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Match-up Discussion Advice vs Milleena?

cabibi

Noob
She's the one character in the game I can't figure out. Every time I play against a somewhat capable milleena player, I get trashed, and I don't know how to counter her safe ass specials.

Most characters, on block, you can punish pretty easily, But I have real issues trying to punish blocked drop kicks and rolls. Rolls aren't too bad, but half the time I punish with a 312, the last portion of the string wiffs. And forget about punishing a blocked drop kick, because she'll just throw a sai right after it. even if I try to time it after the sai, it seems that I'm at a frame disadvantage.

I've tried b2 4, that either gets stuffed by the sai, or she blocks. 312 either wiffs or she blocks... in which case I can usually throw out a d1 to stuff the roll, but then her mixups come along and I just really have trouble reading any millena player.

Does anyone have some real advice for this matchup?
 

G4S KT

Gaming4Satan Founder
My first suggestion would be to be blocking most of the time. Being overly aggressive against Mileena is a recipe for disaster. She has a nasty wake up game, but you can use that to your advantage if you can sneak in a sweep and then move in after she's knocked down but block in anticipation of a wake up attac, then punish.

Mileena is different from others who are vulnerable after blocked specials in that as soon as she touches the ground, she can block. This means you must catch her in the air. I've never seen the sais hit after a blocked drop kick, so I believe they just do it to fake you out. I'm pretty sure you can land B+2, 3, smokebomb on her while she's floating after a blocked roll or drop kick. A special thing to note is that the EX dive kick is the only enhanced special (that I can think of) that isn't telegraphed on startup, so the only way to tell is if you happen to catch her meter drop out of the corner of your eye.

Play defensively and don't get impatient or overly aggressive. Play footsies and wait for an opening or a block punish. Most of your damage will come from blocked specials I find, so getting consistent punish is crucial. When up close, mostly block low unless you see her throw the overhead axe kick. It's pretty slow and easily stand blocked on reaction.
 

cabibi

Noob
thanks for the reply pyrrhon. You really recommend playing footsies with her? Her pokes seem to have alot more range than smoke's, plus she has low hitting combos. i can eat scrub mileenas no problem, it's the semi-capable ones that know how to mix up her pokes and specials that I have major issues with.
 

G4S KT

Gaming4Satan Founder
Yea, but maybe I just like to play footsies haha. In either case, I don't think that low hitting combo has any more range than d+4, but that's just one way of playing conservatively. If I had to sum up my post in one thought it'd be: be defensive in all situations until they learn that you'll punish her specials every time.

She can't touch the ground on recovery or your window is gone. maybe go to the practice room and set her to wakeup attack and practice your favorite way to punish the specials.
 
You can block her 50/50 by starting in low block and then quickly transitioning to high block. Her U+4 overhead is a bit slower than her B+3 low combo starter, so you'll be able to block both with that. The only way she'll hit you there is if she does B+3, B+4, and that's only 7% with techable knockdown.

The only sure-fire punish to a blocked teleport kick is uppercut. Otherwise she can mix you up with air sai.

Blocked roll is weird - afaik, you can't do normal punishes. Use anti-air type punishes. 3,2 jk air throw/tp is easy if you can't do anything else.

Her crouching 4 is pretty weird. Normally jump kicks beat those, but for hers you'll whiff sometimes. Smoke bomb will beat it though if she gets too spammy with that.

Like usual, her long range game doesn't work on you, so the goal is to keep your distance. You can handle her up close game though, so it's not too bad.
 

cabibi

Noob
Forget it.

I'm done fighting Mileena with smoke. It's like an 8-2 matchup in her favor. He can't combo punish her blocked specials reliably, giving her relatively save teleports and rolls. I think Ermac is a much better character to fight mel with. he can at least tks her blocked specials into a combo... but the fact that her blocked specials are safe when she hits the ground, means smoke's combos will either be blocked, or wiffed.

Why couldn't NRS just make her recovery off them like raiden's or every other male ninja with a teleport? makes absolutely no sense.

Mel is to smoke what skarlett is to subzero.
 
Smoke vs Mileena... hmm.

- First, don't even worry about punishing telekicks with full combos. Just take the 12% uppercut risk free and deal with her next moves after the knockdown.
- A Mileena that can abuse Sais is a happy Mileena. Smoke has Shake... Shake makes Mileena less Sai happy. EX Shake reduces her in close game to low pokes and roll.
- Smoke Air teleport, where he ports above Mileena's head, has great recovery on landing and can be difficult for Mileena's slow normals to react to.
- You might be able to poke Mileena out of the air after blocked roll and follow up with Smoke bomb/EX Smoke Bomb combos, if not just take the uppercut punish.

Other than those, I don't see what Smoke could possibly have trouble with fighting Mileena. She's a very straightforward character. Feels like the match is even at best for her.

Smoke has some really rough matchups buddy. It's a good idea to have an alt handy for them.
Honestly even with the nerfs, I don't know any matchup Smoke can't deal with. He's a very complete counter-based character. I mean, Ermac might be his one and only disadvantage, but even that might not be too bad.
 

cabibi

Noob
I can handle ermac, have serious issues with mel and reptile.

Uppercut is weak sauce. 12% is nothing when she can punish your teleport with a 30+ combo. I mean even if she lands it, your in stun and she can combo. Mk is all about a damage race, and smoke is at a serious disadvantage vs mel. Just lacks opportunities to get one off. Its not that I can't get her at all with a jump in or anything, its that she has a lot more opportunities to combo smoke than vice versa. I'm definitely not using smoke against her any more. I'm still going to main him, but for that matchup I'm picking up ermac.
 
Ok, well I'm not trying to tell you who to use. I just think that the approach (damage race) is all wrong. I main Mileena, and I know for a fact that if I'm getting rolls and telekicks blocked and uppercutted for free every time, I'm not gonna be very comfortable throwing them out so freely. But if my opponent is fishing for a combo starter (unless it's Ermac or Kung lao) I know my followup air sai can be tricky to deal with. Besides, 12% may be "weak sauce", but that's if that's your only means of getting damage. Which I'm sure it's not.

If the match is being based mostly off of punishing her unsafe specials, you're probably not fighting a smart Mileena.
 

Konqrr

MK11 Kabal = MK9 Kitana
When I see you at the upcoming tournament or at casuals, cabibi, I will show you how to punish Mileena properly.

Safe telekicks and 8-2 matchup... LOL!!
 
Yeah, it's definitely not 8-2.

Uppercut telekicks. You won't get a full punish vs ball, but you should get a suboptimal one.

The 12% uppercut comparison to full combo vs teleport isn't really apt. We already know smoke's tp is high risk, low reward. Mileena's is a different animal. You compare the damage she gets out of it for it succeeding to what you get for it not. 12% is actually still in your favor, so block em.

The most annoying thing about tk is that it can mess with you trying to shake sais.
 

cabibi

Noob
When I see you at the upcoming tournament or at casuals, cabibi, I will show you how to punish Mileena properly.

Safe telekicks and 8-2 matchup... LOL!!
That'd be REAL cool. We need to have more casuals man. Like I said Ill pay for a baysitter lol. The only good comp I get on a daily basis is in the TYM room on xbox live, going against krazy bone and everyone... but I'm getting too used to the input delay online.

I also want to learn how you finish that kitty combo with the EX fans lol. after the fan lift, b2 air fan, dash standing air fan, all I can seem to hit is a f2 1.