bored, so i decided just to edit the t5:dr tier ranking before i make a fresh post later tonight; keep in mind koreans set their machine so that the lifebars are higher, so some characters may be ranked lower than played elsewhere(ie nina won't do as much damage during her oki):

A Class:
Asuka, Baek, Bryan, Devil Jin, Dragunov, Feng, Jack5, Jin, Law, Marduk, Paul, Raven

A-/B+ Class:
Kazuya, King, Nina

B Class:
Armor King, Bruce, Christie/Eddy, Ganryu, Heihachi, Hwoarang, Julia, Lee, Lili, Xiaoyu

B-/C+ Class:
Anna, Kuma, Lei, Wang, Yoshi

C Class:
Roger, Steve

when you actually line all the characters up by rank things look fairly interesting; this game is actually pretty balanced. though dr's still a game with some random wins due to high damage combos and the crush system, ultimately skill plays more of a deal than the player.

i'm still surprised that steve is ranked so low(NiN, the korean tk5 2005 champion who uses steve as his main character, is playing tremendously using him). steve can't possibly be that low. maybe not in the A class, but definitely not that bad.

i'm taking a look at the up-most bracket and looking kinda confused that jin, asuka and baek are there. and how is the 1st time paul up there? weird; i don't think they've addressed his linear attacking problems, and he still seems like a high risk/high reward character. i can't comment on dragunov, lili or aking though, cause i haven't really seen them in action. but the korean dr champion, Na Rak Hof uses paul as his main character.

so i'm guessing why there's so many in the top tier is b/c this game's become a lot less abusive, sorta like virtua fighter 4:final tuned... to a lesser degree. so just because a character has problems doesn't mean they fall b/c of them. still weird though seeing the top tier bracket.