General/Other Top 5 Ways To Make Bottom Tier Into Top Tier!

[mortal_jason]

Time for my weekly thread and poll...
I think this one will get a lot of discussion. People love MK2 despite it's unfortunate imbalances.
Here are my Top 5 ways to change those poor Bottom Tier souls into Worldbeaters!

5: NINJAS HAVE CQC:
Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Reptile are all towards the bottom of the barrel because they get destroyed in close quarter combat. Give them Baraka's sweep, Shang's punches, Jax's kicks, and the girls elbow... and now we're playing fair.

4: JOHNNY CAGE HAS A TELEPORT:
Cage is screwed against players that can zone him like Mileena and Kang. Give him a teleport like Lao's or Scorpion's, and Cage would be in business. It would be a for-sure way to always get him in close to opponents- which is where Cage needs to be to win!

3: REPTILE'S INVISIBILITY IS PERMANENT:
Reptile's only a threat when he's invisible. Versus most characters however, staying invisible is a bitch. What if when you went invisible, the only way you could become visible, was at will by doing U,U,D, HP? Get hit by Mileena's telekick, and you'd remain invisible. In a perfect world, Reptile...

2: SUB-ZERO'S FREEZE IMPROVED
Make the animation speedier, the projectile bigger so it can't be ducked under, and the freeze itself unblockable. Can you imagine? Suddenly Sub-Zero moves from 11th on the Tier, to... 1st?
It's pretty silly that the freeze can be blocked, and it really hurts Sub-Zero.

1: NINJAS HAVE A GROUND POUND MOVE LIKE JAX
The best turtle move in MK2 is probably Jax's Ground Pound. If the ninjas each had this, it would fit in perfectly with their defensive strategy. But it would be an offensive move that would pressure opponents into mistakes.
Reptile with the much improved CQC, perma-invisibility, MGP win!! Suck on that, Mileena

Vote for your favorite, or give me your idea!

 

[1man3letters]

give baraka his spin that was taken away until trilogy
i'd love to play a build of mk2 with just that difference lol

 

[Mikemetroid]

I think Cage would benefit better with a crazy awesome projectile rather than a teleport.

 

[mortal_jason]

I think Cage would benefit better with a crazy awesome projectile rather than a teleport.

His projectile is very good- the animation looks the same and it's hard to tell whether it's going high or low.
I would argue that he should have a 3rd option to hit ducking opponents with the green ball.

 

[mortal_jason]

give baraka his spin that was taken away until trilogy
i'd love to play a build of mk2 with just that difference lol

Initially I was going to write it up by character and give them each ways to be improved. Baraka's spin move from Trilogy was on my list, but I opted for the one I posted instead. It would definitely help him out... especially if it was only beaten by sweep kicks!

 

[MKB]

With Reptile, I don't know about making his invisibility permanent; but perhaps make it so the only way he becomes visible again is to get a direct hit. Block damage means Reptile stays invisible.

 

[MIKECALDWELL]

You know what's sad about this? We have to be really outlandish with our suggestions to turn a low tier character into a top tier. That's how unbalanced this game is. In newer games, a minor tweak can change the whole tier list.

Edit* Ninjas with a ground pound would be brutal.

 

[Sub0's-Icy-Balls]

I like Bill's Reptile idea, he stays invisible when blocking, but a hit would bring him back, it aint easy being green!

 

[dookiebrain]

sub-zero: air-freeze
scorp: forward teleport like in MKT
rep: Mkillbills idea
cage: a raiden type teleport lol

 

[Dyzvhtynzal]

Play mkak. that's how.

 

[MIKECALDWELL]

With Reptile, I don't know about making his invisibility permanent; but perhaps make it so the only way he becomes visible again is to get a direct hit. Block damage means Reptile stays invisible.

I would have to add that Reptile takes no chip damage either while he's invisible before I could say this would make him top tier.

 

[mortal_jason]

I would have to add that Reptile takes no chip damage either while he's invisible before I could say this would make him top tier.

If Reptile could stay invisible permanently, it would be totally abused. Bill's idea is great, and yeah taking no chip would be a nice addition.

 

[MIKECALDWELL]

If Reptile could stay invisible permanently, it would be totally abused. Bill's idea is great, and yeah taking no chip would be a nice addition.

I think his idea is good too, but I don't think it was quite enough to bump Reptile to a top tier character.

 

[Dyzvhtynzal]

counter button sequence for throws?

 

[Dyzvhtynzal]

if you're fast.

 

[DIEDIEMYDARLING]

Cages nut punch needs to be more of a stunner to set up for a unblockable free hit like e.g scorps spear , subs freeze and jax"s skull pound

 

[mortal_jason]

Cages nut punch needs to be more of a stunner to set up for a unblockable free hit like e.g scorps spear , subs freeze and jax"s skull pound

Yeah it's really unfair that he doesn't get a free hit afterwards. If the nut punch is blocked, he gets uppercutted anyway.
Or it should at least be unblockable unless an opponent is crouch blocking.

 

[DIEDIEMYDARLING]

Yeah it's really unfair that he doesn't get a free hit afterwards. If the nut punch is blocked, he gets uppercutted anyway.
Or it should at least be unblockable unless an opponent is crouch blocking.

Same with sub and reptiles slide, shouldn't be blockable unless crouch blocked. Be a game changer for them

 

[dudemcrude]

I like all of Jason's ideas, though in my opinion a teleport still doesn't make Cage close to top tier. It does, however, greatly improve his mobility options and give him a better chance to compete against the top tiers.

This is a little off topic, but I've always had a few ideas for balancing the game out a little bit. My ideas wouldn't make the low-tier equal with the tops, but they would compete a whole lot better.

Cage
Like Jason said, a low bolt that can hit a ducking opponent. Make the recovery frames longer, like Liu's low fireball, so that it's less abusable.
Allow the shadow kick to go full screen like in the challenger hack.
Change the input for the shadow uppercut to something a little more effective.

Reptile
Everybody has different ideas for the force ball. Most people want it to be faster; I don't. I like that it's slow as it allows Reptile to set up his next move and keeps opponents guessing. The biggest problem with the forceball is that the startup frames take forever, so an opponent from half screen or closer can easily counter you on reaction. The second biggest problem is that the recovery frames also leave him incredibly vulnerable to jump-ins and teleports. Simply shorten the startup and recovery frames and you have a much improved move.
Improve the slide; make it slightly faster and allow it to go full screen. Perhaps improve the damage it does; the ninja slide does pitiful damage consider the high probability of eating an uppercut anytime it is blocked. Either improve the damage it does or it make it harder to punish with an uppercut.

Subbie
See Reptile for slide.
I have trouble coming up with other ideas for Subbie that don't leave him overpowered, honestly. I do like the idea, however, of an inverted, teleport slide that goes through the back of the screen like Scorp's teleport punch. This slide, however, would need to be much shorter in distance traveled.

Baraka
Improve the blade spark so that he can't be swept out of it from half screen. This a HUGE flaw in Baraka's game.
Give him a low spark so that he can trade with spamming Liu's and Jax turtles from afar. Like Liu, make the recovery a little longer to keep it from being too abusable.
I like the idea of giving Baraka some sort of body attack, like the spin move, but I think this requires more thought that I've put into it thus far. Baraka's normals are so nasty that you might leave him overpowered if you make it too easy for him to get inside.

Scorpion
Solid mid-tier who really does not need much. I do think, however, that the takedown should be improved so that it's not completely useless. Give the takedown priority over Liu's low toe and shorten the recovery frames so that it isn't punishable even if it connects. Perhaps give him a forward teleport punch like in Trilogy as well.

Raiden
Solid mid-tier who doesn't need much. Just allow the torpedo attack to go underneath all but the lowest projectiles and you have a better Raiden.

Kitana
Upper mid-tier who needs very little. Just give her square wave punch priority over ALL other air moves. Liu's like to bait this move, SUJP, and air fireball for more damage than Kitana stands to gain if she connects. That's bullshit.

Shang
Upper mid-tier who needs very little. I do, however, like the idea of giving him a teleport just like Raiden's. The guy is fucking sorceror for Christ's sake. You telling me he can't teleport? This gives him better mobility options against the top 3.

Kung Lao
Upper mid-teir who needs very little. I would, however speed up the startup frames on the spin move. Like Reptile's force ball, it takes forever to start up and leaves him vulnerable for many frames once he stops. Personally, I think the move should be highly punishable upon it's conclusion since the damage it can inflict is quite severe, so leave the long recovery time. Just make the startup quicker. Even the tops would be reluctant during mixups and cqc.

The top three can stay exactly like they are, no need to neuter them when we can just give everybody else an extra option or three.