I’m like so afraid to do anything bc its so much of a guessing game. Like I block dash to get close but they end up teleporting behind me and they start their offense. Tom Brady says there are footzies in this game but they happen farther than in ssf4. I don’t really see that in this game. Only for some chars. Its so hard to keep pressure on someone with wake up attacks and weird hit boxes. I would go for resets but not all chars I use are able to do so. Johnny cage doesn’t really have combo strings that hit low. Also if I knock someone down, I have to respect them so much because of the invicible wakeup attack. If I just stand there blocking for even a second, then they can just start their offense. This is game when u block, ur committing alot. Especially blocking low. There’s no block option select I know of now. Also if going for a combo string then I’m committing. There is really no hit confirms in this game. Because of this commitment in this mk, u have to really guess.
Yeah, that really is my biggest issue. I seem to get hit as soon as I let go the BLK button. But I think this is really timing. MK seems really “turn based” in a way. Just have to know whats safe and what not. I’ve been spoiled with frame data published for sf games unfortunately so, will be a long discovery period.
On the topic of hit confirms, I don’t think its too bad. Most characters seem to have at least 1 relative safe string. So then you whip out the non hit-confirmed combo for punishes or when that “safe” string opened your opponent up.
Johnny Cage is a great rushdown character, if they block low and camp, while walking towards, be ready to block of course. Or you could jump and bait them (though I prefer walking to trick them).
If it’s scrubion they’ll either:
Throw the spear (DUCK), Teleport (STANDING BLOCK, I Can’t stress this enough!!! This puts scorpion into his punishing spin), or try to burn you (they can’t combo off of this, so you’ll maintain your distance)
The main thing here is getting in their face, they practically can’t run from cage because of his shadow kick. So if they throw a spear, and when it passes over head, shadow kick to close the distance if you’re too far. If you’re close punish them with his combos.
Johnny’s overhead game is amazing, and he can cross people up easily with his Forward FK, Fk+Fk, Back FK into a flash kick (since it’ll go over them).
In a projectile battle, remember Scorpion can’t pull you in if he’s hit.
Also, if you have a bar, EX shadow kick them in the face full screen. You’ll eat a hit, but the armor should keep you safe.
I hope this helps, I’ve been beating scrub scorpions and smokes all day, and it’s my first day online.
This works on everyone though.
Okay so I’m still having trouble with getting a hit on a ducking char. Ppl will just duck and uppercut if I get close. I try to get close enough for them to whiff, but the range is deceptive. It hits farther than I thought and it pushes me back. Also, JMcQ u can do forward 4 into 2-1-forward2, then 4-4 to shadow kick. I believe that does more than the bread and butter. The reason why I’m winning is because I can maximize damage. I really hate the fact that I have to be so deliberate with my combo strings or i’ll do an unsafe move like forward 2. Also, how strict is the timing for doing wake-up attacks?
I call to “shadow kick” flash kick, for obvious reasons… 
Actually, MK is much less random than Capcom fighters, that’s what makes it great.
Idk about which game is more random. I think its as random as sf4. After playing all three of the most popular games, I actually applaud mvc3. Minus level 3 xfactor and phoenix. Its just something I get so well. kind of. just don’t get hit use those assists and bait attacks out.
Anyways, I found out that JC can do a 1,3, into any special move which is great bc it hits crouching players. Especially canceling into a nutcracker. I think that this game calls for u to do resets and no knockdowns since they get armor wakeup moves. Or is it invincible? I’ll try to integrate nutcracker mix ups but its still so hard to get in and not get like uppercutted. Just walking forward is committing alot. yeah jumping is not a good idea. There’s like more bs besides teleports like quan chi’s zombie attack. That thing is like seths ultra 1 but safer and hits u as ur jumping. I think that’s ridiculous. Attacks like this includes ermacs force squeeze idk. I block dash but when I let go instantly I get hit into a free combo. Also, Krato’s parry is ridiculous. U can parry any attack and throws. I don’t think it effects lows but that’s like a minority. If up close he parries an attack, then he can cancel into a helios head while ur hitstunned. He gets a free combo. Its like better than cyber sub which is also annoying. Parry characters are so annoying especially since the time frame to punish them is low.
I wanna add another thing that I’m not sure if it occurs because of lag. I do a block string and during the block string they can duck and do an uppercut?
dude, no offense, but it sounds like you are just complaining about things you don’t understand.
Think of the strings like Tekken, where you can high crush or low crush certain attacks. Not all strings jail. If you’re getting combo’s after letting go of block after a wave dash, it just means the opponent read you, or just guessed. if you had held block one second longer, you would have gotten a punish oppertunity.
You need to approach this game like you’ve never played a fighter before. some things can carry over, but other’s don.t
Alright now I’m faced with a new problem against another scrub or scrubs in tag. Raiden is just so scrub good. I’ve known this for a while as he’s a character that u have to constantly guess, but his teleport is the thing I have a problem He teleports then u cannot tech the throw. I swear I was pressing the throw but it didnt work. I tried to jump away several times but i always got thrown. I guess an uppercut would work, but if it was a smarter player using raiden, he would most likely mix it up. Its scary that he gets a free advantageous position and mix up.
I guess raiden is a given as a scrubby character but I have another grip. Cyrax. Idk if it was the patch or he always had it but his teleport is godlike. u cannot punish it. Not only that he can teleport multiple times. I swear I tried to throw. uppercut, use my fastest normals. NOThing punishes the teleport. I swear it just goes right through him. Its like weskers teleport with phoenix only grounded but safe.The only way to avoid him is jumping. Which is something i don’t like doing.
You do realize you look like a scrub when you call everything/everyone who gives you trouble scrubby/a scrub right? Anyways, don’t try to punish Raiden’s teleport, it’s known to be too fast on reaction unless you’re playing offline and have ridiculous reflexes. The only other way is to read the teleport. The frames you get to punish it is very small. I don’t know why you’re approaching the game like this since it’s not designed to allow you the punish your opponent every time he uses something.
From all your complaints, I think MK9 is the wrong game for you. Just sayin’
Turtle scrub Raidens bro. Seriously. and dont jump too much either esp if thier good on the trigger finger for supermans.
So how should I approach the game? Give me some fundamentals. Is there a foundation for being a good player. I’m actually doing really good at the game. But everytime I win a match against spamming stuff like I posted, I just don’t feel like I really won that match. I feel like I lucked out.
tallshortguy: I use the term scrub to players that just don’t really know the game except special moves, xray, throw, uppercuts. U can tell. Seriously. They don’t know a combo but there fight style is so scary bc its random and online. These are the players I feel most unease. Even if I manage to figure out them out I don’t know how to use the tools on hand to punish them for good prediction. I enjoy playing against someone that knows the game and is more methodical but plays the mind games. When ur facing someone clearly who clearly doesn’t know much about the game, u just can’t lose to him or her. U don’t know what their doing and they have all these tools in mk to keep u guessing. Mk seems much more crazy and random than mvc3.
I definitely turtle against raiden but he’ll just throw me after a teleport. I hardly jump in this game now. What’s the appropriate punishes for his teleport mix up? earlier there was a post where if I predict a throw, then I can duck without block and they’ll whiff? That would give me plenty of time to punish with a full combo? Has any found an answer to fight cyrax that does multiple invincible teleports? How should I face parry characters especially kratos? Or do I just have to fish those out? throws don’t work. I believe its just low attacks?
I like mk9. Its crazy stuff. Its an easy to play game but harder to understand. Some of u guys are just telling me that I have a wrong approach to MK but not explaining how to approach it. I understand the strings of high and lows I don’t have a problem with that. It just comes with experience. I just want to know the how flow of the matches. I’m a defensive player when it comes to online because I what to get a feel for the opponent but even that doesn’t work.
I swear this happened. I was doing a combo string on a ducked blocking reptile and he just xrayed through during it. Is it possible to do xray if an attack whiffs on a blocked opponent?
You’re going to need to learn punishment through experience and time in the lab. You need to figure out what the common combos are for characters and know when/how it’s safe to punish. Some things can be punished by a full string (depending on how fast your startup is) and some things are best stopped with smart pokes between combo strings. Also, distance is important since a full wiffed combo is usually easy to punish. Spamming can be beat by realizing what exactly can you do about the spam and create a plan accordingly. If you figure out how to beat it then spammers usually don’t have anything else.
Anyways, test your might has a ton of great guides for newer players. For instance xrays have armor (usually +1 but sometimes more) meaning whatever armor they have is how many hits it goes through (though you will do damage but it won’t stagger or stop the xray). This is all stuff you can find.
Just recently I been facing Meleena players. These players are actually good but most of the time they were spamming teleport kicks (making them safe by cancelling in air fireball) and ex versions. There so annoying. I’m not used to losing to a char through spamming the same move. I was so scared to move. If I jump, they will just react and teleport kick. I couldn’t play footsies in this match up. I block and move up then to get caught in her combo strings. Seriously there is no footsies in this match. She just dominates the air and the ground because of this. One of my psn friends that plays gave me one advice. Block. Any of u guys know how to counter her? What are her risks?
Btw. Are there any good gateway guides to Mk9?
only chars in this game that give me problems are raiden,kung lao, cyrax, and maybe ermac.
other then that its easy mode.
I don’t feel there are real footsies in this game except with characters like Jade. Their is a lot of projectile zoning, almost half the cast has some type of projectile game they rely on in some/most of their matches. Any ryu player should be accustomed to the mind games this game introduces as that’s 95% of what every matchup in this game is like. It’s also the only reason raiden is top tier. Raiden: “lol what’s zoning?”
Mileena’s tele-kick is never safe. You just have to hit her before she lands with some sort of punisher. If you let her get too low she’ll let go of sai’s and she’ll be safe.
raiden teleport game is annoying. If your holding block pretty much the only thing you can do is d1 and even than it’s not guaranteed because of releasing block lag. So you have to sit around waiting for the tele and try and block superman on reaction, or you can hold block making you susceptible to the tele mixup but destroying the superman option. It’s really brain dead and since tele only has 8 frames of recovery once he appears on your opposite side so their is a large amount of the cast who can’t punish with anything but d1 or d3. See if your character has a 7 frame move and try and bust him. Or if your lao just spin.
Against scrub raidens i try to stay away from them and bait a teleport so i can do a d3 punish and get a throw attempt or frametrap. If your far enough away you can do a dash block to bait the super man and kill him on block. Don’t try to projectile zone unless your close enough he can’t tele on reaction, but for some characters that isn’t an option because of how unsafe your projectile is. Once you get him knock down just crossup j. P him as superman will go the wrong way and try and punish however your character can.
I don’t necessarily agree that there’s no footsie game in MK. Try characters like Stryker who can gun cancel, or Jax who can ground pound cancel.
This is something that has been bothering me. I recently went against a player who went full auto-pilot and just kept doing the teleport kick, even if I punished it on block, so I decided to try out ways of punishing it while it was active.
It is relatively safe I feel. Consider what character you use before you answer this, but as Jax and Stryker(characters I play), there doesn’t seem to be any real way of punishing this attack. I’ve tried neutral jump 1/2/3/4, forward jump 1/2/3/4, and even air grabbing it. Nothing really worked. Air Gotcha Grab gets beat clean as well. If the teleport dive kick doesn’t hit, the recovery is so fast it’s almost non-existent as well, so I feel blocking it is a better alternative to dodging it if you want to punish. If you do manage to jump attack punish it, it’s incredibly risky with the risk/reward being in her favor.
Like Justin also said, if you block the ex version she can cancel sai and be completely safe. I think she can even cancel sai from the regular version and depending how high she hit and whether the sai hits or not she will be safe as well.
I’d really like to know the hitbox of this move. Seems gigantic.
I lost twice last night to 2 separate people who spammed down 4 :’(