Tekken 8 Armor King Balance Patch is Coming & Pros Already Aren’t Happy

Armor King is coming to Tekken 8 on October 13, and limited pre-release footage has proven that other characters will be getting balance changes. However, what pros have seen so far doesn’t have them optimistic.

Tekken 8 hasn’t received an actual balance patch since July, with pros clamoring for more changes. Season 2’s launch in April was so poorly received that the devs had to apologize and went into panic mode to fix it publicly, but most pros still aren’t happy with the state of the game.

With this in mind, you’d think pros would be happy knowing balance changes are coming along with Armor King’s release. However, most people are hoping for nerfs after S2 geared everything toward offense.

Armor King is causing a stir with the changes coming. Image Credit: Bandai Namco

Meanwhile, the first significant balance change that’s been spotted in early footage of the patch is a buff to King, already one of the best fighters in Tekken 8, that appears to give him a virtually unreactable, high-crushing low launcher. This buff provides one of the most oppressive characters in Tekken 8 even more offense.

Pros Not Impressed With Tekken 8 Balance Patch
While Season 2 has been improved since its infamous launch, which earned it mass review bombings and led pros to threaten quitting entirely, high-level players still aren’t happy.

S2’s launch came with over 1500 changes at once, many of which gave characters new moves that covered their weaknesses and reduced counterplay across the board. To this day, pros generally believe that nerfs are what the game needs rather than buffs.

So, when people saw that the first balance change in the patch would be King getting a virtually unreactable low launcher, the news was met with complete and total confusion from pros and other community members.

It looks like the design choice of “speed up reactable lows” is here to stay?

Weird choices after the backlash towards offensive buffs https://t.co/0ZCGUf7irU

— PhiDX (@PhiDXGames) October 9, 2025

“It looks like the design choice of ‘speed up reactable lows’ is here to stay? Weird choices after the backlash towards offensive buffs,” claimed Tekken pro and streamer PhiDX, saying that this direction seems “out of touch” from the dev team.

And that’s without mentioning Armor King himself. In comparison to past iterations of the character, he now has an extension of df1 that gives him a lot more control over neutral, a good 13 frame punish, a homing high normal hit launcher, and a whole lot more. He’s staying with the same trend of overwhelming Season 2 offense that pros generally don’t like.

“Imagine being the dude at Namco tasked with cleaning up after the Season 2 team and after a few months of work they show you the Armor King df1 extension,” commented former Tekken pro Speedkicks.

However, not every pro was negative on Armor King, with Tekken legend Arslan “Arslan Ash” Siddique saying he looks much more like a “complete character” than previous iterations.

Just watched some Armor King gameplay, and it looks like a complete character. I might give him a try.

— Twis | Arslan Ash (@ArslanAsh95) October 9, 2025

“Just watched some Armor King gameplay, and it looks like a complete character. I might give him a try,” he claimed.

Ultimately, the full details of the balance patch won’t be revealed until Armor King goes live on October 13. But the small sneak peek people have been given of upcoming balance changes doesn’t exactly have pros optimistic.