Curious what people think about Mileena. She's absolutely tournament viable in this build of the game, Mileena players have won offline events running Lao and Goro. A few Kameos seem to work well for her though I think Lao especially synergies with her because he gives her loopable Oki. The nerfs to Lao's hat charge limited Mileena's gameplan, because having it on the screen functions a lot like Millia's disc in Guilty Gear, creating a high low guessing game for the opponent as they're waking up. Without the hat available, Mileena has to play reactive, which isn't fun because without meter she has no full screen projectile. Although she is encouraged to be mid screen, her main hitconfirmable approach is 1,2 (which can be flawless blocked). She has other important strings (F242, F144) both have uses, like F242 is a good Oki tool, and F144 pops the opponent up for a potential Kameo attack but they're also limited. F144 could be better but it only comes out on hit. Only a few of her lows come out on whiff. Lao’s hat covers this weekness but she feels the nerfs to his recharge rate. When he’s not available it means you have to play reactive. 1, 2 is your main whiff punish tool.
It looks like she's set up for loopable offense, but in general it can feel like winning or losing is all in how good the opponent is at blocking 1, 2. In that way, she's limited. Obviously not to the degree of Sub and Scorpion but with Mileena you can see how they tried to muzzle her.
There is an overall game design philosophy I think and it's to have reduced character power. It also means despite having GREAT tools like F4 or B3,4 (this one gives deadly plus frames for another okizeme attack), she doesn't get to use them very often. She doesn't have good conditioning tools to throw good players off of 1,2. It even has a gap that can be flawlessly blocked. Maybe with another string or adjustments to F244 (making it hit confirmable on the last hit or letting it come out on whiff) would help her.
Mileena/Lao is probably my most played pair, so here is my two cents:
I think Mileena is built around loopable offense and unpredictability. The flawless block in 1,2 is easily countered by ending the string early into Lao hat, commiting to the full overhead last hit, ending the string at any point into low sai AND (my personal favorite) ending the string into EX straight sai toss, as most people will simply NOT block the overhead teleport, or be caught by surprise and not capitalize into a punish. Doing standing 1 into a grab or F4 (overhead) will also caught many people that are eager to flawless block. You then create a scenario where people will try to duck the grab, or anticipate the overhead and try to punish it with a grab (since it is safe). Again this turns into a mindgame, as you can now do S1 into F122 for a full combo, or do S1 into F4, then immediately microduck into another 1,2 string for a full punish. If you mix all of that, it basically becomes a game of reading your opponents usual patterns of blocking and exploting it.
Midscreen, you have an excellent anti-air in the form of S1, which is also a very fast (and long reaching) button. Ball roll is also
excellent for characters that like to do a safe attack, backdash and try to fish for a poke and punish you. Just block the first "bait" attack and ball roll, they will be caught during the backdash - however, good players will quickly adapt to this and punish you HARD for any blocked rolls. A lao hat being held on the ground will also allow you to close distance very fast, either by using ball roll or teleport, both of which are made safe on block because of the threat of the hat.
Something I
never see any Mileenas doing is, when you have the opponent in the corner, do a mixing sequence of:
-S1 into low sai
-1,2 into low hat/low sai
- F122 after a low sai that connects
- F4 after a low sai that connects
- S1 into grab.
- 1,2 into EX sai toss.
Mixing all of those at random intervals will keep your opponent getting hit/knocked down, randomly having to guess between blocking standing, blocking standing then low, ducking while not blocking or poking - and Mileena is ONLY unsafe if a low sai is blocked. Bonus points that the F4 breaks most armored wakeups.
With everything said, Mileena is absolutely her best when she keeps the opponent guessing high, low, overhead and grab, while it loops into itself and is made safe by kameos, while ALSO being excellent for space control.
Also, F2433 is severely underrated, as it hits low twice on the last two hits and is also safe - you can also microduck after doing it and punishing a grab for a full combo, if people are not caught off-guard by the last hit.
