Garou MOTW tierlist explanation by president

disclaimer: A recurring theme of the bad characters is their lack of damage output.
There are a lot of people that would argue "but Rock can do 70% in a combo too!"
but don't take into account that it takes about two full rounds to actually build the meter for it; something the good characters do in a matter of seconds.

God

Kevin: When Kevin plays fair he has great normals, strong mixups, quick no-resource crush infinites, high damage and above average health. That alone would be enough to make him the best character in the game.
Now I say "when Kevin plays fair", because when the player meets his execution requirements and stops caring about interesting matches, the character starts breaking the game in all kinds of ways.
The problem comes from his hell rotor (214a) kara cancels which lead into literally everything.
Think about this: he guardcancels your attack with 214a, kara cancels it into a cl.5C and combos you for 80% or kills you straight up if you're Hotaru. Nobody else can do this.

S

Jenet: Jenet is simple to explain. She has ridiculous hitboxes and pressure. You can't escape.
She plays an honest game compared to the other tops but is really, really good at it.
Honestly there is not a single bad point to talk about.
Even her lack of invulnerable guardcancel isn't an issue because she can cancel her backdash into instant divekicks which is just borderline broken.

Kain: His invincible flashkick is + on block.
I want you to read that again. And think about it.
Yes Garou is a parry game but that only matters so much when the damn thing is so fast, half the cast can't even put a guardcancel special out without eating a second flashkick during startup.
Those that can may have their guardcancels outranged so it's not an option anyway.
When the player learns charge partitioning and starts doing flashkicks from dashes there is absolutely no hope left.
On top of all that, his sphere super is one of the more busted supers in the game.
The only reason he is "only" third is his mediocre damage output. He hits a lot, but at least doesn't kill outright.

Gato: Thanks to his punch super, Gato is the king of punishes, extremely good at making the opponent hang himself.
He also builds meter like a boss, so it's always available. He also has amazing normals and does a ton of damage.
He can honestly win games by holding downback and poking 2b into super when the opponent tries to get too cute with throws.
If the opponent doesn't want to commit and give the momentum to Gato they will have to hold unreactable mixups, kara-canceled overheads into lows that also catch backdashes, into damage. Pick your poison.

A

Grant: Grant is the only thing resembling an actual zoner in Garou. He's very confident sitting on his big health bar, punishing your approaches and waiting for the short timer to run out.
Very similar to Gato in the "opponent hangs himself" department, but he doesn't have the mixup to make comebacks so it's important to not mess up.
All of his supers are amazing but he builds meter relatively slowly. Having a stock spells the difference between an easy reaction punish or having to hold that pressure, which is
often times harder for him because of his size and how it makes crossups impossible to see.
Out of the potential toptiers, he is definitely the most flawed one. His default gameplan is so strong that it racks up a lot of matchup points, but it's not quite enough to be top in this game.

Jae: Jae is an honest boy. He's fast, got good normals and feintcancels, and can convert every hit into a combo meterless while having no apparent weakness.
He would be considered a top tier character (and in fact did when Garou wasn't fully explored yet) if Garou was a normal game and the top4 wouldn't consist of these crazy clowns.

B

Dong: While similar, overall worse moves than Jae and the fast dash replaced with a shitty run animation.
He's pretty much lacking Jae's strong points and has instead been given an airthrow and the unique option of a 0F aerial guardcancel.
This really helps him out in some matchups where Jae obviously struggles, like against Kain. Still, overall he's weaker.

(Butt)Marco: Marco is a little weird. He feels like a character who can't feel really comfortable no matter where he is on the screen. He's got some good mid-range tools, but also tools for easy mixups when he's close.
Now many times his mid-range gameplan will be overpowered either by rushdown or characters that do it better than him, and his overhead is so reactable it becomes very easy to backdash out and punish him for it.
I feel like Marco would be a lot better if his supers weren't so lacking. His punch supers need planetary alignment to combo, and his kick super can only be done at point blank or will whiff.
This leads to most Marco players using the hidden super for combo damage, which is difficult to do and also not that great of a gameplan when the character builds meter so slowly.
He's not bad, but I can't say he's good either.

Terry: I wish I could say better things about Terry. He's the poster boy of what people like about this game. When he gets momentum against worse players he looks absolutely amazing.
The reality of things is that he commits too hard. Instead of running the feintcancel train everyone loves to watch he has to play a style of constant bait-and-switch and tries to react to how his opponent is reacting.
Terry will make his player go for low-reward throws much more than other characters because it becomes impossible to open up good players who know when to block and when to disrespect his gaps.
However, his punch super can bulldoze through a lot of laggy moves and his guardcancel DP comes with good range both above and in front of Terry and isn't as easily outspaced as others of it's kind, making him tough to pressure.

Hotaru: Hotaru is the blanka of this game. Jump around press buttons, be super annoying.
She has some strong options after her j.2B which can lead into completely invisible left/rights and is pretty hard to escape with backdashes because of the constant sideswitching going on.
That said, the character is stronger at mixing you up midscreen than in the corner. Her corner pressure is really lacking thanks to her shitty run animation and no way to convert lows into damage.
Speaking of damage, it's really lacking for her and she also has the lowest health in the game. Every time you commit to something, your opponent can do more damage in return if he read you correctly.
Other than being generally not that good, her kick super (the more important one) can randomly uncombo itself and become punishable on hit, making her lose matches for no reason.

Hokutomaru: Hoku honestly isn't that bad of a character. He's just overall meh at what he does, as other characters do it better.
Sadly his doublejump is rather useless because of how the flow of Garou works; quick ground movement and short whiff animations.
Also, Hoku is hilarious in that he's the only character who gets to play his own game in the Kain matchup; because he can low-profile the flashkick.
Granted, it does no damage, but Kain is surprisingly sad of a character when you take the flashkick from him. That alone makes Hokutomaru an attractive main.

C

Rock: Rock could be so much better if he didn't have to deal with his shitty running animation. It's so slow and really doesn't go well with what the character is trying to do.
Generally bad normals and low damage output are the nail in the coffin for him. The character can work, he can win, but has to play a really patient game and hit the opponent a million times.

D

Freeman: A majority of his moveset is useless. He can't defend himself, jumping in on him is completely free.
He can technically run an infinite in the corner but hardly ever gains the momentum during the match to actually land it, and if he does there's no damage behind it.
His only hope lies in being able to combo into punch super for some damage, that's about the only thing he has over the worst character in the game.

(Tizoc)Griffon: Griffon has a lack of tools and absolutely no reward on anything he does. The good characters can bully him and he has to hold it with no options but to JD for heals.
The only reason he doesn't go unwinnable against the top half of the cast is because when you read your opponent really, really hard
you can sometimes land single hits or grabs after his dodge moves and then benefit from the short round timer.