Yet another help me pick a main thread... I know, but please help anyway!!

So I'm having a really hard time deciding upon a main guy to play...


I'm a gamer but not really fighting games. In fact, MK9 is the first fighting game I've played for longer than renting it from blockbuster. I got the game for the nostalgia factor - I used to play MK1 at the arcade when I was 9. Great times! Anyway, fell in love with this game and would like to actually win a match instead of losing all the time as I do now. These forums have been awesome and I've improved a lot quite quickly.

However, I have no idea who to play. I've tried Sub, Raiden, Smoke, Sektor, and Quan the most. I'm probably the best with Quan but that still means I lose a lot as he kinda sucks...as I've found out the hard way (I only chose him b/c he looked cool).


I don't know what my style is. I feel like I uppercut way too much, don't stay patient and block enough, and go for big 35%+ combos all the time, which I naturally rarely pull off, especially online. I think I'd like to be aggressive but honestly my brain and hands don't seem to work that fast, at least not yet. Characters like Sonya and Cyrax scare me because they seem very complicated to be good at. I'd prefer someone who doesn't have a lot of bad match ups.

Idk what else to tell you, please ask if you need more info to make a good recommendation.


A BILLION thanks in advance!!!!

Quan doesn't suck. You upset Crunchy.


All of the characters in this game are good. Some are better sure, but all of them are good. It just takes picking which one you like, taking them into practice mode, looking up guides that will tell you what moves are best to use, etc. Have you played any other fighting games? Do you know what type of style you would like to play, rushdown, zone, etc?

Play through ladder with each of the characters and see which one meshes the best for ya. Kinda sounds like you may be leaning towards Johnny Cage.

As a recommendation though, you just need to get in the habit of blocking then punishing/poking out of pressure. Then figure out what kind of playstyle you like ^_^

Sounds like you should give Liu Kang a shot. He is aggressive with great zoning tools and has potential to throw a lot of people off their game with basic strategies.

Work on his instant air fire balls and combo strings in training mode.

Instant air fire balls - Press up + back then forward + 1. If you do this quickly enough he will instantly shoot a fireball really low off the ground. This is good because he has the ability to shoot fire balls faster if you utilize this instant air fireball strategy correctly. Mix these up with low fire balls to keep people checking their toes and out of the air.

Basic combo - Back 3, 1, 2 dash Back 3, 1, 2 dash Back 3, 1, 2 dash Back 3, 1 , 2. Yep that easy. This will feel frustrating at first but don't give up. Learning this combo will teach you one of the most important things in the game, dash canceling combo strings properly. This string is also a low starter which throws a lot of people through a loop. Once you are comfortable with this work on mixing up with some of his overhead strings.

So many responses! Sweet! In order then...

Sorry. Crunchy doesn't suck. But I suck as him. I do way too many tele-stomps and get punished like crazy. Also, I'd say my biggest weakness is freaking out and panicking when someone is rushing me down. Since Quan has no wake up options and no real defense (save uppercut I guess) I can get beat real quick sometimes. No idea on my style this is really my first fighting game.

Oh I have. I played ladder on medium with I think every single character until I lost a match. Got to Shao with a couple people Goro/Kintaro with maybe 10 fighters.
I also went online and played 15 straight matches with random character select! I mostly won Smoke I think...

Yeah, my deal is I block, but release it too soon b/c I'm anxious to attack and their string is still going so I get hit by the end of it, ugh!

Bit of a shot in the dark but I recommend Cyber Sub. Give him a try. His dive kick is godly for peppering the opponent and his parry will save your ass many a time. Good mix ups as well. 334 has the second 3 as a low. And 34 has the second 4 as an overhead.

I'd say play through the story mode and you'll get the gist of all the chars in the game alongside their background and characteristics. I myself know that I would never go for LiuKang, Kung Lao or Sonya as I compulsively choose the baddies. Hence Reptile and Noob as my mains.

If you want long combos without the hassle go for Liu Kang. You can press just three buttons to sweep the floor with your opponent, two combos to win the game. + the firebals, bicycle kick and the dive kick and you can get used to seeing the FINISH HIM sign pretty damn often.

Raiden is a similar story. I really do not understand how a character with so many strenghts did not make it to top 8 at Evo but I still believe we shall see a lot of Raidens. Easy combos, instant teleport, fireball and superman... duh ;p

First KL, I just don't like him and he's really popular and idk, lame to me.

Cage I've played with a bit and I struggle not being able to get in. Maybe I just need to learn how to dash block. Also, cage's BnB combos are really hard for me. Combos with lots of dashes in them I really struggle with....I guess I shoyuldn;t let that dictate as I'll hopefully get better.

Liu I don't understand what he is. He has air, high, and low fireball. I flying kick and bicycle kick. All zoning tools it seems to me. Yet everyone says he's rushdown. I don't get it...

Sonya is a possibility but she seems really hard. Especially being able to use her MS stuff, is that necessary to a good Sonya?
I've been all over the character forums, I bought Brady's living guide android app, etc etc. I'm trying!!

H'okay, the one solution I can come up with for what you just told me about spamming the telstomp and getting punished alot: Don't pick a character with a teleport. You'll keep falling into the same niches and spamming teleports is bad and does get you punished.


I agree with everyone here, it sounds like you would enjoy Johnny Cage, Liu Kang, or even Cyber-sub

Okay, you make a good case but I'm not sure. A lot of his stuff seems useless. His parry is slow, his specials are easy to read and lots are unsafe, and his combos I can do. 213 over and over much easier than the b312 (b/c of the dashing), but I hardly ever get them going in a real match. Maybe I'm just too twitchy?

Interesting. I think I value a low pop-up combo starter, seems to come up a lot when I play. Honestly I've never played him because I don't like his look...but I suppose that's a silly reason to not play a guy.

Yeah I've beaten story mode, tis where I started. Liu I've mentioned already. As far as Raiden his lack of a combo that starts with a low kills me. I unsafe flying man too much, I can't seem to get free combos off of teleport, only a throw or a sweep...

Okay, thanks. Seems like a short-list is emerging! And yeah I do spam teleport too much, Smoke, Quan, Scorpion (who I really sucked as), Sektor....hmmm - definitely a weakness I need to work on (or not pick a tele porter as you suggest).

Cage/Kung Lao/Liu Kang.

Cage is good for total aggressiveness and locking an opponent down in frame traps and corner combos. Expect to build a lot of meter with the F+3, 2 D+1 block string and try to hit confirm(read whether or not they are blocking and react accordingly; you don't want to use nut punch on block) to use a nut punch and continue again until he's in the corner or interrupts you.

With Kung Lao, he has basically no 4/6 matchups. Kitana is arguably his worst at maybe 4.5/5.5, advantage for kitana. But he really has no bad matchups, he has a tool for every situation and can use wake up spin to say GTFO me. He can zone with low hat and hat toss, cross over with tele-3, overhead/low mixup traps with 2,4 low hat/2,4 overhead hat, pressure like cage and keep an opponent locked down, he's good at any sort of game basically.

Liu kang is a low/high mix up master, as one of his strings starts with a low(B+3,1,2) or change it up with F+3 for an overhead and is also good at zoning with his fireballs. His low fireball goes under most every other projectile and hits low, while you can do instant air fireballs(up+back, forward+1; almost like doing a normal fireball, but instead just putting 2 motions in one, diagonal@ 11 'oclock and forward 1) and build meter safely.

EDIT: hmm sorry, it took me a long while to type this out because I was busy so I didn't see your posts about the character preferences. With teleporting, I do it too often so I dropped those kinds of characters.

Try out nightwolf. He has fairly nice rushdown and can zone and counter zone aswell with the reflect move. 122 hatchet b+2 hatchet shoulder/F+31 hatchet B+2 EX-hatchet 1 dash 1 dash 1 shoulder for bnbs, shoulder randomly, not on wake up unless you know it's going to hit, from full screen you can use it to close distance if you need, and when they commit to crouch blocking use lightning to almost surely hit them, or EX-lightning to hit them for sure. Arrow/shoulder is good for checking a jumping opponent, when they try to get away from lightning. If you were on PS3 I could show you what I've learned so far but sadly, it seems to be otherwise. v.v

Hate this shit.

Great info man, big thanks!

Hmm, then I (potentially) love this shit!

read my edit por favor

Here's a shot in the dark, but try Shang Tsung. He's got zoning, a low starter, an overhead, and his grab heals. I'm not the most pro shang, so I can't list everything, but defiantly worth checking out.

If you're going to look at shang..it's like a beaten dead horse at this point but check out Detroitballn. Amazing corner pressure and is most likely the best shang out there imo.

If you need a low combo starter, good damage output, zoning, a string capable of punishing 90% of punishable moves in the game with as high as 38% meterless not to mention a 2 moves that really piss some people off.... The red robot army wants you.

Nightwolf is a possibility, I've only played him a tiny bit, but when I did he seemed...slow?