@ICE
I will agree with you on the overrated part. Some impressions on current version Sieg:
Spacing
Stronger movement benefits Sieg a lot, perhaps moreso than other characters, because backstep helps keep his distance. This is especially important because he's never had good ranged moves with pushback on block and the loss of old 22B hurt a lot in this regard.
Punishment
You can clearly see the nerfs from previous versions of the game here. His whiffpunishing once again depends on being relatively close to the opponent. While we have the new 22BB, it seems only marginally better than old 22B damage-wise and has much more damaging follow-ups from its optional stance transition, which - again - require Sieg to be fairly close to connect.
On the flipside his punishing game overall still seems way better than in at least SC3 and 4 - as long as you have a little meter. 3(B)~SCH K BE~jagA and 22BB2~SCH K BE~jagA both do very solid damage for a mere 50% gauge and if you got meter to spare you can go over 50% health from 22BB2. SC3 and SC4 Sieg would have wet dreams over that kind of damage.
On top of that we get 66K BE as a closerange punisher, which has impressive damage potential itself for a move of its speed, even moreso if youre willing and able to spend additional meter.
Mix-ups
The damage nerf to his throws was both unnecessary and painful, as his large throwrange remains largely intact and therefore makes them an integral part to his mix-up game.
The SRSH 50/50 is (thankfully) mostly unchanged, with SRSH K doing a bit less and SRSH B doing a bit more damage - plus you have the option of going for the CE instead of a regular follow-up, tho that generally does not seem worth the meter.
Additionally we get 2 new stance 50/50ies from SSH and SBH that are (unsurprisingly) in no way inferior to the SRSH staple when it comes to unsafety. Still, the options are there and make his (at least visibly) faster roulette more compelling to use.
His reverse mix-ups took a huge hit compared to previous versions, tho. The SBH auto-GI is no longer effective in beating fast horizontals from certain unsafe stance transitions. 2_8B+K is also (perhaps rightfully so) still weaker than regular step and will see limited application, tho it offers Siegs best meterless whiffpunishing damage. With both the old 22_88B series and SSH A+B gone, his auto-evade game as a whole is quit a bit weaker than before. And 4B+K and 2A+B, while intact, are VERY situational.
Anti-step
Again, nerfs from previous versions make me sad. What has been changed here has not been clearly seen on stream, tho, so I won't go into specifics so as to not get my source in trouble.
Overall Sieg's in a decent spot, tho. JagA is still great for anti-step and in 22A we actually got a SAFE! TC! MID! horizontal for step killing now. How crazy is that, poofy? What hurts is that the rest of his moveset is so linear. No more step or even 8WR-tracking verticals for us, guys, sorry.
Safety
Lol, this is Siegfried. Get outta here!
Conclusion: We can definitely say that the current Sieg is still way better than his incarnations from the 2 previous games. Take that for what it's worth.
From what I know and have seen, tho, he remains one of the weakest characters in SCV. His unsafety still hurts him a lot (especially so with 4!!! FUCKING! S&S USERS in this game) and he depends on uncomfortably close distance and meter to get comparable damage in. Even so many characters get the same or more reward from easier and safer starters, have an easier time forcing opponents to play their game and getting out of pressure. The rest of the roster is so strong that even the new and improved Sieg gets outshined in pretty much every area. Still, it seems enough to be viable (as SC4 Sieg was viable). But I personally am hoping for some (reasonable) buffs in the first balance patch.
