Rain's is the best X-ray in the game, hands down. The character himself isn't that great, but we're talking about an X-ray that's basically like a faster version of EX smoke bomb, and gives him a combo followup for 39%. Hell, it might even be higher than that now, I don't know.
The four best X-rays after that, in order, are:
- Kenshi: Armors through anything, covers the whole screen, trades with almost every projectile, and still works at close range. This is basically a better Sub X-ray, albeit not as fast on startup.
- Liu Kang: It's quick, it's safe, it hits overhead, it has armor and it gives him a combo followup afterward for big damage. There's really nothing more to be said about this. We're talking about a character who has his opponent constantly committed to crouch block, and his X-ray is a fast, armored move that hits overhead for 46%? Yeah, top five X-ray. Hands down.
- Kung Lao: I'm kind of torn on this one, because you could easily make the argument that Lao can just throw out a spin in any situation where he'd use the X-ray. If he guesses right, he gets a combo. If he guesses wrong, he's only spending two meters to break the punish, whereas the X-ray costs three bars either way. Still, the X-ray DOES do a lot more damage than a normal spin combo, has a much bigger hitbox, and also avoids the possibility of unbreakable punishes (why hello there, Cyrax), so it still has its uses. Objectively speaking, it's also one of the best X-rays in the game, as it has a gigantic hitbox that covers everything around him and gives him a followup.
- Cage: What can I say, it's basically a 50% parry that works on literally every single attack in the game (except for the second hit of Sub's 2 1, but we won't talk about that). If you use anything within the X-ray's effective range, Cage blows you up for half your health. I'm sort of iffy on this one as well because it gets blown up for full combos on block, but it can also be the difference between winning and losing a round, so it's still up there.
My $0.02.
