Listen guys. I'm not in the business of selling bills. I am new to the character and labbing and I guess in a sense being a theoretician but crouch blocking the ex upball is a bit of a downplay. You cant really do that on reaction when your pressure him on the knockdown. Its still a pretty good buff and an option to use. He also has an Ex launcher with armor which imo having an armored launcher to use on a wake up is pretty good and will probably be very important thing to have as the meta evolves.
He has pretty good normals, His F2 is a lot like Jax and hes neutral on a lot of strings. Not to mention great pokes and good backdash, great damage, great zoning in knives for keepaway and also can be used to get in. Good set ups with damage buff on knockdown in the corner after ball. Most importantly good armored wake ups and an armored launcher. What is he missing?? To me he reminds me a lot of Cage in MK9 where you had to have very strong fundamentals and footsies to make him work at high levels. I just recently picked him and want to see how he is.
I just came on the kano boards for some cutthroat strats but its depressing here.
Not really a downplay when it's being sold as a "get off the ground for free" Bill. Examples.
In knockdown/WU situations it is nearly useless. You might as well EX Ball cancel for the full combo than EX Upball. There's absolutely no reward in comparison. Now if they are hesitating on their pressure in an attempt to bait/punish armor, then there's still no point since in this situation they will be crouch blocking all of your options a leg away. In this scenario, still risk EX Kano Cancel because you'd be full combo punished either way. So in KD/WU situations, EX Kano Ball Cancels are superior in every way.
For pressure or string safety, why use EX Upball when you can use EX Knives on strings that jail for +frames and continue pressure or EX Knives after any string in Cyber for more pressure/advantage? These options are far superior for 1 bar on block than EX Upball. When interrupting strings why wouldn't you use Ball Cancel? Far superior option.
EX Upball buff was a slap in the face to what he actually needs. Almost seemed like a purposely made insult.
Now Kano talk, yes his dashes are amazing, his corner game in Cutthroat is amazing (as long as you B1 doesn't whiff on crouch blockers randomly), F2 is good. I agree. But some stuff like having "great zoning" I strongly disagree. Quan Chi, Shinnok, Kenshi, Tanya, well pretty much every zoning character in the game has better zoning and the ones that don't have options to shut his zoning down more than the others. But to the most important question, "what is he missing?". Best question asked in the thread.
-An actual OH since Cutt B1 is so bad that it probably shouldn't even count.
-Mixups as either a starter or inside of his strings. Any type of mixups. Is Kano literally the only character in the entire game that has variations with no 50/50 starter andddd NO OH or Lows in anyyyy of his strings? I think so. Possibly the worst mixup potential in the game.
-Actual follow ups from his plus frames. No point in EX Knives being plus on block, but so low a plus that Kung Jin armors your follow up for near 40% in Cyber, or using a bar for pressure on block in Cutt but your 50/50 can't even reach the opponent. Everyone else has enough +frames and range for full follow ups after they spend a bar, why not Kano?
-Priority. I've yelled this so much that I can't anymore. My grandma can hit him out of all his specials, EX Specials, and half his normals.
-Damage. Outside of Cutthroat. My grandma also hits harder than him.
-Etc.
Considering the way MKX has to be played to maximize results, the things he "doesn't" have are magnified and are in part why he isn't that good at all but may appear to be better than what he really is.
