his options aside from spark bolt; still easily outranged and zoned by long-range or speedy characters with good normals (most of the cast); might still end up low-tier due to certain bad matchups but not nearly as bad as CT

Taokaka - relatively unchanged; good mixup potential and strong combos; still lacks good oki and decent AA; taunt loops make her a strong contender for high tier

Tsubaki - speedy with decent range; strong ground-to-ground and air-to-ground; ok AA options but terrible air-to-air; gains heat meter quickly; with charge meter, specials make her threatening from any range; charge cancel, fast overhead, and long kara-throw give her a strong pressure game and decent mixup potential; low average damage without charges; has average damage with charges but difficult to find chances to charge against fast opponents; may need to forego oki to build charge meter; install has a lot of potential for damage/mixups, but has yet to see widespread use; may possibly end up being low-tier