Eddy Wang
Skarlet scientist
For those that don't know i have been playing this character after her final nerf in MK9 and stuck to her in every way she was present (even if it's only 2 games) but Skarlet built a good amount of fans over the series and today we are going to compare both of her versions and why old players that pledged loyalty to her, decided to jump ship after.
It was no surprise that Scar said at the beginning of MK11 that He would always pick Skarlet being that his true calling" only to fnd out later on that this version wasn't anything as he remembered and never mained the character instead.
Moonspell and even Raptor ended up explaining on a personal conversation that he didn't like what they did to skarlet in mk11.
So why is that? Why does everyone single one of the US heroes the greatest Skarlets in the world decide that her return wasn't worth her time when NRS bothered to bring her back?
At the beginning on MK11 i said on twitter that "MK9 Skarlet gameplan design wouldn't work on MK11 so it's one of the reasons why i think they switched" remember well these bold words and they will make sense much later.
I know a lot of ppl who main this character today never played MK9 so they dunno what she has lost and what alienated Skarlet from the identity she was given before MK11, this is a text where i will do my best to explain why, and how exactly MK9 Skarlet differs from MK11.
The main difference obviously was that Skarlet devolved from a Ninja with Blood Jutsus to become a Witch with Blood Magik, she exchanged kunais and twin fumma kodachis (twin kodachi swords) for a knife that can expand and shape it into a Persian sword, a scythe, a whip and drain blood.
While it looks like her playstyle has evolved because now she can do more things, she instead gameplay-wise does a lot less.
In MK9 Skarlet is a DLC char and was among the characters with the best walk speed in the game, Mileena being faster than her walking forward and Reptile being faster walking backward.
Skarlet was widely known in MK9 for her ability to make you BLOCK, yes, looks weird right, but this was a happy accident that i doubt NRS will be able to replicate it again, Skarlet design in MK9 and gameplan it's not just to land hits and win, that is how you win game surely, but this character in particular, was terrible without meter, she couldn't wake up without it and had no defense on neutral without it either, BUT if she forces you to block, if you guard some of her stuff correctly because you want to avoid damage, she would gain a considerable amount of meter instead and become a much stronger character, which would proceed to use this meter to have wakeups, defense in neutral with the best lasting and extendable armor in the game or, use this same meter to get more meter and literally become unstoppable. Basically, the meter would boost her stats to a steroid level and make her one of the top 3 chars in the game.
MK9 Skarlet used to be a complete character with access to great normals, such as:
F4 - A very unique animation 13f mid that would put her on a crouching state, and allow her to avoid highs as a trade, anti-air, and obviously a combo starter, she could punish d1s on block with it, but had to be a 1f link.
U3 - a 16f mid that would put her into an airborne state while pushing her hurt box a bit backward, making it on hell of an anti-air and obviously anti d3 and d1 checks
s1 - a 10f jab that with meter she could turn into a launcher, noteworthy that a 10f jab in MK9 was the equivalent of having a 7F jab in MK11. It was also an anti-air
s2 - a 12F jab with more reach than standing 1 and was equally a good AA and lead to some strange combos.
She had other normals such as F3 (15f), B1(14F) and B2(18F), but those were mostly damaging starters as they were much slower than 13f, and canceling into red dash wasn't as good as the rest.
MK9 Skarlet also had a unique string system, and this is why i think Skarlet was strong in MK9 due to the fact that she had a few things attached to the Jailing system, meaning if she locks you standing with a certain string, as long as she has execution she can loop it as continuing to do what she did best in the game, these strings were:
a) 114 - a 10 frame string that had enough cancel frames on block to link an ex dagger cancel and be at +21 jailing you into a standing position, meaning, with 3 bars she could loop 114ex dagger 4 times in a row without letting you crouch block doing 6% chip with each loop, doing a total of 24% chip.
b) F212,1+2 - one of the most if not the best string on MK9, 19f startup, first two hits are high and whiff on crouch, 4th and 5th hits are automatic, 4th it's an overhead, the last one is special cancellable and forces standing due the overhead. On top of being really good on hit it's an absolute monster of a string on block, and if you block this string, Skarlet gains around 60 or 70% of a bar of meter, does 8% chip and a total of 10% chip with each loop. She can loop it 5 times with 3 bars, meaning a 50% chip damage you can't escape, you have to take the last hit to let your character fall out and avoid the ex dagger, but that is a 50-50 because if the skarlet player read it, they can launch you with red dash into up slash and restand back up (crazy). And as you noticed this string also Jails just as 114. The only thing making this string less abusable it's that ex dagger into F2 used to be a 2 frame link, and that wasn't as easy to do because you had to dash cancel out of the ex dagger and frame perfect input F2 during the 2 frame window, do it in 3 and your opponent crouch blocks and escape pressure.
c) 112 - The RESET string as we used to call it, in MKX this was now called RESTAND instead for most characters, it's a combo ender String Skarlet had to end combos and put you on a stand position instead of a knockdown now allowing you to use wakeup attacks, doing low enough on the ground would grant 4 frames of advantage out of a red dash, while doing the restand high enough would land at +18 at the sacrifice of damage, we researched this with somberness back then and discovered combos with good damage and good restand advantage at +13 enough for a guaranteed 114ex dagger loop, or overhead, meaning if she landed a 112~red dash she would force you to guess either, you block standing and take the loop which was in her favor, or you block low to avoid the loop, but there is an 18f overhead on the way that you have to react to, or a 13F one which forces her to spend more resources from her side. It was guaranteed chip anyway and she could still do whatever she wanted in that spot. the last hit of this string doesn't jail an ex kunai/dagger, so its better use was for restand purposes.
d) B113 - While it wasn't much of a use in neutral, it was an insane combo ender with a hard knockdown, the special systems will show why this was OP.
e) B11F4 - A 14F launcher string that lead to good damage, not as important as the other 4 ones, but it was good in this aspect.
Skarlet specials had very specific purposes and all they varied from normal to enhanced version, a true definition of enhanced and do up many things, they weren't so great and i liked it that it required proper training to understand what they are meant for and how for proper use, it used to be one of the hardest specials to use in the game properly and this deviated a lot of ppl from skarlet gameplay, that wasn't a bad thing, it was balance :
a) DF1 - The dagger Toss, skarlet could fire up 2 kunais, one with each hand, or you could hold the 1 button to delay the release of the second one, and dash cancel out of it if needed.
Both Kunais were high and the hitbox used to be very slim, on top of this, the kunai did no chip so you could block it without losing damage, but she would still gain meter for it.
Skarlet players used to fire this kunai as a long range poke to tickle back reactions from opponents.
b) UDF1 or air dagger - "iaD" as we used to call it, it means "insta air Dagger" which would allow Skarlet to fire 1 kunai in a straight line with better recover than doing them on the ground, it was still hard because the dagger hitbox used to be slim, so your iaD had to be perfectly low or the dagger would go over the head of the opponent and wouldn't work on the needed role, was much more technical yes and required good execution, but as said the dagger or kunai as you preffer to call it, did no chip damage, but this one was still miles away better, as it was much faster in startup as well.
c) UDB1 or air low dagger/kunai- "iaDD" as we used to call it "instant air Down Daggers" which worked as "iaD" but instead of firing the kunai into a straight line, she would fire it to the ground, the higher you were in the air, the longer the recovery, so it was good to jump at ppl and firing it, or as it had a lot of active frame, in the corner you could end combos with B113 into iaDD and disable wakeups as iaDD was specifically a very powerfull OTG. in almost any close knockdowns you could try to OTG anyone, and if they stay on the ground from longer time than needed there is no way they could avoid iaDD, they could still block it but would be impossible to use wakeup attacks. iaDD lown enough was +15 on hit and -3 on block.
d)Up Slash (DF2) - Her very slow sword attack with good aerial hitbox and disjoined, launches on hit, but very slow to startup and -13 on block, looks useless right?
e) Down Slash (DB2) - Her ver slow overhead sword attack that launches on hit, with very good aeral disjointed hitbox, but very slow to startup ( close or more than 30f) and -18 on block, very terrible right?
f) Red Dash (DF3) - The ninja step, being the only character in the game besides Kabal who could literally run in the game, Skarlet could run like a ninja and use it to run under ppl jumping at her primarly, cover distance quickly but there is quite a lot this move did:
Blood Ball: Different from MK11 Skarlet blood ball in MK9, she self inflicts damage, but she can fire it in arc and does 7% chip damage if you guard it as well as it does even more damage to yourself if you get hit by it, on top of being safe. It's the most damaging chip special in the game, and can be aimed to travel in arc.
Teleport: Yes she has it and it's bad, very bad on the ground and slightly better if done in the air, but the travel time after she teleports it's really bad and wasn't much of a great special in general, we hated it.
Just like her regular specials have different proprieties, the enhanced ones escalates as well and bring different things into the table.
g) Ex DF1 (Ex Dagger toss) -This is fairly known as the ex Dagger toss skarlet fires 3 kunais aligned in a straight line one above the other making the hitbox bigger it also does 2% chip different from the regular ones, you can cancel out of it instantly, which makes it harder to just frame it, canceling up close it's +21 on block leading to bloockstring loops that are guaranteed, free jump in pressure if it hits.
h) ex udf1 or ex air dagger - "ex iaD" as we called it, allows Skarlet to fire 3 daggers in 3 different directions in the air as they expand from herself, she literally makes herself un-aproachable, each dagger does 2% chip.
j) ex db1 or ex air low dagger - "ex iaDD" as we called it, still fires 3 daggers in 3 different directions but all angled more towards the ground, , same proprieties as the above but better angle for otg. still a better love story than twilight
i) ex up slash or double up slash - Startup still slow because she has to set i up, but really good after that phase -13 on block, can be done from red dash/crimson to become much faster in startup which allows jab~red dash ex up slash to become a 10f launcher.
k) ex down slash or double down slash - startup still slow because she has to set it up, but does a double down slash, can be done from red dash/crimson dash to become un-reactable (13f) and beat ppl that were told to "block low and react to the overhead" damage is good but combo potential isn't great, but still gets the job done when it comes to open ppl up.
l) Crimson "Shadow" Dash - A much fast traveling dash that ends 3frames earlier, red dash ends in 29 frames, crimson ends in 27, why is this relevant, because Skarlet crimson dash has 29 frames of durable armor, so she can go through anything recover and still use a normal and beat your thread, we used to call it the absorber, because if you do any of the extensions (slide, up slash, down slash, ex extensions) she armor would expand from 29 up to a max of 45 frames the longer the extention, meaning she was a complete boss armor while doing it and you couldn't stop it unless you started it very later than her.
In a game where characters had invincibility on wakeup in 10 frames, and 20 with armor, Skarlet had the worst wakeup in the game, with red dash being 12F, so she could really only wakeup with crimson dash as all other specials were slow as hell, this was a nice trade off and made her defeatable, If you could force her to not have meter you could control the game, so she had to know how to spend her resources.
a) Before the DLCs Skarlet movement was one of the best in the game, her walk speed was certainly better than most just like mk9.
The restand on 112 was traded with cell siphon, they basically made the restand normal into a special, but then they killed the advantage of this move.
44 replaced the old f212,1+2 string what was a loopable chip string to make her stronger, in MK11 44 its actually a jailing string even if they stand or crouch block it, and its +6, obviously it's not a guaranteed loop but if your opponent hesitates she can still repeat it as much as she wants, and retaliating can lead to strong whiff punishment, sadly the chip system was redesigned.
Skarlet still does chip and still relies on the game of chipping ppl out to make them impatient as she does the most chip by connecting blood ball and a few strings (with gaps), this is even further backed with her punshing them into her ideal position, but considering the game she is definitely weaker in this aspect.
The overhead it's much slower than 18F and doesn't lead to anything, i believe they did so to try something different, didn't really worked out.
the projectile was changed to be bigger, but she takes longer to fire and does chip, i guess they didn't figured the meain reason why MK9 kunais were so good, hope they read this.
On top of having a lot of gaps in string, this skarlet can wakeup but cannot anti-air, has no legacy normals with crushing stats in mind, and she plays with A LOT OF RANGE but much slower than her MK9 counter part that was much faster at doing things but played with much slower range. A lot of ppl think they ruined her.
Remember that at the beginning of this essay i said that the MK9 design wouldn't work in MK11 for several reasons:
A) Strings don't Jail in NRS games since Injustice, so even if she would be put as she was in MK11, you wouldn't be able to loop strings anymore, and this was a huge aspect that made Skarlet very strong in MK9 as they were forced to block those without being able to duck to end pressure, with 114 and F212, 1+2 jailing whoever stand blocked.
B) with no jail the overheads become much easier to block, so does advantage on hit or block, so flawless block would definitely kill Skarlet
C) NRS removed specials hitting players as OTG if they are on the ground as they stand, this was a huge factor for Skarlet's iaDD, this wouldn't happen in MK11
D) The meter works very different in MK11, and while it would help her always to have meter, but having the opportunity to build as much as she wanted was also a factor that made Skarlet very strong in MK9, something that won't happen in MK11 because the meter builds on it's own, at best even with loops you would have 2 of them and that's it, considering the chip works different you wouldn't be doing 10% chip with each loop, i think 10 at best with both loops at cost of your resources.
This is why i think her design wouldn't work in MK11 as these now outdated mechanics it's what gave a lot of ID to Skarlet back then, and if they ever bring her back, i know they have already divided the community between the ppl that played Skarlet as Ninja and the ones that played her as a witch.
I still prefer the Ninja version over the witch one gameplay-wise, but telling NRS to ditch the witch for the Ninja would be selfish, i dunno how are they gonna do this in the future, some even suggest giving Nitara the Witch playstyle instead and keep the Ninja one for Skarlet, but this would still be selfish.
- Eddy Wang -
It was no surprise that Scar said at the beginning of MK11 that He would always pick Skarlet being that his true calling" only to fnd out later on that this version wasn't anything as he remembered and never mained the character instead.
Moonspell and even Raptor ended up explaining on a personal conversation that he didn't like what they did to skarlet in mk11.
So why is that? Why does everyone single one of the US heroes the greatest Skarlets in the world decide that her return wasn't worth her time when NRS bothered to bring her back?
At the beginning on MK11 i said on twitter that "MK9 Skarlet gameplan design wouldn't work on MK11 so it's one of the reasons why i think they switched" remember well these bold words and they will make sense much later.
I know a lot of ppl who main this character today never played MK9 so they dunno what she has lost and what alienated Skarlet from the identity she was given before MK11, this is a text where i will do my best to explain why, and how exactly MK9 Skarlet differs from MK11.
The main difference obviously was that Skarlet devolved from a Ninja with Blood Jutsus to become a Witch with Blood Magik, she exchanged kunais and twin fumma kodachis (twin kodachi swords) for a knife that can expand and shape it into a Persian sword, a scythe, a whip and drain blood.
While it looks like her playstyle has evolved because now she can do more things, she instead gameplay-wise does a lot less.
In MK9 Skarlet is a DLC char and was among the characters with the best walk speed in the game, Mileena being faster than her walking forward and Reptile being faster walking backward.
Skarlet was widely known in MK9 for her ability to make you BLOCK, yes, looks weird right, but this was a happy accident that i doubt NRS will be able to replicate it again, Skarlet design in MK9 and gameplan it's not just to land hits and win, that is how you win game surely, but this character in particular, was terrible without meter, she couldn't wake up without it and had no defense on neutral without it either, BUT if she forces you to block, if you guard some of her stuff correctly because you want to avoid damage, she would gain a considerable amount of meter instead and become a much stronger character, which would proceed to use this meter to have wakeups, defense in neutral with the best lasting and extendable armor in the game or, use this same meter to get more meter and literally become unstoppable. Basically, the meter would boost her stats to a steroid level and make her one of the top 3 chars in the game.
::: NORMALS :::
MK9 Skarlet used to be a complete character with access to great normals, such as:
F4 - A very unique animation 13f mid that would put her on a crouching state, and allow her to avoid highs as a trade, anti-air, and obviously a combo starter, she could punish d1s on block with it, but had to be a 1f link.
U3 - a 16f mid that would put her into an airborne state while pushing her hurt box a bit backward, making it on hell of an anti-air and obviously anti d3 and d1 checks
s1 - a 10f jab that with meter she could turn into a launcher, noteworthy that a 10f jab in MK9 was the equivalent of having a 7F jab in MK11. It was also an anti-air
s2 - a 12F jab with more reach than standing 1 and was equally a good AA and lead to some strange combos.
She had other normals such as F3 (15f), B1(14F) and B2(18F), but those were mostly damaging starters as they were much slower than 13f, and canceling into red dash wasn't as good as the rest.
::: STRINGS and the JAIL SYSTEM :::
MK9 Skarlet also had a unique string system, and this is why i think Skarlet was strong in MK9 due to the fact that she had a few things attached to the Jailing system, meaning if she locks you standing with a certain string, as long as she has execution she can loop it as continuing to do what she did best in the game, these strings were:
a) 114 - a 10 frame string that had enough cancel frames on block to link an ex dagger cancel and be at +21 jailing you into a standing position, meaning, with 3 bars she could loop 114ex dagger 4 times in a row without letting you crouch block doing 6% chip with each loop, doing a total of 24% chip.
b) F212,1+2 - one of the most if not the best string on MK9, 19f startup, first two hits are high and whiff on crouch, 4th and 5th hits are automatic, 4th it's an overhead, the last one is special cancellable and forces standing due the overhead. On top of being really good on hit it's an absolute monster of a string on block, and if you block this string, Skarlet gains around 60 or 70% of a bar of meter, does 8% chip and a total of 10% chip with each loop. She can loop it 5 times with 3 bars, meaning a 50% chip damage you can't escape, you have to take the last hit to let your character fall out and avoid the ex dagger, but that is a 50-50 because if the skarlet player read it, they can launch you with red dash into up slash and restand back up (crazy). And as you noticed this string also Jails just as 114. The only thing making this string less abusable it's that ex dagger into F2 used to be a 2 frame link, and that wasn't as easy to do because you had to dash cancel out of the ex dagger and frame perfect input F2 during the 2 frame window, do it in 3 and your opponent crouch blocks and escape pressure.
c) 112 - The RESET string as we used to call it, in MKX this was now called RESTAND instead for most characters, it's a combo ender String Skarlet had to end combos and put you on a stand position instead of a knockdown now allowing you to use wakeup attacks, doing low enough on the ground would grant 4 frames of advantage out of a red dash, while doing the restand high enough would land at +18 at the sacrifice of damage, we researched this with somberness back then and discovered combos with good damage and good restand advantage at +13 enough for a guaranteed 114ex dagger loop, or overhead, meaning if she landed a 112~red dash she would force you to guess either, you block standing and take the loop which was in her favor, or you block low to avoid the loop, but there is an 18f overhead on the way that you have to react to, or a 13F one which forces her to spend more resources from her side. It was guaranteed chip anyway and she could still do whatever she wanted in that spot. the last hit of this string doesn't jail an ex kunai/dagger, so its better use was for restand purposes.
d) B113 - While it wasn't much of a use in neutral, it was an insane combo ender with a hard knockdown, the special systems will show why this was OP.
e) B11F4 - A 14F launcher string that lead to good damage, not as important as the other 4 ones, but it was good in this aspect.
::: Specials and OTG :::
Skarlet specials had very specific purposes and all they varied from normal to enhanced version, a true definition of enhanced and do up many things, they weren't so great and i liked it that it required proper training to understand what they are meant for and how for proper use, it used to be one of the hardest specials to use in the game properly and this deviated a lot of ppl from skarlet gameplay, that wasn't a bad thing, it was balance :
a) DF1 - The dagger Toss, skarlet could fire up 2 kunais, one with each hand, or you could hold the 1 button to delay the release of the second one, and dash cancel out of it if needed.
Both Kunais were high and the hitbox used to be very slim, on top of this, the kunai did no chip so you could block it without losing damage, but she would still gain meter for it.
Skarlet players used to fire this kunai as a long range poke to tickle back reactions from opponents.
b) UDF1 or air dagger - "iaD" as we used to call it, it means "insta air Dagger" which would allow Skarlet to fire 1 kunai in a straight line with better recover than doing them on the ground, it was still hard because the dagger hitbox used to be slim, so your iaD had to be perfectly low or the dagger would go over the head of the opponent and wouldn't work on the needed role, was much more technical yes and required good execution, but as said the dagger or kunai as you preffer to call it, did no chip damage, but this one was still miles away better, as it was much faster in startup as well.
c) UDB1 or air low dagger/kunai- "iaDD" as we used to call it "instant air Down Daggers" which worked as "iaD" but instead of firing the kunai into a straight line, she would fire it to the ground, the higher you were in the air, the longer the recovery, so it was good to jump at ppl and firing it, or as it had a lot of active frame, in the corner you could end combos with B113 into iaDD and disable wakeups as iaDD was specifically a very powerfull OTG. in almost any close knockdowns you could try to OTG anyone, and if they stay on the ground from longer time than needed there is no way they could avoid iaDD, they could still block it but would be impossible to use wakeup attacks. iaDD lown enough was +15 on hit and -3 on block.
d)Up Slash (DF2) - Her very slow sword attack with good aerial hitbox and disjoined, launches on hit, but very slow to startup and -13 on block, looks useless right?
e) Down Slash (DB2) - Her ver slow overhead sword attack that launches on hit, with very good aeral disjointed hitbox, but very slow to startup ( close or more than 30f) and -18 on block, very terrible right?
f) Red Dash (DF3) - The ninja step, being the only character in the game besides Kabal who could literally run in the game, Skarlet could run like a ninja and use it to run under ppl jumping at her primarly, cover distance quickly but there is quite a lot this move did:
Up Slash from Red Dash (F2) - Very fast sword attack, similar to Df2, but the startup is much faster and able to link normals into red dash and link up slash, block advantage still launch punishable but a much better move, can also anti air.
Down Slash from Red Dash (B2) - VERY FAST overhead at 18F, very similar to her down slash but when made from red dash becomes 18 frames, can also link red dash into it from other normals such as F4, and B1 if needed, making a force to be recon with, back in the day reaction "gods" claimed they could block this on reaction
Slide (4 during red dash) - 8 Frame slide that was -3 on block, was a lot and not blocking it would lead to loops of stacked damage, very good to force them to take it as the alternative is much worse with a 8F overhead.
Blood Ball: Different from MK11 Skarlet blood ball in MK9, she self inflicts damage, but she can fire it in arc and does 7% chip damage if you guard it as well as it does even more damage to yourself if you get hit by it, on top of being safe. It's the most damaging chip special in the game, and can be aimed to travel in arc.
Teleport: Yes she has it and it's bad, very bad on the ground and slightly better if done in the air, but the travel time after she teleports it's really bad and wasn't much of a great special in general, we hated it.
::: Enhanced Specials and Armor :::
Just like her regular specials have different proprieties, the enhanced ones escalates as well and bring different things into the table.
g) Ex DF1 (Ex Dagger toss) -This is fairly known as the ex Dagger toss skarlet fires 3 kunais aligned in a straight line one above the other making the hitbox bigger it also does 2% chip different from the regular ones, you can cancel out of it instantly, which makes it harder to just frame it, canceling up close it's +21 on block leading to bloockstring loops that are guaranteed, free jump in pressure if it hits.
h) ex udf1 or ex air dagger - "ex iaD" as we called it, allows Skarlet to fire 3 daggers in 3 different directions in the air as they expand from herself, she literally makes herself un-aproachable, each dagger does 2% chip.
j) ex db1 or ex air low dagger - "ex iaDD" as we called it, still fires 3 daggers in 3 different directions but all angled more towards the ground, , same proprieties as the above but better angle for otg. still a better love story than twilight
i) ex up slash or double up slash - Startup still slow because she has to set i up, but really good after that phase -13 on block, can be done from red dash/crimson to become much faster in startup which allows jab~red dash ex up slash to become a 10f launcher.
k) ex down slash or double down slash - startup still slow because she has to set it up, but does a double down slash, can be done from red dash/crimson dash to become un-reactable (13f) and beat ppl that were told to "block low and react to the overhead" damage is good but combo potential isn't great, but still gets the job done when it comes to open ppl up.
l) Crimson "Shadow" Dash - A much fast traveling dash that ends 3frames earlier, red dash ends in 29 frames, crimson ends in 27, why is this relevant, because Skarlet crimson dash has 29 frames of durable armor, so she can go through anything recover and still use a normal and beat your thread, we used to call it the absorber, because if you do any of the extensions (slide, up slash, down slash, ex extensions) she armor would expand from 29 up to a max of 45 frames the longer the extention, meaning she was a complete boss armor while doing it and you couldn't stop it unless you started it very later than her.
In a game where characters had invincibility on wakeup in 10 frames, and 20 with armor, Skarlet had the worst wakeup in the game, with red dash being 12F, so she could really only wakeup with crimson dash as all other specials were slow as hell, this was a nice trade off and made her defeatable, If you could force her to not have meter you could control the game, so she had to know how to spend her resources.
::: MK11 :::
In MK11 Skarlet looks like they scrapped all this concept and thrown into the garbage, no wonder the majority of ppl who used to play her and love her for it didn't even bother to stick with her, but i don't think it was all scrapped. For example:
In MK11 Skarlet looks like they scrapped all this concept and thrown into the garbage, no wonder the majority of ppl who used to play her and love her for it didn't even bother to stick with her, but i don't think it was all scrapped. For example:
a) Before the DLCs Skarlet movement was one of the best in the game, her walk speed was certainly better than most just like mk9.
The restand on 112 was traded with cell siphon, they basically made the restand normal into a special, but then they killed the advantage of this move.
44 replaced the old f212,1+2 string what was a loopable chip string to make her stronger, in MK11 44 its actually a jailing string even if they stand or crouch block it, and its +6, obviously it's not a guaranteed loop but if your opponent hesitates she can still repeat it as much as she wants, and retaliating can lead to strong whiff punishment, sadly the chip system was redesigned.
Skarlet still does chip and still relies on the game of chipping ppl out to make them impatient as she does the most chip by connecting blood ball and a few strings (with gaps), this is even further backed with her punshing them into her ideal position, but considering the game she is definitely weaker in this aspect.
The overhead it's much slower than 18F and doesn't lead to anything, i believe they did so to try something different, didn't really worked out.
the projectile was changed to be bigger, but she takes longer to fire and does chip, i guess they didn't figured the meain reason why MK9 kunais were so good, hope they read this.
On top of having a lot of gaps in string, this skarlet can wakeup but cannot anti-air, has no legacy normals with crushing stats in mind, and she plays with A LOT OF RANGE but much slower than her MK9 counter part that was much faster at doing things but played with much slower range. A lot of ppl think they ruined her.
Remember that at the beginning of this essay i said that the MK9 design wouldn't work in MK11 for several reasons:
A) Strings don't Jail in NRS games since Injustice, so even if she would be put as she was in MK11, you wouldn't be able to loop strings anymore, and this was a huge aspect that made Skarlet very strong in MK9 as they were forced to block those without being able to duck to end pressure, with 114 and F212, 1+2 jailing whoever stand blocked.
B) with no jail the overheads become much easier to block, so does advantage on hit or block, so flawless block would definitely kill Skarlet
C) NRS removed specials hitting players as OTG if they are on the ground as they stand, this was a huge factor for Skarlet's iaDD, this wouldn't happen in MK11
D) The meter works very different in MK11, and while it would help her always to have meter, but having the opportunity to build as much as she wanted was also a factor that made Skarlet very strong in MK9, something that won't happen in MK11 because the meter builds on it's own, at best even with loops you would have 2 of them and that's it, considering the chip works different you wouldn't be doing 10% chip with each loop, i think 10 at best with both loops at cost of your resources.
This is why i think her design wouldn't work in MK11 as these now outdated mechanics it's what gave a lot of ID to Skarlet back then, and if they ever bring her back, i know they have already divided the community between the ppl that played Skarlet as Ninja and the ones that played her as a witch.
I still prefer the Ninja version over the witch one gameplay-wise, but telling NRS to ditch the witch for the Ninja would be selfish, i dunno how are they gonna do this in the future, some even suggest giving Nitara the Witch playstyle instead and keep the Ninja one for Skarlet, but this would still be selfish.
- Eddy Wang -
