I'm not complaining about his normals up close. Those are fine and dandy. It's his footsie tools that need work, and that means s.HK, f+HK, LK Ruffian. EX Ruffian is what I usually use when I want to go low, because the standard LK Ruffian is way too slow. However, it's still horribly unsafe. In Alpha 3, it was his primary low because it was safe on block when spaced right, goes under jumps, and had the most range of his lows. But like I said, the increased walk speed remedies this issue a bit so it's not that big a deal. However, his s.HK and f+HK are still too slow. It's too easy for other characters to stuff them and he doesn't have any other faster tools with that much range. s.MK isn't bad, but it can't preemptive anti-air jumps like s.HK and f+HK can.
If you think I'm saying that they should make the rocks be a reactionary anti-air, you're misinterpreting me. The rocks are supposed to arc up once they're out so that they're hard to jump over. The long start up is there so the opponent can walk up and hit him during the start up. That's how the rocks have synergy with his normals, since his s.HK and f+HK are also good at keeping people on the ground closer up while also stopping attempts to walk in. If you sit there and block, you'll get pushed back by rocks and be forced to try to approach again. If you try to walk back, you'll get hit by an LK Ruffian.
f+HK and s.HK will still be focus bait, sure, but that's why I was hoping they would change LK Ruffian to make it more like A3's LK Ruffian. That way, the armor breaking property would make it far riskier to try and focus in Cody's footsie range.
I'm not saying that his frame traps are useless, but I'm saying that they're not strong enough to win him matches alone.
Fixing Cody's rocks, making LK Ruffian shorter and safer, speeding up the start up on f+HK and s.HK are the only changes Cody needs to be high tier. Hell, if they did that, they wouldn't even have to buff his walk speed because he wouldn't have to move as much.
And yeah, I know these changes aren't gonna happen because hurr durr Capcom, but it's what I think he needs. Rocks are the main thing though. If you wanted a more informed opinion on the rocks,
read this thread. He's far more credible than I am, and so is SaBrE.
EDIT: On a side note, FA > Makoto.