Only I wasn’t tiering by specials. Also, you can’t say that tiering by specials alone is ill-advised then state that certain top characters cannot be top because their specials can be punished. That be an oxymoron, broski.
The name of the game for MK’s current environment is aggression, and currently I’m seeing more aggressive options with Smoke, Kung Lao, and Raiden. Based on tournament/match videos a week since release, they seem to be able to get in, punish hard, and do it with little exposure when compared to everybody else. This is how I see the game now. I am by no means an expert, so I am letting the more competitively active aspect of our community sort this out. I’m just interpreting what I am seeing.
The only character who really gives me a headache right now is Raiden. That fly goes through almost everything (including projectiles) and even on block it sometimes rolls too far away, making it hard to punish. Not to mention the best thing about it - it takes you to the corner every time. His teleport leaves you with very few options since if you attack too early you’ll attack the wrong way. He can do it at almost any time and get an instant favorable position. His combos hurt pretty badly too. I can definitely see him being top and staying top.
With spacing and corner pressure being such big factors in mk9, I think anyone who excels at doing either is going to be well off.
Also, I definitely wouldn’t classify smoke as an overly aggressive character. Aggression =/= damage. Yes, smoke gets a huge payout on his hits for the most part, but his toolset isn’t geared towards constantly applying pressure. Most of it is reactionary - it counters what the opponent does. He’s more about punishment mistakes and spacing himself into an advantageous area than he is about constantly launching an offense.
Raiden’s electric fly can be tricky to punish depending on the range it is used. taken from a guide by tom Brady over at TYM
the ability to be able to consistently punish Raiden’s fly at any range will play a huge part in match-ups vs him, with some character having virtually no options at mid range. Kano’s ball may be just as fast and do more damage, but it’s always punishable by everyone regardless of when he does it.
Exactly.
I know some 33%, 36% and 41% combos with Sindel, without using meter.
But even when you just do some 20-30% combos, you will be fine. Because it is much more important to react quickly and change your tactic if necessary.
In my opinion, Sindel is the second best female character in the game. Kitana is the best at the moment.
So I think she is top mid tier.
If I was a cat I’d be afraid to sleep on Reptile, the dude looks like he eats anything.
but really, I think Reptile has some of the best projectiles in the game, and can get 30% easy off of a simple force ball. Characters that can get around zoning will give him trouble, while others who can’t will get bounced.
He doesn’t want to post his tier list because he says that people will start bitching and moaning every time they lose to an "official higher tier"
but he still posted most of his "S"es if not all: (no known specific order within the tiers)
S tier
Subs
Raiden
Cage
Nightwolf
Shang
CS
Cyrax
Kung Lao
Borderline S
Smoke
A+
Smoke
Kitana
Mileena
Reptile
Scorpion
Ermac
Of course this info is useless when you don’t know WHAT makes each character top tier.
But in this game you can find next week some broken glitch that will make a bad character top tier or something…
How can a game creator strategy guide HAVE a tier list. Tier list are created by pro players after playing vs and vs and tourney results after tourney result. I mean, no. I don’t agree with it 100%, unless they really created the game with the purpose OF making that tier list.
I wasn’t talking specifically with you. That’s why I said “people”. If you see what I said, I stated that “I don’t think Kung Lao (and Smoke) as being top only because” All of my explanation was because of specials alone. I don’t think anyone is “top” yet. But of course this is my opinion. I’m just stating that everytime I see tiering on MK9 threads around the web it’s usually because of a characters’ specials.
I don’t believe MK’s environment is aggression. But you did say it’s current environment and you did base it on tournament vids so I guess with those facts in mind, I guess it is. Overall, I don’t think so. I guess because I’m a Sub-Zero player and don’t really stay aggressive (I usually try to ease my opponent into a corner) then I’m bias. Oh well. It’s all fun right now.
I haven’t messed with sub zero much but I would think his matchup against raiden would be good because of ice clone. I’m sure you can probably use it to check his teleport and normal electric fly. Also maybe a quick slide can punish a teleport on reaction? Does raiden have vulnerable frames?. Also his lightning has kinda slow startup so maybe you can trade freeze with it? He probably has good tools against all characters which is why brady says he’s top.
I only have one person to play against offline so I can be wrong about this but I think raiden is a hard match for characters that rely on zoning. Reptile on the other hand doesn’t seem to do so bad but you still have to guess. I use his dashing elbow to get around a lot against raiden and it helps against teleport but you have to watch out for the fucking electric fly. If you can bait that out you can punish him with some good damage each time.
I don’t know, it’s early and like I said I have 1 person to play against (he’s a little on the predictable side) and online is a joke.
My friend plays with Raiden and I have a hard time the most against him but I still win. Ice clones have to be carefully placed with Raiden because he can try to get the hitbox that looks like it’s above you but it still grabs you. Then his enhanced (which my friend used on me a lot and succeeded) superman has armor so you can’t rely on clones or iceblasts (really need to watch his bar). Yea, the teleport has vunerable frames that you can hit with slide but you have to get the timing perfect. I think I only got it once. If you play Sub the right way with him, he can definitely beat Raiden. But it’s only my opinion as I need to play more Raiden’s and see their strategies. So I kinda take that back, until I see more strategies and see if Sub can beat Raiden really good then I’ll make that statement. Until then, it’s possible. lol.
I main Kung Lao, and really the only problems I"m having at the moment, is the Raiden match-up. Especially with online Raiden. Trying to block Raiden’s Superman on reaction is almost impossible. Not to mention his combo mix-ups to Superman. Shit’s crazy.
I don’t know, I’m kind of in the WAY to early to be speculating about stuff like this. I mean, forgive me for not being a fighting game vet. I’m not even sure who Tom Brady is. I’d wager he’s an important pro on the MK scene, as I’ve listened to alot of his stuff and read some of his posts at some of the sites. I have NO doubt he knows what he’s talking about given the information he has.
However, is it always so immediate two weeks after a game is out that we know so much about the nuances to establish a tier list? Surely most games have enough layers of depth that tier lists reorient themselves fairly often with the first year or so? By all means correct me if I’m wrong. I am trying to learn all the stuff I can.
“oh we cant discuss this because we won’t know for sure until 2020”
tier list will constantly be changing… god forbid we discuss metagame and who are the overrated and underrated characters.
besides - most people agree that kung lao, ermac, reptile and raiden are high tier. this has been confirmed because they are dominating the tournaments at the moment.
Also, you can’t say that tiering by specials alone is ill-advised then state that certain top characters cannot be top because their specials can be punished. That be an oxymoron, broski.