MK11 update
Kotal kahn still sucks and makes me sad
Raiden however is super dynamic and mega fun. Him being able to cancel superman fly lets you just get berserk with unsafe stuff. Strong footsies, strong zoning, teleport is fast like it is in mk9 and you can be anywhere you want on the screen at any time.
You always pick those off meta big burly characters so no surprise.
Yeah Raiden always good neutral. That was Wong’s character in X and he seems to be liking Sonya in XI.
Sonya is probably the best character in the game right now. On top of all the bullshit 50/50 mix into combo (which she, unlike most of the cast still has) she is now also one of the best zoners. Regular fireball, air fireballs, delay fireballs, and a hidden missle that hits overhead from full screen.
also here’s some high level play from a former evo top 4 player
Yeah as soon as saw Sonicfox using her during that pre release tournament I already knew it was probably because she was going to be top tier. Her zoning is really strong for how good her offense is and there doesn’t seem to be too many characters that have zoning as strong as their offense. It’s usually one or the other, but she has both so anybody can really use her. Plus I hear she’s not that hard to play.
I probably won’t use her though just because it’s obvious the bandwagon is coming for her and I prefer other characters.
Well at least to me the other obviously strong characters are
Yeah he’s like what would happen if you had a shoto that had a really good c.MK fireball but used more buttons in neutral instead of your fireball. Red fireball is only there to take up the screen for a bit or use for block setups with VT1. It’s mainly about catching people’s legs with c.MK fireball and having easy access to that since it true strings so there’s no way for them to mash out and have to take white/chip. Which unless they have Vega/Sakura walk speed they start to panic because they know once you get in it’s plus 3 city and all of your bnbs lead to set play/corner push.
Overhead being naturally comboable on meaties is very scary and rare for this game and yeah, combine that with VT2 stuff and people will start panicky and have to take near guaranteed hits.
Yeah Sonya is pretty busted since she can unleash older MK game style high/low games that most of the other cast doesn’t have access to. When I watch her play it’s like looking at an MKX character again which I don’t think they intended, but we’ll see. Once people start putting together wave dashing it’s RIP because wave dashing basically gives you a slightly weaker MKX run from what I’m seeing and Sonya don’t need that.
Yeah Liu Kang just has good basic stuff. That’s how he is. Erron looks good, but can just play Sonya. Looking forward to seeing time stop stuff actually used with Geras.
Hoping for top tier Cetrion or Skarlet lol. If not then I’ll hop on Sonya bandwagon to back them up.
Skarlet is in my top 5 right after Liu Kang. You don’t see anyone talking about her cause they got their fill in the beta I guess but she’s literally even stronger than she was in the beta. Gave her better krushing blow requirements and made her zoning even better because they buffed the slow/fast blood ball ability which is in a tourney variation along with cell siphon, the plus restand that heals you.
Also since you are plus and restand, both her throws have a 31% krushing blow tied to them, so yeah she’s stupid good.
Good. Nobody talking about Skarlet is good. Can just do stuff people won’t expect is good and not worry about too many people knowing how to fight her from the bandwagon. I’ll throw Cetrion in there anyways just because can’t go wrong with dumb NRS zoning. Ground pound looks fun to abuse.
Well cetrion is better than I think people are giving credit for (mid-tier ish) but she’s considered by most of the community the single worst character in the game.
I am not sure Skarlet is that great as most of her neutral pokes are punishable or - on block. She often loses a turn for enforcing from midrange.
I don’t think she’s bad or anything, but I’m not sure she’s top tier material.
Liu Kang and Sonya are my current picks for best.
Liu Kang usually looks good and then tech and stuff gets figured out and he goes down a bit. Since this is Neutral Kombat 11 though he may luck out with the game being more neutrally helping him out.
Guess it depends on how well you can stay in safe minus ranges and keep using projectiles to keep plus while keeping them away. Kinda like mixing Falke’s safe minus normals and plus fireball/j.MP to keep people at bay until you get trigger.
Exactly. She’s a very SF style Spacing character, if her zones are consistently strong she’s gold. But she doesn’t have the up close game or mixups to steal wins like other characters.
Thats how pokes in mk work. You get blocked you lose your turn. But in MK its mad easy to steal turns so that’s the thing.
Her best pokes are back 3 into tongue which is 100% safe, f2 into tongue which is 100% safe, 21 which is 100% safe and leads to 30% and restand + health gain. They are some of the best pokes in the game period.
I don’t really think it’s a huge part of his gameplay tbh. It lacks range and priority. It’s just a REALLY GOOD hitconfirm into his supers and vt2. I haven’t figured out his neutral yet. Right now it’s a mix of v skill, jumps and dashes, air fireball to bait DP/AA and get a punish or frame advantage, and fhp here and there as his only real poke that has any priority besides L red fb.
I feel like he’s more about waiting for mistakes from your opponent and capitalizing on them brutally, rather than trying to go in.
Brabochoke as an example just pushes my shit in with his birdie versus my kage… but my Urien takes that matchup free. Kagesretty terrible on the ground versus characters with decent buttons and or ranged lows.
But one mistake and it’s off to the cleaners for them. Also he’s a counter poker at heart as well and that’s something I’ve never been, but it definitely opens up his game and allows him to be more proactive.
Just whiffing a st.hp from range can make people slow their roll big time because they know that’s a wiff buffer to catch buttons.
Which allows him to walk or dash in and be more proactive.
But the cr.mk xx fb is great for when he’s metered up, or when he’s getting in and the opponent is trying to walk back out of his pressure.
It’s decent enough that I had people consistently backdashing after a blocked cr.mp yesterday.
True. Sonya plus optimized wave dashing isn’t going to give much of a shit about anyone and has good zoning also. She may have to find some other niche to stay up there with the characters that can steamroll.
She has a bunch of good midrange safe stuff. But not into great damage. And her high/low game isn’t great.
She does a good job of stuffing the RTsD stuff, but I’m not sure how much she can really win with her game-plan compared to other characters.
To be clear, I’m not saying she’s bad. Just not sure she’s top tier.
30% midscreen for no bar is in fact above average damage in mk11.
she doesn’t need oh/low most of her actual pokes you wanna do push people so far out they can’t do shit and have to take risks to get in.
To me she’s absolutely top 5 material. A bit plain in the gameplan maybe sure, but a lot of people struggle with what she has to offer. She’s a character that will induce counterpicks at higher levels of play.
Maybe, the game is new enough where I can’t say anything for certain. So i am more than willing to be wrong.
I just feel like “waiting her out” is too viable a strategy her to be for top tier. One you accept that she owns a couple of screen spaces, you can just block and avoid the big damage. Its very SF-esque in that, if the opponent knows the ranges, they can avoid some of the bigger damage.
Her re-stand is only +4 as well, which is pretty weak frame data. I’ve been playing with her force ball stuff to see if i can consistently generate lots of frame data.
Also, I’m a bit drunk… so I may not be the best mental sparring partner at the moment.
Edit; i haven’t forgotten my big MK write-up. i have it note pad. I will post soon.