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Mileena General Discussion

FoughtDragon01

Ask me about my Mileena agenda.
Wow, didnt think Airtele would be this high up someones list. Def would have put air sai and sai slide above rolling thunder too. Kahnum Dash below Vanish and Airtele is just cruel :)
Yeah, Air Tele can likely drop lower if I had to be honest, that was just the MKX bias talking since it was godlike in that game. I don't think Sai Slide is better than the others, though. It's basically suicide to use in a blockstring, as any character with a fast, advancing normal could just wait to see if you do it, then punish on reaction.

It's a tight window, but the punishment isn't exactly harsh. If they get the timing wrong, they lose a whopping 7%, 12.5% if amp'd, but if they get it right, they get a full combo on you. I'm still labbing to see which character can and can't do this, so maybe that'll change my thoughts on it. Not saying it's an awful move. It'll likely work just fine against most of the playerbase, but players with better reactions will make it lose a lot of its power.

But yeah, I might place Air Tele last instead of Kahnum Dash. If it were faster, I'd see its uses, but it's not and doesn't lead to combos either. At least KD has a pretty sick brutality attached to it.
 

Afumba

Noob
Yeah, Air Tele can likely drop lower if I had to be honest, that was just the MKX bias talking since it was godlike in that game. I don't think Sai Slide is better than the others, though. It's basically suicide to use in a blockstring, as any character with a fast, advancing normal could just wait to see if you do it, then punish on reaction.

It's a tight window, but the punishment isn't exactly harsh. If they get the timing wrong, they lose a whopping 7%, 12.5% if amp'd, but if they get it right, they get a full combo on you. I'm still labbing to see which character can and can't do this, so maybe that'll change my thoughts on it. Not saying it's an awful move. It'll likely work just fine against most of the playerbase, but players with better reactions will make it lose a lot of its power.

But yeah, I might place Air Tele last instead of Kahnum Dash. If it were faster, I'd see its uses, but it's not and doesn't lead to combos either. At least KD has a pretty sick brutality attached to it.
Yea tele in X was way better than here. Barely use it and most of the time its just "nostalgia" muscle memory or for the brutality.

I agree with you on sai slide, but for the moment its at least fun to harass people on wake up with it or as pseudo projectile from farther away and it has a KB. Have fun while it lasts right? Didnt lab it much on the "being punished" side... i probably should in the nect days.

Rolling thunder might probably end up being better than sai slide but i havent warmed up too much to it yet. Mostly cuz you lose the d2 combo path after roll.
 

Swindle

Philanthropist & Asshole
It's not. It deals 20 more dmg from the hop, but adds more gravity so you cannot follow up d2 with anything, ending you with a lot less dmg than the regular roll.

I do still like it, I'm hoping we find some wacky way to get to the same dmg.
Reg roll has so much utility anyway, it’s hard to justify subbing it out.
 

LawAbidingCitizen

Bomb Setups & Ball Rolls(Mileena/Cyrax)
Funnily, this does not jail on Mileena herself, if she blocks both kicks standing. A weirdly specific interaction there.
That's good to know haven't tested vs Mileena yet.

There are no second air sais... if you amp it, you recover faster on the ground, that is what the amp does.
That's weird because I was getting two different animations, a slow one without holding down and one with tapping down that made me drop very quick.
Maybe it's a glitch on my system.
 

Afk Skinny

3D Krusader
As wonderful as Mileena looks/feels, they did not give her a variety of moves I can be satisfied with. Like others have been saying, there are some customs that definitely should've been part of her base kit. Make the customs have her throw the sai at different angles like air-ground or vic versa. I was hoping they would give her a move for her claws where she can do extra chip, or bleed damage, SOMETHING for them. This has been my problem with the game, it's so milquetoast, it's like the biggest risk they took with her was exchanging her roll for a (imo) worse move. No real creativity, just keep it extremely basic. Still love her though
 
I really hope there’s no variation system next game. MKX was fine but they are way too scared with customs. Everyone feels like weaker versions of their past selves.

Just give us a bunch of characters, all with complete kits and a bunch of moves. Let us have fun again... If everyone is broken, then no one is.
 

FoughtDragon01

Ask me about my Mileena agenda.
As wonderful as Mileena looks/feels, they did not give her a variety of moves I can be satisfied with. Like others have been saying, there are some customs that definitely should've been part of her base kit. Make the customs have her throw the sai at different angles like air-ground or vic versa. I was hoping they would give her a move for her claws where she can do extra chip, or bleed damage, SOMETHING for them. This has been my problem with the game, it's so milquetoast, it's like the biggest risk they took with her was exchanging her roll for a (imo) worse move. No real creativity, just keep it extremely basic. Still love her though
As someone who loves playing her so far, I agree. The grappler playstyle with her Cmd Grab is more or less exactly how I played her in MKX, making the opponent guess between either a mid or grab, but I know that I lucked out in that respect and that not everyone enjoys that sort of thing. But the damn move is so strong that it'll be impractical not to run it once people learn the MU.

They could've made her Cmd Grab cost two slots since it's so powerful, and also have another two slot ability that allowed her to use her sais to extend the range of her normals. Imagine B1 with that sort of extended reach. As it stands, it just feels like her custom abilities aren't really there for enhancing an already solid tool kit, but instead for making her tool kit actually feel complete, which doesn't sit right with me. Like, why can't we cancel into Air Sai after a Telekick? Especially if it's an air-to-air? Especially-especially since they cost a slot to equip?
 
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LawAbidingCitizen

Bomb Setups & Ball Rolls(Mileena/Cyrax)
As wonderful as Mileena looks/feels, they did not give her a variety of moves I can be satisfied with. Like others have been saying, there are some customs that definitely should've been part of her base kit. Make the customs have her throw the sai at different angles like air-ground or vic versa. I was hoping they would give her a move for her claws where she can do extra chip, or bleed damage, SOMETHING for them. This has been my problem with the game, it's so milquetoast, it's like the biggest risk they took with her was exchanging her roll for a (imo) worse move. No real creativity, just keep it extremely basic. Still love her though
I agree, it seems like most of the slots are base or should be base.

It would be amazing for them to make 3 new moves and change Air Sai's/tele-kick to base.

If I had my way I'd change the following:

  • F124 -8 ob
  • F12 special cancelable
  • B1 increased range to match D1
  • F431+3 to -7 it's 18f mid that resets her don't jump KB. And it's punishable by half the cast.
  • B2, F12, F124, 233, 2334, F43, F431+3 all should not reset the no jump 10s KB.
  • 34 to -7 ob or have a little pushback.
I'm dreaming but I'd also like:

  • Kahnum Dash to not replace roll.
  • First part of Sai Slide to have a better hurtbox
  • Ball Roll to go under all high projectiles at the start and end of the animation.
Other words I think she is very good and I like her. Just some things feel rushed or not justified considering what the other DLCs have
 
We come back to NRS design... some characters get a full base kit (Liu, Jacqui, Joker) and can put whatever they want into their variation as extra options (making that S tier even better than before), while others get core parts stripped off just to pad out the variation abilities list.
That’s another thing too. I think the custom variation system is also flawed because they just straight up don’t know what to give some of these characters.

If we ever get Cyrax or Sektor in this game, Cyrax is going to have five different versions of his net, all having the same input, replacing one another.
 
As wonderful as Mileena looks/feels, they did not give her a variety of moves I can be satisfied with. Like others have been saying, there are some customs that definitely should've been part of her base kit. Make the customs have her throw the sai at different angles like air-ground or vic versa. I was hoping they would give her a move for her claws where she can do extra chip, or bleed damage, SOMETHING for them. This has been my problem with the game, it's so milquetoast, it's like the biggest risk they took with her was exchanging her roll for a (imo) worse move. No real creativity, just keep it extremely basic. Still love her though
I'm an RTS fan, as I believe you guys know, and StarCraft 2 is currently considered the genre's Gold Standard. Over the last three months, I've been really enjoying Halo Wars 2, it's a fantastic RTS. It's designed to work with a console Controller, though, so they had to simplify the overall gameplay compared to, say, StarCraft II. It's still an RTS and still features many of the core mechanics, but I've come to refer to it as an RTS-lite due to the "dumbdowns" it needed to work on a console.

Where I'm going with this is that's how I feel about Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate in many respects as well: I view it as a fighting game-lite. It 100% lacks the kind of mechanics and depth I expect in a "serious" fighting game, but it's still a fighting game and has it's fun. It's not a game I could ever take on a serious competitive level though because of how scaled back it is, just like Halo Wars 2.

If I want a serious RTS, I play StarCraft II. If I want a laid back RTS, I play Halo Wars 2. If I want a serious fighting game, I play Killer Instinct. If I want a casual fighting game, I play Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate.

MKX was fine...
Mortal Kombat XL's Variation system was actually fleshed out, defined, and universal throughout the game. Mortal Kombat 11's Variation system has felt like an unfinished hodgepodge from Day 1, and it still does. If they do bring the system back next game, I hope they make it like Mortal Kombat XL's and that we never see this kind of Variation system ever, ever again.
 
Hey all,

So I took Mileena to the Training Room for the first time today and started working on some strings and kombos. I did as I figured and took her "Twisted Sister" Tournament Variation, removed Kahnum Dash (to keep Ball Roll), and I added Air Soaring Sai. It really does seem that all of her combos pretty much revolve around Amplified Ball Roll.

Anyway, I'm using Raptor's day 1 combo video as a general starting point. For starters, I'm mostly using B1, 1 or 2,3,3 or simply 1,1 followed by Amplified Ball Roll, and then I'm finding things get inconsistent.

I can generally land B1, 1, 4 (Krushing Blow) consistently, at least in training. I found after dashing you needed to wait a beat before continuing the string or it'll whiff.

I'm having lots of trouble connecting things after a Dash, Uppercut though. I can usually land F1, Stabbyscotch or F1, 2, 4. Usually. F2 and F4 though will whiff every single time. The recovery time on Uppercut seems a bit too long. Any trick to it? Interestingly, sometimes when I go to do F1, Stabbyscotch, the F1 will also take too long and whiff. If I knix the uppercut, I can land the enders every time, but obviously I loose out on a good chunk of damage.

Also, following up Amplified Ball Roll with a jumping attack, everything whiffs after that. I can never land, for example, the F2 or F4. Again, any trick to it?

Absolute worse case, if I can't get it, I'll simply simplify things as it'll be better to land lesser combos consistently than drop better combos near constantly, but if I can pull them off I'd obviously want to.

Edit: Also, Stabbyscoth in general, when are you throwing it out, outside of the above kombo? I find it's range is pretty poor and it's less reliable than I'd like. Overall, I actually find Mileena's range to be pretty poor, and I say this as a Ravenous Mileena main from Mortal Kombat XL (so I'm not accustomed to her extra Piercing normal range).

Having said that, I am having a lot of fun with her and more fun with the game as a whole than I have in over a year.
 

FoughtDragon01

Ask me about my Mileena agenda.
Okay, just a bit of very niche MU stuff that I labbed on a whim. The following characters' fastest low pokes are 8 frames, so after a blocked F1, a frame perfect D1 (which is pretty easy to do thanks to the buffer window), will beat out their frame perfect D1 every time. It's beaten out by Flawless Block and back dashing, but like I said, it's niche, but could be effective if the opponent doesn't know the workaround.
  • D'Vorah
  • Kollector
  • Sindel
  • Cetrion
  • Frost
  • Cassie
 

LawAbidingCitizen

Bomb Setups & Ball Rolls(Mileena/Cyrax)
I'm having lots of trouble connecting things after a Dash, Uppercut though. I can usually land F1, Stabbyscotch or F1, 2, 4. Usually. F2 and F4 though will whiff every single time. The recovery time on Uppercut seems a bit too long. Any trick to it? Interestingly, sometimes when I go to do F1, Stabbyscotch, the F1 will also take too long and whiff. If I knix the uppercut, I can land the enders every time, but obviously I loose out on a good chunk of damage.
I find it near impossible to land F2 after (Starter xx BallRoll xx Amp Dash D2).

Just a small tip that may be known. Thunder Roll adds quite a bit of damage to her combos and basically removes the upercut after ballroll. You can choose when to use the hoping ball roll for extra damage or use regular by holding 4. It also goes fullscreen so there's that.

Combos using Rolling Thunder:

  • F43xx Ball Roll Amped, F43xxCMDGrab (31.7% damage) with Rolling Thunder Ball Roll used.
  • F43xxBallRoll Amped, Forward DASHxx34xxCMD Grab = (316)
  • 34xxRolling Thunder, F43xxCMD Grab = (322)
  • You can still do the optimal (323) from D2, F124 by (holding 4) so using rolling Thunder isn't giving away damage at all like someone said (I forget who)
But my point is Rolling Thunder makes the combos dramatically easier to do almost the same DMG as optimal D2 combos with less risk of dropping them due to lag or whatever.
I think the start of it actually goes over Lows and some pokes infused properly kind of like Cassie's FB but not as effective.
It also has better screen presence, so airborne opponents can be caught out of the air where regular ball roll wouldn't.

I hope that was helpful. It was a pain to type on my phone, I hate my auto correct.
 
I find it near impossible to land F2 after (Starter xx BallRoll xx Amp Dash D2).

Just a small tip that may be known. Thunder Roll adds quite a bit of damage to her combos and basically removes the upercut after ballroll. You can choose when to use the hoping ball roll for extra damage or use regular by holding 4. It also goes fullscreen so there's that.

Combos using Rolling Thunder:

  • F43xx Ball Roll Amped, F43xxCMDGrab (31.7% damage) with Rolling Thunder Ball Roll used.
  • F43xxBallRoll Amped, Forward DASHxx34xxCMD Grab = (316)
  • 34xxRolling Thunder, F43xxCMD Grab = (322)
  • You can still do the optimal (323) from D2, F124 by (holding 4) so using rolling Thunder isn't giving away damage at all like someone said (I forget who)
But my point is Rolling Thunder makes the combos dramatically easier to do almost the same DMG as optimal D2 combos with less risk of dropping them due to lag or whatever.
I think the start of it actually goes over Lows and some pokes infused properly kind of like Cassie's FB but not as effective.
It also has better screen presence, so airborne opponents can be caught out of the air where regular ball roll wouldn't.

I hope that was helpful. It was a pain to type on my phone, I hate my auto correct.
Thanks kindly for taking the time to type this man, I appreciate it. I'm also glad I'm not the only one having issue landing some of her optimals after Amplified Ball Roll.

I have not played with Rolling Thunder yet, so to confirm/clarify, it replaces Ball Roll, but can combo without needing to spend any Offensive Gauge?
 

LawAbidingCitizen

Bomb Setups & Ball Rolls(Mileena/Cyrax)
Thanks kindly for taking the time to type this man, I appreciate it. I'm also glad I'm not the only one having issue landing some of her optimals after Amplified Ball Roll.

I have not played with Rolling Thunder yet, so to confirm/clarify, it replaces Ball Roll, but can combo without needing to spend any Offensive Gauge?
No it requires bar just like ball roll but makes her ball roll jump up and bounce on the opponent for multiple hits
It does replace ball roll but doesn't take away ball roll. To do the normal ball roll you just hold 4 after doing BD4.

It adds more damage, makes combos much simpler, and makes ball roll a full screen move. It's similar toEX Roll on MKX. With how many hits it has before it starts rolling forward.

It's definitely worth a try.

But if you are doing Starter xx Ball Roll, AMP, Dash, D2, F124 (323 damage) you are doing the optimal. But I haven't been able to land F2 after uppercut, doesn't seem possible but I'm sure there is someone godlike out there that will destroy my belief that it's impossible.
 
No it requires bar just like ball roll but makes her ball roll jump up and bounce on the opponent for multiple hits
It does replace ball roll but doesn't take away ball roll. To do the normal ball roll you just hold 4 after doing BD4.

It adds more damage, makes combos much simpler, and makes ball roll a full screen move. It's similar toEX Roll on MKX. With how many hits it has before it starts rolling forward.

It's definitely worth a try.

But if you are doing Starter xx Ball Roll, AMP, Dash, D2, F124 (323 damage) you are doing the optimal. But I haven't been able to land F2 after uppercut, doesn't seem possible but I'm sure there is someone godlike out there that will destroy my belief that it's impossible.
Thanks again man, I'm actually going to go toy with Rolling Thunder now.

In Riptor's kombo video, he is landing F2 after Uppercut, but for the life of me I can't get it to connect. I can get it every time if I don't do the Uppercut as I mentioned.
 

FoughtDragon01

Ask me about my Mileena agenda.
Hey all,

So I took Mileena to the Training Room for the first time today and started working on some strings and kombos. I did as I figured and took her "Twisted Sister" Tournament Variation, removed Kahnum Dash (to keep Ball Roll), and I added Air Soaring Sai. It really does seem that all of her combos pretty much revolve around Amplified Ball Roll.

Anyway, I'm using Raptor's day 1 combo video as a general starting point. For starters, I'm mostly using B1, 1 or 2,3,3 or simply 1,1 followed by Amplified Ball Roll, and then I'm finding things get inconsistent.

I can generally land B1, 1, 4 (Krushing Blow) consistently, at least in training. I found after dashing you needed to wait a beat before continuing the string or it'll whiff.
That string's a real pain in the ass when trying to get that KB. The hitbox on B11 against a juggling opponent feels so weird. Even the pros are still dropping that KB combo, so don't worry, it's just a matter of getting the timing down.

I'm having lots of trouble connecting things after a Dash, Uppercut though. I can usually land F1, Stabbyscotch or F1, 2, 4. Usually. F2 and F4 though will whiff every single time. The recovery time on Uppercut seems a bit too long. Any trick to it? Interestingly, sometimes when I go to do F1, Stabbyscotch, the F1 will also take too long and whiff. If I knix the uppercut, I can land the enders every time, but obviously I loose out on a good chunk of damage.
Yeah, I went through the exact same problems at first. The recovery on D2 takes some getting used to, but the best way to practice is to just cut out the enders and focus on getting familiar with when you're able to input F1 on the earliest frame possible. I think the window for landing the F1 once you're able to move again isn't as tight as it may seem, but trust me, the timing will become second nature after a bit of practice.

As for connecting F2 and F4 after an uppercut, either my timing's off or those enders are only possible in the J1 combo route, but the recovery on the D2 seems too long for either of those two to connect. Speaking of...

Also, following up Amplified Ball Roll with a jumping attack, everything whiffs after that. I can never land, for example, the F2 or F4. Again, any trick to it?
The trick there is to really delay the J1. The opponent needs to be a fair ways past the apex of them getting launched into the air in order for it to work. Also, in case you aren't doing it already, after the J1, start buffering in the input for either F2 or F4 so that they come out at the exact frame you touch the ground again.

Edit: Also, Stabbyscoth in general, when are you throwing it out, outside of the above kombo? I find it's range is pretty poor and it's less reliable than I'd like. Overall, I actually find Mileena's range to be pretty poor, and I say this as a Ravenous Mileena main from Mortal Kombat XL (so I'm not accustomed to her extra Piercing normal range).
This one's a bit tricky, because it isn't just about Stabyscotch, but also her B1. The two are basically best friends. You condition the opponent to block the B1, and then start catching them with the Cmd Grab. But as you said, the range is abysmal. As such, you're best bet is to get familiar with cancelling forward dash into both of them to help extend their reach. It might sound slow, but people are still getting caught by Baraka's B2, and after extensive testing, I've found that forward dash into either of those moves from round start distance is roughly the same speed, even faster the closer you are. Her F1, even though it's a high, is absolutely ripe for abuse as well since people will likely hesitate to duck in the neutral in fear of Ball Roll.

It might be because she's new and people are still learning how to fight her, but I've fought a lot of people who just stand there and block, probably expecting me to do some unsafe, YOLO bullshit. It's the perfect time to practice catching them with a surpise DashxxFDB2 before people start getting familiar with the MU.

Plus frames are another great way to get it out. If you hit someone with a F1 or a D1, you're plus enough and close enough for B1 to jail, so if you expect them to block it, you can hit 'em with Stabyscotch instead. And since the meterless Cmd Grab itself leaves you plus enough and close enough for B1 to jail after a microdash, it turns into the same guessing game all over again, unless they use the right wake up option. Seriously, I've hit people upwards of six times in a row with her Cmd Grab. Funniest shit I've ever seen.

I hope these help. If you have any other questions, by all means, let me know.
 
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Kiss the Missile

Red Messiah
Thanks again man, I'm actually going to go toy with Rolling Thunder now.

In Riptor's kombo video, he is landing F2 after Uppercut, but for the life of me I can't get it to connect. I can get it every time if I don't do the Uppercut as I mentioned.

I've been trying everyday since she came out. Its hard af. Seems lime I'm pixels away

I didn't watch the video. Did he land it on a big body?