I don't agree that Kabal has easy execution at all (one of the harder ones actually for optimal play in this game, comparatively to Scorpion where you master his optimal play in a literal 10 minutes), or the best Fatal Blow (Erron takes that cake free, though Kabal's is really good). If you don't play a "high execution and technical Kabal", you cannot maximize his toolset or damage and his elite level is about mid-ish level. Yea that's not trash or bad, but again, to play him at his peak you have to play him at a level that not someone who "picked him up two days ago" is playing.
The same can't be said for Scorpion/Erron/Geras/Liu Kang types of characters, where I literally can play them this weekend and maximize their potential by Sunday afternoon. No one is winning against decent competition with a two day old Kabal. No one has a "pocket Kabal" for this reason as well. Yet anyone can have a pocket Scorpion or pocket Geras, or pocket Erron.
I think Kabal is slept on. Probably more than you do. I think he is arguably a top 3 character in the entire game. He is one of only four characters I believe you can solo and win against the whole roster. But your "being slept on for some reason" is easily answered. It's because he is not scrubby. Since he requires more time, practice, and energy to master, people are skipping that for "scrubby" top tier characters that are equally good.
I totally disagree. If you're having trouble with his execution then your controller might be broken. The only thing tough about him is an unusually small amplify window for his projectile. String xx special, string xx special isn't hard. Is there some tool he has that I'm overlooking that isn't simple as hell? His playstyle is to whiff punish, convert off krushing blows, and remembering to block when it's not your turn. I'll agree that Geras is scrubbier than Kabal, but I don't think scorpion is. You're probably just getting teleported on constantly by waves of bad scorpions. If you recall, every MK game has a shit ton of year 1 scorpions. MK9, Injustice, and MKX were packed with scorpions at launch because 111, teleport. There is a considerably gap between high and low level scorpions that come down to skill, reactions, reads, etc. vs Kabal where most of your game is backdash into a B1. You can't "maximize someone's toolset" as a scrub player. You just can't. The entry level into this game is low, but not that low.
I mean yeah he has all that (beside the 50/50 he only has that in clean cut and it's a shitty one too and only 2 mids under 15f) but what's exactly scrubby about having good tools? also easy execution doesn't necessarely means a character is scrubby with that logic 95% of the cast would be scrubby because there is almost no hard execution character in this game.
scrubby imo means you can pick up a character in a few minutes, don't need to have any fundamental knowledge or general thought and still cheese wins out of objectivly better players. characters like geras, scorpion, erron etc can do that with not only good but silly tools.
kabal really doesn't fit this description. he's good yes, really good. but I don't see this character work out this way when you don't have at least some sort of fundamental knowledge.
sure you can get casuals players in the corner and b1 bully them or just zone them all game long but that's not the character being scrubby but your opponent not knowing anything about the matchup. you can do things like that with literally any character.
You say he doesn't have a 50/50, then he only has a 50/50 in one of his variations and it's not good. He has 50/50s, and just because they don't lead into combo doesn't make them bad. F224 is unpunishable, and I've only had F22 low hook punished like twice because you always condition them to block the safe option, and only go unsafe when you feel you have to. He also has a 25/25/25/25 after using 22 as an ender for a standing combo. The animation for f22 lasts long enough where you can literally watch the person block and decide weather to finish with 4 or low hook. If you're not sure, throw out regular hook grab.
I know the difference in good, underused, and scrubby. If scrubby just means the character that kids flock to at release, it will always and forever be scorpion, even if he's the most execution heavy character in the game, which he'll never be because NRS knows kids want to play scorpion. Being a beginner friendly character doesn't automatically make you scrubby. Anytime scorpion teleports outside of a combo or projectile punish, you should be getting a free combo from it. Scorpion stops being a problem fairly early when casuals quit and the only people left know how to block and punish a delayed amplify.
