General/Other - Sun God Kotal Khan day 1 impressions

[TylorJockin]

I've used Kotal Khan all day, I got the game at 9pm monday night and have only slept for like 5hours. I have only used Kotal (Give or take a few for trying out SubZero).

I only use the Sun God variation

His damage output is decent. Granted he has the blood sacrifice to turn up the output to RIDICULOUS. He doesnt have any good normals/strings. It's really upsetting. Kotal is a very slow character, and very unsafe. As far as I know, his quickest comboable string is f1-2 and is 9frames. It is sooo unsafe though, but if it hits you get either 18ish% or 37% if you wanna burn a bar. Great damage, but so unsafe. His f2 launcher is his best combo starter but is 17f startup and unsafe. I cannot seem to figure out how this guy gets any progress in a match. Is he all punish? If so, his fastest move is 9frames :'(

He really doesnt have any mixup potential. He's got 2 strings that end in overhead, but not much to benefit from them. He has a low starter you can only combo off of in the corner. I'd say his best mixup is the old "run up in grab? Or run up at punch?".

He does have really cool setups with his Sun Beam specials that I hope to share when they fix the "record/playback" in practice mode.

I don't mean to post this to complain about the character, but just to get my current thoughts out and see what you guys think.

So let me know!

 

[iamylem]

As far as first impressions go you pretty much nailed him on the head. He seems to be a character that makes you fuck up then pay for it with grappling and sunlight set ups that forces you to close in on him

 

[Agilaz]

I'm disappointed by how few tools he has tbh. He has no way to deal with projectiles (aside from sunbeam "pressure", lol), his wake-up outside of the Wargod variation is kinda ass, no really good normals, little to no mixup potential...

I know it's only day 2, but it really isn't looking good right now

 

[regulas]

Well the point of him is that he should be using his reach to attack rather then speed. That being said since parry seems almost integral to using him right, in the meantime War God really feels like it will be the dominant usable version in the short term because you get all that safety and range control.

 

[Khaoz77]

I also have the same frustrations with Kotal, the way its going, we have to get bopped in order to learn more about the character. The beauty about Kotal is that he isn't a pick up and play character, he looks like he is going to require A LOT of research in order to make him viable

Sometimes the greatest gripe about a character is time.

 

[Agilaz]

Well the point of him is that he should be using his reach to attack rather then speed. That being said since parry seems almost integral to using him right, in the meantime War God really feels like it will be the dominant usable version in the short term because you get all that safety and range control.

I really want to agree about the range, but the problem is that even with that big -ass sword there's plenty of characters with important tools that outrange him. Mystic Ermac and Outlaw Erron come to mind. The fact that Erron has njp that uses his sword is such an advantage against Kotal, who's air game seems really sluggish.

After playing around for some hours, I figured the only real way to play him effectively is to be SUPER patient. Like, comatose levels of patience. Once you get a knock down you can start pressuring a bit with f1 and f3 and their extensions. Until something gets blocked and you eat a reversal, cause why would anything be truly safe.

 

[regulas]

I really want to agree about the range, but the problem is that even with that big -ass sword there's plenty of characters with important tools that outrange him. Mystic Ermac and Outlaw Erron come to mind. The fact that Erron has njp that uses his sword is such an advantage against Kotal, who's air game seems really sluggish.

After playing around for some hours, I figured the only real way to play him effectively is to be SUPER patient. Like, comatose levels of patience. Once you get a knock down you can start pressuring a bit with f1 and f3 and their extensions. Until something gets blocked and you eat a reversal, cause why would anything be truly safe.

Main thing I've found is just that you have to take there momentum into account and really go for max range hits. Especially with db1 which moves you forward as well. Most of the time when people are advancing aggressively you can use it from further and they move into it. Also consider that df2 is much better versus air, and use db1 for it's super armor/doublehit nock-up . Similarly make sure you mixup what you do with diffent slashes and occasional normasl and the like.

Also consider obviously some characters have a ranged edge and thats what running and dashing to control range is. Once you hit once though it's pretty easy to control range.

 

[Agilaz]

Main thing I've found is just that you have to take there momentum into account and really go for max range hits. Especially with db1 which moves you forward as well. Most of the time when people are advancing aggressively you can use it from further and they move into it. Also consider that df2 is much better versus air, and use db1 for it's super armor/doublehit nock-up . Similarly make sure you mixup what you do with diffent slashes and occasional normasl and the like.

Also consider obviously some characters have a ranged edge and thats what running and dashing to control range is. Once you hit once though it's pretty easy to control range.

I think a lot of my frustration comes from the fact I've been playing MK9 in the run-up to release, and it was so easy to get in with Sektor and pressure people. I played some Lex Luthor and Bane in Injustice, so I'm not entirely unfamiliar with this type of character, but I see Sub Zero's and Erron's do some crazy fast overhead-to-low combo starting strings, and I get a little jelly cause I have to hang back and wait to wack 'em with my sword paddle.

I should incorporate df2 as my anti-air, it seems more reliable than the grab so far.

Question, do you bother including blood sacrifice in your play? I occasionally cancel into it from a 4 (eg f2, f2, 43 xx ExAirGrab, 4 xx blood sacrifice) but I'm curious on what others' opinion is.

 

[regulas]

Question, do you bother including blood sacrifice in your play? I occasionally cancel into it from a 4 (eg f2, f2, 43 xx ExAirGrab, 4 xx blood sacrifice) but I'm curious on what others' opinion is.

For now I only consider using it maybe as a chipout move. MK9 well showed that these abilities are very difficult to use oft too risky for the reward. (IF they block you may only get as little as 2-4% dmg bonus for 10% taken).

 

[DeathandGrim]

I can't say I'm disappointed with him. He can be very oppressing if you know how to wall opponents and punish correctly. But his main problems are his horrible response to projectiles and super slow, punishable normals. He seems very punish oriented.

Sun God is my favorite because the grab sorta has disjointed range, is easy to combo into and can mind game people into being caught by it. It can also heal too so that's a plus if you meter burn.

 

[Eijiken]

Definitely can't say anything that hasn't been said about him.

I feel a little bit at home with him as I played Grundy during Injustice days and he was the same way (negative as shit, little tools, punish oriented)

Blood sacrifice seems really...weird to the way he should be played though. Damage buff is hilarious, but its almost as if you have to be REALLY confident your next strings are going to land.


When I finish story mode, i'm going try to spend some time in the lab with him.