“You will learn respect!”
Special Moves:
Fan Toss (8%, 2 hits, also in air)
Charged Fan (12%, 13% if fully charged, 2 hits, also in air)
D, F, 1
Upraise (Paralyzing)
Uplift (Paralyzing, faster)
B, B, 2
Cutting Fan (9%, 2 hits)
Fan Dice (19%, 4 hits)
D, F, 2
Square Boost (7%, also in air)
Square Wave (11%, Armor. also in air)
D, B, 1
Pretty Kick (10%, 2 hits)
Pretty Legs (13%, 3 hits)
D, B, 3
Fake Out Kick (6%)
D, B, 4
X-Ray: Big Fan (31%, 4 hits)
Kitana throw's her fans at the opponent, making this a projectile X. It can also be done in the air or substituted for her regular fan throw in most combos. Easily blocked, but not easily punished.
Secret Technique: Enhance Fan Cancel.
Holding 1 lets you charge Kitana’s Enhanced Fan. Dashing in this stance cancels the second toss of the Enhanced Fan and opens combo potential.
Basic Combos
3, 3, Pretty Kick (19%, 4 hits) or Pretty Legs (22%, 5 hits)
2, 1, *Upraise, dash, jK, *Fan Toss, dash, 4, Fan Toss, dash F+2, *Cutting Fan (34%, 11 Hits)
B+2, Fan Toss, dash, #B+2, Fan Toss (29%, 4 Hits) or Enhanced Fan, hold 1 #Release (31%, 5 Hits)
F+3, 1, Upraise, jK, *Fan Toss, dash, Fan Toss, dash, 2, 1, 2 (29%, 11 Hits)
F+4, 1, dash, 3, 3, Upraise, dash, jK, Air Fan, dash, Fan Toss, dash, Cutting Fan (34%, 12 Hits)
F+2, 1, jK, Fan Toss, Square Boost (27%, 5 hits) or Square Wave (29%, 5 hits)
F+2, 1, B+2, *Fan Toss, dash, #Fan Toss, dash, 2, * Fan Toss, F+2, * Cutting Fan (41%, 11 Hits)
F+2, 1, 4, *Fan Toss, 4, *Fan Lift, dash, step forward, B+2, *Fan Toss, dash, 4, Fan Toss, dash, 2, *Cutting Fan (43%, 14 Hits)
[Corner] F+2, 1, B+2, *Fan Toss, #Fan Toss, dash, 4, *Fan Toss, 3, 3, 3, Cutting Fan (47%, 14 Hits)
Enhanced Combos
2, 1, *EN Fan, cancel F, F+2, 1, B+2, *Fan Toss, dash, # Fan Toss, dash, 2, * Fan Toss, F+2, *Cutting Fan (43%, 14 Hits- 1 Bar)
F+4, 1, *EN Fan, cancel F, F+2, 1, B+2, Fan Toss, dash, #Fan Toss, dash, 2, 1, 2 (41%, 12 Hits – 1 Bar)
[Unbreakable] Fan Lift, iAF, Fan Toss, EN Fan, cancel F, Fan Toss, EN Fan, cancel F, Fan Toss (24%, 10 Hits – 2 Bars)
X-Ray Combos
F+3, 1, *Jump Kick *Fan Toss, *X (41% 8 hits)
B+2, Fan Toss, dash, #B+2, *X (45%, 7 Hits)
F+2, 1, njP, dash, #B+2, Fan Toss, dash, B+2, X (47%, 10 Hits)
Playing as Kitana
Preferred Gameplan: Zoning//Juggle//Counter
Kitana doesn't do a lot of damage. But she is insanely fast. Her fans are a difficult to dodge projectile and can set opponents up for combos if you catch them airborne. Her Square Boost is a great pseudo-teleport and combined with her fans gives her great control of the air.
D+1, D+1, D+1. I cannot stress enough how important Kitana’s D+1 poke is to her overall gameplan. When someone gets in her face, ideally she wants to push them back out so she can counter on her terms. D+1 allows her to do this. Repeated D+1s or D+1 followed up with Cutting Fan will push the opponent back far enough that you can go for the F+2, 1. F+2, 1 is a great poke and is gonna be your combo starter of choice. It is a safe poke that leads into a launcher and is also safe on block.
Note that you can immediate follow a blocked advance with Fake-Out Kick for a bit of a mix-up game. 2, 1, 2 is a great combo to pop straight out of a Square Boost and just a good combo in general. It covers a lot of ground and a lot of space is all directions. Upraise makes a great anti-air and can set up for powerful air combos. Mixing Pretty Kick and Fake Out Kick can confuse enemies quickly.
If you have meter available, Kitana’s 2, 1, EN Fan combo makes a great offensive tool. Keep it in mind.
Any technique that utilizes Kitana's speed is a great one. She is very aggressive and fun to play as well. Be aware that mastering instant air fans is basically a requirement to play her competitively. Hitting someone with Fans from the air and then immediately with fans from the ground can be tough to swallow.
Pretty much anything except Fan Toss can be used as a wake-up attack, and none of them are armored. This can make Kitana’s wake-up game a little tricky. While none of your attacks are completely safe, Fan Lift helps avoid being rushed down. Cutting Fan has amazingly quick recovery and leaves the opponent staggered making it your most aggressive option, and Fake Out Kick gives a little bit of mix-up game on wake up for those that dash in and block high hoping to avoid a wake-up. Square Boost can get you out of a tight situation, but if used in the corner is not gonna do much good. Pretty Kick should NOT be used as a wake-up attack it has long start-up and horrid recovery making it inferior to Cutting Fan in almost every way.
One important trick that should be mastered for Kitana is the instant Air Fan, or iAF. This is a simple trick and basically involves jumping and throwing an Air Fan as close to the ground as possible. There are a few reasons to do this. First of all, the iAF has much quicker recovery that a standing ground fan. It also inflicts 1% more damage. There are several different ways to actually achieve the iAF: U, D, F, 1, or a 270o motion starting with U are the most common. An iAF can be followed up, almost immediately, with a ground fan as well. Note that for iAF, Kitana flips backwards and with grounded Fan Toss, she steps forward. Kitana can also do an Instant Air Square Boost, or iASB using a similar method. The utility of this is to fly over low flying projectiles or to attack an enemy while closing space.
Another thing to note concerns implementing Kitana’s zoning game against characters with Parry type attacks (Namely Nightwolf’s Reflect, and Smoke’s Shake). A good strategy is to utilize Kitana’s iAF in such a way that the fan actually travels over the opponent, this will often-times bait him/her into using the parry and leaving him/herself open for punishment.
Apply these tips to your game and you’ll have everyone bowing before your greatness.
Fighting Kitana
Kitana should be beaten close up. Her Fans are just too much to deal with at long range, especially if your opponent is particularly adept at Instant Air Fans. You can have great success at mid-range if your character happens to accel there as well (Read: Jade). Don’t falsely assume that her game up close isn’t good just because her projectile game is great. She sports a safe poke combo starter in F+2 that leads into 40+% juggles. She may not be the rushdown queen, but she can still dish out damage with the best of them.
Kitana sports possibly the best Anti-Air move-set in the entire game. For this reason, it's best to not get into the air too much with Kitana, since her anti-air and air specials are most likely better.
She is quick and hits repeatedly, but she doesn't hit hard. All that damage can add up extremely fast, though. As aggressive as she is, she has little in the way of defense. Punish her aggressiveness and play defensively when close and it'll be over quick. Just be careful when attempting a rushdown on a grounded Kitana. She has 5 different wake-up options, meaning outguessing her is not an option.
Do NOT let her zone you out, though. She is almost always going to be better at the projectile game due to the ease of throwing a Fan Toss immediately following a low Air Fan.
Keep these tips in mind and you’ll be knocking the tiara right off of this princess.
Fatalities:
Fan Opener: D, D, B, F, 2 (sweep)
Splitting Headache: F, D, F, B 3 (sweep)
Stage Fatality: F, D, D, 3
Babality
F, D, F, 4
Kitana Frame Data
Normals:
1 - 14f 2 - 11f 3 - 12f 4 - 17f
D+1 - 6f D+2 - 15f D+3 - 7f D+4 - 15f
B+1 - 20f B+2 - 22f B+3 - 13f B+4 - 15f
F+2 - 18f F+3 - 18f F+4 - 17f
Specials:
Fan Lift - 24f [EN - 10f]
Fan Toss - 24f [EN - 22f]
iAF - 13f
iASB - 18f
Cutting Fan - 14f
Pretty Kick - 18f
Fake-Out Kick - 31f
X-Ray -
