I haven’t experienced it otherwise or seen anything about it else where,but a while ago I was playing ladder on expert and had a liu kang mirror match. Everytime I shot a fireball the ai controlled liu kang would ex flying kick through it if he had the meter. I went to training mode to see if I could do this and no luck. The ai would always do the kick just as the fireball came within like a dash distance in front of him.
Has anyone else experienced that? Because to my knowledge and from what I’ve seen on forums,his ex flying kick doesn’t have any special properties outside of a slight damage boost.
It was just whenever all the way on the other side of the screen. I don’t think it’s normally invulnerable on start up. I went to test it myself in training mode,not to mention I haven’t heard of it being such anywhere else.
It’s sad that this thread has stalled out, but Liu Kang has to be one of the most one-dimensional characters in the game. You go for the 50/50 and you shoot IAF. There’s really not much more to add. At least he is good at what he does.
From what I’ve seen how Perfect Legend used him against Tom Brady at the finals in Powerup - best thing to add to this thread is probably the block strings and normal set ups you want to use with Liu Kang.
Unlike the other Liu Kangs there, he was really mixing it up with Liu Kang’s target combos, throws, misc normals, crouch punch/kick, overhead kick, and even parry special.
He was definitely using Liu Kang as a specialist mix up character (almost grappler-like character) at close range.
So. After feeling out jax, jade, and raiden I decided to main liu kang for the time being. Played Abel for 3 straight yrs in SF4 so I love a good rushdown/mixup character. But holy shit, am I the only one getting rage quitted on left and right? back+3,2,1 reps can be a pretty cheap combo, I admit, but tonight I swear within 10 matches I saw at least 5 rage quits. Makes me want to consider dropping liu kang just so ppl dont bitch about cheapness even though the entire world plays smoke and spams teleport.
Oh yeah, Liu Kang definitely feels like the Abel of MK - anytime you hit someone with f+1,2 or f+3 or even a blocked jump punch, Liu Kang just has such a dirty list of mix-ups he can do.
From blocked jumping punch:
For starters, always start with b+3,1,2 - nasty high-low mix ups right away
Get them trained to block low, then start incorporating f+3 or throws
From a hit f+3:
b+3,1,2 although most people are too afraid to block high against Liu Kang (hehehehehe…)
or f+3 again just to mess up people’s mind and go back to another 50/50 position
also a favorite i like to pull out, jump punch (neutral or crossup jump) to go back to the blocked jump punch mix-ups
From a hit f+1,2:
f+3 always seems to hit people who are used to Liu Kang’s b+3,1,2
or b+3,1,2 to hit people who aren’t used to Liu Kang
another one for people used to Liu Kang: jumping cross-up punch - don’t whore it out obviously to keep the element of surprise.
And near the end of matches, I like to incorporate 2,1,3 in the mix-up list since usually people are already mindfucked about blocking low/high or anticipating jump punches, that a simple overhead juggle gets them.
Did some small tests with parry - Liu Kang can definitely parry wake-up attacks from Cage and Kung Lao with no issues as long as you get the timing correct.
I haven’t tested with other characters’ wake-up though I believe most of them can be countered with Liu Kang’s parry as long as they’re not a low attack.
Due to this, I’ll be elevating Liu Kang’s parry from “worthless outside of wake-up” status to “actually pretty darn good” status.
Strangely, however, this doesn’t work on Raiden’s torpedo which means Raiden is truly the herpiest derpiest character in the game.
-**b+3,1,2 **(for range, pressure and juggle starting. If you stop at 1 you can continue pressure)
-d+1 (interrupt. d+3 is faster but has shit range)
-**2,1,3 **(very close range only. For speed + surprise overhead with good frames on block)
-**f+3 **(during corner pressure. On hit go right into pressure strings or throw)
-**throw, throw throw **(once you get them afraid of b+3 and they start to block low just mindfuck them with this. Abuse it. Make them hate you for it)
The rest of the match if me just **jumping around pressing Punch **(then doing b+3,1,2) and doing the occasional Fireball. Once every year I’ll do **Flying Kick **because they’ll eventually forget about it but if they block I die. Sometimes I’ll do a random pressure 3,3,4 because they’re not used to seeing it so the 3rd kick sometimes hits. If it gets blocked you’re still good but it’s just a gimmick. Anyone with a teleport gives me trouble and Ermac’s b,f+1 fucks me over a lot.
Never mind. I just got another patch the other day and it’s back up to what it was. Weird. Before I was doing 5 reps of b+3,1,2 in the corner and only getting 38% and my x-ray combos were only doing %40 at most. Now they’re all back to normal.
So,how about that armor on ex flying kick and ex bike kick? I don’t think Liu needed it,but it is nice.
b+312 and 213 combos all day. I like doin mid air fireball’s with liu against certain players that seem to jump a lot. catch them off guard most times. also im glad ex+flying kick has armor now because it gives liu a safe way to close full screen distance.
Liu did receive a damage nerf. None of the combos in the second post do that much damage anymore. In fact, in the corner, (b+3,1,2)x5 only does 37% damage.
Thankfully, he did receive some buffs. The armor on the EX kick/kicks is nice. His juggles seem to launch a little higher, and less horizontally, allowing for new combos.
For instance, you used to be able to do (b+3,1,2)x2, f+2,4, bb-f+4. Now you can add in one more loop and do (b+3,1,2)x3, f+2,4, bb-f+4. The first combo used to do 38% damage, but now it only does 34% damage; the second combo does 37% damage.
Thanks to the slightly higher launch on some of his moves you can still hit 49% mid-screen x-ray combos. The old 49% mid-screen x-ray combo only does 45% now. The new combo is: b+3,1,2, dash, f+1, x-ray, b+3,1,2, dash, f+2,4, bb-f+4.
EDIT: I plan to update the first post after the hotfix is released.
I had a weird thing going on with the ps3 version where his damage kept changing everytime I booted the game. It would go back to what it originally was,but still have the ex armor. Now it’s at what it should be. Probably just the patch being buggy,like how it erased some people’s costumes.
Those new combos are pretty sweet. I didn’t realize all of that was possible now.
I still feel like the armor on his ex kicks were a weird buff that wasn’t needed. By all means it’s a welcomed buff,but I would have rather had his ex parry made to be more reliable. I almost feel bad ex fly kicking through sub-zero’s clones now. lol
Then again that might be because I’m usually a pretty confident zoner when I play that match up. ex flying kick is now a great option to get in on your opponent and put them in the corner.
The armor on the EX Flying Kick was definitely needed. Before the buff, he had no reason to spend EX because his EX attacks sucked so badly. The risk when doing a Flying Kick (Ex or otherwise) was too high, because it was so easily stuffed. Now, there is still risk involved with EX Flying Kick (on block), but it has some use.
Like I said,it’s welcomed. I still feel no reason to spend the ex unless I just want to get in easily. I guess I just feel confident with my fireball mix ups from far away. I always used regular flying kick as a mix up to hit my opponent out of the air when I got them programmed to jump over fireballs. I still like to save meter for breakers or for punishing certain moves using the armor on my x-ray. I just feel like a parry buff was needed more than a kick buff.
Someone give me some ideas how to get in on a Noob player. When I have meter I was doing EX Flying Kick but then once that hits it throws him back away from me. How the F do I play Noob as Liu Kang? Help!!!
Edit: This Noob player was simply throwing projectiles from full screen. And because of this everytime I actually did get in he’d breaker out of my combo.
All I can say for that match up is to keep noob guessing on what you’re going to do. I usually start out by jumping over his clones until I’m close enough to him to be just outside of sweep distance. You need to keep up with the noob player’s habits and patterns. Normally a noob player will just throw clones to keep you out and use his up-clone to punish your jump ins when you get close. Safe jumps are a good idea to get in on him. You can block his up-clone on a well timed safe jump then punish it with a 2,1,3 string into your b+3,1,2 reps depending where you’re at on the screen. The corner is of course your sweet spot for this. The ex flying kick is good for pushing your opponent back and working them into the corner. Just keep pushing him back and working those safe jumps. You can always mix those up with ex bike kicks an standing fireballs at a safe up close distance to blow through what ever counter he might have (ex bike kick is safer than fireballs obviously). If you have x-ray and they’re low on health then by all means use it if they aren’t doing well defensively or are blocking low (liu’s x-ray hits overhead).
If noob decides to try and be offensive and get in on you,just keep him out with air,high,and low fireball mix ups. You get a free flying kick off of an opponent knocked out of the air by a standing fireball. Use that to push noob back into the corner. Don’t try to zone him too much though because he can easily turn the zoning game around on you if you’re not careful.
Basically just keep watching what the noob player does when you get close and decide what tools to use based on that. Always try to keep pressure on him when you do get in. Remember that once he uses breaker he’s helpless for a while after that. Just use ex flying or ex bike kick to quickly get back in on him Once he’s in the corner he’s yours. When you get a knockdown on him,again,watch what he likes to do on wake up and decide your plans of attack from there. Only start to zone with him when he finally gets away from you and has less health than you.Once he does and you have the life lead just neutral jump over his projectiles and he may get impatient enough to come to you. If not,keep trying to get in on him again or just take him out with fireballs is his health is that low enough and you have a huge lead.
That’s how I usually go about that match up and it works for me. I’m sure someone else has more to add to this though.
