Best ways to AVOID naked X-rays...

[MKF30]

Ok, well this is something that hasn't really been discussed that much yet and hopefully can now Now I know Majority of X-rays in the game are blockable, and some may say "just block" but that's not what I hope is discussed here. But rather ways to counter X-rays directly or snuff them out completely besides dodging them completely more so. We all know most of them can be blocked(minus Kano's and Jax's X-ray grabs)

I'm also not referring to X-ray attacks that are used in combos since once you get nailed in one, you can't break out of it.

We're all also aware that they have armor properties and you can wake up with them, some like Reptile's for example are faster then others.

Now, what I wish to discuss guys and hope everyone posts are the best ways to DODGE/AVOID getting hit on a naked X-ray(X-ray done without being done in mid combo) meaning on a wake up or just randomly done X-ray.

Now, since everyone's different so far and haven't even been able to play every single character so far online I'm just going by characters I've played against my friends offline and from the people I've played online(including a lot from here, classic and MKU)

Here's how I deal with the following:

Reptile-His x-ray is sooo fast and tough to see coming IMO, but last night I was doing some testing offline against myself and online it worked against a decent Reptile player. I've noticed you can duck under his X-ray and it's totally harmless, duck with a poking move/duck. Anyone else have success doing this? So far this has worked for me.

Ermac-His x-ray is more deadly from a far to mid range if you're trying to jump in on him or if you rush in carelessly, he can nail you with it. Not many Ermac players really online but I did notice if you're up close and can get a jab off as he detonates it, you snuff it out completely. You must be fast though. Also, Ermac gets stunned on a blocked or missed X-ray giving you time to counter if you're fast enough or near him.

Scorpion-Ok, first I thought jumping was good but that failed lol he'll take you right out of the air, then I thought ducking neither worked. The best way it so simply block his. The only other way I've dodged his x-ray was doing a teleport simultaneously as he does his x-ray thus you will be able to avoid his X-ray.

Kung Lao-Just stay away lol, if there's a way to dash block cancel his x-ray up close I haven't seen it yet or done it, I'm sure it can be done but between the wake up invincibility frames and the fact that his x-ray is a super version of his spin I'm cautious to get in close obviously, so I prefer to stay away, sweeps distance and as soon as he whiffs just counter him, dash in and punish or nail him with a range move.

Kitana-For me easy, just block lol. DO NOT Jump I tried jumping just to see if I could jump over her X-ray when the game came out, can't be done...What's great about hers is she can mix it up with her normal fan spam tactics so if you decide to trade hits, you better guess right that she's not doing her X-ray fans lol

Ok, so far that's all I'm posting. There's a few more but will post back later.

I hope everyone enjoys this thread and discusses solid ways, tactics to avoid, dodge naked X-rays or wake up X-rays.

 

[Hella Pogi]

Jax and Kano ... don't get close lol
Every now and then there are those moments where neither player attacks but rather just hold down block really isnt a good idea against those 2 since they are grab x rays.

 

[Loot]

You can uppercut Jax and Kano's xrays, just have to be a Jedi. They lose armor at the last few frames.

 

[MKF30]

Thanks for the posts guys, didn't know that trick about uppercutting Jax and Kano's X-rays during those frames. Interesting.

 

[Vulcan Hades]

Sweep works strangely well vs a lot of x-ray attacks.

I actually got sweeped out of my Kano x-ray.

 

[Vex Kasrani]

Sweep is super good, beats out reptiles Xray!

 

[Check]

I don't remember the last time i used an XRAY. I rarely ever use meter at all. Don't need it.

 

[low_kix]

I don't remember the last time i used an XRAY. I rarely ever use meter at all. Don't need it.

Hm, sounds like you're not playing the game right

"I am vengeance, I am the night..."

 

[evansgambit]

As X-Rays don't have a super pause, I don't think you have enough time to construct a counter attack, so the easier thing to do is to block or jump away if its a throw X-Ray. If its a hitting X-Ray depending on how you jump it, you might get hit airborn and get sucked into the X-Ray cinematic cut scene.

I couldn't imagine there being many scenarios for avoiding the X-Ray outright, maybe if your on DANGER chip damage or trying to perform a Bability in which you can't block.

If you have good enough prediction skills or are able to bait an X-Ray, you could teleport or maybe enhanced move it. As it is, your questions highly character related and is best left for matchup theory knowledge. Or until once we work out the weaknesses of each X-Ray, such as your ducking under Reptile one.

@ MKF30: Not sure at high level play, how many naked X-Rays you'll run in too. I'm just curious as to why you've asked the question, considering we don't have super pause. If X-Ray's did have super pause, we'll have more viable options than block. I can just envision myself getting killed more trying to avoid the X-Rays.

 

[low_kix]

I don't understand your fixation on super pause. X rays come out fast, sure, but they are still way slower than normals, and you can predict/react to normals right? So its completely logical to look for the best way to react to X rays. You may not understand why this thread was made, but I don't understand why your comment was made


"I am vengeance, I am the night..."

 

[Loot]

As X-Rays don't have a super pause, I don't think you have enough time to construct a counter attack, so the easier thing to do is to block or jump away if its a throw X-Ray. If its a hitting X-Ray depending on how you jump it, you might get hit airborn and get sucked into the X-Ray cinematic cut scene.

I couldn't imagine there being many scenarios for avoiding the X-Ray outright, maybe if your on DANGER chip damage or trying to perform a Bability in which you can't block.

If you have good enough prediction skills or are able to bait an X-Ray, you could teleport or maybe enhanced move it. As it is, your questions highly character related and is best left for matchup theory knowledge. Or until once we work out the weaknesses of each X-Ray, such as your ducking under Reptile one.

@ MKF30: Not sure at high level play, how many naked X-Rays you'll run in too. I'm just curious as to why you've asked the question, considering we don't have super pause. If X-Ray's did have super pause, we'll have more viable options than block. I can just envision myself getting killed more trying to avoid the X-Rays.

There was a few naked X-Rays on the PDP stream, only one ended up being psychic though iirc.

 

[Raidenwins]

Raiden's X-Ray can be jumped.

Kano's X-Ray can be nullified by neutral jump kick (maybe neutral jump punch too).

A lot of the X-Rays can be teleported behind on reaction with Raiden (not sure about other characters with teleports) . I did it against Jade's X-Ray, albeit online.

And on the topic of X-Rays, I found out an interesting property of Johny Cage's. I don't know if this has been discovered already, but he parries behind him as well. I found out the hard way. I was playing a Johny Cage (online), he did his X-Ray, I teleported behind him (with Raiden) and attempted a combo and, lo and behold, his X-Ray still connected even though he had his back turned toward me. It was one of those WTF moments. So yeah, watch out for that.

 

[MKF30]

I heard there was an odd Cage X-ray glitch where he could charge it longer or something? I'm not sure how to do it something about holding down buttons to make his X-ray animation last longer? If anyone knows more about this please explain.

As X-Rays don't have a super pause, I don't think you have enough time to construct a counter attack, so the easier thing to do is to block or jump away if its a throw X-Ray. If its a hitting X-Ray depending on how you jump it, you might get hit airborn and get sucked into the X-Ray cinematic cut scene.

I couldn't imagine there being many scenarios for avoiding the X-Ray outright, maybe if your on DANGER chip damage or trying to perform a Bability in which you can't block.

If you have good enough prediction skills or are able to bait an X-Ray, you could teleport or maybe enhanced move it. As it is, your questions highly character related and is best left for matchup theory knowledge. Or until once we work out the weaknesses of each X-Ray, such as your ducking under Reptile one.

@ MKF30: Not sure at high level play, how many naked X-Rays you'll run in too. I'm just curious as to why you've asked the question, considering we don't have super pause. If X-Ray's did have super pause, we'll have more viable options than block. I can just envision myself getting killed more trying to avoid the X-Rays.

They can and will be used at high level play if the opportunity presents itself, meaning if say I'm Ermac and nail you with a TKS and into his X-ray that's 40%+ damage right there which can be a difference maker, or say if you can get Kanos or Jax's(as they're unblockable but escapable if you're on you're fast)

You'll have to evaluate more on this super pause gig.....are you talking about a delayed reaction? Because you can delay Sub's by holding then releasing and most of them if not all of them are slower in general on start up.

I don't understand your fixation on super pause. X rays come out fast, sure, but they are still way slower than normals, and you can predict/react to normals right? So its completely logical to look for the best way to react to X rays. You may not understand why this thread was made, but I don't understand why your comment was made


"I am vengeance, I am the night..."

I agree, I just thought that was an odd question from him but the point of this thread is for people to post new ways to dodge, escape or snuff out X-rays in general(besides just blocking) example: Kano and Jax's you can't block....you must do a move to snuff them out or jump out of the way.

 

[evansgambit]

I heard there was an odd Cage X-ray glitch where he could charge it longer or something? I'm not sure how to do it something about holding down buttons to make his X-ray animation last longer? If anyone knows more about this please explain.



They can and will be used at high level play if the opportunity presents itself, meaning if say I'm Ermac and nail you with a TKS and into his X-ray that's 40%+ damage right there which can be a difference maker, or say if you can get Kanos or Jax's(as they're unblockable but escapable if you're on you're fast)

You'll have to evaluate more on this super pause gig.....are you talking about a delayed reaction? Because you can delay Sub's by holding then releasing and most of them if not all of them are slower in general on start up.




I agree, I just thought that was an odd question from him but the point of this thread is for people to post new ways to dodge, escape or snuff out X-rays in general(besides just blocking) example: Kano and Jax's you can't block....you must do a move to snuff them out or jump out of the way.

Sorry, when I first read the OP's first post. I thought they were discussing "WAYS TO COUNTER X-RAYS", but instead we were on about dodging them, or in the given reptile example, to duck them. And that's what elluded me. X-Rays are too character specific, and this information gets filed away under character match-up knowledge.

With regards to the super pause, or lack thereof, some X-Rays are too fast to counter on reaction. Not saying it can't be done, but with the amount of risk and trouble, not to mention that X-Rays come with 1-hit armour, blocking is just the safer of the two, in my opinion. Though not as creative or counter-agressive. Guess, we will find out later on when the frame data becomes available.

 

[Abudabi]

I got uppercutted out of Baraka's x-ray before

 

[TWZTID]

i stopped a few subs with d,u4 while i had them trapped in the corner with jax

 

[ADR Napalm]

Cool thread, learned some stuff so far, anyone try X'Ray vs X'Ray stuff yet? Not that there will be many cases if ever that this will actually happen in a match or anything.

 

[Jim]

i stopped a few subs with d,u4 while i had them trapped in the corner with jax

Did it stop the X-Ray or stop them from activating? I was sub in the corner against Smoke online the other day. I tried to X-Ray between his low pokes and I swear I couldn't get it to activate even though I had enough time. Maybe his pokes kept me in hit stun long enough but I swear it should have gone out.

 

[MKF30]

Sorry, when I first read the OP's first post. I thought they were discussing "WAYS TO COUNTER X-RAYS", but instead we were on about dodging them, or in the given reptile example, to duck them. And that's what elluded me. X-Rays are too character specific, and this information gets filed away under character match-up knowledge.

With regards to the super pause, or lack thereof, some X-Rays are too fast to counter on reaction. Not saying it can't be done, but with the amount of risk and trouble, not to mention that X-Rays come with 1-hit armour, blocking is just the safer of the two, in my opinion. Though not as creative or counter-agressive. Guess, we will find out later on when the frame data becomes available.

Yeah, only a few of the X-rays are really "uber fast" where you can't really do anything if you don't see it coming but most have a slower or beginning start up. Kano's I've noticed while unblockable has a slower start up as oppose to say Reptile's...which is far faster.

It's all good though, you can post ways to counter them if you want to if it refers to directly snuffing them out...like say sweep Reptile's directly if you see it coming will stop him/counter his X-ray immediately.

 

[smalltalk]

Sweep works strangely well vs a lot of x-ray attacks.

I actually got sweeped out of my Kano x-ray.

That's probably because kano's x-ray attack hits high and causes a whiff on crouchers? I don't know if that's true but probably worth testing

 

[MKF30]

I've found you can just jump out of the way of Kano's and Jax's too if you time it right and see it coming.

 

[TWZTID]

Did it stop the X-Ray or stop them from activating? I was sub in the corner against Smoke online the other day. I tried to X-Ray between his low pokes and I swear I couldn't get it to activate even though I had enough time. Maybe his pokes kept me in hit stun long enough but I swear it should have gone out.

it activated. They started glowing and bam.... snuffed


@mkf... jumping away from a grab is a no brainer

 

[archon]

Cool thread, learned some stuff so far, anyone try X'Ray vs X'Ray stuff yet? Not that there will be many cases if ever that this will actually happen in a match or anything.

Raiden's Xray will beat out Sonya's; my Sonya was caught during the first or second armored attack. Also, there was an odd incident where I believe I dive kicked through Sub-Zero's Xray. The kick landed and Sub-Zero flashed yellow indicating he was hit, but maybe since Sonya was airborne she couldn't be caught by Sub's Xray and successfully landed behind him.

 

[Sinister_M]

Naked x-rays dont bother me unless in johnny cage's. The number of times a Cage player has walked up to my knocked down kung loa to bait that wake up spin and punish with xray is unreal.
Or a jump punch x-ray when i block the jP and i am trying to punish.

 

[smokey]

With Kitana, when projectile trading with people, especially luikang or kibal, i find they can often predict and block a naked X-Ray because it is quite common to see people do a fan trade/xray mix up and catch people with it.

While this is quite an effective tactic just to get a good damage off them for free, i see many people sitting on X-ray while they are projectile trading. I like to think that if you are at mid-far range throwing fans at your opponent and you have full meter, then you are wasting a good oppurtunity. Unless you are saving for a Breaker and just have some meter spare, then i find it best to throw out the X-Ray trade as soon as you hit 3 bars, for multiple reasons:
- If you get caught in a projectile war, your opponent should really fear your meter. So unless they keep a close eye on it, you have a surprise almost "happy birthday" style attack.
- Kitana is great at building meter, especially when your throwing fans. So by having Xray stored, every fan you throw it potentially wasting meter that you could be gaining and using, and meter is pretty damn important in a game like MK9.

Clearly its not always the best tactic to throw xray just because you have 3 meters, but universally across all the cast, building up your xray should be scaring your opponent, getting in their mind and making them perhaps play a little more cautiously. its not just for sticking on the end of a combo to get that extra %.