Liu has fantastic normals (which is good because most of his specials are terrible). So, he can punish Kung Lao’s Spin and Johnny Cage’s Flip Kick with juggles after a block. For both you want to use (BP, FP, FK…) a.k.a. (2, 1, 3…). Against Kung’s Spin you need to dash slightly before attacking. Against Cage’s Flip Kick you need to hit the BP as SOON as Liu stops actually blocking (it’s difficult). Liu’s Uppercut will stuff a blocked Cage Flip Kick as well.
So neutral BP is his fastest normal? Good to know.
Against enemies up on the air (anti air juggle or blocked air teleports), what kombos do you guys usually use?
2,1,3 usually doesn’t juggle since the last hit usually doesn’t connect due to timing.
b+3,1,2 is also kinda hard to time sometimes on falling opponents.
What do you find is usually the easiest/most universal way to ensure you can continue the air juggle kombo to a good damage?
Start with a couple of neutral 1 or 2 first? Or is it f+1,2 a couple of times?
Is 1,2,b+1 a solid universal way to always ensure you’ll get a juggle on falling opponents?
The most consistent combo after an anti-air jab is (dash, f+FP, BP, f+FP, BP, f+FP, BP, Flying Kick). This should work from pretty much any height.
A nice combo I just found: JPS, b+FK,FP-BP, JK~AFB, b+FK,FP-BP, b+FK,FP-BP, b+FK,FP-BP, b+FK~LFB
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.
hmmmm…either classic AI cheating, or ex flying kick is invulnerable on startup.
was he doing it as a wakeup attack, or was it just whenever? i ask because on wakeup certain moves go inv
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.
so AI cheating then. not suprising
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.
All I really use with Liu is:
-**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.
Game’s dumb.
Did anyone else notice that Liu Kang got a slight damage nerf?
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.
XBOX just got the patch, so I am back in the lab.
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.