MK9 | "For the Shaolin!" - The Kung Lao General Discussion Thread

Current Fighting Games Mortal Kombat
21

I’ve posted some matchup info about Kung Lao in my Smoke thread. The Smoke boards don’t seem too interested in discussing matchups, so I was hoping people here are. If you could take a quick look at the info I posted and tell me where you agree and disagree, I’d be very grateful. It’s always helpful to talk about matchups from both sides.

Here’s what I have written:

Kung Lao

[details=Spoiler]Matchup: ?/?

Strategy: Keep him at full screen. Don’t jump.

At full screen he can only toss his hat at you and teleport. Hat loses to shake and smoke bomb badly. He can teleport, but you can uppercut that on reaction. His only real options are block-dashing, whiffing a dive kick, and en:teleport.

Up close, Lao absolutely wrecks you. Spin beats out all of your normals, and you have a very hard time punishing it with your slow normals (you might be able to get a smoke bomb, but I’m not sure and can’t test it). He can mix it up with throws, a very fast low combo into spin, and his usual 1, 1, 2 spin. You can’t win at point blank, and your primary goal is to get him off of you. En:shake can be a good desperation move. Your sweep goes under his 1, 1, 2 and out-ranges most of what he has. Block dashing backwards can work, as can enhanced teleports backwards.

Don’t ever jump. He can punish it on reaction at any range. From far away, he gets a free dive kick. Up close, he gets a spin into a combo. It might be a good idea to bring a separate controller/stick with a broken up button for this matchup.[/details]

This matchup feels like a 4/6 Smoke/Lao, possibly even worse. Smoke doesn’t have a particularly solid zoning game; rather, his tools are for beating zoners, not applying the same type of zoning pressure that Sub or Ermac can do. That means he has a hard time keeping Lao out, and he loses badly up close. Let me know what gives you a headache when you’re playing Smoke and what strategies you find particularly effective against him.

22

Great stuff man, thanks. I got the hang of the dive kicks now. However I didn’t realize you could follow up after xray with a full combo, I love the 3, 4, 1+3, 2/4 combo. I only just followed up the xray with the roll ending with a spin, however the spin wasn’t easy to link for me. Gonna have to practice that one.

23

Yea I find the Smoke matchup to be frustrating at times… however I think it is pretty close to a 5-5. I don’t think it really favors either or, both have the tools to compete against each other.

I really don’t know if Lao has that many bad matchups. I hear Nightwolf is a pain, Sub Zero seems like it could be a 4-6, Johnny Cage might be bad (just because IMO Cage is the best in the game).

For the sake of the thread what kind of info should be on the first 2 posts? I would like to have some basics with a little more advanced stuff so new players have a quick overview of how Lao works. Don’t really care about combos as there is another thread for that, maybe a few BnB’s and what not.

So any suggestions? I want to keep the Lao thread updated and neat as possible so it doesn’t turn into a cluster of information like a lot of character forums.

Besides those 3 who stick out I can’t really think of anyone else, however, I haven’t played in awhile because I have been on that Gears 3 Beta

24

I’d love to know what in the matchup gives you a headache. I’ve you’d elaborate I’d be grateful. I just don’t see too much that really threatens Kung Lao. He can close the gap without a sweat with a whiffed dive kick and he has huge advantage up close.

25

With who? Cage, Zero, or Wolf?

26

Smoke.

27

Yeah I heard they are nerfing his spin

Imageshack - kunglao.jpg

28

Anyone else thinks this character does too much chip damage with the spamming rapid punches? That flying kick seems a tad bull also.

29

Anyone ever have trouble vs really good defensive players? I thought I had a tournament in the bag but I got raped by this ultra defensive night wolf player. If they have a solid defense, it’s surprisingly hard to hit someone with Kung Lao after people get over day 1 shit.

30

What’s the best way to get 2 4 1+3 to connect after an X-ray? I can it get sometimes, but sometimes I’ll get the overhead Hat. Do you dash afterwards or what? I also can’t get the 2 to always work when I do the 1+3 (2). Any help?

31

just do dash 1 first then start the string, unless you did the xray late in the combo.

32

Well, I’m not really sure what the best combos are. I’ve just been doing, 1 1 2 Spin JK DK Roll Spin midscreen. I’ve been trying to get the combo where after the spin, you jump 2 ex hat toss JK DK 2 4 1+3. I can never get the 2 4 to hit. I guess I should check out the combo thread. But I’ve managed to land the X-ray after the first combo I stated and land the 2 4 1+3(2) without the dashing 1. I kind of made my own 50% corner combo so I’m sticking with it since it’s really easy. I’m still trying to learn Kung Lao strategy though. I noticed I win a lot more when I play aggressive. He is really great at staying on top of people. I just get careless of wakeup attacks sometimes

33

Couple things i’ve begun to try and incorporate into my game, i think people underrate kungs other strings and most importantly his ability to stagger the opponent and continue to mixup(**i need to test some of this stuff, mainly the stuff in part 2 but im pretty sure after stagger u get a free jp)
**

1.after jp’s which i abuse, though 112 is still safe mixupable and hit confirmable
back 1 and 24 do more damage and back 1 is hit confirmable into spin, 24 is not we are talking mid 40’s with jk/dk dash 2 ex hat 24 combo and 32 33% with a njp jk dk roll spin
p.s. u can also jump punch 24 low hat into a stagger for setups

  1. His stagger capabilities are ridiculous u can do the following after the 23 low hat
    a.dash up do it again or 24 into spin(not confirmable) into 42 percenter with 1 meter(its fast but risky, sometimes u can pull it off twice, a jp in is a better option) or begin 112 shenanigans
    b.a forward 2 for an overheard (which can be followed by a jump punch i believe) or a jump punch in which can be followed by 24spin, 24hat into another stagger mix up, straight into 112 or even a back 33 so u have overhead and followed straight by low, numerous options all comboable or followed up by even more mixups, some varying in safeness, so ur throwing out a ton of different strings with high low or overhead mixups based off
    c. a grab
    3.when u exchange a jump punch in the air, u can go straight into roll spin into jk dk or something else
34

Now I do like Kungs spin but unless its AA it can be so dangerous, am I wrong for using him as a more defensive type character?

35

just started using lao today found made a low starter bnb:
j1 > b+3 3 > spin > dash > 1 > dash > 1 > dash > 2 > exhat toss > dash > 1 > dash > 2 3 1+2 (34%)

36

Couple of questions:

  1. Anyone have any good matchup advive for Raiden and Ermac?

  2. Whats a good way to attack people that are crouching… he doesn’t have much that hits mid.