Hi everyone, I did some testing on Balar B4, also known as Bleating Balar, to see whether or not it is too powerful to be unbanned in Burst Classic. With all the attention the proposal to unban some of the GT Layer Bases in Burst Limited has been getting, I figured now would be as good of a time as any to call some more attention to the Turbo Exclusive Dual Layers, which are currently in a similar situation for Burst Classic. Based on what people that already own these parts (bladekid and KJ) have said in the past, Balar is one of the Layers that is questionably too powerful to be unbanned, along with Morrigna, so I figured it was probably the highest priority to test compared to some of the others as its more of an edge case. This is also part of an ongoing project to test the Turbo Exclusive Dual Layers to see if they can unbanned in Classic without upsetting the balance of the format, and you can check out the rest of my testing here: Kraken K4 Ogre O4 Morrigna M4
I've also made a video to go with this thread, which you can watch here:
Similarly to Morrigna, Balar has been reported to be possibly too good to allow, but I was a bit more skeptical of this claim as Balar is a lot more offensive than Morrigna - while M4 can just be put on a Stamina/Defense hybrid and passively defeat or at least tie with competitive Attack and Stamina combos, Balar requires launching skill to reach its full potential, meaning that it's a lot more of high-risk, high-reward combo. Because of its potential in Attack, I tested it on 3 different setups, Gravity Xtreme, Gravity Iron, and Heavy Needle to see which type of Attack it performed best in.
However, this took a bit longer to do than I expected, due to a design flaw in the Balar B4 Layer... the horns on either side of the Layer extend up too high and scrape against the launcher prong casings, meaning that it's difficult to attach a Balar combo to the launcher and even more difficult to launch it properly. After somewhere between 50 and 100 attempts of trying (and mostly failing) to get a solid launch out of it, I found that both the horns and the launcher prong casing had "awakened" and worn each other down to the point where it was a bit more comfortable of a fit and I could get a good launch more consistently, though it will still get stuck or be underpowered occasionally.
Balar as a KO Attacker
Balar B4 Gravity Xtreme vs Wolborg Heavy Revolve
B4.G.X: 11 wins (7 Burst, 4 KO)
Wb.H.R: 9 wins (1 KO, 8 OS)
1 tie redone
B4.G.X win rate: 55%
It performed underwhelmingly against Wolborg, but I also noticed that Wolborg was taking even solid hits unexpectedly well, so I decided to do a benchmark just to see if Wolborg was just better than I remembered. While my mold 3 TT V2 is still broken so I can't use that with X', I used the Hasbro version, which is weaker but still good.
Valtyrek V2 Knuckle Xtreme vs Wolborg Heavy Revolve
V2.K.X: 8 wins (2 Burst, 5 KO, 1 OS)
Wb.H.R: 12 wins (2 Burst, 10 OS)
1 tie redone
V2.K.X win rate: 40%
While Wolborg did indeed seem to be more defensive than I remembered, the key takeaway here is that the Hasbro V2 performed worse than Balar, meaning that B4 on X is better than the current best Hasbro KO Attacker.
Balar B4 Gravity Xtreme vs Dark Deathscyther Gravity Orbit
B4.G.X: 10 wins (5 Burst, 5 KO)
D2.G.O: 10 wins (2 Burst, 8 OS)
1 tie redone
B4.G.X win rate: 50%
With D2 and J2 recently unbanned, D2.G.O will probably become a staple in Classic, so I felt like it was a good idea to test Balar against it. It performed decently, again a little worse than I expected.
Balar B4 Gravity Xtreme vs Odin Heavy Defense
B4.G.X: 12 wins (5 Burst, 6 KO, 1 OS)
O.H.D: 8 wins (2 Burst, 2 KO, 4 OS)
4 ties redone
B4.G.X win rate: 60%
I had forgotten how difficult to beat Odin could be with KO Attack if you "Golden Launch" it (which is just a Weak Launch + Sliding Shoot). I had expected to hit closer to a 75% win rate for Balar in this matchup but I had trouble landing a solid horizontal hit against Odin.
Balar B4 Gravity Xtreme vs Dark Deathscyther Gravity Keep'
B4.G.X: 3 wins (2 Burst, 1 KO)
D2.G.Kp': 17 wins (all OS)
B4.G.X win rate: 15%
This was a lot closer of a match than the numbers make it look. About halfway through I started counting the number of rounds where D2 won after losing 3 clicks, and it happened 5 times since then, so around 8 or 9 overall since it had already happened a few times before I decided to start counting. While losing to KO Defense this badly is a good sign for Balar's unbannability, I tested it against Unicrest as well just to make sure that it wasn't just the case that D2 was too good.
Balar B4 Gravity Xtreme vs Uncirest Gravity Unite
B4.G.X: 4 wins (2 Burst, 2 KO)
U.G.U: 16 wins (all OS)
1 tie redone
B4.G.X win rate: 20%
Nope, it performed pretty similarly against Unicrest.
Balar B4 Gravity Xtreme vs Quad Quetzalcatl Yell Quick'
B4.G.X: 6 wins (1 Burst, 4 KO, 1 OS)
Q2.Y.Qc': 14 wins (4 Burst, 10 OS)
1 tie redone
B4.G.X win rate: 30%
While looking back at some of my other tests, Ogre seems to have more raw attack power than Balar, however, what makes Balar stand out compared to that and V2 is that it has a lot more natural burst resistance, meaning that it can use Xtreme sort of like a pseudo-Dash Driver. I believe that Xtreme is the best Driver to use with Balar overall, and that it really shines as a KO Attacker compared to other combos.
Balar as a Mixed Attacker
bladekid also suggested B4.G.Ir to me when I asked him about which launchers were best for launching B4, so I decided to try it out as well, and see how it compared to the (arguably) current best Mixed Attacker in Classic.
Balar B4 Gravity Iron vs Dark Deathscyther Gravity Orbit
B4.G.Ir: 7 wins (3 Burst, 3 KO, 1 OS)
D2.G.O: 13 wins (all OS)
2 ties redone
B4.G.Ir win rate: 35%
Spryzen S2 Gravity Iron vs Dark Deathscyther Gravity
S2.G.Ir: 12 wins (7 Burst, 3 KO, 2 OS)
D2.G.O: 8 wins (1 Burst, 7 OS)
2 ties redone
S2.G.Ir win rate: 60%
Unfortunately, S2 seemed to outperform it in almost every aspect besides burst resistance. It seemed to have a lot more Stamina than Balar, and also seemed to retain that stamina better after contact with the opponent.
Balar B4 Gravity Iron vs Wolborg Heavy Revolve
B4.G.Ir: 4 wins (3 Burst, 1 KO)
Wb.H.R: 6 wins (1 Burst, 5 OS)
B4.G.Ir win rate: 40%
Balar B4 Gravity Iron vs Dark Deathscyther Gravity Keep'
B4.G.Ir: 0 wins
D2.G.Kp': 10 wins (all OS)
B4.G.Ir win rate: 0%
Balar B4 Gravity Iron vs
B4.G.Ir: 8 wins (1 Burst, 2 KO, 5 OS)
Q2.Y.Qc': 12 wins (1 Burst, 1 KO, 10 OS)
5 ties redone
B4.G.Ir win rate: 40%
Overall, using Iron instead of Xtreme on Balar seemed to drastically reduce its KO Attack except for maybe in the first hit, and didn't contribute significantly to its Burst Attack, Burst Resistance, or Stamina, though it did perform slightly better against Q2 than Xtreme did. Personally, I don't think that the tradeoff is worth it for this specific Layer.
Balar as a Burst Attacker
The only thing left to test was to see if Balar's burst resistance made it where it was just an unburstable lump in the stadium that couldn't really be KOed or outspun without bursting. I ended up using Needle because it's tighter than my Prevail-S.
Balar B4 Heavy Needle vs Yegdrion Heavy Yard-S
B4.H.N: 6 wins (all Burst)
Y.H.Yr-S: 14 wins (all OS)
2 ties redone
B4.H.N win rate: 30%
Balar was able to get the occasional burst if it was able to land several hard hits on Yegdrion but for the most part it was easily avoided and outspun.
Balar B4 Heavy Needle vs Valkyrie Force Xtreme'
B4.H.N: 23 wins (15 Burst, 3 KO, 5 OS)
V.F.X': 12 wins (5 Burst, 7 KO)
3 ties redone
B4.H.N win rate (with self bursting): 65%
B4.H.N win rate (without self bursting): 40%
For this one, I was using a worn Valkyrie, which would obviously self burst much more than a new one. Because of this, I played to 20 rounds outside of any of the ones where VFX bursted. While I can't say for sure that you can dismiss all of the bursts against Valkyrie due to the worn teeth, you can at least get some sense of how it performed when it didn't burst.
In conclusion, I think that Balar's initial reputation as a gamebreaking part is undeserved. After having tested it myself, I can see that it is definitely powerful - around the level of V2 on Xtreme', but not to a banworthy level. Because of this, I not only think that unbanning it won't upset the balance of the format, but actually benefit it due to how unbanning the Turbo Exclusive Dual Layers would affect the accessibility of Burst Classic. Rather than paying $40+ for an Xtreme' which is a bit of a paywall for using Attack in Classic, you can just go into your local store and pick up Balar for $7, which means that you have easy access to a top-level Attack combo. Putting aside the issue of whether viability should be "balanced" between TT and Hasbro, this makes it objectively cheaper to get into the format and play at a high level for everyone[/i].
I've also made a video to go with this thread, which you can watch here:
Similarly to Morrigna, Balar has been reported to be possibly too good to allow, but I was a bit more skeptical of this claim as Balar is a lot more offensive than Morrigna - while M4 can just be put on a Stamina/Defense hybrid and passively defeat or at least tie with competitive Attack and Stamina combos, Balar requires launching skill to reach its full potential, meaning that it's a lot more of high-risk, high-reward combo. Because of its potential in Attack, I tested it on 3 different setups, Gravity Xtreme, Gravity Iron, and Heavy Needle to see which type of Attack it performed best in.
However, this took a bit longer to do than I expected, due to a design flaw in the Balar B4 Layer... the horns on either side of the Layer extend up too high and scrape against the launcher prong casings, meaning that it's difficult to attach a Balar combo to the launcher and even more difficult to launch it properly. After somewhere between 50 and 100 attempts of trying (and mostly failing) to get a solid launch out of it, I found that both the horns and the launcher prong casing had "awakened" and worn each other down to the point where it was a bit more comfortable of a fit and I could get a good launch more consistently, though it will still get stuck or be underpowered occasionally.
Balar as a KO Attacker
Balar B4 Gravity Xtreme vs Wolborg Heavy Revolve
B4.G.X: 11 wins (7 Burst, 4 KO)
Wb.H.R: 9 wins (1 KO, 8 OS)
1 tie redone
B4.G.X win rate: 55%
It performed underwhelmingly against Wolborg, but I also noticed that Wolborg was taking even solid hits unexpectedly well, so I decided to do a benchmark just to see if Wolborg was just better than I remembered. While my mold 3 TT V2 is still broken so I can't use that with X', I used the Hasbro version, which is weaker but still good.
Valtyrek V2 Knuckle Xtreme vs Wolborg Heavy Revolve
V2.K.X: 8 wins (2 Burst, 5 KO, 1 OS)
Wb.H.R: 12 wins (2 Burst, 10 OS)
1 tie redone
V2.K.X win rate: 40%
While Wolborg did indeed seem to be more defensive than I remembered, the key takeaway here is that the Hasbro V2 performed worse than Balar, meaning that B4 on X is better than the current best Hasbro KO Attacker.
Balar B4 Gravity Xtreme vs Dark Deathscyther Gravity Orbit
B4.G.X: 10 wins (5 Burst, 5 KO)
D2.G.O: 10 wins (2 Burst, 8 OS)
1 tie redone
B4.G.X win rate: 50%
With D2 and J2 recently unbanned, D2.G.O will probably become a staple in Classic, so I felt like it was a good idea to test Balar against it. It performed decently, again a little worse than I expected.
Balar B4 Gravity Xtreme vs Odin Heavy Defense
B4.G.X: 12 wins (5 Burst, 6 KO, 1 OS)
O.H.D: 8 wins (2 Burst, 2 KO, 4 OS)
4 ties redone
B4.G.X win rate: 60%
I had forgotten how difficult to beat Odin could be with KO Attack if you "Golden Launch" it (which is just a Weak Launch + Sliding Shoot). I had expected to hit closer to a 75% win rate for Balar in this matchup but I had trouble landing a solid horizontal hit against Odin.
Balar B4 Gravity Xtreme vs Dark Deathscyther Gravity Keep'
B4.G.X: 3 wins (2 Burst, 1 KO)
D2.G.Kp': 17 wins (all OS)
B4.G.X win rate: 15%
This was a lot closer of a match than the numbers make it look. About halfway through I started counting the number of rounds where D2 won after losing 3 clicks, and it happened 5 times since then, so around 8 or 9 overall since it had already happened a few times before I decided to start counting. While losing to KO Defense this badly is a good sign for Balar's unbannability, I tested it against Unicrest as well just to make sure that it wasn't just the case that D2 was too good.
Balar B4 Gravity Xtreme vs Uncirest Gravity Unite
B4.G.X: 4 wins (2 Burst, 2 KO)
U.G.U: 16 wins (all OS)
1 tie redone
B4.G.X win rate: 20%
Nope, it performed pretty similarly against Unicrest.
Balar B4 Gravity Xtreme vs Quad Quetzalcatl Yell Quick'
B4.G.X: 6 wins (1 Burst, 4 KO, 1 OS)
Q2.Y.Qc': 14 wins (4 Burst, 10 OS)
1 tie redone
B4.G.X win rate: 30%
While looking back at some of my other tests, Ogre seems to have more raw attack power than Balar, however, what makes Balar stand out compared to that and V2 is that it has a lot more natural burst resistance, meaning that it can use Xtreme sort of like a pseudo-Dash Driver. I believe that Xtreme is the best Driver to use with Balar overall, and that it really shines as a KO Attacker compared to other combos.
Balar as a Mixed Attacker
bladekid also suggested B4.G.Ir to me when I asked him about which launchers were best for launching B4, so I decided to try it out as well, and see how it compared to the (arguably) current best Mixed Attacker in Classic.
Balar B4 Gravity Iron vs Dark Deathscyther Gravity Orbit
B4.G.Ir: 7 wins (3 Burst, 3 KO, 1 OS)
D2.G.O: 13 wins (all OS)
2 ties redone
B4.G.Ir win rate: 35%
Spryzen S2 Gravity Iron vs Dark Deathscyther Gravity
S2.G.Ir: 12 wins (7 Burst, 3 KO, 2 OS)
D2.G.O: 8 wins (1 Burst, 7 OS)
2 ties redone
S2.G.Ir win rate: 60%
Unfortunately, S2 seemed to outperform it in almost every aspect besides burst resistance. It seemed to have a lot more Stamina than Balar, and also seemed to retain that stamina better after contact with the opponent.
Balar B4 Gravity Iron vs Wolborg Heavy Revolve
B4.G.Ir: 4 wins (3 Burst, 1 KO)
Wb.H.R: 6 wins (1 Burst, 5 OS)
B4.G.Ir win rate: 40%
Balar B4 Gravity Iron vs Dark Deathscyther Gravity Keep'
B4.G.Ir: 0 wins
D2.G.Kp': 10 wins (all OS)
B4.G.Ir win rate: 0%
Balar B4 Gravity Iron vs
B4.G.Ir: 8 wins (1 Burst, 2 KO, 5 OS)
Q2.Y.Qc': 12 wins (1 Burst, 1 KO, 10 OS)
5 ties redone
B4.G.Ir win rate: 40%
Overall, using Iron instead of Xtreme on Balar seemed to drastically reduce its KO Attack except for maybe in the first hit, and didn't contribute significantly to its Burst Attack, Burst Resistance, or Stamina, though it did perform slightly better against Q2 than Xtreme did. Personally, I don't think that the tradeoff is worth it for this specific Layer.
Balar as a Burst Attacker
The only thing left to test was to see if Balar's burst resistance made it where it was just an unburstable lump in the stadium that couldn't really be KOed or outspun without bursting. I ended up using Needle because it's tighter than my Prevail-S.
Balar B4 Heavy Needle vs Yegdrion Heavy Yard-S
B4.H.N: 6 wins (all Burst)
Y.H.Yr-S: 14 wins (all OS)
2 ties redone
B4.H.N win rate: 30%
Balar was able to get the occasional burst if it was able to land several hard hits on Yegdrion but for the most part it was easily avoided and outspun.
Balar B4 Heavy Needle vs Valkyrie Force Xtreme'
B4.H.N: 23 wins (15 Burst, 3 KO, 5 OS)
V.F.X': 12 wins (5 Burst, 7 KO)
3 ties redone
B4.H.N win rate (with self bursting): 65%
B4.H.N win rate (without self bursting): 40%
For this one, I was using a worn Valkyrie, which would obviously self burst much more than a new one. Because of this, I played to 20 rounds outside of any of the ones where VFX bursted. While I can't say for sure that you can dismiss all of the bursts against Valkyrie due to the worn teeth, you can at least get some sense of how it performed when it didn't burst.
In conclusion, I think that Balar's initial reputation as a gamebreaking part is undeserved. After having tested it myself, I can see that it is definitely powerful - around the level of V2 on Xtreme', but not to a banworthy level. Because of this, I not only think that unbanning it won't upset the balance of the format, but actually benefit it due to how unbanning the Turbo Exclusive Dual Layers would affect the accessibility of Burst Classic. Rather than paying $40+ for an Xtreme' which is a bit of a paywall for using Attack in Classic, you can just go into your local store and pick up Balar for $7, which means that you have easy access to a top-level Attack combo. Putting aside the issue of whether viability should be "balanced" between TT and Hasbro, this makes it objectively cheaper to get into the format and play at a high level for everyone[/i].
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